Calling Alex W ...Calling Alex W ...
My wife is from the Philippines - my 18 year old son just came back from visiting his cousins.
There is a lot more to the Philippines than girls, bars, and crime. What is missing here is that the Philippines is not just what guys saw that were there while in the military.
It is a pretty conservative country and the economy is improving ( unlike the USA ) as a lot of the population engages in wealth producing work overseas and brings back hard cash.
There are bad places in Manila I would not go to at night - there are similar places in Kansas city I would avoid - I suppose the Philippines is worse, but we are catching up.
The Philippines currency has gained against the dollar for many years now..
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1344038204264&chddm=2900100&q=CURRENCY:PHPUSD&ntsp=0
There are a lot of people working in call centers, IC manufacturing etc - doing things that produce wealth. They have a long way to go, but at least they are headed in the opposite direction than the socialists that run the USA.