Happy July 4

Happy Philippine American friendship day.

The Philippines was a United States territory from 1898 to 1941, when it was occupied by Japanese forces and again by Americans for a brief period after the war. The US recognized Philippine independence on July 4, 1946. Initially, the Independence Day of the Philippines (Araw ng Kalayaan) was observed on July 4. President Diosdado P. Macapagal moved it to June 12, the date in 1898 when President Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the country’s independence from Spain. President Macapagal declared July 4 Philippine-American Friendship Day, coinciding with the United State’s Independence Day.

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yes, I know: yesterday but it's still July 4 in the USA.

no, we don't celebrate it here...actually there are few celebrations of the official "Independence day" either.
Maybe because here the ancient rules and rich folks still run the place, whereas those in the US threw off the rich folks because they were too feisty to obey, so they celebrate their freedom.
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TPMBarnett ridicules a WaPo columnist who is upset her modern conveniences don't work. He suggests she goes back to Plymouth plantation and see how the folks lived in the "good old days".


I was going to add: or move to the rural Philippines, except we have broad band and even our maids and farmers have cellphones. Maybe to darkest Africa? No...Sister Euphrasia has access to the convent cellphone now in her town, and even a gmail account (although she still can't figure out how to use it).

This is what she starts her lament on greedy Americans with:

Before clutter, before Google and Facebook and voluntary enslavement to our kids. Before cellphones that make us always reachable and never alone,

She lost me with the part "Voluntary enslavement to our kids". What was once a normal responsibility of being a grown up is now a "voluntary enslavement" Then she goes on to ridicule those stupid Americans who have too much "stuff".

But a lot of reason folks have so much "stuff" is that they are one or two generations from the bog, cotton fields, or rice paddy, and this is the reaction to being able to buy what you want.

But her examples show how affluent city folks are no longer aware of ordinary ways to cope.
Her lament at all the veggies wilting at the farmer's market makes me remember how the left over veggies were collected and canned by the local LDS church, to give away later to those who needed food.


And her satire on the yuppies recharging their computers and cellphones at Starbucks mainly shows how McD and Starbucks are prepared for disasters with back up electricity.Same here: last year, during the floods, our local grocery store let you recharge your cellphone/computer for a small fee.

One blogger wrote how he moved his family to his parents house, and I suspect a lot of folks will do the same. And I am waiting for stories about neighbors helping neighbors, especially the elderly. My son and his girlfriend helped evacuate her disabled father during one hurricane, for example, and during our floods last year, lots of folks moved in from their flooded farms or flooded riverside houses to stay with relatives. Usually what gets in the news here is those too far to go for help and who take shelter in schools, but in reality the family is where you go for help.

Since outages are not unknown, one only has to shake one's head about why Washington DC is in such a tizzy. No underground cables? Unions on strikes or slowdowns? Corruption?

Dave Barry has some columns about disaster preparedness.

SUPPLIES: If you don't evacuate, you will need a mess of supplies. Do not buy them now! South Florida tradition requires that you wait until the last possible minute, then go to the supermarket and get into vicious fights with strangers over who gets the last can of Spam. In addition to food and water, you will need the following supplies:

* 23 flashlights.
* At least $167 worth of batteries that turn out, when the power
goes out, to be the wrong size for the flashlights.
* Bleach. (No, I don't know what the bleach is for. NOBODY knows what the bleach is for. But it's traditional, so GET some, dammit!)
* A 55-gallon drum of underarm deodorant.
* A big knife that you can strap to your leg. (This will be useless in a hurricane, but it looks cool.)
* A large quantity of bananas, to placate the monkeys. (Ask anybody who went through Andrew; after the hurricane, there WILL be irate monkeys.)
* $35,000 in cash or diamonds so that, after the hurricane passes, you can buy a generator from a man with no discernible teeth. 

Sounds about right.

That would work for storms, hurricane, ice and snow related brown outs. I always had an emergency kit in my garage, so we could leave in case of emergency or live off of the camping supplies.

The bad news is that, if you live in Oklahoma and are hit by a tornado, your garage, car, and emergency box will probably be blown to Kansas....