UAE Law: Avoiding a Debt Sentence

UAE Law: Avoiding a Debt Sentence from Illustrado

Snapshots of the Vital Points of UAE Law Every Pinoy Expat Should Know

Every month, our in-house lawyer, Atty. Barney Almazar will explain legal concepts affecting the lives of Filipino expatriates across the emirates. This New Year, he explains how to avoid being in a downward credit card spiral which could get you to court or worse, put you behind the bars.

No Debt Sentence this 2014

By Barney Almazar, Esq.

So you’ve done your holiday shopping, hit the malls for that iPhone 5s or designer purse, but before you think about taking out that credit card and swiping it for another purchase this year, read Article 401 of the UAE Penal code first:

“A punishment of confinement of one month to three years, or a fine of a minimum of AED1,000 shall be inflicted on any person who, in bad faith draws a cheque with no existing or drawable provision.”

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Filipinos Abroad: What Every Filipino Needs to Know When Moving to Another Country

Filipinos Abroad: What Every Filipino Needs to Know When Moving to Another Country from Illustrado

By Quay Evano

Photo – Dreamstime.com

Filipinos have been widely known as citizens of the world. The Pinoy diaspora dates back to the early 1900s when thousands of Filipinos migrated to the USA and ended up starting generations upon generations of Filipino-Americans.  According to AC Nielsen, Filipinos, after the Chinese and the Indians, are the third largest expatriate population scattered around the globe, with 12% of our population outside the homeland.  Our kababayans can be found working and living virtually anywhere in the world – on oil tankers and cruise ships in remote oceans from pole to pole; in unforgiving deserts in the Middle East and Africa; in the coldest places in the world, and even in jungles untouched by man in South America.

Each person has a different way of adapting and surviving in a new country. Luckily for us Filipinos, the culture that we have grown up with has given us a built-in advantage in terms of being able to more easily integrate within new communities where we choose to reside.  Not only are we blessed with familiarity with the English language, even our easy-going and mostly open attitude, unlike more conservative expats, certainly helps us adjust to life in a foreign land.

Still, sharpening our survival skills will ease the way we can get accustomed and eventually thrive in a new place.

Here are some tips that Filipinos could benefit from while trying to make it elsewhere in the world.

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Out of the Barrio, Into the World

Out of the Barrio, Into the World from Illustrado

by Nicholo Jallores

To Juan and Maria,

You’re not in the barrio anymore.

Welcome to the world.

Photo credit: New Line Cinema (Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 10.58.28 AM)

A whirlwind swept you off your lovely days in the village and plonked you here in the middle of the bizarre landscape that is the life of the struggling expatriate. Yours was a life of comfort and predictability in the barrio, but this gnarly province offers no such niceties. You are Frodo from the Shire and this, little sweetling, is Mordor. You will have to shed some of your innocence here, lest you be mistaken as a half-wit and thrown into the pit to be devoured alive by hungry orcs. You are in the land of giants, where everyone walks straighter and taller than you. Brace thyself, lest you be trampled underfoot.

Now mind you, it’s not all fire and brimstone. You did not come here as lamb waddles to the slaughter. You are here to push yourself beyond your limits, to test the mettle of your fortitude and find the immensity that eluded you in your days as just another wily character in your barangay. Greatness awaits, but to get to it you will have to endure a thousand pains and pass through a gauntlet of immense toil and turmoil. You will rise to greater heights, but first, you will be humbled. In your limited and insular vision, you may have thought of yourself a king in your homestead, but here you will have to play the pauper, the court jester, the warrior, or the general. You will have to rebuild your nobility from the ground up, because no one is likely to just hand you your crown.

Survive and thrive abroad! Learn how here.

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