These are Women, and these are Filipinos

[publicduende]

Such comments like this one above make me angry.

It is amazing how many Western male do-gooders believe every tearmaking story if it is presented by a female crybaby claiming abuse.

To call me a person who cannot feel a grain of empathy towards poor people in the Philippines is truly a personal insult against me, as I gave away out of my income and savings so far more than Euro 100.000,- as donation for poor people in Cebu/Bohol/Leyte during the last 10 years or so.

Further I pay the transportation charges for plenty of shipping boxes with collected materials like clothings, kitchenware, toys, stationary etc. what Japanese people next to me do not need anymore for distribution to poor Filipino people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balikbayan_box

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However I think, I have the right to check out what happens with my money I give away for the poor. - I never give any money to corrupt agencies and charities.

About 'evil feminism' in any story that portrays a woman - I always try to verify what a 'poor woman' while I am in Cebu is telling me. I never give money to poor people, who are liars and cheaters.

Every month I give away a considerably high part of my salary for poor people in the Philippines. What happened with my donations?
Well, I bought a tiny house (but has a land title) for a woman and her 2 children, after she lost her job, became seriously ill and lost everything she had during a flood in Cebu.

I also accepted the idea to look after a poor abandoned girl, who was suffering of malnutrition and mistreatment, basically all her expenses, everything from medical bills, food, clothings to school (now in university in Cebu) are paid by me since almost 10 years.

I also found out about her older sister, who is almost blind living in poverty and constructed a house for both of them. Finally I also accepted her cousine from Bohol, also a poor girl whose mother died and whose father is earning merely enough to take care of the younger son to live in the house with them.

I buy plenty of staple food (rice, canned food) and medicine (diabetes, tuberculosis etc) which I distribute every time when I am visiting Cebu to poor and sick people living next to the house of my Filipina fosterdaughter.

About Bohol and other places, I do not think it changed so much, there are still plenty of poor people everywhere living in a bamboo hut, no running water, no restroom, even no electricity. My fosterdaughter was born 1995, and her life was like that in Eastern Mindanao. It's not only about 1960 or 1970.

I do not expect any praise for what I am doing in Philippines from feminist-friendly do-gooders, but to say, I have no grain of empathy for the poor women in Philippines is derogatory - the majority of people who received anything from me during all these many years are indeed poor Filipina women of any age.

Cynicism and mistrust always are double-edged swords. You have a right to consider that woman's story a self-aggrandising piece of BS, even if - as you say - you know plenty of similar stories happening in those provinces in the 60s and 70s, and even to date. By the same token, I could consider all you wrote abnve a fruit of your fantasies. Or perhaps let the crueller stereotypes run wild and reach an even more disturbing conclusion.

Or we can just remind ourselves that we are all human beings after all, men and women, Western and Asians, and all equally capable of feeling compassion, generosity and dedication. This, especially when we have lived that suffering and hardship on our skin (as this particular woman is telling us).

You told us on many occasions about your Filipina foster daughter and the way you and your family have been taking care of her. That is a very laudable thing and attracts my utmost respect. That you have been helping even more poor people in the Philippines shows your commitment even more.

What raises a red flag, with me personally at least - and by now I know I am a minority in this forum community - is that you are not prepared to concede that a woman is stepping in and helping her fellow citizens, or a specific category of women, using her own company and her own social media weight. If it's you who do good to poor Filipinos, it's all sacrosanct and you deserve (due)) praise. If it's a woman, a Filipino woman nonetheless, who does it and uses her own life story to add dramatic power to her cause, that's just the act of a "female crybaby claiming abuse".

This is where I see the partiality, or even the immaturity, on your side. OK, you have had more than a chance to show your kindness and generosity, but do you really think you (or males alone) have a monopoly of that kindness and generosity?

[Ghost]

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[publicduende]

See guys, I doubt you would all feel the same if, say, it was a Filipino man rescuing exploited male OFWs.

The only real reason some story like this gets noticed is v****a. No, really. Men don't get this kind of treatment. And she basically hand-waved men to focus on the female OFWs.

It's a common ploy that works so well because everyone is programmed to look after v****as. Penises are expendable, as always.

She knows that ploy will be effective, which makes up for the fact that her "company" probably has little to no merit of its own.

Geez, HAers need to quit simpin'...

