Hungry and overfilled with the good chewy mango slices i bought to give away and started eating instead

A retrospective on the plane bound for SFO...

...Hungry and overfilled on the good chewy mango slices I bought to give away and started eating instead, i was woken by the midnight dinner call for ‘bronts and noodles.’ I was given brontz when I asked for fish or veggies instead (the other choice was chicken and rice) and found out it was prawns and noodles, which was ok. The dessert was the best (some chocolate pudding mousse jelly from Goldilocks bakery). Anyways, the flight attendant just took my tray away so I’m doing this scribbling now before I brush my teeth in the little lavatory stall in back of the plane (I’m way in back and the first/business class is actually on a second “floor” near the front of the plane). Now the plane just hit some turbulence and this is starting to seem like meaningless written chatter, particularly, I mean, if the plane starts to flip over or drops to the sea or something.

I had a kinda helpful/interesting talk with Hubie (sp?) after the anniversary reception party about the Philippines - it’s social condition, the corruption and all.

(note: the old woman next to me is about to spill her cup of Nescafe, she’s already splashed a little and hopefully will drink it quicker now – she is nice but keeps asking me the same questions over and over and over again, dementia I guess. I should have switched stories to screw her up, but I was feeling too sweet to risk upsetting her. I admit, though, that after a while I pretended I couldn’t hear her, because you can only say you’re age, your romantic and employment status, and where you live and came from about 5 times before it starts to drive you nutty.)

So Hubie thought it a very poor condition in the Philippines, overly materialistic, I guess, and somewhat explosive and needing re-vamping. It was one of those conversations that don’t reach an end though, no conclusion, no sense of completion, agreement or even concerted disagreement. I think in the Philippines (yes, my limited analysis now) you have a more stable social-political system than in many other countries, particularly 3^rd world ones, but also that that is part of what makes the problem such a problem and so inconclusive.

The poor are very, very poor (well below poverty level) and there is a very, very small upper crust of extremely wealthy. It seems a good place to go to take wealth and grow it if you have it (with a few simple business plans to throw around.) It’s all really exactly like the catholic sermon the priest gave at the anniversary ceremony/mass (renewal of vows) yesterday, and this certainly seems to be a common sermon because it was also written about in the church brochure that I skimmed before falling asleep several times in between standing and sitting, standing and sitting, during the ceremony. (Note: this was also a church amongst a street of some of the wealthiest homes in Manila, if that means anything.)

So the sermon and brochure’s preaching was to ‘go forth and multiply’ – basically, they both said, spend $, have kids, and don’t hoard or even save – in other words (well, actually explicitly stated), "give and the lord will give back." (I kind of actually agree with that in a sense, maybe a lot if you break it down to fundamentals, but not the kids or lord part, just the live freely and generously and share happiness and love and all that silly stuff about living life to it’s fullest and not being a shrewd or repressed.) But in Philippine society, the rich seem to ignore the rest of their society, or accept the poverty, use it for their benefit, and simply appreciate and be grateful to be one of the successful “blessed” ones, spending lots on themselves buying nice things for them and their mostly other wealthy friends and families. I suppose I might to that, too, but most people there don’t seem to look at the big picture and aren’t really interested in making their country healthier as a whole (i guess most places and even governments seem to have this problem, at least to certain extents, like people in the States overcoming poverty, life in ghettos, becoming millionaire musicians, etc., and then not giving back much and selling out.) But poverty in the quantity they have it in the Philippines (among other places, too, of course) simply is not, or cannot be healthy – it’s weak/sick because it fails to maximize the strength that the county or people of a nation as a whole can and should strive to have. ... So i would agree that this is explosive, or potentially explosive and needs revamped.

