Changes in our town

One of the things living up country from Manila is that I see the changes, good and bad, from globalization.

As I said earlier, one economic problem is that much that could be produced locally is imported.

Our chicken farm doesn't make a profit because of cheap chicken imports from Thailand and Viet Nam...

And the local clothing is too often imported from China. My clothes are mainly LandsEnd which I brought with me (I mainly wore that type of clothes at work). Since local clothing is often poorer quality, and polyester blend (i.e. hotter to wear) I prefer what I brought.

Of course, it's not in fashion, but then since I am quite a bit larger and fatter than the local petit style, I figure it's okay.

Around the house I mainly wear what the locals wear: Tee shirt and shorts, or slacks. Sometimes I wear a housedress in the house.

When I first came, the street was gravel, and there were many vacant lots. Every morning, a local waterbuffalo would graze in these vacant lots. Now the street is paved.

We have a clean grocery store a block away...but we also have the open air markets two blocks away. I mainly shop there to get supplies to sew my housedresses.

Similarly, there is a Jolibee nearby (the local McDonalds) but also fast food open stand like one sees in the US at construciton sites or fairs. And also local vendors with carts.

At the side of the main road, they sell produce of all sorts. When we travel, we often buy there. And many houses have small shops attached: We sell gormet white rice and gormet brown rice from our house and at trade fairs, and eventually hope to get into supermarkets...

The up and coming middle class is now into health consciousness, and we are pushing a modified brown rice that has fiber and vitamins, but is not so rough as the traditional brown rice. Gilded grain is our brand, and we have local farmers produce the various rices for us...

So is globalization good or bad? Well, depends. We have bought back some of the land from our former tenants who got the land via land reform...but with the increase in income, their kids now have some education, and work in Manila or as overseas workers...they don't want the "romantic" work bending over 12 hours a day in the rice paddies...

But much is lost: community life, family adhesiveness, and the joy of being close to nature.

On the other hand, no back pain, you aren't "old" at 40, and you can relax and watch tv every night.

Samwise Gamgee, call your office.