10 posts tagged “philippines”

I don't know what to say about this tragedy (higeki).....

Filipino girl, 11, hangs herself in despair because family were poor | the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=492472&in_page_id=1811

Just only 100 pesos, that we cannot afford a pack of cigarette here in Japan...  Really, I don't know what to say...

Cebupot is the portal website for various information about Cebu, specialized for Japanese tourists and visitors.  As reading their webpages, Philippine DOT seems intending to increase the number of female tourists from Japan.  I also found that they DOT has been giving an attention mostly to travel agent industry in Japan.  It's obvious that putting  CM on TV and such cost a lot, but there's another way to promote travel for the Philippines to travelers other than travel agencies.

Many of Japanese frequent travelers got bored to travel for Hawaii, Guam, Saipan and other places already, Philippine would be able to be more attractive for them now I believe.  Besides, to let more visitors come, DOT and people of the Philippines should do something now, to change the atmosphere of NAIA, and eliminate rude taxi drivers, security guards and even some bad airport officials hate to, if they really wanna have more visitors from Japan.

Cebu seems okay, but I know some people saying "Philippines?  I won't go there anymore because...." adduceing those reasons.

Hmmm, I'm not sure if those bad and rude ones still exist or not, because it's been over 6 years or so since when I went to the Philippines last time.  I hope such ones no longer exist...

Introduced in "Tabi Salad."  I didn't know this resort facility in Batangas.  The reporter for the TV program MOCHIDA Maki said "We visited the resort, suburb of Manila" so that I thought it would be Puerto Azul or somewhere first.

Today's "Tabi Salad" was about Boracay Island.  I myself have been asked if I visited there by many of my Filipino friends.  I've never been there yet up until now, though.

In the TV program, I found the sea and beaches there are quite beautiful, I guess I can understand why so many tourists go there.  The reporter MOCHIDA Maki bought a cup of taho from the street vendor while she was walking on the street in the morning.  Surprisingly it costs PHP20!  She commented on that after she tasted it, said "thought it was cold but this is hot!  Kinda nice, but I think it would be more better if soy sauce was on it instead of sweet sauce, oh well but this is good enough"  She's Japanese for sure.

What I was surprised this time was that Thai Air was advertised at the end of the program, yes, it was NOT Philippine Airlines, even the program was about the travel for the Philippines.  Didn't Phil DOT guys know about this?  I'm in Tokyo and watch this program on channel 10 (TV-Asahi), but the program itself is produced and created by Osaka local TV station called Asahi-TV (ehem... confusing...), surely Thai Air has a direct flight between Osaka and Manila, but this is kinda ridiculous.  DOT guys should push creators of the program to advertise their PAL of course.  PAL flies more often from Osaka for Manila!

I still remember yet another resort island in the Philippines, damn, I've never been that island yet too, though.  It's Sicogon Island located at east of Panay.  Over 20 years ago, PAL used to put CM on TV in Japan, promoting travels for the Philippines using the video of very beautiful white sand beaches in Sicogon Island, I can't forget that scene, it's burnt in my brain still.

According to Filipinos whom I chatted on the net, also to some websites about tourismo in the Philippines, Sicogon is now a sort of abandoned resort while Boracay has been developed and gotten popularity with foreign visitors.

Even if it's abandoned and no foreign visitors there, I would prefer Sicogon.  I don't need fancy restaurants and souvenir shops in resort place, beautiful sceneries and friendly people are enough and fine to me.

And I won't buy taho at PHP20 anyways.

Boracay and Sicogon

Philippine DOT seems doing their best, the introductory review of travel for the Philippines is again introduced in the TV program, titled "Tabi Salad" which is aired at 8 o'clock morning on every Saturday on channel 10 (TV Asahi)  The reporter is the young actor MOCHIDA Maki (she's kinda cute, has fair skin and tiny, though she's not my type anyway.  I know it would never been aired in the program even if it happened, I wonder how many boys there try to pick her up, heheh) and is planned to be aired 4 times in total.

I watched its first time.  She visited Quiapo, Intramuros and some other areas in Metro Manila, and although there was no description or caption, Las Pinas church which is famous with its bamboo pipe organ  Then she flied to Bicol, visiting Donsol, Sorsogon to experience Whalesharks watching there.

I've been to some places in Bicol some times (just once for Sorsogon, though), but it's my first time to hear the name of Donsol.  MOCHIDA reports that it's about a hour away from Legazpi city by car.

Donsol

It was expected to be started already, several hundreds Filipino caregivers would be here in Japan to work and to be trained for Japanese language, local custom, laws and regulations.  And both of the Philippine and our government are  hoping that they Filipino caregivers will remain here for long.

To our nation Japan, it would be so helpful to supply a gap caused by decreasing labor force (birth rate has turned to negative already since the year of 2006 in Japan, yes, many of Japanese women don't wanna have children today) if we could invite caretakers from the Philippines.  And of course, it would be good also to the local labor issue in the Philippines, to it would be chances to Filipino people to have more job opportunities.

In the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) between the Philippines and Japan, there are many strict conditions for delopyment and acceptance of Filipino caretakers.  But the most tough one must be language.  Under the related laws of this project, Japan requires Filipino caretakers to study Japanese language for 6 months after they arrival.  I know many of them are studying Japanese language already in the Philippines, but I bet it would be not enough in their jobs here.  I wonder why our government thought and decided 6 months would be enough.

In our daily lives here in Japan, especially non-private/casual communication such as in business, "I can read and write both of Katanata and Hiragana" is definitely inadequate.  Some Filipino ex-entertainers who have been living in Japan work as caretakers at nursing homes here, but in most cases they (both of those Filipinas and their employers) are facing the serious problems.  Yes it's about language or communication between elder people there or its staffs.

Since the most of those ex-entertainers have been living here in Japan for long, they speak fluent Japanese, wouldn't have problems for communications with Japanese people.  But once when they need to write or read something memos or papers written in Japanese, they would be in trouble.

This happened some nursing homes specialized for Japanese old and retired people built in the Philippines too, some of those facilities were introduced in local medias sometimes, but as far as I know none of them have succeeded.  Those older people are lonely, being away from their family, children and relatives, and they don't speak foreign language at all. Such nursing homes always say in their brochures and such that "we have Japanese speaking staffs" but those are just advertising and not enough to make them old Japanese grandfathers and grandmothers not to be lonely.

Here's another story.  According to laws (of Japan) for the project say that those Filipino workers should pass the national license test of caretakers within 4-6 years (duh I don't remember how many years...).   By  passing that test (and have that national license), he/she will be able to remain to work in Japan for more.  That's one of Japanese government's expectations for sure, they hope Filipino caretakers to settle, not as temporary workers or seasonal employees.

Besides, their hope won't be realized at last I think.  I guess many of those Filipino caretakers won't prefer to settle here in Japan.  Then what will happen?  They will come here to Japan just as migrant workers.  And that's not Japanese government expect anyway.  Then our government should develop additional systems for them more, such as "giving citizenship or permanent visa if he/she has been working" like in Canada.  Oh yeah, of course Philippine government doesn't want them to be Japanese citizens, though.

As a final note, some other countries' governments push ours to accept caretakers from their countries, the Japanese government might change in policy to invite/accept Filipinos if it won't work as they expected.

It has been over years since when I enjoyed chatting on IRC last time.  It's fun to meet new people and talking to friends online.  Besides, I've seen too many of idiots and freaks at such chat places on the Net, everytime I met those asses I was about to quit chatting.  It would be fine to kick their butts hard really if it happened in real life, but it's impossible just because it is thing happens online.

Earlier today, I connected to the IRC server (I don't describe which IRC network was here), then joined few channels that I used to keep sitting often before.  I couldn't find anyone among regulars at those channels whom I knew, this means I became older maybe.

Since I'm old enough now, I think I know it's better not to give a damn to those assholes, I was just watching my chatmates getting mad at those rude chatters in channels, and told her/him "calm down..."  Or, I just didn't know that he/she enjoyed teasing brainless childish (real kids huh?) chatters.  If so, saying "calm down" might be just my OSSEKAI.  And I don't like chatters who ask me "asl?" thingy.  Is this because I'm an old guy now? LOL

Few days ago, it was not IRC, I was trying to install some programs on my PC.  When I finished installing Gaim (multi-protocol support chat program), someone sent me a msg suddenly.  I couldn't recall his nick at that time, but soon he started to call me my old nickname on IRC.  I found he's one of my old fellow chatmates!  And he told me his dad is sick now.

I met his parents few times, and it's been a long time since I stopped hearing from them.  He also thanked me about Linux CD which I sent him years ago, said it's very useful to study about computers, I'm glad to know that.  Yeah he was a college student when we used to talk a lot almost everyday.

I'm not sure when will I visit the Philippines next time at this point, but the list of that I should visit in the Phils becomes longer again.

Yappari it was good to chat on the net, it made me to have really nice friends I guess....