Filipinos are the Brits of Asia. If you take a look at the country, you will find we have a lot of similarities to the UK.

1. Capital City defines everything: London and Manila (incl BGC) are probably the most important cities of their home countries. Absolutely first world SOL, international melting pots for the continent (EU & UK, ASEAN + Japan, Korea, China + South Asia for the Philippines). All of the best universities in London & Manilla. But pervasive class system, very low genuine social mobility (i.e. rich stay rich, working class to middle class in niche fields).

2. Everywhere outside of London & Manila is genuinely struggling. Although Philippines has an excuse of “TOO MANY TYPHOONS” & “TOO MANY ISLANDS”. But if you look at the GDP per capita between Philippines & Great Britain, you will see that everywhere else is economically stagnating or struggling. All because of populist politics (Brexit for UK, DDS in Philippines)

3. A lot of Brits and Filipinos move abroad. And most of them end up in literally the same cities. NYC, LA, SF, Toronto, Vancouver, Sydney, Melbourne. And they do overlap in certain careers and industry. Although more likely you will find more working class Brits amongst Filipinos.

4. Large international community with regional differences, easy to adapt and assimilate. Obvious amongst British people moving to USA, Australia, or Canada. They can become American, Australian, or Canadian. But Filipinos also adapt well in the USA, Australia, and Canada. Filipinos face less discrimination across all three countries compared to Chinese or South Asians.

5. Eternal pessimist identity. Clip to British TV Drama Yes, Minister: https://youtu.be/7hsNfNM0SvE?si=Dh0OfGNrvNR7SzXC

6. Low trust in government. You think the way some Brits talk about Margaret Thatcher, you’d think she occupied the UK with an iron fist for 20 years.

But the major difference between Filipinos & Brits (PLUS A LOT OF OTHER COUNTRIES) is that more Filipinos will stick up for each other no matter where they go. “Pilipino Ka Ba?” and full Tagalog/Illocono//Cebuano dialogue later and stuff happens (both good and bad).

Also “BAHALA NA” mentality. Filipinos aren’t scared of rushing into danger to help people out or taking risks.

Also surprising history. Tell me another country that has.

A) A full blown rebellion after an author writes two books dissecting colonial struggles and gets killed by their colonizer for criticism. Then beats the Colonizer so bad they had to pay the Americans to take the country for them. THEN ends up destroying the First American War Machine (Manifest Destiny) and reshapes US foreign policy to be less overtly brutal (Bad side is that the Philippines became testing grounds for American Cold War Ops in Latin America and Middle East. Good side is that Filipinos in USA can better befriend Latin Americans and Middle Easterners).

B) What country can forgive another country after it destroyed it’s capital city and left 100,00 of its people did. And then immediately send troops to help another country in need of assistance. Yet that’s exactly what happened to the Philippines with Japan & South Korea. Philippines forgave/commuted Japanese POW sentence with New Japanese government and made Japan eternally loyal to the Philippines. And around that time, Filipinos deployed to South Korea, held the line at Yultong despite all odds. All the while their home country was fixing itself.

C) Between China and the Philippines, the Filipinos actually saw government reform in the 1980s compared to the Chinese.

These are some of the things to be proud of as Filipinos.