Message 27 of 52 in the Usenet group SOC.CULTURE.FILIPINO Subject thread: Great plan to help Philippines
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From: "skyrider" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Great plan to help Philippines
Date: 07 Oct 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
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RASSLE Co. <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> <snip>
> > > The statement that I should include the RP as BOTH a friend and foe is intriguing, please elaborate.
> > Jose Laurel was the inaugrated president in October 1943, declared war on the United States a yeare later, the legislature was composed of a single party "Kalibapi", it's leader was Benigno Aquino. (ref. In our Image, pg 307,308)
> I apologize also for being remiss in getting back to you... The kids and the soccer team come first. I did try to find out a little more about RP's declaration of war on the USA and found virtually nothing, other than small snippets that I interpeted to say, the declaration of war was made by a "Puppet Government" established by the Japanese. I haven't checked out your reference,"In Our Image", but if you have a ready reference on the Net, I would like to check that out.
I don't have a "net" ref., but don't worry too much about it. I would recommend "In Our Image" to you should you ever happen to be an a book store with a reasonable history dept. I would agree that the government was a "Puppet Government", but it *was* the "Filipino" government of *that* time. So if you are going to be "Technically" correct (as you are of Italy) you should be "Technically" correct about the RP. BTW you might have a hard time differentiating *Italian* government from the Government of the RP as when Italy *became* our allies they were already being occupied by our troops, just as the RP was occupied by Japanese troops.
>>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."
My point being that you blame the current and most recent economic circumstances of the RP are the responsibility of the United States. Why don't you blame the United States for China's economic circumstances? I would guess because it is clear that *China* is responsable for *their* economic situation... as is the *RP* (and it's Rulers)
> Regarding your other comments... the other countries that were allies of the USA (and the enemy countries, for that matter) all had long established histories of self reliance. RP coming out of 400 years of Spanish rule was largely ignorant and quite "content" to let the "EDUCATED pensionados" continue as they had for centuries. I would wager that the majority of the populace didn't even notice the change from Spanish rule to USA rule. Along comes WWII, the Japanese use the pensionados to keep the peasants in line. Japan loses, the pesionados fearful of losing what they have left, agree to everything that the USA wants.
I guess you don't want to blame the "pesionados" for their greed, but American greed is fine to blame... I gess that is where we differ!
> Yes, I do blame the USA, "in part", for the way things are now in RP, but they just took advantage of the situation. That is water under the bridge and worthy of note only if Filipinos can learn from the past and not get fooled again.
Look, it's real simple, if you want to be an *independent* nation (as the Filipinos *wanted to be*) even before Americans arrived in Manila Harbor why blame the other parties for deals your government made? The government of the RP is and has been responsible for the economy of the RP since independence, that Filipinos have mismanaged it (or succeeded) should be credited to Filipinos not Americans. Yes, I recommend that you don't get fooled again! But if you *do*... it will again be your *own* fault.
Regards,
Gary