My Take on the Situation in Mindanao

I would like to give my point of view on the situation in Mindanao. I cannot claim that my opinion is of much value because I have not thoroughly researched this issue or spent time in the area. For those that are unaware there has been an almost continuous civil war between the Muslim area of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines. The organizations that represent and fight for the people in the area are known as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and the infamous Abu Sayyaf. My knowledge of all these organizations is limited but I have an idea about them.

The people of that region have been fighting for autonomy ever since they were included in the Republic of the Philippines under the American occupation. During the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines the Spanish government never had significant control of Mindanao and the Sultanates that existed before the arrival of the Spanish continued to exist separate from the rest of the Philippines. They were culturally connected with other Muslims states originating from what is today Indonesia and Malaysia. After the Philippine Revolution and the Spanish were kicked out the United States government sought to impose itself as a the new “benevolent” colonizer of the Philippines. The Philippine-American war is one that is not well known by Americans today but it really is one of the tragedies of world history. The American military ventured into Mindanao to bring it also under the auspices of the Republic of the Philippines. There were numerous war crimes committed by American troops and after years of fighting they forced the communities of Mindanao into submission. This was the first time that the land area of what we know as the Philippines today was united. I am not sure of the extent of American control over that area but I am going to imagine that it was patchy at best. The focus was and has been on Manila which has been the seat of power since the beginning.

The next stage in the development was following the Second World War and the liberation of the Philippines. At that time, all the Filipinos shared a common enemy and thus were united but this quickly changed following the end of the war. The Moros have been fighting for the autonomy since the beginning of American colonialism. After the WW2 the the fighting started to pick up more and more. Following the war there was increased migration of Christian Filipinos to Mindanao and once homogenous Muslim population was becoming more diverse. As the fighting increased in the 60's and 70's order was hard to maintain and there numerous armed gangs taking advantage of the lack of authority. This caused a schism between the Christian and Muslim populations and increased social tension. The people of Moro resistance coalesced into the MNLF in the early 1970s and they used guerrilla tactics that were so successful that they finally held proper negotiations with the Filipino government. The first significant peace treaty known as the Tripoli Agreement was done under the Marcos government and this agreement drew some lines based on religious make-up of the population and they set up the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. They agreement was brokered by the recently popular ruler of Libya, Gaddafi. Interestingly the wife of Marcos, Imelda, was a friend of Colonel Gaddafi to the point that after this agreement Imelda had the Golden Mosque built in the Muslim area of Manila to honor the visit of Gaddafi to the Philippines. Except that he never came. Anyway, this agreement was short-lived and the government of this new autonomous region accused the Philippine government of only granted autonomy in name and not in practice. The fighting increased as there was simultaneously a growing communist insurgency in northern Philippines and Marcos used this as an excuse to call martial law and center the power to himself. There is a lot of controversy over this decision and I have heard varied opinions on the situation but in my opinion Marcos exploited this crisis to empower and enrich himself. Of course, martial law did nothing to assuage the grievances of the Moros living in Mindanao and the failure of the MNLF to broker a real concession from the national government caused the more radical MILF to splinter from the MNLF. The MILF represented a more radical uncompromising part of the movement. Before I go on anymore with this general history I would like to insert my analysis.

Some would look at this conflict as one grounded in religion. Perhaps an American or European would naturally assume that the Muslims of Mindanao could not possible co-exist with the majority Catholic Filipino population. They might imagine that what if the same thing occurred in the UK or the US. They would not tolerate that of course and would perhaps sympathize with the heavy handed government's approach to crush the rebellion militarily. Only neoconservatives should believe that kind of crap. In reality the problem is not the religious difference, it is a contributing factor, but the underlying causes lie in economic disparities and political mismanagement of the situation. The northern islands and especially Manila depend on Mindanao for the amount of fruits, rice, and other foodstuffs that it produces. Mindanao really is the bread-basket of the Philippines and with the expansion and development of the Philippine economy investors began to set their sights on Mindanao. The problem for the native people of Mindanao is that although they have been living in that land for centuries, they have no land deeds. It was not a priority for the Republic of the Philippines government to legitimize these people's claims to the land, in reality it was more of the opposite. Land grabbing in Mindanao was and still is common practice. It isn't only Filipino big business that is buying up large scores of land while simultaneously forcibly relocating the locals but foreign corporations as well; all with complacent nod by the Philippine government. It is very easy to demonize corporations and I think people can be too fast to blame everything wrong with the world on greedy multinationals. Business opportunities will attract investors regardless of the ethics involved and that's why you need some government protection. In the case of Mindanao I don't believe the government of the Philippines protected the rights of the people living there and they were systematically marginalized. They were treated as second-class citizens and their livelihood was a secondary concern at best. Allowing northern Filipinos with government connections to appropriate their lands, understandably, provoked resentment among the people. The Philippine treated other tribal people in northern Luzon in a similar way and so is it any wonder that the New People's Army (NPA), communist insurgency, appealed to a large number of them. I am not condoning terrorist activity against the state but I am just saying that there are going to inevitable consequences to political and economic repercussions.

This reminds of a Republican primary debate between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani in which Ron Paul commented that American foreign intervention was a partial cause to 9/11. Giuliani was disgusted that Ron Paul could somehow imply that 9/11 was America's fault. I think the causes of 9/11 are complicated but I give Ron Paul credit to pointing out something that is politically dangerous but blatantly obvious: people around the world, particularly Muslims with there strong sense of identity, resent it when foreign militaries and spies intervene their countries. The term they use is blowback and I think it holds a lot of water.

In the context of Mindanao, when you combine a strong sense of an independent Muslim identity with political disenfranchisement, obscene and disproportional poverty compared to the rest of the Philippines, and heavy handed military presence, I see a pretty potent mix to inspire an insurgency. With the apparent failure of the MNLF deal and the increasingly radicalized and more militant MILF the situation became even more unstable. I do not know the inner workings of the MNLF and MILF leadership but from the outside it looks chaotic and those that suffer the most are the innocent people stuck in the middle. By the 1990's the MNLF and MILF seemed to finally make a deal to cooperate but that still seems tenuous at best and an even more ugly organization has appeared more recently: Abu Sayyaf. They apparently have connections to Al Qaeda but whether they do or they don't, their message is the same. These guys are honestly just a bunch of thugs. They kidnap and behead foreigners and Christian Filipinos alike. They represent the absolute worst side of this struggle. I believe they are exploiting the deteriorated security situation in Mindanao to profit from kidnapping foreigners and recruit more impoverished Muslims. What most Americans are probably not aware of is that since 2001 under the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and USA there are a few thousand US Special Forces fighting Abu Sayyaf in Mindanao.

The government ARMM seems to be a basket case and they don't seem to hold real authority or stymie the economic exploitation of the big business on the agricultural sector of Mindanao. The Philippine government is probably a bit reluctant to invest in big development projects in the volatile area and has instead chosen to boost its military budget and presence to solve the issue. The irresponsibility and stupidity of those in the upper echelon of the Philippine government is astounding. The two top priorities of the Republic of the Philippines lies in #1: government worker's salaries and #2: paying the interest on their massive foreign debt. I am pretty sure that the military follows that and that education and the scant resources paid for social services falls much lower on the list. As they increase the budget of the military, it only makes sense to increase the tuition of the biggest public run university in the country, University of the Philippines, by 300% making it largely unaffordable. UP is known for attracting the best students in the country from whatever economic background but probably won't be able to anymore. The bloated salaries of the bureaucrats in the government are ridiculous and the fact that university students should take the brunt of the budget offsetting is absurd.

