The US colonization of the Philippines seems to have not left a lot of good behind as far as I can tell from here??
The British have been given a lot of credit for their “good colonies”, but I think each place really developed according to what it was to start with. Hong Kong and Singapore were former British colonies. So were Pakistan and Uganda. Never ascribe to the British what you can ascribe to the Chinese.
The US/Spanish colonization of the Philippines brought forth two nations. One was the Republic of the Philippines and the other is the Filipino nation and two are not the same. A large part of the Filipino nation exists overseas. It is the country of the middle class, a population with a dozen different nationalities and a shared culture. It consists of people with the wit and the skill to get the hell out of Dodge. As to the Republic of the Philippines, that is the name given to the spoils system of the former upper classes, who have a peculiar symbiotic relationship with the poor. The only way I can explain it is to think of the worst aspects of the Democratic Party bossism allied with the worst elements of dependency. The Republic of the Philippines is the Kingdom of Boss Tweed in a tropic setting. The Filipino nation is an altogether larger and cultural concept. Most Filipinos have some feeling for their nation and kindred and practically none for the official government.
Be that as it may, the Islands are a good place to learn about God and Devil, laughter and tragedy, folly and wisdom, simply because it is so teeming with the variety of human life. It has in Huizinga’s words, that quality of “directness” that the West seems to have lost. You trust or mistrust people. Institutions mean nothing. They are just names.
Even religion means nothing. Only the actual circumstances mean anything. You can trust some Muslims with your life simply because they are good men; and there are good men among them. Or you can understand that you are in danger and your life is hanging by a thread. The trick is learning how to judge people, knowing who to trust; understanding the envelope. Those poor devils who died on that road suffered from that terrible affliction, “malas”. They were S.O.L. The hundred to one chance had come off.
