I watched Laura Ling and Euna Lee, get off Bill Clinton’s big white airplane that he borrowed from his friend Bing when it arrived at the hanger at Burbank Airport.

I watched Al Gore hugging people — Clinton; one of the two girls – this after I had watched Bill walk down the steps from the airplane and stand basking in adoration. I watched all the hugging and tear-jerking reunions and all the warm fuzzies that were going on and listened to some CNN reporter telling us what we were looking at.

She was lying.

We were looking at two dumb, “members of the media” — bargaining chips — who should have been left where they were because eventually they would have returned to their homeland, one way or another, bargaining chips always are. These two work for some lawyer, an ambulance chaser fronted by Al Gore … a minor television service, I gather.

I watched Laura Ling wresting the glory from her big sister Lisa (who is a legit media person) while crying and blubbering, playing on the nations heartstrings. I saw pictures, flashed on the screen, of Bill Clinton sitting next to that little ratfink Kim Jong-Il which in itself was enough to undermine the United States even if the two twits hadn’t got caught where they should never have been in the first place. Did they somehow think their names were Amanpour?

Amatures, one holding a camera … and one doing some kind of dance and flitting to and fro between the China/North Korea border. Meanwhile here was Obama –trying, along with five other countries — to curb Kim Jong il from completing a nuclear device on a rocket capable of doing great harm, most likely so that he could job his technology to the likes of Hugo Chavez, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, and the leaders of the rogue terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan including Al Qaida. And at a sensitive time: to wit – Kim testing rockets. Then … along comes Clinton on his white airplane (horse) and rescues a couple of stupid little girls. (Laura needs help reading copy).

The Secretary of State has been diminished in the eyes of many by association. The United States has been diminished in the eyes of many by falling for such an obvious PR stunt — bowing to a renegade leader. What kind of message did that send the world? Huh?

Obama was weakened — he has to accept the blame for part of the whole mess but as it turned out this was a coup by the Clintons and a slap on the face to the man who beat one of them and fought with the other during the campaign of 2008. This was “gotcha”. It was worse; it was dealing with a terrorist. It was disgusting and a blow from which Obama may not recover.

He has been one-upped at a time when his major push in Congress is to pass an important piece of legislation (The Health Bill) that could have implications resulting in busting his chances of governing in the manner of which he has chosen to govern, be it right or wrong. He’s been horns-waggled by Clinton, Gore, a hedonistic head of state and two twit nincompoops who should never have been near a mic or a camera in the first place.

And the sad part of it is… they will make millions because the gauzy, glamour-guzzling American Mainstream Media will sit back and make sure that these two are kept in the spotlight. Their books will get more free publicity than warrants a titanic work of fiction. Meanwhile

Clinton looked more asinine than he did trying to lie his way out of his infamous sex scandal. Bury the s-o-b, Barry. Great God… what would Walter Cronkite have thought?

There was room for doubt in Newspaper editorials but Television’s prime time news did not contain much editorial.  I say not much because Eric Severeid always had a piece in Cronkite’s casts and Severeid was mostly ‘nail on the head’ common sense even if you had a different political outlook.  Newsmen like those I have mentioned always made sure they couched political phrases in words that left room for doubt such as “alleged”, or “heard to have said”.  They made certain that any quote from a politician was attributable to that politician alone and not to the reporter.  We have learned over the years that politics is, as I recently wrote to a friend, much the same as Godless religion.

Network fumbling during the 2000 election count would not have taken place if Walter Cronkite had been managing the desk.  At worst, he would have “alluded” to who had won Florida but I like to think he would have rather been sailing his yacht than naming Bush as the winner before things were clear. That, of course was just one example of many.  The cable news nets have had to retract much while covering stories such as the Mid-East wars.  A sleep-starved Bernard Shaw would not have been allowed on the air to ask inane questions of his audience and babble like a rookie during the initial bombardment in the first Iraq invasion. 

FOX and CNN are decidedly politically swayed news sources.  How is one to judge truth when they hear the right wing theatrical posture of Sean Hannity or Bill O’Reilly on FOX compared to the left of center spiel of Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper on CNN?  Walter Cronkite is on record as saying he did not approve of theatrics in a newscast.  I shudder to think about his reaction to Jon Stewart although Stewart and Stephen Colbert admittedly have broken new ground and leave no doubt they are not to be taken all that seriously.  Nor would Cronkite have chosen sides in a political battle and he anchored the US elections for more than his 19 years at the main desk.

My point, if it may have slipped by, is that we as viewers are never 100 percent positive of what we hear is true anymore.  The recent profligacy of fatuous gibbering over the death of Michael Jackson with its mountain of praise-studded superlatives about this wasted soul who in all likelihood was little more than a child molester – and I am not being judicious, read the stories that circulated before his death — would have been handled in a less hysterical manner by Walter Cronkite.  Another icon died on December 8, 1980 and Cronkite led off his program by saying words to the effect that ”leading the news tonight we do not deal with the world’s problems but speak of a man who sang songs and played his guitar”. He dealt with the situation by handling it with decency, reservation and facts.  He did not glorify, nor pontificate but merely told the story of John Lennon’s death with a sad resonance which the story called for.   

