For those interested, there is an interesting article (long) about Filipino overseas workers and the remittances that keep the Filipino economy propped up. The article offers some interesting insights into the Filipino society as well as the economy. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-remit20apr20,0,3918689.story

After reading this article, I wonder if our comments about doing our part in providing "direct foreign aid" is all that off the mark. It also helps to understand the tendancy of Filipinas to see any foreigner as a potential resource.

That was a good article( I get the Times everyday), it explains why I always see so many Filipino nurses in LA.I didn't know some of them were former doctors in their homeland.That place sounds horrible,makes you appreciate the states even more.

Those Arabs are fucking assholes(not all just the ones mentioned in the article).That was some sick shit regarding their treatment of the Filipino women.

One glaring inacurracy is that the remittances make up 12% of the GDP. That only takes into consideration contractual workers outside of Europe and the USA. All other articles I have read have remittances listed as 52% of the entire Philippines GDP. No country relies on remittancs more than Phils, even mexico comes a distant second. If the US economy goes into a tailspan, the Phils is fucked.

The problem lies in that the Phils exports mostly female workers and the men are left at home. Instead of trying to supplement the income of his wife, he just waits for the money, gambles and gets drunk. I believe remittances have made Filipino men the laziest on the planet. I believe if you were to show all remittances, inlcuding moneykos then the percentage GDP for remittances would jump up to nearly 65%.

It's like this: If you feed a tiger fresh meat every day, why does he have any motivation to hunt any more?