This might not be the typical expat blog, written by a German expat, living in the Philippines since 1999. It's different. In English and in German. Check it out! Enjoy reading!
Dies mag' nun wirklich nicht der typische Auswandererblog eines Deutschen auf den Philippinen sein. Er soll etwas anders sein. In Englisch und in Deutsch! Viel Spass beim Lesen!
You plan to move to the Philippines? Wollen Sie auf den Philippinen leben?
There are REALLY TONS of websites telling us how, why, maybe why not and when you'll be able to move to the Philippines. I only love to tell and explain some things "between the lines". Enjoy reading, be informed, have fun and be entertained too!
Ja, es gibt tonnenweise Webseiten, die Ihnen sagen wie, warum, vielleicht warum nicht und wann Sie am besten auf die Philippinen auswandern könnten. Ich möchte Ihnen in Zukunft "zwischen den Zeilen" einige zusätzlichen Dinge berichten und erzählen. Viel Spass beim Lesen und Gute Unterhaltung!
Visitors of germanexpatinthephilippines/Besucher dieser Webseite.Ich liebe meine Flaggensammlung!
In a post shared on social media, Sue revealed how giving up coffee, soft drinks, and vaping has done wonders for her body—and more importantly, for her peace of mind.
In a world where temptation is everywhere and change feels daunting, actress Sue Ramirez is proof that transformation is still possible and it begins with just one decision.
In a post shared on social media, Sue revealed how giving up coffee, soft drinks, and vaping has done wonders for her body—and more importantly, for her peace of mind.
“I just want to share my goals for myself since June, and so far, I am very consistent,” she wrote. “Only goes to show that we just have to decide and stand by it if we want change. One day was all I needed. A new awakening. Just one switch inside you, and you are possible to do anything.”
That “switch” turned out to be life-changing.
She parted ways with long-standing habits she once believed she couldn’t live without—and in return, she gained clarity, energy, and a renewed sense of control over her well-being.
“Now, I have stopped drinking coffee and soft drinks and I also stopped vaping. Habits I thought I could never remove from my system,” she admitted. “Now I feel so much better without them.”
But it wasn’t just a change of routine—it was a radical act of self-love. And Sue isn’t keeping it to herself.
In a follow-up post, she urged her followers to “stop vaping,” encouraging others to honor their health the same way she did.
Her journey, however, wasn’t only about cutting out vices.
In a separate post, Sue shared a personal story of physical recovery after tearing two ligaments between November and January. The pain was intense and relentless—immobilizing her for nearly four months and robbing her of sleep.
“Painful? Sobra. Unimaginably so. But looking back, I get amazed at our body’s ability to heal,” she reflected. “You go from being immobilized, to slowly regaining strength. You build muscle around the injury, and then one day you just wake up and realize you’re okay.”
That powerful moment of realization—“You’re okay”—is one that Sue now wears like a badge of honor. And in it lies the message she wants her fans to hear: Healing is real. Change is possible. And your body—like your spirit—is stronger than you think.
“The process of healing in our bodies is applicable in life,” she said. “Pain becomes manageable. Growth takes time. But we do get there.”
The kutyapi (Boat lute) is a traditional Filipino string instrument with distinct cultural and musical significance.
In various Philippine languages, the instrument is also called: kutyapi, kutiapi (Maguindanaon), kotyapi (Maranao), kotapi (Subanon), fegereng (Tiruray), faglong, fuglung (B'laan), kudyapi (Bukidnon and Tagbanwa), hegelong (T’boli), kuglong, kadlong, kudlong or kudlung (Manobo, Mansaka, Mandaya, Bagobo and Central Mindanao), and kusyapi (Palawan).
Here are some key facts about it:
1. Type of Instrument: The kudyapi (also called kutyapi) is a two-stringed lute, traditionally played in Mindanao and Palawan regions of the Philippines.
2. Materials Used: It is typically made from solid wood, with the body carved into a boat-like shape. The strings are usually made of natural fibers, nylon, or metal.
3. Number of Strings: It has two strings—one used for playing the melody and the other as a drone.
4. Cultural Significance: The kudyapi is commonly associated with the indigenous groups in Mindanao, such as the Maguindanao, Maranao, and Manobo peoples. It is an integral part of their rituals, courtship, and storytelling.
5. Tuning and Play Style: The strings are tuned to different pitches, often in pentatonic scales. It is played by plucking, sometimes with a plectrum or by fingerpicking.
6. Decoration: The kudyapi is often decorated with intricate carvings and designs, reflecting the culture and artistry of the community it belongs to.
7. Traditional Use: It is used to accompany chants, poetry, and traditional dances. The music often carries themes of love, heroism, or social commentary.
8. Contemporary Use: Today, the kudyapi is also used in modern Filipino music and performances as a way to preserve and promote Filipino cultural heritage.
After feeding me a full meal — salad, noodle soup, chicken, dessert — my children led me, meek as a lamb about to be sacrificed on the altar, to the deepest section of the drugstore where a nurse was waiting for patients.
The nurse was in a jumpsuit in two shades of blue, looking more like a pilot in training. She asked me only two questions. Any allergies? Are you on medication? Before I knew it, I had rolled up my left sleeve — she was administering the anti-flu shot on my upper arm.
Painless, not even a sting, and the whole procedure was over in seconds! It had cost my children ₱999 minus a 25 percent discount for senior citizens. Not only was the nurse superefficient, she wasted no time in advising me to take a paracetamol or use a cold compress in the event that I would develop a fever.
No, I did not. But the procedure reminded me of the Covid-19 pandemic when everyone in their right mind had to submit themselves to the vaccine that required two booster shots over a period of time. This time, with the flu as a merely seasonal inconvenience, one shot without a followup is all that’s required.
The question is, why so expensive? If millions will take the shot, would the demand raise or lower the cost of the drug? Thing is, better to spend ₱999 and flee the flu than be caught and having to pay the price: fever, sneezing, running nose, sleeplessness, infecting people at home, at work, in public places such as malls, etc.
In the meantime, would it be wise to go back to wearing a face mask in public, like we used to in 2020 until 2023? There are other safeguards. Don’t stop taking your vitamin C. Don’t get wet in the rain. Listen to the weather report and take your cue. It is the season of the “habagat” (monsoon rains) as meteorologists call it.
Me, I love the sight of people running under the shelter of their umbrellas. As Tony Bennett’s song goes, “Out of doorways black umbrellas came to pursue me... faceless people as they passed were looking through me, no one knew me...”
Eigentlich besteht kein Anspruch auf Witwenrente, wenn die Ehe kürzer als ein Jahr war. In bestimmten Fällen gibt es Ausnahmen, wie ein Gericht entschied.
Berlin – Der Tod einer Partnerin oder eines Partners kann für viel Unruhe im Leben sorgen. Um dennoch finanziell abgesichert zu sein, gibt es die Witwenrente. Grundsätzlich können Hinterbliebene Witwenrente beantragen, wenn die Ehe mindestens ein Jahr bestanden hat und man bis zum Tod des Partners verheiratet war. Doch bei einem Ehepaar winkte das Gericht die Witwenrente durch, obwohl die Partner kürzer als ein Jahr miteinander verheiratet waren.
Anspruch auf Witwenrente – Gericht fällt überraschendes Urteil
In bestimmten Fällen sind nämlich Ausnahmen möglich. Auf solch eine weist die Arbeitsgemeinschaft Familienrecht des Deutschen Anwaltvereins (DAV) mit Blick auf eine Entscheidung des Sozialgerichts Stuttgart (Az: S 24 R 4315/21) hin. Im konkreten Fall waren ein Mann und sein Lebensgefährte seit rund fünf Jahren ein Paar, bevor sie beschlossen zu heiraten. Das verkündeten sie auch im Freundes- und Bekanntenkreis.
Sieben Monate später wurde bei dem Mann nach einem Verkehrsunfall ein Hirntumor diagnostiziert, der nur palliativ behandelt werden konnte. Weitere neun Monate später wurde die Ehe geschlossen. Sie bestand dann nur knapp drei Monate, weil der Mann starb.
Witwenrente trotz kurzer Ehe – wann das möglich ist
Der Witwer beantragte eine Witwerrente, die Rentenversicherung lehnte den Antrag ab, da die Ehe weniger als ein Jahr dauerte. Das sah das Gericht anders. Es war überzeugt, dass gewichtige Umstände gegen eine Versorgungsehe sprachen. Der Wunsch, nach mehreren Jahren des Zusammenlebens zu heiraten, um die gemeinsame Liebe offiziell zu bestätigen und ihr auch rechtlich Ausdruck zu verleihen, kann grundsätzlich als ein besonderer Umstand gewertet werden, so das Gericht.
