The Rant

[Caryh 5,206]

That's why I call you "The Professor" you always isolate the subject and speak of it with reason. You're 100% right Cary. And I also brought this up. Tiff is generous by nature, and a beautiful honest soul. It worries me that if I wasn't here, she'd get ripped off daily. She hasn't seen enough of human nature to fend for herself and our daughter. I try teaching her all the time. It's hard.

My daughter's Godfather is an attorney, and her Godmother is a Cop. So at least they will look after the family if anything happens to me.

BTW, if Tiff wanted to give her folks the $$, then I'm all for it. I love them more than my own parents. And she'd just be acting as a true Chinese/ Malaysian good daughter.

My wife is the good Filipino daughter also. At times she just wants to send money and make things better when they're tough over there. But then we talk about if its the right thing to do in the current case. She'd like to just support her mother, but her mother is extremely proud and wants to get by on her own. So we use a more sneaky way of helping out her mother. We send her sister some money to pay the utility bills and house payment. Its a very modest little home which her sister is technically the the buyer of. Momma does all she can to make money in whats called a Sari Sari store connected to the house. A sari sari is a tiny family run store that sells the most basic things in tiny packages. She also makes leashes, boots and hoods for roosters. Her mother makes her money fore everything else that way. Doesn't do to bad, but occasionally runs out of stock to run her business. Then we send in some cash to restock her store or buy rooster clothes supplies, and momma is back in business with her dignity and pride in place. Much better than a monthly remittance that would make momma feel dependent and like a useless old lady. Momma is a pretty smart woman to, she no doubt see's through the way we keep her supported, but I think she really appreciates the appearance of doing everything on her own, and she is making on profit on the businesses to, just not quite enough to cover all her expenses, which include the adopted autistic twins.

[SAT 9,609]

#######, may be I will go to work today......

[SAT 9,609]

My wife is the good Filipino daughter also. At times she just wants to send money and make things better when they're tough over there. But then we talk about if its the right thing to do in the current case. She'd like to just support her mother, but her mother is extremely proud and wants to get by on her own. So we use a more sneaky way of helping out her mother. We send her sister some money to pay the utility bills and house payment. Its a very modest little home which her sister is technically the the buyer of. Momma does all she can to make money in whats called a Sari Sari store connected to the house. A sari sari is a tiny family run store that sells the most basic things in tiny packages. She also makes leashes, boots and hoods for roosters. Her mother makes her money fore everything else that way. Doesn't do to bad, but occasionally runs out of stock to run her business. Then we send in some cash to restock her store or buy rooster clothes supplies, and momma is back in business with her dignity and pride in place. Much better than a monthly remittance that would make momma feel dependent and like a useless old lady. Momma is a pretty smart woman to, she no doubt see's through the way we keep her supported, but I think she really appreciates the appearance of doing everything on her own, and she is making on profit on the businesses to, just not quite enough to cover all her expenses, which include the adopted autistic twins.

And that's respectable. I know they're poorer in the Phils. My SIL in Malaysia married a guy whose father owns some kind of a cable manufacturer!! Her FIL shelled out 50K USD for the down payment on the house !! They own 2 cars !

and they wanna what?? "borrow" from Tiff to renovate?? are you kidding me??

OK now I'm back on the rant lol...........

Edited March 8, 2013 by SteveAndTiff

[Caryh 5,206]

I can relate to all this "giving money to the inlaws" thing. Hubby sat me down this morning and told me he had talked to his mother (mini-rant: why the $)#(% is he talking this over with his mother BEFORE he talks it over with me?!) and thinks it's a good idea if we buy discount clothing in the States, ship it down here to his mother, and sell it at a higher price. This is a booming business here - seriously anyone with a family member abroad does it - so I said we'd think about it. Then he went on to say the first shipment would be for his mother (meaning she'd get all the earnings), the second would be for us, the third for her, etc etc. Where the f$#% is the logic in that? I have no intention of spending our hard earned money to ship things to his mother so she can make money for free. I told him so and he seemed to realize it was a stupid idea after I phrased it that way, but seriously. What the hell. He must seriously think we're going to be living in a castle in the clouds if he's under the impression we're going to have all that money to just toss out the window. Jeez.

