Pontificating Crap

 

Comment from a reader on: Why Must the Philippines Become North Korea?: It was typically high handed and dumb enough that at least this reader thought you were being serious. No idea that was your version of humor, given the usual pontificating crap you serve up...you are so in love with the godforsaken Philippines...pathetic...if your gal has big tits and a hideous face, are you going to defend her eternal beauty despite all facts to the contrary? Are you blind? You are in deep denial...well anyhow, you have apparently enthusiastically and happily found your own level...good for you...

From the Bugle: You seem to have found happiness as well (and yes I would defend my gal). 

Stop Criticizing Us Intelligent Readers!

 

Comment from a reader on Foreigners in the Philippines are Low Rent and Low Class:  Not a bigot...he speaks the truth...what in his post is bigotry? Because your wife and kids are Filipino, and you are "living the dream" that makes his pointing out the massive problems there in the Philippines racism or bigotry? You are in deep denial, Bugler...write hamburger reviews and stop criticizing the few intelligent readers that make your blog relevant...

From the Bugle: I can’t find a good hamburger in Subic. Any recommendations?  

The Bugle Should be More Critical of the Philippines

 

Comment from a reader on: Leave the Poor Bigots Alone! : You are in the Philippines moron. The reader blames the Philippines because that is who is running the show...and your blog is about the Philippines... If you were living in Albania and professing to write an intelligent fair minded truthful Albanian blog, would you be defending the Albanians and labeling any criticism of Albania and Albanians as bigoted or racist?

From the Bugle: We get your point. You think Filipinos and the Philippines are inferior to your race. Anything else to add to the discussion?  

In Celebration of Sea Slugs

 

Comment from a reader: Once again the Bugle rocks. You are great at reducing morons to DNA which sadly matches the DNA of sea slugs, much to the dismay of sea slugs.

From the Bugle: Sea slugs are amazing and beautiful creatures.

Why Must the Philippines Become North Korea?

 

Comment from a reader on the post: Should Philippines follow the North Korean Model?: What makes you think that the only two economic/political/social choices are Philippines corruption or a North Korean styled dictatorship?

From the Bugle: This is called “humor”. Apologies. It won’t happen again.  

Leave the Poor Bigots Alone!

 

Comment from a reader on the post: The Problem with Bigots: So everyone who disagrees with you is a "bigot"? What the f…

From the Bugle: 

No. This is an example of a bigot.

And these people are people who are not bigots:

We disagree with both but the first one is a dim wit who blames an ethnicity instead of thinking through an argument and the second are folks who actually have something interesting to say.

See the difference?

Stay Anonymous Bugler

Comment from a reader on the post: Why is the Bugle Anonymous?: Mr Bugler this is for you personally and you need not publish it, but that's up to you. It would in my humble opinion be ill-advised and naive to reveal your personal info here. Perhaps someone with an axe to grind is trying to trick you into revealing your ID. Don't do it. Yes I suppose one could argue that all of us anonymous posters "hide" behind the anonymity, that's both a good and bad thing. Bad because it encouraged lack of civility (mostly from your readers, including me too sometimes, sorry, mea culpa) as on most all blog and reply sites. Good because it encourages free flow of ideas and info, even if controversial. Especially in Philippines where things can be dangerous if the wrong person is offended. The guy at Margarita had a blog site that was very candid and he got some threats and dropped the investigative reporting, now its rather innocuous. I don't blame him. The Philippines is scary. Harry the Horse is highly informative and entertaining, great site, but he names the names of who did what to whom.

From the Bugle: Is this blog really all that controversial? Emotions do run high but this blog is more like a heated conversation among drunks in a bar than some kind of investigative expose’. Half of the people arguing in this blog don’t know it but they are actually friends. I think we had a reader tell us to burn in hell because they disagreed with us over the grounding of a boat on a reef. Ha! We have had people send in comments that implicate others in criminal activity and we either don’t run those comments or we delete the names (which is a time consuming hassle thank you very much!) We aren’t trying to hide something or protect people. We just don’t know if such allegations are true. I know some readers think we are hiding behind the Internet, but we aren’t. If we published our names, and those of our readers, then the blog would not work in its current format. This blog has two primary goals. It seeks to be 1. Interesting and 2. Local. All the other nonsense associated with this blog comes from the over-active imagination of some of our readers (who we love by the way!)

