tamisuplada

Just got back from a long business trip in Macau and HK, whenever there's a chance i interview kababayans there for the other segment of our business. For some they feel that people that they support back here in the Philippines doesn't value the hardship in earning that money they spend. Nowadays its easy to communicate with them or shall i say its easy to ask them to send money. There's this Pinay DH, who even let me read the text of his son saying that the Nike shoes he wanted to buy is worth 6K and he wanted a new mobile phone.

 

Please if you'll be asking them for something, try to ask first how do they do, mangamusta muna, then saka manghingi. hehe! seriously we should value their hardship, it doesnt mean that they're in other country - they're just picking apples, they have been sacrificing a lot for us.

 

peace

bingo!

As for the medical missions... don't you hate a saccharin veneer when you see through it? I do and I say so in spades.

but ya sure won't say it to their faces wontcha!

aarhg!! you got me so worked up you're going to make me miss work in the morning :glare:

can someone please educate me... how in the heck do they know if a remittance is from an OFW or from someone who migrated permanently to another country. when we used to send money to my lola nobody asked if we were immigrants or on a working visa. and now that my aunts and uncles send money to my cousins nowhere there is it indicated if it came from a OFW or emmigrant. also, in the school i used to teach in, every other student was being put through by a relative who migrated to another country and their tutuion is paid for when their relative comes back as balikbayan. does that count? it's an honest question and i'm clueless.

some of you may think that there's nothing wrong with boomouse's post and that pinalaki lang. comments like his are very divisive. i've been on both sides of the fence and i can say that there is nothing right about it. my family left for abroad when i was 9. after 19 years of living abroad in 3 different countries (gaining dual citizenship in one of them), coming home as balikbayans every year, my father decided to come back home to retire after my mom died. i've been back here for almost a decade. in every single country we lived in and visited we were met with warm filipino families with good hearted, enthusiatic RESPECTFUL kids. dignified filipinos who worked hard, sure, but took pride in their contribution to the society that adopted them. and those who did work hard and smart were compensated for it. sure i did meet the occasional mahangin but when i think about it, they were already mayabang before they left. and as far as having bosses who were non filipinos, sorry but that's where you are greatly greatly mistaken. my mom was department head and her boss, nope wasn't filipino, but answered to a brilliant filipina. my father worked for a fortune 500 company and had only 2 people above him and hundreds of whites, african americans, hispanics, asians etc. under him. my 2 sisters that decided to stay have no bosses black, white, yellow or brown above them. they own their business with the help of the government. all this coming from a family that before we left for abroad had no electricity, no running water, had to take baths in the dark so neighbors can't peek into the holes of our bathroom, my oldest sister would go door to door asking if someone would like a manicure/pedicure to make some money. i remember being bitten by a rat as a child. talk about an undignified life. if it wasn't for my aunt's petition we would be dead or worse. but here's what impresses me about filipinos. whenever we came home we were met with families and friends who were genuinely happy to see us. once in a while someone would ask “akin na lang to” but we understood why they would say that. the same filipino hearts were here at home, too. good, affable, eager, hospitable hearts. make no mistake, the reason why balikbayans “jumped ship” is the exact same reason why locals treat some balikbayans as “gatasan.” the administration, past and maybe even present failed you and me. allowed us to live in filth and squalor, gave some mother’s no choice but to prostitute their daughters just so they will never have to see another one of their children’s eyes roll in the back of their head from hunger. so to say in general that balikbayans are such and local are that, only creates an atmosphere of us against them.

i asked my father yesterday if he found it undignified to have 2 white bosses, he said "that's like asking me if i felt superior to my white assistants." he also said, don't ever get on that slippery slope of thinking "i'm better than you."

so if it feels like napalaki yung post ni boomouse, mea culpa. and i that’s what i meant to do.

Dapat isguron tagalugin ko na kasi mukhang masyado kang nagandahan sa english ko nahirapan kang intindihin. Ang pinaguusapan ko lang mga balikbayan. Ibang yun sa OFW. Hindi pareho ang OFW sa balikbayan. Ang OFW umalis sa bayan para magtrabaho pero meron siyang intensyon na bumalik at manirahan sa Pilipinas. Ganoon ako noon. In usapan dito, pag meron nang sapat na assets na naipon para manirahan sa Pilipinas ng matiwasay ay puwede nang bumalik at manguyakoy na lang.

 

Ang balikbayan umalis sa bayan para manirahan sa ibang bansa at doon na maglagi. Hanggang hindi ni naabot ang matiwasay at stable na kabuhayan sa ibang bansa, hinsi nila maiisip na umuwi ng pansamantala sa pilipinas. Kung naka pag establish na sila saka na lamang nila iisipin na umuwi sa Pilipinas at bisitahin ang mga kawawang kamaganak na siguradong matutuwa sa mga pasalubong nila na matagal nang inipon mula sa mga sale sa mga department store lalo na sa bayan ng kano.