Das Paar hätte bereits konkrete Heiratspläne gehabt und Vorbereitungen getroffen, bevor es von der lebensbedrohlichen Erkrankung erfuhr, heißt es in der Begründung. Ausschlaggebend ist unter anderem der Zeitpunkt, wann die Erkrankung entdeckt wurde. Es habe sich nicht um eine bereits seit Jahren bekannte Erkrankung gehandelt, in deren Verlauf der Heiratsentschluss gefasst wurde, so das Gericht.
Vielmehr sei der Tumor zufällig entdeckt worden. Bei der Verlobung sei von der Erkrankung noch nichts bekannt gewesen. Das Gericht hielt es dafür für nachvollziehbar und glaubwürdig, dass der langgehegte Wunsch zu heiraten ein wichtiges Motiv für die Eheschließung war – mindestens ebenso bedeutend wie der Wunsch nach gegenseitiger Absicherung.
Anspruch auf Witwenrente – diese Unterschiede gibt es bei der Auszahlung
Grundsätzlich ist zwischen einer kleinen und großen Witwenrente zu unterscheiden. Die kleine Witwenrente erhalten Personen, die jünger als 47 Jahre sind und ein Kind erziehen. Die kleine Witwenrente wird für maximal zwei Jahre gezahlt und umfasst 25 Prozent von der Rente des Verstorbenen. Bei der großen Witwenrente gibt es 55 oder 60 Prozent. (Bohy mit Material der dpa)
Irecently served as lector for a weekday Mass at Our Lady of Pentecost. As on any non-Sunday Mass, I read the Prayers of the Faithful from a book distributed to different parishes.
One of the prayers was rather unsettling. I cannot quote it directly, but it asked for people in government not to take bribes, not to be greedy, and to be content with their salaries.
I appreciated the prayer’s insistence on integrity, but it also seemed to box greed into simply not being content with what one receives in compensation; and, more disturbingly, its converse: that one must be content with whatever one is paid, otherwise one would automatically be greedy.
But what happens when the salary that one receives is neither commensurate with one’s skills nor justly addresses one’s needs? When our nurses, lower-ranked police officers, teachers, and workers are asking to be paid more, are they necessarily being greedy, or are their protests asking us to scrutinize systems of injustice that are being perpetuated by institutions where the hardworking many receive little while the overseeing few wallow in cash?
What if our plea for people to be content with their meager pay is also encouraging a system that devalues human labor?
Such a prayer was surprising, especially for a church that has a long history of speaking up for the poor, the marginalized, the desperate, and the deprived.
In the late 1800s, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical “Rerum Novarum” rallied against the perils of an unchecked Industrial Revolution. The pope called for the protection of workers, who had become isolated and helpless in the face of greedy employers. Employers, the pope said, had to ease unforgiving work hours, assign humane tasks, and tend to both the bodies and souls of their employees.
Over a century later, Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si” tied a critique of society with a holistic approach to ecology. The Pope decried the culture of consumerism that makes it easy for people to “get caught up in a whirlwind of needless buying and spending,” further feeding the belief that people “are free as long as they have the supposed freedom to consume.”
The only ones who are free in this situation, however, are the few who wield power. It is the acceptance of such power that feeds into a culture that treats consumption and accumulation as a norm, even as such a culture exacerbates people’s selfishness and empty hearts.
Governments can only do so much when the culture is corrupt, the Pope warned. Politics must operate in the long term to first address and challenge the culture; if not, then the evils of society (human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, violence) will continue.
A careful reading of both encyclicals shows that the critique is not simply of individual mindsets and sins. The Church speaks, through the Holy Father, of sins that are spread by institutions that have long been allowed to fester with people who abuse both power and privilege, of institutions that have created a culture of self-centeredness.
Without addressing the corruption of social institutions and the role of culture, we reduce the issue of greed to a mindset, which puts us in danger of forgetting that we, too, must fix, question, and hold accountable the institutions that feed into a culture that prizes visible riches over that which is hidden, timeless, priceless, and righteous.
