What is life like in the Philippines?

 

Ghemma Marie

 

Working NomadApr 7

This question was originally posted 15 years ago but its been revised and merged by Quora moderation. If I’m going to answer this base on my situation 15 years ago, I would say life in the Philippines is like living in a bubble.

Btw I’m not an expat, so my answer is base on a different perspective. But living outside the Philippines for a short while, I can see the difference how Filipino culture makes them standout, but at the same time, its the same reason preventing them/us from overcoming poverty.

Your quality of lifestyle there depends on your capability to sustain a certain “average” standard of living. There are rich, upper/middle/lower class, poor, “poorest” of the poor. So which one? Speaking as someone who live in the rural north, I can say its pretty exciting and challenging. I experienced the perks of simplicity living in the rural.

Life is good for sure to those rich and in those living the middle class range. They can afford to travel, unwind from time to time and they don’t worry that much when calamity strikes. The Philippines is a tropical paradise to those who can afford it but a total shithole to those who can’t.

At least that’s how I can see it. The only thing that makes the Philippines “remarkable” is how friendly and approachable most people are. You can ask anyone for, say, a direction of specific location and they don’t hesitate to help you.

Now, the reason why I say living there is like living inside a bubble is almost everyone is super occupied with themselves. Gossip. Systemic problems. There's nothing wrong with that, only we are distracted with all those systemic problems and how to survive on our own, we don’t know what’s happening outside our perimeter, we focus on how we provide the next dinner on the table – and honestly, that’s convenient for those in power. When was the last time Filipinos talked as a country about where the world is going?

Why do Filipinos want to be light skinned instead of their traditional dark skin?

 

Ghemma Marie

 · 

PhilippinesUpdated Jul 13

Why do Filipinos want to be light skinned instead of their traditional dark skin?

I remember someone says it's a “blessing to have a fair skin” and “a person with fair skin colour is blessed”. Sigh. Lol. I can't hide my amusement.

White people, don't get offended, please.

I want to emphasize that it's not only a Filipino thing wanting to be fair skinned but to some South East Asians as well. Same as white people wanting to be tan.

Two factors influenced why Filipinos highly regarded fair skin colour. It's a symbol of beauty and higher social class. The Tagalog phrase “Maganda sana, maitim lang” ( She's beautiful if only fairer) describes how most Filipinos considers fairer skin (and other western facial features) as more attractive compare to natural Filipino features.

I'm not surprised though, it's been ingrained (since history of colonization) that having a lighter skin symbolizes a higher social status, dark skin colour classifies someone of lower class status (slaves, farm workers, bandits). The mentality evolved from generation to generation until having a fair skin is a pre requisite for someone to be called beautiful. Aside from that, because Filipinos mostly can understand English, they look at Hollywood movies, fashion shows and even beauty magazines.

Below are images of indigenous people with “traditional dark skin”. Pure native Filipinos is rare I guess nowadays.

Mangyan people

Agta (Aeta)

Igorot

Isnag

However, take note, this is just a skin colour preferences for most Filipinos due to some influences (history, media). Filipinos still proud of being a Filipino regardless of what tribe they belong to.

Do Filipinos enjoy eating chicken feet, heart, liver, kidney, etc. cooked with vinegar and onions? If so, what is the reason for their preference for these offal parts?

 

Ghemma Marie

 

Philippines

Is it only the Filipinos? Almost our neighboring Asians eat animal parts that are considered by other nations as discard.

I think it's not about preference. It is about survival that makes people eat something that is considered taboo to other nationalities. The Filipinos in the past had experienced extreme hunger because of war, famine, natural calamities and mostly survived on fruits, root crops, grains than can be easily found in the sorroundings. It is unlikely that meat is a common part of the diet as during those days people live like a nomadic lifestyle (fleeing from place to place). Before the introduction of raising animals for food consumption, they hunt wild animals and fish as a source of protein, and from there, they consider every part of the carcass as edible because, come on, it's rare and it is a part of a tasty meal as well.

In regards to the mentioned “vinegar and onion" with the addition of ginger, and black pepper, salt to taste and also birds eye chillies. Literally it is not common to only add vinegar and onion to cook Filipino dishes. There are dishes or appetizers as we called, that uses native vinegar and onion, with the addition of other ingredients of course, like fish ceviché jumping salad, and paksiw dishes.

A jumping salad is pouring a mixture of vinegar, salt, onion, chili, ginger into a bowl of fresh (moving) small shrimps making the animals to jump while they're eaten alive.

Back to the main topic, yes, almost every part of the slaughtered animal are eaten. Balls, brain, eyes, nose, ears, tonque, heart, gizzard, kidneys, intestines, trotter, knuckles, blood, snout. These are meat discards but Filipinos, along with other Asian countries have a unique way of preparing it and transforming it into an exotic and tasty dish.

Let's take a look;

1. India's Rakti or blood fry.

2. Singapore's pig organ soup.

3. Japan's Horumon Yaki

4. Taiwan's Milkfish deep fried and soup intestines.

5. China's stewed lung and intestines.

6. Indonesia goat liver Satay and fried pig tongue Padang

7. Philippines’s meat and pig brain dinakdakan

Chicken intestine isaw

Blood stew dinuguan

Goat/ cow meat and intestine pinapaitan. (Using bile as a one of the flavourings to attain that slightly bitter taste, the name came from the root word “pait” means bitter.

Chicken gizzard and liver adobo.

Bopis, a spicy dish of minced pork, heart, kidney and lungs.

Braised chicken feet

6. Arab’s Pacha (grilled sheep's eyeballs).

Now, have you heard of placenta? Just kidding.

Do Filipinos point with their lips?

 

Ghemma Marie

A wanderer who thinks Middle East is the new heaven.

515 followers

153 following

Hard-core introvert, fierce but compassionate, partly IP, a self-proclaimed advocate for Indigenous People, a proud Cordilleran.

I love to pour my heart out through writings, in it I can laugh, I can cry, I can scream my heart out.

I didn’t intend to offend, but I’m not inspired to flatter either. Genuine friendship is rare.

I value people who respect people no matter how they differ physically, intellectually, who doesn't see social status as a hindrance for genuine friendship.

I'm not offended, rather I found this question amusing.

Yes. We do lip-pointing like this.

Or this:

To point at something using our index fingers, is sometimes mistaken as being rude.

Like this:

I remember asking my mother where did she put my keys, and without a word moved her body towards the direction she's pointing to, pointing with her puckered lips.

“Over there!”

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Disclaimer:

I'm receiving negative feedback from some people claiming they’re Filipinos. IMO, lip pointing isn't meant to degrade Filipinos, on the contrary, this is to show that we do see funny positive things in every day to day situation. I want to reiterate that lip pointing is an informal way of pointing at something. Specially if someone is busy at the moment(most mothers), most scenario are if both of her hands are occupied/doing something. But common sense, we don’t do it like this if we are in a formal event, or if we need to point at something to strangers/ formal people.

Formally, we do hand gestures like this: