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1994
Philipines South East Asia
Bec2004-09-20 18:23:21
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Manila
When the fact-finding mission in Jakarta was done, the team of experts rejoined at the Bank's Manila headquarters to draft reports and recommendations for the loan approval authorities. That took about a week and then I reconverted to a backpacking globetrotter.
I had been in Manila before and found it even more depressing than the last time for I had had the occasion to see at a closer range the great luxury enjoyed by the local elite while the great majority of Filipinos struggle hard to survive.
Here is one of the bastions of the walled city, Intramuros, built by the Spaniards, starting in 1590 with a stone fort at the mouth of the Pasig river. The walls, (13 metres thick, 6 metres high and 3 kms long), enclosed 15 churches, 6 monasteries and a powerful garrison. The original Malay inhabitants mounted more than 100 revolts against the Spanish occupation but they were put down by superior armament and by missionaries who taught them that power was God-given and that it flowed through Rome and the Spanish crown.
I have travelled widely and have seen severe misery in many places. I have learned to take that in my stride but extreme social inequality and flagrant injustice still upset me, especially when the privileged have good conscience and feel no compassion for the downtrodden because they have the blessing of religious authorities. Too often have I observed that faith in the message of hope proclaimed by Christ has produced subservience and dependence on charity instead of advancing the recognition of human rights.
The walls of Intramuros were formidable but more devastating were the brainwashing by the Catholic Church and the assimilation of Spanish absolutist truths and values that destroyed the original "pagan" culture of the first inhabitants so completely that very little is known about it today. A deliberate cultural genocide similar to those that destroyed the Aztec, Maya at Inca civilisations
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See photographs from:
Philippines Gallery
