Cowards and Heros All
Do you know why there are so few brave heros today in The Philippines? Because so many of them died. The ones that survived were the non-cofrontational. Overwhelmed by superior firepower again and again, the brave Filipinos were killed off, and those that survived to re-populate these islands were the ones that hid when the shit hit the fan.
The Philippines fared better than some other island nations. There are still indigenous people in The Philippines. There are no indiginous people on the island nation of Cuba. None. They were extinguised, exterminated. What a fiece people they must have once been, to have inbued such annilation.
There are stories of whole islands in The Philippines being cleansed of all human life. Yet most of the 7100 or so islands in The Philippines are populated. Not just by the conquerers, but by those who hid and lived to fight another day, though perhaps not as whole-heartedly as those that held the gene for bravery, for most of them died so that the meek could live. Maybe that’s what “The meek shall inherit The Earth” means.
Yet still, The Philippines is a place of unique savagery. Do the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time and he will walk away and you could be swarmed by a dozen children each of which will stab you multiple times with an icepick and run away. Cowards all, but deadly.
The Philippines reminds me of Dorithy and her puppy “Toto”, saying “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”. This is definitely not Kansas, and sometimes the munchkins are evil.
I am not trying to insult anyone here, I am simply trying to be observant, and the fact that I am a foreigner means I do have a different perspective of things. I love The Philippines and Filipinos. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t complain so much.