philippine news

prices here are going up for everything,

and many local farmers are digging for gold instead of preparing their fields for rice, because the imported rice undercuts the selling price and because the price of diesel and fertilizer makes it more expensive to grow and harvest.

We are green and sell organic rice, but since we no longer have waterbuffalo and use a harvester thresher instead of harvesting by hand and then using our small thresher, you can see the problem: Modern agriculture needs oil.

well, anyway, last year there were reports about economic zones and investment in Luzon. Clark and Subic are two areas this is being done.

from last year:

from today:

the full US announcement is HERE. 

Excerpt:

 Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg today announced the United States’ and the Philippines’ plans to establish a 4,000-acre industrial hub to secure inputs vital to American and global supply chains. The site is located in the Luzon Economic Corridor of the Philippines. The site—the first of its kind—is being designated by the Philippines as an Economic Security Zone, a new model for AI-native investment acceleration hubs being developed under the Pax Silica Initiative.

... Enhanced Operational Certainty: The Economic Security Zone is intended to fuse American expertise in institutions and legal regimes – internationally enforceable contracts, transparent regulatory standards, and expert dispute resolution – with enhanced access to the Philippines’ outstanding workforce and talent, mineral endowments, energy resources, and strategic position at the crossroads of Indo-Pacific trade.

...more at thee Pax Silica website of the US State Dept:

If the 20th century ran on oil and steel, the 21st century runs on compute and the minerals that feed it. This historic declaration hails a new economic security consensus ensuring aligned partners build the AI ecosystem of tomorrow—from energy and critical minerals to high-end manufacturing and models.

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the problem is corruption. 

Don't tell the Chicago style pope that he needs to preach thou shalt not steal, not vote Democrat so we can keep our pedophile protecting bishops rich.

(sorry, Three Hail Marys for my snide remarks)

Of course the problem is the IMF is threatening the Philippines because they have a big debt.

and this story says: Watch where you invest.

...

StrategyPage has a summary of what's happening in the PHilippines LINK 

 Major events last year include improvements in infrastructure with many new roads and upgrades to airports and shipping facilities. This comes after years of little improvement. The difference has been noticeable to most Filipinos. Problems remain including high unemployment, escalating inflation, the local currency, the peso losing more value versus the dollar and general economic stagnation.

this video explains what is going on (is it accurate? I don't know, but we are seeinng Japan moving businesses into the Philippines.

And remember: China and Chinoy families run the economy here. Second thing to remember: Taiwan was once Japanese.

What's going on? Peace?

 So while checking local headlines (still trying to impeach Sarah, an ongoing story), I saw this story:

US President Donald Trump said Thursday Washington and Tehran were “very close” to a peace deal and insisted that Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium, a key sticking point in negotiations....

At the same time, a ceasefire came into effect between Israel and Lebanon — a 10-day truce — with Trump saying he expected the two countries’ leaders at the White House within “four or five days.”

.....

on the other hand, the Inquirer has an editorial that is happy that Filipinos lowered their birth rate:: 

Among poorer families, the fertility rate translates to 2.8 children per woman, compared to those from richer households, with a rate of only 1.1 child. The highest fertility rate of 3.1 children is seen among those with lower education levels, the same situation in adolescent girls who become mothers at ages 15 to 19.

so most of the lower birth rate is among the growing middle class: But the poor are still having fewer children (3 instead of seven as in the past).

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in other local news, the cost of gasoline/diesel is going down.

Good news for the farmers.

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and organ harvesting is the next big thing.

Euthanasia and Organ Harvesting Reveal Western Medicine’s Utilitarian Drift

"The clear message sent by conjoining euthanasia and organ harvesting—with the active support of organ transplant medical associations, I am sorry to report—is that the deaths of the sick, disabled, and…

— Epoch Times Opinion (@EpochOpinion) April 16, 2026

...

Organ harvesting in the Philippines:. From last year.

