At sea off the Philippines, next stop Guam: What follows are some additional thoughts about the Philippines, and Manila in particular.
In the States we read a lot about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is described as an activist source of chaos. I was on the lookout for signs of an incipient cult of personality or other signs he was really dominating Philippine life. I saw none, not one.
Elsewhere I’ve seen “police states” with uniformed people holding weapons standing around being a “presence.” I saw none of that yesterday. I also saw no posters or billboards with his picture or words, no propaganda.
It appears our legacy media are once again overstating the perceived shortcomings of an ally. Duterte has been dealing rough justice to the perpetrators of a drug problem and civil libertarians are horrified. Drugs are a serious social problem he’s trying to solve ... good.
China, and Chinese living in the Philippines, have a major stake in the country’s economic life. This isn’t recent, they’ve been here nearly forever. Wealthy Chinese families are building enormous condominium complexes, thousands of units.
The Philippines is yet another country, like India and Singapore, where the darker one’s skin, the lower one’s status. As in India, the models photographed for billboards are noticeably lighter skinned than the man or woman on the street.
Very clearly racism is not a uniquely American problem. It is easy to condemn racism but it is nearly global in scope, a basic part of the human condition. Another of the human proclivities which one can regret and resist, without imagining it can be eliminated.