So how does this connect to the people of Mindanao and what solutions could there be to this issue? First of all, allowing the American military to operate and do the Filipino military's dirty work is not acceptable. To be honest, I don't see any military solution that makes any sense. As long as there is such a large amount of poverty and a lack of educational infrastructure you cannot be surprised that some people will be attracted to radicalism. The arbitrary and sloppy carving of the ARMM doesn't make a lot of sense either. You cannot give the ARMM the right to practice Sharia law while at the same time bolstering the foreign control of their agricultural industry and expect that they will be satisfied. First and foremost, the government must fully convince the Muslim population of Mindanao that will be respected as Filipinos. They won't do this through rhetoric but actions on the ground. What is bolder? Sending battalions of young men to Mindanao to fight scattered guerrilla groups or sending construction teams to set up schools and other infrastructure for the locals. I believe that is the answer for winning them over. You cannot crush a rebellion like that with mere brute force. You might ask why should the Filipinos give any concessions to the Moros in Mindanao? The MNLF, MILF, and Abu Sayyaf are responsible for numerous terrorist attacks. Well if they don't want anything to do with the Muslim people then fine withdraw and leave the area but they must take respect the sovereignty of the ARMM and let that government have control of issuing land deeds. That government must have the authority to right the wrongs of land grabbing that has plagued that region. The status quo where the Moros have vague political freedom without any economic freedom is unacceptable. If the Philippine government wants to maintain their access to the fertile agriculture of the region they should accept the concessions that are in tune with basic human rights. Muslim Filipinos and Islam should be respected in the Philippines because they are integral part of this nation.

Vacation

I just finished a nice two week vacation with my mom and sister. My mom arrived in Manila and she gave me a very brief time frame to show her around the place. My dad was much more generous and gave me several days to show him around the massive city but my mom planned for us to go to Palawan to visit the picturesque beaches instead. That's totally understandable since Palawan is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world and the tourism industry is not as developed as other beautiful spots in the world so it really is worth checking out now before the Minister of Tourism in Australia gets wind of the place.

The trip was overshadowed by a very unfortunate but perhaps inevitable event. My girlfriend and I broke up on the morning my mom arrived. It wasn't really good timing but I did my best to keep up a good face and not be too depressing. If she hadn't come I probably would have spent a couple nights drinking copious amounts of brandy on my porch but maybe relaxing on the beach for a week is a bit healthier.

After a brief one day tour of Manila my mother and I headed to Puerto Princessa on the island of Palawan. Puerto Princessa is a nice city but for tourists it is more of a jumping off point for more interesting places on different parts of the island. It's got its bar scene and a nice cathedral and locals are as warm and nice as in other parts of the Philippines. One aspect of Puerto that I noticed was the massive number of mixed couples with old/fat American guys and very young Filipino ladies. It's not that I have a problem with Americans dating Filipinos, Mary Joy is Filipina, but when I see a couple like that I can think of only two reasons for them being together. Either he is forking over tons of cash to keep her interested or he has (probably disingenuously) promised her that he's going to take her back to America. I'm not a fan. For those that are interested in the North-South dialogue than this phenomenon would be an interesting sociological topic to investigate but I'm not really in the mood right now.

My mother and I spent the night in Puerto and after some confusion met up with my sister at the airport. We all headed to fairly secluded and idyllic Sabang beach. I've complained before that I dislike beaches and while I lived in Hawaii I hardly ever went to the beach. It's not that I don't enjoy my time there but I'm just not crazy about beaches. As I sat on the beach of Sabang, trying to appreciate the beauty, I remembered the last time I had sat on a beach like this. It was in Mindoro when I first met Mary Joy and I couldn't help but be affected. My relationship seems to have begun and ended in what some would call paradise. I realized something at that time, I really don't care for beaches at all. It's not that I dislike the sand or salty water but what defines my vacations in my memory is not the places I visit but the people I am with. Pandan Island off the coast of Mindoro is a beautiful beach but the reason that I have such fond memories of it is not really because of the beach itself; it's where I first spent time with Mary Joy. My memory of Sabang is tainted with a bit of melancholy which adds the depth to the landscape but my memory is really of being able to see my mom and sister who I hadn't seen for so long. We had a good time: cruising an underground river, hiking to a waterfall, touring a mangrove, and even eating a woodworm from a dead log. It was all very enjoyable. Alexandra only stayed for the weekend and returned to do some work in Indonesia while my mom and I spent a little more time in Palawan before she eventually returned back to Pittsburgh. I was sad to see her go but I did have an enjoyable vacation and I was glad that we had the opportunity to check out Palawan together. Following her departure I headed to Jakarta to meet up with Alexandra and we headed up to Bali together.

My stay in Indonesia was way too short for me to formulate a decent opinion of the place. However, Bali is a fascinating place. It is the one island of the predominantly Muslim Indonesia that people practice Hinduism with some elements of Buddhism. It is an interesting mix of Southeast Asian, Indian, and East Asian culture. I only was able to see two towns of Bali: Kuta and Ubud. It's not a big island but you definitely need more than two days to explore the place. We were staying in Kuta because it is close to airport and so was convenient but I can't say Kuta is my favorite place. There are way too many Australians there. Just tons of hammered drunk Australian guys making fools of themselves. Before I went to Kuta I never took seriously when people complained about the negative effect of tourism on a place but now I understand. I am not blaming the Australians. I mean it is quite cheap to get drunk and the local people of Kuta don't seem to go to bars that Australians frequent anyway. There is however another sort of pernicious tourist that haunts the streets of Kuta.....hippies. When you first enter Indonesia there is a massive banner that reads: “Enjoy Indonesia without drugs, drug possession is punishable by death.” You would think that most people seeing that would be a bit deterred to buy any drugs there. Is smoking a joint in a country where you can get the death penalty for drugs really worth it? This uncompromising attitude of the Indonesian government does not seem to have made to Bali yet however. I was offered mushrooms or weed about almost every block in Kuta. I blame the hippies for this. I saw so many cheesy hippie couples apparently getting closer to their “inner spirit” in Bali. I shouldn't really judge. Politically I am probably not completely different than them but there is something disgusting about their attitude. Pittsburgh is not a hippie friendly city and I hope it stays this way. I have no problems if some people actually believe they are transporting themselves to a different spiritual realm with psychedelic drugs but just don't tell me about it because I know its bullshit. Drugs can change your point of view of things but they always wear off by some point and psychedelic drugs are only spiritually interesting the first few times you do them. The fact that people would come all the way to Indonesia, risk the death penalty, just so they can take some drugs and see a cool temple is beyond stupid. I have a lot of animosity for these people and also the Australians that think its cool to get hammered in a foreign country and denigrate the place and its people but at least the Australians are honest. They're just drinking and they don't have cheesy pretenses.

Now if I was to analyze the effect tourism has on Bali, it would be difficult since I was only there for two days but I can give a tentative answer. Bali has a fascinating culture and mix of religions. They weave beautiful cotton sarongs and if you can speak to one who is not trying to rip you off they seem friendly. The fact that there are so many people preying on tourists does not speak for the culture of the place but it speaks for the effect of tourism. It isn't really the Balinese people's fault that they are constantly ripping off tourists. It has become an imperative for survival and probably the island's major industry. The amount of tourists coming to Bali every year has pushed the Balinese to either find work in the service industry or a more informal way of cheating foreigners out of money. I don't really believe there is room for any other profitable activity. At the end of the day, I think that Palawan is much nicer to visit precisely because the tourist industry is not so developed.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining a lot but I did enjoy myself in Bali mainly because I was with my sister. It is very rare that I have a chance to hang out with her so I took this vacation as less an opportunity to go to a cool place but it was an opportunity to see my sister again.

