Tuesday, December 25, 2018

A New Concept Of Sending Packages To Another Country

By Douglas Mitchell


People sometimes migrate to look for greener pastures. This is especially true in countries where job opportunities are few or the pay is just too low. One particular country has been very successful in exporting workers. These often become resident aliens in another country and stay there for a long time. When they return home they bring with them present for family and friends using a concept call balikbayan box padala.

This particular container is a cultural expression of close knit family relations in the Philippines. It is a practice ingrained in attitudes and habits of the people from this nation. Even before the advent of this box, it has been a common practice to bring home some excess food during fiestas. When people travel to a different island, they are expected to bring home something.

This habit used to happen only in this particular country where there are several islands. It is an archipelagic nation composed of more than seven thousand islands and islets. These are three main geographic divisions namely, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Although this is largely a Christian country, the southern island has a large Muslim population.

This state is a polyglot one. It has several linguistic dialects almost in each of the islands. Despite three hundred years of Spanish colonialization, these dialects are still being actively spoken to this day, only very few can actually speak Spanish. This unlike in contiguous lands that were conquered by Spain where local dialects were totally eliminated and Spanish is now the main language.

These influences were carried over with the increase in the number of workers going abroad seeking job opportunities, particularly in the United States. This started when America had a shortage of nurses of which the Philippines had plenty of. Most of the overseas workers eventually become immigrants and some are granted citizenship.

Filipinos are known to be very hospitable to strangers from other countries. More so among its own relatives to the extent that they really take time and spend money in sending presents to those left at home or they bring presents contained in balikbayan boxes when they visit the Philippines. This container is the recipient of many items and objects which will find its way to that nation.

Three hundred years of Spanish rule and fifty years of American occupation has made an impact on the Filipino psyche. The influence can no more be as opposite as black and white. It is like a mixture of oil and water. We are talking about hard religious fanaticism married to Hollywood liberalism. This unique trait made the government legislated laws for that made taxes and customs duties affordable to workers from abroad.

This concept was developed as a return favor for the contributions of migrant workers to the economy. However, this became chaotic in the aftermath of the nine eleven attacks. With the creation of the homeland security department, all these containers were opened and thoroughly inspected resulting in a delay of up to about a month or two.

In its own way, it is a very unique type of package. This is only being done by one country as an expression of gratitude to the efforts of its overseas workers. But as in other places, these are sometimes subjected to pilferage when it goes through the bureau of customs or the postal service. It altogether is not uncommon to hear complaints of items being missing.




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