In reducing greed to a mere mindset, we also absolve ourselves of the citizen’s obligation to demand that the government exercise oversight of important institutions, such as those that govern health, agriculture, and education. We ignore the possibility that badly created bureaucracies and the classification of difficult tasks as “menial” all contribute to rewarding the greedy while depriving the desperate.
In praying for people to be content with what they are given, we might also be in danger of praying that they remain silent in the face of injustice. When so narrow in scope, the prayer can put us in danger of telling hungry and desperate nurses, workers, teachers, police officers, and families to change their mindset and accept being abused and exploited for their labor—to simply accept others’ sins as their norm.
In praying for people to simply be content, we are also contradicting the once potent voice of the Church, where its leaders spoke on behalf of the oppressed, led the voices in the streets that defended people’s rights, and demanded change in broken social institutions even as the church was judged, laughed at, ignored, or neglected.
Why has the Church become so silent these last few years? Why have so few priests spoken up, with so little support from their leaders?
Perhaps the prayer could simply have been: Let us pray for our government employees, that they act righteously, and for our government, that it acts justly.
And perhaps, too, for our Church: that it will have the courage to speak up, in a loud, united voice, from its leaders to its shepherds, when it sees injustice that must be set right.
CAN’T BE LATE Students from Latbang village in Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya, use what’s left of a hanging bridge that was recently damaged just to get to Barangay Pinayag where their high school is located. Here they are crossing the river on Sunday in order to make it in time for class on Monday. —GLORY MADAWAT-SMITH/FACEBOOK
Germany has been experiencing record-high temperatures and has seen the outbreak of unusually extensive wildfires.
A forest fire in the Saalfelder Höhe municipality in Thuringia was described as the largest wildfire in the state in the last three decades. The Gohrischheide area on the border between Saxony and Brandenburg, a former military training area where the ground is full of discarded ammunition, has seen a record 2,100 hectares destroyed.
Farmers in Brandenburg are forced to carry out an emergency harvest, to prevent the fire from spreading to the dry rye or grain. The early harvest means financial losses because it can probably only be used as animal feed.
Climate change is making summers warmer and winters milder, creating ideal conditions for pests.
Seit der Corona-Krise steigen die Ticketpreise. Wer diesen Sommer von einem deutschen Flughafen abhebt, muss richtig tief in die Tasche greifen.
Selbst Billigflieger sind teurer
Das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) hat die Preise für One-Way-Tickets ohne Gepäck analysiert. Ergebnis: Auch bei den Billigfliegern wie Ryanair, Easyjet oder Wizz Air sind die Tickets teils deutlich teurer als noch vor einem Jahr. Gründe sind laut DLR ein knappes Flugangebot sowie hohe Steuern und Gebühren.
Die Preise für einfache Flüge ohne Gepäck lagen im Schnitt zwischen 67 Euro (Wizz Air) und 130 Euro (Eurowings). Zum Vergleich: Im Vorjahr reichte die Spanne von 66 bis 110 Euro.
Ryanair verliert Preis-Krone
Früher war Ryanair der billigste Anbieter. Jetzt zahlen Kunden dort im Schnitt 80 Euro – 14 Euro mehr als im Vorjahr. Auch Eurowings dreht an der Preisschraube: Statt 110 kostet der Flug nun im Schnitt 130 Euro. Easyjet bleibt mit 86 Euro im Mittelfeld. Nur Wizz Air wird günstiger – von 94 runter auf 67 Euro.
Wer spät bucht, zahlt drauf
Das DLR untersuchte Verbindungen mit vier verschiedenen Buchungsfristen – vom spontanen Last-Minute-Trip bis zur Planung drei Monate im Voraus. Klarer Trend: Kurzfristige Buchungen sind am teuersten. Tickets kosteten dann zwischen 119 (Wizz Air) und 169 Euro (Eurowings).
Wer früh bucht, spart: Mit drei Monaten Vorlauf sinken die Preise auf 46 Euro bei Ryanair und 90 Euro bei Eurowings.
Fast 500 Euro für einen Flug
Den absoluten Preis-Hammer fanden die DLR-Forscher bei Eurowings: Ein Ticket von Düsseldorf nach Stockholm, gebucht eine Woche vor Abflug, kostete satte 499,99 Euro.
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