Strange similarities

When thinking about the Filipino culture, I often find myself comparing it to the Inuit culture of Northern Quebec! These two cultures are literally worlds apart, however I have observed a bunch of small similarities between them that surprise me. For example,

• Lifting of the eyebrows -- means 'yes'
  
  
• Verbal yes: Inuktitut: aa vs. Tagalog: o-o
  
  
• Nutrition problems (So much instant food is consumed, coke is cheaper and more common than water, little to no spices are used in the cooking, carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Moreover, "deep-fried" seems to be the favorite way to cook everything here, including bananas!)
  
  
• Relationship to time (Very little forward thinking. Both cultures seem to have their feet firmly planted in the present, a lesson that I am trying to learn. An example of this is the overwhelming presence of individually packaged things such as toothpaste, sunblock, multivitamins, instant noodles, sugar, coffee, laundry soap...)
  
  
• Reluctance to walk (Filipinos will tend to take Jeepeneys for rides that are less than 100 meters, they will also get the driver to stop just 10 meters further down the road; Inuit drive everywhere in their very small village) -- to be fair it's smothering hot here at time or there's a torrential downpour and up north it's often bloody cold!
  
  
• Religion (Christianity is prevalent in both societies and is a big part of both cultures.)
  
  
• Children (So many kids are around in both places! They are often left on their own a lot more than I'm used to as well, the older ones looking out for the younger ones. They are nevertheless included in all aspects of life and widely loved by family and tolerated by strangers. Also, the mothers are often very young, leaving their children in the hands of the grandmothers.)