I am sure you’ve heard all about the brouhaha over Teri Hatcher’s remark on Desperate Housewives. Apparently, she does not want any doctor who has a medical degree from the Philippines to treat her.

You can imagine the kind of reaction that this thoughtless statement has elicited among the Filipino community. People blogged about their outrage, signed petitions and even called for the government to ask the ABC to “rectify the injustice“. Well, they got their wish. ABC apologized.

Usually, I stick to my guns on certain issues but gone are the days when I would fight about every single thing. I’d rather choose my battles wisely. And on this issue, it’s not what I would call as worth fighting for.

Remember those times when you watched a show which featured Arab terrorists, illegal immigrants from Mexico, mouthwash drinking native Indians (because they cannot afford alcohol), Black muggers, smelly Europeans and stupid Americans? Did you see any of them asking for an apology?

Remember thinking that the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” was actually funny?

I am also against name calling or culture bashing but hey much as we would like for it to be otherwise, WE DO NOT LIVE IN A COLOR-BLIND WORLD. There are bigots all over. Many people are careless with their words, thinking that it would not matter if they insult one race or another.

I just think (again, this is just MY opinion) that there was no need to go ape shit over this issue. There are other great ways to refrain people from stereotyping Pinoys.

After getting a hearty thank you for helping a patient, Philippine Medical degree holder doctors in the US could just say welcome and “I learned a lot in the Philippines” or something to that effect. OA, I know but it does help spread the good word. Besides, do you really think that those who hire doctors in the US even watch shows like Desperate Housewives?!

Someone I know (who is an MD in Chicago) reminded me of the time when med students in Fatima topped the bar exams because the Philippine Medical Boards sold them the test questions. And a similar incident occurred with the nursing exam last year. News about these things spread, you know. And sometimes, it evolves and becomes a stereotype.

I am all for fighting for what is right but learn to prioritize if you want to involve the government. There are tons of issues out there that needs to be taken cared of. There are times when we just should learn to let go and laugh about things.

This issue kinda reminds of that small outrage and yet another online petition to stop people from eating Filipinos, a chocolate biscuit made in Spain because:

“First of all, there is the simple name-association itself. Attaching the name Filipinos to a sweet product with a hole in the middle that is consumed for pleasure and contains little nutritional value is not very charming.

Secondly, there is the problem of the name being used in marketing campaigns and thus becoming depreciatory. One blogger already noticed the food instruction on the package: ‘Try Filipinos after one hour in the fridge.’ Worse yet is the present Dutch campaign to sell Filipinos that asks consumers: ‘Are you as Tasty as a Filipino?’ “

Hello?! There are tons of food out there associated with certain nationalities (the most famous being French fries), do you see them complaining?! What kind of mind do you have to describe it as a “hole in the middle that is consumed for pleasure and contains little nutritional value” and translate it into something dirty? It’s shaped like a donut, of course, it has a hole in the middle. As for the refrigerate for one hour thing, it does taste better after you refrigerate it!

Again… choose your battles wisely!

Television usually portrays mother-in-laws (usually the mother of the husband) to be overbearing women who indulges their sons and confuses meddling with helping.

It used to be sooo funny.

Until, I had my very own live one living only a stone’s throw away from where my husband and I live.

My mother-in-law is everything the way they portrayed on Filipino TV, except that she’s white.

Yes, MIL problems does transcend race.

If you are cursed with a mother-in-law who fit the stereotypical autocratic old lady of the house who cannot let go of her little boy then, it doesn’t matter where in the world your mother in law came from… they are all made from the same mold. The only differences you will see are their skin and eye colors.

Disclaimer: Of course, there are a few people who are blessed. Their mother-in-laws are really nice or they are just too far away to meddle with their sons marriage.

photo source: Mother-in-Law

Many have already written about Malu Fernandez and her nefarious articles. Most of those who reacted to her column strayed from the topic at hand. Vile insults have been thrown — on blogs and even on youtube — and some have even reported that she received death threats.

