Best Posts in Thread: 3 out of 5 are idiots....what about the ratio in the Philippines?

There are different ways of looking at it. Found a blog post that hits on this topic and I mostly agree with:

When you always refer to yourself as a guest you aren't getting the full respect that you deserve. You can criticize the local culture so long as you do it respectfully, take their cultural norms into consideration when making that criticism, and make that criticism in the right "forum". But, that doesn't really have much to do with what and how things are discussed here on DI though.

DI was created by "foreigners" mainly to help "foreigners" adapt to living in Dumaguete and the Philippines and to voice their thoughts and opinions on the local culture. While we more than welcome locals to join and add their opinions/advice/questions/etc, they must remember the objective of this forum, who it was created by and who it is meant to cater to. In a way it is them that are guests on this website - and basically anywhere online - and the prominent culture here is internet culture, not Filipino culture. If they cannot handle criticism and have thin skin/sensitive egos then this website - and the vast majority of websites online - is probably not the place for them to be. This forum, just like 99.9% of the internet, does not reside in their country and does not have to abide by their cultural norms or country's laws. We discuss their cultural norms here, sure, but their culture simply does not apply.

 

Please note, I'm not in the Philippines nor is this website hosted there.

Also, the Philippine Constitution does protect the freedom of speech and there is nothing that says "except for foreigners" in there. Now I'm not saying that foreigners have unlimited freedom of speech in the Philippines, but we do have a right to criticize within reason...and especially when we are being directly insulted.

It is also worth noting that the president was elected by and represents the Filipino people. What he says is, in a way, representative of the Filipino people and their views. What he says, sadly, is a reflection on all Filipinos. If they don't like being seen as an sharing the views of an old senile man-child they should elect better leaders. (Yes, I realize that Trump is the US president and is not much better...but that is who a little less than half the US population wanted to represent them, so the same rule applies.)

Of course, this is just my opinion.

 

1 out of 1 current Philippines President is an idiot. Please cut all ties to the US already and STFU. I wonder who the next scapegoat will be?

I think freedom of speech should go both ways. You can't dish out criticism nonstop and then start crying when someone throws some back at ya.