BORING AULD BAR STEWARDS

It's true that as a visitor you do see things in a somewhat different perspective,
( Rose colour glasses ) however having been married to a filipina 20 years and visiting the P.I. since 2000, I see changes that may well go unnoticed by living in one spot.
I have visited many of the islands enough to realise for the poor little changes.
I am aware as to what Dave has said also, regarding education standards in PH.
However necessity is the mother of invention and there is still lots to learn being here ( PH )
Informative postings about house building , projects under taken such as fish farming, vegetable and gardening in a sustainable way, these things are of great interest to those wanting to learn from more experience Expats and Locals.
But to be honest, I don't see much enthusiasm coming through from ( Auld Bar stewards )
a lot of the members. Perhaps I'm wrong to say that, maybe some people just want to live a quiet life and let the world go bye.

 

I would not call the Philippines the land of the stupid, sounds insulting. Granted the IQ in the
Philippines is in the 80's; however, that number represents half the people with an IQ that is lower than that and half the people with an IQ higher than that (the mean not the average). I would guess that those with the higher IQ would be close to the average of most western countries. Keeping in mind countries like Korea, Japan, Singapore and some other Asian countries have IQ's higher than western countries, it comes down to quality education and countries that can afford to pay for that. Philippines is obviously a very poor country and has not been able to put the necessary focus on education. Public education is poor at best but some private schools and universities provide an adequate education, for the few who can afford to attend. Slowly, improvements are being made. For example, 12 years of high school rather than 10, and computers in some schools. Hope is those here with the higher IQ's will assist in improving the economics and education in the Philippines so over time education will be much better than today.

 

Here are the rankings looked at from several different perspectives.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-iq-by-country

 

I believe diet also plays into this as a giant bowl of rice with a little piece of fish does not provide healthy nutrients for developing a healthy brain...

 

My objective when I started this thread was to get people talking hence the very title of it being quite insulting, thinking this may incite some people into posting.

If I had been a little more PC and suggested that Filipinos were academically challenged instead of just plain stupid, perhaps you may not have even bothered to post on it? so I'm sorry if my brutal honesty offends you or others on this site but if this gets us all talking together perhaps I have achieved my objective? I did notice one of our infrequent but well respected members decided to post on this thread.

As for myself I am quite thick skinned and not easily offended and would suggest this being a trait shared by most Scottish people, added to that we do tend to have a somewhat brutal sense of humour.
Before I had eye surgery I used to wear glasses now these had very thick lenses, there would be times when I was in a Scottish Pub and someone would say; My! you must have good eyesight to see through these thick lenses? My reply to this would be these are the new Ex-ray Specs developed for use by the military and with them I can see you have a very small Dick.

Sadly if you were to walk into a Scottish Pub today there will only be a few old diehards left much like going into a hospice, the fun is just not there anymore.

 

This is something I had heard from another Foreigner I know and perhaps pushed it to the back on my mind? however you have prompted me to do a little research into this and sure enough, lack of nutrients and protein to the developing brain has it malnourished and unable to attain its full potential.

I lived in a rental for a number of years and got to know my Filipino neighbours very well, a few of them worked for me to build the house, with my very own eyes I have seen them eating rice with only a little vegetable oil mixed with soy sauce drizzled over this for flavour and no added proteins at all. there was 22 persons in this family from a Grandparent to the Grandchildren all of them were Academically Challenged= Stupid, apart from one male who happened to be a Son in Law married into this family.

 

I am not sure whether the term "stupid" would be the best one to describe most of philipino people.
I would prefer to use uneducated, untutored, unaccomplished.

Almost every day I can see things going on in the Philippines when I can only shake my head and wondering how the f... is that possible, why they are doing that and so on. I assume everybody knows that as well.

On the other hand I experience a huge amount of creativity when it comes to problem solving. When I had workers at my place they always got a solution for everything. I experienced that as well when I talk to other expats. They had any problem, they called somebody and he fixed it.

Hence I wouldn´t say Philipinos are stupid in general. They got different skills than expats from the west. You cannot compare a guy from London, Glasgow, Munich or New York who got a high school or even university degree with a guy from a local community here in the Philippines who went maybe 2 years to school to practise singing, clapping and praying in a first place. But who is more fit for daily life in the Philippines ?

From my point fo view philipino people carrying a lot of potential with them. Unfortunately the education syste of the government is not supporting that at all. Hence nothinh will change cause the powerful fraction in the Philippines doesn´t want changes.

"You keep them poor - I keep them ignorant" said the pope to the president.

 

OH BOY, What opinions we have here Most of us here are Married to a Filipino. Do any of you call YOUR Spouse Stupid and or any other of the remarks made here to their face? I Doubt it very much I wonder how many of us would truly survive long without them by our side, They know things and can do things we can't

 

You are quite correct about Filipino women they are miles better and a world apart than most women from the western world who tend to be fire breathing dragons wanting to wear the trousers in the house.

For the most part the Pinay especially those from the working classes want to do the very best for their partners and the children, but the same cannot be said for the Pinoy, so many of them are on low wages but many of these low paid workers still want to gamble on the Cock Fighting, drink their Red Horse on a Sunday which often causes them to miss a shift on Mondays, added to that a high proportion of them smoke which I imagine uses up a days pay in the week, but still they will pat themselves on the back thinking they are good providers to their children as they have Rice three times a day, we have all heard that saying many times over, they do not have the sense to consider a growing child needs something better than just plain white Rice and for some that may be 95% of their diet?

 

You may well be right in a lot of cases but are we now Totally Off Topic