tropicalpenpals.com

Archive for the ‘About US’ Category

The bizarre thing of late is the fact that we never seem to have any spare time. I spent up until 2am updating PC’s yesterday to find on arriving this morning some of the games had a new patch release this morning. So back to updating again, problem is the internet cafe is never empty as a constant flow of kids appear.

What has this got to do with rustic furniture? well basically I don’t have the time to do what I want to be. I was a cabinet maker, carpenter and joiner for years in the UK before eventually becoming a surveyor. I moved away from the timbers as most companies have adopted factory techniques over craftsmanship even down to setting the machines up as you may have one guy who sets up the entire factory instead of a factory of skilled workers. So it sort of took the shine out of it for me although I do love making my own stuff when I have the time. We had some wood left from some trees that were felled last year and I know Aprils father likes projects as much as I do when it comes to actually creating something. So while he has been busy making benches for outside I have been working out the layout of what will become apartment 2 which has involved getting round a water pipe problem as I don’t want it buried in concrete. So an easy removable plinth will be added to hide it but also allow easy access for maintenance. Getting back to what Aprils father has been upto I am pleased with the end result and no doubt a few people out there will be saying “I want one of those” because I know the Chinese furniture that fills most of the stores here isn’t fit for purpose especially when it comes to Western guys due to not only our weight but our actual body frame shape.

As you can see the first bench is wider not only in length but in depth compared to anything I have seen here. I am hoping we can make several of these from our available wood as we are often having visitors so some badly needed extra seating would be a great help on top of the fact its appealing to the eye.

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An idea that originally started with flip flops that moved into hand bags and currently now adding women’s and gents underwear to it as well as scope to developing soap products and cosmetics is pretty well showing you can make money here. My wife originally took the idea on as a sideline project but has quickly found that others are interested in selling the goods as well and so the network has expanded and cross selling has occurred as people trade suppliers as well to get a wider variety of stock available. We are still looking to expand the ventures out and looking for people that are like minded. Either people wanting to develop a new venture or could be something an Expat could encourage their partner to get into as this will also make them semi or fully independent depending how hard they work the business. Only thing I will say I am surprised how quickly its expanded and our first orders are being received for people in Europe who are wanting to network. So if you want to network or goods for personal use as well as see the fully available stocks drop me an email at matt_wilkie@hotmail.co.uk

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Things have been a bit odd lately as things are falling into place and pretty much going well. Then you will suddenly get emails or twitter messages regarding people not liking something on the blog or just the fact I am a foreigner in the Philippines. What is people’s problems? to be honest it bothers me for about 10 minutes then I go and find something else to do the frustration is not the the messages themselves but that I cannot understand some peoples mentality. At the same time I won’t let it ruin my day and I would like to thank those people that send me abusive emails for taking time out to write to me in such a descriptive manner although I would guess in many cases English grammer wasn’t high in your studies.

Today I am busy at the net-cafe as usual although about to start working on some benches made from felled trees from last year for outside. Might post some pictures later depends how good they look.. For anyone else who gets the internet flack please be aware its not just you and most of these people just sit and hide behind a monitor and keyboard its just not worth the time of day to entertain them.

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As the news of yesterdays hostage crisis broke my twitter account went crazy and messages come in from people normally not connected with TP. Things like “why you marry a Filipina there when you have women in your own country, I hate foreigns”. Which confused me a bit as the fact they stated “there” I can assume this person lives outside the Philippines so its ok to be an OFW in the UK for example but not for someone to marry someone from the Philippines? Also the fact they themselves are “foreign” as they are in a host country. Bizarre.. We get it from all parts of the globe and the BNP in the UK which you can research online had an invite to a political TV show that had protestors and a lot of aggressive anti-racism people there. But at the same time I was telling people let the guy speak.. Like most racists they don’t make any sense they haven’t thought things through and only literally see things in “black and white”. Not actual context or ability so without a doubt his showing on that TV show pretty much damaged the BNP’s credibility in the UK as they could see this guy was no natural leader and lacked any real political ability except to play the race card.

