Makati City, Philippines

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by slang

I've been taking a lot of abuse lately from my wife.

She tells me that I only post those things on the cellar that make the Philippines and Filipinos appear dirty, dishonest, and stupid.

Not at all. Dirt at street level, up close and personal, happens where ever people live.... it's universal.
Maybe the Mrs has a skewed perspective of the US. We've got the same situation in our cities.
I was reading an article about Shanghai, in Smithsonian magazine. Over and over, throughout the article, he repeated how clean the place is. But then in the photographs showing crowds of people, there was plenty of litter on the sidewalk. I'm sure they clean it up on a regular basis, but where you have people, there's a steady supply of trash.

As for the Filipinos... There are all kinds, good and bad, just trying to cope with the world around them. They've often lived under very brutal conditions, yet they have been smart enough to adapt and survive. But in the end, with all the similarities and differences, they are just humans doing what humans do.

[slang]

This is another part of the rich and beautiful area. It's the food area of the Market Market mall.

It's open to the breeze but shelters from the rains. Sort of an unusual structure here but it's nice.

And...there's this fountain for the kids to play in and for people to take pics of their kids getting all wet.

[slang]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Not at all. Dirt at street level, up close and personal, happens where ever people live.... it's universal.
Maybe the Mrs has a skewed perspective of the US. We've got the same situation in our cities.

Yes, that's true. A part of the objection is that when I am there in the US I do post a thread with pictures of that particular place.

You can find most if not all of the places that I've been to in the past 4 years or so right here in the cellar.

What's different is that I have all the time in the world now to explore, snap and post about those things that I find interesting about Manila.

There is time to go on trips, to get addtional information, to add to a certain sub category of something that I might post later...many more options now that I'm not working.

As the surroundings here get more familiar my questions and explorations will get more detailed.

That's surely a part of the irritation of me posting and commenting here.

[slang]

Here is another example of the building going on here at the Global City.

I'm not sure if this will be offices or homes.

This is the link to the real estate broker.

There is a lot of excitement about the buildings going up in this area and the number of times that I've been handed a broshure or invited to a sales presentation is ridiculous.

Is there anyone out there that might have experience with such quickly growing areas?

I often tell my wife that if all those condos do sell ( and they are overpriced IMO ) then will the surrounding infrastructure support the addtion of all these people?

I'm skeptical because of all the building going on in cities in the US like Miami with their push to cash in on all these condos.

In FL they arent selling or are very soft with sales.

It seems to me that everyone here has dollar signs flashing in their eyes at the thought that they will surely get rich off these small condos.

Who is going to buy them all?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by slang

As the surroundings here get more familiar my questions and explorations will get more detailed.

That's surely a part of the irritation of me posting and commenting here.

Sure, your stateside posts only highlighted your surroundings.
I understand her concern/embarrassment, but I want reassure her, what we are seeing is interesting, and we're not looking down on her people.
Some things being good, as well as some not so good, is universal and not something she should be embarrassed about.
Hell, if everything was perfect, we'd all move there and then she'd really have a problem.