My wife and her sister have a loan business back in the Philippines. At one point they got the bright idea to move the business into a store front location, and also sell used clothes out of it. Clothes are cheap in the Philippines, but incomes are so low, some people make money selling t-shirts on installments. My wife would go to this place in her city that sold used from America in bulk. Then put them up in the store front and sell them. The problem was they kept getting broken into and robbed at night there, so they finally quit that location and moved the loan business back into the home. It would have worked out great, had the burglars not been so persistent. It sounds crazy, but stealing clothes is a big thing there, even breaking into homes and stealing the clothes for resale.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Caryh

[oohpartiv 484]

My wife and her sister have a loan business back in the Philippines. At one point they got the bright idea to move the business into a store front location, and also sell used clothes out of it. Clothes are cheap in the Philippines, but incomes are so low, some people make money selling t-shirts on installments. My wife would go to this place in her city that sold used from America in bulk. Then put them up in the store front and sell them. The problem was they kept getting broken into and robbed at night there, so they finally quit that location and moved the loan business back into the home. It would have worked out great, had the burglars not been so persistent. It sounds crazy, but stealing clothes is a big thing there, even breaking into homes and stealing the clothes for resale.

It's a big thing here, too, but most people do it out of their homes to avoid those problems. I know a lot of people who do it and they definitely make a profit, but they always split it with whoever provides the clothing/shipping. In the case of your MIL, it sounds like she actually needs the help but is just too proud to ask, which is respectable, and it's nice that you're able to help. But my MIL doesn't NEED any help - the family already owns a taxi, a fast food restaurant (like family owned, no franchise or anything), and a gym. My BIL pays all the household bills with money from his job (which isn't any of the aforementioned family owned enterprises), and the house itself is already paid off, so there's no mortgage or rent. There is definitely plenty of money already circulating, so I see no need for my hubby and I to go broke just to help my MIL live a fake life of luxury. It's presumptious and annoying. She obviously thinks that "American" means "filthy rich".

Edited March 8, 2013 by oohpartiv

[SAT 9,609]

My FIL is a rubber tree tapper. He has about 30 acres or hectares of plantation in a place called Kampung Chennah in Negri Sembilan in Malaysia (google that, its the bushes). Anyway, he was in debt when I met Tiff..... Since then, through his own hard work, high latex prices, and help from us. He paid off the land, bought a nice house in Jelebu (for 30K US), and a flat in Kuala Lumpur for about 120K US. Everything is all paid for, and now my in laws are very comfortable. And I'm very happy for them.

So when I find out that my SIL had a 200K USD house given to them and they wanna borrow $$ for renovations, I find it unbelievable.

Why don't we just sell everything we've got here and send them the $$ so we can start all over again?

[SAT 9,609]

OK I'm hungry now.........

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Never been happier that my in-laws are Danish.

Bless your hearts for putting up with all of this.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Nola123

[Caryh 5,206]

It's a big thing here, too, but most people do it out of their homes to avoid those problems. I know a lot of people who do it and they definitely make a profit, but they always split it with whoever provides the clothing/shipping. In the case of your MIL, it sounds like she actually needs the help but is just too proud to ask, which is respectable, and it's nice that you're able to help. But my MIL doesn't NEED any help - the family already owns a taxi, a fast food restaurant (like family owned, no franchise or anything), and a gym. My BIL pays all the household bills with money from his job (which isn't any of the aforementioned family owned enterprises), and the house itself is already paid off, so there's no mortgage or rent. There is definitely plenty of money already circulating, so I see no need for my hubby and I to go broke just to help my MIL live a fake life of luxury. It's presumptious and annoying. She obviously thinks that "American" means "filthy rich".

