When it comes to the Philippines, the first word that comes to mind is "Filipino maid", a country that was once so poor that it sold its women to other countries as domestic servants to earn dirty money.
The Philippines is a populous country in Southeast Asia, with a total population of more than 100 million people, and in the 60s of the last century, the Philippines was the second richest person in Asia, so how far have they reached now?
After an in-depth understanding of the Philippines, we found that the Philippines is not what we imagined, so what is the real Philippine life like?
The first impression the Philippines makes
When the holiday season comes, some friends may consider going to a closer country to go out, but now, the global Internet has been very developed, and when going out to play, many people will do a good job of planning online.
This can avoid friends "taking refuge" during their travels, and when it comes to the country of the Philippines, many people's first impression is "poor", and most of their streets are still very dilapidated.
Not only that, but even their streets are very congested, the city's infrastructure is aging, and the main means of transportation is tricycles.
Many people's second impression of the Philippines is that there are frequent armed conflicts in the country, and who would want to travel to such a country when the country is so chaotic?
The Philippines is also known as the "Nanny Empire", the country sent millions of "Filipino maids" to the world, this business was first opened by the government that colonized the Philippines, and this business still exists today.
In order to carry forward such a "fine tradition", the Philippine government has set up "home economics courses" in more than 2,000 universities in China.
A series of actions by the Philippine government have made the "Filipino maid brand" successfully famous in countries around the world, but it has also brought many negative impressions.
There are also many voices in the Philippines that suggest restricting the idea of a large number of women going abroad to work as domestic servants, but the Philippine government, facing economic pressure, can only assume that it does not see such proposals.
Today, the situation facing the Philippines is inextricably linked to the fact that it has been colonized by other countries many times.
The Philippines has been colonized several times
The Philippines has experienced nearly 400 years of colonization, and Spain, the United States, and Japan have all become colonial rulers of the Philippines.
In 1564, when Magellan of Spain traveled around the world, he accidentally discovered the country, and then the Spanish expeditionary force occupied the Philippine Islands and colonized the Philippines in the north-central region.
At the end of the 16th century, Spanish missionaries intended to go deep into the Philippines to preach to the indigenous people in the local dialect, to teach the natives to speak Spanish, and to establish a number of schools in the region.
Ostensibly the establishment of schools, in fact it was the forcible expropriation of the buildings of the indigenous people, and they would not be paid in the slightest, and gradually the locals began to reject the Spaniards.
This is also the reason why the Spanish colonized the Philippines for more than 300 years, but after the United States colonized the Philippines, few people spoke Spanish.
In 1898, after the end of the war between the United States and Spain, Spain reluctantly ceded the Philippines as a colony to the Yankees, and then the United States became the new colonial ruler of the Philippines.
The arrival of the American colonizers initially brought a lot of "benefits" to the Philippines, and the Yankees established a "civilian government" in the region, allowing Filipinos to also have the right to vote, and improving the local judiciary.
From a political point of view, this act did contribute to the progress of local civilization, and soon after the "help" of the United States, the Philippines acquired many modern equipment.
No matter how much the United States has helped the Philippines to progress, it cannot hide the essential problem of the United States colonizing the Philippines and ruthlessly taking away many local resources.
Sure enough, the "good life" of the Philippines did not last long, and the ambitions of the United States were exposed, and they opened the so-called "free trade" in their mouths, so there was a situation in which the Philippines produced what the American market needed.
Seeing that the profits of other businesses were too small, businessmen gradually put these industries on hold and began to increase the production of hemp, cigarettes, and sugar, and after decades of "domestication" by the United States, the Philippine economy gradually became homogeneous.
From the original diversified development, regressed into the development of a single product, and finally became a material supplier to the United States, I have to say that this "fine tradition" of the United States really has a history to follow.
In 1942, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and captured more than 20,000 American GIs, making Japan the "new master" of the Philippines.
During their rule in the Philippines, the Japanese were "very friendly" to American prisoners of war, and they first plundered the belongings of American GIs like robbers.
Then he punched and kicked this group of American GIs, because American GIs are generally tall, and when these Japanese beat American GIs, they need to jump up and fight.
These American GIs then went through the brutal "Bataan Death March", during which the American GIs went through "purgatory", they were already subjected to inhumane treatment before their departure, and their physical condition was already very bad.
After arriving at the destination, these GIs appeared, and a large number of prisoners of war were concentrated and died, so it is no wonder that some Yankees hated these Japanese from the bottom of their hearts.
Independence of the Philippines
In 1946, the Philippines became peacefully independent, and since then it has been free from nearly 400 years of colonial rule and has moved towards the road of independent development, but because it has been colonized by the United States for more than 40 years.
