Originally posted by ginapeterb@Jun 19 2005, 08:42 PM
I dont mind giving 5 pesos to a street kid, who comes up to me, I dont mind doing that, or an extra P20 to a taxi driver who is nice to me in the taxi,
The one thing I learned to do in Philippines, is NEVER give pesos to streetkids - why? Simple - it will encourage more and more to do the same. One time Elsa and I had just eaten at Shakeys in Manila and as we left the building, about 10 of them came from nowhere asking "peso mister" (in fact 2 of them started pushing and it got quite nasty at one point). Now if I gave one of them 5 peso, the rest want 5 peso too. Another time after eating breakfast at McDo, Elsa had a spare burger she took with her, and would you know, some kiddie says peso mister, but he wouldn't take the burger - he wanted the money I know its heartbreaking seeing these poor kids with no food or shoes on their feet, but IT AINT MY PROBLEM and giving them money only encourages the problem.
As for taxi drivers - I'm with you on that Pete, but the majority of taxi drivers in Manila are evil .......s who see all foreigners as potential rip-off targets. Elsa and I experienced this so many times, and I reckon the ratio of good taxi drivers to bad is 10/90