Why Can't Filipinos Travel Freely?

 

Comment from a reader on the post: Clark Airport is the Meanest in the Philippines:

My girl and I regularly fly through Clark and have never had an issue but I’ve heard horror stories. I have spoken with immigration in Olongapo and they could not understand the bull either but they said any Immigration Officer can refuse to let any person leave for any reason. It is up to them personally. The course is for emigrants not tourists but one day someone in authority will fix this but don’t hold your breath. Maybe just maybe the male immigration officers from the line were removed and replaced by females and now they need to exercise their authority at a different spot within the terminal. I’ve noticed they are all elderly male officers. We have been asked if we were migrating but showed the accommodation and return ticket and the visa to Australia clearly showed it was for three months. Maybe that’s what they were leading too.

From the Bugle: It really is an insult to the Filipino people. Singaporeans, Thais and Malays are allowed to migrate and travel freely but the Philippine government believes Filipinos have to take courses to learn how to live overseas and need to be interrogated before they travel overseas. The Philippine government should have more respect for the Filipino people.

Robbing Retirees Blind

 

Comment from a reader on Another Bad Experience with Tricare in the Philippines:

It may be "It is what it is" today, but it doesn't mean it'll stay that way! If we don't change it it'll only become worse and more disgusting tomorrow. The above claim history is typical. It took over 4 years to finally settle all of my claim with an emergency treatment for ischemic stroke in Angeles City, whose AUFMC ER did nothing but charge P2500.00 before informing us that they "don't treat PTSD patients, thank you," and subsequently at Mt Carmel in San Fernando Pampanga, which sent me to Heart Center hours after my arrival. Had I not received a lot of assistance from an authoritative and dedicated individual who knows the ropes in Tricare, I would have received about 6% of my claim. TMA/ISOS are nothing more than con artists, 'flim-flam' individuals stealing the retirees blind. They lie so often one would have to hook them up to a 'truth detector' to note any change in their behavior. Procedure was somewhat complicated by WPS/TMA declaring they had never received my claim

Equal Disdain

Comment from a reader on the post: Why is the Bugle Anonymous? As long as you dislike everyone equally there should be no problem.  

From the Bugle: We don't know who we like or dislike because the people who comment are also anonymous. All we are judging people on is the quality of their thinking.
 

Clark Saved Angeles from Urbanization

 

Comment from a reader on Clark Airport is the Meanest in the Philippines : The irony being that there would not even be a beautiful huge Clark base or Clark airport if not for the efforts of the "colonizing" foreigners i.e. the Americans creating what is still today an island of sanity among the chaos. Left to their own devices from the start, the locals would have urbanized the entire area by now and it would look just like the rest of Angeles City. 

From the Bugle: True it would be urbanized but this isn't because of the "locals". Rapid urbanization is a regional phenomenon in Asia: Here is an excerpt from Forbes magazine that puts this into perspective: 

The modern megacity may have been largely an invention of the West, but it’s increasingly to be found largely in the East. The seven largest megacities (defined as areas of continuous urban development of over 10 million people) are located in Asia, based on a roundup of the latest population data released last month by Wendell Cox’s Demographia. The largest megacity remains the Tokyo-Yokohama area, home to 37 million, followed by the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, Seoul-Incheon, Delhi, Shanghai and Manila.

Lighten up!

Comment from a reader on: Don't Invoke the Name of Jesus: Hey lighten up dude!! I'm sure Jesus had a sense of humor. You need to get one too.

The Beautiful Women of Subic are Exploiting Me!

