After my last post about the lack of Asian-ness in my little corner of Asia, a comment suggested to me that we know very little about this place. So I thought I'd post a little bit about the country, and what I know of it. Which, notably, isn't much. This won't be as funny as the discussion of the particular metallic makeup of Queen Dweeb's balls, but I seem to have no other outlet for my ruminations right now. I'll try to throw in some amusing things along the way so as not to bore everyone.
Before I knew anything about the Philippines, I guess I had the impression that it was a provincial little country with a bunch of islands, where people played mah jhong and didn't have refridgerators. Granted, this impression came from my father, who spent a semester here when he was in high school, 40-some years ago. Apparently my rather poor grandparents couldn't believe that the peopel he was living with didn't have one, so they shipped them a refridgerator. Good ol' Grammy May was outdoing herself even then. Anyway, so my knowledge of the place needed a bit of updating. There are apparently over 7,000 islands that constitute the country, with over 100 indigenous groups speaking (I believe) 33 languages. Most people think the country is Catholic, and part of it is. But the southern islands are very heavily Muslim. This dichotomy explains why my white ass is here- the Muslim population would like to have its own state, and has resorted to insurgency to achieve it (hmm, sounding like Latin America again).
Multiple Muslim separatist groups are fighting the government. However, as Philippine cuisine is a conglomeration of foods from nearby countries, apparently Philippine Islam is a little bit of a mishmash as well. It is not "fundamentalist", simply separatist, and there are many flavors of that, as well. The funny thing is, there is already a section of the south that is governed by Muslims, called the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. These people are pretty happy with the way things are. The primary separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (I'll let you all figure out that acronym), are not. So here, even the separatists are fighting their own people.
Like most developing countries, there is a great disparity between rich and poor, even in the northern, more "developed" region. This of course leads to corrupt government officials, military, police, and pretty much everyone who feels that they are sacrificing for their country and receiving a poor salary. An excellent example of this is my father's old buddy from his time here. My dad suggested I get in touch with him, because he was fated to be a high-ranking military member, and would certainly love to see me. Oh, high ranking he was, until the Brigadier General was court-martialed for pocketing some development funds. Yikes.
As I mentioned, the Philippine food is really a conglomeration of foods from other cultures. One of the main dishes I see advertised is called "pancit canton." Pancit means noodles; canton means cantonese. Another food I see is lumpia- vegetables wrapped in a rice-paper roll. Sound familiar? It goes on like this. Up to and including the aforementioned Kenny Rogers' Roasters. I really haven't found many places serving this "Philippine" food. I'm a little afraid to just randomly stop into a restaurant, as some of the food quality has already set my stomach aflutter. So hopefully I'll find someone who has vetted one of these places and I will try it out.
In summary, as I've written this I've solidified my thoughts on this place a little more. It seems to me that maybe this is a country and a people that are simply very suggestible. They are of Spanish descent, speak English, eat Chinese food- maybe this is why I'm not finding anything particularly "Philippine" about it. They don't seem as nationalistic as many other countries I've visited, either. Maybe they have had so many years of outside influence that they just take what comes. I'll have to think about that some more.
I'll be kvetchier next time, I promise.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment