This photo has something to do with the story. Read on.

A news headline caught my attention this morning: Landlords shut door on Filipinos in Dubai.

Two reasons are stated: (1) Filipinos tend to overcrowd the rooms and (2) There’s a certain food they cook that’s smelly.

Wait.

While I do not agree with overcrowding as it would compromise safety and hygiene, why single out the Filipinos when there are so many other nationalities sharing/overcrowding an apartment room? These people have no choice. No one wants to live in a home without privacy but how can you expect a low earning expat pay for a room which costs more than his monthly salary?

A solution would be implementing rules and write it in the contract: maximum number of people per room and checking afterwards. When there is a rule written in black and white, this kind of problem would be less.

The other issue here is that landlords and the writer of that news article generalize. I’ve had an experience with racial discrimination where I was treated badly when looking for an apartment room to rent for my family just because I look Filipino – because they suspect that I would sublet the apartment room and overcrowd it. The generalization is unbelievable. Not all Filipinos share and overcrowd rooms, building watchmen/landlords should be more polite and deal with their paying customers better.

And regarding smelly foods, this really irritates me. Everyone has their own delicacies which give strong odor. We have lived in an apartment building with lots of other nationalities and have smelled something overbearing. It’s not always, it’s temporary and it will go away. As long as it is not everyday or frequent enough to get me waking up at night, it’s ok.

The food in question is that photo above.

I am sure Filipinos do NOT cook the dried fish every single day. Like all the other expats in Dubai or in any country in the world, people living abroad want a piece of home from time to time and food is most likely to satisfy that.

If the landlord doesnt want smelly food, he simply writes it in the tenancy contract and mention that violation of the tenancy contract can lead to termination. As easy as that!

But wait again –

What about people with very bad body odor?  There are PLENTY of them here. Why aren’t they banned inside public transport?

Don’t you think that news article is discriminating to one culture/race?

[Photo credit: Google images]