In search of the good life….

The proverbial search for the good life is what drives  countless Filipinos to greener pastures and foreign lands.  Some  succeed in their  odyssey, some return home  where their hearts belong.

But whatever the reason, the Philippines is our Motherland  and images as well as memories of it will forever be etched in our minds - majestic mountains, the bluest seas, unruly jeepneys, summers at the beach,  happy, smiling people and more!

For all its imperfections, there is frankly nothing else  in the world  I’d rather be at this moment.  Perhaps, it is out of a deep-seated sense of loyalty for the country which has not only nurtured me since birth, and now my children as well. Perhaps, because I feel at home in all the familiar and complicated crannies of my homeland. Perhaps,  because I’ve resigned myself to my fate and don’t see the need to get any richer, apart from the old, cramped car I now own.

There is just something about this place that pulls me with its beauty, whether am sipping coffee in an al fresco cafe or watching people take a whiff of the bay breeze amidst the golden sunset. Life is easy here, call it laid-back if you may. But most of all it is knowledge of the fact that this Motherland will always cradle me and welcome me, even it has upset me a number of times, and vice-versa.

To give hope to the Motherland, we should give it hope.

Here are the reasons:

The Philippines is an ever-changing place. What the country was 15 years ago cannot be compared to what  it is now because  the landscape has drastically changed. The Philippines has become a globalized village  where  it is possible  NOT to fly out of the country to get what you want. This is attested to by the rise of cosmopolitan hang-outs, fusion cuisines and other aspects of our life and culture which have clearly become international in standards.

The Philippines is a land of opportunities, if you know where to look for it. It is heartwarming to note that the country is now a growing hub for investments and continues to encourage entrepreneurs to dream beyond what they never thought was possible. These ‘dreamers’ have become the new hope of the Motherland.

With this maiden post, we welcome you all to a taste of the good life in Good News Balikbayan. Your insights, comments and contributions are most welcome!

Buying A Second Home

When I started scouring around for my second home, I wanted a condominium to simplify my lifestyle. When I told my two college kids, they protested that a condominium doesn’t feel like a house. I soon relented to their idea because it is not forever that the kids will live with us. Maybe as they leave our home one day, I can buy a condominium, a smaller place for my husband and I to enjoy. I often say our future “Love Nest” because it will just be the two of us.

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Wanted: More Pinoy Entrepreneurs

Thirty years ago – maybe more – we have been said to be on the verge of some industrial take off or other. We were up there in the Asian economic totem pole third only to Japan and Singapore.

The take off never happened. Did we run out of gas, suffered a flat tire, got derailed by infighting?

The signposts are alarming. Many of our women still dream of going abroad to be mail-order brides, to be singers and entertainers, or to take domestic and “care-giving” jobs most of the locals — Americans, Europeans, etc. — wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.

Our men possibly fare better, but not too much better. Many train to become engineers, technicians and skilled artisans; but once they get some minimum experience locally, they take off for some job abroad, draining our country of the skilled human resources it needs so badly for its own oft-postponed “take-off.”

The social costs of Pinoys leaving home in pursuit of the American dollar are unquantifiable. We see them all around us — broken homes, split marriages, unsupervised children dropping out of school and turning to drugs and other vices or entering into relationships for which they are not ready.

Many concerned Filipinos have wearied of trying to study what’s wrong with the country or the national psyche.

They just want action — an action plan that is doable or, to use the technocrat’s term, SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound).

There may be very few action plans smarter than a national entrepreneurship campaign – a campaign for independent, job-creating, income-producing entrepreneurship — where all sectors can close rank for.

In communities where entrepreneurs abound, the population stay rather than migrate, roads and infrastructures are built, social and educational services are improved, commerce booms, and the quality of life rises. Enterprise begets more enterprise, progress begets more progress.

This is why President Arroyo is trying to implement the “A Million New Entrepreneurs Program” as the centerpiece of her economic agenda. Taking the cue, local governments have set up their own local enterprise promotion programs.

This is also why entrepreneurship subjects have been infused into the curriculum at both high school and collegiate levels.

… and why industry associations, civic clubs, and even religious groups have joined the “small business” bandwagon.

… and why this little corner makes a pitch for entrepreneurship.

And the pitch is addressed to you, kababayan/katoto/kapwa-Pilipino — whether you are a salaried employee, a housewife bored or hardpressed making ends meet, a graduate who can’t find a good job, a retiree, an OFW, or an expatriate Filipino.

The next pieces in this corner will discuss more about the advocacy for entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurial personality, starting a business, improving a business, and entrepreneurial role models.