Personally, I find that getting another person’s perspective also helps. With regard to examining and finding solutions to the many problems plaguing our country, it’s also good to consider how foreigners see us and our situation. One caveat though: when you do this make sure to keep an open mind because a foreigner’s views no matter how constructive may prove to be scathing. It would also help to distinguish immediately between a foreigner who simply mocks and one who criticizes constructively.

Ben Kritz or BenK of The Bad Manners Gun Club is a blogger who clearly belongs to the second category. He is critical and he is constructive. From what I’ve gathered, BenK is an American who is now based here in the Philippines. He also owns a business consulting company.

In one of his most recent posts , BenK wrote:

Just because I understand and can adapt to the Filipino way of doing business, however, does not mean that I accept it. Too often, cultural habits and values – “the way we’ve always done things” – are an excuse for tolerating incompetence and lack of ambition, and for disregarding normal business behavior sometimes to the point of rudeness, despite what the Filipinos like to say about their “famous” polite friendliness. It can be incredibly frustrating and leave one wondering how anyone manages to accomplish anything here. That the Philippine economy consistently lags and continues to fall farther behind its Asian neighbors would seem to be strong evidence that the stubborn Pinoy insistence on cultivating their “cultural quirks” in business affairs is an arrogant mistake.

Another foreigner who writes about the Philippines is Clarence Henderson. His site or blog is called Pearl of the Orient Seas. I first came across Henderson’s site a few years back and forgot all about it. I was pleasantly surprised to find it referenced in BenK’s post, which I cited above.

According to the short bio on his site, Henderson has had over 20 years of consulting experience in New York, Los Angeles, and the Philippines. Here’s an excerpt from his post “An American’s Reflection on the Persistence of Colonial Mentalities.”

The relations between classes – and I purposely risk using (or misusing?) that tired old Marxist term – are outwardly civil and deferential on the part of the masses. Indeed, from the perspective of an American (or other Westerner) acculturated to the norms of equal opportunity, do-it-yourselfism, and upward mobility, one of the more challenging adjustments can be learning to interact appropriately with working class Filipinos in whatever capacity. Whether dealing with drivers, domestic help, or service workers, you are bombarded with “yes sir” this and “yes sir” that and obsequious, self-effacing behavior.

There’s also a perverse cultural inferiority complex that drives me bananas. As a white ex-pat, I am generally ushered through security checks at malls and hotels even though the Filipino guy next to me is practically strip searched. Whenever I raise a ruckus about some lapse in service (which I do now a lot more often than when I first came), people scurry around trying to correct whatever the error might be. Underlying such interactions is a troubling presumption of a wide and seemingly unbreachable social, cultural, and entitlement gulf.

But I can’t help believing that, just below the surface, there is a deep river of long-term resentment just waiting to bubble to the surface (see The Social Volcano).

The Philippines’ complex colonial heritage (see An Oversimplified History Lesson, Cronies and Booty Capitalism, and Globalization Part 1) continues to have a major impact on the country today – on the political system, on social relations, and on the way people live their lives.

I’ll be scouring the net for other noteworthy blogs/sites by foreigners who have some constructive things to say about Filipinos and the Philippines. In the meantime do visit the two sites I mentioned above. Just make sure not to take things too personally as we Filipinos are wont to do.