‘Comeuppance for racist social media star’

“A spokesman clarified that all her posts are purely personal and do not in any way reflect the company’s values or principles.

Rather than risk denting their sales volumes as well as jeopardizing their respective bottom lines in the booming Arab Gulf marketplace which has an estimated population of close to 100 million, some big cosmetics manufacturers have decided to distance themselves from one popular influencer for the “offensive and disturbing views” she recently aired on social media regarding overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

Wire reports said Shisheido, a well-known Japanese personal care company, was obliged to issue a disclaimer that its management did not support the disparaging statements voiced in the blog of Kuwaiti national Sondos Al Qattan.

The global US brand Max Factor, responding to increasing public pressure, even went further by announcing the termination Al Qattan’s lucrative endorsement contract arising from the shocking comments which would surely make untold thousands of women in the Gulf think twice about patronizing their products. A spokesman clarified that all her posts are purely personal and do not in any way reflect the company’s values or principles.

Al Qattan, an Instagram personality said to have 2.3 million followers, had ignited an uproar after posting a video of herself bitching over the fact that her government had mandated a weekly day-off for all domestic workers and also permitted them to hold on to their passports (which was never done before).

“How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them? If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? What’s worse is that they have one day-off every week. I don’t want a Filipino maid anymore,” Al Qattan was quoted as saying.

She claimed many Kuwaitis and Gulf nationals shared her views.

Now, it should be remembered that the granting of a weekly day-off and passport possession were among the package of reforms contained in the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) providing additional protection for Filipino workers signed by the Philippines and Kuwait on 11 May 2018 and subsequently approved by the Kuwaiti government which the Duterte government had demanded prior to the lifting of the total ban on the deployment of OFW.

In February 2018, President Duterte imposed said ban in the wake of the killing of domestic helper Joanna Demafelis whose corpse was found after a year inside a freezer in her employer’s residence.

Mr. Duterte criticized Kuwait, alleging employers routinely raped Filipina workers, forced them to endure 21-hour days and fed them with scraps.

“Relations were soothed when a Kuwaiti court sentenced to death in absentia a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife.

This caused bilateral ties between the Philippines and Kuwait to sink to a new low. However, relations were soothed when a Kuwaiti court sentenced to death in absentia a Lebanese man and his Syrian wife for the death of Demafelis.

Under the new MoA specifying workplace safety guarantees for Filipinos especially, Kuwaiti employers are supposed to ensure domestic hires are given decent food, housing, clothing and health insurance. Too, all employment contracts aren’t automatic anymore but have to be cleared by the local Philippine Overseas Labor Office.

This is quite an accomplishment for Mr. Duterte and his men as there are some 262,000 OFW currently staying in Kuwait, more than half of whom are domestic workers according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, who are the direct beneficiaries of his efforts.

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