Judging from the reactions, it is obvious that we, Pinoys, are very passionate about everything. OA (hello, death threats!) even.

Anyway, when shit hit the fan, she allegedly resigned and apologized.

And now, Yuga reports that Malu Fernandez is back with Manila Standard Today.

I can already imagine the revival of the above brouhaha at a much noisier level.

Here’s my two cents:

If she continues to write, so what? Many other malakas lang ang kapit who do not really have anything substantial to say are also writing for major dailies anyway. Just that, unlike Malu Fernandez, they spared us of their matapobre way of thinking.

She resigned and apologized. Whether this was heartfelt or not, we will never know. BUT I am sure that the response to her OFW article has definitely taught her a lesson. Sure, we may not be able to change her way of thinking but, at least, she will now be more careful with what she writes. I guess, the same can be said about her editors over at Manila Standard Today.

I guess, in my mind, the fact that she is now as infamous as hell (and is probably avoiding everyone like a plague) is punishment enough. Move on, people.

Why do we have pedestrian lanes in Manila? Do people like to see stripes on the road? Is it the DOTC’s way to break the monotony of long grey asphalt streets? Do our streets sport road markings so that they would look like all the other city streets abroad?

What are they for?!?

Pedestrian lanes in Manila are certainly NOT meant to remind people where they can cross the street. People sure as hell cross whenever and wherever they want to. Heck, I have even seen people run across EDSA or the South/North Superhighway.

Pedestrian lanes in Manila are certainly NOT meant to remind drivers that they should LET people cross the street. They just harurot their way towards those white stripes on the street even if there are obviously people trying or, even, already crossing the street. I usually insist my right to use these pedestrian lanes and more often than not, I get glares from drivers as if I was in the wrong.

So… seriously, can anyone tell me why oh why do we have pedestrian lanes in Manila?

flickr photo source

There are several scholarship programs available to those who have the brains and the ambition. Competition is fierce but if you can boast of having the right educational background then you should go ahead and apply.

You can look for scholarship programs posted on the bulletin boards of top Universities. You can also check the bulletin board at the entrance of embassies or at institutions like the Goethe Institut and Alliance Francaise.

As I mentioned, competition is fierce. But there is an easier way to get accepted into a University (at least in Germany) but you (or your parents) need to have the financial means to support yourself in order to do this.

Here’s what my sister did:

She applied for a language student visa. She presented the following documents to the embassy: (1) proof of enrollment and receipt for the German language course; (2) proof of financial means – when she applied in 2005, Frankfurt’s requirement was to have 560Euros per month of her stay in the bank to pay for her daily expenses excluding insurance and tuition fee; (3) health insurance – you can find insurances online which are specifically for foreign university students which cost around 51euros per month.

She was given a 3-month student visa and was asked to report to the foreign affairs office (auslanderbehörde) here in Germany upon her arrival. Usually, visas are changed into residence permits when the stay is longer than 3 months. At the Auslanderbehörde, she was given the choice of getting just a language student residence permit or an intensive language course preparation for university (studienvorbereitenden Intensivesprachkurses) visa.  She chose the latter.

She then religiously checked programs posted on DAAD. Again, competition is fierce with DAAD-offered scholarships so she just used it as a guide to check which Universities have the programs she might be interested in. She then, applied directly.  Since she was still learning the language, she concentrated on getting into International Programs because they offer FREE language courses (which later saved her around 300Euros a month) and the subjects in the first year are all in English.

2 months into her stay, she got into the International (Math) Program at the Technical University of Darmstadt. So, she cancelled her German language course and enrolled at TÜD. At that time, tuition fee was only 180Euros per semester. Her University ID also has Hessen ticket which entitles her to FREE transportation all over Hessen (of which Frankfurt and Darmstadt are part of). 180Euros of tuition fee per semester (half a year) saved her the cost of 90Euros for transportation and 300Euros for language course PER MONTH; which means that the 180Euros semester fee valid for 6 months that she paid, saved her around 2,340Euros!

