Making It Fun in the Philippines

I decided to check on Netflix  and found out that Squid Game is currently number one among Filipino viewers. The whole plot of the brutal survival horror series is regarding people who are trapped in TONS OF DEBT. I find the characters to be very annoying such as the main character. There seems to be some satisfaction to see some of them eventually gunned down by the organizers of the bloody game. They're made to play children's games but they die if they LOSE. Eventually, it's not all fun and games as the first episode shows that more than half of the contestants die. The blood and the gore might be a real eye-opener. All the contestants are trapped in mountains of debt.  Christmas is already near and I was thinking about the whole problem of debt traps. It's a common problem among Filipinos to be caught in the dangerous world of overspending. It's a very common scenario that not budgeting for the Christmas and the New Year is a very common problem among Filipinos ...

It's Christmas Eve and COVID-19 is still here! COVID-19 isn't taking a day or two off just because it's December 24-25 and that it'd resume its operations on December 26 and take a break from December 31 to January 1, 2021, next year. Unfortunately, some Filipinos just NEVER learn away from the common, irritating bad habits during Christmas . I wonder if last-minute Christmas shopping is upheld as a Filipino tradition  or if many Filipinos have even taken it as a proud Christmas tradition. It's December 24 and checking the GPS - I'm amazed at how BAD traffic still is and its COVID-19 season. This just shows how many Filipinos STILL refuse to re-think their Christmas traditions at the cost of law-abiding Filipinos. I'm still thinking about how some of my peers have already prepared their simpler Noche Buenas. It's because mass gatherings are still heavily discouraged. True, businesses have opened but employees may have to settle for pinaskohans over Chri...

Do you remember the song of the late Yoyoy Villame called "Dayang Daya"? It was a parody of the otherwise not Indian song (actually it's a Muslim song) which was said to come from either Saudi Arabia or Indonesia. Some say it was from Zamboanga or it was a Filipino song. Either way, it's an entertaining song that made a good parody. The song "Dayang Daya" talked about the Indian guys who loan the five-six lending. It means for every five pesos you borrow - you end up paying them six pesos. In short, the interest rates are so high. Even worse, these five-six lenders usually aren't registered. But why do so many Filipinos get trapped in the Indian debt trap especially during the holidays? It's because not budgeting for Christmas and New Year is MORE FUN in the Philippines . Why do you think Christmas shopping is very stressful in the Philippines? It's because most people are still waiting for their 13th-month pay in December  instead of learning to...

It's Christmas and there's always the bad culture of overspending, right? I remembered writing some time ago decided to write about why Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) families tend to remain poor . I was thinking about how the classic scenario of the OFW is - the nagpadala (sender) and the pinagdahlan (receiver). With Christmas in mind - I was thinking how a typical OFW family that's Okay Fine Whatever would have their desire to receive imported luxury items this Christmas. Be it the newly released Playstation 5, the latest iPhone 11, Gucci or Louie Vitton bags (or you NAME IT) - they're eager to receive it from the OFW Balikbayan Box which some may consider contains what they may consider as " the spoils of conquest " from other countries. They're so eager to receive those imported luxury items as they ignore Jack Ma's basic advice on budgeting . Just think that many luxury stuff are only bought for the NAME and NOT for the quality of the product.  ...

Who can remember the event when Ateneo De Manila University (ADMU) invited Jover Laurio (of Pignoy Ako Blog fame) while De La Salle University (DLSU) invited Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba? Those events were in 2017. I'm amazed at how the once-revered ADMU, the dream school of many and the school I once aimed for, ended up inviting PAB's head writer Jover as a RESOURCE SPEAKER instead of Jack. Just think who would you listen to between Jover or Jack? Jack established Alibaba and Jover established PAB. If you're going to consider giving a resource speaker - why not a businessman who can hire you for a well-paying job than somebody who's obviously a paid hack? Jack has some practical words which I posted above that Filipinos should heed to. I was thinking about one of the many times I read Get Real Philippines and I still remember these comments directed at the ever blameless Fliptard . Fortunately, Aeta's Fliptards blog is now DELETED though I miss the time I would ...

