What a week it's been.
Off in the South, you have some group I bet nobody has ever heard off until recently, take over Marawi City. Government forces are taking it back street by street but it's been a rough going to put it mildly. The most recent incident is some eleven army soldiers being killed in a friendly fire bombing. Why is it called "friendly" fire when it hardly is?
In the North, some guy shot up a casino. Who knows? People were panicking that it was a terrorist attack. Now it seems it wasn't. Regardless, a lot of people died.
The Philippines being an archipelago has its advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that problems are localized to some degree. Terrorist activity is more common in Mindanao than elsewhere. One disadvantage however, is that it can be hard to care about something when it seems so far away. It's cruel to say but one has to be mindful of one of the fundamental flaws of Filipino culture. Relationships are a series of rings extending outward from the Filipino. He cares for those closest to him first but grows more and more indifferent the further the ring gets. "So there's a hubbub in Mindanao. Typical. Big deal." When news of the gunman in Manila broke, people were more interested in the latest NBA game. It's hard to feel.
But I have a hunch we'll all be feeling something soon enough.
