Family Problem!

Last week or so I had my sister here with us for my oldest son Chris’ birthday. While she’s here we went shopping. This time a lot of the malls here were open until midnight. While we went shopping her husband called her up and told my sister that my brother-in-law’s sister (we will just name her Amy) was being attacked by the family of her husband. Weeks before that Amy was being attacked by her brother-in-law. He threw something at her and she got hit in the forehead and needed a few stitches.

You guys probably wonder where is Amy’s husband? Well, he is working abroad. That’s the reason why the family of Amy’s hubby are mad about. They wanted some share of the money that the husband is sending. When Amy told the husband about all of this, he told Amy that I am not working hard for them, but for our family. I guess Amy and her husband have a kid that has a serious sickness. It really needs a lot of money. I guess the family of the husband just didn’t care about that, they just want to get some money. Even the grand parents of that kid don’t even care. They just want to get something when Amy received some money from the husband. It’s really a sad situation.

Amy’s husband wants her to move out of that place and transfer near to my sister and brother-in-law place. At first Amy doesn’t want to moved out of the area she’s in right now because the kids of the kids. They already in a good school and they already know the place and the people around them. With the convincing of her other sibling Amy will move out but she just wants to wait until all the court things would be over. My brother-in-law will go to his sister’s place and pick them up and let them live near to them. That’s also what the husband of Amy wants now. Some siblings of my brother-in-law also suggested if Amy would want to live in the Northern part of the Philippines. Amy scratched that idea. She said its too expensive there for her budget.

I really hope and pray that Amy can have closure on this soon. Really for the sake of the sick child. I know this is hard for my sister and my brother-in-law. I feel sorry for them. I guess all we can do for now is pray that everything will work out fine for them.I hope these people will stop bothering Amy. It just hard to believe that people can be cruel like this just over money they never work hard for.

LiPster? LiPBook? LiPped In?

Let’s face it, Social Networking sites dominate the Internet these days.  For people here in the Philippines, Friendster is the most popular.  In the USA, I would guess that Facebook is the most popular Social Network site.  LinkedIn seems to be the Social Networking site of choice for business minded people. Are you into Social Networking?  I wrote an article a few months ago about the impact of Friendster here in the Philippines, but these International Sites are also having an impact here.

As I said previously, LinkedIn is more focused on business minded people.  MySpace seems to focus in on Music and other Entertainment things.  Lots of singers try to get their career started on MySpace.  So, it is obvious that it is possible to start a focused Social Networking Site.  In other words, let’s say that you were into kite flying, you could start up a Social Network site where everybody shared Kite flying as a common interest, and let it go from there.

What does this have to do with LiP?  Well, I have an opportunity to turn LiP into a Social Networking site for Expats who want to live in the Philippines (or who already do, like me).  Basically, what we have right now is a Magazine style site that have 8 or 10 writers who write regular articles related to living in the Philippines.  How would it be different if it were a Social Network site?  Well, anybody who is interested in living in the Philippines could start their own blog on the site.  People could set up groups (for example, if you were living in Davao, you could set up a Davao Group, and everybody who lived in Davao or wanted to, could join your sub-group).  There are lots of things you could do.  Just imagine a Facebook or Friendster account and the things you can do there… I can make LiP just like that, but focused around the fact that we all have an interest in living in the Philippines.

Would you like that?

I see three possibilities:

1. Change LiP to a Social Networking site.
2. Keep LiP the same, but add a second site for Social Networking of people who want to live in the Philippines.
3. Forget the whole possibility.

Personally, I have mixed feelings, and I sway between numbers 1 and 2 above.  I would tend to lead toward #2.  Keep in mind, if I went for #1, I would still have a blog on the site that you could follow, and any of the current writers can stay on with their own blogs on the new site too, if they chose to do so.

The downside that I see to going in direction #1 is that some people won’t like it, and I would possibly lose them from the site all together.  However, if I went for #2, I see no downside.  The people that enjoy LiP as it is now could continue to enjoy it.  Also, anybody who wanted to do the Social Networking could do that too.

I’ve added a new Poll about this,  Leave a comment as to what you would like.  Also, cast a vote in the Poll on the right side of this article.

