Paris shooting upstages APEC Summit

Osaka, Japan: It's been a week since that night of terror where ISIS terrorists on a suicide mission killed 129 people in various locations in Saint-Denis, at the Bataclan Theater and the State de France Stadium inside Paris, France. All the dead now have been identified and the French Air Force assisted by the carrier Charles de Gaulle have conducted many air raids in Iraq and Syria which are known ISIS strongholds.

But just when we thought that the world would be watching the world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation now on-going in Manila, suddenly all the satellite news about APEC has been pushed aside because Paris once more has become the breaking news last Wednesday because of a police raid in Saint-Denis where a woman blew herself up when police charged the apartment building, which police believe that prime suspect of last Friday's attacks, Abdel Hamid Abaaod, was hiding. They believe that he was one of the two who were killed in that raid, while five others were arrested by Paris police. What French intelligence has pieced together is that some of the terrorists were hiding with the refugees to enter Europe.

As it turned out, French intelligence have known that Abdel Hamid Abaaod was going in and out of France from the fighting in Syria. On the same day, French President Francois Hollande was addressing all the mayors all over France confirming that indeed, France was at war with ISIS as they do not only have funds for arms and oil from the Iraqi oil fields and some support from Arab state and above all support from within France. He also exhorted the whole world to join the fight against the ISIS State!

So now France and Russia are fighting ISIS in Syria… and Russian President Vladimir Putin told his military in Syria to treat France as an ally. For sure we won't see the end of ISIS unless the United States would put boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq. But knowing that US Pres. Barrack Obama has only a few months to go as President, I reckon he won't commit US ground troops in the Middle East and would rather leave that decision to the new US President.

Meanwhile, because of last Friday's and yesterday's terror attacks in Paris, the Armed Forces of the Philippines  is in the highest form of alert because of the APEC Summit. But what I felt was an overblown security operation was the Army's setting up an anti-aircraft gun near the APEC Summit. Come now, surely the AFP is not expecting an attack from the air?

But I did get some news that a bus was bombed in a shopping mall in Davao City. With my limited news about the happenings back home, we can only be worried whether this would escalate into something.

Meanwhile, I also read earlier news that Pres. Aquino wanted to talk with US Pres. Barrack Obama about retirement. Hmmm, whose retirement was this report referring to? For sure Pres. Obama is going to exit a few months ahead of PNoy. But even then, what the heck should these two leaders talk about their retirement when there are far more important issues to talk about like the role of the US in the defense of the Philippines? Although Pres. Obama has openly declared his support for the defense of the Philippines, but like I said, he is an out-going President and therefore we should look forward to who will replace him in the White House after the elections are over and done with.

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It's been raining since Tuesday and Wednesday in Osaka so we had to cancel our visit to the famous Osaka Castle as the rains stopped our outdoor activity. So we just went to the Shinsaibashi covered arcade. The place so huge it will take a day to cover the entire area. But there is something that I noticed about the Japanese… their attention to detail is flawless.

For instance I noticed that in the giant Daimaru Department store, they had a device for people using umbrellas to drop into a hole and pull it out with their umbrellas wrapped in plastic. This was designed to ensure that the people coming inside the store with wet umbrellas do not wet the floor. Then I noticed that most of the shops and stores had this device, which shop owners bring us when it rains.

I remember that toilets that flash automatically began in Japan. Today go to any public toilet, especially high end stores and you will see toilet bowls that are heated and will wash your butt when you're done and flush automatically. This is now fast becoming a standard in Japan.

As I pointed out earlier, Japan is no longer the very expensive place that people think it still is. Shopping in Osaka was a treat because their prices were not far off from store prices back home. If at all, Japan's major negative is that most Japanese still don't speak English, which is often a huge hassle where miscommunication can waste a lot of your precious time.

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