In a harrowing turn of events, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has unveiled a chilling network of organ traffickers operating in Bulacan. The alleged leader, still at large, is reportedly a head nurse at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI)

read the whole article.

Then there is this: 

If you thought Trumpieboy was blasphemous, what about Obama the Messiah?

since the Obama/Axelrod types are manipulating the media complaining that a tweet showing Trumpieboy as faithhealer to the world is blasphemy because he is posting a meme showing him as Jesus, well, you know. all the good Catholic reporters and followers on Twitter are busy echoing the same line...,

Blasphemy!

Why does this sound familiar?

it isn't as if it hasn't been done before: except not as a criticism but to praise their messiah:

Politico article from 2007 discusses the adoration of Obama as the Messiah.

Heh.

There was even a blog: Is Barack Obama the Messiah

Is Barack Obama the Messiah?

"... a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany ... and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Obama" - Barack Obama Lebanon, New Hampshire.
January 7, 2008.

a typical example:

President Barack Obama pause as he speaks at the close of the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, Monday, Feb. 23, 2009, in the Old Executive Office. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Leo is only doing his job, saying peace peace peace!

 

who could be against world peace!

   

and the Catholic trad and others trying to curry favor are busy telling Catholics it is a sin to criticize the Pope.

Really? Tell Catherine of Sienna that.  

.................................

Seriously: The Language guy who is from Venezuela and knows a little about South American left wing Catholics connects the dots.

  

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But for myself, the reason I am so sarcastic about this is that the Pope is saying we love people and we want to stop the killing, but in the meanwhile he appoints a pro euthanasia bioethicist to the Prolife board in the Vatican.

In a second incident, also that year, Pegoraro appeared to support two members of the academy who publicly favored assisted suicide as a tactic to prevent the legalization of voluntary euthanasia in Italy. “We are in a specific context, with a choice to be made between two options, neither of which — assisted suicide or euthanasia — represents the Catholic position,” Pegoraro told the French Catholic newspaper La Croix. But stating that he believed some kind of law was a foregone conclusion, he said that of the two possibilities, “assisted suicide is the one that most restricts abuses because it would be accompanied by four strict conditions: the person asking for help must be conscious and able to express it freely, have an irreversible illness, experience unbearable suffering, and depend on life-sustaining treatment such as a respirator.”

 

 That last part is a lie. Respirators are extraordinary treatment, and under Catholic moral laws since Pius XII time you can stop or refuse extraordinary treatment. But in today's bioethics, it means you can starve a person to death by calling feeding a medical treatment. 

As for guidelines meaning safety, anyone familiar with the literature knows that is a lie. 

This is not a complicated matter, and Europe and now the US is sliding into a Brave New World of eugenics and euthanasia. But the Pope's appointed expert isn't bothered by that. And of course, the Democratic party in the US is busy supporting politicians who will pass these laws. But don't condemn murdering grandmom (or your grandkid) because if you don't go along with the entire seamless garment political agenda of what is now the Democratic party, you aren't allowed to say you are Catholic.

Bishop VonGalen call your office: The Pope needs a talking to.

 

 

yup. World Peace.

so the Pope meets with Obama strategist Axelrod, then we see a fake story that the Pentagon pressured a Catholic bishops, then we see the Pope pretending he isn't criticizing Trumpieboy but only wants world peace.

Then we see some of the worst liberal bishops who covered up sexual abuse going on sixty minutes pretending they are shocked shocked. Then Trumpieboy puts up a meme with him as an healer, and voila, the chorus is all blasphemy.

But the worse is those who shuld know better insisting that a Pope who has ignored the Iranian support of the Syrian Genocide, the Hebolaah take over of southern Lebanon putting missiles into civilian areas, and of course the Gaza attack (which the propaganda insists resulted in genocide but no one notices that the Israelis would not have attacked if Gaza had given up those who committed atrocities)

ah but don't we all want WORLD PEACE?

