Message 13 of 52 in the Usenet group SOC.CULTURE.FILIPINO        Subject thread: Great plan to help Philippines

If you are going to say that Italy was both a friend and foe, wouldn't you have to include the RP in that category? And you forgetting both China which was an American ally thoughtout the *whole war* and Taiwan which if I remember correctly was under Japanese rule at the beginning of the War. China is a very interesting example in this regard, as the United States sent a great deal of help in the war and after the war.

Why don't you study other allies with a similar economic circumstance before the war and after. examples of other *allies* Peru, Mexico, Cuba, (Cuba is a particularly interesting case as *it* wasn't kept by America after the Spanish-American War, yet was an ally during WWII). The reason I bring up these contries is that they had a Spanish history, as well as being Allies during WWII. I further suspect that the economy of Cuba is worse then that of the RP, but I don't think that the USA has "backstabbed".

> Thank you for stopping by and thank you for your insight. Your perspective is correct in the limited scope that was presented, but I was trying to get people to stop and look further back, BACK to WW2 and see how things in the Philippines got that way.

I think you have to go further back,  you might study the differences between nations controlled by Spain Vs. nations controlled by England. For instance, I think you would find attitudes in Canada to be more like Australia, New Zealand, Falkland Is., Gibraltar, and the Bahamas. And attitudes in the RP to be more like those of Cuba, Bolivia, Morocco, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, etc. It is my opinion that attitudes about work, business, money, government, private property, in these two groups are what influences their success in the world economy today ( natural resource *aside* )

>Take into account, that most of the commercial industries were not  touched (IE. Japan's automobile factories). This gave these countries the gigantic head start in EVERYTHING that they enjoy today.

Most of the industries of Japan were destroyed, The head of Sony attributed their economic ascendancy in the 70's and 80's due to the *fact* that everything *was* destroyed during W.W.II, (which meant that they restarted with state of the art equipment when they later went head to head with the USA in manufacturing).

> So, I think your tourism solution is simplistic and typical of people in the USA. Perhaps, you were there to watch Claire Danes film her latest epic

That's funny given your *explanation* for the RP current economic circumstances. Tell me, if the RP's economy takes off and becomes a "tiger" economy, will it *also* be because of America, or the hard work and intelligence of Filipinos?

> And you know, there isn't a whole lot that I can do about it (besides bitch and moan) and all I really want to do... IS GET SOME SOCCER SHOES DONATED TO THE CHILDREN OF THE PHILIPPINES!!

You might try advertising in European NGs they would have more soccer shoes and might even *like* your anti- American slant on Filipino history.  Good luck in your efforts.