The Persistence of Hello

Somewhere in America, a fifty-something mother of three is trying to figure out the service features of her new mobile phone, a glittering gold Motorola, about which everyone under her terracotta-roofed house is very excited. Phone Company says there’d be no more paper bills. There’d be a single bill, in fact, and paperless, too: surely a convenient bundle for this loyal customer, who’ll be able to access online all the information she needs when looking up the reflected charges for Phone Company’s Internet support, for home phone, and now, too, for wireless services.

But she can’t find the right data and details in her current billing period. Every time she accesses her account, the message always reads like this: “Data usage has not yet been posted for your account. It may take up to five days for your unbilled usage to be available.” And so on and so forth. The mother thinks, “What on earth is this ‘111-048-xxyy’ I keep seeing?” She can make nothing of the words and figures that appear.

The mother calls customer technical support.

Three hours later, somewhere in Manila, an ex-hacker is now being called a son of a female canine by a woman’s voice on the other end of the phone. She insists, as a point of order, that “my call is not going to be transferred, yet again, to another helpless script-reader from the other side of the world – that would make a total of seven phone operators in a span of less than three hours!” Okay, thinks the sixth. He is looking at a photograph of his parents thumb-tacked on a certificate-decorated corkboard.

Just awhile ago, during a smoking break with colleagues downstairs of their office building, he was mulling over two options on a second-hand motorbike for which he was saving: the black Honda Wave 100 or the blue Suzuki Shogun-R? From the photos he’d seen on eBay Philippines, both looked to be in fairly good condition, and he had, very happily, appraised these to be ‘very hot’ indeed.

But it’s cold as Christmas now. He is sitting wordlessly at his workstation, listening to a barrage of questions and rants, all spoken in an unaccented way. He wonders why they never taught this “un-accent” during on-board training; he wonders that maybe they should begin to. How can you charm this middle-aged woman who subsists on single motherhood and mobile phones? She already knows anyway that he is not her countryman, and he knows that she will always be right. And so the story goes.

Ah, the call center. The PR firm for which I work has got one for a client. I believe that I’m past merely having been left to imagine what it’s like to be a call center employee. You see, I’ve spent innumerable hours on client calls, industry congresses, trainings and demos, conferences, and campaign planning sessions (and parties, too); these hours have convinced me that it really isn’t very wise to philosophize about the nature of the customer support outsourcing business, though many have doubtless made –be it on the record or off, in print or through debate shows on TV– the fairly widespread mistake of doing so. But I won’t. I’ll try not to, even though I’ve got the time.

After all, when one comes to think of it, voices are very strange. And telephones are very dangerous. They cut everything down to a sound. While there’s nothing wrong with the sound, it’s misleading. (And so is the written word, but the difference is that one can neither edit nor erase what has been said.) It doesn’t tell the whole story; not ever, and this is especially true when the sound of the voice is transmitted through the lamentably oft-abused technology of telephony.

Take call centers. It’s not just about two people on two ends of the world talking about how they can solve a technical problem; it’s not just about the mastery of slang and the pretense of sounding American; it’s not just about the business-making persistence of hello, how are you and how’s the weather in California, how can I help you, do call us if you encounter any more problems, goodbye and have a good day; it’s not just about the labels we know are given, and too unfairly, to those in the industry. Like sellouts. Phone operators, or live voice responders, working graveyard shifts. 21st century slaves to the Western world.

I am not sure if I myself know what it’s about, less so than what it’s not about. As a native proverb would have it, it takes a thousand voices to tell a single story. Really? Maybe it takes more than that.

Bob's 2009 Predictions

Well, obviously, 2008 is drawing to a close quickly.  It seems like just yesterday we were all worried about Y2K issues and such, and here we are almost a decade into the new millennium!  How can it be?  Well, it’s true, so no need to dwell on how fast time flies.  With the end of 2008, though, it’s time to take a look at the coming year, and see what things might happen if we speculate about possibilities for the year.

2009 promises to be a banner year in many respects.  Of course, the United States will get a new President, and for the first time, a person of color will serve as the President of the United States.  I hope for the very best for President Obama, but I also think that the sailing ahead will not be smooth.  There are dramatic challenges for the new President to face, and we should all wish him luck on the road ahead.  It won’t be easy, I think we can all be certain of that.  However, this site doesn’t focus on the United States, and politics there, we focus on the Philippines.  Of course, many of President Obama’s actions will affect the Philippines, but let’s mainly focus on Philippine issues and predictions of what might happen in the Philippines in 2009.

