A city choking to death

Manila may pride itself of being a mega city, but it’s marred by pollution, overpopulation, congested traffic, dank sewers and filthy streets. Even Manila Bay and its sunset have stopped becoming an attraction because of the stink and the ugly sight of plastics, refuse and garbage being washed ashore. If the MMDA and the national government don’t do something drastic soon, Metro Manila could become uninhabitable in less than 10 years. It’s already ranked the 4th most polluted city in the world whose level of pollutants is four times the maximum level set by the World Health Organization, definitely worse than Bangkok. Overpopulation is also contributing to the problem with people living in abject poverty in slums particularly in the Baseco compound in Tondo. Clean water is also difficult to have and the overburdened sewage disposal system planned only for 5M people is compounding health problems. With 13.8 million people now living in the Metropolis, the population is growing at 1.7 million people every year and 60 percent of this is added to Metro Manila alone. So it could only get worse. Spybiz took several aerial photos the other day to illustrate the growing problem.

Destined for doom

If you’ve been having trouble with the services of this cable company, then you’re not the only one. Subscribers often experience unexplained or unannounced interruptions on programming, from a few minutes to as long as several hours. Movie channels also have a habit of just going off air, and then reappear again but this time on another slot on the dial. Other services also get announced on the "barker" channel, only to suddenly disappear without a trace. Service repairs for the Internet access offered by this cable company are also slow, sometimes taking as long as a month. If this kind of dis-service to customers continues, it won’t be surprising if the cable channel finds itself destined for doom soon.

From the listening post: Smuggled Taliban TVs entering RP

Here’s a heads-up for anti-smuggling authorities. The Man from Kiangan reported that the Talibans are quietly trying to raise funds for Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah by smuggling goods out of Afghanistan to neighboring countries like Russia and Iran, Southeast Asia, including the Philippines. During their five years dominating Afghanistan, the Taliban viciously condemned modern culture and values. The regime, however, made profits from smuggling a top TV brand, Gillette shaving cream, and Marlboro cigarettes, among other products. A few years ago, a spokesman for Philip Morris, which makes Marlboros, said the company couldn’t comment because it doesn’t do any business in Afghanistan. British American Tobacco PLC, maker of Dunhill cigarettes, said that it doesn’t condone or encourage smuggling. So try to decline if somebody offers you smuggled goods such as these in Mindanao. You may be funding terrorists with your disposable income. Watching terror attacks from the safety of your TV screen may be vicariously disturbing. Suffering from it first-hand is an altogether another matter.

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