Out of the Frying Pan?

I had the chance to chat with a Filipino priest during my recent visit to Korea. He said that in one of the parishes where he celebrates mass, ninety-nine percent of the flock are women.

Asked where the church is, he said it's near a US Military Base and the nightlife area.

Further conversation confirmed a previous information I received that many of our women are now "touring" Korea. Apparently, majority of them are former "japayukis", who had to find work after the government decided to stop the deployment of performing artists to Japan.

The priest's account also reminded me of one time when a Filipina "mama-san" claimed that her former wards who transfered to Korea experienced working conditions far hellish than Japan's as pictured. Of course, I wouldn't know how valid the assertion was, but if my few visits to "omises" would be my gauge, I saw indeed, that Japanese men were usually just having fun singing while the ladies serve them wine. But accounts in Korea say that the treatment they get from the locals and the foreign military personnel is different.

All these are hearsay of course, and I hope that government will address this issue soonest. If indeed we tried to protect our women in Japan, it would be sad to find one that we actually brought them out of the frying pan and into the fire.

(May we, laborers, have a fruitful observation of our Day.)

(pic freely lifted from the web)