The Filipino Colonial Mentality Revisited

I wrote a blog before about my disdain for referring to Filipinos as having a colonial mentality. Maybe it's the liberal inside of me that unconsciously looks for political correctness but I think it's more likely that I just thought that saying Filipinos have a colonial mentality was demeaning and unfair. I would like to revisit this because over time I have a slightly different point of view than I did in the past months.

If you are going to adequately analyze the Filipino “colonial mentality” and if that even exists or is a relevant consideration, you have to be able to define it. I first heard this term when I mentioned to a Filipino guy that I was surprised at all of the American fast food restaurants they have here. He made it sound like he was a bit embarrassed about the Philippines accepted wholesale American culture at the expense of their own. I don't think that just the existence of American fast food restaurants proves that the Filipinos have a mindset that never progressed passed the American colonial period. I mean there is American fast food in almost every country in the world today and I think that is a product of globalization that is by no means specific to the Philippines. A different argument for taking the “colonial mentality” seriously which I think carries more weight is that the Philippines lacks monumental pre-colonial architecture. There are the impressive rice-terraces in Banaue and I am sure there are other structures within Mindanao that predate the arrival of the Spanish. Everywhere in Southeast Asia was colonized except for Thailand but it appears that the colonizers had less of an influence over Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, etc. than over the Philippines. That's kind of a loaded statement and the rise of nationalism and its subsequent distortion of history is a relevant consideration. When nationalism was gaining steam in Southeast Asia nationalist leaders would point to the old historical buildings as evidence of their pre-colonial heritage and thus their legitimacy as an independent nation. In Laos there is Luang Prabang, Cambodia has Angkor Wat, Burma has thousands of temples from the glory times of the Pagan dynasty, Thailand has a long and largely continuous history as an independent kingdom, Indonesia has Borobudur, and Vietnam and Malaysia have a history that predates the arrival of the Europeans. Even with the evidence to prove a pre-colonial heritage that was used by these nationalist heroes to rise the people in resistance to their European colonizers the countries of Southeast Asia would not look like they do today without European interference. Laos would probably be still a part of Thailand if it was not for a French expedition to oust Thai sovereignty of the region. Malaysia and Indonesia are also largely colonial constructs.

So then why are the Filipino's different? There was a substantial civilization here and a writing system that predates the arrival of Spanish but perhaps one has to consider the time frame of colonization. The Spanish arrived in the 16^th century and were the first to colonize in East Asia and the Philippines was really the first major European colonial experiment in Asia. The French did not arrive in Vietnam until around mid 19^th century. The Dutch arrived in Indonesia between the Spanish and the French arrival and the English were also relatively late on the scene. The Portuguese were also marginally involved but were eventually muscled into only controlling half of an island in Indonesia. Each colonial power had a different method of colonizing. I don't believe the Dutch forced the majority of the populace to learn Dutch or emulate Dutch culture. They were interested in the spice trade and just reaped the profits from the lucrative trade at the expense of the local people. The French always had these delusions that French culture was somehow superior so they usually undertook an active policy of not only teaching French in their colonies but also pushing their culture. The Spanish I feel fell in between these two. They were adamant on converting the Filipinos to Christianity and they were largely successful at that. There were political reasons behind the missionaries because the Spanish assumed that if the Filipino's were Christian they would be less likely to cause problems for the Catholic colonial government. Even with this assumption I bet there were Spanish missionaries that completely believed that they were saving the souls of the Filipinos and I can't really attack them on that belief.

The Spanish set up a highly stratified and hierarchical society in the Philippines. At the top were the Spanish and those Filipino elites that learn the Spanish language and collaborated. The Philippine revolution at the end of 19^th century combined with the Spanish-American war was a turning point in Filipino history.

The Filipino revolution was the first revolution against a European power in East Asia. At that time there were Filipino elites, usually European educated, known as illustrados who concisely and eloquently made their case for independence. There were a lot of these but the most famous guy is probably Jose Rizal. He was a brilliant writer who was executed by the Spanish government at the onset of the revolution and so he became a martyr for the cause. The two other political figures that were heavily involved with the revolution that I think are most important to consider are Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. The rise of these two men to the forefront of the revolutionary struggle and their eventual power struggle epitomizes the political forces at work in the Philippines both then and now. Andres Bonifacio was a poor man from a poor part of Manila. He was inspired by Jose Rizal and other revolutionary writings. I don't know the details of his rise to power but he created the KKK or in Tagalog: Kataas-taasan, Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng̃ mg̃á Anak ng̃ Bayan, which is usually referred as just Katipunan which also happens to be the street I live on. Katipunan means revolution and the KKK (which has absolutely no relation to the Ku Klux Klan) became the central fighting force. Form poverty Bonifacio rose to El Supremo of the revolution. He represented the majority of Filipinos at the time, the downtrodden oppressed people. His role in the revolution is described very heroically and romantically in the history books and I'll get into later who really influenced these history books and perhaps Bonifacio became deified for a political purpose.

Emilio Aguinaldo came from a fairly wealthy/upper-middle class family of lawyers in the province of Cavite. Again I don't know the details of his ascension to power but he rose to prominence of his own revolutionary force based out of Cavite. At this point there were potentially two different revolutionary factions that had emerged. Bonifacio and Aguinaldo both recognized the damage two potentially competitive factions could cause to the outcome of the revolution as a whole so they had an election to merge the two factions and decide who would eventually lead the unified revolution. Bonifacio, with his wife, some of his family and compatriots, went to Cavite to participate in the election. Bonifacio was largely expected to win due to his popularity and reputation but there was an upset and Aguinaldo was victorious. Bonifacio was appointed to some sort of interior secretary position underneath Aguinaldo. Bonifacio was definitely a guy with an enormous ego, I mean come on, his name was El Supremo, and he did not take the election results lightly. After one of Aguinaldo's men went as far to question Bonifacio's competence at this lowly position he was appointed to Bonifacio lost it and stormed out; boycotting the whole process. There is speculation that Aguinaldo's men tampered with the results and I don't really know about that but what I do know is Aguinaldo and Bonifacio's reaction.

At this point Aguinaldo quickly organized his men and ambushed Bonifacio and his brothers before he could leave Cavite. He was heavily wounded and according to some accounts one of Aguinaldo's men went as far as to rape Bonifacio's wife. Bonifacio was dragged back to Aguinaldo, put on trial for treason in front of a military tribunal and promptly shot along with his brother. Aguinaldo then became the sole leader of the Katipunan. In some ways I despise Aguinaldo and think he is just a conniving, power thirsty tyrant but perhaps if we look at it from his perspective his actions might have some credibility. If Bonifacio had returned to Manila and the revolution was split in two than it could have undermined the whole effort but Aguinaldo's actions later in life prove to me that he really was just a self-serving coward. Following the death of Bonifacio and the eventual success of the Philippine revolution with help from the United States, Aguinaldo became the first president of the Philippines. His reign did not last long because of the outbreak of the Philippine-American War which American historians had so arrogantly referred to as the “Philippine Insurrection”. After a few years when it became obvious that the Americans will be successful in their campaign to ascertain the Philippines as a colony for itself, Aguinaldo, not wanting to be one caught on the wrong side of history swore allegiance to the United States. This was only the beginning of Aguinaldo's hypocrisy and I am still surprised that he is still considered a national hero of the Philippines. I do believe that if Bonifacio was still around at that time he never would have gave in to the Americans. Would it have made a difference? Was it inevitable that the Philippines become an American colony and Aguinaldo saved Filipino lives by surrendering? Honestly I don't think so but you could make that case. Most Americans now don't even know about the Philippine-American war or how many Filipinos were killed and the president at the time, William McKinley, portrayed this as an effort to “Christianize” the Philippines whose people were already largely Catholic. I don't see McKinley as being one who harbored far-reaching imperial ambitions from the onset but I see him more of an opportunist. He saw the Europeans partitioning Asia and enriching themselves and saw an opportunity to get an American foothold in Asia which held both for strategic and economic benefits to the United States. I believe American administration was better than the Spanish because they did help foster democracy in the Philippines and help structure the eventually independent Republic of the Philippines. They pulled a sort of bait and switch where they stripped the Filipinos of real independence but established democratic institutions that did give the Filipinos more political freedom than the Spanish had allowed. The Americans also controlled the material and history that was taught to the Filipinos and on the one side they hailed with Philippine revolution and its democratic foundation but made only short mention of the American armed intervention. Interestingly, American officials at the time promoted two Filipino revolutionary heroes that I know would not have been comfortable the American invasion: Andres Bonifacio and Jose Rizal. Both of these guys are convenient choices because they were killed while the struggle was really against the Spanish. These two were elevated to national heroes and the reason that they are so widely hailed by Filipinos today could be a result of the American colonial government's version of history.

