The Japanese are back and other local news

In recent days, I have seen a few Apache helicopters going over and yes, it is time for the joint Philippine military/US military exercizes, the Balikatan 2026. 

Usually this helps practice coordination for disasters etc. and usually includes not just the US training the Philippines for cyberwar and fancy stuff, but the Philippines special forces train the US troops in jungle warfare.

But this time there is a difference: Japan, who in the past has sent only observers, is now sending in soldiers to join the exercize:

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in other news, the big story of the day is the shortage of oil based products, needed for transportation and in the near future to plant the yearly rice crop.

But oil is coming from an unlikely source: the Philippines is one of several Asian nations buying that oil from Russia. Apparently, Russia was stopped from selling oil etc to Europe via pipeline, so stored it in ships and storage areas.

a behind paywall article notes that Trumpieboy sort of ignored this issue with China last year

And now is saying wink wink it's okay for Russia to sell this oil to Asia.

Hmm...

Dumb Trumpieboy or knowing what is coming and winking at Russia so they will be there to help Asian allies and China?

so anyway we have enough fuel for a month or so...but the price will go up which is bad news.

The Bodylanguage Venezuean guy explains what is going on.

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So what is happening to our area?

Well, Kuya just harveted the last field with our winter rice crop, but is having trouble finding people to dry it (usually we use sun drying, meaning put it on a flat surface such as a road, and then turn it periodically until it is dry enough to store..

But the reason he is having trouble finding someone to do this is twofold:

One, a lot of local folks are working to build the solar panel project here. this is a commercial of course, but gives you an idea of what is going on:

but this is not the only place our farmers are working:

There is a local gold rush.

People are renting back hoes to dig up the fields and then panning for gold.

I asked Kuya if they are finding gold, and he said enough to cover their expenses.

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One more item: the country is shut down for the Easter weekend, with folks headed to their home villages, and lots of processions and visita Iglesia and singing the Pasyon.

often people build small chapels for this: Emy used to do it up the street before she died, and one could hear the chant in similar small chapels constructed in side streets all over town. This expat explains it for you:

  

since covid it has not revived, maybe because the elders are dead ant the younger folks have work to do: I only heard singing from one such chapel this year.

Our barangay holds it in the local neighborhood chapel, and I donated a little money for food to feed the chanters and all the neighbors who came to the chapel to pray and get a free meal of course.

but today is Holy Thursday, so that singing is ending and today we visit the churches 

Spring harvest time

What is the alternative?

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...and I hate to agree with this bozo, but anyone who knows about the danger of collapsing churches.

Philippines finds natural gas field

 

this is good news since a lot of money is spent importing LPG and diesel/oil.

Oil: Russia to the rescue

Lots of hysteria here about running out of oil.

But now Russia is coming to the rescue:

AI tells me: 

Based on reports from March 2026, the administration of Donald Trump issued a temporary, 30-day waiver allowing for the sale and handling of Russian oil already loaded on tankers, effectively lifting certain sanctions on Russian oil "stranded at sea".

Trumpieboy let Russia store oil in ships and now is letting them sell it. Hmm... it's almost as if he foresaw that Iran would block the strait of Homuz so did a slight of hand to undermine Iran's blackmail.

BBC site: that quotes the European experts who hate this since it helps Putin does admit this will help a lot of folk:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the "tailored, short-term" policy move would reduce the economic impact of the US-Israel war with Iran.

 

History of cats

According to this article scientists  are finding wild cats that lived near humans and ate vermin were found in a lot of the world, but these cats were never really domesticated: Most domesticated cats originated in North Africa. and spread with trade etc...even Chinese cats came via the Silk Road.

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here is a Smithsonian article 

summary: local small cats did live with farmers before then but were not domesticated but essentially wild cats who came to eat vermin. But then the domesticated (i.e friendly) cats arrived and spread thanks to the Romans etc.: and this wasn't just true in Europe, but also in Asia:

using genetic testing, researchers have discovered that pet cats likely arrived in China around 600 C.E.—over 1,500 years after their introduction to Europe. According to a study recently published on the preprint server bioRxiv, cats were one of the many assets that traveled east on the famous Silk Road, the lengthy trading network that connected Asia with Europe between the second century B.C.E. and the 15th century C.E.

another Smithsonian article here:

An analysis revealed that the cats from before 200 B.C.E. were wildcats, and that their domestic counterparts didn’t reach Europe until about 2,000 years ago. Moreover, these feline friends came from North Africa, not east of the Mediterranean....

the other new study traced the history of domestic cats in China, differentiating them from wildcats there. The team studied 22 feline bones from 14 archeological sites in China spanning about 5,000 years. The analysis revealed that although wild leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) lived among humans for around 3,500 years, they were a “clear example of a ‘failed domestication,’ 

in Japan, of course, cats are popular: Hello Kitty for example in today's world. and cats are mentioned in books from 900/1000 AD: They are mentioned in both Tale of Genji (where a guy steals the cat from a married girl he loves so he can feel a connection with her) and in the Pillow Book,  where the local watchdog attacks the emperor's cat and the dog is (almost) beaten to death to punish it.

Usually cats are a symbol of welcoming home, and this smiling cat that waves at you is also seen in the Philippines as a decoration

 

here in our area of the Philippines, we have feral cats who wander into our business compound to catch mice/lizards and eat what the cook leaves out for them. About four years ago, all the cats in our area disappeared (?infection) but now they have come back. 

The bad news: Our dogs kill cats. The cats that lived here when they were puppies were left alone but they will try to kill any new cat that wanders into our home. So the cats tend to stay in the storage and workshop areas, not in our house any more.

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update: according to AI: Maine coon cats and Norwegian forest cats are genetically related to the smaller domesticated cat we all know and love but developed their traits due to harsh conditions

Family news

a lot of worry here in the Philippines that we will run out of diesel/LPG. The price went up last week, but now it has come down a bit. It is the start of hot season, meaning that the electrical grid will be stressed by airconditioners, which are now cheap enough for the middle class (12 thousand pesos, about 220 dollars).

 In the last 20 years, we have gradually mechanized the farm using hand plows (sort of a large rototiller) and of course irrigation for the winter harvest that uses pumps. 

And over the last 20 year we have switched from hand harvesting and using our small thresher to just renting a harvester thresher to do the harvest. 

 Most of the local farmers we given their traditional land years ago, and by law we can only control a limited amount of land. So we subcontract our organic rice business to local farmers.

 The problem? They are getting old, and their kids are now educated and moving to the city. There is a danger of losing that farm land to developers, such as the big solar panel company that is rentlng/buying up good rice land to put solar panels.

Sigh. 

But more recently, the local are renting backhoes to dig up below the dirt to look for gold.

Considering that the price of fertilizer and diesel has gone up, and big businesses are busy buying and importing cheap rice from overseas which keeps the price of rice down, some farmers figure they might want to get money from these non farming schemes.

Sigh. .....

It is also the eleventh anniversary of my husband's death.

Drones are everywhere

 over 40 thousand people have died from terrorism in Nigeria, and Trump promised to help Nigerian military with training and expertise, including drones.

From

  Crux, a Catholic site.

A spokesperson for AFRICOM, the U.S. Africa Command, told The Associated Press the U.S. troops “are working alongside their Nigerian counterparts to provide intelligence support, advisory assistance, and targeted training in support of the Nigerian Armed Forces.”

Africanews via MSN says the same story: and Nigeria is making their own drones.:
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The US military who by law is forbidden to enter into combat here, does this type of support with the Philippine military against Islamic terrorists in the South (But not with local insurgencies that are not part of international terrorism, )

Mentioned at 4 minutes in this video: