random thoughts

     Have you ever wondered what is it like to live in a different country? For the average Filipino, maybe you have the American dream. The promise of a bigger salary.. For graduating medical students, you have the option to take the USMLE, in hopes of getting into a good residency program in the US. But what is it like to live in a different country other than the US? Have you ever thought of that? How about our Asian, African, South American and European counterparts?

I was watching Oprah this morning and the show was all about 30 year olds living in different parts of the world.. An eye-opener to a more global perspective..

First off. KUWAIT. A 30 year old woman, married to a commoner whom her family disapproved of. By commoner it meant somebody outside your family. Traditionally, you should marry a cousin, to keep the wealth inside the family. But even if her family kind of disowned her, she is still better off than most of the women living in different parts of the world. They live temporarily with the man’s parents quite comfortably, in a house that could rival the houses in Ayala Alabang and Forbes. The couple was showing off architectural plans to build their own house, complete with a tennis court and a swimming pool. Not bad! And 67% of students in Kuwait University are women. They have been educated and are a vital part of the workforce. Education and medical services are free. So what do women in Kuwait do in their spare time? Take two hour lunches, and my favorite pasttime, shopping! Because they could afford to. Take note they are quite label-conscious. Fendi. Prada. Gucci. Burberry. Chanel. Maybe toting around the latest Hermes bag before anyone else in Asia could. Of course, some women you would still see in their traditional attire of burqa covering their entire body and revealing only their eyes or a sheilah, but underneath wearing designer clothes from Dolce and Gabbana. Jewelry from Van Cleef and Arpels and Cartier. Do you know why they could afford luxury goods? THEY DON’T HAVE TAXES! Now you can imagine how rich this tiny country in the Middle East is. The same oil fields that Saddam Hussein wanted to get his hands on made them rich. When somebody gets married in Kuwait, the King sends them a gift. You can even get financial loans to build a house WITHOUT INTEREST. By now, the American audience is shocked. No interest and no taxes. Sounds good. But there is always a trade-off.. Women are NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE in this democratic nation. Despite being the intelligent, outspoken, strong women that they are.

      Let’s compare this to IRAQ. This 30 year old journalist lives in a house in Baghdad with electricity turned on for two hours then turned off for the next 4 hours during the day. It looks like any suburban house from the inside.. but with gunshots continuously fired and heard outside their house.. She keeps an armalite-looking gun inside the house for protection.. Imagine a constant fear of being killed, of someone breaking into and entering their home. Her father and brother were all killed in the war. Iraq has been liberated from Saddam however so-called freedom has its price. There is no order, no basic services. Women are being raped, killed. They are afraid of going out the house, lest they want be killed, shot. There is no running water, no electricity. The new problem that Iraqi women face is how to cope with the situation. The answer that most of them have turned to is popping a VALIUM which is available in Iraq without a prescription. To escape from reality.. to escape from living in a war-torn area. A bottle roughly costs $0.20 which is a small price to pay for getting a good night’s sleep. A small price to pay to numb your sadness from loved ones killed as casualties of war. Women in Iraq are getting addicted to Valium and it is something that is not discussed.

      One thing that remains universal though is the desire to remain beautiful. The standards of beauty differ from country to country. In BRAZIL, the land of Havaianas, bikinis, beaches and thongs, women pay attention to what else, their buttocks? The gym would be the place to go, never mind if you’re not married by the time you’re 30 as long as your buttocks are worthy of some booty shaking. Waxing, hence the term Brazilian wax, is a must! Brazil remains to be a haven for plastic surgery with more North American women flocking there to have something nipped and tucked because of its relatively cheaper price. While you’re at it, take a vacation in Rio de Janeiro while you’re recuperating from your liposuction.

      Women in Brazil place a high premium on their looks as is women in South Korea. In SOUTH KOREA, a whopping 80% of women by the age of 30 admit to having plastic surgery. Usually, Koreans want to have their eyelids done. Asians are born with a fold of skin over the eye and want to create the illusion of wider, bigger and deep set eyes. This medical procedure is called blepharoplasty and is also popular among the Chinese.. As is rhinoplasty or more popularly known as a nosejob. Add a little chin tuck and enhancement of the cheeks, to keep yourself looking young. The average monthly income for a professional woman is $1500 a month in South Korea and procedures could cost up to $2000 which for them is a small amount to make their Asian features look more Western. Blame it on Western influences? The Korean women who were interviewed admitted that they did it to make them more desirable to the other sex, or probably get a better, high paying job. Some of them appeared docile and were embarrassed to admit they had plastic surgery but if you ask them in general, it is something they wouldn’t deny. Take for example the latest trend there, surgery to shave off your calf/gastrocnemius muscles to make them look thinner!!

      The women from the other countries agreed that women in the US are overworked. In LONDON, a typical workweek would be 35 hours and you get a 5 week paid vacation yearly. Women in the US dress more comfortably (*a politically correct term for dowdy hehehe) in their oversized jeans and huge t-shirts with their backpacks slung over their shoulders whereas their Mexican counterparts like to flaunt with their tightfitting outfits. MEXICAN women don’t like going to the gym because for them, the standard of beauty is having all those curves and would not want to be stick thin.

      As one Mexican telenovela actress on the show recounted, even the way we drink tequila is wrong. It’s meant to be sipped slowly like Cognac and not as shots like there’s no tomorrow. One of the reasons why American women are obese (up to 70%) is not just because they don’t exercise and the huge servings that they serve. They also eat fast and gobble their food for a good 10 minutes. Compare this with the FRENCH who eat all these fattening cheese, bread and drink wine but they savor every bite. Compare this with the Mexicans who eat enchiladas, nachos and tacos but take it over a 2 hour lunchbreak. They also have siesta breaks afterwards. The French make it a point to WALK, WALK, WALK.. Live well, Eat well..

      As a woman, pampering yourself is not something you have to apologize about. MALAYSIANS have regular massages which cost them roughly $10 twice a month. It’s not a luxury, it’s just a way of life. And then you can buy yourself those strappy Jimmy Choo shoes (who happens to be Malaysian himself).

      Too bad there was nothing mentioned about the PHILIPPINES! Ano kaya ilalagay nila? 30 something woman, still living with her parents.. maybe goes to the gym, goes to the salon once in a while.. Overworked, Underpaid, Overtaxed! I doubt if you could afford plastic surgery by the time you’re 30 with a regular salary unless you’re one of those starlets who want to have breast augmentation and liposuction. I doubt if you could afford Fendi, Chanel and Vuittons.. Oh, but there’s always Greenhills!

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