Pinoy culture and marriage
Not sure what forum to post this.
I'm sure you've all been amused or at least noticed the strong desire of filipinas to marry, and their lack of understanding of those persons who don't want to get married. They often, in chat (internet or in person) will want to know why I don't want to remarry. Recently I ran into a pinoy taxi driver who discovered in talking that I'm not married (they can on occasion be quite chatty and quite nosy).
I hopped into a taxi one afternoon and the driver was chatty. Two days later I was transferring hotels, and the same driver picked me up. Same chatty guy, early 20's. Halfway to the destination:
"So you have filipina wife here." No son, I don't.
"So you have filipina gf here." Not so.
"But you want to marry filipina yes?" No, I don't want to get married.
"You mean you will marry later? Filipina yes?" No, stud, I don't want to get married again. That caused consternation.
"Sir, can I ask? Why not marry?" Too hard to explain son, my previous marriage was a mistake. I'm not marriage material, nor do I want to be.
"But sir we have many good pilipina here." Yes, I know. I did not share with him that I've photographed quite a number of 'good' filipinas who were (at the time) married pinay who were glad to a) cheat on her hubby, and be) vainly show her body for photographs.
We rode on in silence for a few minutes and he came back to the subject again. It was gnawing at him, the same way I've seen pinay come back to the subject repeatedly. I cut the conversation off by suggesting we change the subject, and we did. Then, a few minutes later as I was stepping out of the taxi at my new hotel:
"Sir, you wait." He was fishing in his shirt pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper with his phone number on it."You call me if you need taxi. We can talk it you marry girl here." Wow!
Excuses for not getting married
Short responses, rather than explanations, resonate best with filipinas. Here are a couple that I use:
"If I were married, I could not be here meeting you. Someone would be screaming at me!"
"I'm retired from work and from family life too. No more children for me!"
These seem to be convincing. More difficult is to get across that I am not bored and lonely because I live alone, nor made uneasy by a quiet house and neighborhood."
The questions about marriage, I think, reflect dismay at the waste of an eligible foreigner.
[QUOTE=WestCoast1;1515921]Yes, this is what I was getting at. The taxi driver made no attempt to set me up with his sister / cousin / friend, etc. It was just the cultural difference shining through. Nobody in the west gives a crap if someone else chooses to be un-married. Other cultures can see this differently, and I run into it often with pinay. Some girls have asked me oodles of times *WHY* I don't want to marry. Any and all explainations fail. They continue to ask, there is no satisfactory answer for them.[/QUOTE]
Forbes' best retirement places in 2014
Not sure if this is the best thread.
Living in the Philippines was an option but I went for General Info because this might interest some of you guys who are contemplating retirement soon and have The Philippines on your list.
Forbes left it off their top 16 places.
[url]http://ph.she.yahoo.com/15-best-countries-retire-2014-160000625.html[/url]
The rationale for each choice is very interesting. It certainly opened my eyes.