Never in my own Pinas

Ever since we moved to Bangkok a year ago, I have been very keen in observing Thai culture. Not only because I grew up in a mixed american-chinese-spanish-japanese-filipino culture but also because I sensed that the Thai way of life is slowly being diluted by western culture, and I had to get the original before it suffers the same fate as my own.

Let me start with these two pictures... they represent the generosity that is the warp and woof of the Thai character. This would never, I repeat - never, happen in my homeland. If only I could read Thai I know there are a lot of freebies out there.

Our water bill...

we average 450 baht a month for water. That is for the 5 of us plus a baby. This month I went to pay my bill but they wouldnt accept the payment. The teller and I tried to communicate but she couldnt speak english and so she had to call someone on the phone to explain to me that my I didnt have to pay my bill from August 08 - Jan 09 if it didnt exceed 500 baht. If it did, only then would they charge me. That means that I could save at least 2,500 baht, and to take into consideration the millions of households in Bangkok... the amount is staggering! Could the Philippine government do the same for its constituents?

Free bus fare...

State-owned city buses starting July displayed the white sticker on their windshield announcing free rides to the public. That means that Thais could go to and from work without spending a single baht - for six months [that's a big help for a poor worker]. You bet the buses were jam packed. This plus the water bill are measures to help the poor when the prices of commodities are jumping. Can the Philippine government operate a hundred buses for 6 months without collecting fare?

It's a private hosp with at least 1500 employees... 

Every year the owner, Dr. Supot, has a year-end party [they dont believe in Christmas]. The details of the Party '07: @ his river resort, hauled the employees by bus [15-20 buses], served dinner [at least 12 courses], gave each employee a gift ranging from 200 - 1000 baht depending on what you picked, awarded gold necklaces 

to the 10 year loyal employees [rumored to be 50,000 baht each] and there were 64 awardees, etc. The punch line? everything was

free. the employees didnt have to contribute a cent. we made mental calculations of the expense and we were convinced that he could have spent at least 3 million baht. 

never in Pinas, 'ika nga.