Philippine news

Austin Bay has a summary of geopolitical stuff on the Philippines.

Yesterday, a garbage can exploded in the Presidential palace and it was claimed it was not a bomb...but rumors are flying...at least in the popular press....You see, the impeachment over the Hello Garci tapes was quashed (evidence could not be introduced because it was not introduced in time, so the trial fizzled out) Gloria is unpopular here...
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In the meantime, the US marines have arrived with K-9 dogs to search for bodies...especially the ones sending out text messages from cell phones, as the rumor went...then it was reported 50 people were found...alas, a false rumor. One girl was pulled out but later died...

And the government? Ah, it is planning to plot geological hazard zones...as for illegal mining, that is already illegal...."logging ban still in effect"...of course, illegal logging is still rampant...PODCAST HERE...

A lot of this reminds me of working for the US Government bureaurocracy: If there is a problem, you do an elaborate 100 page report to solve it. So we had an entire library wall full of government policy reports...that no one reads, of course...and of course, when hospital inspectors came, they always asked to see the papers that gave the hospital policies...never mind that the policies were written by one full time nurse, but rarely if ever read by anyone else...and had only limited connection with how the hospital actually worked...