It never ceases to suprise me how Western men meet Filipinas online, and even more suprising to me is how the men get sucked in. Case in point, 53 year old Warren Richard Rodwell. An Australian, he met some girl online, came here within weeks and married her dead away. Forget that he is now married for life, because for all anyone knows it CAN be a match made in heaven, but Warren then buys a tract in a subdivision. These aren't like Western subdivisions, in that although they are built by a single company, there is no zoning of any sort. The house next door can raise pigs, or become a Love Motel. The only guarantee you have is that the houses will be built with the flimsiest shit available and being a nation with literally 23 typhoons a year on average, earthquakes in the 4 Richter literally every 6 weeks, your life will be interesting to say the least.
Warren's life is interesting for other reasons. Monday night, December 5th, they kicked in his door and kidnapped him. He and his wife had only moved in three weeks before. I used to post on an expat site, "Living in Cebu," for like one week in 2008. I stopped after seeing how oblivious most foreigners can be. There is always one who, meeting some girl on line -I didn't realise until moving here full time that practically every expat married to a Filipina has met her online- will ask about life on Mindanao.
If you talk to Filipinos from points north of Mindanao they will react in abject horror if you ask about your safety coming here. On the other hand, if you talk to locals on Mindanao, most- not all- will minimise the dangers and risks. I always find that interesting, and have found it to be true in many conflict ridden parts of the world. It seems to be a coping mechanism. Like my father in law, when the 2008 War began here. 1 million people made refugees internally, yet he is pooh poohing the risks, saying not to stock up on weapons. Now, in my personal experience I know that a platoon of professional infantry fully loaded at 88 kilos on their back plus their rifle and vest and body armour, can move 40 km a night, in hills, while breaking 15 min every 4 hrs. Guerillas though? They are practically running and not even breaking sweat, they move real fast. My point at the time was that the BIAF (armed wing of MILF and I'm not talking about porno) was operating two long provinces away but could move in one night and be outside our walls. "Naaaaaaaah Raki, impossible." Oddly, he is super-realistic on the issue of the NPA (Maoists), maybe one insurgency is all he cares to deal with.
I think that it is just a way that people living long term in such areas have, so as to try and create some normalcy in their daily lives. So, people like Warren, they talk to their new girlfriend, fiance, wife and ask about safety issues and are told, "Naaaaah, nothing to even consider Warren." Now poor Warren is inside a bamboo cage.
In other news, the 3 South Koreans I discussed in a recent post were released last week, though one of the three Filipinos kidnapped with them was found executed. Sadly, the eldest of the Koreans, Choi Inn, had a badly bleeding ulcer, and also had developed sepsis and died two days ago in the hospital. That sucks big time. You go through a kidnapping, you get released and THEN you die. Same shit happened to a Chinese national last year. He and another Chinaman, plus one Filipino were all kidnapped together. They execute the Filipino, release the two Chinese. The elder one though died days later in the hospital.
The REALLY fucked up part is that he caught sepsis in the hospital! Goes in for the ulcer and BOOM. I myself once had sepsis and still cringe. When I had my second combat injury, mortar shrapnel on my side, above my right hip, I was airlifted south into Israel, just like the first injury- to my jaw. I was ferried down to the same hospital, Hadassah in Jerusalem. I evidently caught sepsis at the same moment I caught HCV (Hepatitis C). Medics back then would grab whatever butterfly is laying around to run IVs into your forearm.
I was admitted in stable condition after surgery for shrapnel, I was doing fine. One morning I woke in my bed, and I felt super nauseous. I ran into the loo and VROOOM, out comes vomit that doesn't stop. Quickly it became the yellow stomach bile and it was then that a nurse found me. They didn't know what it was initially and ended up with a ridiculous diagnosis of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Sepsis is a blood infection that can get into your organs but my blood wasn't showing any abnormality. I had a fever, in Fahrenheit, of 104.9. They began panicing and put me in ice baths. They filled a trough full of ice cubes, as I remember they were regula little cubes, why not blocs? Anyway, that was the worst, even worse than the spinal taps and the fucken catheter up my - well, you get the point. That ice bath, which they did a few times, had me screaming. It really hurt in a way I can describe.
I was touch and go for like 5 days but gradually I got better. Then the worst was having female nurses wash me. I was raised very traditionally and though I had just gotten married with my first wife, I was super modest near women. After I healed all my skin peeled off like a lizard, in giant pieces. That is why I was kept in Jerusalem on Light Duty for four months, guarding pilgrims. Indeed, that is how I met my father in law, and how a year later I met my present wife slash ex-wife, she wasn't even 2 years old at the time, not even a cute baby.
All told, I think the bamboo cage Warren is sitting in would be a tad bit worse than the ice bath, but not by much.
Warren's life is interesting for other reasons. Monday night, December 5th, they kicked in his door and kidnapped him. He and his wife had only moved in three weeks before. I used to post on an expat site, "Living in Cebu," for like one week in 2008. I stopped after seeing how oblivious most foreigners can be. There is always one who, meeting some girl on line -I didn't realise until moving here full time that practically every expat married to a Filipina has met her online- will ask about life on Mindanao.
If you talk to Filipinos from points north of Mindanao they will react in abject horror if you ask about your safety coming here. On the other hand, if you talk to locals on Mindanao, most- not all- will minimise the dangers and risks. I always find that interesting, and have found it to be true in many conflict ridden parts of the world. It seems to be a coping mechanism. Like my father in law, when the 2008 War began here. 1 million people made refugees internally, yet he is pooh poohing the risks, saying not to stock up on weapons. Now, in my personal experience I know that a platoon of professional infantry fully loaded at 88 kilos on their back plus their rifle and vest and body armour, can move 40 km a night, in hills, while breaking 15 min every 4 hrs. Guerillas though? They are practically running and not even breaking sweat, they move real fast. My point at the time was that the BIAF (armed wing of MILF and I'm not talking about porno) was operating two long provinces away but could move in one night and be outside our walls. "Naaaaaaaah Raki, impossible." Oddly, he is super-realistic on the issue of the NPA (Maoists), maybe one insurgency is all he cares to deal with.
I think that it is just a way that people living long term in such areas have, so as to try and create some normalcy in their daily lives. So, people like Warren, they talk to their new girlfriend, fiance, wife and ask about safety issues and are told, "Naaaaah, nothing to even consider Warren." Now poor Warren is inside a bamboo cage.
In other news, the 3 South Koreans I discussed in a recent post were released last week, though one of the three Filipinos kidnapped with them was found executed. Sadly, the eldest of the Koreans, Choi Inn, had a badly bleeding ulcer, and also had developed sepsis and died two days ago in the hospital. That sucks big time. You go through a kidnapping, you get released and THEN you die. Same shit happened to a Chinese national last year. He and another Chinaman, plus one Filipino were all kidnapped together. They execute the Filipino, release the two Chinese. The elder one though died days later in the hospital.
The REALLY fucked up part is that he caught sepsis in the hospital! Goes in for the ulcer and BOOM. I myself once had sepsis and still cringe. When I had my second combat injury, mortar shrapnel on my side, above my right hip, I was airlifted south into Israel, just like the first injury- to my jaw. I was ferried down to the same hospital, Hadassah in Jerusalem. I evidently caught sepsis at the same moment I caught HCV (Hepatitis C). Medics back then would grab whatever butterfly is laying around to run IVs into your forearm.
I was admitted in stable condition after surgery for shrapnel, I was doing fine. One morning I woke in my bed, and I felt super nauseous. I ran into the loo and VROOOM, out comes vomit that doesn't stop. Quickly it became the yellow stomach bile and it was then that a nurse found me. They didn't know what it was initially and ended up with a ridiculous diagnosis of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Sepsis is a blood infection that can get into your organs but my blood wasn't showing any abnormality. I had a fever, in Fahrenheit, of 104.9. They began panicing and put me in ice baths. They filled a trough full of ice cubes, as I remember they were regula little cubes, why not blocs? Anyway, that was the worst, even worse than the spinal taps and the fucken catheter up my - well, you get the point. That ice bath, which they did a few times, had me screaming. It really hurt in a way I can describe.
I was touch and go for like 5 days but gradually I got better. Then the worst was having female nurses wash me. I was raised very traditionally and though I had just gotten married with my first wife, I was super modest near women. After I healed all my skin peeled off like a lizard, in giant pieces. That is why I was kept in Jerusalem on Light Duty for four months, guarding pilgrims. Indeed, that is how I met my father in law, and how a year later I met my present wife slash ex-wife, she wasn't even 2 years old at the time, not even a cute baby.
All told, I think the bamboo cage Warren is sitting in would be a tad bit worse than the ice bath, but not by much.