Last November, I went to Fukuoka, Japan for a business trip. There is something I enjoy very much in oriental business settings, that is the seemingly overzealous attempts of orientals to please a business guest, specially one that has a high designation in the company's food chain. So there I was at the airport with a Japanese business partner and we were greeted by two guys who were practically wrestling my luggage away from me as it would be inappropriate for myself to carry my own luggage.
After having coffee at the airport's cafe, we headed off towards the exit for the ride to town. At this point, I teased my Japanese counterpart that his position deserves a better car. His response caught me off guard... "Sir, I used to drive a very nice big car but Filipino gangsters stole it." At an impulse, I felt I needed to shut up. Slightly recovering from the conversation, I asked how he can be sure that they were Filipinos? He casually said that they are very famous in Fukuoka and that he was quite sure.
The trip was one day business, the rest was one big party. They organized a welcome party for me, a walk through town get together, lots of eating... and definitely lots of drinking. My stay became one big bonding session with employees who were assigned in Japan. At the end of the trip, my Japanese business partners were frantically shopping for my pasalubong back home. Our employees did the same and I did not need to shop since all the bling blings and goodies were already labeled with names of my family members as well as my staff back in Manila.
Fast forward...
Some of the same employees returned to Manila and naturally, they would have to make a courtesy call to my office before officially filing for a rest leave so that they may spend some time with their families. Their faces were a bit gloomy so I had to ask them what was the matter. They said that they were cheated in a pyramid scam while they were in Japan. They (individually) lost around 350k to 1.2M in peso to a person they trusted. I made a comment on how bad I felt but could not believe that they also have such modus operandis in Japan to wit they replied... "Sir, Pinay ang nangloko sa amin."
Yesterday...
My maid has left about three weeks ago, so life was a bit difficult for us. Anyway, my aunt (my second mom) who goes to church everyday met someone in church looking for a job as a maid. Without hesitation and with all the noble intent of helping us out recommended her to us. We interviewed her and she seemed perfect for the job. Her life story was the usual married with a kid and widowed at a young age stuff... we asked her to do a little marketing for my favorite sinigang na buto-buto so that we can test her culinary skills. We gave her a Php 1,000 bill and she returned with the goods as well as the change. While she was cooking, she insisted that she do the other chores so that time would not be wasted.... then she disappeared.
She was a marvelous cleaning lady... she cleaned away from us 5 cellular phones including mine with all my contacts for the last five years, all my wife's jewelry, all the cash in the wallets and a lot of other bling blings amounting to about 200k. All this in a span of about an hour...
But I am not about to RANT... I am actually smiling that at least something like this has happened to me considering my thoughts of the fact that it could have been worse.... what if we trusted her enough to leave the kids with her? What if she waited for a month to implement her evil deed? What if I was put in a situation where I had to discharge my weapon on another human being? What if we caught her red handed and I had to lay my hands on a woman?
It came to pass... there were lessons learned. That was enough. The lost bling blings can be replaced. The cash can be earned again. And yesterday's incident will not deter me from my personal belief that man is essentially good... it is circumstance that makes us what we are.
And for those of us who are afforded the option to do good... by all means, let's remain good... because it's a MAD WORLD out there.
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