So I am reading StrategyPage: their analysis on countries where I have personal knowledge of what is going on at the grass roots level usually agrees with what I know.
and their news is good: Peace is breaking out all over. Or at least a lot of countries that had nasty wars/insurgencies are now pretty well peaceful.
They note that in the Philippines the local insurgencies are pretty well calmed down: Not just the local communists (who now have morphed back into peaceful activists or decided to use their killing skills on the market as hit men). but also the Muslim insurgencies, where the moderate Islamicists were given political power so have to fight their extremist elements. Long analysis at link.
and the really good news that you probably haven't read: this is not just happening in the Philippines: a lot of those nasty small wars have calmed down:
Since StrategyPage began in 1999 we’ve retired more wars than we’ve added. As we have noted frequently, the trend since the 1990s has been fewer wars. Those we have retired since 1999 include Haiti (2009), Nepal (2010), Sri Lanka (2010), Central Asia (2012), Ivory Coast (2012), Indonesia (2013), Chad (2013), Uganda (2013), Kurds (2013), Philippines (2023), Rwanda (2013), Balkans (2013), Ethiopia (2013), Congo Brazzaville (2013), Colombia (2017), Mexico (2017), Myanmar (2020), Algeria (2020), Sudan (2020) and Thailand (2020). Some of these former updates included nearby conflicts that also ended, like Micronesia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
So we have a lot of problems in the world, but there is now hope:
Here in central Luzon, there is a lot of building going on, both homes and new shops (and a new mall) being opened.
the government is fixing our roads: during the shutdown, there was little traffic and a lot of local money went to help the poor with food or medicine. But now the roads are full of heavy trucks again: Rice trucks coming from the farms, trucks with dirt/fill or gravel for new construction, fresh food delivery trucks, trucks delivering processed food and stuff to the local palenke or shops here in the town center (the malls are on the outskirts as are the newer gated communities).
the weight of the trucks is causing the older roads to crack and chip, so they are gradually repairing/ reinforcing the roadways, and fixing the sewers/drainage ditches so that the streets don't flood every time we have heavy rain.
The electric wires are being replaced with cables and transformers, meaning fewer spaghetti wires sagging to get ensnared by the rice trucks.
Schools have reopened after being on line or using notebooks for two years: and several local students have come to ask for money to buy school supplies since the new school year is to open in August for the next year.
The government decided to make 12 years schooling mandated, but a lot of kids can't afford it so they considering making it only 10 years.
the main problem is paying for medicine: the government funding has a local free clinic run by a nurse practitioner, but often they run out of free rabies shots, or the kids need antibiotics and the very poor can't even afford the five dollars for a course of antibiotics. (average minimum wage is 8 dollars a day, but farmers are often cash poor until the harvest comes in). I let the cook triage them: she knows everyone in this area of town and turns away the scammers and druggies, but if they are poor, she asks me to give them small donation to help pay for the medicine.
there has been a small upsurge in covid: But the numbers are still minimal: 14 deaths reported yesterday. Lots of diarrhea and "broncho" (chest infections) in small kids, and the usual deaths of the elderly from high blood pressure or diabetes or old age.
But Pres Marcos declared the end of the epidemic so everything is now open and no mask required. The gov't has the bivalent covid vaccine and is encouraging people to get it, but there is a lot of "vaccine hesitency" out there: when the epidemic hit, people knew people dying of covid so were eager to get the shot, but now people figure there is herd immunity and that the omicron varient isn't fatal anyway so no shots unless required for school or the job.
So life is almost back to normal, the way it was before covid. And that is the good news too.
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