Over the last couple of weeks, my Faceborg newsfeed has been filled with posts from American friends and accounts focused on expatriate aspirations.
The problem is that the available reference material is of very poor quality.
A random individual relocates to the Philippines, launches a YouTube channel, and proceeds to discuss subjects about which he possesses little genuine knowledge.
I regret to observe that many Filipinos themselves have only limited familiarity with their own country and culture; consequently, one should not expect a random person living on an SSI pension to offer an accurate or insightful portrayal through a YouTube channel.
I find it difficult to take seriously those individuals who, after limited personal encounters and the accumulation of certain anecdotal experiences, present themselves as experts outside of very narrow areas.
Chasing pussy in Angeles bars appears to be a large hobby and expertise of many of these vloggers.
Approximately 99 percent of such random vloggers would be unable to recite the fundamental facts about the Philippines that are taught in a standard fifth-grade social studies and history curriculum in the country.
I have lived here more than 2 decades and have seen more of the country than most Filipinos, yet I am still in the process of understanding it.
To paraphrase Neal Stephenson from the book Cryptonomicon: To try to understand every strange thing you see in the Philippines is like trying to remove every last drop of rainwater from a discarded tire.
Virtually every newly arrived foreigner remarks that “Filipinos are so friendly.”
That assessment is incomplete. Dubuque, Iowa, may reasonably be described as friendly; the Philippines often projects friendliness while concealing less benign intentions.
Filipinos are famously described as the worlds most inscrutable people. They hide everything behind a smile.
Before one rushes to defend Filipinos, it is worth noting that Filipinos frequently treat one another more harshly than they treat foreigners. I have witnessed people here commit highly objectionable acts against members of their own community.
In short, Filipinos are mean to each other.
Although there exists a distinct category of misconduct directed specifically at foreigners (scams and similar practices), the mistreatment Filipinos inflict upon one another constitutes a different, and often more severe, form of social dysfunction.
As a noob in any unfamiliar environment, one must deliberately cultivate a network of trustworthy friends and reliable contacts. This is never in the vlogger video.
These things take time, and due to Filipino cultural norms, will take longer because you simply do not know what you need to know.
The difficulty lies in the fact that an ordinary American can readily identify problematic social types in a familiar setting such as Chicago, yet the same person is far less equipped to detect the subtler cultural signals present in the Philippines.
Instead, he tends to conclude: “We both enjoy Linkin Park, Kenny Rogers, fried chicken, and Marvel movies; therefore we are essentially the same.”
Your experience and milage will be different than mine. I have seen the extremes of both good and bad with expats here.
Case in point below this stupid ad directed at foreigners:
The picture is Moslems in Mindanao who do not speak Tagalog. Half the country does not use Tagalog, there are 16 major languages here and the only common language is English. Yet this is what is presented as "filipino'