I don’t mean to intimate that Truth in Electronic Journalism died in 1981 when Walter Cronkite retired. David Brinkley and Peter Jennings demanded and received respect but Cronkite was in a class of his own and CBS News never attained the influence it had under his successor, Dan Rather. Those of us who remember him, watched him each evening and formed opinions that aligned with his reporting will realize that something has gone that is unlikely ever to return.

But in remembering Walter Cronkite, I should remind you that he was not the first of the great broadcasters of the 20th Century. Taste is subjective but I would be remiss in not mentioning the man who preceded Cronkite as the giant of CBS and indeed the United States News business and that is, of course, Edward R. Murrow.  His medium was radio but although he eventually morphed into television, Murrow is best remembered for his days as a radio reporter who, from London, England broadcast during the Nazi air-raids during the early years of World War Two. 

The two men met, several times, even worked together on presidential elections but they were not particularly good friends. Early in Walter Cronkite’s career when he was working in the Midwest, Murrow tried to hire him for CBS News.  Cronkite would have benefitted greatly one would think, considering the salary and the opportunities available as one of the Murrow Boys.  But Cronkite made the decision to ‘go it alone’ and if he made it to the top, he would have himself to thank and would be beholden to no other individual, even one whose stature was as eminent as Murrow’s who may well have been miffed at Cronkite’s decision.

The Murrow Boys were a group of reporters who Edward R. either hired or acquired and directed during the war years.  They were the absolute cream at broadcasting war news and many went on to successful careers of their own.  The list is generally conceded to include Eric Severeid, William L. Shirer, Howard K. Smith, Charles Collingwood and arguably Daniel Schorr, all names most of us over the age of 50 will have heard.  Some may remember Richard C. Hottelet and William (Bill) Downs. 

When speaking of Truth in Broadcasting, Murrow set the pace.  He could do little else because from his perch on the top of the building that housed CBS’ London offices one could hear the bombs screeching around him as they fell on the great city.  His broadcasts were as exciting as any fictitious enactment of that scene and Murrow is often credited with allowing Americans to realize the incredible strength of character possessed by Londoners during The Blitz. 

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They are both gone now. Them and most of their kind.  They did their jobs with such formidable honour that I for one hope they will long be remembered as true pioneers, esteemed titans of the Broadcast industry.  I leave it up to others to tell of the individual accomplishments of Walter Cronkite.  He wrote a wonderful little book called A Reporters Life which like his newscasts is easy to read — full of interesting anecdotes and tales. It’s still around and I urge you to read it.  However many books will appear on Cronkite’s life, now that he has gone.  It can only be hoped that they will be as truthful and sincere in their endeavor as he was.

A VAST LIE
In January of this year, Dr. A. Neil Hutton writes in The Reservoir — the oracle of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists that many geologists did not appear to have a clear understanding of the range of current research, or were relying on the media which Hutton terms as “uncritical” and has done a remarkably poor job in reporting on global warming by simply — as he puts it, “regurgitating the spin produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” (IPCC). This is the group that was formed in 1988 by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Association and has recently been fronted by former US Vice-President Al Gore, who a couple of years ago was dancing around the world picking up prizes; the Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar, awarded to the IPCC. Wrongly.

The use of the word “spin”, says Dr. Hutton, is used to describe how the IPCC does not always reflect the opinions of scientific geological reports. In fact, it actually contradicts the opinions of scientists. Why would they do that? One word: politics. And politics means money. Pork barrel in nature. The IPCC has made the statement; quote “There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed in the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.” Sorry, the scientists have other ideas: “The fact that the Global mean temperature has increased since the late 19th Century … does not necessarily mean that an anthropogenic (man-made) effect on the climate system has been identified. Climate has always varied on all time scales so the observed time change may be natural.”

The result of this media storm has led the public to assume that the Earth is warming; citing the melting of glaciers, the breakup of the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs and various other weather calamities, blaming it on the increase of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) in our ecosystem. It is true there has been warming, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, but this is not attributable to CO2. To begin with there are only .037 parts per million in volume (PPMV) of CO2 in our atmosphere. That’s like one straw on the camels’ back. Most of us know that the atmosphere is made up of nitrogen and oxygen and a few trace gasses of which CO2 is one. It’s as if saying all the neon lights in Las Vegas are depleting the atmosphere of neon gas which will result in the “dire effect” of Las Vegas going dark..

