American in Davao

At times I find it difficult to think of things to write about. At first everything was new to me, plus I had all day, every day to write. Now I am getting used to things around me and prefer to stay away from political talk since I did not create the system and do not want to offend anyone writing about it.

I was also hoping that from comments I would find other things to write, but most of the comments are just about that article and not many questions.

Something funny here is the term “Foreigner”. It is not used for everyone that is not a Filipino, it is used for Caucasian people. If a Filipino sees a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, they are Chinese, Japanese, Korean or just an Asian. If they see a black person, they are Negro. But when they see a white man or woman, they are Foreigners.

There is also a lot of people here that have little understanding of Europe and America. I was noticing that most English friends refer to themselves here and being from the UK. I asked why they do not say they are from England and the response I received was that if they say England, a lot of the time they are asked what part of America is that.

I was even asked one time when I said I was from Florida, is that in California?

There in Davao I have met many people from different countries, American, Canadian, English, Irish, German, French, Dutch, Swiss, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, India and probably others I cannot remember.

Coming from America, the big melting pot, I am just used to meeting people of different origins. While questioning my niece about this subject, my niece asked me if Filipinos in America are called foreigners. I do not ever remember using that in America. Since only “Native Americans” are true natives, I just remember using the country of origin or ancestry to define someone.

That last comment reminded me of something I had heard in America a while back. It was a discussion about racism and prejudice. One person comment on the fact that we have named groups such as African American, Latin American, Asian American and even Native American. They continued to comment that if you want to stop prejudice, stop putting people into groups.