Well if you didn't always act like a rich American, maybe they wouldn't have that idea! Imagine having a clothes washing machine on the roof!

And yes momma is really too proud to ask for help even if she needs it. When my wife was still there, my wife made sure her mother and the twins were never without the things they needed. After my wife moved here, there was a crisis where momma had no food and refused to ask for help. The twins showed up at my SIL's house complaining of being hungry. It was my BIL and his wife's fault. They had bled the sari sari store dry by taking things and never paying for it. My wife used to make sure he paid for those things when she was still there. My wife in a panic was demanding to return the Philippines to live because no one was looking out for momma and the twins. Now my SIL knows she has to check and pay attention, because momma won't ask for help.

In that case it was pretty obvious we were helping cash wise, as things had fallen so far behind, including momma buying stock on credit until she ran out of credit, so her son and DIL could eat for free and spend money on parties. Heck when they had a party they'd come and clean out the soda and beer from the sari sari, while not paying for it. He was never like that until he married that woman, who I can say nothing good about. Never met a woman so lazy and selfish. She thinks she's entitled to everything everyone else has and contributes nothing. Once she said she wanted to work and took over momma's sari sari store. What she meant by that was she came and took all the money at the end of the day and never bought any new stock. Momma still did all the selling and cleaning. Within a month all the stock was gone, and there was no money to buy more. Plus momma worked for nothing for an entire month and was out of food. I tell you, I'd like to slap that woman silly, and my BIL to, for not kicking her worthless but to the curb.

[Operator 1,927]

I've got a rant this morning...

Hey Cap'n where's my content feed

How can I continue to follow all these important immigration topics without my content feed.

How am i gonna help people figure out how many people are in their family or what to put on a G325-A when you have no middle name.

I'm not even sure how I found this thread...

[Caryh 5,206]

My FIL is a rubber tree tapper. He has about 30 acres or hectares of plantation in a place called Kampung Chennah in Negri Sembilan in Malaysia (google that, its the bushes). Anyway, he was in debt when I met Tiff..... Since then, through his own hard work, high latex prices, and help from us. He paid off the land, bought a nice house in Jelebu (for 30K US), and a flat in Kuala Lumpur for about 120K US. Everything is all paid for, and now my in laws are very comfortable. And I'm very happy for them.

So when I find out that my SIL had a 200K USD house given to them and they wanna borrow $$ for renovations, I find it unbelievable.

Why don't we just sell everything we've got here and send them the $$ so we can start all over again?

Wow my wife's stepfather was a rubber man. He went around and bought rubber from small farmers and then sold it in the city. The guy gambled though, so he never lifted the family out of poverty though. Family used to have a broom business to. They sold brooms to the people who went door to door selling brooms. Turns out for a while he didn't pay for the brooms from their supplier and took them on credit so he could gamble and drink with the money. Suddenly no more brooms to sell to their sellers and the business was dead. I never met my wife's step father, even though I was in country and knew her while he was still alive. He was pissed off because momma wasn't letting him drink because of diabetes and high blood pressure, so he had taken off to family on another island for a few months. He eventually came back, but kept sneaking out to drink and ended up dying not long after that.

[The Mean Lady 604]

I've decided the chair is indeed covered in mold.

I took a look at the instructions again which were also covered.

I'm so pissed right now, being allergic to mold.

My nose is indeed starting to stuff up.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Yeah, that's mold alright.

Yuck!

[The Mean Lady 604]

And all they offered me was a new seat!

DAMMIT I WANT A WHOLE NEW UPGRADED CHAIR!

[Caryh 5,206]

And all they offered me was a new seat!

DAMMIT I WANT A WHOLE NEW UPGRADED CHAIR!

/sarcasm on/ You will sit on your new moldy seat and like it! /sarcasm off/ Here, have a tissue.

Where did you buy this chair? Or who made this chair and sends a moldy seat to replace a defective seat?