The Milk Run

Every Month...Every Payday...Every Time or anytime...of the year We have to do the Milk Run...money drop...any way you call it...lots of people...families depend on it...its like a blood transfusion...every drip counts...literally all OFWs bleeds to death every time he or she sees that the dollar vs. peso is down again...babies all over the world cry or they don't get milk...5 days or even 1 week before the payday comes families will be calling and texting mobile phones...sending messages such as Kailan ka magpapadala? When will you send it? "May sweldo na ba?"...Have you receive your salary? "Bakit ganito lang kaliit? "Why is the amount small?

According to the banko sentral...Last year, the total amount of overseas Filipino remittances (OFW) was officially recorded at US$12.8 billion (Bt445 billion), just above 10 per cent of the GDP. The Philippines is now the world's third highest remittance-recipient country after India and Mexico, and the highest when remittances are measured as ratios to population, GDP and exports.

OFWs are proping up the economies of their home countries.not only my philippines.by the way..its .globally...happening yes this is a global phenomenon...anyway I don't want to politicize any of this stuff although I am tempted but I would rather speak...how the ordinary worker here in the middle east deals with this proverbial milk run...

When salary day comes...the worker goes through the motion of going to cue and line up among the many depository banks where their salaries have been dropped by the companies they are working for...or the lucky ones who get their in cash...and among the cue will be Pakistanis, Nepalese, Indians, Bengalis, of course the kabayans, and even Indonesians and Malaysians...

The atm rooms...and money exchanges will be filled with sweaty and smelly body odored people from all walks of like...the brunt of which will be the unsung heroes from far far away lands toiling to bring the bacon home...to their loved ones

Yes labor migration and money remittances go hand in hand and benefits lots of households, communities and their destination countries making larger economic impacts because these funds alleviate poverty, contribute directly to community their own development and gtrying to make a dent on global world debt...

But there are mitigating and unbearable costs because labor migration's social cost of separating families will eventually bear their toll on the worker's mind set and the families left behind. A few seasoned workers fully understand the circumstances but a number of them will fail to comprehend and will succumb to debt...homesickness...family problems...and culture shock...

While the government relaxes and tries to cash in from these remittances as a disguise that their economic policy are responsible for the empty shell that they are being prop up by OFW monies...and makes people think that the economy is doing fine when actually is not...but rather becoming reliant on these remittances...

In the money exchange shops...you will hear the banter and noise among the din...you can hear a lot of sighs when the dollar values are down...and i can hear the laughs and see the grin in the faces of the owners of the banks and the world bank who makes me wonder why is it that during the salary payroll period...the money exchanges are quite low and during the non salary days its all up to the brim...of the cup...food for thought...sending money is quite very easy...you have all these western unions and money exchanges controlled by big banks and big financial houses...getting the money to the OFW pocket is the hard part....sending and wiring it to their families is the part when one OFW knows he is doing what one must do best and provide for his family while the rest of the world...his country...and the big financial cartel...makes money out of this worker's meager earning...what a kind of a world have we made ourselves into...