Filipinos are caring, loving and forgiving people

The Filipinos are known to be very loving, caring and forgiving people.
These are the same reasons why they are sometimes abused and exploited in many parts of the world.
These are the reasons why they try to protect the lives of every individual (relatively the good ones even the bad) to the best of the means available.
These are the reason why they love to see the news in order to know what is happening to fellow filipinos whether positive or negative and in real time and sometimes biased to the negative end.
These are the reasons why Filipinos tend to be gullible at times specially with media's repetitive style of news telling.
These positive traits of the Filipinos forms part of the foundation of their strengths and weaknesses as a people.
Because of these, the Filipinos have many experiences to build upon, painful and pleasant, good and bad, old and recent, that will further make Filipinos more loving, caring, forgiving and hopefully wiser and more prepared for the future.
This is how I see us Filipinos.
Despite all these and knowing our resilience and strong faith there will surely be a better country for all of us soon.
Let us all move on as one but let us not forget the lessons from the past. If we have an opportunity to fly then let's fly as one.
Let's build more on our strengths instead of highlighting our weaknesses.
Let's look more upward on the positive and not downward towards the negative.

OFWs to OFEs

I am proposing to stop calling overseas workers as OFWs. Instead, maybe we can call them OFEs or Overseas Filipino Expats. Expat is the term we use for foreigners working in the country and any other country. Expat sometime denotes experts or skilled professional workers even if these foreign workers (in Philippines) have problems in communication. The capabilities, dedication and quality of Filipinos are equal if not better than foreign counterparts. This has been proven in all parts of the world already as evidenced by the continued preference of multinationals to get Filipino Expats whenever and wherever possible.

Also, why not call Caregivers as Healthcare Experts and domestic helpers as Homecare Specialists.

Nice Comments

I found the article below on the 17th July 2010 issue of Manila Bulletin and since this blog was created to promote positive things about our country and its people, I think it is but reasonable to have it as my first post.

I hope we can all share good things about our country and people. You are invited to post your positive comments on issues affecting the country, stories, pictures, news and anything good about our country. It may include new developments, improvement in life even small and other news. No bad news will be allowed here unless it is written in a positive way. Anyway, we already have so many negative news in the tabloid papers and TVs.

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Here’s a heartwarming commentary by American Steve Ray about Filipinos.

A convert from the Baptist faith to Catholicism, Steve is now a worldwide speaker and best-selling author. He writes:

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“We stepped into the church and it was old and a bit dark. Mass had just begun and we sat toward the front. We didn’t know what to expect here in Istanbul, Turkey. I guess we expected it to be a somber Mass but it was not. I thought I heard angels joyously singing behind me.

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“It was not a choir of angels but a group of delightful Filipino Catholics with smiles of delight and joy on their faces as they worshiped God and sang His praises. I had seen this many times before in Rome, in Israel, in the United States, and other countries.

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“Filipinos have special traits and they are beautifully expressed as I gazed at the happy throng giving thanks to God. What are these special traits?

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“FIRST, there is a sense of community, of family. These Filipino Christians did not sit apart from each other in different aisles. They sat together, closely. They are family even if they are not related.

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“SECOND, they have an inner peace and joy which is rare in the world today. When most of the world’s citizens are worried and fretful, I have found Filipinos to have joy and peace – a deep sense of God’s love that over-shadows them. They have problems too, yet there is still a sense of happy trust in God and love of neighbor.

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“THIRD, There is also something that Filipinos are famous for around the world – their love for the Blessed Mother. Among the many Filipinos I have met, the affectionate title for Mary I always hear from their lips is ‘Mama Mary.’ For these gentle folks, Mary is not just a theological idea, a historical person, or a statue in a church. Mary is the mother of their Lord and their mother as well, their ‘mama.’”

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“The Philippines is a Catholic nation – the only such nation in Asia – and this wonderful country exports missionaries around the world. They are not hired to be missionaries. No, they are workers and educators, doctors, nurses, and housekeepers that go to other lands and travel to the far reaches of the earth, and everywhere they go, they take the joyous gospel of Jesus with them.

* * *

“My hope and prayer is that the Filipino people will continue to keep these precious qualities. I pray that they will continue loving their families, loving the Catholic Church, reading the Bible, loving Jesus, His Mother, and the Eucharist.”

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