An Open Letter To Those Who've Been Outsourced.

Dear friend,

I know that I might come a little bit too harsh on you with what I've written here but nevertheless this is written in loving concern so as to give you an insight as to how you should evaluate your present situation. I am not expecting you to agree with me nor am I convincing you to do so, but nevertheless this is worth your precious time.

No matter how you'd like to think of it, it would always appear as though there are people who try to manipulate you as though you owe them big time or whatever. They tend to treat you as that of cattles, trying to milk out every erg of dairy they'd like to get their greedy hands on. In this context it is called production. This is what it's like with the industry bloom of the Business Process Outsourcing industry, the foreign corporates know very well how cheap manpower is in this country, and how gullible the lazy middle class population under the mindset of colonial mentality are. And as greed would have it their way they'll always try to continue in exploiting this human resource. Its called cheap labor and though those under this said bracket of new industry it would appear as though we are earning a lot but take another look at the buying power of a single dollar in our import-dependent-export-oriented economy? A dollar is worth more or less P50 so imagine if you'll be earning something like P10, 000 a month its simply $200 for them tough luck ei? We're cheap labor. Don't be fooled by the woes and awe-inspiring potentials given by the spectacle of the American dream. We're simply cheap labor. It's now as though they love us or anything though you'd like to think of it that way. What have you got for your self really?

Production quotas?

No Filipino speaking policy?

Group outings and travel incentives?

Team building?

A new cell phone every time Nokia, Ericson and the rest would launch a new model that's almost capable of functions that are of a PC?

Or that precious new IPod of yours that simply contain the collection of your favorite songs that you'd also hear when you'd turn your dial to LSFM, K-Lite, Magic and RX?

Ha!

You're in the IT industry and as you may know, it is one of the current arenas of trade that is more susceptible to paradigm shifts, there's no security in that kind of job. In 5 years time a new technology would have been developed that would prove to be more efficient and cheaper than maintaining silly humans at taking on the task. Now ask yourself am I secure, is this my dream fulfilled.

By the way have you ever remembered how it was to be a Filipino lately?

I can see that the policy of forcing you to speak English at all times in the workplace has gotten so accustomed to you now. I can see that you're stars twinkle with the hope of falling into the waiting arms of Uncle Sam or the Statue of Liberty. I congratulate you also for successfully healing that 'p' and 'f' deficiency that has caused you a lot of humiliating moments when you are still in college. I admire the fact that you now talk about the Amazing Race, Fear Factor, Smallville, CSI and all the other available shows that you can see on AXN, HBO, Star and all those other cable stations since you really got enlightened with the idea that free channels are on for those poor ones who cannot afford cable. I can see also that your vocabulary on American slang has been quite eloquently expanded in your speech. Golly you're now also this brilliant mind that could explain and expound on giving advice about relationship and emotional problems, by quoting the greatest and most authoritative institutions of our age: MTV, Oprah and Dr. Bill, Hollywood not to mention Kris Aquino and Tito Boy (the greatest propagandist of Filipino secession and outright mass media hedonism). Oh, how I envy you that you're off and well to becoming an American if it wasn't for that silly old law of nature called genetics. Darn, being brown skinned could get in the way of negating our natural heritage.

I can see that you're of so well and cool sporting that Lee, Nike, Addidas, Esprit, Fila, U2 etc. Strutting around like some human billboard or like a fashion page from Vanity Fair or the Cosmopolitan. I tell you those cheap rags could be bought for a measly P35 at Ukay-ukay's every 15th and 30th days of the month. If you'd have bought it there you might have even contributed to feeding the hungry and clothing the poor because the revenues of those shop could be traced down to the Salvation Army.

Can't you see it's all just a spectacle?

Everything you own right now that you've bought in the mall are in one way or another a client, subsidiary, affiliate, branch, partner, venture associate of the company that you're working for right now, and come to think of it would it be safe for me to say that you're simply paying back the company that you work for by patronizing that. Its all but a spectacle what you earn is simply that same first salary that you got, the possessions you have are but freebies but the bulk of your income is just recycled and goes through the same long process that leads to you having yourself get paid, and paying your employer back the salary that you just received. Now ain't it a spectacle.

I know you won't admit it but that gut feeling in you says that it's true.

So what do we do now, you ask?

Confront the spectacle at its own irrelevance.

You're in the IT industry; you have access to the Internet. Type DIY ethics. (After all its way shorter than typing Friendster.com on your IE browser.)

If in any case you're wondering what DIY stands for, it stands for do-it-yourself. It's a catch phrase for a broad spanning culture of thought and practice that confronts the capitalist spectacle that envelopes our materialistic world. It is not in any way related to authoritarian Leftism or Communism, as you'd rather refer to it in layman's jargons. It is simply living a life that speaks of making a positive contribution to the world we live in without getting out of the rotten system that we live in. It is wreaking havoc at the enemy strongholds from within.

Now you may be asking what am I to do. I've told you already, surf the net and read about it I am not some self-professed ideological leader in vein with, Marx, Mao, Lenin and Stalin. And that very reason is what sets this movement apart from that of the Authoritarian Communist Left that fell on the onset of the 90s. This is libertarian or as some more radical circles of the movement would call it, anarchist. You have a mind think. This is not a movement that is based on the commands of a self-professed 'great leader'. This movement is the embodiment of the principle of 'leadership of ideas'. This is about personal initiative rather than a centralized, pragmatic political line that should adhere to the tenets of a specific ideological Party.

I cannot find no better description of this idea other than that of Simone Weil:

"Whether the mask is labeled Fascism, Democracy, or Dictatorship of the Proletariat, our great adversary remains the Apparatus - the bureaucracy, the spectacle. Not the one facing us across the frontier or the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brother's enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this Apparatus, and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others."

How does this quotation above relate to this you ask?

Simple: let's play a little association game shall we?

I'll say Pedigree, and obviously you'd say dog.

I'd say 'toxic' and definitely you'd say Britney.

I'd say Ernie and you'd say Bert.

Now that we've come to a full comprehension of the game let's make it a bit more challenging.

I'd say false hype and promises and then I'd encourage you to pickup a Sunday Job Market section of the Inquirer and read all the call center ads.

Then let's see if those words that summizes the Simone Weil quote would ring a bell in that silly old brain of yours.

Now get on into it, type those three letters on that search engine browser of yours and start your initiative for that individual revolution that is living your life. Peace.