Unfortunately, several German states have increased the University tuition fees to 500euros per semester. But that is still a bargain in comparison to paying 2,340euros.

If you do well in school, you can apply later for a scholarship. Or you can look for a job to help augment your finances. Note that language students are NOT allowed to work. University students, on the other hand, are legally allowed to work part-time.  My sister worked part time for Helen Doran, teaching English to elementary school aged kids.

Applying for a visa requires a lot of your time and energy. But it does pay off in the end.

When you graduate, you can go back home and get cushy job or you can stay (you will be allowed to stay 1 year after graduating to give you time to look for a job) here and look for one.

My definition of baduy mainly means showbiz. I’ve always thought that watching those noon time shows where talent-less half-breeds would be forced to dance or sing is nakakabobo. I’ve always made fun of people who watched Inday Badiday, Lolit Solis and Cristy Fermin, among other intrigero hosts. Lining up outside a movie house to watch a tagalog movie would be something I would never be caught dead doing.

That was when I lived in the Philippines.

Nothing brings out your inner baduyness than a stint abroad. Everything that has anything to do with being Pinoy — yes, no matter how high its level of baduyness is — suddenly makes you feel closer to home. No matter how hard you fight it, baduy will suck you in like an industrial vacuum cleaner when you are homesick.

The number of years I have spent living in Europe has improved my taste in culture: the arts, letters, manners and scholarly pursuits. Ironically, expatriation has also degenerated my taste in what is Pinoy.

How baduy am I? Let me count the ways…

• My CD/DVD shelves now boasts of several Pinoy movies. Some of which are good but most are cringe-worthy.
• As far away as I am from Pinas shores, I was actually one of the first few ones who got an insider look at the Gretchen Barretto and John Estrada kissing pictures.
• I used to read 2-3 newspapers from cover to cover, every single day. At present, I still read 2-3 newspapers but the Inquirer’s Entertainment section is now my first stop.
• Every time I am home, I ask my poor sister to go watch the latest sampalan/iyakan movies. And I usually am not even ashamed of it.
• I actually followed the Ruffa-Yilmaz saga. And I think that Annabelle Rama is entertaining to watch.

Despite unleashing my inner kabaduyan, I am proud to say that it still has not reached the highest level. I have yet to succumb to watching half-breed teenies gyrate or sing off key on national tv. And I hope to God that I never will.

Ikaw? What has expatriation done to you?

Torsten Jacobi (my boss over at CW) has also ventured into another online project.  Last year, he put up Kinkaa, a travel search engine.  For a short time, I was writing for its corporate blog.

I know how it is to work with TJ.  I have been working with him for more than 2 years on several online writing and marketing projects and I can honestly say that he is a good boss.   So when I found out that he is looking for developers for the Frankfurt and Palo Alto offices, I knew that I could safely recommend his job posting to fellow Filipinos.   Another advantage is that they can assist whoever they choose to hire with visa requirements.

So… here is the job advert:

kinkaa front-end developers:

- you have 2 or more years of experience with PHP/ MYSQL/ AJAX
- experience in using Prototype, script.aculo.us or jQuery or smarty is a great plus
- a little creative talent (in and outside of Photoshop) for web site design is another plus

You will fit into our team if you are:

- highly self motivated
- able to grasp product specs without long descriptions
- fluent in English

kinkaa back-end developers:

- 2 or more years of experience with Perl, MySQL
- experience in projects based on CPAN modules like WWW::Mechanize, HTML::TreeBuilder are a great plus

You will fit into our team if you are:

- highly self motivated
- able to grasp product specs without long descriptions
- fluent in English 

Interested? Email TJ at recruiting(at)kinkaa(dot)de.

I’ll be meeting TJ in the Frankfurt office next week. I hope that I have more info about this job posting by then.

