Gripe, gripe

I wish someone would give me a dime every time I gripe about my country of birth and my people, because this is all I can and want to do. When I am here. In the Philippines.

Toilet paper and tissue napkins.

In the U.S., restaurants are stocked with napkins, left out on the table; thick and wide and strong. Every time you eat out, you can empty the whole napkin dispenser, put it in your bag and ask the waiter for refills. He will gladly oblige, no questions asked. Then you can go to the restroom and bag all the toilet paper too. Even if you only eat out once a week, you can delete these two items from your shopping list. Forever. But Americans won't do this....steal napkins. They may steal the whole pantry, but napkins? Also note that American airlines flight attendants don't announce at the end of the flight reminding passengers that the blankets and the tv belong to the airplane. Because Americans just know that them itchy-never-been-washed blankets should remain where they are...on the floor and not in your bag. And they're not going to be caught dead yanking out a 4" poor excuse of a tv from behind a snoring 379 lb. passenger. But my countrymen just can't and won't leave things alone. Is it because we were raised helping ourselves to the neighbors chickens and eggs? And adults sending us on errands to borrow sugar or salt from the neighbor and we can't remember ever returning them? So we pay the price; we have to bring our own toilet paper wherever we go or make do with restaurant napkins, that is if it hasn't dissipated after you used it to wipe your fork or spoon.

Sales clerks. Duties: Stand there. Smile. Memorize 2 short English sentence: "Good morning/Afternoon Sir" "Good morning/Afternoon Maam" Product knowledge: zero
It's very seldom that I would need help at the grocery store, but I dread having to buy something like hardware materials or appliances. Today, I went to the hardware store looking for a saw. (That's right, a saw.) I swear, the guy assigned to that aisle had a pulse and some brain activity, until I had the audacity to ask him about his product. Product knowledge about a saw? 30 degrees below zero. He was so useless, he is the first one you'd want to eat when your plane crash in an island no one knows about. (except the backpackers who successfully kept it out of Lonely Planet writers). But I don't think you can eat something that's smiling at you, telling you it's a good morning or afternoon.