One of the things foreigners will certainly have to get used to in the Philippines … especially us Americans who have gone over into almost nauseating territory on the Politically Correct side of the spectrum — is that in the Philippines people still often call a spade a spade .. or a Chinese person an [...]

Here’s a piece of news I just read today …it really falls under the heading of mixed blessings, for sure:
Former Immigration chief accused of illegal detention
CHARGES have been filed before the anti-graft court against three former Immigration officials and a warden for illegally detaining a German national for more than a year.
The Office of [...]

I was reminded this morning of my wife’s post a few months back, My Two Fat Ladies.  That’s because just a few minutes ago we heard the ladies calling and went out to see what they had for us today … Mmmm, some lovely pork loin … my wife (and my mother-in-law) make a delicious [...]

I just put up the link for the latest Bob Martin "Far Side of the World" podcast in which Bob and I discuss the rich, the poor and how business can and can’t be done in the Philippines.  These podcasts are always available on our podcasts and Videos page, and I’ll announce new ones here [...]

I promised I’d write more about self-sufficiency in the Philippines.  even if you don’t give a care about Global Warming or you personal Carbon Footprint and IMO you should), a big part of living costs in the Philippines will involve energy costs, so whatever you can do to cut back on what you hand over [...]

Here’s some extracts from a comment I made recently on my friend Bob Martin’s Living in the Philippines blog.  It got me thinking … mainly about how few of the things I intended doing after I made the move to the Philippines I have gotten started on doing.
@ –> all thinking in terms of self [...]

Name dropping.  A fine old tradition, especially in the Philippines where it has been developed into an art form.  Read the front section of any newspaper and a huge percentage of the articles seem to be focused on who knows whom, who is related to who, etc.  So I live here … why not grab [...]

———Note: Certain claims here regarding income tax may or may noy\t be correct. Consult a tax advisor knowledgeable of both county’s laws.————–
OK, I doubt I’ll be able to keep this post up too long … people reading it and copying my idea are liable to crash my server … but hey I’ll post [...]

28,924 pass board exam for nurses By Mayen Jaymalin Friday, February 22, 2008
The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) said yesterday that 28,924 out of 67,728 examinees passed the nursing licensure examination given by the Board of Nursing last December.
The examinees included retakers in the June [...]

You don’t have to live in the Philippines, or correspond with anyone from the Philippines for very long before the subject of schools and tuition comes up.  As ‘the foreigner’ in the family it’s very common to be asked to help with sending someone to school … and it’s usually a good thing if you [...]

I just got through posting on a very popular subject here … prices in the department store … when it occurred to me I haven’t talked about car prices in a long time.  Looking at the Saturday paper I see that ‘Zero Interest’ is the name of the game this season … when I bought [...]

SM (originally Shoe Mart) is the Philippines’ leader in the retail industry. For more than 40 years this chain has grown from a tiny one-man discount shoe store in Qiapo (Chinatown), Manila to a chain that covers all of the Philippines and even some stores in other Asian countries.  You can see most of the [...]

Another permutation of medical tourism
February 6th, 2008 by David E. Williams of the Health business blog
In Retiring Abroad May Not Be Paradise the Wall Street Journal explains that moving permanently from the US is not as easy or as inexpensive as it seems. The reasons include difficulties with banking, real estate ownership, and [...]

Jim Wittevrongel received his "early voting" ballot for Tuesday’s presidential primary at 7 p.m. Monday, giving him roughly 31 hours to return his vote to the Maricopa County Recorder’s office. The problem, as Wittevrongel explained in an e-mail, is that he makes his home in Munich, Germany. "I’ve lived in [...]

A few months ago my friend Bob Martin had an interesting blog post entitled "Could you be Deported?"  It raised quite a bit of interesting discussion on his blog and I have a few personal anecdotes of my own on that subject (like an American guy a little over a year ago who came to [...]