Aguinaldo at this time was still involved with the new American guided government of the Philippines but he expressed his disdain and disappointment of the American hijacking of the Filipino revolution by always wearing a black bow-tie while the Philippines was an American colony. I think Bonifacio would have fought and died before letting the Philippines fall into political servitude so Aguinaldo “protesting” the American administration by wearing a black bow-tie is just weak sauce. And once the Japanese occupied the Philippines during the Second World War, Aguinaldo was quick to swear allegiance to them and be their mouth-piece for their own imperialist propaganda. The fact that Aguinaldo maintained his political position as being a revolutionary hero, to collaborating with both the American and Japanese, to still maintaining his political prestige after the Philippines was finally independent after WW2 demonstrates a skill of political survival that only befits someone with really no backbone at all. When I look at Filipino politicians following Aguinaldo I see a lot of continuance of his “legacy”. I don't know enough about Filipino politics to adequately address this but when I see Ferdinand Marcos I see the similarities with Aguinaldo. Marcos was a brilliant man and some saw him as a break from the usual suspects that populated the political elite. In my opinion Marcos' policies had two major problems which caused his downfall and damage to his country. Number one, he was quick to cave to American pressure and adopt neo-liberal trade policies enforced on him by the IMF and the US government. He broke his election vow and allowed his country to fall in unsustainable debt with these organizations which lead the Philippines being unable to protect their own industry. I wrote about this before in a previous blog. His second problem lies in his inability to relinquish power. He allowed the government to become institutionally corrupt and maintained his power to protect himself and his cronies. I believe this is inexcusable but there is a lot of debate in the Philippines still today about whether this point of view is correct.

Keep in mind that my observations are from an outsider with only vague notions of Filipino history but I brought all of this up to explain my views on the colonial-mentality of Filipinos. So then where is this colonial-mentality? The Filipino revolution is different from the independence struggle or India or Vietnam because it was based on idealistic principles of democracy and free government without a strong pre-colonial cultural framework to work from. What I mean by this is that the Philippines was constructed through colonialism and Bonifacio or Aguinaldo did not have any ambitions to “restore” the Philippines to a freedom that it enjoyed before colonization because there really wasn't a legacy to draw these ambitions from. There were indigenous people before the Spanish and a pre-colonial culture but after over 300 years of colonization these people were either integrated into the system or marginalized. Actually, Filipino history is more complex than the way I am portraying it. The Muslim sultans in Mindanao were never integrated into the Philippines until the American colonization and there are still people in Mindanao fighting for independence from the Philippines.

I read somewhere that most Filipinos are not so interested in their own history. The author described Filipinos as either looking to future or just dwelling in the present. We live in a post-colonial world and each colonized country inevitably retains some vestiges of this period of their history. I don't think the Filipinos are a particularly patriotic people at least in the arrogant way. I see a humbleness among the people toward their country much like I saw in Canadians. It's not that they disrespect their country but they don't carry delusions of cultural superiority that plague a lot nations on the planet. If you come here you will hear Spanish and English mixed with the local language. A lot of Filipinos retained their Spanish names and respect the “care-taker” role the American government played in creating a democratic government here. The Philippines has retained a lot of the vestiges of colonization so one could argue for a them having a colonial-mentality but I feel like this term should be stripped of the negative connotation that it had for me when I first heard it. You can say the Filipinos have that sort of mentality but that doesn't mean that they will bow down to any American or Spanish guy that shows up. Perhaps Filipino people do not take their history or their culture as seriously as others but people here have a strong sense of self-respect and dignity which they have maintained through the arduous years of oppression both externally and from within. The average Filipino largely resisted the absurdity of the experiment of nationalism.

The Rising Price of Hot Sauce

I heard from my co-worker we were going on a house visit up in Caloocan which is a composite city of Metro Manila. I was very excited at the prospect of going to Caloocan because out of the 16 cities that make up Metro Manila Caloocan was one that I still hadn't been to. My co-worker and I boarded the bus up to North EDSA and Monumento. The bus had the breezy attitude and simple fixtures that I like so much about some Filipino buses; no air conditioning and cramped wooden park benches nailed into the inside of the bus. Of course the bus driver also, completely unnecessarily, drove as if he was in the movie Speed. I have grown used to the absurdly aggressive way buses are driven here. As he was rocketing from high speed highways to the narrow congested inner city the complete lack of suspension made every bump painfully obvious along with his fondness for slamming the breaks every 30 seconds. With my long legs it is inevitable to leave with a few bruises on my knees.

So we arrived at the corner of 5^th Avenue and EDSA. The sun was out in strength and the humidity added weight to the heavy car exhaust flowing out of the traffic of EDSA. As we waited for the lady to meet us I noticed a few police officers chilling behind me. They were apparently overseeing a “No Parking” sign outside of McDonald's dessert kiosk, except that they had parked there but maybe they just were making sure that no one else broke the law.

So I was walking behind my co-worker and the client as they were chatting in Tagalog. On the way to her house there was a massive Chinese Buddhist temple along the street. It was impressive and striking but the exterior was looking worn out and the paint was faded by the pollution. She lived in a crowded inner-city baranguay. There are essentially two things that all inner-city baranguays have in common: they are extremely crowded and there are kids everywhere. I always enjoy weaving through the narrow and confusing alleys that snake through the neighborhood. We arrived at her building and had to climb up a few steep and creaking staircases to her one room apartment which houses her, her son, her daughter in-law, and her granddaughter. As my co-worker interviewed the mother about her case I was chatting with her two year old granddaughter. I always enjoy practicing my Tagalog with little kids even though we probably only understand about 20% of what each other are saying. After my co-worker had collected the necessary information from the client she asked me to interview her son about their living conditions. It wasn't easy since he spoke almost no English and my co-worker was too focused on eating some cream-puff to translate for me. My Tagalog is enough that I can navigate these situations and I always love the challenge. The guy lived the kind of life that I believe a great deal of Filipinos have been forced into. He dropped out of school when he was 13 to work to support his family and he is 23 years old now. He has a beautiful wife and child and he works hard to provide for them. Of course because he's a client of our NGO his father is a Japanese man that had abandoned him and according to him he has not had communication, much less any sort of financial support, from his father for at least a decade. The interesting thing about his case is that he doesn't qualify for child-support obviously and he is too old to apply for Japanese citizenship. Even if he was interested in money from his father he and I both know that is not likely. He told me that he is only interested in meeting his father and hopefully getting to know him. He also hopes he can work in Japan in the future and having a Japanese father as guarantor makes the processing of the visa much easier.