So, without further fanfare, I’d like to make 10 Predictions for 2009 in the Philippines.  Some of these events may take years to actually be completed, but I believe that it is possible we will see steps toward this starting in 2009.

1. Terrorism. Unfortunately, I feel that the Philippines is overdue for a serious terrorist event.  I have a feeling that we will see something in this area in 2009.  Over the past decade or more, there have been a number of serious threats that have been thwarted by the Philippines Government, this year things might not be so lucky.  I am not talking about a hand grenade thrown at a bus terminal where people are injured.  I feel that the Philippines is overdue for a serious attack that will leave at least 100 people dead.  Most likely, an event like this would happen in Manila or somewhere in Mindanao, my feeling is Manila, because it is a more target rich place.  I hope that I am incorrect on this, but I think that the odds are in favor of some kind of attack like this impacting the Philippines.
2. Charter Change. The Philippines is gearing up to be a real battle ground in the fight to change the Constitution in 2009.  Elections are scheduled to take place in 2010, and a lot of politicians who are facing term limits would love to change the constitution to allow for either longer terms in office, or additional terms.  However, the public is strongly opposed to Charter Change, and a battle is looming on this front.  A lot of indicators are showing that many politicians are targeting 2009 as the year to put all of this up for a vote.  The public won’t stand for it, though, and this could lead to political unrest.  If the politicians push this too far, it could even lead to another EDSA style action by the people.  Keep a close eye on this one.
3. Presidential Politics. As I said in #2 above, 2010 is election year in the Philippines.  A lot of people are surprised that Gloria Arroyo as remained this long as President (I predict, BTW, that she will hold onto power until her term ends in 2010), and in 2009 the race for President in 2010 will start to clarify.  My prediction here is that if the Charter Change movement plays out as it seems to be looking, a lot of politicians will be exposed for who they really are, and that may damage Presidential hopes for a number of these people.  My feeling is that some non-traditional people will emerge as “Presidentiables” in 2009.  I think that at least one religious leader will emerge as a Presidential Candidate in 2009.  Also, look for a businessman step into the race.  Trapo’s (Traditional Politicians) may fade, and leave the race to non-traditional hands.  This could be the first step toward moving the Philippines away from corruption, and more toward stability and more democracy.
4. Economics. The world will continue to spiral into economic turmoil in 2009, and I think that things will not improve next year, and possibly for several more years.  However, the Philippines will remain relatively unscathed by the downturn that the world will be facing.  There will be a slowdown in the Philippines, but growth will continue, albeit at a slower pace, and a recession (or depression) here will be avoided.  In fact, as things spiral lower in the rest of the world, the Philippines may actually find ways to dominate.  This would particularly happen in areas like outsourcing, call centers, bpo, and other such activities.
5. Readdressing Lingual Education. With activities in business areas like call centers thriving in the Philippines, the Philippines will quickly find drastic shortages in it’s available labor pool.  English speakers will be needed to fill these types of jobs, and they are quickly running out in the Philippines.  This will cause further emphasis on teaching adequate English skills in the schools here.  Possibly, legislation will be passed in this area in 2009.  With or without the passing of legislation, this is a topic that will become more broadly discussed in the Philippines this coming year.
6. Retirement & Expat Destination. With the United States and most of the world facing economic turmoil, a lot more people from these countries will start looking at becoming expats and living in other parts of the world.  The Philippines will eventually benefit from this.  We probably won’t start to see this too much in 2009, but the foundation will be laid for such a move.  As more and more people in the developed world start to see that opportunities are limited where they are, they will start looking at making changes in their lives, and more and more of these people will start looking at moving to places like Mexico or the Philippines for a better lifestyle.  This will eventually lead to the realization that in underdeveloped countries, there are many opportunities to earn a living, and a better lifestyle to boot.  As this mindset develops, it will actually become a political issue in the United States, and lead to legislation in this regard.
7. Mindanao Issue. With the Ancestral Domain issue blowing up politically in 2008, things are ripe for change in Mindanao starting in 2009.  Right now, the common thinking would be that war is at hand in Mindanao.  However, it is at times like this when Peace can be achieved more easily.  There may be some blow-ups in the process, but such events may lead toward more urgency among the people talking peace.  This could lead to a settlement between the Philippine Government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.  It’s hard to know for sure what will happen, but I think we can all rest assured that something will happen – either a turn for the worse or the better.  Mindanao is at a crossroad right now.  In my mind, there are three possible paths for Mindanao.  Firstly, battles, shootings and such could increase and lead to lawlessness in Mindanao.  Second, such actions as mentioned previously could actually make peace more critical for both sides, leading to a further agreement, and a path toward ultimat peace.  Third, a totally unconventional solution could be found by Mindanaoans themselves, leaving the Government totally out of it.  The Mindanao Independence movement has grown a lot stronger over the past 5 years or so.
8. Internet Business Use. Businesses in the Philippines are starting to understand that they can benefit from proper use of the Internet.  Have you noticed that Philippine companies are even advertising on big sites like Facebook now?  It’s true.  This will gain steam in 2009, and we will start seeing the seeds of this happen in Philippine business.  We may actually start seeing Philippine businesses answer e-mails and moving toward dominating markets on the Internet!
   
