Philippines Medical Issues and Doctors

  Filipinos get sick like everybody else does. The Philippines itself is a crowded place, and probably the fact that there is less space between people means that people catch bugs regularly. So if you have a Filipina sweetheart, you will have to deal with her getting sick sometimes. And every Australian man in an Australian Filipina relationship needs to learn a few peculiarities about Philippines medical issues and doctors.    

 

Being OA – Over-Acting

I will tell everyone who asks that your average Filipina is a survivor and a pretty capable lady. Usually a pretty lady too, but that’s off-track. If she needs to stand in queues all day or take long bus trips or work long hours, yes she can do so. However if she feels unwell, will she put on a brave face and say the Tagalog equivalent of “She’ll be right!”? Not likely! Not with her man especially. She will moan and groan. She will cry easily. She may look like she’s about to fall off the perch. Then she will burp and say she feels better now! Don’t apply this rule-of-thumb to each and every situation, of course. You may miss something serious, and I don’t want you blaming poor Jeff for it! Take note that Filipina ladies love being fussed-over by a loving and caring man, so I do suspect that this may be part of it. But do yourselves a favour and learn the difference between a bit of OA, and a genuine need for medical attention. It can take you years to work out, let me tell you!  

Generic Medicine and Self-Prescribing

This is a country where you can buy most medicines over the counter at the pharmacy with no prescription. No strong painkillers or sedatives, but things like antibiotics? Most definitely. So people self-prescribe. Let me explain what’s wrong with that! Generic Medicine: What this means is cheap drugs with questionable quality coming in from China mostly. So whilst it may be the right drug, it might be ineffective on the disease. As far as I can gather, you can reasonably rely on the larger pharmacy chains. Need to avoid the generic medicine places. Relying on unqualified advice: Relying on the neighbor telling you that Amoxicillin will work, or taking what they took for their condition which surely must be the same as yours! If it’s the wrong medicine it simply won’t do anything, obviously. And the danger with antibiotics is the build-up of drug-resistant bacteria out there. I’ll explain that shortly! Only taking until you feel better: Very common scenario. Go to the chemist/pharmacy in the Philippines and ask for a particular medicine and they will ask you how many you want! Seriously! In Australia? You get the box, and with antibiotics you know you need to finish the entire course whether you feel better or not. Here? You get as many or as few as you can afford, and then stop. Common with blood pressure (hypertension) or “high blood” as it’s called here. People take the medicine when they feel bad, and stop taking it as soon as they feel better. Very dangerous!  

Drug-Resistant Organisms

I mentioned Amoxicillin before. It’s even available in some sari sari stores here, and it’s the stock standard antibiotic that most Filipino grandmas and helpful neighbors will suggest. And there are plenty of cheap generics around too. AND people may only take 3 – 4 of them when they get sick. Drug resistance means that if you go in to wipe out some bacteria with a weak dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic (like Amoxicillin) and you wipe out half the population of bacteria, which ones do you think survive? The stronger ones, obviously. And if you keep using the same drug time and time again, then some of the surviving bacteria….the tough guys…..may manage to form genetic mutations which are totally unaffected by that drug. Your doctor will know when an organism is showing resistance, and will prescribe something else which is more likely to wipe out even the mutating tough-guy bacteria. In other words, minimum dosing with poor quality medicine just makes the bugs stronger and harder to control. A dangerous game for an amateur to play!  

Avoidance of doctors

I suppose much of this comes from being short of money. Remember that this is a country where there is no Medicare or Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme like there is in Australia. Going to the doctor costs money. Proper medication costs money. Blood tests, ECG’s, XRAYs, etc, these all cost money. So much of this would have come from a history of not being able to afford proper treatment, so you will generally find the scenario is something like this: “Ohhhh, aray ko! Masakit!.......” and the sounds of suffering. You say “You better go to the doctor!”, and you will get “Nooooooooo. No, not the doctor. No, I’ll be fine!” Sound familiar, gentlemen? Most of us know that most medical conditions can be treated and managed when you get onto them quickly. Many conditions left untreated can deteriorate and cause death, and this happens in the Philippines all the time. High blood pressure (hypertension, “high blood”): Often undiagnosed, and often unmedicated. Diets high in salt and high in fat play a part, and untreated can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Diabetes: Eating absurdly large quantities of rice, too much sugar, fried foods and assorted junk food. Untreated leads to amputations, blindness and plenty of other nasties. Breast cancer and cervical cancer: Ask your lady if she’s ever had a pap smear, or if she knows how to check her boobs for lumps? I bet the answer is NO. Ask her right now, and you may be in for a shock.   You put the hard yards in meeting a wonderful lady, developing a precious relationship and struggling through the visa minefield so you can lead a happy life. Make sure you take care of her and make sure she takes care of herself so you can enjoy each other for a very long time.    

The following blog post Philippines Medical Issues and Doctors wasRead more at: Filipina Wives

Bukas na lang! Impulsive Filipinos

  I write many an article about life in the Philippines and about understanding Filipino culture and mindset, and I can see a positive side to most things. Wonderful, kind-hearted people who have a lot to teach us hard-hearted “foreigners”, as I’m sure most involved in Australian Filipina relationships learn to realise. But this is one area where I must admit I find myself struggling to understand, and that is why Filipinos tend to act with impulsiveness with little to no thought of long-term ramifications and sometimes tragic results that hurt them more than anybody else.    