What’s interesting and confusing though is that the country does seem quite stable even with such poverty and disparity, and it also has a very likeable character even with a whole that is corrupt and not necessarily healthy. Also it’s interesting why the people of the Philippines don’t seem to want to change things (albeit this is just my limited perception that they don’t, but it’s hard to find much serious movement or talk of doing so other than some almost superficial political or editorial claims to want to, which seem pretty theoretical and merely unmotivated thoughts, not action-oriented or organized to any real plan or vision.) I think it ties in and says a lot that Imelda Marcos is still loved and admired, and still inspires, even though she and her husband Ferdinand both stole millions or billions (?-not sure of amount, but a lot), from the people. The people do not protest or complain or spread dissidence like most other poor, socially stratified countries I’ve seen and heard about, although corruption and ongoing pilfering of money from the people still happens and is in the news every single day (there are new stories all the time, investigated then given up on or lost interest in as the maze of information just leads to more mazes and more corruption).

The community is built on this corruption and all. The people, it seems, have largely accepted it and learned to even like it’s expediency and ease (bribing is a much quicker way to solve a problem than any democratic/bureaucratic process). The wealthy have so many business interests and are the only ones with capital to start new businesses or gain higher education, so they grow and grow in power and maintain their wealth and power and social privileges for their children and families, while the poor stay poor and work for the rich. They, the wealthy, live apart from the poor, although not geographically distant, but behind gates and separated in other social communities altogether. They are nice people all the same, nicer than a lot of people in the states, or anywhere else for that matter. They are gracious and charitable in heart, and to friends and those they respect, but no one seems to recognize or want to reorganize the system, in which they are a part. Probably because to do so would be to throw away all that they know and all that has empowered them. Even the poor are content it seems. Although I can’t say they are actually happy, neither can I say they are angry. They seem to accept their situation because it’s simply what they know and they have little other choice. (Being subordinated citizens under Spanish colonial rule and Catholic hierarchies/subjugation for over 300 years, then occupied by America briefly and only recently left to their own powers, it’s understandable, I’d say. to simply accept the situation and not question it, it being all they know and to which they have adapted.) Plus, for whatever it means and from all I’ve seen, most Filipinos are also really good natured, flexible, resiliant people.

It’s unique, the system/situation. There is a huge gap that I can’t bridge – as to why or how it will come to change. It does not seem in flux. It (the social structure and even problems) seem very established, almost harmonious and admirable in many ways, but yet not quite healthy (I’d also say not quite fair, but no country has a really fully “fair” system, so I don’t think that’s really part of the issue, it’s too relative, and nothing is ever really fair to all; fairness has little to do with health i think - ‘healthy’ is something else.)

I guess I can’t quite understand why there is no sense of rebellion, presently or even in sight (I’m not counting the small Muslim/religious tension in the south of the country, because that’s not political or economic so much as purely religious – something entirely different in this case, at least from what i've understood of it). The only rebellion group appears to be basically discounted and useless, a highly minimized, impractical group that has not really sprouted or become capable of likely amounting to an organized base.

Maybe it’s because the wealthy are generally well meaning and don’t directly strike out or directly abuse the servant class (like the Spaniards actually did abuse them -and thus the Spanish revolution, Jose Rizal, et al….- but actually show a sense of caring, a twisted sense of love for their servants (I’d say an immature, overly matronly and somewhat patronizing sense of love, though). It’s a lot like what Imelda gave them (civic projects to be proud of, to instill a proud sense of Filipino individualization, but which they couldn’t afford and which actually hurt them as money was extorted through all of these things and not otherwise spent on perhaps more "useful" change/services) – this “care” prevents people from developing in their own right, but it does so not out of anger, and rather out of a fascination with gold and jewels and style and fashion, which they themselves (the wealthy) have become somewhat addicted to, and which the poor have also become completely enchanted by, too. I think it’s much like idolizing the glamor and glory of the catholic churches, its symbols and riches and gold etc. – not wanting to give that up, and wanting to identifying with it (and identifying with it), while also being subordinated by it nonetheless. Is this a good or bad thing… who knows, it's complex… it’s both, like anything else. It should change, but how, when, why… and would change be worse (or a greater more dangerous risk), and what kind of change, slow, fast, in what manner, etc…, so many unanswered ideas and questions…

That’s that until another time, for now…