9. Broadband Availability. The availability of broadband internet has improved greatly in the past 8 years that I have lived here.  However, we have been seeing speeds like 200 to 300 Kbps.  In the past months, we are starting to see companies experimenting with 1, 2 or 3 Mbps offerings, and I’ve even heard of some companies offering as much as 10 Mbps to home users!  This will become more prevelant in 2009, and by the end of 2009 a 1 Mbps connection from your home will become more or less the standard for those with broadband.
10. Pull back of US commitments. Over the past Century, we have seen the United States support the Philippines financially in many ways.  The USA provides much of the military infrastructure that the Philippines uses, and also funds many programs for the Philippines.  I believe that in 2009 we will start seeing this support start to fade.  We may not see drastic cutbacks in such aid/support, but I think that the groundwork will be laid in 2009 for future cutbacks.  The reason for such cutback is twofold.  Firstly, the United States is facing troubled economic times, and needs to spend more money domestically, and that means less for foreign spending.  Secondly, President Obama ran on promises of pulling back militarily from many parts of the world, and aiding the Philippines will probably be one of the things that will be cut.

OK, now you know my top 10 predictions for 2009 in the Philippines.  Do you have predictions for the coming year?  Why not share them in your comment below?

Voracious Little *#!*#!!!!!

This is a short posting that you might find amusing. I’m up in Abulug now, and am typing this on my Blackberry… So please excuse typos and whatnot.

It occurred to me last night that here in the province, the mosquitoes are particularly voracious. How voracious? Well, I’ll explain.

I was fast asleep in my birthday suit, since it is cooler, dreaming peacefully, and I felt an itch in a rather personal place. Yes, “Little John” was bitten by a bloody mosquito, and boy, did it itch!!!! Now, of all the places I could have been bitten, this was one place that I never expected. I mean, what do you do, other than suffer the indignity of it all. Up here, I damn near bathe in “Off”, sleep under mosquito nets, spray everything, and put up with the lizards that eat the blasted things.

Now, I am on a mission. I HATE THEM! They serve no purpose other than, perhaps, God’s joke on humankind.

I’m thinking prayers to St. Jude, since this truly is a lost cause!

Spreading Christmas Cheer

OK, OK, I know that a lot of you have been waiting to hear about the give-away of Christmas food, candy and toys that Feyma and I conducted last week!  I am sorry that I didn’t post about it immediately after the give-away, but I really wanted to take a little break, and spend more time with my family last week.  I hope you all understand.

First, let me say that the Christmas funds drive was a great success.  This was the first year that I asked for any donations toward this cause, and the response was far greater than I expected.  You folks who are reading this really opened up your wallets, and extended great generosity toward the event, and I know in my heart that a lot of people really came to appreciate that when they sat down for probably the best meal they had eaten in 2008.