So after I had collected the necessary information we had to say our goodbyes and apologize for our intrusion because even if they denied it, I'm pretty sure that he and his wife and taken off work just to receive us. For people living on the poverty line with an income that just barely covers their food they must place a lot of value on what our organization can provide for them and I take my position more seriously with each new client I meet. I understand the stakes involved.

I met an 8 year old girl who came to our Christmas party but instead of enjoying the free candy we gave out, promptly sold it back in her neighborhood to pay for dinner for her and her mother. I've met hysterical mothers who have been cut off from their child-support because of their stingy ex-husband in Japan. One lady in particular busted into our office in tears and was quite literally hysterical to the point that by the time she left my boss was complaining about how crazy she was and how much trouble she's caused here. I tried to explain that it's pretty understandable for a mother to be a fit of hysteria when her children could go hungry because she is denied well-deserved support.

The reason why I brought up all of this is because I recently went on a hiking trip to Mt. Pinatubo. We left at 3 AM and arrived by 7 AM in hopes we could hike the mountain but unfortunately the rain was so strong that the air force closed the mountain for hikers. I was so hung-over anyway that it probably worked out for the best. We traveled instead to some other local places that were nice in the own right but I realized something that day. I am not interested in beautiful places whether natural or man-made. Every time I go to a touristy place I feel a bit of turn in my stomach and I witness what I believe to be the most vulgar aspect of humanity. The most enjoyable experiences I have had here involve visiting people out in the provinces or in poorer parts of the Manila. The process of understanding and trying to empathize with the problems of the Filipino people is more fulfilling than drinking rum on a spectacular beach. Every slum of Manila is far more beautiful than any rice terraces. I've seen the pictures, I think that's enough. It's not that I have a lot of idealism or faith in the human spirit but maybe I am attracted by slums because of my aesthetic taste. Back in Pittsburgh I enjoy drinking in storm drains underneath highways and hanging out in dilapidated barge stations over the the polluted Allegheny river. My rustic taste combined with my cultural fascination of the Philippines and my interest in the human condition leads me to want to spend time with the unfortunate people who I believe are victims of a vicious global economic system and an incompetent government.

This reminds me of something I read in some obscure writing of Kierkegaard that resonated with me back then and has reemerged in my memory. His prose was fairly incoherent and inconsistent but he was describing that civilization really just arose from boredom. God created human beings out of boredom and people built the tower of Babylon because they really didn't have anything better to do. The colossal monuments far back in human history, from the pyramids to the palace of Versailles were built because those in power at the time had the resources from either slavery or imperialism, and apparently the time on their hands to commission these magnificent structures to be built. Don't get me wrong they are impressive but what do they really mean? In my eyes its just a massive waste of resources and represent the exploitative nature of human society. And at the end of the day it really is actually pretty boring and uninteresting in any real sense. For me a conversation with a squatter over the rising price of hot sauce is worth much more than seeing some massive wall in China. You can discover the infinite in a blink of an eye but just get cramps from walking up the stairs of the Empire State Building. 

Manila

If I were to make an analogy of my relationship with Manila it would be one of meeting a Filipina on a blind date and she being an unattractive, loud girl with a hygiene issues and a severe case of flatulence but because of binding constraints I was forced to be with her everyday and every night. At first it was difficult to even be around her but I was without a choice. The first month I experienced nausea from the stench and unexplainable muscle pains from the heat from being so close to her. She would spit on me and demand money. The amount of insects that she attracted was almost unbearable at times. But through the cacophony of noise and abuse a soft voice emerged and I began to realize something: as unappealing her outward appearance was she was a Filipina. As I begun to understand what it really means to be with a Filipina, I felt a warm feeling deep inside me express itself. Within her apparent hard exterior lay a soft and sensitive soul that usurped any previous experiences I had in past with girls of different origin. At that moment I was unable to relate to Camus's query that the fundamental question plaguing mankind was whether or not one should commit suicide. My belief in the absurd nature of the world lost traction and I began to understand what happiness really feels like. I lost my preconceived pride and things I took for granted no longer made sense. Her seemingly bizarre taste in food became adaptable to my pallet.

I will tell you that it wasn't an easy transition. Any real emotional transition has a great deal of friction involved. No real love, no real happiness, no real depression comes on lightly. As with any emotional issue, it is subjective but I can tell you about my experience.

I don't think I have experience with true happiness and I prefer how the Japanese differentiate between mere satisfaction and actual happiness. In Japanese if you want to say you are glad or just marginally happy the word is 嬉しい(ureshii) but real, lasting happiness is referred to as 幸せ(shiawase). In English we do not have this distinction in the original vocabulary without superlative adjectives. Of course I have been satisfied in my life but I don't believe I have every experienced what the Japanese refer to as shiawase. If we're talking about depression, than yes I do have experience.

Back when I was university student, in the midst of the stress and hard work that comes with university I was struck by what I believe was serious depression. Now just as Camus insisted , suicide does not enter someones mind just because a tragedy suddenly entered my life, depression comes on slow. I'm not trying to infer that I was suicidal at that time. I gave up on that idea back in my childhood. Depression originates in your sub-conscious due to insecurities within yourself that manifest themselves as “real” problems. For me, I won't get into the details, but I fell into a deep hole that took weeks too get out of. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep; didn't want to talk to family or friends. The way I saw it was that the deeper you are, the longer the ladder required to get you out. I pulled myself out of depression through my own efforts. I used to meditate for long periods of time in order re-balance my mind and it was at that point in my life that I focused on my education. I found an escape from the superficially cruel world in intellectual advancement and actually I think it is safe to say that it is because of my depression that I was able to succeed in university. I could write a lot about depression but I don't think this blog is the appropriate place. The reason why I brought it up is to emphasize my belief that the emotional condition of an individual in regard to himself and the external world is not just “feelings” but is something more substantial. In addition to that, I believe emotions and attachments are not mere fluctuations in one's mood but are an integral part of one's understanding of their existential reality. This may sound like jargon but the point I am really trying to get across is that one cannot ignore the emotional side of human nature for just what they consider “rationality”. Maybe not everyone agrees with me and that's fine but I think it would be rare to find someone who fell in love with Manila the moment they set foot here.

It one were to analyze the nice parts vs. the not so nice parts of Manila rationally than Manila would probably not come out so hot. Now I want to argue that what makes Manila livable, not only livable but positively enjoyable, is caused by the fact she is a Filipina. But what does that mean? I have never seen more warmth than between a Filipina and her children. This motherly instinct carries over to the city as a whole. As intimidating and daunting Manila can be when you are lost I have also found an understanding person to help me find my way. The warmth of the people emanates through the weather-beaten concrete. Unlike other major cities, New York, Paris, etc., the people who live here don't try to sell the city for what it is not. The train system here, although being less extensive than its New York counterpart, is far nicer and better maintained but still the people here frequently apologize to me for their trains because they assume that they are far better in America. This is just not true. Actually public transportation is good here and readily available once you understand the complex system and idiosyncrasies. A mother's insecurities and personal grievances may make her parental message convoluted but if she is Filipina than you know there is also love at the root. Manila is the same way except that your mother probably wouldn't rob or rape you in the name of love; or plant a bomb on a bus as what happened last week.

I could go on a make more cheesy sycophantic remarks about this city and comparing it to Filipinas but I feel like it is already getting old. It is not really fair to the Filipinas since they are some of the most beautiful and sweetest women in the world.