Despite this minimal amount of CO2 the “Anthropogenic, Global Warming, Hypotheses” has been ballyhooed on television, in the press, in countless periodicals, frightened people and played into the pockets of politicians, none of whom know what the hell they are talking about. Furthermore the media blitz has been adopted as “proof” by the Green Movement who have pounded their ploughshares into swords and attacked the scientific community for daring to express credibility and integrity in real studies of our planet’s equilibrium with the result that it is now difficult for scientists to obtain funding to research these climactic changes that are evident.
United States President George W. Bush dispersed more than 35 billion dollars during his term in office on climate research. Much of the money used unnecessarily. And there is no let-up in sight as current President Barack Obama has placed Global Warming near the top of his detailed programs while in office.
In his report, Dr. Hutton has belittled the IPCC’s global warming hypothesis, which the panel equates to some kind of universal hibachi, by relegating carbon dioxide to where it belongs; unwarranted. There is simply no scientific evidence that human activity has had any effect on global warming since records were kept 260 years ago.
The IPCC claims that the increase in warmth during the last half century is unusual and “very likely” caused by increases in anthropogenic greenhouse gasses. It is recorded history (prior to the more sophisticated equipment used in the last two and a half centuries) that there have been many warm and cool eras such as the Little Ice age, the Medieval Warm Period and the Roman Warm Period. Both the Medieval and the Roman warm periods had temperatures higher than our present warming. It should be noted that during those two periods there were a distinct lack of motor vehicles, industrial complexes and other carbon emitting entities.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that catastrophe sits like a spider in the cupboard ready to pounce on humankind in less than a century — unless of course man-made emissions are not set right by the expenditure of great sums of money to avoid the oncoming upheaval. Government agencies should point the way, big business should find answers — after all is it not politicians and the CEO’s of the business world who have saved us in the past? Or is it possible they are the culprits?
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Look, nobody is saying that we do not need to clean up the air in our urban areas; cut down on pollution of all kinds; return as much of the barren lands on the planet to a more productive surface. In many parts of the world our cities stink with foul gasses coupled with the reek of uncontrolled industrial run-off and air-born pollutants. This is harmful and it is ugly and it causes disease and unmentionable problems that affect the inhabitants. So it is in the interests of world leadership to go about righting what is wrong with our 21st century life-style. Hydrogen run vehicles, a lesser reliance on coal fired industry, a push towards cleaner air is needed. Only a fool would advocate otherwise.
But have we as human beings caused a real and detrimental change to the climate of our planet? No. We have fouled the air but we have not, emphatically not, caused the melting of the polar ice and glaciers. I have only touched on but a few of the basic reasons, a mere snippet of the platter of garbage handed out by agencies like the IPCC and its mouthpiece, the media. The result being miss-spent currency and the lining of political pockets coupled with the outspoken blather of award-collecting, high profile icons as they flutter about with their pet “causes”.
The work of Dr. Hutton and of hundreds of other honest, investigative, learned research scientists from through-out the world is slipping out of sight and their funding is drying up due to the claptrap of extroverts like Gore as he presides over his club of ill-informed, ignorant Evangelists of Puff. And if we haven’t heard much from the former VP lately, the media will soon find another point man or golden girl just waiting to present more “proof” of why things are the way they are and they will blame us … not nature. Stay tuned.

The Philippines, as has been noted many times in this column is a poor country, depressed and ruled by an inept and allegedly corrupt government headed by a detested Presidential first family it’s matriarch a dismal failure which became evident only months after taking office following the people’s ouster – mid-term – of a common criminal.  After more than eight years in office President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is thought less of than the Filipino Grand Master of fraud, hypocrisy and deceit:  the deposed Ferdinand Marcos and his equally despised wife, Imelda.

The gore of Philippine politics also burdened the country’s shining star not long ago. But forget that for now. Study the Sky News Photo that’s circulating.  Call up Ring Magazine or Sports Illustrated on the internet.  Look at the picture.  Look at the determination on Manny Pacquiao’s face; look at the instantly unconscious boxer, former Light-Welterweight Champion Ricky Hatton as he begins his fall to the canvas after absorbing a left hook that promptly ended all thought.  Even the look of astonishment on referee Kenny Bayless’ face after he had warned Hatton to “keep ‘em up” helps bring the whole spectacle home. 

A moment in time that has likely changed the lives of hundreds of people; managers, promoters, fans and of course two boxers – one re-confirmed as the best “pound-for- pound” boxer in the world, and one with a career that had proven successful and promised future glory and wealth, now seriously impaired by the left arm of a determined individual from one of the poorest areas on earth.

Immediately following Manny Pacquiao’s KO one second from the end of the 2^nd round, I went out to the terrace of our home in this small town 100 kilometers north of Manila and I could hear the screaming and the cheering, distant because we are isolated but nevertheless evident as one hears a distant, approaching train.  Then the ever-present Filipino show of celebration: firecrackers loud and rapid. In Manila … well I wasn’t there, I only heard and saw on TV… joyous mayhem.      

This was a fight that Pacquiao had to win.  This was not a beauty contest like Manny’s defeat of Oscar De La Hoya a few months ago with no title at stake; this was for the International Boxing Federation Light-Welterweight Championship and Ring Magazine belt.  This was pay dirt.  A packed MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas; pay-per-view contracts; worldwide television and radio contracts, tens of millions of dollars involved.

