Transcript

VOX POP BEGINS

Whether we think about this in financial or other terms, I look at the word like the prefix, I guess, of debt and think about like deficit and it’s thinking about a lack or suddenly there is this space made. Things are not even anymore.

Like I owe somebody something that is something that is enslaving you. It doesn't have to be money. It can be anything.

You don't always see where the technical debt is or if something has technical debt and we all have some sort of technical debt that whether it's emotional economics, social or developmental or psychological, physical health, the menu culture or even blood debts.

VOX POP ENDS

INTRODUCTION BEGINS

In Blood Debts, we tell the stories of choices and sacrifices to pay back what is owed and pay forward something of value.

I’m your host, Leezel Tanglao.

On this podcast, we talk about one of the few through lines in people’s lives - debt.

You’ll hear stories from the Filipino diaspora around how debt has impacted all aspects of life from those in the medical field, public service sector to creative arts.

As a journalist, I’ve spent more than a decade reporting on the financial aspects of debt in diverse communities.

But many carry debts beyond money.

Ben Reyes: Just like sometimes you aren't able to see someone with a disability just by looking at them on the street. And it's sometimes not very obvious. You also don't see what debt another person is carrying.

 Think about that. And even the individual and or person might not even realize that they're carrying debt and walking around every single day carrying weighted sandbags and just because they've probably been carrying that debt since the first day they were born.

Leezel Tanglao: In this episode, we talked to Ben Reyes, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom and later moved to the United States. He currently works in the tech industry as a developer and entrepreneur. We talk about personal debts like time and sleep.

INTRODUCTION ENDS

My name is Ben Reyes and I worked for a tech company in the Bay Area.

We’re pretty much on borrowed time and well, maybe not necessarily borrowed time, but there's only a finite amount of time that we have in this world from when we were born.

We're also given a lot of things to us. So even though that might be, you know, you inherit something from your parents and your DNA, cultural or even environmental. And when I talk about personal debt, sleep is a very big thing that I probably run up quite a bit debt on.

And so, for instance, early on in my career or trying to start a startup or even doing exams, one of the things that, you know, you would often I would often pull all nighters, but then that has a larger impact on my health the next day, how you operate, the fact that you get agitated afterwards.

And then so I would do that Monday to Friday. You were on a project or writing up some code and getting stuff done and then crashing on the weekends. But then over time, what I realized is as I've gotten older, all of that debt that I built up in terms of my sleep and my health has kind of, you know, accumulated over time. And, you know, it becomes a lot more apparent as I get older.

 Leezel Tanglao: And how does the notion of TechNet apply to other parts of life?

 Every single decision we make has a consequence to that decision, so that consequence can be a good consequence or or or neutral consequence or even a negative consequence.

But because time and resources limited in this world that we're even giving back to life, to society, to whatever it is or we are trading it in for something else, and we might take out more than what we would give back.

So, for instance, if I talk about technical debt in terms of my work in building software or building a company, you make a decision pretty much every single day. And you sometimes have to make decisions that aren't the best decisions but are a trade off of something so technical. That would be I am building something but that I don't know if it's going to work out and I am making a conscious decision to build it kind of haphazardly where I am building a proof concept or I need to get this out fast because the customer is asking for it or we're going to run out of money.

I will build it in a way that isn't the most optimal, probably won't survive the longer term. But then what ends up happening is you end up stacking decisions over decisions and essentially building a technical debt where it then starts hindering you in the long term. So that would go to personal debt, whatever it is that you might borrow right now in order to get something done. But it has a longer term impact. So when when you ask about our blood debt and what that means to me is essentially that is passed or inherited through familial relationships or through generations and generations.

There are certain things that are, you know, for generations and generations, there are certain things that are passed along that are both good and bad from your parents, grandparents, et cetera. So my parents, you know, one of their decisions was to move from the Philippines to the U.K. and that might not necessarily be at that. But that was a decision that I made that I am now personally reaping the benefits from. But there are potentially also negatives or debts. I'm very fortunate and lucky that my parents and my dad in particular have tried to, you know, eliminate any of the negatives or the debt that can accumulate and not pass that on to me.

 One of the examples of that is as simple as you know, my dad was originally diagnosed with prostate cancer. And when he was diagnosed, he decided not to not to tell me until he knew it was OK when I was growing up. And that was a decision to not pass on, I guess the burden of knowing that something's wrong with him onto me, which may, you know, may have affected me in other ways, you know, I would worry, etc..

And so my parents have been very conscious of not trying to put more burden on me or not to create, but and then passed onto me through the generations. And I think we pick up you know, we pick up habits, we pick up beliefs and even DNA from our parents and from our family and even financial that can get passed on as well. So that's what I think of when I hear of blood debts.

OUTRO BEGINS

There are many sides to debt.

This series intends to take you on a journey through defining and redefining debt through stories of Filipinos in the diaspora.

That’s all for this episode, thank you for listening.

To find out more about the series and upcoming episodes and resources, visit Blooddebts.com

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Blood Debts is produced and hosted by me Leezel Tanglao.

This series is a legacy project of the Filipino Young Leaders Program.

Shoutout to FYLPRO Batch 8.

This series is dedicated to all those who struggle to talk about uncomfortable issues and for all those who ever felt overlooked.

I see you.

I hear you.

OUTRO ENDS