PITA -- Pain Tn The A$$
Ingrown -- grows into the flesh
Now, something that grows into the flesh and is a serious PITA isn't good in any way. Unless it's something that's just removed, then it's a good thing. However, the agony is not relpaced by joy -- rather it is eased by relief. And what better to do than to enjoy the feeling of relief while it lasts?
For more intellectually relevant discussion, I'm really bothered about how some people look at going to greener pastures a big deal. I've been reading Orlando De Quiros' column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and just today I read about his rants about people leaving for greener pastures.
He writes, and I quote:
"More than anything else, it's our willingness to accept whatever scraps of meat the world offers, or indeed fight for it like snarling dogs, that makes us the toilet cleaners of the world (pardon only the mixed metaphor). The joke between the Filipino and Chinoy graduate, as I keep saying, is not a joke at all. When they meet, Filipino graduates ask one another, "What work have you found?" Chinoy graduates ask one another, "What company have you formed?" That difference you'll find between us and the other Southeast Asian countries today. They too send their excess labor abroad, but they do not send their doctors and engineers wholesale with them. Lee's and Mahathir's and Thaksin's doctors and engineers do not ask themselves what work they can find in Australia and Canada, they ask themselves what hospitals and steel bridges they can build in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand."
Our willingness to accept whatever scaps of meat the world offers doesn't demean our being filipino (nor is there anything wrong about being a well paid toiled scrubber of the world). Tell me, putting your stomach, your family's stomach, and your future's stomach on the line, would you rather starve to death than "accept whatever scaps of meat the world offers"? The reality here in the Philippines is that there is no hope for those who invest in education, morality, and even yes -- values formation.
It's a reality here in the Philippines that you'd be looked at differently if you do what is right and abide by the rules. You'd be treated as an outsider if you do the right thing instead of what everybody else wants you to do. Here in the Philippines, the masses rule -- and since the masses don't care about the idea of a country run by competent people, nor the idea that education is just not for getting a job, then we are all doomed. This is the traditional crab mentailty at work.
People on top of the world here in the Philippines would want to do everything to stay on top -- not pay the right amount of taxes, buy pirated cd's, pay the politician to bend the rules, and pay his workers less than what they deserve. The Philippines is not a land of opportunities, it is a land of opportunists. This is the precise reason why the people on top wouldn't want to go anywhere else where they would have to follow the rules and br just like everyone else. This is also the precise reason why people in the Philippines wouldn't do better by staying here.
If you do the math, for every one idealistic person in the Philippines, there are at least 99 others who would oppose that idealistic person just because he's aiming for the right thing. Just because a person follows his ideals, his dreams, his vision, a healthy dose of ambition, and his common sense all of a sudden a person who wants to make money somehwere else by doing something (regardless of what it is) legally and truthfully makes him "a toilet scrubber of the world" not worth praising.
So what if the person actually scrubs bathrooms halfway around the world? Would you be paid the same amount of money if you did that here? Would you recieve social security benefits if you did that here? Would you be able to pay the rent of the cheapest apartments in Manila? Would you be able to feed you children and offer them a brighter future in this same dung hole we call the Philippines if you stayed here scrubbing toilets? Why then would a person scrubbing toilets somewhere else in the world who earns more there than being a doctor here stay in this dung hole of a country?
The answer is pride -- and along with it, hypocrisy. Only the rich want to stay here, and only the poor who have no choice would want to leave (unless of course they couldn't care less about themselves or other people). Not for the sake of the heroes or the country, but because they could afford to or because they couldn't leave.
Of course, it's not a secret that I want to leave the Philippines -- but I believe that I can be a better Filipino someplace else other than the Philippines. No thanks to people who have a sense of pride on something that shouldn't be proud about. How about you, are you a proud Filipino in the Philippines? I know I'm not proud to be in the Philippines now, because frankly I see nothing to be proud about.
Chill...
Ingrown -- grows into the flesh
Now, something that grows into the flesh and is a serious PITA isn't good in any way. Unless it's something that's just removed, then it's a good thing. However, the agony is not relpaced by joy -- rather it is eased by relief. And what better to do than to enjoy the feeling of relief while it lasts?
For more intellectually relevant discussion, I'm really bothered about how some people look at going to greener pastures a big deal. I've been reading Orlando De Quiros' column at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and just today I read about his rants about people leaving for greener pastures.
He writes, and I quote:
"More than anything else, it's our willingness to accept whatever scraps of meat the world offers, or indeed fight for it like snarling dogs, that makes us the toilet cleaners of the world (pardon only the mixed metaphor). The joke between the Filipino and Chinoy graduate, as I keep saying, is not a joke at all. When they meet, Filipino graduates ask one another, "What work have you found?" Chinoy graduates ask one another, "What company have you formed?" That difference you'll find between us and the other Southeast Asian countries today. They too send their excess labor abroad, but they do not send their doctors and engineers wholesale with them. Lee's and Mahathir's and Thaksin's doctors and engineers do not ask themselves what work they can find in Australia and Canada, they ask themselves what hospitals and steel bridges they can build in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand."
Our willingness to accept whatever scaps of meat the world offers doesn't demean our being filipino (nor is there anything wrong about being a well paid toiled scrubber of the world). Tell me, putting your stomach, your family's stomach, and your future's stomach on the line, would you rather starve to death than "accept whatever scaps of meat the world offers"? The reality here in the Philippines is that there is no hope for those who invest in education, morality, and even yes -- values formation.
It's a reality here in the Philippines that you'd be looked at differently if you do what is right and abide by the rules. You'd be treated as an outsider if you do the right thing instead of what everybody else wants you to do. Here in the Philippines, the masses rule -- and since the masses don't care about the idea of a country run by competent people, nor the idea that education is just not for getting a job, then we are all doomed. This is the traditional crab mentailty at work.
People on top of the world here in the Philippines would want to do everything to stay on top -- not pay the right amount of taxes, buy pirated cd's, pay the politician to bend the rules, and pay his workers less than what they deserve. The Philippines is not a land of opportunities, it is a land of opportunists. This is the precise reason why the people on top wouldn't want to go anywhere else where they would have to follow the rules and br just like everyone else. This is also the precise reason why people in the Philippines wouldn't do better by staying here.
If you do the math, for every one idealistic person in the Philippines, there are at least 99 others who would oppose that idealistic person just because he's aiming for the right thing. Just because a person follows his ideals, his dreams, his vision, a healthy dose of ambition, and his common sense all of a sudden a person who wants to make money somehwere else by doing something (regardless of what it is) legally and truthfully makes him "a toilet scrubber of the world" not worth praising.
So what if the person actually scrubs bathrooms halfway around the world? Would you be paid the same amount of money if you did that here? Would you recieve social security benefits if you did that here? Would you be able to pay the rent of the cheapest apartments in Manila? Would you be able to feed you children and offer them a brighter future in this same dung hole we call the Philippines if you stayed here scrubbing toilets? Why then would a person scrubbing toilets somewhere else in the world who earns more there than being a doctor here stay in this dung hole of a country?
The answer is pride -- and along with it, hypocrisy. Only the rich want to stay here, and only the poor who have no choice would want to leave (unless of course they couldn't care less about themselves or other people). Not for the sake of the heroes or the country, but because they could afford to or because they couldn't leave.
Of course, it's not a secret that I want to leave the Philippines -- but I believe that I can be a better Filipino someplace else other than the Philippines. No thanks to people who have a sense of pride on something that shouldn't be proud about. How about you, are you a proud Filipino in the Philippines? I know I'm not proud to be in the Philippines now, because frankly I see nothing to be proud about.
Chill...
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