 

Tama ka 30% ng GDP galing sa OFW hindi ito galing sa balikbayan.

 

Yes. I look myself in the mirror each day. I also thank the OFWs for shoring up the country's foreign exchange reserves although the current strength of the peso is a result of the US working to devalue the dollar to export more and Japan trying to keep their yen at parity to stay competitive with US goods.

 

As for balikbayans, well, hindi naman yata nakakadagdag sa foreign exchange reserves yun mga pasalubong na pinapadala mula sa mga nabili na sale sa JC Penney, Mashall Fields, at kahit na sa Nieman Marcus.

 

So, intindihin mong mabuti kaibigan... hindi kasam ang OFW sa usapin na ito. Mga balikbayan lang. At kung maganda ang English ko pasensya ka na sayang naman ang nagastos ng pamahalann ng pilipinas kung wala akong tatutuhan sa pagiging "isko."

and, yes, do you also look yourself in the mirror each day and be thankful that your big head hasn't exploded yet, Mr. "Isko"... wawa naman 'to ... laki ng ulo

sino pinaka

-magaling

-malaki

-masarap

-matagal

ako naman: syempre ikaw ... *nice smile and wink

what?! it could have been

I pity balikbayans. I have seen how they live. I almost turned into one. It does not really matter if the balikbayan is a well paid doctor or nurse with overtime credits overflowing or a simple TNT custodian who has to work odd jobs at odd hours of the day.

 

They lead the same hard life. They have to put up with their white or egoy bosses; they have to do their own household chores because even if they can afford it, the hardship they went through to earn the money they would have to spend has turned them into penny pinching misers. What a stressful life.

 

So when they finally come to the Philippines for a visit (probably after accumulating enough 'miles' flying around the US for their work so that they get a free ticket) I try to make sure they have an easy time. I put them up in a small hotel where they have privacy, assign a car and driver to them so they can go wherever they please. When they bitch about the traffic, I tell them to just layback and sleep it off since they are not doing the driving anyway.

 

Despite the traffic, they wonder why feeding a car at the rate of 11 mpg (about 4 km/l) seems to be not a problem (gas is still much cheaper in Manila); and why a 6,000 square foot home (about 600 sqm) seems to be a standard among middle class families. And they marvel at the squad of 'kasambahays'; and how our teenage kids are polite and do not back talk despite being pampered by their yayas--even if they can't call 911 to complain about corporal punishment.

 

Next week I have another batch of relatives coming in. Doctors. They have to do their annual medical mission to the country ostensibly to dispense free medical advice and meds. But I know better. Its a tax shelter. They get to claim back their expenses by several magnitudes enough so that the cost of their entire trip is 'washed' by the reduction in tax they pay their IRS. I'm not letting on that I know. Let them feel like the returning benevolent lost relatives back from the crusades.

 

And when they finally return to their daily stateside grind, I will sit back, enjoy the sunset from my porch sipping a freshly brewed cup of UCC's Blue Mountain No. 1.

 

Masarap pa rin sa 'pinas.

i was so disgusted with this comment i had to say something. i wonder if your relatives know what a pompous, pretentious ass you are. tax shelter or not, they chose to do their medical mission here. i'm sure there are hundreds of other ways to shelter their income where they live. i'm just appalled at how you flaunt your decadent lifestyle while at least 40% of the country is below the poverty level... "masarap pa rin sa 'pinas." make you feel like a big boy doesn't it. as for doing their own chores, a great majority of us here do it ourselves anyway. i do. no shame in that. and far as penny pinching, did i mention 40%... nevermind, at least they have pennies to pinch. i've had my share of balikbayans who complain to no end, it's like nails on chalkboard, until one of them told me that the reason why think that way is because they've seen what other countries have done and they know it just doesn't HAVE to be the way it is here. don't get me wrong, i'm not pro balikbayan, i'm just anti complacent. so what's worse? ever complaining balikbayans? locals who treat balikbayans like banks? i'll take either one with open arms. just keep the self-possessed, smug, unconcerned, complacent affluent locked up in their gated communities sipping their freshly brewed cup of UCC's Blue Mountain No. 1

Good for her, a used car is nothing compared to a new one...

hmmmm... but then your "new car" is someone else's "used car"

sheesh! everyone calm down, i guess this was a hot one for some of us, hence the misery this world is going through. i, for one, think this is an excellent topic. over the centuries science and religion has been seen as two warring camps, but this has been promulgated by people who are intolerant of ideas other than theirs. our belief system has to evolve (don't mean to offend creationist, but i cant think of a more appropriate word) just as society has. i do believe that the bible has a lot to teach us but i dont believe it should be taken in the most literal sense. i believe science has made great advances but i dont believe it is the alpha and the omega of life. i believe in a being, an entity, a maker if you will, who is greater than me and at the same time synomous with the .... how do i describe it.... proponderant of myself. i truly believe that i am not my body emotions and thought... those are not me but they are mine to protect, to nourish and to control. and both science and religion has made invaluable contributions to help me do that.