Wonen in de Filipijnen

Ditmaal een bericht over toerisme in de Filipijnen. Als er al 650.000 toeristen in Boracay alleen kwamen opdagen, om dan nog niets te zeggen over de honderdduizenden die elders in de Filipijnen hun logement zochten, dan stel ik mij de vraag waarover zovelen in Belgie klagen dat zij geen geld hebben om hun maandelijkse leefomstandigheden te bekosteigen... Uiteraard waren die 650.000 in Boracay niet alleen Belgen. Europeanen in het algemeen komen niet zo vaak naar de Filipijnen. Omdat er geen georganiseerd sex-toerisme is zoals dat wel het geval is in Thailand, omdat het al met al vrij duur uitvalt om vanuit Europa naar de Filipijnen en terug te vliegen en omdat er, bij gebrek aan georganiseerd toerisme, weinig te ontdekken valt tenzij men, goed en degelijk gedokumenteerd, bereid is om op eigen houtje rond te trekken. De meeste toeristen komen uit andere Aziatische landen, uit de USA, Canada en Australie.
Wat die allemaal komen doen op een strand zoals Boracay is natuurlijk vanzelfsprekend: zonnekloppen, surfen en wat aan andere strandsporten doen. Zedelijk gekleed in strandkledij en geen naakzonnen, want dat is verboden in de Filipijnen.

"In a candid interview with AFP, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim suggested it was time tourists visited equally beautiful beaches in the country other than Boracay, which the government said drew 650,000 tourists last year. "If you go to Boracay you'd love the beach, you'd love the night life and the good restaurants. But it's so dense, it's so dense," Lim said. "It is now, you know, too commercial. It's become Phuket," he said, referring to the much larger Thai beach resort island. Lim, who joined President Benigno Aquino's cabinet when it took power on June 30, said the 10.3-square-kilometre (four-square-mile) central Philippine island of Boracay was a different place a generation ago. The sprawl that followed the tourist dollars caused the seawater off the four-kilometre (2.5 mile) white-sand beachfront to sprout algae, which was fed by sewage from the hotels and restaurants, he said. "Thirty years ago they tried to set the rules but they were not successful. The local government did not cooperate... so people started overbuilding," Lim said. "Of course, bad sewage -- that's why (you are seeing) algae at certain times of the year. It's green. It's the result of the sewage seeping out. The algae there is not yucky, it's moss. Maybe fish eat it. But it's an indication that there's a problem below the surface." Asked if the problem, which first made world headlines in the mid-1990s, had been solved, Lim said: "I'm not sure. I don't think so, that's why at certain times of the year the algae forms." Lim said environmental and zoning regulations were not being enforced, leading to structures even being built inside the high-water mark. "And they continue to build. They're building huge hotels in the mountains." Lim suggested the government may in the end be unable to halt overdevelopment. "We have world-class laws but nobody follows them," he said, adding tourists may just have to look elsewhere. "The thing about Boracay is the quality of the sand. But there are other places that have better quality sand, but (they are) very expensive," Lim said. Lim also voiced concern about a project approved by the previous government under then president Gloria Arroyo to extend Caticlan airport, just across a small strait from Boracay, so that it can take international flights.

"It will compound the problem because it is meant to lengthen the airport, bring in more tourists and there are too many tourists (already)," he said. Environmentalists oppose the seven-year, 54-million-dollar project, which would more than double the runway length to 2.1 kilometres, because they believe it will damage the area's ecosytem and lead to sand erosion on Boracay. Local lawyer Augusto Macam, who represents a number of Boracay tourist establishments, told AFP Lim was not giving the complete picture about the situation on Boracay. "Maybe the secretary should take a look at the place first," Macam said. "The responsible stakeholders are addressing the sewage problem and other environmental concerns," he said. The problem, he said, was that the local government had allowed certain businesses to flout the rules. "It's a problem of regulation and that is the duty of the government."

Het is weer een probleem van enerzijds te veel toeristen op 1 plaats en anderzijds een behoefte om toeristen aan te trekken en dus inkomsten voor het arme land binnen te halen. Hoe die toeristen te verspreiden over het land is een vraagstuk, want weliswaar zijn er ontelbare stranden in de Filipijnen maar zelden met een fijn wit zand als in Boracay (daaraan dankt het dan ook zijn faam). Een ding is zeker: het zal nog lang duren vooraleer men Boracay zal aanduiden met een spotnaam zoals Benidorm: het Spaanse Antwerpen.

Although food prices have dropped since the height of the global food crisis in 2008, the problem of malnourishment is worsening and governments are not investing enough in agriculture, they warned.

Over 60 million Asians became malnourished last year, raising the regional total to 642 million, Jacques Diouf, head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, told an international food security conference in Manila.

"The sheer magnitude of food insecurity is the result of the low priority that has been given to agriculture in economic development policies," Diouf said in a video address to the conference.

Food prices in Asia remain between 20 and 30 percent higher than 2007 levels, FAO Asia Pacific director Hiroyuki Konuma told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

The world as a whole needs annual farm investments of 200 billion dollars over the next 40 years to feed the world's human population, which is expected to grow to 9.1 billion by 2050, Konuma said.

