I never knew that 20th October was Philippine-British Friendship Day. The British Embassy had a 4 page supplement in the national paper here in the Philippines advocating our similarity as outward-facing islands as well as highlighting British investment and involvement in the Philippines.
I suspect the day is an invention of the British Embassy and I am not quite sure what I should do to celebrate..hug a Filipino?!
According to statistics in 2009 there were more than 100,000 Filipinos in the UK, more than double the amount there had been 10 years earlier, many there to fill vacancies in the NHS (National Health Service). Yet with recession and cut-backs there is perhaps less of a welcome and friendships are perhaps harder to form. See the following article in The Guardian earlier this year Nursing Dream Fades for Filipinos. Being here in Manila there are billboards advertising schools and colleges where you can "Study and Migrate".
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