Yeah, sure, a 53-yo vagina LOL

What's wrong with her efforts focusing on female OFWs? Maybe somebody will come along and create an interest/protest group to give a voice to male OFWs.
Like I said to Yohan, "every little helps". Even if she were to devote her efforts to dark-skinned female OFWs from the Bohol area, it would still be better than nothing at all. Don't you think?

[Ghost]

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[publicduende]

There's always someone ready and willing to help women. They have plenty of help, and a lot of the "help" is about manipulating peoples' sympathy and inherent tendency to protect females at the expense of men. It is not about justice, helping women, or caring about anyone. It is about power through manipulation.

No, someone won't "maybe" start caring about the men. Nothing significant anyway. Men are expendable. Protecting penises doesn't get peoples' sympathy or money.

That's what's wrong with it.

Quit simpin'.

It's even simpler than that. There's always someone ready and willing to help women. And children. And the elderly. Is it so hard to understand that it's a universal tendency everywhere in nature, a biological imperative, for the stronger to protect the weaker? Women might no longer be as weak, at least as far as their political voice is concerned, as they used to, but that tendency is still somehow hardwired in our DNA.

Those like you who complain that Universe and Society no longer takes care of men probably, very probably, don't know or are too afraid, or confused, to take concrete steps to get out of their state of frustration and misery. You tried going to the Philippines. Do it again. It will do you no good to bash an act of activism, however partial, as feminist. Start a protest group that represents all men in your condition - young, smart and unemployed and perhaps unemployable - that would be a far better start than another go at your keyboard.

[Ghost]

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[Yohan]

What raises a red flag, with me personally at least - and by now I know I am a minority in this forum community - is that you are not prepared to concede that a woman is stepping in and helping her fellow citizens, or a specific category of women, using her own company and her own social media weight.

It is a difference, if you work, get a salary from somewhere and give a donation to poor people as a foreign man and do not expect anything in return - or if you are a local woman, create an introduction company and make a profit out of poor citizens living next to you.

Sorry, but you see this situation totally single-sided. What this woman is doing is not to step in HELPING her fellow citizens. She does not work for free and she is not using her money earned from another not related source to help. More the opposite. She makes money out of those poor people with her company.

I do not consider a person owning a company and offering some services - in her case introduction of jobs - against payment or collecting commission as a 'help to fellow citizens'. - Following your strange definition, basically every shop can be considered as a 'help for citizens' - a shop selling food for example is helping citizens not to be hungry, a gas-station is 'helping' taxi drivers not to run out of fuel. - You are a customer and you pay for this 'help'.

To offer a service making a profit is not a 'help' for the poor, it is a 'help' for your own wallet.

[Yohan]

..... I will applaud posts like the one OP, Duende, made about a Filipina and her rags-to-riches story. I saw some replies accusing the story of being "too feminist", but I couldn't see it. It's about a woman who made something of herself, worked hard and helped her family. You could have found a similar story of a Filipino man going abroad and it would have made the same impact on me.

You trust a woman, in this case a Filipina with her rags-to-riches story, too much. You clearly trust her more than a man presenting the same story.

I see no reason why I should trust every woman who is coming up with the typical crybaby-story about her poverty without even trying to verify it. While in Philippines I found many women who are merely liars and cheaters. Such women do exist and to deny that is plainly ignorant.

If I try to verify if this is true or out of fantasy or at least seriously exaggerated, what is wrong with that?
This means I am a misogynist or what?

If you carefully read her story you will discover that very much what she writes is inconsistent, is untrustworthy. What is wrong to point this out?

You could have found a similar story of a Filipino man going abroad and it would have made the same impact on me.

I doubt very much if the same story written by a Filipino man would have the same impact to Western readers.

It's about marketing. This woman is advertising her own company with her story. It must be 'impressive'.

It is not the same impact, if a story is about a divorced man with 2 sons - or about a divorced mother with 2 girls.

It is not the same impact, if a woman is cleaning a toilet abroad or a man is doing construction work abroad.

It is also important to point out, that she is a Christian Filipino woman and not a Muslim Indonesian man. Who cares about poor Muslim men anyway?

If a man is doing this introduction business, he would be considered as a bad guy taking advantage of poor women.
If a woman is doing the same business, she is 'helping poor women'...

Clearly a double standard.