By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS
THE firing of Filipino nurse Ello Ed Mundsel Bello by the Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore for his Facebook rant against Singaporeans once again demonstrates the danger of people being in social media without fully knowing its capabilities and limitations.
Last week, Bello, under the FB name Edz Ello, ranted on his wall:
“Now the Singaporeans are loosers in their own country, we take their jobs, their future, their women and soon we will evict all SG loosers out of their own country hahaha. The best part, I will be praying that disators strike Singaporeans and more Singaporeans will die then I will celebrate. REMEMBER PINOY BETTER AND STRONGER THAN STINKAPOREANS.”
Tan Tock Seng Hospital issued the following statement:
“We have received feedback from concerned members of the public on inflammatory online posts allegedly made by one of our nursing staff. This is a serious matter. We are a public healthcare institution and we expect our staff to be respectful and professional. We do not condone behaviours or comments that are irresponsible and offensive, and will take the appropriate disciplinary action where necessary.
“The Hospital and the nurse are cooperating fully with the police on this matter. The nurse is currently put on administrative duties pending police investigations. We thank everyone for their concern and ask for patience for the investigation to take its due course.”
Even if the message were not offensive, Bello should be fired for confused English grammar and bad spelling.
A news article in the Singapore Straits Times said Bello lodged a police complaint saying his Facebook account was hacked after the post went viral.
The same article said after the hospital investigated other posts by Bello in Facebook and Google Plus “that touched upon race and religion” it decided to terminate the Filipino nurse’s services. “We have dismissed Mr. Ello Ed Mundsel Bello from our hospital immediately for his… comments made in 2014 while in our hospital’s employment,” the hospital said in a statement on Facebook.
We don’t know how true is the claim of Bello that his FB account was hacked. If those hostile posts were really his, he should have known from the very beginning that they would reach hospital officials. Did he consider that?
Did he think those rants were just personal outpourings that his friends would keep in confidence?
He should have known that there’s nothing private in social media.
While he ponders on his losing his job, Bello should read the advice of American writer and philosopher Elbert Green Hubbard: “If you work for a man, in heaven’s name work for him. If he pays you wages which supply you bread and butter, work for him; speak well of him; stand by him, and stand by the institution he represents. If put to a pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must vilify, condemn, and eternally disparage, resign your position, and when you are outside, damn to your heart’s content, but as long as you are part of the institution do not condemn it. If you do that, you are loosening the tendrils that are holding you to the institution, and at the first high wind that comes along, you will be uprooted and blown away, and will probably never know the reason why.”