It's fascinating to see what social media reveals about a person before they become the Pope.

Before he became Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost was on Twitter trashing Trump, criticizing Vance, calling for open borders, promoting COVID vaccines, endorsing stricter gun… pic.twitter.com/B60TqSYk7O

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) April 14, 2026

the church as NGO:

 Cardinal Sarah points out the trends of the church to become an NGo and forget Jesus.:

In an interview given to the program Le Club Le Figaro Idées, Cardinal Robert Sarah has offered an uncompromising diagnosis of the situation of the Church and the West. The African cardinal warns of a deep crisis of faith in Europe, denounces the reduction of the Church to a social organization, and emphasizes that without God, Western societies are doomed to disappear.

reminds one of Flip Wilson's Chruch of what's happening now.

Or Flnnery O Connor's  book Wise Blood:

 

the future of transplants with killing

 

explaining how shipping works

 what does it mean to the world (and to us in SE Asia) to have Iran block shipping of oil?

A video about the logistics:

I only know a little about all of this. 

Some of our Filipino relatives work on ships. And when I worked in Liberia, a previous war shut the Suez canal so our hospital had the contract to treat the sailors on ships and  tankers that had to go around Africa, 

and although I never had to get a sailor off of a tanker, I did have to g go out past the port to evacuate a sick officer who had a stroke. On a tug boat at night. With all the guys teasing me (local Kru sailors and two of our nurses) if I was afraid of the water.

A son in law ran a helicopter mine sweeper years ago, around the time of the first Gulf war, and he showed us his copter after they came home. 

So I only have snippets of knowledge, and much of it 40 years out of date, which is why I posted the video.

But the back sory of this? China.

there is a major danger of economic depression here in Asia if the price of oil stays high.

 the prices of oil/disel and LPG for cooking has skyrocketed.

LPG for cooking used to be 600 per tank but recently it went up to 800... and yesterday it was 1400 pesos (30 dollars).

We can afford it but that means a lot of poorer folk will just go back to cooking with wood, which is a danger for housefires, asthma in kids, and destroying local trees.

then you have the problem of getting diesel for handplows to prepare the rice paddies for the main rice crop when the monsoon arrives.

Alas, we no longer have and waterbuffalo to plow the fields. And then there is the question if fertilizer, which is already high from the Ukraine war potash problem, will also go too high to buy.

We are organic, but when fertilizer goes up, ordinary farmers will be buying organic sources (e.g. chicken manure from the local chicken farms) so that price goes up too.

What this means is more older small farmers will be selling the fields to companies putting up solar panels (see previous post), and of course, more farmers digging their fields looking to find gold...

Sigh.

Could the oil crisis lead to Famine in the near future?

The Dictionary man

Right now, I am investigating Samual Johnson, the dictionary man: 

 Dr. Johnson wrote it. And his life is known also because James Boswell wrote his biography.

what started me on this was this podcast series:

It will take awhile to read or listen to the various books on the subject but hey it keeps me busy.

But one side issue: In his middle age, Johnson spent a lot of time dining with and even living with the Thrale family.

Since Boswell didn't like her, it takes a bit to find little things about her life, such as her husband cheated on her and she had many many pregnancies (10 or 12) of which only four lived to adulthood.

Feminist history might revive her place, and how her life echoes the limitations of women's choices in Georgian England.

Ironically, she escaped from the straight jacket of expectations after her husband died and she married for love: That was bad enough, but her choice was an Italian musician who had taught her children. She later moved to Italy etc. and yes she did write both a history of Johnson and books of travel. 

However she was condemned for this marriage by society, mainly because it meant she no longer was essentially a nursemaid to Johnson, but also because it meant she deserted her daughters.

Welcome home

The Astronauts returned back safely.

The real news is that this is more a reset than a pioneering mission: To remind Yanks of their past so they can get proper backing to NASA to embrace the future. The article at the link explains why.

Good news for a change.