I have lived for an extended period of time in four cities: Pittsburgh, Honolulu, Vancouver, and Manila (I would include Kyoto even though I was only there a month because I believe I know the city pretty well but a month is really too short). Pittsburgh is my hometown so it transcends the usual evaluation. I will always have love for Pittsburgh.

I lived in Honolulu for a year and I did like the city. Anyone who has been to Hawaii can vouch for just how beautiful the place is. Honolulu is obviously very touristy which is frustrating but the Hawaiians take it with grace. As much as I objectively enjoyed the city it was my first year living outside of Pittsburgh and it was a tough transition so I don't think I gave Honolulu a real chance. My memories of that place are scarred with homesickness.

Vancouver is a different story. I lived there for three years. It is considered one of the most livable cities in the world and for good reason. The air is clean, the mountains are beautiful, the climate is mild and the people are genuinely friendly. Vancouver is the most diverse city I have lived in. The Canadians are not merely tolerant of foreigners but actively accept them and integrate them into the community as a whole. In my last year I lived in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood and I know some people complain that Chinese isolate themselves when they emigrate to different countries and that is true to a certain extent (my landlord lived in Vancouver for 12 years and didn't speak a word of English) but if you put forth the effort they will respond nicely. It's like you are at a party and there is a guy in the corner who doesn't talk to anyone and you complain “What is wrong with him? That's rude that he doesn't talk to anybody...” but then have you made an effort to talk to him? So whose fault really is it? Unlike the way Arabs and other Muslims are treated in a lot of Western Europe, most notably France and Germany, the Canadian government and Canadians individually make an effort to integrate different people into the society and thus create a very friendly atmosphere. I had some problems with Vancouver however such as their absurdly expensive alcohol and tobacco and sometimes I thought that the people were too nice at times. It must be the American inside me but when everybody is really nice around me than for some reason I usually become uncomfortable.

Out of all the cities I have mentioned so far, I believe Manila is the most enjoyable city to live in. I love how they pump raw sewage into the streams and rivers which bring a nice aroma to the air. I love how street vendors will sometimes burn garbage to cook BBQ chicken and pig intestines. I love how people seem to relieve themselves just about wherever the hell they feel like. I love how there are rarely stop signs or real traffic laws and that no one stops at crosswalks. I love being stuck in traffic for two hours in the back of jeep while continuously inhaling the noxious car exhaust. I love how ridiculously hot and humid it can be and how suddenly heavy rain can appear and soak you in 5 seconds. Most importantly I love how there is trash everywhere.

In light of these mild imperfections the Philippines planted a seed in my heart the moment I arrived and one by one what used to bother me melted away. Some call it getting used to a place, I call it real love. 

Economic Disparity Here

So I was talking to someone close to me and I was describing the striking economic disparity of the Philippines and they told me that they can't understand how people living here would be comfortable with this status quo. Is it that Filipinos just don't care? Is there an overwhelming apathy among the elite coupled with a lack of initiative by the poorest people?

I was insulted by this assumption that Filipinos either lack compassion or that they apparently given up on bettering their country. I would like to prove that this is not the case but it is a tricky issue to analyze.

Anyone who comes to Manila will be struck by the contrast of the rich and poor. Right next to a massive mall containing authentic Louis Vuitton bags and expensive jewelry will be a slum with children digging through the garbage looking for food. I was very much affected by this also and it really does make you feel like a piece of shit for buying a T-shirt for the amount of money that could feed a whole family for a day. I never enjoyed shopping in the first place but for those that get excited over shopping then the surrounding poverty might spoil the fun. If you hang out outside a mall you will see tons of people proudly walking out displaying their recently purchased goods and just scuttle past the homeless and impoverished people without giving the impression that they care. It may seem heartless and there is definitely an attitude I sense here around the malls that I am not comfortable with. However, this is by no means specific to the Philippines. I know America and Canada well and I don't want to hear anyone tell me that America and Canada have more income equality because they have a stronger sense of social solidarity.

Also on a side-note, the gap between the rich and poor in America is rising more and more each year. So maybe in a few generations America might look a lot like the Philippines.

If I was to give my candid observation of Filipino society, I do sense some vestiges of the hierarchical social structure of their colonial period. Lighter skinned people and those with Spanish names are generally seen as more attractive and perhaps more upstanding people. Skin whitening creams are advertised everywhere and I see sometimes Filipino women with unnaturally white skin. I think it looks bizarre; like the girls from New Jersey with fake orange tans. I personally think the darker skinned girls are more attractive but really at the end of the day I like it when girls just stay with what they were naturally given. I think also there does seem to be a stronger awareness of one's status in the society. Sometimes people give me the impression that they don't go to this carnival or that bar because “that's where lower class people go.” I don't like this attitude but again this can be found probably in every country and culture in the world.

Within the universities I have seen idealistic kids discuss the issues of poverty in the Philippines. They make lofty statements about the need of “will to develop” and the importance of protecting the most vulnerable people from foreign corporations.

“It's a question of human dignity and human rights that we resist the neo-imperialism of the developed countries.” is the sort of the mantra that I hear a lot and is even written on the walls at the University of the Philippines. I never took idealism in universities seriously; even when I was a student. After the feel good message about caring for the unfortunate they get picked up by their personal drivers and driven to a spa or massage parlor to unwind after a hard day of passively contemplating the woes of the world. And then once they graduate they just try to get hell out of here and find a decent job in the States or Dubai or end up working in the government and contributing to the problem. Obviously not everybody is like that but what I mean is that it is sort of part of the university experience to imagine that you can make a difference in the world. It's not a bad thing but it just gets kind of cheesy sometimes.

Where I do agree with them is when they discuss the malevolent nature of the IMF. The Philippine economy took a massive hit during the Asian financial crisis of the late 90's. The IMF was quickly on the scene to offer bail out packages so various affected governments could stay afloat. It seems like a nice thing to do right? But the problem is that these loans had massive strings attached. You know how some people say that a crisis can be a great opportunity? Yeah it was a great opportunity for the IMF which is funded by developed countries tax payers to cement the status quo of the relatively poorer countries vs. the “developed” countries It wasn't just nasty interest rates but the IMF demanded as a prerequisite of getting the money that their be a bit of “economic restructuring”. The IMF always has these kind of conditions when they issue loans to developing countries.

First they demanded the Philippines to maintain the interest rates of their central bank very high to help prevent devaluation of the Peso. Now I'm not an economist and its hard for me to give a good analysis of the exact reason but my feeling is that they wanted to keep the Peso from massive devaluation which would make it much more difficult for them to pay the loans back in the future. The Pesos did massively devalue and never recovered to its pre-crisis level so I'm not really sure what keeping the interest rates so high during the recession really accomplished. However I can see some rationality behind their reasoning but aside from that the IMF also demanded that the Philippines completely open their doors for foreign investment and drastically scale back their barriers to free trade and foreign capital ownership. On pen and paper, if you are just analyzing GDP growth then their demands have some merit but the reality is that how can local Filipino firms compete with massive and well-funded multinational corporations? The truth is they can't and even with the amount of fertile rice paddies the Philippines still has to import rice. It isn't all the IMF's fault because their intentions should be obvious to anyone. They work to maintain the status quo and keep rich countries rich and poor countries poor. The Philippine government has little say on to how they can run their own economy and are nowhere near paying off their debt and usually just get by paying only the interest. Every Filipino politician since the Marcos era has said they will fight to reduce their foreign debt but it continues to rise. The problem is that the Philippine government willingly sells their citizens out to these foreign pressures and lets them be exposed to the worst aspect of the predator-prey nature of the world economy. I mean corruption is definitely involved but I'm not going to go as far to say that the president of the Philippines would take a suitcase of money and just look the other way when foreign companies impose harsh labor conditions on Filipinos and pay them a fraction of what they deserve.