Before getting started with how it all went, let me say that when I asked for donations, my goal that I had in mind was $2,000 toward the event.  That was my goal.  My expectation was that it would be good if we could raise $500.  We got donations from 28 different people.  Donations ranged from $5 up to $500!  All donations were greatly appreciated.  I can honestly say that when I got an e-mail that $500 had been donated by a single person, I almost fell out of my chair, it was much more than I expected.  There were a lot of $100 contributions, and many for $50, $20, etc. too.  I had hoped that a larger number would contribute, but the amount raised was more than I expected, and that is what puts food in people’s mouths, so that is the most important.  The total amount of donations was a little shy of the $2,000 goal that I had set, but relatively close.

At the time that I asked for donations, we did not know where we would go to distribute the contributions.  Randy left a comment suggesting that we distribute the items on Samal Island, which sounded good to me.  However, after reflecting on it, we decided against that.  The reason is that we spend a lot of time on Samal (obviously!), and most people there know us, and recognize us.  If we go there and give out a ton of free food, we fear that it will be expected whenever people see us.  This could really limit our enjoyment of Samal Island, and thus we decided to go elsewhere.  In the end, we settled on a trip to the Marilog District, and Buda, in the mountains Northwest of Davao.  There is a lot of poverty up there, and it is also a large area, not relatively small like Samal.

We like to do the distributions of these gifts on Christmas Eve day, because if we were to give it earlier, we think that the food would be eaten early, and it is our hope that the food will provide a good Noche Buena Christmas Celebration for the families that receive the items.  So, at 8 am on December 24, we loaded up the truck, and also our SUV (it took two vehicles to haul all the goods) and headed out!  Our first stop was to pick up our good friend, Robert Bula.  Robert is a Filipino from Davao, but has been living in the States for decades.  He has been a regular reader of a number of my blogs for years now, and he made a contribution toward the food giveaway, and also asked to come along with us (Robert is in town for vacation right now).  Robert turned out to be the official photographer for the event (Robert is a serious photography hobbyist).

We headed up toward Marilog and had made two stops to give out gifts when a bit of a problem struck!  The truck had a blowout!  The right front tire went totally flat, and turned out to have a gash in the side from a sharp rock along side the road.  It took a couple hours due to a number of issues, but we finally got the tire changed, and were on the road again to spread good cheer and gifts from LiP readers.  This week, we’ll need to buy a new tire for the truck, as that tire was damaged beyond repair.

We all really enjoyed giving out the food gifts.  In all, we had 70 large packs of food, enough to serve an entire family a good Christmas Meal.  We also had 150 bags of toys and candy for children.  Additionally, we distributed 50 pounds of pork, and about 30 chickens to the poor.  We also gave out 20 huge tins of Christmas Cookies.

In addition to this, we also gave $250 to Father Franco, our Italian Priest Friend in Bukidnon.  Father held a big Christmas Party for the native kids in his area.  In all, 100 kids were served Arrozcaldo (a dish made with chicken and rice), Binignit (a dish made with fruits) and other items.  The 100 kids also enjoyed games and other activites, and were awarded prizes if they did good in the games.  Father reported to me that it was indeed a great party for the kids, and they really enoyed themselves a lot!

I want to thank each and every one of you who participated in this event.  Without your generosity, these people would have had a rather bleak Christmas.  There were old people who shed plenty of tears when they got what we gave them, it really warmed our hearts so much.  We felt really good about what the LiP community did for these less fortunate people!

Please scroll down for a group of pictures from the event.  You can also see a larger group of photos by going to the Gallery.  I am sorry to report that before going out to give the gifts , we were so busy loading all the stuff and preparing everything that we forgot to bring the video camera this year!  So, I am sorry that there is no video to share this time, but I hope that you enjoy the photographs.

Again, thank you to everybody who contributed to this worthy cause!

Harmless Confusion

I have spent the last 3 years coming and going from the Philippines. I love the people and enjoy the country very much. There are many attractions, some beautiful countryside, mountains and beaches, especially if you know where to look. But best of all is the Filipino hospitality.A foreigner is made to feel so welcome in the Philippines and you definitely reap what you sow. If you are polite and friendly in your outlook and behaviour, then in my experience, you are treated in the same way, if not better by the locals. But over the last 3 years I can honestly say there have been some hilarious confusions that have occurred, mostly to do with communication and language.

