Today is Friday, July 23, 2010 and it is now 147AM here in Butuan, Agusan del Norte Province, Mindanao, Philippines.
Recap: 1st day back in Mindanao for my bi-monthly visit to take of financial and social commitments on Mindanao.
This Entry: I have decided to fly back up to Manila, it was OK and all on the ferry but I am a bit haggard and do not feel up to another 1.5 to 3 days moving through several archipelagos. Butuan Airport is nothing worth mentioning. The best airport on the island is in Davao City but that's a 5 hour drive with no checkpoints and there are 11 between San Franz and Davao so...In fact, checkpoints are why I am sitting here 6 hours prior to boarding. I guess you can compare it to Brunei Airport, typically small and over crowded SE Asian airport though this one rarely has a white face in it where as Brunei maybe has half its business through European contractors...or Middle Eastern like my son whose outfit is based there though because he refuses to apply for American citizenship, and because Israeli passports aren't recognised in the Sultunate has to work out of Kota in Sabah State.
The Sultunate Brunei Darsullam sits on Borneo's Northern Coast. Borneo is home to 3 nations: Brunei
Indonesia and Malaysia, the country to which Sabah belongs.
In fact, Malaysia is tricky as well, but since Indonesia is another racist bag of shit, we need to rely on Malaysia.
As I mentioned around Xmas my son just left his mandatory 36 month hitch in the IDF, had taken a short "walkabout" and instead of going back to university decided to make money. I cannot blame him since the bloke, at 22 is making 180K US every 10 months plus great benefits. His job? He works for 2 mates of mine who run a Private Security firm, he's a rifleman on tankers hauling petrol through the Straits. He hops super tankers off of Borneo, as soon as they leave Sultunate waters launches that pick up the Pilots (local men who know the reefs by heart who steer the ships, Captains only really mintor automatic pilots in deep seas, unless there's trouble of course) drop off Security.
My son, like my next youngest son who is protessional as I was, was Golani (Golani Brigade),and qualified on the 50 Caliber via the 50 Cal Sniper Course at Mitkan Adam. His job is to sit lay prone atop the super structure, no spotter but with a spotting scope and basically hang out.
He just finished his 1st 10 month tour, cashed the check already, about 10 years salary in our country, and only had 2 engagements, both pinging them until they broke off and hauled ass.
Somalia gets the news but the Mollucan Straits (I sy plural because of the adjacent straits which are far too numerous to mentioned here) are actually the #1 most pirate infested waters in the world. In fact the piracy extends here to this island though only our west and southern sides, especially off of Zamboanga where there were 3 more kidnappings on the water but I won't bother with all that...
Fuck it, you've convinced me.
One tiny island,Panguturan, in the Sulu chain (Sulu, including Jolo Island is a province of Mindanao though separate islands) saw a mysterious Japanese man kidnapped at 1PM on Friday, July 16th.
The man, 70 year old Katayama Mamaito, had lived on the shithole for near on 5 years, taken a local wife (Don't we all? The dumb fucks that we expats tend to be) and even...converted to Islam! For sure he's a dumb fuck, thinking conversion would protect his sushi-saki-sashimi Baby G-Dzilla killing ass from his "neighbours."
The interesting aspect is not that he is Japanese, we have a fair amount of the Nips, I mean slants, I mean I AM FUCKING JOKING, calm down MOD! No, the interesting aspect isnt even that he lived in Sulu! What is interesting is that when the PNP (Ph. National Police) searched his home they found that he had dual identities.
Its very common actually, Chinese who control most business sectors in the Philippines, even when their roots extend back centuries, along with East Indians who dominate the informal consumer credit sector (LOANSHARKING) have 2 names. Peter Go, for example, a kidnapping victim on Sulu's Jolo Island, was actually named Xi Li Wu Yun Shing (one certainly understands why old Peter made the choice he did).
What was "interesting" was that he had passport in that other name, and both names were Japanese (as opposed to "easier to understannd version for locals"). Also noteworth was that this 2nd passport had a younger age.
Petester is one of those guys that is always hounded by the worst possible luck. He joined 3 members of his extended family already in Jolo and opened an appliance outlet, sinking all his life savings into the venture.
He was kidnapped 3 weeks later. His kidnappers immediately contacted the family and began trying to negotiate. His family hung up, shuttered their appliance business and hauled ass to China.
I guess that I really shouldn't colour him "unlucky," because the normal recourse for someone without family or very close friends to ransom them is almost always decapitated.
Pete escaped on July 5th, having been held since December of 2008. Guess what happened next though? I swear this shit is true, you can Google him if you want!
When he was released? He was charged with over staying his Tourist Visa, because he was with his captors when it expired. He was jailed for overstaying his fucken visa!
Mabuhay! Welcome to the Land of Smiles...and YES! We do take Dollars!
I will have to finish the post in my next entry.
Recap: 1st day back in Mindanao for my bi-monthly visit to take of financial and social commitments on Mindanao.
This Entry: I have decided to fly back up to Manila, it was OK and all on the ferry but I am a bit haggard and do not feel up to another 1.5 to 3 days moving through several archipelagos. Butuan Airport is nothing worth mentioning. The best airport on the island is in Davao City but that's a 5 hour drive with no checkpoints and there are 11 between San Franz and Davao so...In fact, checkpoints are why I am sitting here 6 hours prior to boarding. I guess you can compare it to Brunei Airport, typically small and over crowded SE Asian airport though this one rarely has a white face in it where as Brunei maybe has half its business through European contractors...or Middle Eastern like my son whose outfit is based there though because he refuses to apply for American citizenship, and because Israeli passports aren't recognised in the Sultunate has to work out of Kota in Sabah State.
The Sultunate Brunei Darsullam sits on Borneo's Northern Coast. Borneo is home to 3 nations: Brunei
Indonesia and Malaysia, the country to which Sabah belongs.
In fact, Malaysia is tricky as well, but since Indonesia is another racist bag of shit, we need to rely on Malaysia.
As I mentioned around Xmas my son just left his mandatory 36 month hitch in the IDF, had taken a short "walkabout" and instead of going back to university decided to make money. I cannot blame him since the bloke, at 22 is making 180K US every 10 months plus great benefits. His job? He works for 2 mates of mine who run a Private Security firm, he's a rifleman on tankers hauling petrol through the Straits. He hops super tankers off of Borneo, as soon as they leave Sultunate waters launches that pick up the Pilots (local men who know the reefs by heart who steer the ships, Captains only really mintor automatic pilots in deep seas, unless there's trouble of course) drop off Security.
My son, like my next youngest son who is protessional as I was, was Golani (Golani Brigade),and qualified on the 50 Caliber via the 50 Cal Sniper Course at Mitkan Adam. His job is to sit lay prone atop the super structure, no spotter but with a spotting scope and basically hang out.
He just finished his 1st 10 month tour, cashed the check already, about 10 years salary in our country, and only had 2 engagements, both pinging them until they broke off and hauled ass.
Somalia gets the news but the Mollucan Straits (I sy plural because of the adjacent straits which are far too numerous to mentioned here) are actually the #1 most pirate infested waters in the world. In fact the piracy extends here to this island though only our west and southern sides, especially off of Zamboanga where there were 3 more kidnappings on the water but I won't bother with all that...
Fuck it, you've convinced me.
One tiny island,Panguturan, in the Sulu chain (Sulu, including Jolo Island is a province of Mindanao though separate islands) saw a mysterious Japanese man kidnapped at 1PM on Friday, July 16th.
The man, 70 year old Katayama Mamaito, had lived on the shithole for near on 5 years, taken a local wife (Don't we all? The dumb fucks that we expats tend to be) and even...converted to Islam! For sure he's a dumb fuck, thinking conversion would protect his sushi-saki-sashimi Baby G-Dzilla killing ass from his "neighbours."
The interesting aspect is not that he is Japanese, we have a fair amount of the Nips, I mean slants, I mean I AM FUCKING JOKING, calm down MOD! No, the interesting aspect isnt even that he lived in Sulu! What is interesting is that when the PNP (Ph. National Police) searched his home they found that he had dual identities.
Its very common actually, Chinese who control most business sectors in the Philippines, even when their roots extend back centuries, along with East Indians who dominate the informal consumer credit sector (LOANSHARKING) have 2 names. Peter Go, for example, a kidnapping victim on Sulu's Jolo Island, was actually named Xi Li Wu Yun Shing (one certainly understands why old Peter made the choice he did).
What was "interesting" was that he had passport in that other name, and both names were Japanese (as opposed to "easier to understannd version for locals"). Also noteworth was that this 2nd passport had a younger age.
Petester is one of those guys that is always hounded by the worst possible luck. He joined 3 members of his extended family already in Jolo and opened an appliance outlet, sinking all his life savings into the venture.
He was kidnapped 3 weeks later. His kidnappers immediately contacted the family and began trying to negotiate. His family hung up, shuttered their appliance business and hauled ass to China.
I guess that I really shouldn't colour him "unlucky," because the normal recourse for someone without family or very close friends to ransom them is almost always decapitated.
Pete escaped on July 5th, having been held since December of 2008. Guess what happened next though? I swear this shit is true, you can Google him if you want!
When he was released? He was charged with over staying his Tourist Visa, because he was with his captors when it expired. He was jailed for overstaying his fucken visa!
Mabuhay! Welcome to the Land of Smiles...and YES! We do take Dollars!
I will have to finish the post in my next entry.