In Asia alone, 120 billion dollars are needed every year, according to Konuma.

"We have a shortfall of 40 billion dollars for this region," he said.

Konuma said governments had been lulled into complacency by farm-yield breakthroughs from the 1960s that gave rise to the "Green Revolution" and raised farm outputs three-fold, lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.

But he said in the decade leading to the 2007-2008 global food crisis, annual output growth around the world stagnated for rice and wheat -- two of the most important cereals.

"We have to triple the pace of production (for rice and wheat) in the next 20 years," Konuma said.

Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda, the forum's host, said global food prices were still 85 percent higher than 2003 levels.

More than 25 percent of Asian children aged five or younger are moderately to severely underweight, more than a third are moderately or severely stunted, and 18 percent of infants are born with a low birth weight, he said.

"These statistics belie a crisis that will only get worse in the years to come unless immediate action is taken," he said.

"Add to this rapid population growth, climate change and water shortages, and the need for action is blindingly apparent."

Intussen gaan de Verenigde Staten van Anerika en bondgenoten door met oorlog voeren in Irak, Afghanistan en Pakistan. Biljoenen dollars zijn er al aan besteed en nog meer biljoenen dollars zullen er nog aan besteed worden. Hoe langer die troepen daar blijven, hoe meer het kost.
Anderzijds stuurt ook de nieuwe administratie van kersverse president van de Filipijnen Noynoy Aquino een bericht in de wereld:

"Philippine celebrities targeted in new tax campaign

Philippine celebrities are to be leaned on by inland revenue officials who said Tuesday they will begin targeting stars as part of a new crackdown on tax evasion.

Although the campaign will cover other high earners, there will be a special focus on celebrities to set an example to the showbiz-crazed Philippine public.

"For celebrities, it's easier (to check) if they are reporting (earnings) or not. You just watch the TV, look at billboards or the magazines," tax commissioner Kim Henares said in an interview with ABS-CBN television.

A staffer from Henares' office told AFP they would focus on "those in the media who are earning quite a big amount".

"They will be used as examples to highlight the activities the bureau of internal revenue is undertaking in this area," said the staffer who asked not to be identified.

The details of the campaign are still being thrashed out as part of a wider effort to cut down on rampant tax evasion, said aides of Henares.

President Benigno Aquino, who took office on June 30, has said the government will control its ballooning deficit with improved collections rather than resorting to new taxes.

Celebrities like movie and sports stars are held in high regard in the Philippines, with many being elected to high office"

Uiteraard betaalt niemand graag belastingen. Het is een noodzakelijk kwaad. Als het belastinggeld in de Filipijnen zal worden aangewend voor het lenigen van de nood van velen, is het goed besteed. Als het belastinggeld in de USA aangewend wordt om oorlogen te financieren, dan is dat zonder meer schandalig.

On his second day in office Aquino ordered his driver to stop for red lights and declined to use lanes set aside for public buses and as a result arrived 40 minutes late for a military parade.

"He refused to go into the yellow (bus) lane. We got stuck in traffic," a journalist who was part of the official convoy from Aquino's northern Manila home, five kilometres (three miles) away, told AFP.

Police escorts were also barred from using their sirens, and members of his security detail jumped out of their vehicles to secure the presidential car every time the heavy mid-morning traffic stopped the limousine, he said.

Aquino, son of the late democracy icon and former leader Corazon Aquino won a landslide election victory in May on a pledge to fight corruption and end a culture of impunity enjoyed by many Filipinos in positions of power.

At his inaugural speech on Wednesday he brought the crowd of half a million people to their feet when he declared: "No sirens, no counter-flow (driving on the wrong lane), no bribes."

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda admitted on Thursday that Aquino's insistence that he be treated like every other Filipino in traffic was causing a massive headache for his bodyguards.

"That's a concern. Either he wakes up earlier and just observe all these traffic rules or, since he's allowed to use sirens, he can use the sirens," Lacierda said.

"I don't think anybody will fault him for using the sirens."

Under the law, only the president, the vice president, the heads of the two chambers of parliament, the Supreme Court chief justice, police, military and emergency vehicles can use sirens and drive through."

"The Philippines' once pristine island of Boracay has become extremely overdeveloped, with its famous beach now choked by sewage and too many bars, the country's new tourism minister said Friday".

De Verenigde Naties hebben enkele dagen een nieuw bericht de wereld ingestuurd:
"Big investments needed to halt new Asia food crisis: UN

"The Philippines' once pristine island of Boracay has become extremely overdeveloped, with its famous beach now choked by sewage and too many bars, the country's new tourism minister said Friday".

De Verenigde Naties hebben enkele dagen een nieuw bericht de wereld ingestuurd:"Big investments needed to halt new Asia food crisis: UN

De Verenigde Naties hebben enkele dagen een nieuw bericht de wereld ingestuurd:
"Big investments needed to halt new Asia food crisis: UN