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[Madam H]

The way to move forward, for most people who have had success in life, in their careers and in business, is always to ask the question HOW, and not WHY...

And so with this thread, I'd like to start conversations on how, in our little ways, we could help our country, the Philippines, become "rich".

Being "rich", of course, has different meanings for different people. But for the main purpose of this thread, let's limit ourselves to financial, economic wealth.

And so, papaano natin matutulungang maging masagana ang Pilipinas? In english, "How do we help the Philippines become wealthy?"

[Madam H]

For me, I think it helps if our colleagues from other countries, and of course, from our host country rin, develop a certain degree of respect and camaraderie with us. Kasi siyempre, pag naging kagalit nila tayo, they will have a negative impression of our people din. Kahit sabihin pa nating huwag naman nilang lahatin o igeneralize ang mga Pilipino, it will still have an impact on whether they will be interested to know more about us or not.

Hindi naman ibig sabihin nito e you will force yourself to be overly cordial or patronizing of others to promote the Filipinos. 

Ngayon, pag naisaisip na nila na "Ay, mukhang ok naman ang mga Filipinos, punta kaya ako ng Pilipinas?"

A lot of our farang colleagues are looking for new horizons to explore and new cultures to experience. When they go to our country, huwag na nating isiping sa gobyerno lang pupunta ang pera at hindi naman tayo makikinabang doon. I'd much rather think about yung sasakyan niyang pedicab o jeepney, yung tourist guide na iha-hire niya kunyari sa Bohol, o yun na lang waitress sa karinderya kung saan ang farang colleague ko ay kakain... I would rather be glad that those people are able to gain some revenue form my farang colleague's trip to my country.

Perhaps, one of the problems we have in the Philippines kung bakit tayo "developing" pa rin, ay dahil we fail to look at the grassroots and work from there. We (me included)often talk about our government and the rich and the monopolozing family-owned companies in our country .

Perhaps it's time we really look at the average Filipino and then do our little effort there. I definitely would like to forget about the politics and what goes on in the national level. Observing what makes the Thais very productive, I would say, one very obvious thing is, may trabaho ang average na mamamayan at buhay ang local tourism kaya malaki ang nagiging profit ng small businesses.

Prime example na lang ang Loy Krathong kagabi. Their were navy boats, majestically decorated, parading in the river...may something special for the locals and the farang tourists to see. So restaurants, hotels, food vendors earn a lot from the throngs of people who come out to see the spectacular boats parade. Taxis were on demand as people flocked to every waterhole, it seems, in the kingdom.

Kaya, maging ambassador na lang tayo para sa Pilipinas sa mga katrabaho natin, at maghanap ng magagandang events o places for them to see and experience. Napractice na natin ang ating nationalism, natulungan ang ordinaryong mamamayan sa Pilipinas, at meron pa tayong napaligayang katrabaho.

Magandang hapon po, Siam Pinoy!

[blubinginone]

I really don’t expect that the Philippines will become wealthy until God intervenes.

We need a total overhauling in the system and the hearts of all the Philippine people.

Maybe, what we can temporarily do is to excel in our fields.  The world is becoming competitive.  10-20 years from now our advantage will surely become minimal as other races are becoming aggressive.  Almost all countries are plagued by economic uncertainties and they will surely create a defense for themselves.  Philippines still have this unique characteristic: working best under pressure. We can continually tap this trait and seal it with strength.  Our skills have really evolved somewhere in the minds of others. We might not know them, but these skills are hard to break, plus they are hard to be copied - because they are in our veins, existing unmindfully. Convert this thought into mindset, our charts will surely soar high.

But wait, it is also important to say that, for me, basic peace is not attainable between us when it comes to competition at work.  That is a common trait as well.  One usually stoops to disregard the concern for our fellowmen when one gets hurt by the competition.  And when the other party is blown so hard, fights ensue…survival of the fittest.  I am sorry I really don’t know how to patiently deal with that. Me?  When I am hurt, I fight.  I always like to survive. 

This is my piece; and although I don’t straightforwardly know whether this will suffice to help the Philippines become wealthy, I believe it can be counted.

[Madam H]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, BB1! It's great to hear other people's perspective on these things...

[Madam H]

bumping

[buddhist punk]

Meron po akong mga suhestion sa How women can end up rich thread. But specifically about the Philippines, eto po ~

- Maraming nagsasabing we are a rich country pretending to be poor. Which is true, but the wealth is not spread around equitably giving the impression that a good number of people do not know how to or cannot access the wealth.
- The strategy to adopt, then would be to know how to dip into that rich, economic pool.
- Sabi ng mga experts na dapat mas maging entrepreneurial tayo kesa consumer lamang. Maging business-minded tayo. Magsimula po daw tayo sa home based industries; pagkain daw ang pinaka mabenta
- Sabi din po ng mga experts ay dapat mas maraming pumasok sa manufacturing industry. yung mga pabrika. this will create more jobs.
- Sa mga ordinary workers na walang business talent at empleyado lang, it's possible to save money no matter how small the salary. Ito ay para sa ating pension pag retire natin.

