Shit, I thought that report was pretty bad. You're saying it's much worse? :mg:

Yep. That report did not include the robberies, nationwide fires that were mostly at Charlie or Delta Alerts, firecracker related injuries, to-whom-it-may-concern bullet injuries, looting at the fire areas and the usual night time crimes that usually double or triple up in rate on NYE. :worried:

Bruce, it sounds bad to you that 3 people died and 600 (no doubt an estimate) were injured in some way, shape or form over a period of 10 days in a city of THREE MILLION? Babe, that would have happened REGARDLESS in Manila over 10 days. Another part of the statistics which were not mentioned is the huge fire in the squatter slums during that time which left 100,000 homeless and wandering the streets looking for another place to squat. A stunning 40% of the residents of Manila is technically homeless in the best of times, so without any shelter over their heads during Christmas week, they contributed significantly to the mayhem.

I got the impression from that report they were just counting the over and above casualties they blamed on the holiday. I posted that so people wouldn't think Luisa was exaggerating the danger involved by thinking a lot of people are irrationally afraid of fireworks. But, I believe her when she says it's even worse. :eek:

btw, that story was datelined Manila, but it came from a news source in Thailand, so it could have been toned down not to offend the neighbors or just using Manilas official position.

Did I mention that the government indirectly asked the media to tone down the bad news reports and stop being such bad boys? So any reports you get on the international wire may definitely be toned down by the official press corps to paint a rosey picture because the reality bites real bad :rar: