University degrees does not warrant education. Some people get so many degrees yet they remain stupid, culturally insensitive, bigot, and possibly xenocentric.
I have encountered a handful of these kinds of people, the worst of which was a very close high school friend. I am not directly in contact with all these people anymore, and if possible, I try to avoid being in contact with them in the future. I get rabid around them.
Being in a state-funded (or at least, partially) university does not help. I feel even sadder to hear that people whose education was funded by the people’s taxes have the gall to look down on their country, on their city. Yes, just because we didn’t have starbucks does not mean we’re lesser people; or just because we didn’t work with the whites or have white bosses does not make us unaware of international current events and global opinion.
I chose to work in the country because I know that it needs me here. My want to stay here goes beyond my family being here, my friends being here, my source of happiness being here. I love this country and I want to make it better.
The reason why I took up urban and regional planning is because I realized the power that planners have to make or break a city, a town, a country. I took up urban planning in hopes that my diploma would at least attract the attention of hometown’s local government and hire me. I was not after getting a six-digit salary, although i know that that is not impossible. I wanted to work in my hometown’s planning office because all my life, i’ve never seen my town move forward. Yes, there are big houses now—my neighbors who used to sell fish at the market now has a mansion, thanks to their kids who work either as seamen or land-based OFWs, domestic helpers, caregivers, or CAD monkeys. But we’ve lost our beaches to coastal slums, things that were never there 10, 15 years ago. The houses in my towns got bigger, I’ve seen families acquire cars, but I cannot deny that my town remains to be one of the best sources of MAIDS. Yes, MAIDS.
I’m never happy when I hear that.
My town is a microcosm of the whole Philippines—we’re known to be the best source of housemaids.
My point is, I don’t fucking care about YOUR international experience. My point is, if all Filipinos think like you do, we might us well turn ourselves into OFW factories and stop living as Filipinos. After all, it’s the dollars and the snow and the international experience we’re after, not a nation that moves forward and finds an identity, an identity not dictated by foreign aids and YOUR international experience.
Yes, Jonabelle, that is my point.
I have encountered a handful of these kinds of people, the worst of which was a very close high school friend. I am not directly in contact with all these people anymore, and if possible, I try to avoid being in contact with them in the future. I get rabid around them.
Being in a state-funded (or at least, partially) university does not help. I feel even sadder to hear that people whose education was funded by the people’s taxes have the gall to look down on their country, on their city. Yes, just because we didn’t have starbucks does not mean we’re lesser people; or just because we didn’t work with the whites or have white bosses does not make us unaware of international current events and global opinion.
I chose to work in the country because I know that it needs me here. My want to stay here goes beyond my family being here, my friends being here, my source of happiness being here. I love this country and I want to make it better.
The reason why I took up urban and regional planning is because I realized the power that planners have to make or break a city, a town, a country. I took up urban planning in hopes that my diploma would at least attract the attention of hometown’s local government and hire me. I was not after getting a six-digit salary, although i know that that is not impossible. I wanted to work in my hometown’s planning office because all my life, i’ve never seen my town move forward. Yes, there are big houses now—my neighbors who used to sell fish at the market now has a mansion, thanks to their kids who work either as seamen or land-based OFWs, domestic helpers, caregivers, or CAD monkeys. But we’ve lost our beaches to coastal slums, things that were never there 10, 15 years ago. The houses in my towns got bigger, I’ve seen families acquire cars, but I cannot deny that my town remains to be one of the best sources of MAIDS. Yes, MAIDS.
I’m never happy when I hear that.
My town is a microcosm of the whole Philippines—we’re known to be the best source of housemaids.
My point is, I don’t fucking care about YOUR international experience. My point is, if all Filipinos think like you do, we might us well turn ourselves into OFW factories and stop living as Filipinos. After all, it’s the dollars and the snow and the international experience we’re after, not a nation that moves forward and finds an identity, an identity not dictated by foreign aids and YOUR international experience.
Yes, Jonabelle, that is my point.
FIN.
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