We expats are a motely, often disgruntled bunch. What do you miss most from home?

a hole/whole other topic!

 

oops, gonna blame my english skills and give myself a negative rep...

ok back to topic, just came back from the Dane and a friend of him brought almost 30 kg different cheese from Austria, the Dane makes his own bread.. so I would miss that stuff, if I would not have once in a while the options of real food...

 

i'll be up in The Danes neck of the woods shortly and i'll try and convince him to open a bakery here in Dumaguete selling his bread and cheese..... :-)

 

What i miss most in the Philippines is:
Discipline
----In administration - the one who has to sign is absent, can you come back tomorrow?
----In LTO - year after year after year those people who have to renew their licence in January have to wait until February to get the stickers.
----In supermarkets - while they have poor or no logistics, they just shift constantly the empty places on the shelve where a product is lacking with other products so that you don't see it.
----In immigration - its already September so Merry Christmas ma'm.
----In traffic - i guess no need for explanation.
----In road works - those who where here in Dumaguete a few years ago know what i'm talking about.
----In shipping - overloaded vessels with disastrous results
----In politics - corruption
----police and military - look what happen in Mindanao
----Airlines - charge travel tax to the ticket for people who don't have to pay while they are foreigner or not living permanent in the Philippines.
----Finance - can i borrow some money ...
----Taxi's, pedicabs, porters in harbours and airports, real estate, the list goes on and on....

 

I had what i (an american!) consider to be quite a fine homemade hamburger in the Noriter Cafe downtown -- check it out.

 

And with firefly, i too miss the disciplines he speaks of, combined with excellent infrastructure and low crime rates, of the nation north of here that i have been accustomed to live-in half of my life. Don't miss much on the consumer level, as i'm just a visitor so far...

 

Was out today and i just thought of another thing that drives me nuts....Newer store downtown has 6 cash registers. One of which was open and staffed by a cashier and one person to bag the items as they are rang up. 19 people in line for the one single open register. (The cashier of course is capable of putting the items in the bag but owners put two people at a register in this where one checks the receipt of what was rung up. Is there no trust for the employees hired?)

Stock clerks all over but of course, not a single one is cross-trained to go and open a cash register. Are they not trusted with cash? Do they think people can't be trained to do 2 things?

NEXT-

If you owned a business would you not stagger the staff lunch hours? Why does the entire group have lunch all at the exact same time and have to close the business down for lunch?

Rant over... :-)

 

I do have to agree with the idiocy of closing during lunch hours. Best to stagger your staff 3 groups. Group A gets 11-12pm, group B gets 12-1pm, and ground C gets 1-2pm. Your catering to those middle income who have lunch breaks. Those with lunch breaks don't want to go home of course so they browse when they need something and they get lunch of course. This makes Lunch one of the 2 prime sales periods being Lunch, evenings (5-7pm) and of course weekends.

 

We, the filipino people feel the same way as you do. The problem is we don't talk about it, because nobody is listening. After many years overseas, Holland and UK, I feel very stressed seeing what is going on in my own country. In my daily prayer I ask God if there is a future in Philippines or has it all been taking away from most of the people. The BIG Peoples Revolution is coming soon, it is a must!
HOPE..HOPE is all there is left, but it doesn't pay our bills, and our childrens education and a decent home to live in. THINK ABOUT IT!

 

I kind of agree with your statements above...... the problem is that many filipinos either have tunnel vision or don't want to face the facts. It seems that some foreigners are in the same boat. I am familiar with the meening of DRAIN BRAIN, because I am one of them and I know many many of them. What a shame that we have to go abroad for a decent income and living. There is a lot of writings about the phenomena Drain Brain, and it is very interesting to study the subject. A Filipina with BRAINS..LOL