latest headline
down from 15000 cases a day in September.
We are open, with masks and distancing indoors, and I have to sign a paper to be traced just in case when I enter into the bank (where they had to close after being infected)
FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
Tuesday, December 07, 2021
Where has all the covid gone?
We are open, with masks and distancing indoors, and I have to sign a paper to be traced just in case when I enter into the bank (where they had to close after being infected)
the bad news? I've been sort of sick, which I thought was due to the heat, but after I lost my appetite, I finally figured out it was a kidney infection. I am now improving and on antibiotics.
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StrategyPage has an article about the Philippines, explaining how the oligarchy of old families work here, and explains why Duterte was essentially an outsider when elected and therefore had some freedom to try to clean up the place (without hurting his relatives).
Duterte was not Old Family and unexpectedly won by promising to do nationwide what he had done in southern city that went from lots of crime to little crime when Duterte was mayor. Duterte kept his promises, including efforts to go after the corrupt officials in the government, who were largely Old Family and could not pull any family strings to avoid prosecution.
Crime is down, and we are safer. Which is why I get frustrated to read on "catholic" news sites about the "climate of murder" under Duterte. Reality check. The murder rate went up, but not by that much, and a lot of them were pay back murders by folks who figured they could get away with getting private justice figuring Duterte would turn a blind eye.
In other words, yes you were in danger if you pushed drugs, but for normal folks, you were safer from being killed by druggies robbing you, as had happened to at least three people in our area.
The bad news? Election year. Our mayor is running for Congress, and we worry that the feud between him and the ex mayor's clan will flare up again. One hit by the ex mayor's clan killed our cousin, a bystander, and a few years later, another hit happened after one hit happened after our cousin's funerals (heart attack) when his rival stopped for a meal... it missed him but killed his body guard and a couple bystanders then too.
A couple years ago, when the now deceased mayor was sitting up in front of church happy as a clam during a fiesta mass with the bishop, on the way back from leaving her donation at the altar, our cousin Chona stopped and waved her fist at they mayor and said :YOU YOU....
The bishop must have heard, because he had a mass where he forced everyone to swear there would be no violence in the next election. (not just our town: our province is called the wild west of Luzon because of all the fights between private armies).
And it worked: No one was shot until two weeks after the election was held.
Sigh.
No shootings in the last several years, and our town has improved now that the money is going to spruce up the place as a tourist area for the middle class.
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