Just lately, a term which I've overlooked for some time is called the hero complex. The term hero complex can be defined when a person strives to be the hero or heroine of the situation where they want to make it that they're the ones who save the day. Sometimes, the hero complex may also carry with it a selfish desire to look good at the expense of others or even one's self. This COVID-19 crisis may have also inadvertently revealed more of the typical hero complex among Pinoys. Some are doing all their lame virtue-signaling  even during the COVID-19 crisis such as in regards to the death of Baby River . Some of them are tweeting and writing whatever they could online to ruin the administration in hopes that they will look good. That's what virtue signaling is all about - displaying outrage to make yourself look good. That's what's going on with the typical Pinoy hero complex which causes obligations not to be met at all. Though, we may want to make a bit of a j...

  I remembered the Get Real Philippines article " Filipinos are too emotional for their own good ". Last March, I also wrote an article where I mentioned that many Filipinos may have NO ONE to blame but themselves . Then you've got follow-ups and outrage of leftist-minded Filipinos who post one rant after the other where they choose to blame the government and would even politicize the issue . The Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) hit so landlords have every reason not to ask for rent. However, ECQ was moved to GCQ because economic activity is already needed to PAY OFF COVID-19 related debts . That means under GCQ businesses are now allowed to operate first under skeletal capacity since August 2020. It also meant that tenants who refuse to pay rent after some time can be KICKED OUT already. Landlords today can now execute their right or better yet their UTMOST DUTY to kick out tenants who are leeching them dry. Businesses are starting to re-open so why aren't these ...

  Who can remember the Pasig City demolition incident that happened last 2015 ? Yup, the incident proves that squatters are NO LAUGHING MATTER. The phrase "utak squatter " (squatter brain) should no longer limit itself to those who are technically squatters. Some of the squatters today exist in the form of utak squatter tenants. In short, it's those tenants who have their sense of entitlement. You may even want to question if those people are actually celebrating poverty . Why do I question if they celebrate poverty? It's because they seem to be very comfortable in being poor believing it gives them their entitlement. After all, rich-shaming is really a common vice in the Philippines, right? Just think about how two INNOCENT well-to-do guys namely Hubert Jeffrey Webb and Juan Francisco "Paco" Osmena Larranaga were subjected to it just because they were both well-to-do and good-looking. Webb who was in the USA and Larranaga who was in Quezon City were falsel...

It's the -ber months already and is it me or is Christmas MUCH LONGER in the Philippines than any place in the world? I mean, Christmas season should only be for December but why are we playing Christmas songs when it's not yet December? The recent COVID-19 crisis has really caused a lot of standstills. True, economic activities are slowly returning but most restaurants today are still more open for takeout than dine-in. Others are still working at a skeletal workforce. True, taxes are slowly getting collected again (which is GOOD) but the COVID-19 infection is still there. With the -ber months kicking in then Christmas comes into the head. But it's also time to rethink the "Filipino way" of celebrating Christmas. Thankfully, it's not Christmas every day in the Philippines . We need to really review a lot of common, irritating habits during the Christmas season . Overspending (such as having lavish parties even when can't afford), asking for pinaskohan fro...

Ito talagang baliw si Representative Carlos "Heneral Lunatic" Zarate. Ang mga letrang nakalagay ng bold ay nagsababi na mistulang pinapahalagahan ng administrasyong Dutete and ekonomiya keysa sa buhay ng mga tao ngayong COVID-19. Teka nga hindi ba lagi nagrereklamo ang mga komunistang Filipino na palaki ng palaki ng utang natin? Hindi biro na ang gobyerno natin sa administrasyong Duterte ay may trilyon-trilyong piso na utang na dapat mabayaran sa MADALING PAHAHON . Teka nga hindi ba sila nagrereklamo sa utang ng bayan pagkatapos ayaw gawing prayoridad ang EKONIMIYA? Gusto nilang hingi dito at hingi doon pero ayaw ng utang. Gusto nilang mabayaran ang utang pero ayaw papasokin ang mga dayung imbestor upang magnegosyo sa bayan. Kaloka talaga ano? Eto ay dahil ang mga komunistang Pilipino ay mga spoiled brats na walang nalaman kahit ano sa pag-aral ng ekonomiks . Kung may epidemya ay hindi ba kailangan NG PERA? Kaya't kailangan uutang pero kailangan rin mabayad ang utang na i...

