PHILIPPINE CITIES:

Carrie Javier is a free-lance travel writer/editor. She also does copy editing and editorial consultancy, e.g. for newsletter and other publications. If you are interested in her work, you can contact her here: Carrie Javier, carrie.javier@gmail.com

My First Month in the Philippines
By Jerry Worthington
I am Jerry Worthington, 62, from Phoenix, Az. I just retired Sept 1 and, due to a spotted work history and early retirement, my SS income will be in the lower range of the generally considered “required to live income” for a foreigner in the Philippines. ($600. per month).

BUYING PROPERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES
By Chuck from Danao City, Philippines
Buying property here is usually like walking around in a mine field. You can buy it but you sure better know what you are doing. Never buy real estate unseen.
 
When you find a property you like, agree on a price, and then go check out the documents. If the property checks out, you have someone drawn up a deed of sale and closed the deal. Usually you pay cash on closing.
 

Culture Shock
Ron Turley - From the UK, Elsie is from the Philippines
I thought it might educate or entertain others if I noted down a few of the ‘culture shock’ things that have happened to Elsie and I during our relationship.
First some background. We met in a supermarket here in Qatar. She was a check out supervisor with a degree in Commerce. Never been married and with no children. We dated for a year or so before marrying and now have a lovely daughter of 11 months.

Many of Us Are Thinking It,
But is This "It"?
“There will be wars and rumor of wars”. “The Earth will tremble”. “The sky’s will darken and turn red.” It will begin and it will end in Israel.” These are but a few of the tale-tell signs of “The End Times”.

The Middle East is certainly a perplex quagmire. Having been there I can tell you first hand the intensity of duality magnified to the hundredth percent. To this day I do not have the answer. Some believe it was the greatest mistake of the 20th century when in 1948 to have created a state named Israel (not to be confused with Judaism), in that particular geographical area. What if...

What's Going On in Our Subterranean World

ust two day after my article on the Yellowstone caldera ‘swarm’, I have received at least three breaking news articles on “new” volcanic activity. But it doesn’t stop there---I have also received a report of a new “swarm” of quakes which have hit the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia. Local seismologist report a total of 450 minor quakes have registered over the past 24 hours near Karymsky volcano.

Ocean & Climate Change Institute - Abrupt Climate Change
When most of us think about Ice Ages, we imagine a slow transition into a colder climate on long time scales. Indeed, studies of the past million years indicate a repeatable cycle of Earth’s climate going from warm periods (“interglacial”, as we are experiencing now) to glacial conditions.

Is a New Ice Age Under Way?
“Watch out, Al Gore. The glaciers will get you!” With that appended note, my friend, retired field geologist Jack Sauers, forwarded to me a report that should have been a lead item in every newspaper in the world. It was the news that the best-measured glacier in North America, the Nisqually on Mount Rainier, has been growing since 1931.

The coming ice age
As little as 30 years ago the talk wasn’t about global warming, it was about an imminent ice age. Is an ice age likely? Even possible? Consider this: There have been more than 20 glacial advances, or ice ages, in just the last two million years. And we know from geological evidence that each glaciation lasted anywhere from 20,000 to 100,000 years—no one knows why the disparity—separated by warm periods that last some 10,000 to 15,000 years. What we can be reasonably sure of is that we’re now in one of the warm periods, and this one is already 13,000 years old. Some scientists think it’s at an end and a new ice age is about to begin

THE ICE AGES ARE COMING!
How quick can an Ice Age descend upon earth's living creatures?
If you were to kill an African elephant, leaving it lying in place, its carcass would begin to decay most likely in a few weeks, and if not eaten by scavengers, putrefy in about twice that time. Thus to explain the reasonably intact non decayed remains of a woolly mammoth caught at the beginning of the Fourth Ice Age, suggests that once trapped by falling snow, presumably as winter closed in, it had remained frozen through the next summer, and all those summers to follow, until it was discovered by men, 100,000 summers later.

"Mini Ice Age" May Be Coming Soon, Sea Study Warns James Owen, for National Geographic News
While global warming is being officially ignored by the political arm of the Bush administration, and Al Gore's recent conference on the topic during one of the coldest days of recent years provided joke fodder for conservative talk show hosts, the citizens of Europe and the Pentagon are taking a new look at the greatest danger such climate change could produce for the northern hemisphere - a sudden shift into a new ice age. What they're finding is not at all comforting.

In the 2004 eco-disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, a similar scenario spurred sudden, catastrophic climate change, with much of Europe and the United Stated transformed into frozen wastelands within days.

That scenario remains far-fetched. But British scientists say their new findings indicate that the threat looks all too real for northern Europe and marine animals.

Mini Ice Age
Global warming is slowing down the ocean current that carries warm waters from the tropics to the North Atlantic, scientists say.

You be the Judge
The True Story of John B. Martin
Over the past few years I have closely monitored a number of criminal cases brought against foreigners and assisted, where possible, by providing busy defense attorneys with analysis of the transcripts. All of these cases were similar in that the accused had been under pressure to pay substantial amounts of money to have the case dropped.
 

LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES:

Picture: Tagaytay Picnic Groove (old volcano now a beautiful lake) Just a short drive from home up the mountain passing fruit stands of ; Pineapples, Mangoes, Banana, Guava, Pawpaw, Jackfruit, Coconuts, watermellons, honeydew mellons etc. If you love your fruit this is the place to come.
What I have written is my point of view of life for me in the Philippines. Although i have pointed out some negatives ,they are far out weighed by the positives making this one of the most wonderful places to live.
One of the first things i noticed is it takes a long time to get anything done. You really need to be in Holiday or retirement mode .So wind down before you come, then just sit back, relax and go with the flow. As they say "When in Rome........." in this case "When in the Philippines do as the Pinoy (Filipino) do"...

Clark Field Memories
by Terry Ballard with photographs by Sam Ballard

The Philippines changed my life even before I got there (and by a curious coincidence, I was born on the day in August 1946 that the Republic of the Philippines was proclaimed by President Harry Truman). Dad had been sent to Clark in November, 1958. Initially, we were all going to go together, but we got bumped by somebody. The next month, the rest of us had to go to Luke AFB near Phoenix to get shots for tropical diseases. When we got our first typhoid shots, I was the only one in the family that did not have any side effects. A few weeks later, I took the second typhoid shot and did have a side effect - I was in a coma for more than a week. I went to the base hospital just before Christmas, 1958. The next thing I knew, I was watching the Rose Bowl Parade, in a long ward filled with sick airmen. Mom swears that my little brother Sammy got out of shots by running out of the line when nobody was looking - he had the right idea.

We moved out to Clark the following April. We were one of the last families that had to make the trek on propeller-driven airplanes. The trip from San Francisco to Clark lasted 36 hours...