don't forget the bad guys

 the CIA/Crack connection like most of the other conspiracy theories has a small basis of truth (to get information they work with the bad guys and some of them get corrupted) 

But drugs are actually a world wide problem.

so there is a real dilemma in what to do to fight the drug war without hurting the feelings of those who are SJW promoting human rights.

But one does have to wonder why there was an over the top hysteria against Duterte's drug war, because what is rarely noticed by such human rights types is that the murder rate only went up a small amount but the crime rate went way down. 

And one does wonder why these human rights folks never noted the many deaths from drugs: deaths of druggies (overdose or family violence) or of innocent people killed by druggies in robberies etc. who were not counted in the statistics (three incidents in our neighborhood alone).

Here drugs continue to be a problem, but crime remains lower: it is still safe for me to go out (so far). In the past, kidnapping was a real danger, as was robbery. (not just purse snatching but home invasions with violence to those in the home). 

We had kidnap gangs in the area in the past: The security guards at the bank would always laugh when I would go there with the cook, who is 75 and weighs 90 pounds, because I told them (with a wink) that she was my security guard. They thought that was funny, but the truth is that she has connections with all the local tricycle drivers in town, and knows everyone in the area, including most of the NPA of course, so yes she protected me.

Here, every shop has security guards. And sometimes they shoot people, or are shot protecting businesses and politicians, alas. We do have cops of course, but the security guards are more for prevention: a warning to the bad guys not to mess with that business.

well, anyway, this is an old 2016 Reuters article about the elephant in the living room that few reports on Duterte's drug war mention: Chinese gangsters. 

Of 77 foreign nationals arrested for meth-related drug offenses between January 2015 and mid-August 2016, nearly two-thirds were Chinese and almost a quarter were Taiwanese or Hong Kong residents, according to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). Known in the trade as “cooks” and “chemists,” meth production experts are flown into the Philippines from Greater China by drug syndicates to work at labs like the one at Mount Arayat.

 

China isn’t only a source of meth expertise – it is also the biggest source of the meth and of the precursor chemicals used to produce the synthetic drug that are being smuggled into the Philippines, according to local drug enforcement officials.

If this sounds familiar, it is because it is similar to how Chinese gangsters are working with the Mexican cartels to bring fentanyl etc. into the USA. 

Before Duterte started his drug war, there was a real danger that the Philippines could have become a narco state. We have OFW going to and from the country to all over the world, and many are poor so would become mules to move the drugs.

and of course, corruption is rampant in both the Philippines and in China.

read the article and you might find some parallels to what China is doing with the Fentanyl to the USA.

and the reason I brought this up?

Because China has been going all over the world investing in poor countries (often to steal their resources while helping them. Yes, I know: Europe did this during colonial times too.)

StrategyPage notes that along with Chinese investments come Chinese gangs and criminals.

August 24, 2023: As more Chinese companies invest in LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) countries, there is an increased need for Chinese security firms to deal with local threats from local organized crime gangs as well as general lawlessness. When there are a lot of Chinese businesses in an area, that usually means Chinese gangsters are not far behind... This is a problem for the Chinese firms and for local police. The locals often can’t tell the difference between Chinese businessmen and Chinese gangsters and adopt an anti-Chinese attitude that makes trouble for all Chinese in the area. Chinese firms came up with a solution; Chinese PSCs, or Private Security Companies.

There are a lot of these private security groups: think of them as the Chinese version of Blackwater or the Russian Wagner group.

sigh

Actually this is the new normal, and I don't blame China for trying to protect their people. 

 I am ambivalent about Chinese investments because I am aware of how Europe looted third world countries for years while also developing them into modern countries. 

But now with all the green agenda in western aid projects (not to mention that the green agenda has infiltrated some western charities and NGOs) that doesn't want to change the lifestyle of all those nice people who seem happy living in dire poverty a low carbon lifestyle...and of course western government aid programs have string attached: to get it you have to implement the western amoral sexual agenda human rights).

So yes, one might be sympathetic to  Chinese investment that sees promoting "human rights" and preventing pollution etc. as a lesser important than promoting projects that will lessen poverty and starvation...

I am posting this because too often the complexities of crime and criminal enterprises is seen as merely a western problem, and the conspiracy types don't see this as a world wide problem.