Surviving New Year's Eve

[Tonchi]

Bruce, these numbers are completely insignificant. The boundaries of the "original" city of Manila has a population of more than 3 MILLION while "Metro Manila" counts nearly 15 MILLION. Saying that only 11 people died in the holiday celebrations this weekend is absurd! At least 11 people die from violence or absurd accidents in which they blow themselves up EVERY DAY within a 10-mile radius of Luisa's house. The statistics in that article are just about the bodies that the police "investigated". The TRUTH is that the entire police force, as well as all government employees including the Post Office and anybody resembling a public service worker is not on duty at all for the entire week before Christmas and only occasionally after that until January 3. And in addition to that, the government has a strict campaign to stifle any "negative news" about the Philippines getting out. So yes, it was a very tragic weekend in Manila, but we can only guess how bad it really was. I settle for knowing that Luisa survived.