Preface: After spending the 1st 2 posts discussing a bout of morphine withdrawal on Cebu Island in the Philippines, I am finally about to discuss the issue(s) relating to the title,"4 Continents in 1 Week."
I was in Makati in late September spending time in the condo I am leasing when I was invited to a dinner at the Israeli Embassy. Makati is 1 of the cities that compose the cluster fuck known as "Metro Manila."If the Philippines has anything even remotely approaching a "Jewish Neighbourhood," and mind you with less than 300 of us, including Israeli Diplomats that would be just a tad bit difficult, Makati's "Salcedo Village" district would certainly fit the bill. Salcedo Village is home to the Israeli Embassy which itself is housed in a skyscraper, well ensconced on a few of the upper floors. The Americans have an ostentatious campus sitting on prime Manila Bay real estate, beautiful sunsets, but us? All the smog you can eat.
Salcedo Village also plays host to the nation's only synagouge as well as a recently opened Chabad House, which is a cultural centre for Jewish ex-pats who crave Jewish food, companionship and so on.
On Mindanao I am 1 of 5 Jews, the other 4 being Irrigation Engineers on a banana plantation in the town of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao Province. I live in NE Mindanao, in the middle of the Maoist Insurgencyz, they are in the epicentre of the island's largest Islamo-fascist Insurgency so our get togethers are rare indeed. All Jews are related by blood to the 4th degree (4th cousins) or closer and so when a lone Jew meets another it is truly as if we met family.Not to mention that we have a unique and deeply imbued culture and are always faced with prejudice and ostracism so is it any wonder that people often describe us as "clannish?"
On Makati I had been spending a lot of time with my new lover, Joysa. She is a 23 year old Tagalog,from Bulacan which is a city on the opposite end of Metro Manila.
Joysa and I met on a trip I took to Angeles City, 2 hours north of Metro Manila, in Pampanga Province. Angeles City is a nightmare for me. I am not a prude by any measure of the word but the city isd like Sodom Fucken Gomorrah! I have never been to a sex club, strippers etc., nor have I ever been with a prostitute. Until I entered Active Duty in the IDF at age 16 I was raised as a Hassidic Jew. The IDF, until the early 90s despised religion and they quite literally beat it out of me and yet my moral compass, large portions of it, has remained intact.
On my last New York to Manila flight I met a friend of mine from Mindanao...I believe I did mention this in the 1st of these 3 posts. I won't mention him by name out of respect for his private life but he's an American academic who I met during his tour with JSOTF-P, the joint US/Philippine Milit*ry Task Force tackling one of the Islamo-fascist Insurgencies on Mindanao. Virtually all Americans are ignorant to the fact that Mindanao is the 3rd Front of the US War on Terror (Iraq, Afghanistan and Mindanao).JSOTF-P (Joint Strike Operational Task Force-Philippibes) is worth a post of its own. For the sake of brevity, it consists of roughly 700 Americans, mostly Special Forces.
After my friend's Tour ended he left the miliary and gained his PhD and has since gone on to do ground breaking work on Terrorism/Counterterrorism. I hadn't known but hed gotten a lover in Pampanga which happens a lot with American military personnel since the province is home to Clark Air Base which until the mid-90s was a huge US Base. In addition. Not far away is Subic Bay, a former US Navy Base. During the Vietnam War both were among the largest bases in the US system and as so often happens around US bases a huge red light district opened nearby, in this case, Angeles City.
My friend invited me to come up and visit him and since as I mentioned, it is only 2 hours north of Metro Manila, I took him up on the offer.I spent 4 days at his house and I have to say, I really hate that town and all that goes with it though I did meet Joysa there. Normally I wouldn't even look at a pretty girl in that town for a number of reasons. Aside from the obvious, women there are the most Westernised of all the Philippines, including Manila. For example, unlike a nation like South Korean where maybe 7 out of 10 women smoke, women in the Philippines almost never smoke. Even those that do never do in Public though in Manila you see a few. In Angeles they are everywhere. Women in the Philippines usually do laundry by hand where as in Angeles they wouldn't dream of that. Don't get me wrong, I am no Luddite and don't despise technology or things that ease a woman's life it is just that with these affectations come Westernised attitudes such as divorce, abortion, things I think are too easily given in the West, etc.
I met Joysa on a jeepney. Jeepneys, as I mentioned in prior posts are a form of public transport unique to the Philippines. Post WWII there were loads of surplus US Army jeeps. Taking those Willys Jeeps Filipinos fabricated 10 meters long drive shafts and then, using sheet metal and iron extended the bodies and frames to match. Just like American "Low Riders" the roofs are "chopped" so that they look like a schoolbus whose roof has been flattened to be just above passengers' heads. Painted in psychadelic patters the have names painted on them like,"Tease Me but Love Me," or, "Fancy Dancer."Actually now that I think about it I have seen trucks and busses in the English speaking Caribbean also use such names.
I was going to a mall to find a bookstore my friend mentioned and Joysa was returning from her job. Since she worked nights and has a body like a Playboy Centerfold (those I have experienced, unlike sexclubs) I was sure that when the conversation progressed I would discover that she was a Bargirl (Philippine speak for"Prostitute,"or as Filipinos also call them,"Prostis"). I was shocked however when she told me she worked as an Encoder/Transcriptionist in a Call Centre.9*"" centres" are a huge business in the Philippines owing to how widely and proficiently English is spoken here.
For those still clueless, or perhaps unsure, these are the accented voices you hear when checking your cell phone or credit card bill or making reservations. Joysa's job is to listen to recordings of flagged calls and transcribe them via word processing si that it can be incorporated into training materiels. Having an Associates Degree she makes 9700 Pesos a month (210 US). She works from 9PM until 8AM, 5 days a week and is given 2 free meals from the company cafeteria. Like most workers in the Philippines she and her family get very basic medical insurance from the governmental insurer, Philhealth (sic). 4he gets 21 paid days off a year, an extra months pay each year, something most Filipino workers get, what they call,"13th Month's Pay" doled out at around Xmas.This is considered a very posh gig in the Philippines and so she's proud.
I thought I could conclude this title with this entry but as I often am, I was wrong...
I was in Makati in late September spending time in the condo I am leasing when I was invited to a dinner at the Israeli Embassy. Makati is 1 of the cities that compose the cluster fuck known as "Metro Manila."If the Philippines has anything even remotely approaching a "Jewish Neighbourhood," and mind you with less than 300 of us, including Israeli Diplomats that would be just a tad bit difficult, Makati's "Salcedo Village" district would certainly fit the bill. Salcedo Village is home to the Israeli Embassy which itself is housed in a skyscraper, well ensconced on a few of the upper floors. The Americans have an ostentatious campus sitting on prime Manila Bay real estate, beautiful sunsets, but us? All the smog you can eat.
Salcedo Village also plays host to the nation's only synagouge as well as a recently opened Chabad House, which is a cultural centre for Jewish ex-pats who crave Jewish food, companionship and so on.
On Mindanao I am 1 of 5 Jews, the other 4 being Irrigation Engineers on a banana plantation in the town of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao Province. I live in NE Mindanao, in the middle of the Maoist Insurgencyz, they are in the epicentre of the island's largest Islamo-fascist Insurgency so our get togethers are rare indeed. All Jews are related by blood to the 4th degree (4th cousins) or closer and so when a lone Jew meets another it is truly as if we met family.Not to mention that we have a unique and deeply imbued culture and are always faced with prejudice and ostracism so is it any wonder that people often describe us as "clannish?"
On Makati I had been spending a lot of time with my new lover, Joysa. She is a 23 year old Tagalog,from Bulacan which is a city on the opposite end of Metro Manila.
Joysa and I met on a trip I took to Angeles City, 2 hours north of Metro Manila, in Pampanga Province. Angeles City is a nightmare for me. I am not a prude by any measure of the word but the city isd like Sodom Fucken Gomorrah! I have never been to a sex club, strippers etc., nor have I ever been with a prostitute. Until I entered Active Duty in the IDF at age 16 I was raised as a Hassidic Jew. The IDF, until the early 90s despised religion and they quite literally beat it out of me and yet my moral compass, large portions of it, has remained intact.
On my last New York to Manila flight I met a friend of mine from Mindanao...I believe I did mention this in the 1st of these 3 posts. I won't mention him by name out of respect for his private life but he's an American academic who I met during his tour with JSOTF-P, the joint US/Philippine Milit*ry Task Force tackling one of the Islamo-fascist Insurgencies on Mindanao. Virtually all Americans are ignorant to the fact that Mindanao is the 3rd Front of the US War on Terror (Iraq, Afghanistan and Mindanao).JSOTF-P (Joint Strike Operational Task Force-Philippibes) is worth a post of its own. For the sake of brevity, it consists of roughly 700 Americans, mostly Special Forces.
After my friend's Tour ended he left the miliary and gained his PhD and has since gone on to do ground breaking work on Terrorism/Counterterrorism. I hadn't known but hed gotten a lover in Pampanga which happens a lot with American military personnel since the province is home to Clark Air Base which until the mid-90s was a huge US Base. In addition. Not far away is Subic Bay, a former US Navy Base. During the Vietnam War both were among the largest bases in the US system and as so often happens around US bases a huge red light district opened nearby, in this case, Angeles City.
My friend invited me to come up and visit him and since as I mentioned, it is only 2 hours north of Metro Manila, I took him up on the offer.I spent 4 days at his house and I have to say, I really hate that town and all that goes with it though I did meet Joysa there. Normally I wouldn't even look at a pretty girl in that town for a number of reasons. Aside from the obvious, women there are the most Westernised of all the Philippines, including Manila. For example, unlike a nation like South Korean where maybe 7 out of 10 women smoke, women in the Philippines almost never smoke. Even those that do never do in Public though in Manila you see a few. In Angeles they are everywhere. Women in the Philippines usually do laundry by hand where as in Angeles they wouldn't dream of that. Don't get me wrong, I am no Luddite and don't despise technology or things that ease a woman's life it is just that with these affectations come Westernised attitudes such as divorce, abortion, things I think are too easily given in the West, etc.
I met Joysa on a jeepney. Jeepneys, as I mentioned in prior posts are a form of public transport unique to the Philippines. Post WWII there were loads of surplus US Army jeeps. Taking those Willys Jeeps Filipinos fabricated 10 meters long drive shafts and then, using sheet metal and iron extended the bodies and frames to match. Just like American "Low Riders" the roofs are "chopped" so that they look like a schoolbus whose roof has been flattened to be just above passengers' heads. Painted in psychadelic patters the have names painted on them like,"Tease Me but Love Me," or, "Fancy Dancer."Actually now that I think about it I have seen trucks and busses in the English speaking Caribbean also use such names.
I was going to a mall to find a bookstore my friend mentioned and Joysa was returning from her job. Since she worked nights and has a body like a Playboy Centerfold (those I have experienced, unlike sexclubs) I was sure that when the conversation progressed I would discover that she was a Bargirl (Philippine speak for"Prostitute,"or as Filipinos also call them,"Prostis"). I was shocked however when she told me she worked as an Encoder/Transcriptionist in a Call Centre.9*"" centres" are a huge business in the Philippines owing to how widely and proficiently English is spoken here.
For those still clueless, or perhaps unsure, these are the accented voices you hear when checking your cell phone or credit card bill or making reservations. Joysa's job is to listen to recordings of flagged calls and transcribe them via word processing si that it can be incorporated into training materiels. Having an Associates Degree she makes 9700 Pesos a month (210 US). She works from 9PM until 8AM, 5 days a week and is given 2 free meals from the company cafeteria. Like most workers in the Philippines she and her family get very basic medical insurance from the governmental insurer, Philhealth (sic). 4he gets 21 paid days off a year, an extra months pay each year, something most Filipino workers get, what they call,"13th Month's Pay" doled out at around Xmas.This is considered a very posh gig in the Philippines and so she's proud.
I thought I could conclude this title with this entry but as I often am, I was wrong...