I know better than they do!
Because of the fact that I have a fairly large presence on the Internet, I get contacted by a fairly large number of people. Generally, if you are a foreigner who is interested in the Philippines, you are likely to come across at least one or more of my websites. After all, I have literally more than 100 different websites, all related to the Philippines in one way or another. So, when somebody does a search on one of the major search engines, if that search is Philippine related, sooner or later they usually find me. Because of this, I get a ton of e-mails from foreigners who are coming here for one reason or another. Because of this website, I get contacted by so many people who have a desire to move here and live here permanently. It’s just inevitable.
I don’t mind getting such e-mails, I even value them most of the time, because they put me in touch with people that I can generally assist in one way or another. Sometimes such contacts lead to business arrangements where I can make a little money, other times such contacts lead to nice friendships.
One theme that I often get, though, from foreigners that I meet is that “I know better than the people here do.” I have gotten to the point that I just get so tired of hearing that. I’ve been around here long enough to have learned my lesson about thinking that way, even though I readily admit that I have had those kind of feelings myself in the past. Let me give you an example of something that happened many years ago.
There was a fellow who contacted me a number of years ago, I was still living in GenSan at the time, so it’s been at least 6 years ago now. I don’t even recall the guy’s name, honestly. He was interested in moving to the Philippines and planned to live in rural Cebu. He came down to General Santos to meet me, and to bounce a few ideas off of me. I was happy to meet him, and assist him if I could do so. During his visit, we were driving around GenSan and I was showing him around town. During the drive, he said something just out of the blue – “I’m going to come here and teach these people how to grow tomatoes!” I was kind of surprised, because the markets here are full of tomatoes.
So, I asked him – “what do you mean? They grow plenty of tomatoes here.” His response floored me. He explained to me that while they did grow tomatoes here, they did not know how to do it properly. He went on to tell me that in the market, many of the tomatoes were still green, very few were fully ripe. He said that if he was just here to teach the people, the quality of their tomatoes would go way up, and he would be rich! Hmmm… I wondered to myself… should I challenge his assertion, or should I just let him believe what he just told me. I decided that I had promised to assist him, and sometimes assisting somebody mean that you would tell them things that they didn’t necessarily want to hear, so I decided that it was my duty to tell him what I thought.
I explained – “Do you know why they pick most of the tomatoes while they are still very green?” He responded, “No, I guess they just don’t know that the tomatoes are not ripe yet.” “No, my friend, the reason is because most of the people here like green tomatoes! That is what they prefer to eat. Your ripe red tomatoes will not sell well in the local market, because there are only a few customers for them.”
I don’t know what ever happened to the guy, I lost touch with him. I doubt, however, that there is a barangay in rural Cebu where all the local folks are eating ripe red tomatoes these days! More likely, my friend has either moved on to some other kind of business, or even more likely he has gone back to the States by now.
The lesson here is that the way we (Westerners) do things is not always right. Maybe it is right for us – for you and for me. But, that doesn’t mean that it is right for Filipinos. We are living here in the Philippines, their country, and we can’t presume that we will come here and change 80 million people to start doing things our way. More likely it is us who will need to adjust. But, hey, when it comes to tomatoes, there are enough red ones in the market that you can still enjoy doing it your way, and let everybody else do it the way that they like!
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OMG!!!! I posted #87 yesterday, and now Macky’s #150!
Jae, you’re right! For most of us here, family is the only reason why we love and defend Philippines. Also, we’re brought up being patriotic, so I hope that sums all up. BTW, if I’m born Korean, I will love and defend Korea too.
Peace everyone!
Hi macky – That is indeed true. We have a live example to show the meaning of the post!
Different cultures.Different traditions and beliefs. RESPECT is very important most especially if you are in other country, your culture is different with us. Let’s try to “adopt” so we can understand. Thank you.:>
hee hee
‘ I know better then they do ” ..Bob I’m a union carpenter so the second time I came to Philippines I was intending to work on my house with the carpenters that my wife hired ..After I got there and surveyed the house and the construction work ..and the carpenter arrived and started to work I watch him for a few minutes and then I decided not to interfere with their way of working .. Bob it was nothing like I expected so I just watched ..and it was a very interesting experience to me ..and YES Bob I like green tomatoes ..fried ,stuffed and in a pie ….green or red they are good to eat .. Phil n Jess PS green ones last longer too “)
Yes it was Bob and I didn’t want to get involved and as my wife said ” this is the way we do it in the Philippines ” I played sidewalk supervisor…just watched and talk to the carpenter .. …Phil n Jess
Haha, on the green tomatoes. I’m in the Philippines for the first time visiting my fiance, however, I have lived outside the country quite a bit. We went to the supermarket, a very large and very nice place even by state side standards, and we where getting groceries when she grabbed green tomatoes. I said hunny, those tomatoes are green don’t you want to get some ripe red ones,”as I saw some sitting right beside the ones she’d picked up”. She said no she liked the green ones. And I know my wife to be being a very smart and intelligent said what she meant and meant what she said. I didn’t say another word as I knew that she deliberately picked the green over the red and it must be for good reason.
Hi mark – I agree, we all have to agree, we all need to adopt to each other!
I imagine that it was quite interesting to see the way they worked!