And a million tears.  The Filipino people have so little to cheer about, so little to be proud of that this 31-year old patriots KO punch brought tears streaming down faces and caused grown men to hug each other, children to scream and those who had bet on their man to instantly stop shaking.  I won a few Euros from a dear old friend in England who thought, as many people did that Pacquiao had finally met his match.  Sorry Rupert, you never even had a chance.  Gee all those Euros which I will probably never see being as we are seperated by 12-thousand miles.  More importantly the mess of locals who are up to their backsides in illegal gambling may be able to eat a duck dinner this week.   

Filipinos can be the most lovable people anywhere and because they have long given up the fruitless effort to dream of a blithe end to their travails — their constant hope about how their country is run and presided over — they are just the kind of folk who fit the rags-to-riches cliche that the world loves.  Manny has, because of his humble nature and tough athleticism gained fans all over the world and they all became Filipinos for a little while Saturday night as they watched one of the greatest moments boxing has ever produced.  

For a minute or so in Round One it looked like this may be the title fight promoters had promised but that all went up in a cloud of imagination as The Pacman sunk Hatton to his knees for knockdown number one and moments later for knockdown number two.  The fight was really already over. Hatton knew it, Manny knew it, the judges knew it and the crowd knew it.  It was just a matter of time.  And the greatest thing was that when the end came, it was so clean, so perfect, so “boxing”.  Bam.  Over.

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Manny Pacquiao may now have to contend with defending his new title against a former ring magician, a former “pound-for-pound” best in the world: undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr., an American who has been there, enjoyed the belts and the praise and the glory. He gave it up awhile back only to announce that he was officially coming out of retirement co-inciding with the Pacquiao — Hatton fight.  Mayweather has beaten Ricky Hatton, a bruising thrashing of the Englishman, called in ten rounds on a TKO.  His first bout will likely be against Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez who, incidentally, fought Pacquiao to a draw albeit spoiled by a judges card mis-marked.  Manny beat the Mexican in the re-match, a hard fought decision hyped as “Unfinished Business”    

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If we just saw the title fight of the year, wait till Mayweather gets in the ring against the Philippine hero. At a time when the heavier classes can’t produce the charisma, the glamour or even the ability of the lighter classes, a Pacquiao – Mayweather maych will generate more than 100 million and take boxing into an era that hasn’t been seen since the days when Muhammad Ali fought Sonny Liston and George Foreman.  Mayweather says he’s “The Man” now.  He pays homage to the earlier heavyweights but he’s cocky and confident while the Filipino shows humility and is deeply religious.  It matters little because those aren’t assets that will win fights; there’s only one way to win fights.   

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Manny Pacquiao ran for public office in the Philippines and was soundly beaten.  There were skirmishes between the politicians involved.  Some said he was running illegally in a district closed to him, others argued that his sports career would get in the way, many were glad when he was trounced at the polls, some were glad because he had been an Arroyo supporter, others because he wouldn’t have to give up the ring. 

He also saw how filthy Philippine politics can get when campaign workers stole millions of pesos from his election expenses;l expenses he paid for from his own pocket.  He still claims he can help his country politically.  Time Magazine calls him influential in it’s Heros and Icons bracket.  But boxing and elective politics go together like fish and ice cream.  How long he has to keep proving himself can’t be envisioned by winning public office. It will happen in Las Vegas, Nevada where his most important fight is yet to come.  Odds are good that it will be the greatest fight so far in this young century.  That is if Floyd Mayweather gets to step in the ring.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article which referred to The Philippines as one of four countries in the world that had been “Blamed and Shamed” at the recent gathering of the G-20 Nations in France. The term means that these countries had been on a world black list, indicating they were not nations with which other countries should enact business or trade. The Philippines was quick to respond that it would clean up its act and the G-20 moved it to a “gray” list which means — wait and see.

There are many ways of running a nation: the Parliamentary system such as the UK and Canada; the Congressional system embodied in the USA; one of a number of forms of what can be termed a Totalitarian system, i.e. Communism. Many of the Middle East Arab nations are ruled by a Monarchy such as Saudi Arabia and Dubai; there is Military leadership evidenced in Burma. All were forms of tribal leadership passed down through the centuries – converting to and often convoluted into what we have today in the world community.

The Philippines runs on the Corruption System.

 It is not alone. However it is one of the larger countries in the world when judging population – close to 100 million and growing fast – so it’s reliance on such a system of government is an anathema to many, as opposed to the populations of, say, Laos or Burkina Faso. Outside of Central Manila and Cebu, the nation’s second largest city (really the only other place that can be called a city in the normal sense) lays much poverty and destitution. There is an over-abundance of evidence that the government, inspired by the president, just plain doesn’t care. They do not care. And the people know this because the country in many places is in ruins. Roads are dangerous, covered with potholes and broken pavement. Ferry service to the many populated islands is despicable. Every year one of these decrepit, under-serviced, filthy, old tramp ferries sinks with heavy loss of life.

While most countries in the world are battling, in one way or another, the economic downturn, the Philippines turns a blind eye. Two huge companies, Philam Life and Prudential Life have failed or are about to and the government has no plans for any kind of stimulus package. Thousands will lose their jobs, millions will lose their savings. There are others teetering on bankruptcy. Small rural banks, once the backbone of the nations farming industry have failed by the dozen. Businesses from auto dealers to tobacco farmers are feeling the pinch. It’s the same in many companies in many nations — but here nothing will be done to assist their struggle to maintain. Let them eat cake.

