Best Posts in Thread: Robberies continue

A suspect is being investigated who has been at my site as well as the home of the "big" robbery at my friends house in Bacong. Perhaps he robbed both houses. Don't f'n trust anyone.

 

A friend in Bacong had an 150 pound safe carried out of their empty house between 6pm-8pm Saturday, almost certainly an inside job.

 

Then, a thief would wait around for owner to return home, with gun pointed at head; "Open it."

Don't understand the need to have so much cash on hand. Expecting some doomsday coming?
For a large purchase; manager's check, or make transaction at a bank.

Either way, a tuff loss to handle. Feel sorry for the person just the same.

I've got, lets see...... under 700p on hand.

 

Its hard to react to something like this when it seems senseless. NORSU is where the poor students go to university. They are unlikely to have more than a couple hundred pesos in their pocket unless there is inside knowledge about the victim having more.

 

One of those ideas that may sound good in theory but once put in force is not practical of effective - case in point, US jail overcrowding due to this exact idea.

 

That's a great campaign slogan, but do you really believe that.

There is no nation that issues a greater threat of loss of human life than the US. We don't execute people, but we have vast resources to put people in jail (I consider that a loss of life). We lock up more people than any other nation for drugs by a longshot. The "three strikes" laws that some states adopt have put people in jail with "20 to life" for seemingly minor offenses. Combine this law with "zero tolerance" laws and you get disaster. Zero tolerance states in the past have handed out felony charges even for possession of small amounts of marijuana. If you can't afford a lawyer and instead opt for a public defender, then you might get stuck with any bullshit charges given to you.

Three-strikes law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zero tolerance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If Duterte believes that drug dealers fear death squads, then he should look to Mexico as a case study. If people are willing to enter the brutal world of the drug trade in Mexico, then there is no threat of government violence which will stop people from taking that step. Duterte couldn't match the Mexican cartels level of terror without elevating himself to that of a Saddam Hussein type of dictator.

Drug trafficking is a market. Human life has a number. The threat of loss of life is simply one variable which goes into calculation of market prices. As we have seen, sometimes the value of human life can be low in this country. As long as people get addicted to drugs, they will be willing to do anything to meet those market rates.

As we have seen in the US - a war on drugs doesn't work. The greatest threat to the cartels in Mexico is the legalization of marijuana.

 

Yes, we're complaining about petty theft while the elites are robbing the Philippines of billions.

The Grim Reality Behind the Philippines' Economic Growth

In 2012, Forbes Asia announced that the collective wealth of the 40 richest Filipino families grew $13 billion during the 2010-2011 year, to $47.4 billion--an increase of 37.9 percent. Filipino economist Cielito Habito calculated that the increased wealth of those families was equivalent in value to a staggering 76.5 percent of the country's overall increase in GDP at the time. This income disparity was far and away the highest in Asia: Habito found that the income of Thailand's 40 richest families increased by only 25 percent of the national income growth during that period, while that ratio was even lower in Malaysia and Japan, at 3.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.​

I guess I was wrong. Drugs aren't the only thing that's expensive. Power is also expensive. And people chase power at all levels of this society.

The oldest boy wants a motorcyle because all his friends are driving a motorcycle. That it's simply transportation is a secondary concern. He won't walk anywhere because that's more embarassing than taking a pedi-cab. Indeed, the locals think I'm crazy for walking.

He also wants a cellphone because all his friends has a cell phone. He wants a laptop, but when he has one (borrowed from friends) all he uses it for is watching movies. He wants nice clothes so that he can look good.

Dark skin is the worst because that signifies labor in the sun or origins from a poor ethnic group.

In the US we call this "keeping up with the Jones'" but in the developing nations it's survival. Appearances are everything. Appearances of having money is also the appearance of being successful. Success demands respect.

Even in the US there are regions which look like that of developing nations. In the US there was an incident where a black lady got arrested after leaving a store with a $2500 handbag. This lady didn't fit the profile of someone who spends $2500 on a handbag, so she must have stolen it. It turned out that she had received a tax refund. Aside from the outcry of racial profiling, many wondered why this lady would spend so much money on a handbag.

The following article explains this well. The author told a story of her mother helping others in her community get things done by dressing and speaking well. Because she had the appearance of a successful woman, she would get treated differently in the "white system".

The Logic of Stupid Poor People

Late at night when I'm walking by a group of kids drinking, often one of them will shout something to me. I could get angry that these people have nothing to do but shout at people passing by, but I understand this to be a power play. They aren't shouting at me personally, I'm just a pawn in their game. The saying goes "it's the quiet ones that you have to worry about" because those who are quiet already have the power. It's those at the fringe who have to gain notice in order to strengthen their position in the group. For a boy from a poor family, this group may be more than a social club, it may provide him survival. I throw him a bone by glancing and waving rather than risk an escalation over lost face by totally ignoring him.

I'm thankful that as a foreigner, I'm largely outside these power structures. I'll always be an outsider. As such I dress like a bum and I let my hair grow out. I have nobody to impress here. And I can still get chicks, which is partly what power is all about. I guess though I try to opt out of the game, I still can't shake my white privilege.

 

Where there's no enforcement, everything suffers from the tragedy of the commons. Everything is there for the taking.

What's horrible about addictive drugs is that people will do anything to get them but they are among the very few things in this town which is expensive.

Living in the Philippines is like receiving basic income because there is nothing to buy and what you do need is so cheap. I could never arrive to the point of pulling off a big heist in part because I don't know what I would do with the money.

I would like to say that I don't give anyone a reason to rob me because I have nothing. But that doesn't stand when people are willing to rob others for a few hundred pesos.

The answer is clear. Give away Shabu for free.

Alternative plan, move out of Dumaguete. Let the dogs have it.

 

Update PHP 500,000 was in the safe.