I elaborated in my subsequent blog ANGELES CITY: a “Paradise” to Escape the Societalcide in the West?.
I’m responding publicly to an email (with personal portions redacted) received from an American friend who recently visited Davao. His points are very relevant to this consideration of where to locate a tech hub outside the USA, if at all:
[…] It does seem inevitable that property values will collapse in the USA, and rise in the Philippines, as they’ve hitched their wagon to the rising China.
Agreed due to rising interest rates coupled with (which will help cause the) egregious Great Depression economic collapse in the West. Acreage in the Philippines is purchased with cash. Remember 30 year mortgage loans pull income forward by 30 years, amplifying prices far above affordability when loans become prohibitive due to double-digit interest rates. Subdivision lots here are financed with bank loans (albeit not at the low interest rates in the West and typically not 30 years to pay, except Pagibig government subsidized housing loans) which is one reason subdivision prices are significantly higher.
Regardless of the following, Philippine property values will rise absent some devastating war. I could have purchased land here in C. Luzon when I first arrived in the Philippines in 1990 at P5 (~$0.20) per m² and now the prices are P300+ (~$6). And I just can’t fathom a scorched earth bombing of all land in the Philippines. Of what value is the Philippines? For all the negatives of filipino culture, their stubborn tribalism makes it virtually impossible to change them quickly. Fuggetaboutit! I presume the main goal the world powers want is to shut off any rogue sovereignty of the Philippines, especially w.r.t. to FATF, AML, KYC, etc.. But the Philippines is the only country in ASEAN other than Japan (and maybe S.Korea although even they have recently started to turn more towards China) which is contemplating turning away from China’s Belt & Road initiative. The economics should prevail and the Philippines will turn away from the West and towards China and the ASEAN Union.
I’m not 100% confident that the Philippines will remain hitched to China. Remember the Philippines currently has a mutual defense treaty with the U.S.A.. Bastard TPTB seem to be scheming of a way to draw the Philippines into some future WW3. The Vice President Leni Robredo is leading the “yellowtard” (progressive, the term perhaps coined from the yellow vest protests in France) opposition that wants a shift back towards the USA. Remember I received a very gracious reply on official letterhead of the Office of the President of the Philippines and signed by NEDA secretary Pineda when I emailed them my support for their pivot to China. Presumably Soros and the Deep State would like to and may succeed in disposing of Duterte’s aims unless Duterte accomplishes a self-coup as he has been hinting. The following invokes the oxymoronically named Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act which is the corruption that was involved with the framing and unconstitutional detention of Martin Armstrong:
US approves sanctions vs De Lima jailers:
The US Senate has approved a resolution calling on the White House to impose sanctions on government officials responsible for extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, as well as the arrest and detention of Sen. Leila de Lima. US Senate Resolution No. 142 invoked the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the United States to impose sanctions on foreign officials implicated in human rights abuses.
These include banning them from the United States and freezing their assets there.
[…]
In a message to reporters, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the resolution “ appears to be a violation of the (US) Constitution re the Bill of Attainder.”
He was referring to the provision that prohibits legislative acts from singling out a group for punishment without trial.He would like to think his US counterparts were “misinformed because it’s an affront to our justice system,”
If Trump carries out that ban causing the Philippines to place onerous visa requirements on Americans, then I’m going to think Trump is complicit.
Filipinos have significant inertia in their familial, migration and cultural hitch to the U.S.A..
I wrote on my subsequent blog East vs. West: China to dominate the world and this ingrained higher level of respect and trust of the U.S.A. can be detected from interviewer in the linked interview below:
Dr. Jacques goes direct to the point about the implications on the Philippines,
“forget about America in this region, America is in rapid decline.”So the problem for Duterte is that the Philippines is very Americanized, but must change rapidly. Oh crap, they may increasingly not want us having any influence over here.Philippines is the odd-ball most Westernized, Christianized country in ASEAN. Hmm. Precisely why I preferred it.
The following is true. I observed with my own eyes how the drug menace has been significantly pushed out-of-sight (it’s still there, but not overtly):
Sotto: PH drug problem ‘deeper than mere arithmetic’:
[…] The President's high approval ratings after 3 years, is incompatible with a grand failure accusation. The truth is found in the stories of families at home and the changes in their neighborhood […]
Drug smuggling syndicates are becoming a global menace:
Shabu no longer manufactured in Philippines — PNP:
[…] PNP and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were in fact able to destroy 14 clandestine laboratories and dismantle 419 drug dens since the drug war was launched in 2016, contradicting the assessment of Vice President Leni Robredo that the government barely nicked the surface of the drug menace […] He said shabu, the prohibited drugs most-commonly seized in police and PDEA operations, is now only being smuggled into the country by international drug syndicates […]
[ANALYSIS] The stroke of genius in Robredo’s drug war report:
[…] They will do well to remember who appointed Robredo to the ICAD in the first place: Duterte himself.
[…]
Note that Duterte himself said on multiple occasions that his drug war has failed […]
Why Philippines President, Criticized Abroad, Has Record High Approval
Trump viewed negatively in many countries; support highest in Philippines:
[…] In some countries, the public did express support for Trump: India (56 percent), Nigeria (58 percent), Kenya (65 percent), Israel (71 percent) and the Philippines (77 percent).There was overall disapproval, however, of some of Trump’s signature foreign policy initiatives […] A median of 68 percent opposed his imposition of tariffs, 66 percent opposed the withdrawal from climate change agreements and 60 percent were against the US-Mexico border wall […]
Fitch Solutions study sees policy continuity beyond 2022:
President Duterte’s successor will likely continue most of his policies, but the all-out war on drugs and the pivot to China may wane once he finishes his term in 2022, research firm Fitch Solutions said […]
I’m not sure how positively Mindanao will be affected.