I bring up the IMF because this also contributes to the canyon between the rich and the poor here and the complicit role the government plays. This is a democracy and you would think that that would help choose a leader which is actually good for the country but I mean honestly look around at the world democracies, I'm not going to name any names, but because of ideological voters and the nature of politics real idiots come to office who don't have the nation's interests at heart. My political beliefs do definitely influence how I perceive things and maybe someone could argue with me about the benefits of neo-liberal deregulation and privatization of aspects of the economy but the way the Philippine government handles it's debt to the IMF is demonstrably irresponsible. South Korea also took emergency loans from the IMF during the Asian crisis but those in the government at that time had a sense of responsibility and paid off those loans as fast as they could. It's not really a question of ideology. It's a question national sovereignty. I mean what difference does it make who the Filipinos elect as president if he has his hands tied by a foreign entity when trying to make decisions about the domestic economy.

What about the Filipino worker? Some people might say that if only the Filipinos worked a bit harder they could make better lives for themselves. Like they should adopt the Protestant work ethic that supposedly made United States and Germany so powerful. I mean it's kind of ridiculous and a border line racist thing to say. Filipinos are not stupid or lazy. Filipinos have immigrated across the globe to find work and not for just their own enrichment but for the livelihood of their entire family. Even with the onerous restrictions set in place in all the developed countries to stymie the flow of Filipino migrant workers they are still everywhere. Filipinos need a visa to almost everywhere outside of Southeast Asia and the visa applications are not cheap and the immigration officials are becoming more and more strict. Even with these obstacles millions of Filipinos find work as migrant workers abroad and the money they send home adds up to about 13% of the GDP of the Philippines. They are forced to leave because of the lack of opportunity and a lack of will power of the Philippine government to protect the local industry.

So the Filipino government and elite have , in my opinion, worked to maintain this economic disparity. Again, look at the United States, the business elites there do the exact same thing and the American government is also complicit (bail-outs, tax breaks for some firms that outsource their jobs overseas, etc.). There is a communist faction here in the universities and even an armed rebel group in Northeast Luzon I believe. They have aspirations of income redistribution on a huge scale and even if I can sympathize, I also hate those rich bankers and CEOs, but just look at history and I think it's clear that these revolutions were romantic but never worked out the way those involved imagined it to. Maybe Lenin did have a compassionate side and an intellectual discomfort with the sufferings of the poor but I don't see how anybody could be comfortable with what the Soviet Union degenerated into under Stalin. In the case of the Philippines they already have a quasi-civil war going in the predominately Muslim region of Mindanao and I think any attempted violent communist revolution will just cause more damage and pain. But it doesn't have to be just one or the other, completely pro-business laissez-faire government or communist. The Philippine government just has to take some bold steps by first finally paying off their foreign loans and telling bigger nations to f%ck off and let them run their own economy.

So enough about the economy and the government, are the Filipino people really complacent on a personal level with the poverty here? Of course not. Charities are widespread here and people work hard to cover for the ineffectualness of the government. I've met overworked single mothers who still find time to volunteer at local NGOs or their church. Giving charity to the poor seems like an everyday thing here for a lot of people. I believe that the social solidarity among the Filipinos is strong, stronger than any other country that I've been too. I like how some of my French friends complain at the apparent heartlessness of the Filipinos when they casually walk past decrepit impoverished people while members of the French society, such as Muslims and Roma, are systemically discriminated against with the apparent OK from the majority or the French people. That's not really fair, I actually haven't met a French person who is comfortable with Sarkozy's policy of deporting gypsies.

If you come to Manila you will be struck like I was by the slums leaned up against a Mercedes dealership. I have become accustomed to this reality. I occasionally buy the street kids dinner if they catch me. After I bought them dinner the first time they always hound me if they spot me. Haha, it's hard for me to be discreet here. Anyway, also since I am a volunteer here I don't have a massive compulsion to give the little money I have to every kid I meet on the street. It might sound weird and make me look like I've lost my compassion that I've got used to fathers trying to pimp their ten-year old girls for a bit of cash or seeing elderly people digging through the garbage but if you stay here long enough you will see what I mean. Over time the initial discomfort of seeing people in distress fades and you gain some clarity about the society here and the human condition itself. The Philippines is a poor country, there is no way to get around that fact but it is not defined by it's poverty. What I've tried to emphasize up to this point is that the Philippines is where it is today because of the animalistic world economy and the Philippine government's refusal, or just inability, to protect it's own people under pressure from more powerful developed countries. The Philippines is a beautiful place and the Filipinos are beautiful people and even if the Philippines is a poor country the economy is growing fairly quickly perhaps there is a good future for this place that I love.  

Vacation

As I was sitting on my balcony drinking a bottle of Red Horse and smoking a few cigarettes I reflected on my vacation this year and I have to admit this was by far one of the most memorable. I finished working on the 22^nd in the normal unorganized way by rushing to the post office to send this DVD of interviews of our clients that my co-worker and I collected for this big court case in Japan. Luckily I got there at the last minute before they close for the holiday season. Living in the Philippines has made me used to this kind of unnecessary stress but honestly I have been this unorganized my entire life. So anyway, I gave my small gifts to my co-worker and the nice lady who cleans our office about once a week and I set home to plan the next couple weeks.

Tragically, my good friend from Korea unexpectedly had to cancel his stay here. He was supposed to stay here until October but he discovered a chance to take an entrance exam at a very good university in Korea and so made the wise (but definitely not popular here) decision to seize the opportunity. It was hard for me because he was the first guy I met here and we became very good friends. Interestingly, it took a Korean guy to help me assimilate to life in the Philippines. I'll miss that guy but I hope the best for him in Korea.

All of my roommates spent Christmas with my landlord and landlady and their family. We had this entire roast pig (here its called a lechon). Supposedly the pig came all the way from Cebu where they have the best lechon in the Philippines.

It was delicious and just cracking the skin off and munching on that almost made my Christmas by itself. My landlord and landlady have always treated my roommates and I like we're family and I really appreciate them inviting us to share Christmas with them. It was really nice. As is apparently Filipino culture (or I think just the culture of my landlord) we shot off a bunch of fireworks to celebrate the occasion. Haha, I'll get into the fireworks later when I talk about New Years but fireworks are awesome here. I bought professional grade fireworks and stuff that I think is illegal in the States for almost no money at all. The Chinese fireworks are decent quality but you have with the local Filipino brands which you should be careful with as I discovered...

I was sad on Christmas day because this was the first time that I couldn't spend Christmas with my family. I got to admit I was tearing up a bit but I talked to my family and grand-parents through Skype so I was not in total despair. I'm really amazed at how awesome Skype is. I mean just fifteen years ago it would have been unthinkable to have video calls across the world for free.