 

Comment from a reader on: The Bamboo Bugle Needs a Psychiatrist

When I am in a bar, I feel like I am the exploited one. Isn't that the reason why many of us live here? To be exploited by pretty girls? Sounds to me like this guy is a reformed drunk and probably isn't interested the female gender. Perhaps he figured out how to make a few pesos by exploiting Filipino labor and figuring out how to navigate the corruption. But why would anyone do that when they could take their enormous business acumen and apply it in a much better market like their home country? Note that he doesn't provide his name or the name of his business... Hmmm I wonder who is hiding anonymously. Running from Preda possibly?

From the Bugle: Who will protect the poor, beleaguered bar customer from exploitation?

Six Peso Muffins

 

From a reader: Here's good tip, There's a foreign man and his children selling daily, homemade muffins in the street between the Palenke and the RC building in Gapo. They're P6 each only, and they are MASARAP!!

You know you love us penguins

Comment from a reader on Go Home Fat Bodies!:   They hate us but they love our fat wallets!

The Penguins are Giving us all a Bad Name

 

Comment from a reader on Go Home Fat Bodies! : I am a foreigner that is married and has lived here in the Philippines over ten years. Unfortunately I have to agree with this poster. It's not being overweight that is the problem. It is that so many foreigners come here and treat the locals badly and are overbearing, pushy, and obnoxious. It seems that foreigners like this are simply unable to make it in their own countries and then come here and live a lifestyle in night clubs that is sickening and disgusting. These are the ones that give all us foreigners a bad name. I agree and say to people like this--Go home where you belong!

On behalf of the penguins...

Comment from a reader on Go Home Fat Bodies! That's unfair. And the powerful Penguin lobby is upset. Penguins are cute and actually committed to family and work very hard to migrate and feed their young against all odds. Not fat either. Watch March of the Penguins, fantastic, award winning film. Maybe the reader was referring to walruses? He should spend more time watching Animal Planet but maybe he doesn't have cable.

From the Bugle: Agreed. Let’s leave the poor penguins out of this. They have enough to deal with.

Thanks for Sharing

From a reader: I am very amazed by the information of this blog and I am glad I had a look over the blog. Thank you so much for sharing such great information.

From the Bugle: You are welcome.

More Fun in the Philippines?

 

Comment from a reader on Impolite but Right: It would be my guess that most ex-pats have a love/hate relationship with the Philippines....love the good things, hate the bad...not an unusual response to life there...things are different in the Phils...some love it more than others, some hate it more...all should be entitled to their opinion...I have brought a number of friends to the PI, some drop everything and immediately move there, some come back to visit whenever they can, some are absolutely appalled at what they see and hear and will never come back again...

From the Bugle: Unfortunately, the ones we are dealing with are the folks who hate the country but for some reason decide to live in it anyway.

An Interesting Essay

 

Comment from a reader on Senators Who Kicked Out Bases Wanted Cash: "US Bases In The Philippines"--outstanding essay written presumably by a Filipino during the Estrada administration but covers most all the issues---I found it on the internet...sorry for length but very topical, fascinating, worth reading, I think, here is the link: http://www.wowessays.com/dbase/ae4/lmy301.shtml Looking forward to comments from those with the stamina to read the entire article.

Bugle: Over to you dear readers.

Doomed by Jeepneys

 

Comment from a reader on Jeepney driver doing what Jeepney drivers do best... : Apart from the appalling nature of this specific incident, jeepney drivers (and trikes) seem absolutely oblivious to conditions around them. They U turn directly in front of you, suddenly pull into traffic without looking or caring, and refuse to move to the right even one foot to allow traffic to pass... maddening... police don't care because the government doesn’t care...maybe if police enforced the traffic/registration/licensure/pollution laws against the knuckleheads, the knuckleheads would shoot them...so doomed to remain third world in the traffic department...

From the Bugle: They are the Kings of the Road and they are despotic rulers.

What Happened with the Murder at Blue Rock?

 

Comment from a reader on If You Don't Like the Philippines Go Home! any news on the murder of that guy Paul at Blue Rock Baloy? Any thoughts on who and why?