I have argued in more recent comments and charts (which you may have already read?) that Mindanao will likely also continue to develop but it will always be a relative backwater compared to the non-muslim areas of the Philippines.
Not many Westerners are investing to live in Mindanao. They may buy a small house or condo for when they visit their relatives there, as you did.
The Chinese may eventually invest in Mindanao and beat the Muslim into submission. Or maybe not. They may have better opportunities elsewhere. Even after slaughtering Muslims in 1906, the Americans have all but forsaken the place even forced out of controlling ownership of the Dole plantation in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon. Marcos’ multi-decade war in Mindanao didn’t entirely eradicate the problem.
Manolo Fortich has the most comfortable climate in Mindanao and complete absence of Muslims with proximate highway access to Cagayan de Oro City, but still vulnerable there to roaming NPA and kidnap-for-ransom-gangs. You can still see the nice homes the Americans built there during their heyday:
I’m disenchanted with that place, or at least Davao. Everything seems so disorganized, from the driving to the complete lack of zoning restrictions. This must be a reflection of the mindset of the people there. As contrasted with China, which plans decades in advance, Davao seems to have little to no advance planning. I'm sure they do, but it's not reflected into the passing eyes of this tourist.
That’s filipino culture. It’s the same everywhere in the Philippines. Yet there’s better infrastructure in Luzon — for example gated, toll-road highway infrastructure which somewhat resembles our Interstate system in the U.S.A. (yet even on the toll roads the drivers don’t seem to understand the concept of slow vehicles on the right and passing on the left lanes but at least no farm animals, people, and tricycles allowed). There will be photos and elaboration in my upcoming blog ANGELES CITY: a “Paradise” to Escape the Societalcide in the West?.
It improves somewhat in the extant gated communities, although these are managed by filipinos so the covenants and rules are not strictly enforced.
If I decide to invest and live part of the year in Asia, I will not do so unless I can build a multi-hectare, gated subdivision compound more exclusively targeting Westerners with all the organization, politeness, non-SJW polluted school for kids, sports facilities (e.g. oval track, football field, covered basketball courts, gym), wide roads, strict covenants/rules (for our peace-of-mind and tranquility), and a non-corrupted Christian church. There’s no way I want to exposed to that overpopulation, disorganized chaos of SE Asia (and more so Philippines) on a daily basis. Okay to immerse in the chaos for the occasional outing, but not for daily life. I’m undecided whether this would be wise or jumping from the frying pan into the broiler.
People were not as friendly as I remembered. In fact, after going grocery shopping yesterday here, the contrast became even starker. If I went to a grocery store in the Philippines, the cashier would not smile or say a word until she read the total amount. After that, no "thanks", or "have a nice day".
The Philippines is a low-trust, low-cooperation, myself-and-my-family first society. It’s a survival and tribal culture. Also the innocence of the warm smiles of the provincial Filipinos is being eroded by modern life. You could still find that warmth for example in rural Bohol but it accompanies extreme poverty and backwardness. Also many of these ladies who work in Davao now come from Cotabato and Muslim regions with harsh, colder attitudes. Paradise lost.
I do believe that only the warm, smiling ones could be selected for service providers for a compound, so as to try to emulate the former paradise currently being lost.
The cashier at the grocery store yesterday [in the MidWest of the U.S.A.] greeted me with a warm smile, and a hello. She said "Thank you. Have a good night." at the end of the transaction. Maybe it's fake, but I missed the little pleasantries in Davao.
I also miss that. That’s why I’d want to cater to Americans if I invested over here. Also one of the reasons why I do want to continue to at least visit the U.S.A. several months a year, regardless of my decision about where to invest in planting roots. Other reasons include California climate, wide open roads, vehicle culture, etc.. Want to return and enjoy it while it’s still good.
People tried to cut in front of me in line several times (7-8?) in stores and walk-up restaurants. This is something that just does not happen here, aside from a couple incidents at asian supermarkets.
Indeed. And it’s rampant in China also. Maybe improved significantly among the upper middle class in the Clark SM here in Angeles City/Clark (as I noted on 3 occasions they apologized for me bumping into them), but I noticed that crap again in the low-cost, lower-class Enhanced Muscle Gym yesterday wherein some patrons thought it was appropriate to put their backpacks on the few chairs at the lounge area whilst they worked out in the gym under the pretense that those chairs should be reserved exclusively for their use even while they’re busy exercising. I was livid and wanted to throw their backpacks into the trash but I bit my lip. Contrast that with I scratched my arm on a rusty metal in a public transport Jeep and so I immediately walked into McDonalds to wash it with soap and a tall American came up to me and offered to pour alcohol on it (he carries the small bottle in his pocket). I reacted, “smart and thank you so much.”
Even walking around our neighborhood, no one would say hello, smile, nod, or wave. I'd receive blank stares at best, and dirty looks at worst.
High-trust community spirit doesn’t exist in Asia, except perhaps Japan. It’s dog-eat-dog here.
What is the root of corruption in the Philippines?
But what will the U.S.A. be when the bubble-financed, illusion of high-trust is pricked? I’m not confident about planting roots in the U.S.A.. Even if I invest in Asia, if the U.S.A. handles the economic collapses well, I can return.
Perhaps eventually the South will separate from the U.S.S.A.:
Perhaps we’re related culturally, so I’m keen for your feedback.
(…continued below bcz Steem limits posts to 16 KiB…)
RE: Societalcide Decadence in Western TV Commercials