This Proud, Annoying Yet Admirable Race

Indian peeople stinks because of all the spices.
they eat like onions and curry.
in fact they're really clean people.
Just bear with it and the smell will go away.

They represent the world's most populous country, the world's biggest movie industry and the world's second fastest moving economy. Who would have thought that I am actually talking about INDIA! Yes, the country who's not known to us aside from being opportunist lenders of whatever and whose smell stinks like a spicy curry!

TRIVIA OF DOMINION

Of UAE's 3.6 millions expatriates in 2007, which comprises 81% of its total population, Indians account for nearly 42% of the total foreign labor force, proudly outnumbering the presence of our Kababayans. If Pinoys are said to be found everywhere in Dubai like Date Palms standing elegantly along its tree-lined boulevards, the Indians are found anywhere like sweeping desert sands to which Dubai's mighty structures are built.

TALES OF SLAVERY

But here's where the difference is coming, 65% of Indians in the UAE are blue collar wokers. They mostly serve as household helpers, construction workers, street cleaners and all other unimaginable jobs that a Pinoy will not be willing to do. They are the foot soldies of Dubai's globalization who toil in the hope their labor will benefit their family from the money they send back home. Theirs are stories of faceless men and women who receive minimal wage, who are forced to work round the clock and who live in labor camps and seedy apartments. The remittances which the government uses to build homes and schools across the country while helping to reduce poverty in villages, fall into their slaved hands and come at a high price.

THEIR LUCK MY MISFORTUNE

Here's the good news. A third of them are now engaged in the growing service sectors and knowledged based industry. Educated Indian professionals in Dubai are now filling up positions in the office from entry level staffs up to middle management. That is when they become so annoying. Indians are quite different from us Filipinos. They are hostile not hospitable. They exude too much confidence. When they know about something, though very little of it, they pretend and act as if they know everything. They are opportunist, big deal insecured and selfish.

I am not trying to be racist here, but two of the most unwanted and unfavorable decisions that I had to make in my entire life were courtesy of these people. I'm talking about the two jobs that I have lost here in Dubai. Never mind the foul odor that serves their perfume, there are just something in them that is difficult to deal with. They are hard to please. They think they are the best and they view us not as allies but as competitors who would steal their positions. It's their attitude that seems to contradict mine. They might just as well feel the same way for me but nonetheless their reputations would speak for my reasons.

THE OTHER SIDE

But one thing that I admire of Indian people is how they value their culture and traditions. They bring it with them where ever their feet takes them. In Dubai where most of our female Kababayans almost bare their flesh in their skimpy shorts and tight sandos, never you can see an Indian women dress in such kind of way. They feel no shame wearing their traditional dresses in the office, in church, in malls and when they are eating outside with the rest of the family. That is truly something commendable of them. Well, it's not really that I am asking our female Kabayans to sport their baro at saya or kimonas, just some decency in as far as dress code is concerned. Convinience and comfortability is good, in your home yes, but not in someone else.

AMBIVALENCE

For the final stretch of this post, I will not be rude and unfair enough to suggest that Indians should go to hell. India, like all other nations in the world including our beloved Philipines are full of contradictions. Here you can meet the most polite and the most rude of them. Here you can witness how big is the gap between the standard of living of the educated ones and the people who only have their hearts and hand to depend on. Short to say, every country has its ups and downs, strengths and flaws. Diversity makes us unique. And that uniqueness is something for us to appreciate and learn from.