Travels in the Congo: First Things First
So, I’ve been travelling and working in the Congo for about a month now and I already have an awful lot to write about – both the awesome and the not-so-awesome. But before I launch into posts about corruption, inequality and diminishing biodiversity I wanted to start with something positive. And since I haven’t blogged for a while because of the whole load of...
Read MoreNewspapers
So, after a long hiatus brought on partly by my web-host deleting my website and not keeping any back-ups (!), and partly by me being busy with work and a masters degree and the epic summer sci-fi spectacular that was Quantum Battlestar Deep-Space Voyager Tardis Wars, I am pleased to report that Uncharted Territories is back! I still have a few bits of the site to reconstruct however – so...
Read MoreAfrica Needs You!
I was disappointed to find, in a rare moment when I found myself watching live television the other day, this advertising campaign from VSO: Yes, that’s right viewer. *Children in West Africa are dying right now* and the *only way we can save them* is to send *qualified white volunteers* to help. It has to be one of the worst examples of this kind of post-colonial...
Read MoreCracks in Everything
Philosophy is dead. At least, it is according to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who believes the discipline hasn’t kept up with modern developments in science to the extent that it has nothing relevant to say about the meaning of life any more. But has science really replaced philosophy as the means that people use of interpreting their experiences and answering the “big...
Read MoreUncontacted.
An old favourite of anthropological romanticism hit the news this week, with the release of a new set of photos of one of the “uncontacted tribes” in the Brazilian rainforest whose existence is under threat from illegal logging. This coincides with the broadcast of the jungles episode of BBC pop-anth documentary Human Planet during the filming of which the photos and some footage of the tribe...
Read MoreSkin Deep
Skin whitening is big business in the Philippines – in fact it is pretty difficult to find beauty products such as moisturisers, anti-perspirants and even soaps, that don’t contain bleach or some other whitening agent. All over Manila there are giant billboards expounding the whitening properties of scientific-sounding products like “placental protein” and “glutathione”, all...
Read MoreI like it underneath my huge “BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH” poster.
The Internet is rapidly changing the way people communicate and connect with each other, and the “Internet meme”, has fast become an efficient tool for quickly spreading small doses of cultural information between users. Obviously the implications for charitable campaigners are huge – there’s never been a better way to spread their messages amongst so many people – but they tread a...
Read MoreElephant in the Room
At the end of September world leaders from around the globe met in New York to discuss the progress that had (and hadn’t) been made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of eight international development targets agreed by all 192 United Nations member states in 2000 and that outline the ambitious overall target of the eradication of extreme poverty by the year...
Read MoreA Question Of Morals
The Pope’s high profile visit to the UK, and the enormous amount of commentary and debate surrounding it offer a good opportunity to talk about Catholicism in the Philippines. In particular the common local response I’ve experienced to my own professed agnosticism can be revealing about how ideas of morality can be constructed differently in different belief systems, and this...
Read MoreTyphoons and Shootings
Last week was a rare occasion for the Philippines, as the country saw massive exposure in news media that would be widely read or watched around the world. Unfortunately, this exposure came as a result of the tragic deaths of 8 foreign nationals at the hands of gunman Rolando Mendoza, whose bus hi-jack and subsequent hostage stand-off was broadcast live to millions of viewers as it unfolded....
Read MoreTown Mouse, Country Mouse
A subsistence fisher in Iloilo It is estimated that 44% of the population of the Philippines live on less than $2 a day, and that 80% of the poor live in rural areas of the country. Every year, thousands of these rural poor move to the cities in search of employment, improved living conditions and a better life for themselves and their families. Bing Bing, a subsistence farmer I met in Zambales...
Read MoreWesewrimo
Now, as I’m sure you’re all well aware, this month is Wesewrimo – Web Series Writing Month! No? Well then, go have a look here to enlighten yourself. Yes, its yet another slightly twisted Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month for the uninitiated) clone (albeit slightly less ridiculously demanding as you get to set your own goal as long as it’s vaguely web series...
Read MoreMicro-mythbusting
A Sari Sari store run by two microfinance clients, both PWDs Travelling to Iloilo at the beginning of the month in order to conduct an assessment of a microfinance programme that targets people with disabilities as clients, I was required to undertake a bit of a crash course in microfinance theory. Microfinance – the provision of small loans (and other financial services) to the poor to enable...
Read MoreWhere is your companion?
Where is my companion? It is Independence Day in the Philippines and having heard that there will be a parade in Rizal Park I make my way into Central Manila from my current home in Quezon City (slightly out of town) and follow the slowly gathering crowd of people towards the grandstand. Almost immediately as I join the throng, someone approaches me and asks me who I am and where I’m from....
Read MoreHey Joe!
The trick to good street photography, explained the photojournalist leading the workshop, is in blending in to the point where you aren’t noticed by the people you’re photographing. For you, she said turning to address me directly, this might be quite hard. (more…)
Read MoreThe (Beauty) Queen and the Cross
A girl playing the role of Queen Helena in a Santacruzan parade for people with disabilities Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May) is a month long Catholic festival held in the Philippines in honour of the Virgin Mary, unsurprisingly during the month of May. It culminates in colourful processions called Santacruzan that are held all over the country, from the smallest villages to the largest shopping...
Read MoreKain Na Tayo! (Let’s Eat Now!)
If “halo halo” was the first Tagalog phrase I learned, “kain na tayo” or “let’s eat now” was close on its heels. That they were both in some way food related is no coincidence – eating seems to be a bit of a national hobby in the Philippines and “kain na tayo” sums up their attitude nicely, often used as it is to express that food should...
Read MoreIdentity Shock
Since arriving in the Philippines I have had to come to the surprising conclusion that, for the next six months, I am going to be tall. A veritable giant in fact. It may seem odd that this presents so much of an issue to me, but alongside the other adjustments that I need to make to the local culture in order to settle in it is this challenge to my bodily perception of myself that has come to...
Read MoreHalo Halo
Halo Halo “Halo halo” was the first Tagalog term I learned, some thirty minutes or so after I stepped off the plane into the heat of Manila two weeks ago. It means, literally, “mix mix”, and is commonly used here to describe a frozen milk dessert with banana, coconut and some garish, unidentified green and purple stuff mixed in. However, I think its an apt term for my first impressions of...
Read MorePop Politics
So the UK wakes (after a long night of swing-o-meter fun) to face the reality of a hung parliament with a Conservative majority. Change has been promised by all of the candidates throughout their election campaigns, but there will be much skepticism as to what can be accomplished in the face of this result, whatever the intentions of those in charge. In the Philippines meanwhile, voters face a...
Read More