The Philippines: Addendum

Alright, I'm in the mood to write again. Here are some closing comments on my trip:

People
Filipinos are among the friendliest people I have ever met. They were exceedingly kind, but not in the East Asian store clerk way that I remember from Korea. As opposed to that formal civility with its ties to Confucian ethics, theirs was a more laid-back, politely joking, friendly smile sort of attitude. Keep in mind, this is their attitude towards strangers. My brother's co-workers were even more considerate and generous towards me. Very impressive.

Food
Not so impressive. Filipino food is very similar to Hawaiian food, if you've ever had it. Lots of fried seafood, barbequed pork and chicken, and some local vegetables. On the whole, quite bland. However...

Economy
Everything is dirt cheap. This means eating at a fancy restaurant in Manila, no matter the kind of cuisine, comes out to about $5 an entree. As a result, I rarely ate the local fare. Everything from the plane tickets to luxury hotel rates to taxis to rent to booze, everything, is far, far lower in price than in similarly large metropolises worldwide. (The reason for this is that the Philippines has done a poor job of recovering from the Asian financial crisis of 1997.)

Culture/Language
This is the most interesting aspect of any international trip for me. The Philippines has had a very chaotic modern history, starting with 300 years of Spanish colonial rule and followed by colonizations by both the US and Japan before independence after World War II. As a result, it's hard to find a solid cultural identity that can be considered truly natively Filipino. Catholicism, Hollywood, and American rock all exercise enormous influence in modern Filipino society. The result is a deeply religious country that, nonetheless, is very socially progressive; cross-dressing and homosexuality are surprisingly wide-spread and accepted as normal. Of course, perhaps the rampant sex trade may also have an affect on the latter.

The widespread use of English throughout the country is another factor that probably adds to the Western-influenced mindset, as books, movies, TV, and other media don't need to be translated for the locals. Tagalog and other native languages are of course most commonly spoken. But even in everyday Tagalog conversations between people, in newspapers, and on TV, up to a third of the vocabulary used is English. (Tagalog also has no native script; it uses the Latin alphabet.) With regards to all the time I've spent in Korea, it really doesn't feel like Asia at all.

I hope this post leaves my audience more satisfied...