I sincerely apologize if I have hurt your feelings, and consequently I apologize to our cousins if they’d feel the same way (which I expect them to), but this is simply my opinion on the thorn stuck to our family right now. I couldn’t do anything if you hate how I feel about things.

I may have wrongly worded (and yes, somewhat generalized) some of the details, but I didn’t want to go into too much details because this was (then) written for a limited public audience. No, your father wasn’t and is not and I doubt if he’ll ever be interested in gambling. I apologize to your dad; I owe it to him to spare that detail.

As for the issue of the property and the remitted money, it wouldn’t be proper to clarify those issues here, but no, money wasn’t being sent there until recently, but they are being sent there once in a while these past couple of years. And no, none of you depends on that money for survival — which makes it feel even weirder than usual.

And finally, no, you don’t owe your house, your properties, nor your education to that money, nor to our grandparents. But ultimately that whole branch of the family being in America(my father’s case being the “unlucky” one) was our grandparents’ design.

Perhaps, it was a mistake to take that piece out in the open, but then again I’ve been quiet on these things for long enough, and I’ve heard enough of people telling me that America is the solution to their problems.

Once more, Maria, I apologize if I had hurt your feelings.

Congratulations on your recent engagement.

Many do not see the social cost of migration. I hope that the realisation would come sooner, the realisation of the social and psychological pain of the millions of Filipino families. This realisation would usher in a sense of solidarity in the Philippine society. Thanks for sharing one of the contradictions in migration - that is, a Filipino family based in the Philippines sending remittance to their family in the US.

There is also another important realisation for recipients of remittances in the Philippines - that is the idea of ‘investment’. Of the billions of US dollars being annually remitted by the more or less eight (8) million OFWs, only a handful goes to investment. The remittances must be invested, and not just go to consumption. What I see is that rather than investing in small and medium enterprises, for example, remittances are spent in shopping, buying of appliances, re-modelling of houses (especially in the provinces), etc.

I always believe in the process of realisation. It takes time though. At nararapat na samahan ng pakikibaka ng mga mulat na mamamayan.

Bonn
http://agoodgame.blogspot.com

You then go on to make it appear as if money is being sent to us here in America. Again, you are mistaken. It is solely because of my parents’ hard work that my sister and I graduated from college; it is solely because of my parents’ sacrifice that we continue to pursue our masters’ degrees. Not a penny of our grandparents’ money was used. Not a second did we wait for money to be sent to us from the Philippines.

Reading between the lines, it appears that the point you are hoping to make is that America does not equate with success and that one can achive greatness in an impoverished country like the Philippines. Indeed, your mother is a shining example of just that. I admire your mother for all of her accomplishments, and I would never say or write anything to detract from it. I ask you to afford the same respect to my father. Though he does not travel the world giving lectures and though he is not the dean at an ivy league university, he has accomplished just as much. It was not with a loan from our grandparents that he created a life for us in America; it was solely with hard work, humility, and sacrifice that he raised two daughters and loved a wife. Please do not tarnish his success with your half-truths and false assumptions.