  “Bukas na lang” means “Ahhhh, leave it for tomorrow.” Let’s not think about it today. Again, I love this place and I love the Filipino people here. This is my home. But my goodness, I find this so difficult. What I’m talking about is Filipinos making decisions to suit right now, and to hell with the consequences. Sometimes this is tied-up with pride, hurt feelings, etc. See the previous article on “onion skin” and how easy it is for Filipinos to get their feelings hurt, and how this can lead to careless decisions. But it’s not just that. It applies to so many things. There’s a lack of forward planning, and decisions are made without considering consequences in the short or long term.  

Impulsive behavior - Filipinos AND Australians

We can all be impulsive. Our emotions and our hormones can make us do stupid things which we later regret. Those Australian men who’ve got themselves involved with a pretty girl who’s just plain wrong for them because her attractiveness made our brains switch off, yes I’m sure they (We? Yes, I’ve done it too!) can relate to the folly of impulsiveness. Fear can be a motivator too, ie. fear of losing what appears a great deal. If we’re angry we can say things we wouldn’t normally say. But most of the time we try not to do this, and we try to consider the medium and long terms. Filipinos though? I suppose maybe its emotion (ie fear, pride, love/desire, anger, embarrassment, etc) which motivates a lot of short-term decisions. There just seems to be less decisiveness in trying to avoid rash decisions than you will see in your average Aussie. Emotions tend to rule the day, and very little is done to fight this. Little in the way of internal struggle, or even useful advice beyond the clichéd mutterings of “He/she is not thinking of his/her future!”  

You are not thinking of your future!

Has everyone heard this one? This is what they say when the teenage girl drops out of college because she’s pregnant to her boyfriend. Their situation caused not only by sexual attraction, but by a lack of planning…..family planning! He didn’t bring condoms. She never insisted on them! But whether it’s that, or the kid simply not taking studies seriously, or tossing in a job opportunity because it meant would miss the family and friends, that’s the common response. Everyone says they were not “thinking of their future”, but this often lacks weight because the person who says it rarely thinks of their own future either. Before I came here permanently, and when I had just been a frequent visitor, I still thought mostly as an Aussie. How else could I? I grew up in Australia! In Australia I was always acutely aware of the “wolf at the door”. Always aware that the world was a scary place, and that it would eat you alive without you having security and stability. House….money in the bank….safety from the elements and from “bad guys”, etc. Yet Australia has safety nets that the Philippines doesn’t have. You can’t “get the dole” or be placed in a nice housing commission house if you find yourself on the street with no money. Here? No money and no house means you go hungry and you may sleep in the rain. Is that enough to motivate the average person, especially those with family to support, to work hard and to hang onto a job? Not necessarily. I can remember a job I had years ago in Sydney. Had wife and baby at home at the time. I was in my 20’s and it was the late 80’s. And no, I didn’t have a mullet hairstyle. I was just a whole lot slimmer. I had a manager at work insult me, and he did it in front of others. And I sat there and took it. Would have liked to have got up and told him to stick the job where the sun didn’t shine, but no I sat there in silence. Because if I had done so, I would have let my family down and our future plans to move up to QLD when we had enough money for a house deposit would have been put off for maybe years. And that would never have been OK.  

Here? Let’s think of some occasions of Filipinos not “thinking of their future”:

• Had a driver (with wife and two kids) try to side-swipe a motorbike in our car (with child passenger) because the motorbike driver had given him “the dirty finger”. I shouted at our driver and told him never to do a thing like that again. Later had his wife text message us with his resignation, because his feelings were hurt. He went back to driving his tricyle.
• Same driver it seems had a few arguments with a subdivision guard. Went home…got a gun….pointed it at the guard’s head. Fortunately his late-father was in the NBI, so his old mates collected his home armory and no charges were laid, or he would have been in jail now over hurt feelings.
• Office security guard learns someone is squatting in his house in the province. Gets on the bus. Gets a gun. Fully intends shooting the squatters. Not sure why he didn’t succeed, but nearly did. Also a family man, and would have dumped his family because his anger won the day.
• Domestic helper with six kids, useless husband (doesn’t work, and has mistresses). Lived in poverty, and resembled a broomstick. Worked with us. Good salary. Had plans for building a proper house. Husband tells her to come visit. Fakes having a stroke (yes, I’m serious!), which the doctor identified in examination as fake. Did all this because she loved him and missed him, and lost what would have been long-term employment and a good future for kids.

