Being Filipino

When I first arrived in the Philippines, I did not have a hard time getting around with my English and telling the taxi drivers where to go. I saw a lot of western style restaurants and shopping malls where one would feel at home, like you would in your own country. Filipinos really cater to your westernized needs and you would feel that Filipinos are very much westernized, as well.

But that is only skin-deep. Behind a Filipino is still a barrio person hidden. Many long to go back to their roots. A lot of the locals here live in housing not used to foreigners. Many work in areas where they serve the foreigners, speak like a foreigner, but their lifestyle is still very much Filipino.

Their cuisine is still of what mother cooked a generation ago, unlike the fast-food stuff many westerners eat. Bringing up their children is the Filipino way, unlike many do in the western societies.

Although, many foreigners feel a western side in the Philippines, it is only veneer thick.

Also, the local ways of doing business is different of what westerners are used to. Being a little late is polite, much bureaucracy in doing business is Filipino style, and you have other ones. The way certain things are done is also sometimes different as to what a foreigner would do.

All in all, at least they go half-way for us, to foreigners, to cater our needs, and it's very important to understand and accept their differences to live a harmonious existence with our fellow neighbours.

Jeepneys, too many to count

When you come to the Philippines, you will be acquainted with a vehicle, namely the Jeepney. It's a common public transportation for many locals to and from work, on a daily basis. These vehicles are very loud and heavy, and I assume, they consume a lot of petrol. Where we live in Manila, they have an abundance of stock of them on the road, and when you drive with your car, you surely need to avoid them, as most of the drivers of these workhorses just go left and right, stop and go anytime they want, so be careful if you ever have to drive around here. If you get a dent into your nice car, it will be painful, but for them, that is only a scratch beside the many dents and holes in their vehicle.

The first jeepneys were actually the army jeeps from World War II, numbering into the hundreds that were all over the country, but mainly in Metro Manila. After the war, the Americans left these jeeps behind and the locals had ideas to transform them into a jeepney of today. Some of these jeepneys are very well decorated. If you have ever seen several jeepneys, you will notice that no jeepney is exactly the same as another. Sometimes the design and decorations on the vehicle takes more time than building the jeepney.

Sometimes you see blinker lights inside the jeepney, so passengers can pull a string and the light comes on for the driver to stop.

People usually pay up their fare, but the driver has usually no idea if everyone has paid on a given moment. He is just hoping that everyone is honest. Sometimes, you see religious banners on their jeepneys stating "God knows that Judas did not pay".

You can also see by their flashy designs on their jeepneys that the Philippines had a Spanish era and an American era, when you see Elvis Presley and Virgin Mary painted on the side of their vehicle.

(Pictures: 1. Todays Public Utility Jeepney. 2. Private Jeepney. 3. Old WWII Jeep)

Maids in the Philippines

It's very common for locals and expatriate households to have a live-in maid, as it is very affordable for the middle class to have domestic help. A live-in maid makes on average P3,000 a month and P5,000 for a nanny. She will also be eating your food and you should budget for this in your grocery bill.

If your work life is hectic, a maid can make your life much easier. Household chores then become a thing of the past. You'll always have a clean shirt to wear, always have food on the table and the house will be clean. They also usually wash your car in the morning and clean the street in the evening or even in the morning (e.i. wiping the fallen leaves).

Maids will often become a part of the family. Some maids, particularly younger ones, may take advantage of you by making excessive use of your telephone, as many are still homesick.

A maid will be your advisor on local customs, pay your bills on time, wash your clothes, guard your house while your are away.

However, if you choose the wrong maid, she may steal from you. She may even let people into the house while you are away.

Maids are easy to find. You could try advertising in the local supermarket or use a local agent.

It is a very good idea to have them examined by a doctor. Typical tests will include parasites and a chest x-ray for tuberculosis and you will absorb the cost of the medical. It is advisable to repeat the test annually and it's best done when they return from their annual leave.

Picture: Maids at work in the morning in our neighbourhood.

Slums in Metro Manila

Almost 1 billion people live in slums worldwide and the highest number is in Asia. That is about 1 in 7 people. About 20 million people live in the slums in the Philippines alone, and 1/10 of them live in Metro Manila.

Most of these people who end up in slum areas were once village people (poor farmers) who sought better jobs in the city.

I've read something more in detail why it all happened.

The reasons why squatter settlements occur in the third world cities can be broken down into two main reasons:

Pull factors and Push factors.

"Pull factors" are the reasons why people are attracted to move TO a particular area, and "Push factors" are what make them go FROM where they are at the moment.

Push factors might include:

Farming is not invested in - without investment, people who live in rural areas (who mostly farm) cannot improve yields and so have little to eat/sell.

Extreme physical conditions such as aridity, mountains - these can make life difficult, from simple points as the daily weather to growing crops.

Overpopulation - too many people and not enough resources.

Mechanization causes a reduction in the number of jobs - this means people are forced to look elsewhere for jobs.

Pressure on the land.

Natural disasters kill crops, people and livestock - the more that is lost, the less people have.

Starvation - this could be caused by famine, and so people are forced to move to where there is a food supply.

Overgrazing - this causes soil erosion and loss of yields.

Local communities forced to move - war, famine, etc... can force people to go to safer places.