As a result, the Philippines is politically very close to the United States, and even the process of cultural development has followed the United States step by step, and it is no exaggeration to say that the Philippines is a "miniature version of the United States".
With the support of the United States, the Philippines has developed its economy, and at the end of the 60s, the Philippine GDP per capita was $1,000, while South Korea's per capita GDP was less than $100.
At the end of the 60s, the economic strength of the Philippines was second only to Japan, and the good times did not last long, and the Philippines did not last long, and then went into decline.
After independence, the Philippines became an American "contract factory", a phenomenon that lasted for 20 years, during which the Philippine economy grew.
When the United States did not need these backward products, the Philippine economy also went into decline rapidly.
How is the Philippines developing now?
In 2021, the total GDP of the Philippines was 2.72 trillion yuan, what is this concept? In the same year, the GDP of mainland Liaoning Province was 2.75 trillion yuan.
In this comparison, it can be seen that the Philippines is indeed "developed" now, and it is about to catch up with Liaoning Province on the mainland, it seems that the Philippines still needs to work hard, otherwise it will not even be able to catch up with the GDP of a province on the mainland.
It is worth noting that at this time, the Philippines has a population of more than 100 million, and the permanent population of Liaoning Province on the mainland is about 42.59 million, so the per capita GDP of the Philippines is far lower than that of Liaoning Province on the mainland.
The most direct way to express the real living standards of the people of a country is how the people's wages are, and the standard of the people's wages in the Philippines is similar to that of Southeast Asian countries.
Most of them use the minimum wage standard to settle wages for the people, and the gap between the rich and the poor in the Philippines is relatively large, so the minimum wage standards in various regions are very different.
It stands to reason that almost a country's capital is the most prosperous city in the country, so let's take the capital of the Philippines as an example, where the daily minimum wage is about 65 yuan.
If calculated according to the 24-day work in a month, their minimum wage is 1,560 yuan, which seems to be a very low salary, but for many Filipinos, this is a "high salary" that they dream of.
Keep in mind that this is the capital of the Philippines, and if you take the poor areas as an example, their minimum daily wage is 38 yuan, so they can only earn 912 yuan a month.
Despite this, the Philippine economy continues to grow at a rate of growth, which is somewhat incomprehensible.
In recent years, the economic growth rate of the Philippines has remained above 6% for six consecutive years, and in the first quarter of 2024, the year-on-year growth rate of the Philippines has reached 8.3%.
The economic development of the Philippines mainly relies on the service industry, tourism, and gaming industries.
Rizal Park is one of the more famous attractions in the Philippines, and the popularity of this attraction even surpasses that of Mumbai's Corniche, and many people choose this place when they travel to the Philippines.
The gaming industry is not only legal in the Philippines, but the Philippines has also carried forward this "characteristic", which has driven a large economy in the Philippines.
All in all, most of the Philippine national economy relies on "Filipino maids", gaming, etc., and these special industries have developed, which has led to a very poor gap between the local rich and the poor.
Real life in the Philippines
As the capital of the Philippines, Manila has an important financial center, a rich area with bright lights, and there is no shortage of poor people in difficult conditions.
Manila is a city of about 4 million poor people who are living in great hardship, while the rich and rich are living at ease, as if they are not in the same city.
These people live in the slums, living day after day, year after year, but as the old saying goes, "the poor must have something to hate", and most of them do not think about their future.
I only know that mixing one day is a day, that is, I am very lazy, I don't know how to work, I only know how to waste my time, and it is very good to have a place to live in the slums.
The slums of North Passy City in the Philippines are even worse, filled with all kinds of garbage, the smell of rot in the air, and all kinds of pests call it home.
Some of the poor live here, they have no money to buy food, so they have to pick up garbage from the garbage heap to make ends meet.
On the other hand, the wealthy area of Manila, where the streets are clean, there are many high-rise buildings, and entertainment facilities are readily available, and the Filipinos in the wealthy area live a drunken life.
They don't care about the lives of the poor, they only care about whether they are happy or not, and girls in rich areas dress very luxuriously and often hire many "Filipino maids" to take care of their daily lives.
epilogue
The Philippines is a country that was brought out by the United States itself, and the United States turned the country upside down, and after getting benefits, he patted his ass and left, but as the saying goes, a slap does not make a sound.
The Philippines ended up in such a situation, completely to blame, since it has chosen this path, then it must bear the corresponding consequences.
If a country wants to achieve long-term development, it needs to develop steadily, and a country that always wants to eat a big fat man in one bite will eventually backfire and come to an end.