"Mabuhay!" was everywhere in the Ninoy Aquino airport.  That's what I first noticed from the signs everywhere when I arrived at about midnight last night.  The whole way home I was missing Hong Kong, not really feeling like I wanted to be welcomed back.  The weather wasn't too bad in HK and I didn't really need warm clothing for most of the time I was there.  I miss Hong Kong.  I already miss the "first world" even though Hong Kong is so foreign to me.  I miss the double-deck buses, the huge buildings, the "clean" smell, and the fact that people don't stare at me like an object.  I miss the feeling of going into an office and everyone is professional.  I miss not hearing the robotic greeting from service staff each time I entered and exited a restaurant.  After living in Manila my entire life, I have a hard time feeling why my foreigner friends would trade their lives in the first world to come live in the Philippines or other poor Asian countries like Thailand.  I understand, in theory, now how true it must be from their perspective when they say, "If you are rich, the Philippines is paradise, but if you are poor, it's Hell on Earth."

Alas, the above is true as they said.  When stepping from the plane I began feeling that feeling I swore to myself that I'd never feel.  I felt hatred for my own people.  I hated the smell they produce when they make a mess of our beautiful island nation.  I hated the fact that they allow our leaders to make us look like this to the rest of the world...to make us a basket case and a laughing stock.  What's worse is that they take our leaders as their moral example.  Even the Filipino maids in Hong Kong on their day off were the only ones jaywalking!  I've returned to streets filled with little boys and girls running around past midnight when they should be getting ready for school.  I hate it!  What is wrong with these people!  Why don't they wake up to the fact that they are allowed to breed endlessly like rabbits as an under-class of slaves.  Why can't they figure out that when you live your lives in filth and decay you will never understand that, as human beings, we have the intelligence to create something better for ourselves?  I realize that some people choose to live in the 7th century as their religion dictates.  But we live in the 7th century in many areas here because we have accepted it as our fate.  Again, that's wrong!  Our leaders brainwashed us to accept anything shoved down our throat.  We impeach one group of morons just to elect leaders who are just as bad or worse, and then we accept that it's "Gods will".  I don't think God intended this for us forever.  Ok, the rant is over.  I'll feel better later when I again get used to my surroundings.  Not that I have all the answers, but if people like me give up and want to "abandon ship", then we are just as guilty as those who messed it up in the first place.

January 31, 2005

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