And the count is at six.
The Philippine government’s appeasement with China is one of the world’s most self-destructive historical moments. China is sitting in Philippine seas blocking Filipino fishermen from food sources and You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. It is a royal disaster promising long-term devastation . . . done by China, yes . . . but enabled by the Philippines.
The government has stopped defending Filipinos in favor of China. The government incredibly took the side of the Chinese ship that rammed a Filipino fishing vessel rather than the 22 Filipinos left for dead as the Chinese boat sailed away. The government refused to defend Hong Kong Immigration’s harassment of a former Filipino cabinet secretary. It criticized him for criticizing China.
The leadership lacks a sense of nationhood. Blames and excuses are the rules of the day. Not unity, not pride, not the notion of “being Filipino”. Leaders align with plunderers and liars over skilled public servants. Competence is out. Favoritism and impunity are in. Investors know corruption is the pathway to success. Many of them go elsewhere to invest.
Filipino citizens exist to be used, not protected or promoted. Chinese workers are invited into the country and, under contractual deals approved by the Philippines, ρáíd six times what a Filipino worker would receive for that same job. Meanwhile, Filipinos suffer in poverty from the lack of good-paying jobs or the training that would qualify them for those jobs.
The deadly drug war has seated murder as an acceptable form of conflict resolution as police have killed thousands with no accounting for the innocence of victims or checks on unreasonable use of force. Children are often among the dead. Private executions for hire are common. Elections are violent. The unstable situation unnerves allies and investors. Drugs continue to flow in. They are cheap, they are everywhere. This is China’s opium war, deployed as a strategy.
The President cannot shake the accusations that his staff and family are complicit in smuggling and drugs.
The Philippines is the regional bull's eye for typhoons from July through January. Storms are relentless, wiping out homes, crops, and citizens. Preparation is weak and reconstruction a rat’s nest of corruption and incompetence. One city, destroyed by bombings to root out a band of terrorists, has been completely written off because local officials did not want China heading the project to re-design the city. The President got in a snit about it and cut off reconstruction funding.
Modern buildings and transportation services are rare. Dilapidation, congestion, crime, dirt, beggars, thieves, red tape, the arrogance of officials . . . these remain too often the character of the Philippines.
The Pearl of Asia is pretty much a dead clam these days, an empty shell sitting in a Beijing jewelry shop.
Is there any hope at all? Any reason for optimism?
Well, yes, yes, I suppose there is.
The count is only six.
You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.