I am from England and I speak with a very “British” accent. Many Filipinos stop and listen to my voice with a mixture of interest and amusement because although we do share some of the same language, mine is very definitely British whereas most Filipinos speak “American English” and my oh my is there a big difference!!! There is neither criticism or compliment in my observations here, I am just highlighting some of the easy confusions that can happen despite sharing a similar language. I am amused when so many people here listen to my voice and they say, “You sound like Harry Potter”. Obviously that young wizard is one of the most infamous British characters over here along with Mr Bean!! I am not sure which one of those I really want to be associated with!! But my point is, I believe I speak very clearly but even so, myself and my Filipino friends find ourselves at cross purposes because we have totally misunderstood each other. Nothing too serious I might add, but its funny how easily it can happen. I am in the process of learning the art of Filipino body language. This is fascinating and took a while to get the hang of. The raising of an eye brow, pouting of the lips, brief turn of the head etc can mean so much and we English miss it very easily. Where did this kind of communication come from? How did it evolve? Is there some kind of dictionary to go with it? I initially took non-verbal responses from my Filipino friends as lazy and almost rude, thinking, why cant you be bothered to speak to me when I have asked you a perfectly reasonable question? Don’t I deserve more than just a cursory nod of the head to my enquiry? And following directions when lost is hilarious. Upon asking someone in the street to show me directions to my destination I am usually rewarded with casually waved hand in a very general direction and told to head “that way” or “down there”. I am aware that anyone else would probably understand fully these things and I have no problem with it as such, its just that I am sometimes left lost and confused and not understanding what I was told. I have also learned about the response “No”. I find this word is seldomly used, if at all, especially with a foreigner. I am often left with uneaten food and full glasses of drink at my table because I have offered these items to my guests who have accepted without really wanting them. If I am asking somebody a favour, if they can do something for me, I will always be responded to with either a “yes” or an “I will see” or “later” or a shrug of the shoulders.

I have discovered that anything short of a resounding and enthusiastic “YES” will probably indicate that it cant be done, but my friend does not want to say that to me. That is very sweet and very polite and inoffensive but again it can cause confusion and difficulty for this foreigner who is used to forthright speech and very open upfront ways of behaviour. None of us are right, none of us are wrong, we are just different and it is these differences that makes us all so interesting to each other. I am learning, and I am doing my best to understand and not offend anyone. So far I have been quite successful in this quest. But of course, any tips on Filipino etiquette would be gratefully received by this confused but happy traveller. God Bless You All.

The Philippines Needs a Good Dictionary

One of the reasons many Westerners give for visiting or moving to the Philippines is the common use of the English language.  It makes a person feel at home … or lets lazy people like me neglect to spend time learning any of the common Filipino languages such as Tagalog.  But one of the things visitors and potential residents need to understand is, just because English is often spoken (and is, indeed, one of the Philippines “official” languages), do not expect that English is English is English.  As the words of a song say, “It ain’t necessarily so”.

Let me look for a minute at a word meaning/usage situation that came up for me starting a few weeks back.  A reader left a comment that stated, in part, “… other good qualities of Filipinos are that they are meek…”

Are Filipinos meek?  Well that’s certainly open to debate, not one I will open up here, but what I will open for discussion is, just what does “meek” mean?  many of the folks reading this are Christians, so it’s common for those of us who are to think of Matthew 5:,  “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”. After all, to a Christian, what could be more authoritative than the words of Christ himself?

That is true only if we are very careful in deciding what we really mean by meek.  A generally accepted definition of “meek” is to be gentle and considerate of others.  In a great many ways you will see this in almost every interpersonal interaction.  In fact many Filipinos seem to have mixed up “meek” with “subservient” or even “fawning.  This is not only disturbing to Westerners at times … I am not “Sir David” and it does me no favors if I ask if some action is possible or acceptable and I get an “Oh po” (yes, sir) in reply when actually what I want is not the right thing and an honest “Hindi po”, (no sir) is the response that should be made.  This isn’t unique to the Philippines, by the way, it’s somewhat of an Asian-wide custom … sometimes “no” is the hardest answer to obtain, even when that’s the answer that will really serve the questioning person most honestly. It is perfectly possible to be both “meek” and “honest”, if you truly understand what “meek” means.

This perversion of “meekness” often manifests itself in the issues I talked about in my last post, where people somehow confuse modesty, politeness and “meekness” with taking advantage of opportunities that are not only their right, but sometimes even their duty.

Let me give a couple examples that ought to serve well.  Quickly now, how many who are reading this like taxes and tax collection agencies?  Thought so.  But how many of us accept that taxes are a fact of life and have their role in an organized society … mainly to provide basic human services.  So we pay, and we certainly expect that the authorities charged with tax collection are going to do their jobs.

Now virtually everyone agrees that the Philippines is a poor country and many of the ills of the country in general could be cured, or at least improved upon, by an infusion of funds.

But let me acquaint you with something many people don’t know.  The Philippines is not nearly so poor as it is naturally … it’s as poor as it is, to a large degree, by mismanagement.  What specific mismanagement?  Simple.  The agencies charged with collecting taxes don’t.

Take a look at income taxes.  Just recently on 5 year “Amnesty Program” just closed out and another is due soon.  Amnesty from paying individual or business income taxes.  You can pay your income taxes here if you chose too, or, you can just ignore them and wait for the government to include you in an “Amnesty Program” which lets you make a negotiated, token payment and then go on your merry way.  Mind boggling.  The official stance on these programs?  “Well at least we get some money from these tax evaders, otherwise we get nothing at all.”  Excuse me?  What about the law that clearly determines that people owe taxes and must comply.  Doesn’t anyone have the glimmer of  a thought about hauling those who make money and don’t pay into court?  seizing property, collecting what is due?  Is this “meekness” in it’s most perverted form?  You be the judge.

Not long ago my wife and I visited a town in the provinces where she and several members of her family own property.  We stopped at the Municipio (Town Hall) to bring the property taxes up to date on all the parcels in question. I was pretty shocked to find that some of the parcels hadn’t had the taxes paid in years and years.  In another matter we paid some overdue taxes on another property as a favor to the owner (because we might be doing some title work on that property and wanted everything clear and legal).  The owner’s response?  Oh I never pay until after the taxes are more than 10 years overdue … when they get that far behind the town will send a letter offering a settlement (for a much smaller sum) of what’s due over the past years.  So, in other words, why bother paying taxes as set by the law, the tax collectors will settle for less, just ignore it all for now and worry about it in the future, if you have to.

See what I mean about the Philippines being artificially poor?  The former governor of our province here, Bulacan, attained national notice during her term for a program she instituted, unique to all the Philippines provinces.  This is really a foreign initiative to some.  Know what it was?

She required the county tax authorities to a., bill and collect property taxes as they came due and b…, rated job performance, raises and even job security of these officials based on how much they collected.

Sounds a bit simplistic and “so what”?  Well it was a very, very unique program in this country, even had a number of TV documentaries produced covering the program, and management staff from many other provinces visiting Bulacan to learn how it was done.  So again, you be the judge.

If meekness a desirable quality?  Obviously, as opposed to arrogance and insulting behavior it certainly is, but somehow, as it seems to me, “meekness” here in the Philippines has become confused with the definition of negligence and dereliction of duty.

The Philippines might not be considered a rich nation even if all the taxes did get collected, but I do think it would go a long way toward getting the country on its feet and even, perhaps, feeding a few starving people and educating a few children with no present opportunities.  What do you think?

Life in the States for me

As I’ve posted before it was quite an adjustment for me when I got to the States. I didn’t know that it was that hard though. When I first tried eating the meat there I thought of going into vegetarian.   Not really. Any meat tasted gamey to me, no matter how good it looks or even Bob and his family would say that the food is good I still didn’t think so. I was really puzzled because I grow up eating meat. What I did every time I would eat meat I will put lots of ketchup on it. Even on pizza. Bob’s family was surprised on that, but they know they can’t force me to eat stuff that I don’t like. I think it just took me like couple of months to adjust to it. It was funny though when my mother-in-law first visited us here in the Philippines. She said the same, that our meat here in the Philippines tastes gamey to her. I had a big laughed then and I told her now you know how I felt before when I first came to the States I told you guys the same. She remembered me not liking the meat there at first. I’m sure they think I’m weird of not liking the meat at that time. Hey, every person has different taste though.