The nation’s Overseas Workers industry is on the wane as maids and care-givers are sent home because of the recession which has hit the United States and Europe, even the Middle East – locations where the OW’s find labor. From Malacanang Palace come only words, hollow promises from a president who has the confidence of only a small portion of her constituents. Swept into power by public outcry following the former president who was so stupid as to allow his corrupt activities to show publically, Ms Gloria Arroyo is now deemed to have led the country in a more destructive manner than her predecessor. In fact polls say that she leads the list, a whopping 25 percent ahead of Ferdinand Marcos who was little more than a despot, a figure arrived at after asking people “who is the most corrupt president in Philippine History?”

 I have spoken to soldiers who admit they are disillusioned with the armed forces because of its backing of the president. You bet it backs the president because the president pays the military leaders to do so who in turn keep her in power by flexing its muscles if needed. There is not a great deal of difference in how the generals of this nation operate when compared to the terrorist organizations that flourish through-out the Philippines.

The trouble with a corrupt government is that its practices filter down to the average businessman. If one cannot rely on the various government agencies and their endless scams how can Philippine NGO’s, banks, travel institutions, airlines, produce companies, the Service industry be expected to offer an honest way of dealing with the population? The banks are atrocious. I speak from personal experience — the bank I dealt with for the first five years I lived in this country scammed me for nearly 8,000 US dollars by converting my pension checks from one currency to another and pocketing the difference? Foreigners are at the mercy of any number of illicit practices. I was amazed when not long ago I actually found what so far has turned out to be an honest automotive service garage.

As a trading partner, Taiwan, the closest northern neighbor to the Philippines has turned away from doing business here. Japan has cut international trade as has the USA, China and even countries within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Thailand grudgingly allows Filipinos to enter their country and do so only because the ASEAN charter stipulates such. Indonesian businesses, many as corrupt as their Philippine counterparts control the major Philippine telephone company which charges the highest rates of any large country on earth, double charge on overseas toll-free calls and provide the worst service I have ever dealt with in North America or Asia and I understand, from associates, the EU.

Internet users are restricted to slow broadband or even slower dial up service.

Filipinos have lost their ability to think in terms of the fair business practices found in other nations. Their MO is to go for the gold. That works in sports but not necessarily in economics. Trying to fleece their customers so as to get as large a profit as possible on the initial purchase does no more than ensure the customer will not return. Illegally adding 3 to 5% to customers bills for using credit cards. It is almost inconceivable how many small companies go belly-up because they will not use the tried and true principal of “please the customer”. In The Philippines little thought is given to pleasing the customer; a lot of thought is given to grabbing as much as one can now … and the hell with next time.

Bad parentage usually leads to an unsatisfactory childhood and all that can result from poorly trained children as they grow older and enter the work force. Brain drain also robs the country of its profitability. I do not know one young individual who possesses any degree of ability who does not want to get off these islands at the first opportunity.

Someone made a comment on my blog that if I don’t like it here, why do I stay? That is a good question sir, and it would take many hours to explain why and that ‘why’ is of a personal nature. Besides, the short answer is, in some ways, I do like it here. I have learned after many years how to side-step much of the crap and enjoy peace in a backwoods, isolated village. And Filipinos can be delightful people just as long as you don’t have to trust too many of them.

A couple of blocks down our street you come to a cross street and if you turn left and walk maybe about 100 meters you’ll find the Santos residence where Ruby and her sister Ophelia have just returned from Hong Kong to this small community.  Ophelia specializes in child care, Ruby is a house cleaner. They had been hired, three years ago, to take the load off Mrs. Yui whose husband passed on from cancer.  While Mr. Yui thought he was leaving his family with enough money to live a comfortable life, his accumulated investments suffered the same as many derivatives in the world and tanked.

Mrs. Yui was forced to take a job and as she had three children to raise, she needed help with keeping their house in good order as well as making sure the kids were looked after by a competent maid. As stated, that was three years ago.  Nearly three weeks have passed since Mrs. Yui unfortunately and unexpectedly  lost her job and was forced to release the sisters from their duties and send them back to the Philippines. 

The parting of both girls from a family to whom they had grown close was both tearful and grim.  What were all these people going to do now?  I don’t live in Hong Kong anymore but I can speak for the two sisters having met them, and their future is far from what may be considered bright.

The Manila government has, since the economic down-turn, talked out of both sides of its mouth, a different message from each side.  Message one: things are going to get tough so be prepared; message two: the Philippines plans to increase their Offshore Workers by 100 percent.  However nobody has the faintest idea of where these workers will go.  Unfortunately the reverse is true; the Overseas Workers are coming home.

The addition of two young unmarried women to the Santos household presents a problem all too familiar with Filipinos as the down-turn gets worse.  How does their father earn enough money to support his daughters when he has two boys and a third daughter living at home with him and his wife to support as well?  Added to the problem: the youngest daughter, Joy, has a baby and her husband is out of work — while the two sons of Emmanuel Santos can, at best bring in a few pesos by doing part-time labour.  When they feel like it.

The situation facing this family is repeating itself everywhere over here.  More and more, ‘planes are arriving at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino Airport carrying members of the overseas work force who have found themselves with either an un-renewed contract or simply let go because, as in the case with Mrs. Yui, there is no money to pay their salary.  On top of that, the sisters were, until three weeks ago, the main bread-winners, sending home half their salaries which in turn, largely supported the rest of those in the household.  Now the mouths to feed have increased and the money has been cut drastically.  

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On the surface, this looks pitiful but things are much worse than most people from developed nations understand.  To begin with, Emmanuel Santos can usually find work picking mangoes during mango season (now) or rice when the crops come in (soon) or try his best to keep employed as a migrant worker at the vegetable and tobacco fields in northern Luzon, the main Island in the Philippines where Manila is situated.  One thing’s for certain: he won’t get rich.  Pay is poor and work is scarce. A parallel would be the ‘hungry thirties’ during the last great depression.  

Emmanuel is willing; indeed he must, spend his life hoping for often back-breaking work to help keep his family fed.  His sons are a different story.  Both are lazy, shiftless, and undependable; both are strung out on a cheap, debilitating drug known as Shabu – bathtub Crystal Methamphetamine –  garbage.  It is the drug of choice in this country, easy to muster the ingredients, easy to make, easy to sell.  My wife and I once drove home two young men who had been visiting with us.  The trip was five kilometers and when we dropped them off they told us that between our house and theirs, at least 200 people were indulging in Shabu.  It struck me that we had passed only about double that number.  Like drugs all over the world Shabu is a scourge but in this country, where work is not a privilege but a dire necessity, it is triply unproductive.

This example brings up a more pertinent fact.  Filipino women are hard workers.  It is in their genes.  From the time they wake up in the morning to the time they retire, all but maybe two hours are spent in some form of labour: housework, tending animals, washing clothes, selling a home-made product.  There is no worker like a Filipina.  The huge majority of Overseas Workers are women. It can be said that women are the backbone of this country.

On the other hand male Filipinos are, generally speaking, untrustworthy, shy away from steady work and  would rather shoot hoops with their pals than engage in helping the family survive.  Trying to hire a Filipino man to do some needed work around the house is by no means a sure thing – the chance that he will  show up are even-steven. Most often there is no explanation, he just doesn’t appear.  If he does offer an excuse it is usually that he was sick or that a member of his family (maybe a cousin’s uncle by marriage) has died.  He will lie. 

This is not to say that all Filipino men are useless bums, I know several who are hard working and diligent.  But they are the ones who have some honour, pride and possess a motivational spirit –characteristics not readily found here.  Many Filipinos will cheat you if they think they can get away with it.  And they will leave you in the lurch, holding an expensive piece of machinery while they, or their family decide it is more important to work for uncle Marciano who needs someone to help him pick corn.  In other words, one can seldom — very seldom — trust a Filipino man to fullfill and obligation.

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There is much more to tell about this country and its people.  But, for now,  it is all too evident that the countryside, littered and filthy, reeks of poverty because the inhabitants are governed by a criminal faction, and because the heads of families, with few exceptions, have stopped trying to gain a foothold on a creditable life.  Sloth replaces ambition. They just don’t care.  A bit of fish and a few bowls of rice is food enough; their precious Shabu parties take precedence over perseverance and the result is un-ending poverty, a landscape dotted with shame and corruption running from one end of this archipelago to the other.

I do not loath the Filipino people or even dislike them, the opposite, in many cases, is true.  All of us have an aversion to laziness and to those we cannot trust. However Filipinos of both sexes are often delightful, happy … indeed, almost joyous people in the face of what they have always known: subservience and poverty. 

The Pinoy are now being made to suffer even more as victims of the economic catastrophe that has struck the world.  But they must somehow learn that help is hard to come by in 2009, their government has not made many friends, if any —  and provenance has not been kind.  During this time of extremes,  exacerbated by the return of their overseas workforce, no help will come from, or to, a corrupt government.  And the people, as implied by their hero Jose Rizal, must “rise with the sun” and live productively.  Put somewhat differently: it’s time they got their shit together.

The recession that has hit so many parts of the world, in particular Japan and the United States, has had far-reaching effects on people reliant on these two economic giants in many ways.  Everyone is familiar with the ‘big’ news, the slippage in the bourses, the dependency on foreign oil, the need to restructure industry giants such as the car companies and the mortgage problems facing the USA.  However the Philippines have also suffered its share of “recession blues”.

Recently Philippine Air Lines began a service every day to Canada and the US whereas up until now service had been limited to four days a week in some cases, depending on the destination. Of course PAL played it up as being ‘new and better service’ to the public while in reality it is to facilitate the number of Filipino workers who have been laid off by their employers in several countries throughout the world, mainly Japan and The US and are returning home.

