Corporate Mining And The Philippines

Howz about I get me one of these outfits. Nice.

Well, my beautiful Philippines is up against the wall again. This time it is corporate mining interests v. indigenous people (what else is new). In Occidental, Mindoro, the Mangyan people have occupied the same land for generation after generation. Unfortunately for them, the land is rich in minerals and gold.

They earn a whopping 34 cents a day, 9 of 10 are malnourished, illiteracy is rampant and they call the four month monsoon season the "hungry period." There numbers are small (I believe 25,000, could be wrong on that one), their dialect is in the minority, education opportunities are very small, but that hardly matters because to make it to age ten is something of an achievement.

This is the first I've heard of these peeps and their plight. We have seen this before in the Amazon Rainforest and China's Yantze River (peeps displaced because of corporate interests). I'll be keeping my eye on this one. C'mon Philippines...I rooting for you. Heart Kriss.

Why would anyone dig up this beautiful land. For money. Fuck that.

In 1999 I visited a rural school just like this one. They were stoked to even have this much.

Nipa huts are houses on stilts because the rains come...every season.

* Article from the Mighty Al Jazeera.