This week I have been showing around a few guys who are thinking of a move to Dumaguete and the inevitable question arose as to whether most people are happy with the City and the Philippines in general. I had to say that I am and as for other people , these were my observations Happiness as an expat in the Philippines
From the article: Absolutely agree with this. Some people are not happy unless they are miserable.....and misery loves company. Not from the article but a little story that I've heard elsewhere: There are things that I dislike about the Philippines but I've come to find that you just have accept it and move on to be happy. I b*tch about the problems quite a bit here but in real life I just accept that it's a fact of life and an inevitable part of their culture. I usually send the gf out to deal with the parts of the culture I just can't handle. It's the only way to stay sane.
Lived in Baguio a year and a half and loved the kids at the market who would carry your purchases. They would have larger bags to sell for 5p and was a fun way to "give" them some money or food. Seems most homeless kids are boys and and help out with parking and begging, the market helper would be a nice addition.
Thanks, Gord, for sharing your insights. I agree with you completely that happiness here for expats is determined by our attitudes that we bring with us, not by external forces. I do, however, have to disagree that there are only two types of expats, "those that are happy, and those that are miserable." Most of the expats I've met in my seven years of living here fit somewhere in between those categories. I don't know anyone who is totally happy here or totally miserable. In between is a large continuum of us who are happy sometimes, and less than happy other times. If the happiness side of the spectrum weren't considerably stronger for me than the miserable side, I would most certainly leave the Philippines. But there are definitely things here that tend to get under one's skin - things that might lead one to have to register as less than happy, but certainly not miserable. Yes, attitude is important, but sometimes when I'm driving from Dauin to Dumaguete trying to dodge the kamikaze bikes, the wildly aggressive GT van drivers, the trikes that pull out onto the highway with no regard to oncoming traffic..., not to mention the vehicles with no lights or brights only those rare times when I dare drive at night, I find my happiness scale sliding somewhat south. I looked a little further into your website, PhilX-Pat Corporation, and found it quite interesting. I did find a few things there at a glance that I would question. For example, in your section Investment and Business Opportunities, you state, "As a country breaking free of its third world status and about to become the next “Asian Tiger” , The Philippines is ideally placed for explosive growth. With a well educated , English speaking and cheap workforce unrivaled in South East Asia, and top notch communications infrastructure, the Philippines has all the necessary building blocks to further develop a booming Business Process Outsourcing industry." Gosh, is the Philippines really breaking free from its third world status? Maybe so, but sometimes that's hard to see. As for top notch communications infrastructure, I'm not sure where you're coming from on that, but most expats I know, including some who run businesses dependent on fast, reliable internet, would wildly disagree with you on that point. I'd be interested in seeing what other forum members have to say about these and other points your raise.
Thanks for your well thought out and articulated comments. I do certainly agree that there is plenty of us that fluctuate in between and that even with the majority of us who do have good attitudes we are human and sometimes get frustrated at the things that are normal to get frustrated about. I myself for example have a beautiful, exotically attractive, intelligent wife who amazingly loves me. Sometimes I get so frustrated with her that I would pull out all my hair if I had any left to pull out. A normal human response I believe that I quickly get over when I look at the big picture and focus on how lucky I am to have her. That is the generality that I am trying to highlight in my article and not the ups and downs that each of us will experience throughout the day. As for those with a bad attitude, I have to say that it is my experience that usually they seem to have a bad attitude consistently. I run across some guys that day in , day out , 7 am or 7 pm , are just pissed off about everything. A perfect example of that person can be clearly seen on this and the many other forums I visit on a regular basis. There are some people that no matter what the topic becomes clearly have NOTHING positive to add. Everyday without fail , no matter the topic, they sit in front of their computer complaining about how bad everything is. In regards to my other websites and how I describe the Philippines within the business world, I don't think this is the proper forum to debate why I and others feel those views to be true, but I will respond briefly. The top notch infrastructure is there and developing quickly. I am not a techie so cannot explain the intricacies but certainly can introduce you to those that can. As a brief example which they certainly could explain in more detail, right here in Dumaguete we not only have top of the line fiber optic cable technology installed a few years back to read data and crunch numbers in the "BIG Bang experiments in Europe, but also a state of the art, cutting edge microwave system currently being installed by organizations such as Foundation University. Yes, us average users do not seem to benefit from that on an everyday basis yet, but the priority customers, like Teletech, SPI and Qualfom, beyond a doubt do. Yes it is hard to see the forest for the trees sometimes, but I and other businessmen, whom I might add are fare more smart and astute than me, do see it. That does not mean there are not a lot of obstacles in the way , but those hurdles are more related to things like foreign ownership laws, graft and corruption than the things you point out. Again, this certainly goes far off topic of the intended thread and if you have an honest desire to understand how I came to the statements you quoted from my other websites, look me up and I would love to sit down , have a coffee or something and chat. gord
