What is life like living in a third world country?

In this country, in the past 6 months, two different elections have been held, the first to elect a new president and government for the country. The most recent election was for a new local government. The local elections are very important as councilors are elected and these are the people that make the real decisions on what is happening in their Barangay (council area). Although voting is not mandatory, almost everyone turns up at the polls so they can have their say. The only problem with this is, if the person you are standing next to doesn't like what you have to say, they may just pull out a gun and shoot you dead for having a opinion they don't share. Every election there are many people gunned down, along with their supporters.

Pollution is terrible, not only from transport vehicles, but from wood fires and garbage fires. Let me explain garbage fires. The Lapu Lapu council does not have regular waste removal. So the trash builds up on the side of the roads. These people do not care about aesthetics, they litter everywhere. But some do care and decide to burn all their refuse, diapers, plastic bottles and everything else that contains deadly chemical mixes which are released when fired. The waterways are choked with plastic bags and litter, so much so that when it rains the backup causes floods across main roads and other low lying areas.

The electricity is interrupted for a couple of hours each day as supply from the main power plants in Manila runs short. The average citizen does not have air conditioning or refrigeration, so it matters little to them. Traffic enforcers control the flow of traffic, whether there are traffic lights or not, and the majority of them are not very good at their jobs. In any case, traffic lights are not regulated, you may get a 30 second green light followed by a 7 minute red light. There is certainly no sense to traffic flow in this country and drivers are really reckless. I had the experience of a minor mishap a couple of weeks ago, where a taxi swerved into the land my taxi was speeding down. They collided, but no names or other information was exchanged, both drivers cursed the other, then drove off to continue their business. When I tried to explain to my driver the accident would not have happened if he had not been speeding, he immediately went quiet and upon reaching my destination wanted to charge me extra for the entertainment.

Small children dodge traffic to beg for small coins so they can buy rice. I tried to help one organisation, telling them I would contribute a 50 kg bag of rice every month to help feed these orphans, but they never got back to me. I have friends in America that wanted to help by sending donations to help these kids, but the Christian Charity never got back to me. After 3 attempts to help, I finally gave up. You can only chase a snowball so long before it melts.

I recently had two cameras stolen, a Canon EOS 50D and a Canon SX20IS, worth about $US2000. I reported it to the police who really did not give a hoot in hell about my loss. Crime is at an all time high and has been for quite some time. Graft and corruption run rampant through all government offices, except for maybe the new president, who is vowing to address the problem. Let's just hope somebody doesn't buy him out in the meantime.

With all the crap we put up with it is still worth living here, in this nation of 7000 islands.