First World Philippines

[frosty (chris)]

 By many of the negative comments in this thread, I was starting to feel like that was where I was.

 

JGF started the post asking for opinions, I gave mine and maybe it's not what you agree with and that's up to you. I don't think it was negative it was just what I think, there are many many other posts from members that have been here a lot longer than I have and we all seem to agree to some extent on what the major problems are. If the PI wants to be a 1st world country it best start doing something very very quickly or we will still be having this discussion in another 10 years, JMHO.

Edited March 11, 2015 by frosty (chris)

[i am bob]

I apologize if I sounded like I was dissing your post... Not my intent at all! I like what you wrote but sometimes i can't get the Like button to activate when I'm using my phone... What I wanted to do was see if I could get anybody to post a positive comment - with or without a negative attached! There is a lot going on to improve this country but it doesn't get the coverage here once we start with negative comments... It is human nature to follow a negative report with another negative report and then another... Even if we had intentions of reporting something good, we revert to the negative. There's even a nice long medical term for it that psychologists use but I'm too tired to try and spell it right now. Anyway, back to what I was saying, there are a lot of positives out there - new businesses starting, over a dozen new BPOs slated for this year to open, possible changes to be presented regarding foreign ownership of businesses under/over a certain size, and much, much more! Corrupt government? How many are now before the senate and/or courts? Farmers are slated for a large infusion of cash to get the farms back up and operating at higher capacity! These are all positives that are going to immensely affect the future of the Philippines! But we were getting stuck and couldn't get past the negatives..

[scott h]

If you can live the Filipino way, there might not be a problem

 

Great point Ironmaiden,,,but think of this,,,if you are force to live on fish heads and rice in the Philippines,,,what standard would you have in the country of orgin???? :no:

[Dave Hounddriver]

Over the course of many years I have noticed the Philippines progressing, and yet, every couple of years I go back to Canada and notice that country progressing at double the rate that the Philippines is progressing.  Anecdotal evidence to be sure but you would have a hard time convincing me that the Philippines can catch up to anybody at that rate.

[lonewolf]

after all this back and forth one thing I feel would help, let us agree to disagree on the facts and what needs to be done. but less agree on we all want more for our new family. maybe what we need to do is to help find a promising yong person and to use books and biographies of others who affected change. that's the only place to make change is in the young . moses kept the children of isreal in the desert for 40years was so the generation of slaves died off,and a new mind set entered the promised land. well we can if we try to help even oe intelligent young person to think and reason they could be a catalyst of change.

I believe we all want whats best for our adoptd home.

[stevewool]

Being a new, well sort of new person to the Philippines and only having visited the place a few times too, i cannot really comment on what it was like and what it may end up like,

But they way i see it at this moment is,

Its like me being a young un back in my early days of freedom  and growing up in England, you knew now different , everyone had the same and it was a good place to be as a kid,

Now i am a adult here in England life is very hard, working and just saving to try to find a better life, hopefully that life will be over in the Philippines, but to give me the better life over there i know i will need funds, not great riches but just enough to be happy , safe and just enjoying myself doing what i feel i would like to do,

I know these things can happen in England too, but the only difference will be , i will be poor here,

So its my own choice to move somewhere where i will try to blend in with the locals and just get by

[Gerald Glatt]

For some the glass is half empty, for others it is half full.

Anyone ever think to get a smaller glass.

 

 

Someone mentioned that ten years ago the topic was 'Can I survive on $1000 per month?'

Now we are asking 'Can I survive on $2000 per month?'

How much more would it take to live in our home country?

 

​Folks are properly right that the infrastructure and red tape to set up enterprises are stifling the  economy, But it does seem to be stronger than many first world's in that the growth is way up, some might think that from bottom there is only up, to them I summit the middle east and Africa.

 

It is my hope that conditions improve at a manageable pace (@ least for the next decade or two) so I may enjoy the country and surrounding countries.  At 67 this is my second to last great adventure.  

