Thursday, September 13, 2012

PISO-NET! ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES

              PISO-NET : ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES!




          Piso-net. What? Come again? At last, I realized I am not the only one who has gotten startled upon hearing that word.It is a kind of internet cafe where the user inserts one peso coin into the slot connected to the computer to make it function. Piso means one Philippine peso coin, and net, of course is for the internet. One peso is equal to four minutes of computer usage.

               Only in the Philippines! Where almost everything is sold in retail for affordability. Here you can buy repacked products like sugar and salt for Php1 and/or soy sauce and cooking oil for Php5. Eggs and vegetables like potatoes and eggplants can be bought per piece. I guess, that's very good. Because it gives Filipinos who scarcely earn daily to at least have something to eat for every meal.

               Once, we joked that there could be a very cheap cellphone, only that one has to insert coins into the cellphone coin slot for it to function. Imagine how it looks like. Jokes like that. An electric bicycle or car but the cord has to be very long to keep it plugged to the socket no matter where it goes.
               Even if I knew of video games and videokes operated by inserting coins, I never thought that it could be possible with the computers. The first time I visited this piso-net cafe in our province Lumban,Laguna, I was like a very innocent/uncivilized woman who had just come down from the mountain when in fact I now live in the city. I was really amazed!Call me ignorant or whatever!

             Now, I very much agree to the notion that Filipinos are like bamboo poles-bending when the storm comes but not getting broken. Standing up whenever we fall... and smiling in the midst of tragedies. Filipinos really find ways to cope up with life's difficulties! Only in the Philippines!