Like Christmas shopping when you are rushed, time poor and feel like you want to punch somebody in the back of the head - this is how I feel daily in Manila.
At my office they strategically placed turn-styles that require you to swipe through so they can track who comes in and out of the office. This security feature creates a bottleneck at start, break and end of day, and one is frequently forced to walk at a deathly slow pace on approach and exit - cock blocked by a crowd of Filipino office workers.
Approaching lifts, even when a lift is about to begin its ascent, where a potato would normally sprint and throw their hand carelessly in between the lift's closing jaws, a filipino will slowly meander toward it and stare curiously as it departs… without them.
The malls here are a sea of Filipinos all shapes and sizes, packed efficiently like sardines, swimming it seems at a more than leisurely pace.
Even yesterday I was waiting for a treadmill in my apartment complex, the Filipino woman had been on it for 40 minutes shuffling her bulbous rump at about 2 kilometers per hour.
Don't they have somewhere to be? Why is there no sense of urgency here? If I spend enough time here, will I become an aimless wanderer also? Is this a product of Bahala Na? (loosely translated to "Come what may") - a Filipino mantra, some define as laziness, others define as carefree.
What I do know is that when leaving the office to buy a coffee, I need to factor in at least an extra 5 minutes for the likely Filipino that unwittingly delays me.
At my office they strategically placed turn-styles that require you to swipe through so they can track who comes in and out of the office. This security feature creates a bottleneck at start, break and end of day, and one is frequently forced to walk at a deathly slow pace on approach and exit - cock blocked by a crowd of Filipino office workers.
Approaching lifts, even when a lift is about to begin its ascent, where a potato would normally sprint and throw their hand carelessly in between the lift's closing jaws, a filipino will slowly meander toward it and stare curiously as it departs… without them.
The malls here are a sea of Filipinos all shapes and sizes, packed efficiently like sardines, swimming it seems at a more than leisurely pace.
Even yesterday I was waiting for a treadmill in my apartment complex, the Filipino woman had been on it for 40 minutes shuffling her bulbous rump at about 2 kilometers per hour.
Don't they have somewhere to be? Why is there no sense of urgency here? If I spend enough time here, will I become an aimless wanderer also? Is this a product of Bahala Na? (loosely translated to "Come what may") - a Filipino mantra, some define as laziness, others define as carefree.
What I do know is that when leaving the office to buy a coffee, I need to factor in at least an extra 5 minutes for the likely Filipino that unwittingly delays me.
Bahala Na.
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Haha, sounds similar to Rarotonga
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