After all the Christmas festivities my New Zealander roommate and I decided to go on a trip to one of the beaches that the Philippines is famous for. We decided to invite this American guy that we both knew. He's a lot older than us but he was alone for the holidays so we decided to invite him along. I hope he doesn't read this blog but that guy honestly caused me a lot of problems and stress during this vacation. I had heard from my other American friend that he was spending almost two weeks at this nice beach over on the island of Mindoro. I loosely met a Filipina girl through Facebook and I knew that she lived in a town called Sablayan in western Mindoro. My roommate is bad with names, especially Filipino ones, and when he talked to my American friend in Mindoro he thought that he told him that he was in Sablayan. When I heard that I thought this coincidence would be a good opportunity to meet this girl and chill out on a beach for a few days. So we took the bus to Batangas which is a major port of the northern island Luzon and in the usual Filipino style the bus showed this super violent action movie. We arrived at the port and I was in contact with that girl and she gave me good directions for getting to Sablayan. Right before we boarded the ship I get a call from my friend on the island and I casually told him we were about to board and should get there in the evening sometime. However, at that point I realized he wasn't in Sablayan at all and actually Sabang. We only had ten minutes to board the boat to Sablayan and so we discussed it a bit and made the last minute decision to just go to Sablayan. The ferry took a couple hours and when we arrived at the town of Abra de Ilog in Mindoro my friends were questioning what I had gotten them into. The town was tiny and the place just seemed like farm country. I asked local people around how we could get to Sablayan and I was told to take a Jeep to Mamburao and then from there we could grab a bus to Sablayan. It seemed easy enough but there were so many people taking this Jeep that the three of us had to sit on the roof. I remember asking my friend if this was safe and he just laughed and said of course not. The Jeep didn't drive so fast so it wasn't really dangerous but definitely fun. We cruised these country roads in Mindoro as the sun was setting over the mountains. It was really beautiful and a great experience but I didn't realize at the time that it wouldn't be the last time I was riding like that.

We got to Mamburao and the locals informed me that the bus to Sablayan wouldn't come for a couple hours and so we grabbed some dinner. It was night so I couldn't really check out the town but it seemed very tiny. We had some time so I was talking to the girl at a bus stop kiosk about what is in this town or what it's famous for. She grew up there but couldn't tell me anything about the place. Also, she didn't speak English so our conversation was based around my very broken Tagalog. I found out later that that town is famous for jars of pickled fruit or something like that. After about two hours I asked again where the bus was and then all of sudden she said that maybe one will come in morning. I was getting kind of anxious since I was getting all sorts of looks from sketchy looking characters and I knew that I didn't want to hang around there longer than I had to. My friends were also looking for an alternative to get to Sablayan and we found this tricycle driver (its one of those motorcycles that has a little car attached to it) and we told him we'd pay him 1,000 Pesos to take us to Sablayan. He was seriously considering it but his girlfriend was pleading with him to refuse. My friends offered to take her along as well but then out of nowhere the bus arrived. The trip is about 2 hours by bus on some real rough road and so if we had taken a tricycle it would have taken hours and would have been a terrible ride. This bus was also full so we had to jump up to roof again. It was already dark so the stars were out and it was definitely a beautiful night. Aside from having to dodge some low hanging power lines and tree branches it was a relatively painless ride.

Finally, we got to Sablayan by midnight or so and met up with Mary Joy who was that girl I knew through Facebook. Luckily, she worked at a cheap hotel along the beach. Her and I hit it off pretty fast but I don't want to write too much about her on this blog since I think she would be embarrassed if she read it. Just ask me personally. During that first night I was sitting with her by the beach just talking about this and that when this random drunk dude stumbled into the hotel. He was apparently the chief of police for Sablayan. He got right up in my face and was demanding my visa and saying all kinds of crap. After awhile he lost interest in messing with me and left. According to Mary Joy he's got a mistress at the hotel so he comes a lot and she said she really hates that guy. Anyway, by the morning we decided to take a look around the town and the local beaches. The beach around the hotel was nice but not really nice for swimming and I heard from Mary Joy there was a nearby island that had a world famous beach. It was called Pandan Island but unfortunately was owned by some rich French guy and there was only one boat going there a day and it was 250 Pesos a person one-way. That's pretty pricy especially since I could almost swim there, well maybe not me but a strong swimmer could definitely do that. My friend spotted some small boats in the water and there was a small community of fishermen living there. He was convinced he could get a guy to ferry us over there for just 300 Pesos one way for all four of us. The other guy and I were real skeptical and even Mary Joy said it was probably not possible. We went down there to ask around and seriously the first person we met agreed to do it. It took about 5 minutes to convince him. I was surprised and kind of apprehensive since Pandan Island is a privately owned island and I was thinking we might just get turned away once we got there. The boat was tiny and made of ply wood but it sufficed. I assumed that the guy would take a discreet way to get us on the island but we just stormed the main beach. It was funny seeing some people snorkeling getting taken aback at these random guys showing up in this little boat. Apparently, the staff at Pandan don't really care how you get to there but we had to pay an entrance fee of a hundred pesos which is about $2.50 so I wasn't going to complain. I'm not usually a beach kind of guy but that was probably the most beautiful beach I've been to. The sand was soft and the water was clear and warm. There was a large coral reef just a few meters into the water from the beach itself and I saw some amazing fish when I was snorkeling over there.

I had a great day there on the beach with Mary Joy but it was that night when things got complicated.

We went out after dinner with Mary Joy and a couple of her friends to have some drinks and sing some Videoke (Kareoke). I don't really like that stuff but Filipina girls love to sing for some reason. We were chilling, drinking, and I was thinking that everyone was having a good time until that older American guy made this massive scene out of nothing. Mary Joy's friend was showing some interest with my friend from New Zealand and so I invited her to come with us to the beach the next day. I don't know if that other American guy was jealous or something but he just flipped out. He started yelling and swearing at the girls; calling them whores. I got real upset and luckily my other friend got him out of the bar before he made a bigger fool of himself. I mean seriously, what kind of 46 year old man behaves like that with 18-19 year old girls. That's inexcusable and I don't tolerate that kind of crap. It took like 2 hours to get Mary Joy to feel better and stop crying. There was no fight between him and I but I made it clear that I wanted him to leave. However, the next day we discussed it and I made the mistake of letting him stay since it was such a far journey. Anyway, I don't talk too much about that guy but I enjoyed the rest of my stay at Sablayan; really because of Mary Joy.

We stayed there for another day and checked out the beach again. Overall, it was really enjoyable and I recommend that if anyone goes to the Philippines Sablayan is great place. It had one of the best beaches I've seen and for a fraction of the cost of a resort. The hotel room for two people is only 400 Pesos($10) a night and the beach is easy to get to cheaply if you find a local guy to ferry you there.

We decided to head back to Manila for the New Years and seriously I'm glad I did. The day of New Years Eve my landlord took us to Enchanted Kingdom which is an amusement park. It was fun and I'm glad they took us by Kennywood is better.

We were drinking shooting off fireworks with my landlord at first and then decided to head down to Makati to check out some more fireworks. I thought it was kind of telling that the first taxi driver refused to go there because there was too many fireworks. We eventually found a guy who would ride us there and getting out of the cab was like being in a war zone. People were throwing homemade fireworks at the taxis and each other. We checked out some bars and then by 12 went back to the street. From the road I could see three or four other professional firework shows going off and hundreds of people lighting their own fireworks in the road. Some guy even threw this powerful firecracker out his window and it exploded like 3 feet from where I was walking. I met these drunk guys who were lighting some homemade fireworks off and they offered to let me light them. I'm talking about fireworks so loud they blow out your ears and could easily blow off your hand if you hold on to them. I remember lighting this one but the fuse didn't seem to work so I tried again to light it and I took two steps and shrugged at the guy when BOOM. I was laughing about that one for awhile but now that I think about it, I'm pretty happy that I didn't get seriously hurt. There is actually a lot more that happened but I can't say everything because my friend claims he could lose his job or be expelled from the country if I list all the details. I think he's being paranoid but you never know.

Today is my last day of vacation before I resume my volunteering. I'm sad that this vacation is over but I am kind of looking forward to starting work again. I came here to volunteer right? Not just have a good time...