I was talking to a friend of mine over coffee regarding one of the american companies here who was laying off people . The company started out strong this year hiring people here and there with huge salaries practically driving a huge salary hike for the entire software industry. Now,t hey were laying off people , but according to some rumors was giving out hefty packages in return.
My friend and I then thought, its still a good deal, yes you did lose your job and got escorted of the building , but for serving a few months majority of which was spent in training then get like 6 figure seperation packages, not bad I would say. But what we agreed on was that the really good part of the deal is that these guys are filipino. I think for being one of the friendliest bunch of people to the point of being exploited , one of the good things we get out of it is that we are practically welcome everywhere. The prevalent spirit of pakikisama is working for us in these hard times.
Well lets take the guys who got laid off for example, they have really big salaries that cant be handled by other companies plus there is a hiring slowdown in the local IT industries, so the alternative is join the everpopular work abroad route. We look now into the usual suspects for places of work, the US and Singapore. But these countries are now in recession, they cant accomodate people there , they have problems of their own. Holdon, look into the past, the 80s!, the middle east!... until now there almost a million of us there and Dubai is still looking for tons of people . We can still go there. What am I getting at and what does being filipino have to do about going to Dubai? Well they dont hate filipinos in the middle east, but from what you see in the news there are some negative feelings for westeners. Not all races have the welcome mat open to them as we do. We go to the Saudi, you get a guy named Habib saying "Hey My friend, you filipino? adobo masarap!" , we are welcome there. If we go to other developing countries like vietnam, thailand , malaysia we even look like the locals there, Pinoy Telenovelas are a hit in the provinces of malaysia. In some areas however I dont think they like the chinese a lot ,like the ethnic cleansing in malaysia and indonesia that happened a few decades ago, but for us we're cool there , there aint no hatin us homeboys . Some of my old colleagues even are assigned to eastern european countries , one of them last I heard is in that place where Borat came from,, Kazahkstan. He didnt have a problem blending in, I guess its probably because we kinda look like central asians. On a side note a friend of mine who went to ireland told me pinoys there are a hit because of their exotic looks. PINOYS , wether handsome or not ! finally! we guys can reap the benefits that usually the filipinas only enjoy with the white dudes. And Ireland is another place thats slowly emerging , I think its either dublin or belfast whose slowly becoming an IT hub. I havent heard that Japan had been harshly hit by the financial crisis, so thats another place where we could go and are surely welcome, 10 years from now we will probably have more than a few hundred thousand half japanese half filipino children . We dont hate the jews, if someone asks me if I like the jews Ill tell them only if its dalandan or orange, sometimes apple is ok but it gives me gas. Israels another place to go but I dont think theres much IT work there. What Im driving at is that although we have negative effects of our culture , like not being to straight forward, manana habit, bahala na attitude etc etc, there are some good things we still get out of for being a race with a fleasing fersonality. I havent heard of any foreign group from my several travels abroad who ever made general comments about our culture, like being too abrasive,or too boastful, superiority complex, dodgy about money matters, or anything that would wanna make them avoid dealing with us. Worst I've heard is that were too bashful or too indirect which in some cultures is a good thing like Japan. But my favorite comment about us, my all time favorite ... is that We're always laughing. An american asked me where was I from , I told him from the Philippines and he said, "Oh filipinos, always in groups with your picnic baskets, adobo, sinigang and are always laughing" I think the only race that doesnt like us are.. from my opinion, probably those filipinos abroad whom we get to read on articles and stuff who hates the Idea why they were ever born brown. Para sa mga ganon..dapat hindi na pinapakain ng sinigang at adobo. BAWAL dapat.
My opinion lang.
Super thanks from singapores best Leny C. for giving the photo she took in the supermarket.. see you soon lensky ! (http://lenycruzado.multiply.com)
