This reminds me of a conversation I've recently had with a German friend about Cologne — that the city was relentlessly bombed by the RAF throughout the war and how ugly it is now given its hasty post-war reconstruction. Also mentioned was largely untouched Bavaria, which until today has some of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and which apparently fuels Bavarian pride and nationalism that puts them in greater animosity with Germans from everywhere else.
Whenever I find myself in Manila, I am always reminded of how ugly and neglected it is. The city appears to me like some old person who once was beautiful, their beauty still apparent in their features, except now very much obscured by a dark past you just can't put your finger on. Many forget that Manila was the second-most destroyed city in World War Two — notable given our distance from the European theater where most other devastated cities were.
I guess I never really thought of Manila's ugliness as a result of history but only of classic Philippine ingenuity — corruption and poor governance. Perhaps we all need a reminder that many things were stolen from us by the war — our beautiful cities ransacked, our national archives bombed to smithereens, a struggling economy, and millions of Filipinos dead. Yes, the war stole our future, but it also stole our past. Now we are forced to live with a mindset of inferiority, most of us never realizing how much a lot of the things we now suffer through isn't on us alone.
This reminds me of a conversation I've recently had with a German friend about Cologne — that the city was relentlessly bombed by the RAF throughout the war and how ugly it is now given its hasty post-war reconstruction. Also mentioned was largely untouched Bavaria, which until today has some of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and which apparently fuels Bavarian pride and nationalism that puts them in greater animosity with Germans from everywhere else.
Whenever I find myself in Manila, I am always reminded of how ugly and neglected it is. The city appears to me like some old person who once was beautiful, their beauty still apparent in their features, except now very much obscured by a dark past you just can't put your finger on. Many forget that Manila was the second-most destroyed city in World War Two — notable given our distance from the European theater where most other devastated cities were.
I guess I never really thought of Manila's ugliness as a result of history but only of classic Philippine ingenuity — corruption and poor governance. Perhaps we all need a reminder that many things were stolen from us by the war — our beautiful cities ransacked, our national archives bombed to smithereens, a struggling economy, and millions of Filipinos dead. Yes, the war stole our future, but it also stole our past. Now we are forced to live with a mindset of inferiority, most of us never realizing how much a lot of the things we now suffer through isn't on us alone.