20 Reasons I Dislike _____. (The Philippines).

I saw this video about an American who goes about ranting reasons of why he dislikes the Philippines while he's in Cebu.. I've seen the video twice and I found it really funny, entertaining, a little embarrassing and painful, and mostly truthful (truth hurts, doesn't it?)

Obviously people have already posted comments about the video in their Twitter pages and blogs. Some of them agree to what the guy in the video says while most of them reacted negatively.

Most of these people think that the American is ignorant and ungrateful (read: asshole). Maybe so, but he's actually showing us what we're neglecting to fix. The video showed dirty streets, gaping holes along sidewalks, lazy security guards, among others. But isn't it the truth? Why are we, Filipinos, so eager to call someone an asshole for reminding us of our responsibilities especially those we have neglected?

Context affects experience. People treat tourism as business, right? Our country is the only thing we can offer to foreigners. Can we blame our guests if they complain that our country is dirty and corrupt and they have not experienced exactly what our posters and adverts have promised them? Of course not. Doing so would be hypocritical. Why would we chastise them if they only say what they have experienced here? Do we not see that our cities are dirty, too? Do we not complain to the manager when there's hair or an insect leg on our food? Do we not complain to the hotel clerk when our room isn't clean? Am I getting my message across?




For a couple of years I have lived in a foreign country far cleaner and far orderly than our own. But it doesn't change the fact that I still consider this my home and I want to do something about the clutter and the dirt in and around it.

Why don't we, as a people, take it as a challenge to improve ourselves and the system so as not get many more reasons for people, especially foreign tourists, to dislike the Philippines? I salute the people who take this in stride -- they're open-minded enough to handle such issues (or rants)

There's a follow-up video produced by the same team of Americans and it's about 20 reasons why they like the Philippines. Fair enough, yeah?