24 February, 2011

 

Nostra maxima culpa

The country's most remarkable newspaper has a piece

Nursing dream fades for Filipinos as UK jobs dry up

about the impact of NHS staff cuts on the prospects for trainee nurses in the Philippines who hope to come to work in the UK.

Forgive me, but am I to understand that we, the Brits, are being set up to accept responsibility — morally and financially — for this unfortunate shift in market conditions?

So let me see if I've got this right. When my job is shipped out to Bangalore, heh man, that's just globalization, but when third-worlders lose out when the market shifts, then that's imperialism, innit?

The article also points to a certain amount of jiggery pokery and misleading behaviour by Philippines-based agencies. Isn't that up to the Manila authorities to sort out? After all, they were happy enough when the remittances were rolling in. Managing their end of the downturn is part of the package, guys.

Just sod off.

Comments:
For the 'Guardian', it's always 'women and minorities hardest hit'. This one's a twofer...

 
For the Guardian, cuts are always "idealogical" and they are always directed at "vulnerable people".

 
For the Guardian, it's ALWAYS whitey's fault.

 
Without wishing to detract in any way from the point made here, since the article refers specifically to "daughters" and I think every nurse from the Philippines that I've ever seen was female, the Grauniad means "Filipinas", not "Filipinos".

 
I can imagine much soul-searching among the Guardian subs over that one, PG. Do we use the -o form in its epicene sense (gritting our teeth and accepting the "masculine covers feminine" convention as the only game in town) in order to emphasize gender equality, or do we use the -a form as a feminist statement of victimhood?

All tricky stuff, innit?

 
Edwin, I wish I had your confidence that the Graun's subs actually know enough about English to recognise it as an issue, after 40 years of dumbing down in the education system.

Now if they were Polish, they'd know :-)

It's a bugger, getting older.

 
I tend to go with Mark Steyn's "Multiculturalism means not having to know anything" theorem in such circumstances.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdEGJb5W5ks

 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?