From the Bugle: Over to you readers.

US Bases Closed in the Philippines for a Variety of Reasons

 

Comment from a reader on Senators Who Kicked Out Bases Wanted Cash: It was a combination of a lot of things...Why did they leave? Depends who you ask. I saw this online. In 1991 increasing Philippine nationalism was leading to the US bases there being very unpopular. Opposition politicians saw opposing the continued US military presence as a vote winner. The US was not unaware of this and had already been looking at other alternatives. The catalyst that made it all happen was the eruption of Mt Pinatubo. This eruption, the largest anywhere in the world in the 20th century, was devastating to the local area, and completely buried in ash the two largest US bases in the country - Clark Air force Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. This forced the evacuation of most US personnel from the country. The Philippines senate pounced and cancelled the leases on both bases. The US simultaneously relinquished its hold on the bases. And the locals likely saw gold in the bases, the vast nature of the acreage there, the infrastructure, the tourism possibilities, etc etc.

From the Bugle: Sounds like a reasonable summary

Should Philippines follow the North Korean Model?

 

Comment from a reader on The Philippines is stagnant:

You are correct in that the Philippines is the 2nd fastest growing economy in Asia. However, the poverty and unemployment levels have remained the same. Where is the money being spent?

And another:

The flip side of the coin, even the Philippines agrees that there is 25% unemployment (probably more) and that the so called booming economy is not helping anyone but the rich...WHY are you in denial on this?

And another:

Beg to differ---virtually none of the money at the top of the Philippine food chain/stock market etc is filtering down to the poor...and MOST of the PHILS is poor, or dirt poor...hence the stagnation among 80% of the population...is any of that money being used to clean up the garbage, traffic, pollution, crime, generating jobs, infrastructure, clearing slums, providing education? For the vast majority, I don't think so...

From the Bugle: Thanks all for the excellent comments. These are all good points, but what is the alternative? Should the Philippines abandon capitalism and follow the New People’s Army to a North Korean state of paradise? I have some hard news for you guys: in a capitalist system, the rich get richer before the poor get less poor. That is true in every country.

The only proven path out of poverty is for a country to institute reforms; have those reforms recognized by international agencies which in turn attract job-creating investments, particularly in manufacturing. The rural poor move into factories, have enough money to pay taxes and educate their children, and the educated children then become middle class tax payers who demand less corruption and better government. The increased tax revenues are then poured into infrastructure and other investment-attracting activities. That is the only proven path. That is what China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other middle class countries have done. The Philippines is not stagnant. It is on the move, but it has a long way to go before it translates high economic growth and institutional reforms into broad poverty reduction.

This is the real question: Will the Philippines go off track, as it has done in the past, and fall back into corruption and economic stagnation?

My Father Served

 

Comment from a reader on Never Forget: Thank you! My dad was on Clark in latter part of WW2 as Army Air Corps pilot, 1944-5, he was one of the lucky ones...missed the 1942 carnage...

From the Bugle: Extend our thanks to your father for his service.  

Pieces of Poop

Comment from a reader on Jeepney driver doing what Jeepney drivers do best... Trykes and jeepneys are the scourge of the Philippines. The country will NEVER advance while these pieces of poop dominate the public roads. And for you tree hugger types proclaiming the "greening" of the Philippines, how much pollution is pumped into the air each day by these vehicles with their constant wandering around looking for the next 2 peso fare? How much fuel is wasted?

From the Bugle: Agreed whole heartily on the jeeps and trikes. Tree hugger types? If you don’t like trees, buy a face mask and move to China my friend!

The Bamboo Bugle Needs a Psychiatrist

Comment from a reader on Tell Mr. Blame the Philippines to Unsubscribe : Six months since posting and you still can't stop talking about me...lol. It must really burn you up inside to see someone who has done something for themselves, other than spending their life in a bar exploiting women half their age, and hiding behind the safety of his internet blog. You're a sorry excuse of a human being, and I know that every time you look into the mirror, it must really hit you hard to see such failure in yourself. You should seek some professional help.

