An upsetting read

From Madame Chiang's blog.

When I was in BKK last week looking for my new apartment, I spent some time with one of my new colleagues, a Thai lady, about the same age as me, well travelled and with fairly strong opinions on Asian countries...HKG - fine, Singapore - very nice and organised, Japan - interesting, the Philippines....and here the conversation went south....I have rarely heard such a negative description of the Philippines - the end result was she told me that in a past job one of her colleagues had won (at a staff party) an all expenses paid trip to the Philippines for two....the colleague who had won, was so horrified at the thought of going to the Philippines he passed up on the prize and offered it to his other colleagues...nobody wanted it, the prize was unused.

I wonder what it is that made people feel this way towards us/our country. How we are viewed by other people is our own doing. We need to earn the respect of other people. We can always make a lists of things that we can be proud of but these lists won't mean a thing if we continue doing these things.