Category: Philippines
Philippines
It is the vastness of the contrast, between income, living standards, attitudes and quality of life.
I have just spent five weeks in Asia – three in the Philippines, one in Thailand, one in Cambodia.
By Southeast Asia standards, Canadians are rich beyond imagination. “I wish I’d been born into royalty,” my oldest daughter sighed during the trip. Looking out the van window at yet another slum, I replied “You were.”
According to the World Bank in 2012, Canada’s per capita income (gross domestic product divided by the population) was $52,219.
Thailand has come a long ways, now in the mid-ranks of the world with a per capita income of $5,480.
The Philippines is far behind, in the bottom third. The average per capita income is $2,587. Its greatest export and income earner are Filipinos living and working abroad – 12% of its people.
Cambodia is the poorest sister of Southeast Asia, at $946 annually per capita. Despite the horror of its history and th ...
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o, there’s no dog.
Having just finished my fifth visit to the Philippines in some 25 years, I’ve decided this dog-eating thing is a complete myth.
Filipinos don’t eat dogs.
It’s not part of the culture. Filipinos eat the same meat/fish proteins as North Americans, maybe about one-hundredth the amount, but chicken, pork, fish and shell fish are what you see in the market. There’s nothing weird like snakes or rats or monkeys … or dog. Or if there is, it’s very secret.
Besides, why would anybody want to eat a Filipino dog? The street dogs in the country are the scrawniest canines on earth. They all look like they’re about to die from malnutrition. There’s nothing there to eat!
The weirdest food you’re going to find is balut – a duck egg with a near fully developed duck embryo that absorbs salt and flavours in a resting stage, then is quickly boiled, peeled and eaten with a vinegar dip.
I tried it … once. If you closed you ...
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