I have been a big fuzzy minded recently (Was that mild cold that I had last month a form of covid that gave me slow Covid cognition problems? Who knows. But it is improving).
But anyway, the news tends to be "sound and fury, signifying nothing" with lots of smoke and furor over minor stuff and ignoring the big picture (which is more important: Musk's takeover try to twitter or his satellites, which already have made a difference in the Ukraine, and which in the near future will supply internet to those of us in the boonies in case our internet near Taiwan is cut, not to mention supplying internet to airplanes for passengers to surf while flying?).
and don't ask me about the Ukraine, the elections of socialists in Latin America, or the Let's go Brandon types in the USA.
Here, we are in the midst of a presidential election, where candidates are visiting for rallies, and what is more dangerous is the local mayor election between two clans. The present mayor and his family have been the victims of several attacks from the previous mayor (and the feud has been quiet since someone shot the perpetrator after the last election, and the mayor announced, well he didn't know who did it, but he considered the feud ended).
One of the hits years ago killed our nephew, and another, that killed five bystanders, happened when the man who later became our present mayor was going home from the funeral of another of our cousins. Sigh
(I should note: After you go to the funeral, on the way home you stop at a restaurant to eat, just to confuse the ghost just in case he is following you, so that he doesn't haunt your house. In this case, they knew he would be stopping at a restaurant and when he got out of the car, they opened fire, missing him but killing his body guard and a couple people in the small restaurant).
But anyway, elections here are a blood sport, and for all the press angst against Duterte, the elite of the world never seemed to worry about murders that happened before Duterte tried to clean up the drug pushers, the crooked cops, and the crooked politicians.
StrategyPage (12 2021) has a long article about the corruption of the large families here, and why Duterte, although not pristine clean himself, actually tried to stop the stealing.
C orrupt Filipinos, especially those from the wealthy old families, believe that once Duterte is gone the good old ways will return.
the real question is if BBMarcos will follow Duterte and continue to root out corruption, or if he will revert to his father's corrupt ways. And his VP is Duterte's daughter, although here the VP and President are not a dual ticket (you can end up with the VP from another party, which is how Leni got to be VP in the last election.)
But closer to home, the problem is the local clans that run local cities and provinces.
Manila Standard article here discusses.
Provinces in which political dynasties held sway—where relatives simultaneously held multiple local elective positions—were more likely to exhibit a higher number of incidents of election-related violence, the study said.
... Long-overdue reforms aimed at limiting political dynasties, which have spread across all local elected positions, were urgently needed, the study said.
The study also called for stronger legislation to control ownership of firearms and the establishment of private armies.
actually they do have strict gun control laws, but of course for every legal weapon there are a couple dozen illegal ones hidden inside the closet, left over from previous rebellions, and kept just in case, for personal safety and just in case another uprising happens.
Heck, when we moved here I found my husband not only had a handgun, but his World War II submachine gun hidden in the closet. (we gave them away when he had a stroke, so no guns now in our home, so please don't dox me).
I had to laugh when this visitor from Korea, whose vlog is mainly about all the good food we have here, said that on of the most glaring things he found here was all those security guards with rifles on the street.
Yes, our bank has two security guards, one inside and one outside, and going into the mall requires you to get your bags checked for bombs. Blame ISIS for that last one. And although private security guards tend to be trained, abuses do happen: one lady shoplifting at a pharmacy down the street was shot by the security guard about 8 years ago for example.
Sigh.
In the meanwhile, the last of our havest might be lost because someone decided to fix the irrigation ditches, so no water, and not enough rain to ripen the rice.
Sigh.
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