BEN KRITZ
THE most discouraging thing about living and working in this country is battling stereotypes. Despite what they may think of themselves, Filipinos seem neither particularly worldly nor open-minded towards other cultures; no matter how immersed in the local environment one may become, once an outsider, always an outsider, and that means being tarred by a rather broad brush: Chinese are rude and dirty. Africans are con artists. Indians are all 5-6 loan sharks. Every American is a low-rank military retiree and possibly a pedophile.