But what I find fascinating about the Filipino’s that do attack via email generally under pseudo’s is that they are generally living in the US. They are American Filipinos and not the first generation. There are chips on the shoulder but I often wonder if they even understand the problems of the Philippines as many have never even been here. Have they studied historically the Philippines? Do they understand where the average person moving here actually creates jobs and brings investment over plundering? To be honest I doubt it. They are seeing a foreigner and assume we are here for some unknown reason and the Philippines is theirs.. but if that is so why are you still sitting whining in the US? If your educated you can actually benefit the Philippines as it does need skilled people but leave the attitude and racism behind its not needed anywhere on this planet.

As regards me.. being just some foreigner which I can’t understand what you are babbling on about.. The fact is I am self-sufficient I have created jobs here and look to develop the area around me. What have you done for what you call your country? If the world functioned with the racism you have in your bitter heart where do you think 10 million OFW’s would be it wouldn’t be abroad that is for sure. So wake up and try and do something constructive with your life. Your bitterness and hatred was not done by people like me and unlike you I am actually here trying to help.

Finally I would like to say the majority of Filipino’s I know aren’t like this but then again the majority of them are here in the Philippines. Many try hard to make foreigners welcome and although they do feel the frustration of life here they don’t blame us.

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Operating as partial operators of the Minglanilla Fiesta we had friends over this afternoon to experience Aprils foods which offer a mix of local and interesting dishes.. mainly the interesting dishes are for me! as the majority of others are happy with the Lechon Baboy (BBQ pig!) but  as usual April raises the bar and today was no exception with an interesting mix of of salad and pasta with grapes offering a refreshing dish with a bit of juiciness in it which left some of our guests puzzled on what the meal tasted like as its something new to their taste buds.. All I can say is I love it as it offers a sweetness and juicy taste to what could have been a bland salad otherwise.

No complaints here except I should get these lazy bones back in the kitchen to serve up some spiced dished to see peoples expressions and tastes on foods that aren’t regional but can offer a completely different texture and “hotness” to food..

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I  have had people threaten to kill me politically and online and what they have missed is that I don’t care. My concerns is truth and the safety of my family. My wife and children are neither involved or instigated in my thoughts or beliefs..harm them and you won’t even understand how much harm I will bring to you.. as politically or any other I directly attack the person involved not any “sideline” and I expect the same respect.. families and wives should be left to the sideline.. take on that battle I would rather die than see harm brought to my wife or children.. At the same time I would hope you understand respect is done to ability and earned through understanding to see anything i do is for the advantage of the majority not for the singularity community. If it benefits the masses no doubt it benefits the wealthy down the line somewhere else as well! its worth remembering.. I mean no harm at the same time I will fight for the underdog in the hope I can create change.

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A strange meeting happened tonight over an invite to a Fiesta. Discussions of groups of people that don’t generally socialise together Police and social services. You may wonder what the relevance is and why I am writing about it. Well the reason being that there is a law regarding Juveniles in the Philippines under the age of 15 this was a hot topic as recently a senior police officer had a court case put against a minor as regards drug crime and having certain possessions on his belonging. Now this got me thinking about a case that happened to an Expat’s son who was caught with several spliffs of marijuana that cost the Expat about P250,000 to hush the Police up. The truth of the matter is that in the case that we were talking about (no names mentioned by the way even at the dinner as it would be breaching legal laws in the protection of minors). But one of the Police at the dinner had arrested a minor with certain items and the Social worker at the meal had dealt with the same case at a different level (within the legal system). If they are under 15 and the crime is “victimless” as well as having a prison term of less than 6 years they can pretty much get away with it as the legal system still regards them as minors. The same reason a lot of the “shooters” in murders here are minors in age. Same goes for the bag snatchers etc. You may think the law isn’t doing their bit to stop these crimes but in many cases legally they are not allowed to. These minors also have to be handed over to social services not jailed.

