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X-Pats are no longer Seniors.

Discussion in 'Expat Section' started by grandpainak, Aug 30, 2017.

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  1. grandpainak

    grandpainak DI Forum Patron Showcase Reviewer

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    I stopped in at Mercury Drugs this morning to get a prescription filled. I picked a priority number from the senior's line. With in a minute an employee gave me a number from the regulator line. Than she told me that I was not a senior citizen. She explained that I was a foreigner, not a citizen and therefor had to get in line with the rest of the crowd. Here is my take on this; I look like a teenager, My bad knees miraculously healed themselves, the diabetic swelling in my legs suddenly disappeared and my chronic coronary heart decease no longer is a problem. I'm wondering if KFC, Jolly Bee, Robertson's Market, Hipper Mart and all other retailers in the PI are going to close down their SENIOR's line to SENIOR X-PAT's? Mercury Drugs just got put on my DO NOT SHOP list! There sign also includes PWD (Persons With Disabilities)! I sure as hell qualify for that. I have seen other similar signs that include pregnant women. If I were a pregnant woman, on vacation would Mercury Drugs, not let me use that priority line because I was a foreigner? My Filipina wife will be a SENIOR soon. If she gets in the priority line, once she becomes a SENIOR, is Mercury Drugs going to turn her away, BECAUSE she is an American? Do not take this as something related to the senior's discount card because it is not. It's about this old disabled X-Pat, on old wore out legs having to stand in line behind a half dozen teenagers.
    "This is nothing more than age discrimination by Mercury Drugs in their "priority line policy.""

    Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
    Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms include old people (worldwide usage), seniors (American usage), senior citizens (British and American usage), older adults (in the social sciences[1]), the elderly, and elders (in many cultures—including the cultures of aboriginal people).

    Old people often have limited regenerative abilities and are more susceptible to disease, syndromes, and sickness than younger adults. The organic process of ageing is called senescence,[2] the medical study of the aging process is called gerontology,[3] and the study of diseases that afflict the elderly is called geriatrics.[4] The elderly also face other social issues around retirement, loneliness, and ageism.[5]


    Old age is a social construct rather than a definite biological stage, and the chronological age denoted as "old age" varies culturally and historically.[6]
     
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  2. Jack Peterson

    Jack Peterson DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Air Force

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    But Jim, she is so right, we DO NOT Qualify one way or the other
     
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  3. jimeve

    jimeve DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Veteran Army

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    I'm an Alien:blackalien:
     
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  4. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    cit·i·zen
    ˈsidizən,ˈsidisən/
    noun
    1. a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized.
    Senior you are, citizen you are not. :wink:
    Not if she is a Filipino citizen as well as a US citizen.

    This is probably the only argument you have for getting in that line.

    dis·crim·i·na·tion
    dəˌskriməˈnāSH(ə)n/
    noun
    noun: discrimination; plural noun: discriminations
    1. the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

    It is not discrimination. Forcing younger people to wait longer might be considered discrimination though. Being young or old is not something we choose to be. What you want is to be prioritized. Not saying the elderly don't deserve to be prioritized but saying it is discrimination because you don't get it is wrong. You are being treated exactly like everyone else (except those privileged Filipino senior citizens). That, sir, is not age discrimination. If anything they are discriminating against you based off of your nationality/race. :wink:
     
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  5. Dave_Hounddriver

    Dave_Hounddriver DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster

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  6. ex231

    ex231 DI Member

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    My wife's biggest fear about coming to the US was that she'd be treated here like I was there.
     
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  7. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

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    How did she feel after arriving in the US? I suspect she was treated with the utmost respect by nearly everyone she met?
     
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  8. ex231

    ex231 DI Member

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    I wouldn't go quite that far but she has not been disrespected either. Nor has she been discriminated against, over charged because she's a filipina or a target of xenophobes.
     
  9. Charlie

    Charlie DI Senior Member Restricted Account Veteran Coast Guard

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    And if she were a Senior in the U.S. she could use any Senior "discount" or "privilege" offered with no discrimination.
    Too bad the Philippines does not offer reciprocity, on this and many other things like owning land and on and on. This person at Mercury was to me just plain anti-foreigner, discriminatory, or just plain rude and ignorant not allow an obvious Senor to use the Senior line. I am allowed to use the Senior line at BPI, actually they were the ones suggested I use that line. That is good for their business and someone there is smart enough to realize that.
    Too bad our U.S. Ambassador doesn't step, in and fight for us.
    Perhaps an editorial to the Negros Chronicle and Metro Post might get some locals attention.
     
  10. redhorse

    redhorse DI Forum Adept

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    I believe that part of the problem is that, as opposed to the US, for example, where the whole definition of a"senior citizen" is really up to the discretion of individual merchants (for example, some offer a discount at age 55, some at 62, others at 65, etc.), in the Philippines it is defined in law: "Senior citizen or elderly refers to any resident citizen of the Philippines at least sixty (60) years old."
    R.A. No. 9994
    Of course that doesn't prevent an individual merchant from adopting more generous policies, but they often just defer to the definition in the law.
    BTW, in 2014 some Philippine lawmakers tried to expand the act to include foreigners, but I guess it didn't pass.
    Alien seniors should get discounts too
     
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