Beware of expat YouTubers in the Philippines
Evidently, for American expats in the Philippines, YouTube provides a great way to make some extra money. I know that before coming to the Philippines, I watched a great deal of YouTube content of this variety. You know, an American expat living in the Philippines can provide a ton of insight for other Americans considering a move. The good, the bad, and the how.
But we should always remember that the goal of these YouTubers is to make money. And providing accurate and complete information does not always contribute to that goal.
I rarely see flat-out inaccurate videos. But I do see many videos which leave out a lot. Little details which will trip you up in the Philippines. And sometimes these details are not so little. And if you comment and point out their errors, more often than not, your comment will be deleted or shadow-banned. That's fine; they have a right to run their channels as they see fit. And to include only comments that align with their narratives and goals.
But the problem is, there are very few channels which give Americans a full and complete picture of what it's like to live here. Precious few. In fact, I constantly ask YouTube to Don't recommend channel for this very reason.
I do watch PhillyinthePhilippines and The Filipina Pea. Philly keeps sort of a video journal of his life in the Philippines; straightforward enough. And Pea is a Filipina YouTuber whose audience is largely foreign men. But she is pretty honest about Philippine culture. Let me give you an example. The Philippines is supposedly over 85% Christian. So she walked around asking her fellow Filipinos simple Bible questions: Who built a big boat and loaded animals onto it? What were the names of Adam and Eve's children? How many of the Ten Commandments can you list? Let's just say that the answers belied their supposed Christian beliefs.
Yes, there is an argument to be made that only a Filipino can legitimately criticize the culture this way. But my point is, if you are an American Christian thinking of moving to the overwhelmingly Christian Philippines, this is good information to know.
I will try out new expat channels as they pop up. And for a while my attitude was: Well take them for what they are worth, and leave the rest. But the longer I live here, the less patience and tolerance I have for their dishonesty. Or worse, their feigned honesty.
Which brings me to Calvin Roach. When I was still in the US, this must have been in 2019 or 2020, don't remember exactly, Calvin made a comment in one of his videos that I found outrageous. He said: In the Philippines, there is no appreciation and no consideration. My then girlfriend, now my wife, was Filipina and we had lots of Filipino friends in the US. And Calvin's comment did not ring true to me. It certainly did not comport with the Filipinos I knew. And the more I thought about it, the more I found his comment to be unfriendly and untrue, and even ugly. In short, it made me mad enough, that I quit watching him. Washed my hands of the guy.
Then in 2021, we moved to the Philippines. It was not immediate, but I'd say over the next couple of years, I came to realize that Calvin was largely correct. As unfriendly sounding as his comment was, it was in fact largely true. I would only temper it a bit; my personal opinion is that, in the Philippines, there is little appreciation and little consideration. And the fact that this does not hold true for the Filipino diaspora is testament to the type of people who leave the Philippines and the type of people who stay. The Philippines largest export is Filipinos.
Needless to say, I started watching Calvin again.
The point is, I find him to be a pretty straight shooter. I know nothing of his reported conflicts with anyone else. I do know that there seems to be something about Youtube which brings out the inner teenage girl with all her drama, in the content creators. Maybe it is just about clicks. But getting true and complete information about living in the Philippines is rare. Calvin does a better job than most.
In fact, I would submit that this lack of appreciation/consideration aspect of Filipino culture is a dead giveaway for the channels that are less than fully honest. This is such an obvious part of Filipino culture that if a YouTuber does not address it, ask yourself: What else are they leaving out? I remember one YouTuber, from California, who I've long dismissed from my feed, making the argument that Filipinos are more respectful than Americans (as I recall, it was because they are polite and call him Sir). My comment was something along the lines of: Only on the most shallow level, but if you dig a bit deeper you will find little appreciation and little consideration. And how do you find any respect in that?
A couple of other topics to watch for: The Philippines complete disregard for the environment and its use of the Pacific Ocean as its national landfill. I know this sounds harsh, but there is very little effort here to deal with waste, particularly plastic.
Also the very popular trend among Filipinas to whiten or otherwise lighten their skin in order to look like Korean, Japanese, and/or Chinese women. And their methods can be quite effective. Today, the Philippines is a tropical paradise inhabited by raven-haired apparitions of tropical beauty.
If anyone brings this up at all, the bien-pensants will blame it on the Spanish occupation (which ended in 1898). This only means that they have not actually spoken with any of these women on the topic. You want to be white like the Spanish? They could not care less about the Spanish. No, they want to be white like the Koreans, who they believe set the Asian beauty standard. It is sad, and never discussed by expat YouTubers. But what Americans need to understand is just how widespread this is.
Now I do understand why YouTubers leave these issues out. They fear, perhaps correctly, that negative information will lead to less viewership. And perhaps even displease the Philippine government. But whatever the reasons, it's a grave disservice to unsuspecting viewers.
So beware of the expats' rose-colored Philippines.