From the Bugle: Thanks for commenting. It’s good to feel your warmth again. You are an integral part of the Bamboo Bugle team!

Go Home Trailer Trash Penguins!

Comment from a reader on Go Home Fat Bodies! Bravo to the writer. Those complaining the most are bloated foreigners who tend to be foul mouthed. Trailer trash best describes these gifts from Australia, Europe and America. They need to go home. 

From the Bugle: Thank you for your ignorant, narrow-minded comment. 

The Philippine Senators Wanted Billions

Comment from a reader on Senators Who Kicked Out Bases Wanted Cash: Yep if they wanted to they would have paid the bribe. But how much was the cash wanted! Billions! Even the Americans don’t have that much cash to waste. 

From the Bugle: Billions is chump change. Hundreds of billions were poured into Iraq with zero accountability. The Americans would have happily paid billions to keep their bases in the Philippines. They lost billions in infrastructure giving them back. It cost billions in logistics moving to Guam and Japan. Sorry guys but you can't simplify the base negotiations into the bribes you pay to the traffic enforcer when you run a red light. 

Tell Mr. Blame the Philippines to Unsubscribe

Comment from a reader on I Will Give the Bugle Loser a Job : Good Job Bugle, tell Mr. Blame the Philippine and the Bugle for all of his problems to get a life and with one click (unsubscribe) half of his problems will disappear. Pangit and knows it. 

From the Bugle: We hope he keeps on commenting. That crabby old bigot is a lot of fun. 

Fire Traps are Common in the Philippines

Comment from a reader on Subic Fire Traps Remain: This is not unusual in the Philippines, it is a way of business here. You choose to live here. 

From the Bugle: Yes and we choose to work to make it a better place. Let's keep pushing for the official investigation report on this fire.

Why Can't You be Civil, Like Your Readers?

Comment from a reader on the post: The Philippines is stagnant: Bugler why do you call someone who disagrees with you uneducated or an old fart? You are violating your own rules of civility and getting personal...

From the Bugle: Civility? Have you read this blog recently? We have a small group of Philippine-hating readers who have told us we are jobless, America-hating lecherous drunks who should burn in hell just because we choose to present a balanced picture of the both the positives and negatives of the country.

And by the way, the rules of the blog say nothing of civility. They say no profanity and no racism. We give the bigots a wide berth in this blog, wider than we should. 

Breath versus Underpants

Comment from a reader on the post: Smell the Sewage: No actually it's your breath...you are pretty insulting Mr. Bugler...the writer comments on the situation in the Phils, and you attack the writer personally...

From the Bugle: Okay, I will brush my teeth and stop accusing readers of being incontinent.  

Actually, the Bugle Should Not Burn in Hell

Comment from a reader on The Bamboo Bugle Should Burn in Hell to the Bugler: I have been rather critical too sometimes, but I hope I have not been over the top vitriolic like this...this reader makes me look positively upbeat about your column and the Philippines...don't take any of it personally...anonymous posting online allows us to really air it out, but it unfortunately gives us license to write things that we would never say to the other personally face to face...hence the lack of civility... 

From the Bugle: Agreed on all points. 

China is the elephant in the living room

Comment from a reader on Philippine Defense Chief Floats Possibility of New US Bases in the Philippines: True, the PHILS needs the US because they have zero military ability. Cannot handle the MILF MNLF Abu Sayaf and NPA etc internally by themselves. And externally being pushed around by China and maybe North Korea and whatever that debacle was all about in Malaysia recently. You are correct, there is a small but very vocal minority (Communists, Muslims, gadflies, isolationists, whatever) against the US and the VFA that must be kowtowed to...they get a lot of local press and put lots of pressure on the local Senators...but the Philippines still gets tons of money from the US above the table and under the table for docking fees and military aid and everything else (the so called anti trafficking stuff too, which is another issue for another day) ...A strong military presence of US in the Philippines helps the US too for anti terrorism AND the encirclement of China issue...China may be the elephant in the living room...North Korea is giving us an excuse to be more active in the Pacific...at some point, China wil...