More hard for me was after three months of arriving in the States I got pregnant. Wow, for nine months I had a hard time eating regular food. The only food I could eat was pineapple, grapefruit and beef jerky. Weird, huh? I couldn’t even eat crackers or even rice, I will just throw up then if I ate those. I couldn’t even drink water, I even was drinking sprite and 7up they said its good for a pregnant woman to drink. I throw up that too. When I was pregnant for a month I ended up in the hospital due to dehydration. My doctor said not to worry it will be fine after 3 months. It didn’t happened. I was still throwing up until I gave birth. I even had medication for it. I had to really take the medication on time or else I will suffer and throw up for a week. Luckily on my second and third child I was just sick for the first trimester. I envy those women that don’t even get morning sickness for the whole nine months. Good for them I guess.

When I got there one thing I had a hard time finding there was clothes that fit me on the ladies section. Even I go through the petite section it’s still big on me. Finally I went to the kids sections, that’s where I found some clothes that would fit me. The only thing is the style is really good for kids then. Well, at least for the meantime I had some place that I can shop for my clothes. Later after having a baby I finally gained some weight, I was so happy that I can shop then at the petite section. I like it because I can see some design that really fits in with my age. It is totally opposite when we got here to the Philippines 7 years ago. I was having a hard time looking for clothes here that fit my big size since I gained some weight. I just gave birth like 1 month before when we moved here and I didn’t lose all the weight that I gained during the pregnancy. They don’t have much for the big size at that time. Maybe we just lived in small city that’s why they just don’t have much to offer there. Here in Davao now I can see that they have big selection for larger size ladies. I like it a lot now.

Hope it helps to some of you ladies. Till my next post.

The art of walking

Walking in Davao

I am an English foreigner in Davao. One thing we do a lot in England is to walk to our destinations.I know that one of the reasons we can walk so often in England is because of the climate. It is usually cool and this makes it very pleasant to stroll around, especially in the green countryside or the pretty city parks.So this “habit” of walking everywhere is something that my friend and I have brought with us to Davao city.

Oh boy, yes it does feel different, because here in the Philippines it is so much hotter and the humidity makes these walks a very sweaty experience !!!But we still have lots of fun doing it. It always feels a very good thing to do, but probably in a different way from doing it back in England.Back home we enjoy a gentle walk around the park, or in the heart of the countryside we go on energetic walks across fields, up hills, across rivers and down dales. In the town or city it is often easier to walk from one destination to another because traffic can be congested, but also because usually the weather does make it a pleasant experience when it is not raining!!!!

As foreigners in the Philippines we have found walking a fun thing to do indeed for different reasons that just mentioned.In
England it is rare a passing stranger will acknowledge you, so don’t hold your breath for someone to stop and smile and greet you.But here in the Philippines it is so completely different.We try to take taxis as little as possible. It is a good thing to use the jeepneys and tricycles and to mix with the local community. But as often as we can we will walk too.There is never a day goes by when we are walking that someone doesn’t call out to us, waves, smiles, shouts greetings and generally is very pleasant indeed. We have been told by certain associates that walking can be very dangerous and we are asking for trouble. Of course, as in any place in the world, there are safe areas and there are not so safe areas. That’s a fact of life. But I have found no better way to meet people than to choose to walk to my destination and here in
Davao city it has been nothing but a fun experience.Yeah sure, the heat can be a killer and I smile to myself when I see locals staring at us as though we are crazy. My god, we are walking in the mid-day sun, we must be crazy!! But I assure you we are not. Walking is something that we are very used to but also here everyone is so open and friendly to a foreigner that it makes walking a unique experience.From the petrol station attendant, to the car wash boy, to the lorry driver to the security guard to the street kids to the shop assistants, we are called to, greeted and waved to in a never ending tide of hospitality and friendship.

It always amazes me that no matter how poor or squalid or inadequate somebody’s situation is, the Filipino is never short of a smile or a friendly greeting. How come? How do you possess this gift of strength? “Hey Joe”, “My friend”, “Hey man whats your name?” and “Welcome to the Philippines” are amongst the regulars. We love it. My companion and I have never had a problem or bad experience walking anywhere in Davao city. I said it before, as a visitor here, you definitely reap what you sow. If your disposition is friendly, open and cheerful you are always met with the same in return by one of the most friendly cultures on this planet. Thank you to all the Filipinos who say hi to us and have made us feel so welcome and comfortable in their country.