So getting back to the expat who gave away P250,000 in hush money he would have probably got away with paying nothing if he knew the law actually protected the minor even if he was guilty. It was an interesting meeting as many things came up but most of which I can’t write here as it implicates people from the meal as well as things that are currently in the wheels of motion.

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There are trends regarding the websites and blogs in the Philippines the majority of them seem to finish and go offline after 6 months to a year. I think a lot of it is down to business failures, family issues or loss of interest. But if your giving up on your blog/site please get in touch as we want your data.. we can integrate it into TropicalPenpals.com instead of the data being lost as its useful for others to read and learn from. So if you are thinking of getting rid of your blog/site especially when it comes up for site renewal get in touch..

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“Kano” or “Hey Joe” are phrases you hear on a very regular basis which can become irritating if you let it. Initially I tried explaining to people where I am from but a lot of people seem to lack the geographical knowledge of countries and nationalities so simply “UK” works as people know of the place but more often than not won’t know where it is just that your not American. You will find our various vehicles with a flag somewhere on it and its something that not only makes it easily recognisable when looking for your vehicle (Especially motorbikes with so many looking the same) but it also gives something you can point at which people can relate or recognise in connection with your home country. Im looking at doing a large map in the net-cafe nothing too exciting but simply will draw out some of the major locations that people are aware of and just pinpoint where they actually are and scale in relation to the Philippines.

Another project on the to do list which is starting to go down slowly.. today wood stained a bench, painted a gate, concreted a ramp, around a tap and filled a hole in the wall. But either way I would say take a bit of time to explain to people where things are and some of the differences as ignoring it just makes people assume we are all Americans..

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I have had a gripe with charities for a long time especially after you donate things yourself to find out the charities are pretty much mocking the whole idea. I look at Oxfam and the CEO earning over £90,000 a year and people say she’s worth it otherwise she could go to another business guess what these people never go to another business if anything they go to another charity! Because their skills are worthless in the private sector they have no relevant experience in anything but cash pooling for charities. I have seen some major charities spend literally their entire budget on advertising in the hope it would pay of grabbing every coin from every doorstep. I’m talking millions of pounds not a drop in the ocean, at the same time I wonder why they are spending so much on TV ads and junk mail. People get sick of seeing it. Envelopes go in bins and the TV channel gets switched over.

But probably my biggest gripe is there seems to be a lack of interest in the general public to where their money goes and who spends it and on what. I visited Oxfam with a work mate last year and its not a regular haunt of mine as I don’t use charity shops. What did surprise me is that they spend money branding things like bags etc. What are they doing?? At what point can they justify donations on logo printing? Wouldn’t it be better served advertising other peoples businesses instead and taking a revenue for advertisement space?

What brought up this discussion in the first place is the pushing of the Pakistani flood disaster in the UK especially with Gordon Brown pushing it. I remember the earthquake disaster which was also slow to get going to help Pakistan. But why these so slow yet Africa floods with money? To be honest I think its to do with the number of Pakistani Migrants in the UK as I discussed this in detail with friends back at the earthquake disaster and it pretty much came back as “there is enough of them in the country to sort it themselves”. Thing is I wonder if that is true but also from experience in Asia if most of them care as many things are seen outside of their reach so many may not want to get involved. A prime example of this was a friend with his wife found a very young child crawling along the street to where his wife said leave it alone and that they shouldn’t concern themselves. Maybe that is it.. ohh look at the disaster its so bad.. then a flick of the channel and its all forgotten.

Me I will never donate anything to a charity even things like Kiva that promote themselves as a helping organisation that does 0% loans you find their trading partners skimming 40% in many cases in interest on the loans your doing for no profit. Don’t kid yourself either if an organisation says its none profit either as the perks and salaries will soon rid you of your cash making it none profit but straight into someone’s pocket.

If you ever watch these appeals they have on TV take a look at their vehicles, generally they seem to ship them in and its why they are all gleaming and new. Asking me to donate a part of my salary each month while these people ride around in brand new vehicles paid for by mugs like the British public.. no thank you..

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