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4/14/1980 - Manila: Barbed Wire and Bougainvillea by Camilla J. Wilson

NOT FOR PUBLIC ATION WITHOUT WRITER S CONSENT INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS CJW I I Sol Supharat anila Barbed Wire Phaholythin Rd Bougainvillea Bangkok Thailand April Peter B artin Executive Director Institute Current World Affairs Wheelock House W Wheelock St Hanover N H 03755 Dear Peter To Philippines Filipino early By lines forming outside American Embassy anila Roxas Blvd hopeful queue apply U S Those succeed perceived refugees arrival country there legions transient often heeled Filpnos living throughout world their primary avoid returning their nation The continuing exodus spawne support industries Airlines locate their offices across street embassy banner their U S fares across plate glass windows Travel agencies aboun vertising their ingenuity securing visas rather their facility booking travel Small entrepreneurs never scent opportunity charge comers seven ollars position There flavor escapism Philippines today assert those harer avoiding reality those leawe Surviving style requires certain amount finesse Nany things avoidable others The inflation running annually purchasing power Filipinos already mouth tourist placed chicken scraps outside hotel morning found bones picke4 clean The escape walling themselves places Makati Philippines richest municipality guidebook calls housing impressive commercial center splen4id suburb Forbes Neither immune vagaries officialdom however where cutting wrong sufficient in4efinitely And anyone victim crime Cammy Wilson formerly staff writer inneaolis Tribune Overseas Journalism Fellow Current World Affairs CJN emanating bottom social scale Then there uncertainty obtaining reliable information I bother newspapers anymore educated Filipino What nothing going Three hundred years colonization Spanish approximately fifty Americans country borrowe4 culture religion Roman Catholic language English music American vaguely Cuban Extremes contradictions rather exception Acts violence exist passivity stockaded golden ghettos squalor refugee camps ubiquitous tokens religion 4ally newspaper accounts official mayhem corruption Manila bougainvillea barbed Neitker symbolic permanence For majority Filipinos neither plane ticket escape inwar4 eople subdued with4rawn Dozens young cluster streets apparently nothing place business transact They stand stare A visitor easily sensa wandering emerging Paris before Revolution Some government actions escapist though manic rather 4epressive The aimlessness young recognize authorities An outbreak stabbings robberies university anila Governor First Lady announce cause Let skits governor dramatic present ations amateur contests musical programs sports competitions community dances Imme4iately Community officials assist families planning neighborhood activities rotating basis However money spent Hard idleness appears accomplish little The waiter serves hotel guest early breakfast still clearing tables Taxi 4rivers hours One resi4ent people making You graduate engineer pesos about schoolteacher P400 referring monthly wages For those other economic scale however Philippines throw unfettere capitalism industrial revolution A protestant missionary horrified salaries workers recounts following story about disparities I standing queue Hong Kong And I Have missed talking discovered lived Manila He You Manila wonderful place business money I I people Well I doubt wages there limit limits charge Extremes wealth poverty especially great Asian standards Splendid houses shopping centers citadels behind walls separate surrounding hovels The Makati Commercial District suburban shopping center could easily counterpart affluent American The stores carry quality price match The Calvin Klein carefree competes store selling Imported Easson Maong jeans pesos month salary nurse residents At another small lettered window maids uniforms available Nearby young women tennis Many shoDoers alight conditioned drivers The latter center multi storied parking garage impressively designed festooned plantings level mistook hotel The people seriously places Makati Commercial District behind walls inside walls They their communities villages Such subdivisions hundreds homes enclosed Then entire village surrounded higher concrete latter toppe numerous strands barbed watched armed guards control entrance Residents golden ghettos outsiders refer communnities respond questions about their stockae subdivisions kicking wealth upstairs This Millionaire Row realtor Forbes Park particularly Opulent village This where really people The realtor lives Green Hills another dozen servants The latter cheap One governmen official remarke conversation adminis recently raised minimum salary generally lives house pesos month ighly I Similarly gardeners grass surrounding house clippers knees pesos The missionary spent years Asia pointed history repeating itself It China Oeople learn It foreign enclaves Canton Shanghai terrible source discontent In Shanghai government enclaves anila business They hothead things Economic extremes enormous frustration They accept finally explodes little thing somebody publishing executive They They passive people world start shooting With police always shoot Y think frustration built frustration Oeople argue whether better worse Nanila countryside Some argue children better chance education while others point chance getting enough training actually better If barrios least woman spent several years Philippines company It frightens these groups young roaming streets They uneducated because qualifie At least barrios banana stalk ground You front newspaper every nothing corruption corruption corruption officials Apparently muzzled political social affairs anila newspapers carry conspicuous number stories mayhem corruption former often perpetrate_ military police latter public officials For example following stories prominently feature papers period CJW Three Quezon City policemen reporte41y hea4ed syn4icate ki4nappe4 chil4ren their school eman4ing ransom chil4ren father Chinese businessman Three Bureau Forest Development officers formally charge offenses ranging graft nepotism The inister Justice addressing national convention Philippine association requested assistance weeding corrupt prosecutors judges During period arcos issue4 Presidential Decree No reanimated 4eath penalty gally manufacturing trsfficking 4angerous regulate4 druas One person woun4e4 grenade blast Cotabato City troopers informers killed ambush Davao L random nature street crime there random quality actions taken government Tax follows edict follows edict dealing everything picayune gradiose Both within prerogative regime which operating un4er martial since Consequently practically everything occurs attribute4 government It arcos Narcos visitor exasperation It Narcos person darned country People consistently refer oresident First Lady She governor Manila He power bougainvillea planted bouginvillea planted boulevards neatly place strands barbed However ignores conceivably might First Family wishes matter suffer consequences Land being reclaime4 Nanila Bay supported N arcos Philippine International Convention Centre already built being associated effort 4isa4vantages When arcos happened drive Roxas Blvd alongsi4e noticed acacia trees being dispatched contractors reclamation project The crime planning president After explanation contractors released until arcos reportedly forbade another public property without personal permission CJW Leaving Philippines living there carries flavor escape Sidewalks outside arline terminal thronged Filipinos allowed inside tickets passports permitted guards doors All passengers proceed through least eight check points which involve searches final culminating frisking Travelers spend their final minutes Philippines conditioned departure lounge tucked beyond stares people outside Like villages lounge under constant surveillance security guards dozens patrol armed night sticks least machine Likewise there array wealth store4 inside shops Available Nina Ricci belts Yves St Laurent Charles Jourdan handbags Each comes equipped least dozen uniformed sales clerks Like hotels offices stores Manila armed security guard stationed outside Customers however scarce sales force stare blank space scenes their making their forming words American music piped lounge The scene eerie jockey English little voices begin singing along Barbra Streisan The Way We Were The security guards their track movement around however their hands never their sides Three guards casually toward check point One smiles cocks machine ceiling Sincerely Cammy Wilson