Poorer communities in the developing world bear the brunt of plastic pollution. Could a new digital payment system spark a clean-up revolution? It was once a shoreline buried by enough trash to render it invisible, warranting the unfortunate nickname “toilet bowl”. Now the Philippines' Manila Bay beach is unrecognisably clean compared with a few months …
Continue reading A simple online system that could end plastic pollution (BBC Future)
The region’s swelling middle class is fuelling a rise in Southeast Asian self-help gurus dispensing motivation and advice Like many Filipinos her age in Manila, 24-year-old Maureen Usacdin wrestles with the daily struggles of city life. First, there is the notorious traffic, which pollutes her lungs and only promises to worsen as people pile into Metro Manilafaster than …
Continue reading The self-help gurus trading advice and inspiration for cash (Southeast Asia Globe)
Manila, Philippines -- If you’re having trouble understanding your colleagues in other countries, try taking a leaf out of the Filipinos’ book. Call centres in the Southeast Asian nation are training twenty-somethings to master a diverse — and often difficult — range of English accents, so that customers may never know they are talking to someone up to 12 time zones away.
The ‘sacred’ story of the Philippines’ former strongman Ferdinand Marcos, as told through a bizarre museum in his home province, where he is still adored. Outside of the Marcos Museum and Mausoleum, beneath a soaring verdant canopy, skinny pushbike tricycle drivers listlessly chatter away the day. They are more consumed by their conversation …
Continue reading History is how you read it: the Marcos Museum (Southeast Asia Globe)
When Marc walks out of his Makati neighborhood, a cramped warren of squat slum dwellings in West Rembo, the view he sees could not be more contrasting to where he has just come from. His neighborhood’s crumbling cranny – too narrow to be marked on maps; too populated to be free of cars – empties …
Continue reading Manila’s Tale Of Two Cities: Where Rich And Poor Coexist
Justin Calderón 