Anywhere in the world you may end up in, chances are, you will meet someone who is not tolerant of differences. Someone who has unreasonable hatred or fear of someone who is perceived to be different. Despite knowing that, though, it still shocks the hell out of me whenever I am faced with someone who judges people based on the color of their skin, the language that they speak and/or the the slant of their eyes.

The latest experience I had was last July 21 while buying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows at Buecher Bruckmann in Main Taunus Zentrum.

There was a crowd of people (among them a group of 3 19 year old boys) standing around what was left of the newly-released HP books. I picked one book out and opened it to check if it was really in English and not in German. I heard someone beside me snicker and say something that sounded like Ching Chang. And just as I was ready to walk away, one of the boys tapped me on my shoulder. With a condescending loud tone and in his heavily accented German-English (yes, I am being mean now!), he asked me if I knew that the book was in English and that I would probably not understand anything.

I am a 32-year old mother of two. I usually do not let young idiots bother me just because they wanted to look superior. But that day, I was pissed.

So… in my best American accent (thanks to years of watching Hollywood! hehe), I answered loudly with, “judging from the way you speak English, mine is a lot better than yours.” And with a smile, I walked a way.

I do not really recommend answering the way I did. But saying what I did felt good at that time.

What would you have done?

PINAYexpat, the personal blog, is a hybrid blog. Not only do I blog about everything that is important in my life, I also blog about the nonessentials. I talk about my kids and then I’d switch from being sappy to angtsy as I rant about my problems at work.

Irrelevant or not, what I blog about is important to me. In my opinion, they are legitimate blog fodder. However, this kind of blogging will not really fit with what BNN has in mind. This blog needs to have more focus.

Hence, we have changed the name to MyExpatConfessions where the spotlight will NOT be on ME but on HOW LIFE IS FOR A FILIPINA (that would still be me, though) ABROAD.

So… what will I blog about…

I will blog in detail about HOW I FOUND WORK ABROAD. Perhaps, that could give some of you some ideas, should you be interested to spend a part of your life working elsewhere.

Before the HATERZ (don’t you just hate how jologs that sounds?!) start, I am not encouraging people to leave the country. But if you must leave, I want to at least be able to share with you my experiences so you could get a great expat package.

In addition, I will also talk about how I manage to bring my whole baranggay home to the Philippines once or twice a year na walang mintis! I’d also be sharing my REPATRIATION plans (looking for work, home and school, among others), as my family and I prepare for our move back to our homeland in a couple of years.

Other topics I intend to talk about: Finances, Expat Parenting, Multi-Cultural Workforce, Foreign Language, Racism and Stereotypes and Fellow Filipino Expats. If you think I missed any topic, do let me know.

Oh yeah, don’t let me do all the talking. Indulge me and let me know what you have to say.

Corruption, garbage and pollution problems, lack of discipline and crab mentality are just some of the many complaints I have heard from fellow-Filipinos about the Filipinos & the Philippines. These problems exist. And it is normal to feel frustrated and angry about all these.

But I find it irritating when kababayans start identifying these bad traits as being typical PINOY. As if we are the only society on this earth who suffers from these.  

Excuse me, but these problems are not exclusive to us.  Filipinos are not the only ones who have turned corrupt (although, we have successfully displaced Indonesia as the most corrupt country in SE Asia).  Manila is not the only polluted place in the world. Nor are the Filipinos the only ones who feels inggit and turn against each other.  We are also not the only who seem to need spanking from our parents for not doing as we are supposed to do.

I have seen how life is in several countries. I have worked with people from different cultures. And believe me when I say that YOU should stop putting a gate around all those bad qualities because you think WE are the only ones who have these problems.

If you notice that something is done wrong or someone is not behaving right, do not say that it’s a Filipino Thing. It’s just (plain and simple) a bad trait or a bad situation which also ails other societies.

Stop saying, “ang pinoy nga naman…”!  and stop generalizing.