THIRD WORLD PHILIPPINES

Our country is purported to belong to the Third World sphere -- those countries which are sources of raw materials for the First World. But there are many other qualities of a third world country that can be gleaned here in our surroundings.

For one, you see garbage trucks running around at any time of the day with all its polluting smell filling up the road. No you don't see such scenes in the First world.

Two,  the markets are always dirty, seem never to have been cleaned at all. I once lived in London near a market and it was always cleaned with a large hose so that you would not be able to smell fish or meat at all.

3.  Many jeepney drivers still think that their vehicle is a private service and so drivers smoke in great abandon, or drive and swerve without thinking of their passengers' safety.

4. Tricycle fares may have been standardized, but in our barangay, the drivers charge so much. While in other barangays drivers wait to fill up their vehicles with two to five passengers, those in our barangay, only want one so that they can charge more. How about that?

5. Water bills go up and down. A jeepney driver complained to me how their bill went up to P6,000 but when he complained, it reverted to the usual fee of P300 per month. But the next month, it was P7,000 again and so he had had to go back to the water utilities office to complain.

6. My facebook account has been hacked. No matter how I complain, and try to reset my passwords, some one or a group are hacking it, so that it reverts to "try again." Why is our country run this way? The freedom to communicate has gone haywire. No this does not look like what the Jeffersonians envisioned a society should be, nor what Cory had said, we would be after the People Power movement.

I could mention more. But truly this business of being in a TW country can be very stressful. Folks, aren't you glad you are in some other country? If I get a chance to live again, I would like to try another country to be in.