I remembered having talks with people about the idea of opening up the economy. Others have their usual alibis not to open the country to foreign direct investment (FDI). Others mention that the Philippines isn't ready for FDI. Their reason? It's because of the typical Filipino spendthrift environment. Such a person would be like Benign0 of Get Real Philippines (GRP) . I really wonder why the administrators of GRP still allow idiotic comments (such as a certain Darth Moron the Wuss) to still flood their posts? Ever heard of the word MODERATE? Anyway, time to back to the topic. Benign0 ended up showing that he DOES NOT understand how FDI works at all ! Reading the article from CoRRECT Philippines (and I suggest you do) really shows the IGNORANCE of the idea that Filipinos must wait to be business savvy before opening up the economy! Let's consider the two economic legacies namely Lee Kuan Yew (left) and Deng Xiaoping (right).  Do you know that Singapore and China were ONCE P...

Well, RIP ABiaS-CBN? Not quite because ABiaS-CBN (like Rappler) can still continue to operate ONLINE. Rather than focus too much on rejoicing on the "death" of ABiaS-CBN (because they can still operate in OTHER WAYS) - I'd like to focus on the issue that Filipinos (for decades) have fought against constitutional reforms that could've benefited THEM. Instead, they chose to remain in the fear of the unknown . They chose to stick with the 1987 Constitution which they bragged was "the best in the world". They instead bought the EDSA hype which lasted from 1986 since the EDSA Revolution up to the hype that was done during the so-called "golden years" under Noynoy Aquino . I'm not going to dismiss any good Noynoy did during his term or any bad Duterte is doing right now. However, I'd like to show the real problem of the SYSTEM . itself. What are these three reforms that Filipinos have fought against because of the fear of the unknown? These a...

May to June comes to mind with a lot of feasts, right? I decided to write this post due to the fact that the current COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing and a lot of fiestas are CANCELLED. One time, I remembered writing a post about considering celebrations to be more important than one's duties . This time, there's the duty that people have to follow. They have the duty to follow community quarantine guidelines . Some of these involve the use of the quarantine card, social distancing, vehicles should have a certain limit of people riding on it, a curfew from 8 AM to 5 AM, not going out of your house unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, and the alcohol ban. However, some people just REFUSE to follow simple guidelines , right? Do you ever get the stupid logic behind fiestas? Some people say that they attend fiestas in order to have a good time or to forget their problems. The logic itself is screwed up because if you celebrate when you have NO MONEY such as what happens during Christm...

In the midst of COVID-19 - it seems that a "new strain" of COVID-19 that was discovered which I'd call as 4Ps-COVID-19. 4Ps refers to the DSWD program that supposedly aims to bridge the gap between well-to-do Filipinos and the poor. Recently, we've got the COVID-19 outbreak and how 4Ps may not even address it - hence the name 4Ps-COVID-19. Note that like Noy-COVID-19 it's not an actual disease but showing a recent problem going on during the outbreak. The ongoing 4Ps-COVID-19 outbreak and its symptoms The Manila Standard reveals in its article " Reinventing the 4Ps " revealed the following: However, from the very start, there obviously was no intention from the Aquino administration to uplift the lives of beneficiaries through the 4Ps as from a few hundred thousand households during Arroyo’s time, the number of beneficiaries ballooned to 4.5 million before Aquino stepped down in 2016 .   If the CCT’s intention was to reduce poverty, Aquino’s pu...