Lack of services (such as hospitals and schools) - people would want to find a better education and level of health care for themselves and their families.

Families do not own land - this means landowners can evict people whenever they want.

Pull factors might include:

Looking for better paid jobs - urban areas are larger and have more and a larger variety of paid work.

Better chance of putting children through school - urban areas hav schools.

Expect more comfortable housing - with services such as electricity and water available, this should improve quality of life.

Religious and political activities can be carried out more safely in cities.

Have a higher quality of life.

Attracted to the 'bright lights' of opportunity - urban areas are perceived as having greater chances for so many different reasons.

Better chance of access to services - a higher concentration of them in urban areas, should increase chances of access, as there are little (if any) in many rural areas.

More reliable food sources - instead of relying on growing own crops, buy it with wages instead.

No bureaucracy and zero property taxes.

Once these people get to the city, they realize that jobs are difficult to find and that they cannot afford housing, with the little money they brought with them, so they build their own homes on land that no one owns (or is owned by the government) called favelas. While the favelas have drug traffickers, most people who live in the favelas are honest people, and many have jobs that are not well paid but do provide some income for their families.

This is true in many third, second and sometimes first world countries. The problem is that people often 'give up' all they have in their home town in order to travel to the 'big city' to make their fortune. They arrive in the city with little money they have left runs out, and they are left with no means to travel back to their hometown (assuming they had something to go back to) and so they have to make the best of life in the big city i.e. no jobs, no income, no permanent/safe home. Usually the slums have a community, and these communities have a positive and negative side. Because people are sometimes desperate for money, they might turn to drug dealing, theft, prostitution, etc... on the other hand, many of these communities have their own 'welfare' systems. Charitable organizations often work in these communities providing food and water, health care, sanitation and sometimes education. in other words, even though people might not have any income, their lives can still be better than in their home towns.

Street People

In Metro Manila you see quite a few people living on and of the street, many of them just children. There is an estimated 1.5 million "street children" in the Philippines and 75,000 or so in Metro Manila alone. You also see adults living from the street selling a thing or two (cigarettes, candies, bottled water or newspapers), usually in the middle of the street, to jeepney drivers and motorists alike. They are mostly vendors. They bring their children/babies with them on their daily tasks.

Others, you see them begging, many of them are also children or just toddlers. They beg for a peso here and there, knocking on the windows of the cars. Usually, their parents are somewhere else and just collect at the end of the day the earned money that their children made begging, or does that really happen that they share their loot to them, if any of them have parents around?

This is a on-going problem in Metro Manila. These street dwellers could go to drop-in centers or the Department of Social Welfare at the place where they are, but many choose to live a lifestyle on the street. Many times, the problem lies in the people's attitudes towards life. Some of them are proud enough to look for other sources of income, while others take the easy way out and go begging.

One other reason why beggars (mendicants) are reluctant to leave their turf is the alms and free food they get from people. These simple acts of gesture encourage them to continue this way of life. Who needs work if you can earn a hundred pesos a day just from begging?

Many boys in the streets are without parents and many times these boys become addicted to drugs like sniffing glue or become a gang member later in life. Street girls usually get into early prostitution with tourists and locals to earn extra money.

Many of these children you see on the streets were sexually abused, physically maltreated, abandoned, neglected, victims of broken homes, and from families devastated by poverty.

At present, there are about 300 agencies of all kinds working with street children in the Philippines.

It's quite a problem, as this is part of society we live in in Metro Manila. Haven't seen any street children anywhere in the provinces, but I'm sure, you'll find them somewhere.

Metro Manila Skyway

Not much has happened today. We did a little bit of cleaning in the house and gardening.

For people living in Metro Manila and having a car, one must have gone on the South Luzon Highway and possible also on the Skyway. They seem to extend now the Skyway from Bicutan to Alabang, which is Phase 2. It should have been started in 2005 and finished in 2007, but with many delays, it only started sometime late last year. This construction will go on for a while, and I don't see it finished in 2 years' time.

We occasionally drive by there, and they have placed a few pillars already (the amount of steel and concrete that goes in these pillars is incredible), and the middle of the road is already been barricaded to Sucat interchange.

You can see the red lines as Phase 2 extension on the map (southern part) and Phase 3 will extend from Buendia to Balintawak interchange (connecting the North Luzon Highway). This is all overhead road where one never will encounter much traffic. They are trying to match the road infrastructure of Malaysia. In ten years' time, Manila will look a lot different with hopefully good traffic flow. They are toll roads and one must pay money for using these roads.

A non-driving day

Well, today was a quiet day. On Wednesdays, we can not drive due to the one day non-driving day here in Manila. Our license plate number ends with 6, so that is a Wednesday. Plates ending with 5 and 6 can not drive today.

So, I surfed the web a little and found a good blog from a U.S. gentleman married to a Filipina. He was born as a Jew, but is now an atheist of nature. Retired and lives in Eastwood City, Q.C. He rents a flat there. According to him, there are about 100 or so Jewish Filipinos in Metro Manila. They have an association somewhere.

Otherwise, I took a picture of the house across our street. The owner (which is a building contractor) renovates his house and will sell it after it is done. Above is a worker doing the concrete posts. He seems very experienced.