America, Fuck Yeah! hehe
I doubt the suggestion to use 19th century colonial methods was a serious one, but regardless...
I think that every US leader should be forced to live in a former colony for 5 years. Not with the ruling class as is often the case, but with the local peoples to see how the situation really is.
PH is a land of extremes. On one hand malls that sell real cartier watches for $5K. These malls are huge, and luxary malls, that make most american malls look like garbage. Houses with only 2-3 occupants, but with literally and army of servants. Ironically on the road there are more luxary cars like BMW,Audis,Mercedies,Bently,Jaguars etc then in USA.
On the other hand slums that are so huge .....
Very rarely do the foriegn politicians see those areas, and they never interact with the people.
I love the philippines, and I love the filipino people, but they can be extremely agravating at times.
I have a 2 1/2 year old son. He looks mestizo
Filipino mestizo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Prime example of how thinks are so ingrained into the people that they do not realize they are even doing it. My son goes to play school. He sees a toy which another child is playing with, he just goes and grabs it. My child should be the one getting shit. But no the mother or nanny will give the other child shit, you give that toy to my son. He goes to the mall we rent a battery operated car you can drive arround. My son goes and rear ends another car. But it is not my son's fault, the car giver gives the other child shit for "driving too slow" and being in the way. He then goes and runs his car into a food stand almost knocking it over. Again it is not my fault. I attempt to correct these problems and tell the people that this should not be, but you learn in the filipines you have to do baby steps, work very slowly
One of the best things in asia ironically was the japanese occupation. In places like singapore,hong kong etc, the white ruling class was humiliated breaking the "white superiority myth". Unfortunately in PH because it is so vast, except for major centers like manila etc, probably most of the country did not even realize the gov't had changed
.
Hiring local people for americans especially can be troubling. Americans attempt to treat thier help properly, call me Joe
. Since the locals are so used to being abused, they do not know how to cope. They will no longer "respect" you, as a result they will steal, and in extreme cases kill you. It is sad, but help must at all times call you "Sir" otherwise you will have a problem. (I learned this the hard way
).
Democracy is a great thing. But for most people, they have no idea what democracy is. It is a foreign concept, it is like trying to explain to an american how a hex can kill you
. Also thanx to american propaganda, the locals have this idea that magically democracy will fix all thier problems, it will get them a good job, a proper house to live in etc. When these things do not instantly happen, they become mad at the americans. They do not realize that these things take time.
Most of the country is catholic. In many ways it is like the middle ages. People kiss the priests ring etc. You can go to the church and get holy water, which will be used to drive away evil spirits etc. Literally you can send a container to the church, they fill it up with holy water, and u take it home no joke. In fairness the younger priests (the under 40 crowd) are attempting reform. But like everything, it is progresses slowly
. In PH if you wish to cope, you must learn patience.
On the positive side in PH there is a slowly growing middle class from call-centers/help desk etc. (500K+ people are employed in call centers etc).
These people are educated, and slowly changing.
Also there are millions of Overseas workers. They send much needed money back to thier families, but most importantly when they come back to the filipines, they bring with them western ideas etc.
Things are getting better in PH, but it will take a long time. As i said you learn patience here
. Americans on the other hand are very impatient, they go to a place like iraq, bring in foreign ideas like democracy and are perplexed when the local people do not understand. Meanwhile they learn little about the native peoples, and worse yet insult them by putting down thier religion etc. How would you feel if someone came to your country. This person has never read the bible. He then just misquotes passages from the bible like how noah had sex with his daughters. How in the bible it states that it is ok to kill non-believers etc. And then assumes that all christians are like the KKK or white supremisits.
Americans are good people, but they are too impatient
. Seriously in iraq, they would have to work on the problem for over 50+ years (enuff time for the older generation to die out). Also they should start with really simple things, and then work thier way up. Patience
