The typhoon really caused a lot of damage south of here, according to Joy who was in Manila for a meeting and met with folks from that area.
one report was that not only were a lot of people forced from their homes, but a lot of the crops that were almost ready to harvest were destroyed. And that will be a disaster for small farmers: I mean, you can replace/fix up a flooded home, but if you lose your farm income it won't be replaced.
Rappler report here.
We have two plantings a year: The main one in the northern islands in the Philippines is in May/June, after the monsoon starts, with usually hand planting of seedling carefully spaced. This is harvested usually in October/November, but if the monsoon is late or you planted later, the harvest is not yet finished.
The second crop is in the "dry" season, i.e. when rains are iffy, so the crop is not guaranteed unless you irrigate, which costs more money. Traditionally, the farmers without irrigation just plow, spread the seeds by hand instead of planting seedlings, cross their fingers and figure if it grows, fine, and if there isn't enough rain, well, not much lost. But with modernization, and with more irrigation, folks are relying on that second harvest to make ends meet.
So farmers who didn't harvest their crops early and lost their crops will lose their main source of income, but they will probably just plant the dry season crop early.
Ironically, the farmers don't always eat their own rice: Too poor. As soon as it is harvested, they sell it to pay off the loans for planting expenses, and use it for school fees/uniforms etc. Then they buy cheap imported rice to eat. The time waiting for the summer crop to be harvested is a time of hunger: No more money, and no rice from your fields.
We managed to get most of our second crop harvested before the heavy rains from the typhoon hit (not too windy in our area this time), but the rains interfered with drying the crop: the usual way is to spread the grain on a road/parking lot or on a plastic sheet on a flat surface, and let the sun dry it. A rain shower hit our almost dry rice and it had to be separated and re-dried (with a fan in the large meeting room in our business compound). Alas, it will probably be lower in quality than usual, meaning we can still sell it to the rice mill to sell as cheap rice, but not as our brand of gourmet organic
rice.
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another agricultural problem: The African swine flu is here and killing the pigs of some of our neighbors who are small farmers who keep a couple pigs for food or for extra money. If it spreads, it could bankrupt the larger pig farms nearby, not to mention others in the pig industry who sell pork/lechon.
so will there be a ham shortage for Christmas? well, when I went to the mall, the supermarket had chicken rolls that looked like ham in their buena noche display...
This newspaper article warns there will be a shortage and discusses the history of eating ham for Buena Noche. The ham is usually imported, a small ball of ham, in contrast to the "tocino" which is local salted pork which we eat all the time.
The African Swine flu is decimating pigs in East Asia, so it probably was spread to the Philippines via smuggled pork from China where it is causing a pork shortage.
again, not a lot about this in the news, but it is a big thing in China with a lot of implications for Trumpieboy/China negotiations on trade.
But probably will affect a lot of folks here too.
Speaking of China, the new 5G super internet is being put up here by China's Huawei.
more HERE.
I know nothing about 5G but have downloaded a video about this from Glenn Beck to watch later: Yes he's crazy but he is a good teacher.
Apparently 5G requires a lot of towers to be built, and Kuya said he refused to let them put one on our fields: he tends to read all those green webpages that see a danger in everything (after all, we do grow organic rice).
But like most conspiracy theories, there is a grain of truth in them.
Why do I say this?
Well, many years ago in the early 1970s, I treated a patient from the AirForce who was dying of some sort of lymphoma. and he worked with Radar stuff, and his wife said quite a few patients in the cancer ward of military hospital where he was treated were men who had worked with electronic stuff had similar cancers. "Studies" insisted the cancer rate was the same as for the equivalent civilian population, but I do wonder about it.
and then there were all those rare lymphoma of the brain in famous people (e.g. Wm Casey) who might also have worked in electronically active areas.... it is known that this tumor is associated with HIV, and in patients on chemotherapy because of the weakened immune system...but of course there is that conspiracy is about cellphones.
But I wonder: could all those electromagnetic radiation type waves in the air cause lymphomas and other cancers? (maybe not directly via cell mutation but indirectly via affecting the immune system).
on the other hand, the Moscow Embassy study (where the Russians zapped microwaves on the employees for years) didn't show anything, so again probably just coincidence.
and anyway, the main cause of death here is due to hypertension (from the high salt diet) and now an increased rate of diabetes in recent years.
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I had read that there are riots in Lebanon but haven't read the details.
However it must be serious, because our OFW there are asking to come home. The article hints it's not just the riots behind this but that the economy is in bad shape so people can't afford nannies/domestic helpers/maid and are firing them. They then become "undocumented" and have to work without papers. The gov't is trying to arrange repatriation for those wanting to come home.
The headlines shout every little thing and make mountains into molehills, so it's hard to judge how serious things are in the world, but one clue is if the maids decide it's time to come home, then yes, it's serious.
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not related to the Philippines, but the Phil Inquirer has an article on CO2 emissions.
And this interesting chart:
SUMMARY: Blame Asia.
all those protesters wanting to ban "fossil fuels" ignore that banning fossil fuels would cause severe poverty in Asia. Pollution is bad, of course, but poverty and starvation would kill a lot more people than unclean air and pollution in the water supply.
much of the CO2 comes from China, which is using coal for electricity. Chinese coal is high in sulfur and more polluting than American coal, so encouraging American coal miners to export to China might help, as, of course, so will developing their natural gas resources via fracking (one reason for the decrease in CO2 emissions in the US is fracking and producing natural gas for energy).
And the need for energy is one reason that the Chinese are stealing the West Philippine sea from the Philippines: There's natural gas in them there shoals, and unlike Duterte, who had taking the unpopular stance to try to partner with China here, Vietnam is thumbing their nose to China and planning to develop the area.
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