[Madam H]

Thanks for the contribution, Beeps!

It reminds me of another thread here in SP about vocational schools, and the fact that many Pinoys are college grads, pero hindi nagagamit ang degree dahil walang trabaho afterwards. Sa atin nga kasi, generally, society doesn't necessarily see a vocational degree as something worth having. Pag hindi college graduate, parang hindi buo ang isang tao, which I think is a big mistake.

I can still remember that years back, when you go back home to the provinces, nakadisplay sa LABAS ng bahay ang mga diploma ng mga naninirahan sa bahay na yun! Engineers, teachers, nurses, accountancyy and commerce grads...yan ang mga pinaka-common na mga degrees na hinahabol ng mga Pinoy (usually mga parents, dahil sila ang nagdedecide kung ano'ng course ang kukunin ni Junior o ni Ineng.

Kaya tuloy, hindi napu-fulfill ng mga young Pinoys and dream jobs or dream lives nila. Dahil hindi interesado sa kursong pinili ng mga magulang, walang sense of purpose and mga estudyante. Dahil hindi naman nila goal ang gumradweyt ng engineering, ng nursing, o ng kung anu-ano pa, tuloy nagbubulakbol instead na mag-aral.

I think it's Ms Demi Noor who mentioned about our educational system being the culprit kung bakit maraming problema ang Pilipinas at ang Pilipino. Kung sana ay sa High School, meron tayong mga subjects on decision making, making career choices, goal setting, and the likes, then our young people will be better prepared and better able to make choices about their career path.

But what happens is, most of the time, our young people graduate from high school not knowing what they really want. Kahit ako, when I graduated with a degree in nursing, my only next step was to go  abroad. When that didn't happen right away, I frankly did not know what to do.

Yes, maybe we could say it's up to the parents. But how can the parents make the right choices when they themselves also need to be educated about not forcing their children to take the courses, which most of the time, they wanted to take during their time?

[buddhist punk]

good point, madam H and MDN.

beyond our educational system, the other culprits are:

- so called acceptable standards of polite society: "you must be a professional for me to see you as an equal"; ang tindero ng taho ay tindero ng taho at hindi tao; ang maid ay nandyan parang alipin ng kanyang amo: pinagtatawanan, inaabuso

- mga namana natin sa Espana: a virual caste system; see above

- "democracy" is not for Filipinos; the whole political system imported from western countries has been bastardized; we need a "benign dictator" like Lee Kwan Yew who will lead us out of our political and financial rut

- the oligarchs and businessmen; I don't hate them, i just find them arrogant, condescending, and manipulative....okay, so I hate them a little.

- us...i've said this before, our love of good time is/going to be our downfall; yung mga wala na nga pera, bibili ng yosi o tataya sa lotto; kelangan ng bertday party ni Ineng, hihiram ng pera

- our sexual hang ups: NO TO contraception, condom use or family planning; conservative kuno tayo pero promiscuous din pala ayun STD! so now we need more money to improve a health problem that is preventable in the first place

[Madam H]

I went to a semi-exclusive school run by Catholic nuns when I was in high school. It was during my time when the school started to take in boys, but only those who went to the elementary section of that very same school, none from the outside. So in my classroom, there were just 5 boys and there were more than 20 girls.

I had girl classmates who had crushes on girls in other grades, even crushes on pur female teachers!!! Of course, we didn't have a Health course, which should have included Teen issues like changes that happen during puberty, Teen sex, contraception, etc.

Most parents who send their children to private Catholic schools believe their kids will grow up with good values, good English, good behavior. in short, "good people". But probably, what our young people need right now is not to become book smart, but rather, to be street smart. They need life skills to help them succeed in the real world.

I remember, many of my classmates were bitches (pardon the word). And it's simply because they were good speakers of English, they were very good writers, readers, they got good grades, and of course, they felt they were above everybody else who didn't go to exclusive schools.

Later in College, I went to a public school. And I noticed, those who went to public schools were more confident, complained less, and were more fun and real.

I, of course, don't know anymore how things are like now back home. But choosing a school for young people in our family is important. Back home, I would veer away from schools with very conservative and traditional programs of study. here in tahiland, however, it would be quite the opposite. Because we live in a country with a very different religious surrounding, then perhaps, going for a program with more Christian input would be the wiser option.

In the future, these young people we care for today, could very well either help or worsen our country's status right now. I do hope that one of these young people does become the Lee Kuan Yew we badly needed to turn our arse around!