[Methersgate]

Over the course of many years I have noticed the Philippines progressing, and yet, every couple of years I go back to Canada and notice that country progressing at double the rate that the Philippines is progressing.  Anecdotal evidence to be sure but you would have a hard time convincing me that the Philippines can catch up to anybody at that rate.

 

I think Dave sums up my feelings when I revisited the Philippines after several years away. My friends all pointed to the signs of progress, and I thought to myself - "Yes, there is progress, but it is so s..l..o..w compared to China or Vietnam."

[i am bob]

Over the course of many years I have noticed the Philippines progressing, and yet, every couple of years I go back to Canada and notice that country progressing at double the rate that the Philippines is progressing.  Anecdotal evidence to be sure but you would have a hard time convincing me that the Philippines can catch up to anybody at that rate.

Dave, I agree with you to an extent... But when we have several Canadian senators looking at jail time for outright fraud on their expense accounts, our Prime Minister and the supposed next PM battling it out over what Muslim women wear on their heads, unemployment figures which don't include the thousands who have given to on trying to actively find work through the "official" channels, and a $ that has dropped in value by 25% in less than a year, are we in Canada any different than the Philippines?

[Midniterider]

 

Over the course of many years I have noticed the Philippines progressing, and yet, every couple of years I go back to Canada and notice that country progressing at double the rate that the Philippines is progressing.  Anecdotal evidence to be sure but you would have a hard time convincing me that the Philippines can catch up to anybody at that rate.

Dave, I agree with you to an extent... But when we have several Canadian senators looking at jail time for outright fraud on their expense accounts, our Prime Minister and the supposed next PM battling it out over what Muslim women wear on their heads, unemployment figures which don't include the thousands who have given to on trying to actively find work through the "official" channels, and a $ that has dropped in value by 25% in less than a year, are we in Canada any different than the Philippines?

 

Of course. You have universal health care, here there is none available (Philihealth is only 40% of inhospital care not clinic visits or labs) and never will be such an animal. Preventive medicine doesn't exist because people can't generally afford a visit so by now it's ingrained not to even participate in the system until it's been dragged out into a life or death situation. A simple UTI turning into septic shock was what a close family member got involved in just before I got here and hospitalization meant buying your own antibiotics or die in the corner. Widespread use of midwives due to lack of what we're accustomed to as simple OB-GYN care and little if any prenatal care, shamans instead of MDs, never going a dentist in their lives, etc. They drive everyone into various stages of asthma around them by claiming their burning garbage and yard clippings is an anti mosquito measure when they're really too lazy to put out the garbage for the weekly pick-up or "it helps the mango trees (does just the opposite, drying them up and driving the insects into your house), it goes on and on. The TB associated with the home cooking fires both in the barrios and the mountains is well documented.The longer you live here in Filipino neighborhoods the more you understand what it is like for them in their daily lives because you are equally affected. If you're in a gated type of place with actual rules or a condo then you wouldn't even know what I'm talking about. 

 Oh what else, as if that wasn't enough ? Oh yes I'd say that simple petty theft or even significant cash diversion for an expense account shies in the face of having politicians steal your and your children's futures for 30 years at the minimum. 

  Having half of your population either under- or unemployed is also quite different than a society where most if not all persons receive some time of temporary assistance in the form of unemployment assistance and "welfare". There are some cash grants available here and there from DSWD but at a paltry rate and no one is getting fat on those especially when you have 10 children under the old beliefs that these offspring would be obligated to take care of you in your old age. Now you can't even feed them properly and malnutrition is common. 

 Many of the economies that have their currency dropping in value are simply exporting more and so that is a mixed bag. There is nearly nothing TO export here except human labor more like slave labor when you see the fees taken by the agencies from their promised 400 PHP a month (a shop clerk here makes 300 a month so why leave to be abused in a foreign land ?). 

 I just don't understand how you can even begin to compare a Western developed nation that has made great strides in social structure with a developing one in Asia. It's not "apples and oranges" it's perhaps watermelon and pili nuts ?  

Edited March 12, 2015 by Midniterider