Will history again repeat itself?
Cross-posted from my weblog.Â
AT THE height of the abaca trade in the late 1800s until around the turn of the 20th century – which is about 100 years ago – Albay was the richest province in the entire Philippines, Ateneo professor Danny Gerona, Bicol’s foremost historian, said in a recent lecture.
But as Norman Owen’s seminal work on the subject showed, it was by and large prosperity without progress as the industry built around that key commodity enriched the traders but not the local communities that hosted the vast abaca plantations feeding it.
By the 1920s, when the Americans started promoting the establishment of abaca plantations outside Bicol and in Latin America for security reasons (abaca being a Philippine monopoly at the time), Albay’s fall from its preeminent position as an economic powerhouse began. When synthetic fibers supplanted abaca-made cordage by the mid-50’s, the industry’s almost total collapse became inevitable.
CHMS WK735 | Open the Gates of Hell
In this week’s episode of China Hit Maker Sunday, our imaginary space dogs reports about Chinese version of Halloween and other things pertaining to life and the after life.
August 27 (or July 14th of the Lunar Calendar) was celebrated as Hungry Ghost Festival. On this day of the month of each Lunar year, the gates of hell will be left open and the hungry ghosts from the underworld are released and allowed to wander in the land of the living. For this reason, the bereaved family will be burning funerary papers which will then serve as hell money for the wandering souls. The more papers burned, the richer the souls will be.
Full story from Hachi, the Haggard. Blogging in the speed of light.
Turning 30… Turning Point
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who hope that their dreams will come true.
                                                                                               – Woodrow Wilson
    Tomorrow, I am celebrating my 30th birth anniversary. 30!… There’s something about this age that tells me that it’s not to be taken lightly.Â
Those who didn’t make it.
In my search for the significance of being 30 years old, I scoured the internet and found a website about famous people who died before the age of 30. Why did they choose the age of 30 as a cut-off for saying that these people died young? Continue readingÂ
