Some years ago, we lived in Cebu, one of the many islands that make up the Philippines. On the face of it an idyllic place to live – warm, but not too hot, all sorts of delicious fruits to eat at extremely affordable prices, some of the best scuba diving in the world (also very affordable), physically a very beautiful place as well – all the swaying palm trees and other tropical paradise stuff you could wish for.
However, as always, there is another side to this paradise, an altogether less attractive aspect of life in the Philippines. And here I am not talking about the normal third world problems – rubbish strewn streets, rotting buildings, almost non-existent infra-structure and such aspects of poverty stricken Asian countries.
Apart from the two things I want to talk about here, there are also guns – lots and lots of guns. It is the only place I have ever seen the following sign on the doors of banks:-
OZTHOUGHTS 