Below is a conversation with a long-time reader from Germany.  He always has something interesting to input from my writings so I figured I'd share his input with the rest of you reading.  My comments are in my familiar powder blue...his are in black.

I have already wondered who had set you off like that. As you have calmed down a bit and explained some of your outburst, I have found some points of agreement. There are far too many people who shine in their countries wealth or even imagined wealth!

To rub in the face of the 3rd world residents and call us, as a WHOLE, "parasites" is all they have to cling to make themselves feel like they've achieved something in their beer-swilling, Chinese buffet devouring lives.

These guys usually have jobs that place them somewhere into the lower middle class in their home countries. In Europe and America some banks actually advertise loans for getting the money to go on vacation.

LOL...you're kidding...but I'm not surprised.

So the guy gets a loan or loots his bank account towards bankruptcy. Next he sits in a plane to a country where his money is worth at least twice what it is worth where he comes from. Just imagine you can go somewhere where your income buys you twice to ten times at much as at home!

10 times is about right in some places....it's why absolute losers can come here with $5000 and stay for almost a year. I know....I've seen it. At least once it ended with a lawsuit of an American suing a Canadian and almost trapping him at the airport...long story.

They show off! They act like they are not the peasants they are but the princes they want to be.

And they suddenly think that they can dance like Michael Jackson (pre-trial) with the bar girls.  It's beyond reproach.

Even a worse impression of wealth is given by some expatriates sending money back home. They are too proud to admit how they are struggling in the countries they immigrated to.

My boss tells me about another American who lives here who tries to whine his way into a loan from him. The bank president warned him a long time ago so he never gave in.

They paint a picture of wealth that is not true. Many come without proper education and hardly able to speak the language with dreams of wealth and the expectations of their family for support from a family member in the so called 1st world.

Or write the language...sometimes I wonder if the people who write to me are from Zimbabwe instead of the USA or Canada.

Many even come with a tourist visa only and stay to work.

To travel from the Philippines to the USA, you need to own a business and a house outright. In the States, you just need to pay 50 bucks for the passport and you're standing in Ninoy Aquino airport.

Especially Germany has a bureaucracy that makes it hard to slip in between the red tape. (I do not know enough of the other European countries to judge their effectiveness.) Also Germany has only a small number of foreigners compared to the other bigger European countries.  Illegal aliens have to hide constantly! Legal jobs are close to impossible to come by for them. This leads to drug trafficking, small theft and prostitution.

Same thing with Filipinos. People think that because the Philippines is so isolated, illegal immigration is impossible. Sure enough human smuggling is big business here. The biggest destination is Indonesia...why, I have no clue.

Legal immigration?  You are right here that this is not an easy way too. I know an African woman who is beaten by her husband. The guy is an alcoholic. She had a student visa and stopped her studies when she married. Now her visa has changed and she is bidding her time for another year till she gets a permanent green card and can divorce the guy. I know more examples.

Actually in the States that happens ALL the time. Once the 2 year wait is over and the Green Card is issued, many Filipinas have the bags packed and ready. It's not because they are using the guy, it's rather because he treated her like a maid the minute she walked in the door. This usually happens with naive provincial girls who latch onto guys whom they barely know.

About the Philippines, I recently saw a documentary on catalogue brides. A German man, forty-something, not good looking and with meager income, got a bride from the Philippines. The girl was rather pretty and rather young. She could not speak German and the man could not speak English. The agency supported them with advice for a time and then she was on her own. She had to learn German cooking first and the language later. This was no love-match for sure! Still the stupid old guy believed otherwise, oblivious to the suffering she endured - far from home and without the support of her family. Later in the documentary they showed other women who had gone through the same and only feel better in the company of other girls with the same history.

I guess in Germany it's a little bit different then...the girls are terrified to leave because they have no idea where to turn. In the case of the States, often the girls know someone there like a distant cousin and they make a break for it should things go sour. 
 
Please do me a favor. Tell the girls that most of the men that are looking for girls via the internet and dating services are not the best pick for marriage and that a rich country need not to have rich citizens.

I think we'll both do it now on my blog. You're right...many of the guys looking for love online, especially targeting Filipinas, are not exactly the best the 1st world has to offer. IN FAIRNESS, there are some diamonds in the rough, but just as I said before to the guys talking to Filipinas online, the GIRLS need to take their time to see if the guy is for real. The girls can further do background checks on the guys. Sure, it's about $50, but it's well worth it.

A salary of 1,500 ?/month can only support one person (most goes into taxes anyway) in meager comfort. To support a family one better earns at least twice that amount.

At least...I've read that in most 1st world, that's still considered poverty level.  Some Filipina girls are shocked to learn that after they move there...that life has improved very little and she has to struggle even harder than before.

There simply is no land of milk and honey. Those countries which are rich protect their wealth. In the Emirates no citizen may need to work, but no foreigner can become a citizen. (They have 80% foreigners working in Dubai)

This is very true since a large number of that 80% is Filipinos. As much as I admire the 1st world, I still blow my top each time I see someone claim that the 1st world is so clean and plays nice in the sandbox while the 3rd world is a bunch of scum-sucking parasites.  When I mean "wealthy" in the case of the 1st world, I mean WEALTH OF OPPORTUNITY and STANDARD OF LIVING.  When people call me on my ranting, they act like they never had an opportunity to succeed in their home countries.  Please...spare me.  That's the biggest bunch of lazy nonsense if I've ever heard it.  All they need to do is come here for awhile...they'll come back like the great Muhammad Ali praising his great-grandfather for getting on the "boat" 200 years ago after  he returned from Rumble in the Jungle.

April 14, 2005