Just recently I answered a comment on one of my articles on Bob’s Philippine Web Magazine in what many may feel is a pretty contrition manner. A lady wrote to tell me that the reason she wasn’t moving to the Philippines to live was because there was no opportunity here … especially for young teen children who will, after all, becoming self-supporting adults in just a very few years.
My view could pretty much be summed up in one phrase “wrong as rain”.
You may also recall I put together a number of articles here in past months based on an old farmer’s joke made popular by President Harry Truman, about there being a “pony” (which I am using as a metaphor for an “Opportunity” under the a huge pile of manure and stable residue … which serve to represent the continual nay saying and the chorus of “it can’t be done” that grates on my nerves each and every day, living here in the Philippines.
Here’s a nice up to date example why I believe the Philippines is indeed a land of opportunity:
US couple retires in Corregidor
By Ross Harper-Alonso, Philippine Daily Inquirer, First Posted 02:36:00 06/14/2009
MANILA, Philippines—While many dream of retiring into a private island in the Philippines with long stretches of deserted fine, white sand beaches or enjoying a luxury resort lifestyle still close to where the action is, an American couple has chosen to do the unusual.
Steve Kwiecinski, 57, a retired computer programmer and his wife, Marcia, 56, a retired physical therapist assistant, left Michigan in 2008 to start a new life on Corregidor, the island fortress that has become a national shrine as a symbol of the determined resistance of its Filipino and American defenders against the invading Japanese in World War II. You can read the rest of Steve and Marcia’s retiring in the Philippines story here.
OK, I can here you saying. This is false adverting. You started this article talking about opportunities for the young and then you give us the story of a couple, advanced in years, living a crazy lifestyle in an obscure place, and obviously living off a retirement pension. You see opportunity there?
I surely do. What the article didn’t point out is Steve’s “part time job” or more accurately, labor of love. Steve guides and escorts tours for Valor Tours, Ltd., a company who specializes in conducting tours all over the world focusing on important World War II battle sites. What? You mean a US company can make a profitable business out of touring people to the Philippines and even more out of the way places like Tarawa and Guadalcanal? And they have been making money at it for years?
Steve has been to the Philippines before, and decided he liked it here. If he listened to all the ‘wise men’ we hear chorusing in the background, he would never pull up stakes and live in a one bedroom cottage on an isolated island in the Philippines.
- What if the people stop coming on tours?
- What if the government says, “hey get out of our house”?
- What if the money the Kwiecinski’s invested to get their SRRV doesn’t yield as much money as it did back in a US bank (oh, wait a minute, not much chance of that happening is there *sigh*, on to the next point, Dave)
- What if either of them gets sick and has to be hospitalized
- What if, what if, what if?
This is the biggest “what if” in Steve and Marcia’s life (and in mine as well) is, “What If” they had just sat around and waited until there was no risk. Waited until Steve was 65 so he would have his Social Security for extra income, waited until they had more money for a better house, I’m sure many of you can think of other reasons why the move Steve and Marcia made might seem rash or risky.
But on the opposing side of the decision matrix you might also ask, what if Steve dies next year? I certainly wish him a long and healthy life, but 58 or 59 year olds drop dead every day? So do people in their 30’s and 40’s. Steve and Marcia already own, I mean truly own … can’t be taken from them … memories and experiences that most of us will never have … all because Steve made an off the wall request to live his dream and the request was granted.
Opportunity? It’s all around us … how long will you wait?
Popularity: 5% [?]
Philly,
I don’t accept that argument about lack of opportunity for young adults either. My wife and I are planning to raise our family in the Philippines. Our children will have double the opportunity when they reach adulthood….they will have family in Australia to stay with if they want to pursue opportunities there or they can find their niche in the Philippines.
Absolutely agree, Laurence. I hadn’t even thought about the ‘multiple country’ opportunity aspect, but it’s there for certain. You know my wife is very interested in the entetainment world and its many character … we seldom watch a US or Philippine TV show where she doesn’t recognize some character and thell me who the parents were, or who they were married to a couple spouses back
In addition, Mita worked for years in the TV industry and knows anit about the business as well as the personalities.
It’s rare _not_ to see a show with some highly paid ‘talent’ who isn’t Pgil-Am, Phil-Aus, Phil-xxx … and for every on screen talent you see there are 30 or 40 people working in the uge ‘ptramid’ of people who support every production. Entertainment is just one segment of business here … a big segment .. where dual citizens/dual culturals have big opportunities.
But the point of how this discussion got started, regarding bring teens here, is that someone who had lived in the Philippines for 5 or 10 years has infinitely more possibilities, jut as I am sure it’s much easier to find a job, start a business in the US or Australia or some other country after 10 years there than when one is FOB.
As usual, I’m running on here, writing a blog post in a comment response … Ireally should write about a couple senior execs with huge mulri-national companies I have met, who started here in the Phils and many others I coukld menton.
First, I don’t define success strictly as having a JOB, Second, for those who nelive a JOB is the only definition, the idea that good ones aren’t available in the Philippines is bogus.
Hi Dave, the world just is a smaller place now a days and the same opportunity that’s available in the west is available i mean the millions of people aren’t surviving off shear luck and survival of the fittest here yes you have to work at it but opportunity is what you make it
.-= Tommy´s last blog .. =-.
That’s a key statement you made there, Tommy. Many times people think the ‘world is smaller’ statement is just rhetoric, but in fact the world, with regard for making money as one example, has changed dramatically.
In the US, people tend to think only of the metric, are the jobs in the US or un another country? Obviously, that’s important to each person when your one particular ‘personal’ job picks up and moves away … but to the workld view, that job just shifted alot of opportunity along with it when it moved.
What we commonly just refer to as ‘call centers’ here inth ePhilippines are alot more than cubicles full of customer service or sales clerks. Several huge US corporations have moved ‘back end’ operations here, and also are doing ‘back room’ operatotions here for other countries as well as their pwn. When someone makes bank deposit in California or Kansas, the person who balances the books .. or who watches over the computer which balances the books, more accurately, may be in an office in the Philippines. “the books” for, say a sate bank in California night actually be kept by a division of CitiBank, under contract in the Philippines, and the payroll and income tax accounting for the workers in theat California bank might be done by a division of KPMG in India. So is that “California” bank really “Californian” or is it global?
The idea od a “US company” or a “Philippine company” used to be an easy concept to get your mind around …it ain;t that way any more.
After my 21 years in the Navy and Bar Owner down in Puerto Rico, I was in the states with a good paying job, as I drove home every night I knew something was missing. I’d spent my life touring the world, and St. Pete Florida just was not the world. I took what I knew how to do, and went back to sea as a Merchant Seaman based in Asia. Ten years latter I decided I’ve seen enought and had already had built a house in Dinalupihan Bataan on a mountain, (had enought sea) and retired again. The point is I have friends who work here an support them selves with out the benifit of 3 retirement checks. I’ve met people like that all over the world, and the one thing they all had in common was the will to do it! So Dave I must agree with you on that subject, You’ll never get it done if you don’t try!