What Will It Take, To Get The Pi Govt To Appreciate Expats

[Mr Lee]

What will it take, to get the PI govt to appreciate expats and all the money they bring into the country and spend?Sorry, but I keep wondering what the Philippines would be like if all the foreigners who are married to Filipina's or living with Philippine gf's decided to move back to where they came from or another country?And to take it one step farther, what would happen to the Philippines if all the men who are married to Philippine ladies decided to cut off the money they send to their wives families? Now I surely do not wish to insult the average Filipino because I love the Philippines and the Filipino people, but wouldn't it be nice if the govt actually appreciated expats? and wouldn't it be nice if the govt made life easier for expats. How could we get them to appreciate us more? What can we do to be noticed in a positive light?

[Mr Lee]

One of my ideas along this line is, so many of us have retired from jobs back in our own respective countries and maybe we could set up some type of unofficial expat consulting group, that could give advice to businesses or govt agencies to help them make more money and to become more efficient...... One thing comes to mind right off, I have met a number of retired postal workers, what if they got together and offered free advice and ideas to the postal service on improving efficiency in the post office.I do not know if they have post office boxes available all over, and even if they do, they could make money by having some installed in convenient locations and that would also save them work and time for men and women going out on their routes. I think a post office in the mall would be great and it would probably be totally supported just by the box rents of expats. :1 (103): I am sure many of you could come up with other ideas on how to improve things and of course we would have to be careful how we suggest things and make them just that, suggestions and not, this is how we did it in the ____, because the Philippines is their country and we can only suggest things and not try to force our ideas on them. :th_exactly: Another example is that many of us have connections that we take for granted, what if we could be a facilitator and put those connections together with companies in the Philippines that really need it.Anyone have any other ideas or thoughts on this????

[twostrokes]

First I don't think the gov't gives a squat about expats. When you think of the billions of dollars that the wealthy familys have and make, they are the ones that count. They controll the gov't to protect their money. They allow the gov't to remain crooked because for every dollar a gov't official takes through graft and corruption, the rich make five in the same scam. Immigrations is the most profitable gov't office there is. That is the money they can squeeze out of visas and visa extentions. Great racket. And, it looks good on paper for the gov't. As far as helping.....well the postal system initally was modeled after the USPS....i'm sure it worked pretty well in the late 40's and early 50's. It was still fair in the middle 60's. But like everything else in the PI. The gov't took most of the funding, pay their employees nothing and force them to steal from the system to get by. Having a postal route is sort of like a franchaise, you buy one, don't worry about the pay, it is what you can get from the mail that counts. The gov't turns a blind eye. They know half of what is shipped package wise, never makes it. Ask how many people in gov't would ship a package with a few hundred dolllars worth of stuff in it through the local mail to their home in the province....Bet none of them would take you up on it.As far as how they run a business, hmmmm poor quality, deception, high prices, poor service, invalid warranty, buyer beware....sounds like they have it down pat, just like the rest of the world is doing now. I think when you are talking about helping the businesses, you are looking at it from a customer satisfaction standpoint and if you improve that, you improve business or profit. But, that probably isn't true because if no one is supplying those things, they are not necessary, so do without them and save money...translates to more profit...I really don't think there is hope for the Philippines in getting better....I think the rest of the world is learning to do business their way..it is more profitable in the long run. We live in a throwaway society....they are more proficient at it. Many things you can throw away before even getting home as you discover it doesn't work right out the gate.My new way of dealing with it is accepting the idea that I don't need any of that junk....It is amazing how few things I need now compared to the things I thought I needed at 25. As far as gov't appreciating expats.....my opinion is I don't think ANY FILIPINO appreciates foreigners in their country. If they can find a personal benefit, then they will be civil, otherwise, they would just as soon have us stay out of their business and country. Actually I think that is true about most countries....not just the Philippines.Jim

[Terp]

What will it take, to get the PI govt to appreciate expats and all the money they bring into the country and spend?

The expat community is so small in this country and the money we spend is only a small drop in the bucket compared to the big picture so I would recommend that you don't hold your breath waiting for that appreciation.

[Old55]

The Philippine Government could care less about expats living in THEIR country. At best they tolerate us, and why not? it is their country for better or worse. :th_thimage_265775: If you consider the huge inferiority complex and arrogance of some Filipinos in power they are likely to take offence at any Foreigner pointing out failings in their system. For example if you were to publicly suggest a simple effective improvement to the postal service those who run it would lose face and you would be persona non grata for sure.As far as the most corrupt

[Jollygoodfellow]

One of my ideas along this line is, so many of us have retired from jobs back in our own respective countries and maybe we could set up some type of unofficial expat consulting group, that could give advice to businesses or govt agencies to help them make more money and to become more efficient...... One thing comes to mind right off, I have met a number of retired postal workers, what if they got together and offered free advice and ideas to the postal service on improving efficiency in the post office.I do not know if they have post office boxes available all over, and even if they do, they could make money by having some installed in convenient locations and that would also save them work and time for men and women going out on their routes. I think a post office in the mall would be great and it would probably be totally supported just by the box rents of expats. :thumbsup: I am sure many of you could come up with other ideas on how to improve things and of course we would have to be careful how we suggest things and make them just that, suggestions and not, this is how we did it in the ____, because the Philippines is their country and we can only suggest things and not try to force our ideas on them. :rolleyes: Another example is that many of us have connections that we take for granted, what if we could be a facilitator and put those connections together with companies in the Philippines that really need it.Anyone have any other ideas or thoughts on this????

I think the only time the Philippine government want advice is when they ask for it,example an Australian agriculture team was sent to help sort out this out break of disease in the pigs just recently.Consulting groups probably would only work for other expats with business already there.I think we all have our way of doing things and each country has their own. :th_thimage_265775: