The first thing I did in Manila was to look at some condominium developments. The Philippines has copied from Thailand the concept of selling condominiums to foreigners who want to own some space in the air in their country. Some living space in the air, that is. One of the places I visited was a building called “Pearl of the Orient”.

The main problem with the Philippines is the basic infrastructure. Who wants to live in a place with a spotty water or electrical supply? Imagine if you’re on the 39^th floor and your elevators go out. And if you are on the first floor wanting to go up, it’s even worse. While I was visiting, the water was out. Yet they wanted about 3 Million Pisos for a never occupied 40 square meter room with a warped and buckling wood floor and musty smell and no balcony.

That’s not all. As was mentioned in the comments of my previous post, Philippines has a higher cost of living, yet lower wages than Thailand. To be honest, I don’t see how the people hold it together there. Almost everyone you come across is barely scraping by. Yet, most cling to their dignity and their sanity in hopes that something may get better, but it just seems to get worse. You can almost see in their eyes, the slow transition of a spirit being broken. They seemed one small step above the masses of zombie like people I saw walking around aimlessly in Mumbai, India.

What can one do to help an entire society? The handful of wealthy families who own/control the elections/governments really don’t seem to care or to have any national pride. They plunder everything and don’t even tax themselves. Sure, Thailand is corrupt, but the political situation in the Philippines makes the Thai government/s look like shining beacons of leadership worthy of emulating.

I heard that around 50 years ago Manila was the pride of Asia. About twenty years ago, it was equal to Bangkok. Now it is left in the dust. Some of the older people in the Philippines talked of Ferdinand Marcos as the last progressive leader of the country. Unfortunately, his wife, Imelda was such a bad influence. I saw so little foreign investment there. I saw mostly just a smattering of Koreans and a few Japanese businessmen doing small pet projects.

How can I invest or even want to spend more than a short time in a country where I stand out like an American soldier in Iraq just waiting to be picked off? (Or in this case, pick pocketed.) Even as I say that, I know that for every one person there who would pick my pocket, there are fifty who would likely protect me from any real danger coming my way. It’s just a small percentage of desperate or sociopathic people that ruins the entire happy mood and feeling of security in the streets.

Filipinos are great people with big challenges facing them. I will go back there. I will make small contributions to needy cases or individual investments in people in the Philippines. I was moved by my 22 days there.

Catholic nation that is poor and under developed STAYS POOR

Catholic church has pretty much ruined most of central and S America too.

mia_smiley: I don't know if it has to do with the religion, but I did notice as I traveled around the country lots of churches and schools. And in the cities, I saw lots of pawn shops and western unions. That isn't an economy at all.

2 friends i know have invested and got robbed and put in jail until they sold everything for 1 peso and that is not bullshit story

At least in Thailand you have to be Police Chief to do that and later PM ( i am talking about UBC )

Interesting commentary.

I see a few similarities with South Africa here

Thanks for opening my eyes...........

2qt4u, nicehandsomeman: I'd like to hear more of your knowledge, experiences, opinions on that place.

CMG_UK: It's just my take of the situation. Other people will see it differently.

NigelBragg: Human nature is universal.

afook06: Ur welcome. I'll take that as a compliment. I'd like to know your take on the place. When was the last time you lived there and how has it changed?

The reason there are so many wire transfer places is that a huge amount of Filipinos work abroad. Globalization, na.

The PI is no place to do business unless you are 'connected'. A good friend of mine was stung there and was lucky to get out with his life.

Tread carefully, condotown.

mai....what about Poland? They're Catholic and were poor but they were voted the best emerging market in Eastern Europe. I been there recently and can see a lot of positive changes.

I'm sure there's a lot of Catholic nations that were poor but are thriving now but....

uhmm.....sorry i'm a bit lazy to research (got work and studies to do).

anyway, good day to you all~