This is not helping the Philippine economy which is terminally unhealthy anyway.  As a matter of fact it’s disastrous.   Overseas workers, whom I mentioned last time account for between 16 and 20% of this nation’s economy are coming home in droves, cut loose as an expense no longer capable of being maintained by upper middle class Westerners. The Manila government is not in a hurry to expose this exodus.  It controls the media and determines which news shall be made public and which shall stay under wraps and incidentally, which news shall be dreamed up and fed like candy to children.

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Little word is spread in the media regarding the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW’s) but it travels from house to house, village to village and city to city by word of mouth.  The populace has absolutely no trust in its government and ignores the headlined stories of the latest word from Malacanang Palace — which they indeed should.  Much of that information is nothing more than BS.  The English Language Press op-ed columnists can print what they want and not risk the strong arm of President Arroyo and her thugs because few of the nearly 100-million Filipinos read English.  The local language Press is filled with Beauty Contest winners and gossip plus ‘flower show’ events featuring Ms Arroyo and her husband Mike, the ‘first gentleman’, a noted criminal.

The English language writers are not considered dangerous as they are read by so few and it is merely their word again hers and after all, she is the President.  But most Filipinos are aware of what goes on.  I do not recall ever having spoken on the subject of The Philippine government with a knowledgeable Filipino who does not offer a guilty smile when asked if he or she is not aware of the extent of corruption which exists and controls his or her country by the heads of government.  It is a way of life, inspired by the Spanish in the same manner as are most Spanish-colonized countries world-wide.

The problems caused by the return of the OFW’s are creating an increasing need for people to live on their own resources.  In other words subsistence. Grow and raise your own food. With the money earned by this returning workforce cut off it is only to be expected the population must face hardship. However instead of assisting the people, the government merely increases taxes, and goes about working its scams in a variety of ways, most of them transparent to the public. 

One example of this is companies that charge a premium on purchases made through the use of credit cards.  Pay by cash and there is no problem however if you wish to put a large sum of money on, say, the purchase of an airline ticket and wish to use your credit card, some Travel Agencies will tack on an extra five percent.  A recent check with the Credit Card company in Manila which oversees all major credit cards — MasterCard, Visa and American Express — yielded the news that such charges are not permitted.  “We do not permit charging premiums” I was told. 

However this particular travel Agency will simply say those are our rules and if you wish to buy your ticket using Visa you will have to pay the added amount.  Completely illegal. Who’s going to call them on it and what would it get them?  When one starts to add up all the OFW’s in the US, four million in that country alone some of who are now either back in the Philippines or about to be (many use a Philippine Travel Agency), the five percent surcharge amounts to a considerable sum.  The premium is graft money.  It is a scam — and one way the government can use to retrieve some of the money lost when OFW’s can no longer send the bulk of their pay-cheques home to be used within the borders of the Philippine Islands. The government merely squeezes the Travel Agent.

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The Philippines has been, as stated above, in the grip of Corruption since the Islands were discovered by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan — in service to the Spanish Crown — five hundred years ago.  In the latter part of the 19^th century, the Philippine aboriginal people grew restless under the rule of the brutal Spaniards and the greedy Roman Catholic Church both of who, in concert with each other, conspired to keep the Filipino native under bondage — poor and submissive.  The people implored their one true hero, Jose Rizal to help them wrest control from their subjugators.  Rizal declined saying, correctly as it turned out, that the people were not ready for revolution and any insurgency would only end in defeat.  

Rizal’s two novels which told the story of the suffering Filipino people gave the Spanish all they needed to execute the man.  He was shot for having written against the Spanish and the Roman Catholics.  Rizal’s successor as national hero, Andres Bonafacio seen as defender of the poor, led a large movement against the Spanish in 1896; however he fell out with his own comrades of the upper class and was slaughtered in a bungled revolution.

Today, the Filipino people, many victims of the World recession, dream of a time when they might rule through honesty and do away with corrupt government.  It will never happen.  Since Ferdinand Marcos raped the county in the 70’s and was given permission to flee to Hawaii by the United States, the once proud South-East Asian tiger has dwindled to a despicable backwards slough largely due to a lack of sincere politics and led by a greedy would-be monarch, her lawless family and kow-towing members of a hopelessly inadequate Congress backed by the nation’s armed forces paid by Arroyo to defend her against a public who each day grows to despise her more.  

It is inconceivable that such a person could remain in control of a country while dragging it down, an individual twice as unpopular as Marcos she is not even allowed to attend large church services for fear of public unrest.  And while her countrymen come drifting back from the sinking ship which is The Western Recession one has to wonder just how long the Philippines can hold out.   

People from the Philippines, most of them under the age of 35 and a considerable number older want to get out. They want to get away from the country and live somewhere else.

And they do — millions of them. The reasons are not complex. There is no real law here – if you wish to plead your case before a magistrate you had better be prepared to pay the judge more than your opponent. As an example, if you are ripped off by, say, a Travel Agent, the TA will win because  in all likelihood the TA has more money available to pay graft than a private citizen. The average working Filipino earns around $80 to $90 US per month.

