decadentrebel

Air or plastic pollution, the point remains the same because the ban just restricts fireworks to specific manufacturers — all of which still make firecrackers the same way, and not from ethically-sourced organic gun powder wrapped in water-soluble farm-raised packaging.

Good point, but air pollution is not the reason. As long as it's from authorized sellers (read: prohibitively expensive manufacturers), it's all good. Their main reason is that a lot of people get injured — but like I said, several million Filipinos have been doing it annually and only an estimated 800-1000 get injured (some from these high quality firecrackers), those are actually great odds.

I get if they're banning the unnecessarily dangerous and powerful ones (like Goodbye Philippines) but New Year's Eve staples for many decades like five star, pla-pla, judas belt, and right down to something completely safe like watusi is just ridiculous. It's always been part of our culture and what makes our New Year's celebration fun, now it's been relegated to just the rich. $1-2 vs. $75 is insane.

Note: We stopped using fireworks since 2006, so I don't exactly have a horse in this race.

lol dead with your leg up while taking a nap

My first reaction was suspicion. But that's me looking at it from a taxpayer who wants accountability and also being fed with articles about fake deaths and conspiracies.

Instead, reality is much simpler. Husband and family probably have seen the toll on their wife/mom's mental health and that she was at the end of her rope. They probably just want to move on and don't want their last memory being her body opened up to confirm what they already know.

The funny thing is (or maybe sad) is that when they reallocated the DPWH budget because of the flood control mess, they just transferred most of it to Philhealth who's just as corrupt if not worse.

Which circles back to the argument about what makes capitalism bad. In the end, it's the ones on top who gets to decide how the money is spent. It's not automatically going to help the poor. It's the same reason why I just facepalm hard when people would say we need nuclear power because our electricity is expensive. The only plus there is that we'd have less brownouts, but electric costs are going to be roughly the same.

Aussie Aussie Aussie! Hoy hoy hoy!

The shooter had a gun license and five firearms and somehow it's our fault? ROTFLMAO

Fun fact: Sec. Dizon already did the same walk last May with the exact same group (Move as One) and had the exact same comments. I don't know why he's reacting like it's the first time he's seen it, lmao.

Not surprised because he was sending feelers since September (and blind item pa nga yung isa) that the group is a joke.

And it's true. Refusal to live stream, executive sessions granted upon request, easy questions, and they only target those not in good graces with the admin. This isn't any different from when Duterte and his cronies went after critiques and the same under P-Noy. We only like it because those being railroaded are guys we hate to begin with.

Not just mass media. Even "enlightened" pinoys on FB, Reddit, and Twitter post inconveniences in the country and prop up Japan as not having those problems which contributes to the mythologization of immigration and the age-old "MaG-AbRoAd Ka Na" ethos.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this here already but within just an hour of being in Japan, I've already seen littering (by locals, not tourists) and they no longer teach escalator etiquette there (the PA announcer even warns people not to walk on the escalator). I also rarely see babies and their workforce is disturbingly old.

Also, the relatively affordable food and goods means the yen is weak, which is good for us but bad for them.

Japan is a great place to be in as a tourist. Easily the best of the first-world countries I've visited.

But working and living there is another thing. If you have real talk with people scrapping there — not the type of conversations you have with families and friends wherein everyone tries to conceal the truth — it's... not so great.

Tried to hook up GCash to my Google Wallet. It says they only accept MasterCard... except GCash ditched MC to go with Visa two years ago.