  Basically, we’ve had to learn how to talk to staff very carefully and at the same time expect to see good employees throw everything away if they feel embarrassed or get their feelings hurt. Hang the consequences. Forget about taking it on the chin, because life is just like that. Forget what ol’ Malcolm Fraser said about “Life was not meant to be easy”! We already have to put up with staff needing to take days off because it’s their birthday, or it’s their child’s birthday, or someone asked them to be a bridesmaid at their wedding which is taking place on a work day. We’ve had staff telling us they wanted to visit their mum for her birthday in the province the evening before. Me? I sit here and work when I have a fever, or with a bad headache, or when my back is giving me merry hell. Because if I don’t do what is required, then my business will suffer and my clients will go elsewhere. Who could blame them? And that’s just reality. Yes, getting a little off-track here onto work-ethic issues, but it’s all part of it. I really do wonder why so many Filipinos take the path of least resistance. There is a wolf at the door in Australia, but there’s a whole pack of Filipino wolves here in the and they have rabies! Let your emotions get the better of you in the Philippines, and you lose out badly! And no, sadly I don’t have any answers. If you intend to have dealings with Filipinos, you can expect to come across this difficult phenomena.  

The following post Bukas na lang! Impulsive Filipinos wasis courtesy of Jeff Harvie of Down Under Visa

The Filipino Finders Fee! Microeconomy at its most dubious!

  I’m an Australian through and through, and where I come from you never try to rip off a mate. Business is business, and we’re all entitled to earn a living, but when it comes to friends, family and neighbours we take a different approach. And so do many in the Philippines, but not everyone! There are those who always have their hands out for a finders fee, and those in Australian Filipina relationships need to learn about this.  

Look a little familiar??

   

What is a finders fee? Is it a commission?

OK, of course it’s easy to criticize when you’re in the luxurious position of being able to say “Oh, no. That’s OK. I don’t want any money.” And it’s a lot harder when you are living day-to-day. Life can be very hard in the Philippines, and there is a distinct lack of safety nets. However for many, they could do better if they thought beyond the immediate opportunities and reaped the longer-term rewards that come from integrity. What it means essentially that there are people here in the Philippines who will always “top up” a cost, so as to include something for themselves, or they’ll just outwardly ask for their cut. In most cases not something that bothers the locals very much, because they come to expect it. And they may even do the same thing themselves, so don’t see the problem. And of course if someone genuinely works for something, they are entitled to make some money. You get someone running errands, standing in lines, negotiating on your behalf, well then sure. If they didn’t include it in the price at the start, you would tend to give them a decent tip anyway. The one that’s annoying is the unearned or barely-earned fee. The Filipino who does practically nothing, then wants to profit from it.  

Examples of questionable finders fees

• “Hello neighbour! Do you know a good plumber?” Neighbour texts a plumber he knows. Plumber turns up and works. At the end of the job, the neighbor hits up the plumber for a finders fee.
• We had a driver once who used to tell businesses that we dealt with that they were the one who directed us to go there, and would stick his hand out for payment.
• Same driver found a masseuse for Mila who would come to the house. Used to get a cut each and every time the masseuse came here.
• Needed an NSO birth certificate for our daughter Remy (many years back). A relative volunteered. She was late-registered, and relative claimed the birth certificate became more expensive the later it was registered. Would have simply paid her for her time if she had asked, but it was the lying that I never quite forgot.
• Distant relative told us of a farm for sale in the province. A bit of a bargain. Did nothing more than this. Found out later wanted a HUGE cut from the seller. On principle we just walked away.

 

Finders fees. The problem.

Again, this is mainly a problem when you don’t expect it. Australians traditionally don’t work that way. You help out a mate, and you are 100% upfront with them. If you help them pour a concrete slab, you are happy with beer and a good feed at the end. You also know you can count on them if you need help, in the same way that Filipinos accumulate utang na loob. However that’s very much a back-of-the-mind thing. If you never need help with concreting, it would never bother you. We loaned some money to a very honorable couple of relatives recently. They wanted to let us plant rice on their farm in return. Mila told them directly that I would never even think of that. Aussies don’t make profit from those we are close to. It doesn’t feel right. And decent Filipinos feel the same. But there are always those who don’t.  

Back to those you could, should, or with time will come to expect it from!

You can expect the taxi driver who suggests a particular hotel to come in with you when you check in, and get a little handout. You may have a guard at the airport who suggests a particular hotel and says “Give them this card”, which is a card with his name on. Yes, he’s organizing a payment for himself later. If someone at the hotel offers to organize a beautician to do a manicure for your wife, they will get a small cut. If a staff member asks if you need a good money changer, they have some in mind who will give them a handout. When you’ve been here long enough, you know this and it doesn’t bother you. I actually admire this, because they’re showing some initiative. They help me out, and they make a bit. I’m fine with that. And at the end of the day, they’re just trying to support their families a little bit better. And again, to me? Business is business. Where I have a problem is when it’s someone whom you trust, or where it’s a blatant ripoff. Or when it’s an employee of yours making profit in excess of the salary you pay them. The other thing is when they see the white man foreigner and they go for the big rip-off. The taxi driver who charges 10 times the prices because he may just get away with it. Makes a big profit today if he gets away with it, but will never get repeat business. No doubt hard to resist when the opportunity is there, but there is this thing called integrity. Those who do act with integrity and don’t take advantage of short-term opportunities can instead win the trust of those around them and build a strong reputation for honest dealing which will pay off far more over time.    

The following post The Filipino Finders Fee! Microeconomy at its most dubious! wasFind more at: Jeff Harvie of Down Under Visa