 Offshore labourers can earn 20 times what they are paid by Filipino contractors. Skilled workers can earn up to 50 times as much in Western Nations. Why would they want to stay in a country where filth and litter are omnipresent; ruled by a government with no interest in the people and police are almost non-existent or if they are it is to erect a blockade to check vehicle certificates. Laws that would bring the police running in most countries are non-existent or ignored. There is no use running down a speeder on one of the country’s few Expressways because the driver cannot pay anyway.

So they head overseas in droves. There are four million Filipino workers in the United States — the bulk of them women; two million in Saudi Arabia where many are men. In the case of women they specialize in care-giving, or work as domestic helpers and maids. Men drive the oil trucks and do the dirty work on the oil rigs of the Arab Middle East. They are hard workers, they do not complain and they are dependable. There are two reasons for this, the first: for several months before leaving home they are given a course by the foreign country to which they are headed aimed at familiarizing them with their new jobs. Secondly they are given a three day stern indoctrination by the Philippine government — threatened to behave or they and their families will suffer should they fail.

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Out of a total population claim of around 100-plus million — it is hard to be exact due to the vast number of vagrants — 11 million are overseas workers. This figure climbs at the rate of at least one million per year. And as stated in the last paragraph, most are unskilled labor, or at the most, lightly trained. The Brain Drain comes from the exodus of professionals: doctors, nurses, engineers, technicians, teachers and accountants. It is little wonder the Philippines have what is, for a large country, the worst technical infrastructure in the world. The telephone companies, television suppliers, Internet service providers and electrical companies all break down regularly and there is only lip-service paid to exhaust emissions. The answer is actually three-fold. One: the staff and management are poorly trained, two: the equipment is, in almost all cases, second hand — purchased from countries wanting to get rid of faulty apparatus, vehicles do not get serviced. And thirdly, employees simply don’t care.

But the filth of the Philippines and the vast unknowledgeable work force is not seen in places like the UK, the US and Canada which along with Malaysia and the UAE are the destinations of many OFW’s (Overseas Filipino Workers) as they are called at home. These OFW’s are perhaps the best foreign workers in any country in which they reside. Hard work is part of the Filipino ethic, especially women and the knowledge that they must perform (as ordered by their government) ensures that they are clean, resourceful, friendly and are willing to work long hours with but one day off per week.

They live frugally overseas, no hardship for people who had nothing when they lived at home. Their money, most of it, is sent back to the individual’s families left behind. The OFW is usually the bread-winner in Manila or Cebu or Davao, or the myriad of small towns that dot the archipelago. In this way the money circulates in the Philippines. The host country of the offshore workers does not benefit monetarily from their presence other than that they are fed which helps out Joe, the grocer.

I used to live in Hong Kong. In Central District there is a large grassy park located in front of the award winning architectural wonder which is the Hong Kong branch of the British banking giant HSBC. Here, an amazing sight presents itself once a week. On Sundays every square centimeter of that park is taken up with Filipinas, (the feminine form of Filipino ends in ‘a’). This scene is repeated in many other parks and open spaces in the Region. Hong Kong authorities even block off vehicular traffic to accommodate an estimated 140,000 maids, care-givers, and nurses who are generally lumped together and called ahmas, which means maid in Cantonese Chinese. When the women return home after dark, they have taken every pop-bottle and its cap, every scrap of paper, every book, game, and blanket; in fact they leave the place so clean, there is no need for a cleaning crew to clear away the mess. There simply is no mess.

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Filipino women, and men, spread all around the globe, form the largest group of offshore workers in the world, save one, Asian Indians. They account for approximately 15% (some say 20%) of the Gross National Income of the Philippines. The Filipino language, Tagalog, is the fifth most spoken language in the United States. In Canada there are nearly one-half million Filipinos in a country of only 31 million people. The UK employs nearly a quarter million. In the United Arab Emirates, Filipinos, as employees, are preferred to any other race. In Saudi Arabia, the same is true. My wife is a Filipina and lived in Saudi Arabia where she was isolated from others, confined to the home and made to wear the body covering common in that land. She stood it for two years; she was a specialized nurse to an elderly woman; but the life was so limiting she would not renew her contract and was offered a job in Hong Kong which she gladly accepted.

The current economic instability in the world is having an impact on Filipinos. The extent is not yet known, nor is the government likely to make the real figure known. Here in the Philippines, the cost of living is rising, many are surviving on subsistence.  People who find themselves in financial trouble will find no help from the corrupt government in Manila – there will be no financial bail-outs in this country where greed takes preference over assistance.

 Scams with passports are a favorite of the Foreign Affairs department: illegal passports are issued on purpose in order to make the citizen pay twice. This impacts on OFW’s who will find themselves trapped in a foreign land once the International Air Transport Association (IATA) imposes new rules involving machine readable passports beginning in 2010. The current Philippine passport is unacceptable.

But a Filipino, living with poverty much of his or her life, understands little of global economics. It is the same as how they view their government. Sure it’s corrupt, but ‘what can I do about it’ so they smile, go on with their job and put hardship out of mind and think pleasant thoughts. How about that Manny Pacquaio