From the Bugle: Interesting analysis. Just a tip, if your comment is long, break it into two comments or blogger will chop it off, as has happened with your comment, or you can email it to us at bamboobugle@gmail.com Thanks for the interesting comment!

Don't Invoke the Name of Jesus

Comment from a reader on Jesus Should Pimp Slap You : Why would the Bugler publish a comment suggesting that Jesus would "pimp slap" anyone, even if one reader disagrees with another about the magnificent life over there in the Philippines? Maybe the rules got bent because the Bugler agrees with it? That's so incredibly offensive and blasphemous to-- and a complete misreading of--Jesus' teachings....how anyone could invoke His name to say that, and in the same sentence accuse the original writer of being "mean spirited," is way beyond the realm of good taste...Don't need to work blue? Hmmmm....  From the Bugle: The commenter is just saying that Jesus would disagree strongly with the mean-spirited nature of the original poster. I do agree with you though that we should leave religious figures out these debates. They are rancorous enough without adding religion to the mix!

They Won't Reinvent the Wheel at Clark Airport

Comment from a reader on Manila Won't Let Clark Have a Truly International Airport: Thank you for the hard work on the Bugle. by the way, since Philippine Airlines has a relatively new expensive Terminal 2 airport, and there is a new local airport, and there is work/upgrade on the old intl terminals all in Manila, doubt they would reinvent the wheel up in Clark...and PAL was just bought by the very powerful San Miguel Corporation, so in my opinion, there will only be the minor airline players in Clark that PAL tolerates until it decides otherwise...not to mention the 5 star hotels and Makati Fort Bonifacio business money people and other vested interests that don't want Manila moved... 

From the Bugle: The Philippines is the fastest growing economy in Asia, behind China. If it keeps up this blistering growth rate, it will need many international airports as well as much more reliable power supply and vastly upgraded infrastructure. 

Smell the Sewage

Comment from a reader on the post My Country is Better than Your Country: You don't have to be an "experienced international traveler" oh my goodness that's so very impressive and smug---to smell the sewage, my friend... 

From the Bugle: I think what your smelling is your underpants.

My Grandmother's Testicles

Comment from a reader on Good Driving Schools Make Good Drivers: IF being the operative word. IF they enroll and IF they find good driving schools and IF driver's licensing in the PI wasn't just another scam for purchase. We have drivers ed in every high school in the US. My drivers ed teacher was a mean strict effective no tolerance no BS vocational shop teacher. We also watched gory movies of real car accidents and bloody bodies to further scare the crap out of us. But I learned. When I went to get my PI license, the whole bureaucratic thing was a joke and 3 or 4 different gov't offices were involved, different locations, each demanding a fee. The Doctor himself could not read the eye chart and the blood pressure test consisted of his holding my wrist to see if I had a pulse. He wrote down the estimate, 110/70. No blood pressure sleeve. Manual. No kidding. Driving school. Never going to happen. IF. IF my grandmother had testicles, she would have been my grandfather. IF.

Murders are the fault of the Philippines

Comment from a reader on Angeles-style Executions Come to Subic: What a great country and culture...so let's see if we can sort this one out---he had his head blown off because either a) he was a strict boss or b) he had too many-- or apparently one two many-- girlfriends...or possibly c) a business dispute...oh Ok I get it...in the Philippines any of the above is seen by the "justice system" as justifiable homicide...likely nothing will come of this in terms of punishing the shooter or whoever may be behind the shooting... 

From the Bugle: Yes, good point. Murders are the fault of the Philippines, that's why there are no murders in your country and when there are murders they are always solved. It's all the Philippines fault. We get it. Any other intelligent analysis to add? 

Where is the practical sense?

Comment from a reader on Manila Won't Let Clark Have a Truly International Airport: Very well said. And where is there any " practical sense applied over here "