Rio Lau, reporter, The Standard, Hong Kong
About Novel HKSAR Names
Name Category: Rare
Enthusiastic reflections about names, the universe and everything, with a positive dose of critical thinking
Malaysian bank pulls video featuring Chinese actor playing a Filipino domestic helper
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 June, 2014, 3:12pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 19 June, 2014, 1:35pm
Christy Choi and Agence France-Presse
An advertisement for domestic helper insurance starring a Chinese man as a Filipino maid has been withdrawn after it was condemned as racist – but the bank responsible insisted it never intended to cause offence.
The advertisement for Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank caused outrage on social media and was condemned by domestic helpers’ rights groups. It showed the actor wearing dark orange make-up and a curly wig as he portrayed a clumsy maid named “Maria”. The same actor plays her employer.
The bank confirmed it had withdrawn the advertisement, but stopped short of an apology.
“We regret that our recent advertisement … resulted in comments about the advertisement being racist,” said spokeswoman Norlina Yunus. “At no time did Hong Leong … intend to offend any person or be to any extent discriminatory on grounds of race, sex or otherwise.”
At no time did Hong Leong … intend to offend any person or be to any extent discriminatory on grounds of race, sex or otherwise HONG LEONG SPOKESWOMAN NORLINA YUNUS
The advertisement row comes amid growing concern about the treatment of domestic helpers and of the dangers of racial stereotyping.
“You are making comedy out of someone, out of a community,” said Eni Lestari, spokeswoman for the Asian Migrants’ Coordinating Body. “For [Hongkongers] it’s funny, but what they don’t realise is what’s funny is actually racist.”
Lestari questioned why the bank did not hire someone from Indonesia or the Philippines to play the maid.
The Equal Opportunities commission was critical of the ad, saying:
"The EOC disapproves of the stereotypical portrayal of domestic helpers in the advertisement and regrets that it has offended the migrant workers community."
It cautioned advertisers saying they should ensure "respect for human dignity, irrespective of race and ethnicity."
Posters on the bank’s Facebook page called for a boycott.
“The advertisement featuring a domestic worker in ‘blackface’ is racist and deeply offensive. It is simply dehumanising,” wrote Yael Marwah.
“Why do you have to solidify the omnipresent racial and cultural stereotypes?” added Marcin Rutecki.
The row comes only weeks after anger over textbooks that asked children to match people of different races to particular jobs. It also follows a series of high-profile cases involving the abuse of domestic helpers.
Others took to Twitter and Facebook to blast the advert.
“You guys should really take down that ad and apologise for it ... It’s really not appropriate for a professional representation of your financial services,” Kahlil Stultz wrote on the bank’s Facebook page.
“Why do you have to solidify the omnipresent racial and cultural stereotypes that are hurting so many people?” added Marcin Rutecki.
The row comes weeks after separate controversy over a Hong Kong school textbook, which critics said encouraged children to racially stereotype their neighbours.
The book asked children to match nationalities to the “appropriate” job description – such as Indonesian for domestic helpers, or Japanese for sushi restaurant owners.
The case of Indonesian maid Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, who allegedly endured a months-long torture campaign by her Hong Kong boss, has put a spotlight on the working conditions faced by the financial hub’s domestic workers.
Her employer, a 44-year-old mother-of-two, is on trial and last week denied all the charges against her.
Amnesty International last year condemned the “slavery-like” conditions faced by some of the city’s domestic helpers and accused authorities of “inexcusable” inaction.
China has the fourth-greatest increase in childhood obesity
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 29 May, 2014, 11:46am
Jeanette Wang jeanette.wang@scmp.com
China has the second-largest number of obese people in the world behind only the United States, according to a pioneering study published in a leading international medical journal.
Globally, there are 2.1 billion people classified as overweight or obese. Of that number, 671 million people were classified as obese, according to the report in The Lancet.
Overweight means that a person has a body mass index - which factors in weight in relation to height - of 25 to less than30. With a BMI of 30 or more, a person is classified as obese.
More than half of the world's obese population live in 10 countries, led by the United States with 86.9 million.
Study data showed said there were 62 million obese people living in China last year, or more than 9 per cent of the world's total.
Conducted by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the study, the first of its kind, analysed data from 188 countries over 33 years and found that nearly 30 per cent (2.1 billion) of the world's population were either overweight or obese last year, up from 857 million people in 1980. Over the same period of time, the overweight and obesity rates among adults had increased for both men (to 37 per cent from 29 per cent) and women (to 38 per cent from 30 per cent).
Lead study author Dr Marie Ng, assistant professor of global health at IHME, who had previously worked at Hong Kong University, told the South China Morning Post that although the overall prevalence of people being overweight or obese in China was relatively low compared to other countries, the total figure was "alarming" in terms of the consequent financial burden on the health system.
"Childhood obesity in China is another issue that really needs attention," Ng said. "The proportion of obese boys, in particular, is almost double the proportion of obese men [at 6.9 and 3.8 per cent respectively]."
Among the 188 countries studied, China had the fourth-greatest increase in overweight/obesity prevalence among children during the study period. In 1980, 5.7 per cent of people under 20 years old in the country were overweight or obese; last year, the number was 18.8 per cent. For adults (20 years and above), China had the 10th biggest absolute change in overweight/obesity prevalence, rising from 11.3 per cent in 1980 to 27.9 per cent last year.
"Obesity is an issue affecting people of all ages and incomes, everywhere," said Dr Christopher Murray, director of IHME. "In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates, and we expect obesity to rise steadily as incomes rise in low- and middle-income countries in particular, unless urgent steps are taken to address this public health crisis."
The highest overweight and obesity rates were seen in the Middle East and North Africa, where more than 58 per cent of men and 65 per cent of women aged 20 or older were found to be either overweight or obese. Among children and adolescents, the prevalence of overweight or obesity increased by nearly 50 per cent between 1980 and last year.
Last year, more than 22 per cent of girls and nearly 24 per cent of boys in developed countries were found to be overweight or obese.
In the developing world, the figures for both boys and girls were about 13 per cent.
In developed countries, the peak of obesity rates is moving to younger ages.
The rise in global obesity rates over the last three decades has been substantial and widespread, presenting a major public health epidemic in both the developed and the developing world. Health risks such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and chronic kidney disease increase when a person's BMI exceeds 23. In 2010, overweight and obesity were estimated to have caused 3.4 million deaths, most of which were from cardiovascular causes.
There is, perhaps, a little ray of hope from the report. The study found that in developed countries, increases in obesity that began in the 1980s and accelerated from 1992 to 2002 have slowed since 2006.