Thanks Ambrielle!

I’ve always believed that the glass isn’t half-full if it isn’t half-empty.

I don’t know why Filipinos are so pressured to project an image of “everything is A-Ok”. It’s not good for the country’s wellbeing.

Welcome to AP

Ah, realism.
High-time I found a blogger not hellbent on making the Philippines a loving family of Aquinos who they can never bring back to life. Sure they have a nice little love story mixed in with the love for country. Okay, makes for a good MMK episode. But what did they do, anyway? o_e

We all have to notice that the glass isn’t just half-full. And it’s not just half-empty either. The fact is, it’s both.
It’s the truth.

And the truth is, no love story with yellow ribbons can fill up that glass.

this is my home and sanctuary!
*balat sibuyas lang ang tunay na anti-pinoy
the awful truth really hurts..

i already felt sorry for my actions last week, i bullied my friends candidates (villar, aquino)
for gordon! i was on fire, speaking loud, addressing my point, clapping, waving.. for them to know, that i am disappointed by their choice. up until now, i don’t think they understand my point. because they are very much glued to their candidate,

@Holly Mass

It is important to understand why the Philippines is considered Asia’s laggard.

Majority of the population has succumbed to the Peter Pan mentality and would rather read articles by Paulo Mangahas.

Some even want to continue living in a Yellow Submarine instead of being more proactive and finding out how to become a successful Filipino.

Most expats are enablers of the worst traits in the people around them, though I don’t believe they do it intentionally. Consider, most of us have pulled up in the islands and burned the boat on the beach behind us — the financial and emotional investment and the effort involved in coming here is enormous, and going back really would mean admitting defeat and what’s more, suffering very tangible consequences of it. And that’s for anybody, even if they left behind a reasonable social support structure; and truth be told, a significant number of the expats here left behind lives that were, to put it delicately, less than promising for one reason or another.

So in the ‘stereotypical’ expat attitude there are two forces at work: First, there is a general sense of decency that reminds us that this is not our home country, and that if the way of life here should be judged at all, it should be done so with objective standards and not those of our own societies. Second, for many (but maybe not all) there is a sense of desperation or resignation — we’re here, and we’re stuck with that decision, nothing to do but make the best of it. The net result is that a lot of things that are clearly FUBAR’d by any objective standard are overlooked, and consciously so. Which is not helping the communities around us improve.

It’s a fine line to walk between being legitimately critical and being disrespectful to what is to us our host society, and it’s easy to make a mistake. I still do, although as the years go by, I hope less often. A lot of expats avoid the problem entirely by keeping their mouths shut. I can understand why, and I try not to judge them too harshly for it (although except for John up there and a few others, the reciprocal consideration is not often given — I am fairly unpopular with most of my fellow aliens), but the honest fact is it’s a subtle form of colonialism that takes a lot from the country and gives very little in return. I agree with John: I wish the scales would fall from more Occidental eyes.

more visitors at the expense of the message’s urgency and true impact is rather counterproductive, wouldn’t you agree?

the message is top priority here, i think. no candy-coated crap. (would you prefer to be fed crap if it were coated with candy?)

people who use their brain adequately don’t have a problem participating in discussions here. everyone expects everyone else to act like an adult. read and understand before commenting, get facts straight, edit before clicking submit. i usually draft my long comments on notepad before putting them here just so i’m fairly satisfied with how it’s written (this saves me from having to explain further when i get misunderstood because i didn’t bother to be as clear and concise as i could).

my opinion on what you think is ganging up is this: you’re taking being outnumbered a bit too personally. it’s not like people decide to gang up on dissenters here. many of us here were at some point lone voices in some other forum and yes, we were outnumbered, but we won debates anyway because our logic/reasoning was better and expressed more effectively. to us, being outnumbered did not, and does not, matter.

it’s a democracy. if more people felt like joining the outnumbered guy in the argument with their own good logic, then they are free to do so. nobody coming to his rescue may be an indication that nobody has the ammo or cojones to step in and prove everyone else wrong, or perhaps the outnumbered guy is doing fine all by himself/herself.

To tell you the truth me-me-and-me, I don’t really understand what you’re saying when you wrote that we are ganging up on visitors especially on this thread. As far as I can see, si Jspice lang naman ang umaangal dito sa article na ito.

Have you actually read Jspice’s comments? He was attacking this article; he was attacking the AntiPinoy site and he was attacking the innocent foreign journalists and calling them “mentally retarded Caucasians”. Do you think he made any sense? It is so obvious na wala syang naintindihan sa mga articles dito. In short, he is stubborn and narrow minded. If you read my response to him, I didn’t attack him. He was the one who attacked my article and AntiPinoy first. It’s not my fault if other commenters get annoyed at his arrogance.

It doesn’t really matter to us kung balu-baluktot ang ingles o tagalog, yung importante eh kung merong sense yung comment nang tao.

Enjoy your dinner

I believe that most people here just want to be proven correct. That’s the true meaning of a debate. It’s neither about “open-discussion” but simply, prides clashing to one another…. at least, that’s my opinion.

Not everyone is able to express their feelings through words. Not everyone is as good as a debater. I suggest opening your eyes & ears to their context and keep an open mind, at least. We cannot be correct most of the time, right?

It’s not like you guys are bad parents and try to force people to adapt your beliefs into theirs. Sometimes a subtle passive approach is needed to get the message across.

I appreciate the messages here in this site. It’s very true to some aspects. It’s just that ganging up to visitors who air their ideas is such a good idea if you want more people coming in here. Don’t you agree?

My 2 cents.

I suggest something more his level… Teletubbies. lol