Rickshaws and Filipinos: Transnational Meanings of Technology and Labor in American-Occupied Manila

Abstract

This article tells the hitherto unknown history of the rickshaw in the Philippines. The Filipinos’ encounter with this transport mode was brief and largely revolved around a failed rickshaw business in Manila in 1902. The venture quickly fizzled out, but not without controversy, deeply rooted in the colliding socio-political forces in the city at that time: the reliance on a non-motorized transport system; the consolidation of American colonial rule against the backdrop of an ongoing revolution; the birth of the first Filipino labor federation; and the implementation of a law banning the employment of Chinese workers from unskilled trades. The controversy turned the rickshaw into a disputed symbol. On the one hand, the rickshaw enterprise was criticized by Filipino carriage drivers and nationalist labor leaders, who viewed the vehicle as an essentially foreign apparatus that would enslave Filipinos. On the other hand, the Americans used the Filipinos’ opposition to the rickshaw to prove the supposed un-modernity of the lazy native workers, who failed to grasp the idea of the dignity of labor. These disputes were inextricably linked to the clash of discourses between Filipino nationalism and colonial modernity, two competing perspectives both influenced by a comparative transnational frame.

Everyday experiences of digital financial inclusion in India's ‘micro-entrepreneur’ paratransit services

“…Micro-entrepreneurs working as rickshaw taxi operators have a history of precarity in Southern and South East Asia. Colonial governments sought to restrict their operation through various policies such as restricting permit allocation, introducing laws that relegate services from main roads, city centres or terminals in favour of allocating space and travel demand to more advanced forms of motorised-vehicular traffic most relevant to the upper-and middle-classes (Notar et al, 2018;Pante, 2014;Warren, 1986). These class-based policies continue today and impact operators' ability to negotiate with local governments for improved terms of employment.…”