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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

"To Doubt or Not to Doubt"

Some things (or should I say most things) are no longer sacred…life…be it that of a child’s, a woman, an old lady or a man of cloth…everything has been turned into travesty. It is such a dismay that men have managed to make a mockery of themselves. I belong to the vast majority of Filipinos who "invades" the internet everyday in the hope of finding greener pastures abroad. I have (as some may put it) wasted time, at times deprived my children of attention, cancelled rendezvous with friends just to be able to speed up the possibility of leaving the country for a better life or what not. Hence, last week when I received an email of a job offer in Canada, I almost fainted. I began fabricating dreams that would include bringing my parents, sisters, and other relatives sightseeing. In my momentary space in time I was opening an account for my mother and sister-in-law so that we could send them money and that they may never be deprived again. I hurriedly visited my mother and decided to break the news, reminding here even, that for now this job offer would be hush-hush until I receive the visa. My mother stood in front of me teary eyed and in a split second I was squished into her very tight embrace. It was at that point that we began crying both softly at first which turned into incoherent sobs. I could but hear part of what my mama was saying “don’t worry….sacrifice….bright future….grandchildren….pray….”. I told her this time Canada will be her second home (yeah!). And so I went on to fix my documents and suddenly in the middle of doing so, I felt strange and decided to check out their website which was legitimate enough. However, I still felt that there was something amiss so I emailed no less, the VP of the said company and did not have to wait long for a reply. I've been had! ....well....almost.... I was advised not to send out any money in case the fraudster should ask for such. Of course I felt devastated but more relieved that I did not go as far as giving out pertinent personal details. I started to cry as I just spent 1,000 pesos for my documents and gas which was supposed to be money spent for “bonding time” with my children. Nonetheless, looking back everything seems to be comical even if it was such awaste of time and energy but of course in all that has happened this is one lesson very well learned!

3 comments:

riablahgs said...

don't throw caution to the wind when it comes to recruitment or job offers elsewhere. check out legal companies there in manila which facilitate legal applications for canada. good you took heed of your inner gut-feel, or you would have been scammed... tsk-tsk!

hugs,
ria
It's My Party
The Fashop
In My Home

Bola said...

Sorry you have to go thru that, it could be very discouraging. Imagine having to spend that money getting your documents together. The fraudsters are everywhere. Here, we call them 419; they will even write that you have won a lot of money in a lottery. Pls be careful, they are everywhere and ready to strip an unsuspecting person of their money.

Thank God you follow your gut feeling. Anyway, you would have realized they are fake when they start asking you for money that you cannot afford to pay.

MumsDadsChildren .

Shalom!

mjoips said...

fraudsters are really everywhere, i always caution my sisters about them...they always think i am too cynical, but it always turns out that something is indeed fishy about the "offers"...still we have to thank God for not letting us be duped, some filipinos are not so lucky, they spend hundred thousands of pesos only to find out that they wont be getting any decent job or visa...ate, i think the feeling that something is amiss comes from the Holy Spirit as well as guidance from our beloved relatives who are already with God and who knows how much we love our family and want to work abroad just to help them...let us just keep praying and thanking God for all the blessings, even the blessings in disguise...He keeps protecting us and our family...and that protection is something more valuable than migrating to a country (that's probably badly hit by the financial crisis anyway)...yup, ive got filipino friends who used to work here and then migrated to canada and are now back in the phils because they said the economy is doing very poorly there...God knows what is best for us, and so let us just thank Him for His wisdom and trust Him...in time He will grant our hearts' desires.