Thanksgiving Week Topic Dump

IN THIS EDITION: Some notes from the day job, the Philippines' violently insane Vice-President (and a comment about the columnist who figuratively sucks her dick in print), and dealing with the Thanksgiving holiday in a country that's never heard of it.

SOMETIME during each weekend, I will sit down for an hour or two and make a detailed agenda for the coming week. It includes things like topics I want to pursue for the 3 columns (published on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday) and the 3 editorials (for Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday) I will write during the week; any events, meetings, or other occasions I will have to interact with people in a professional way during the week; emails I need to send or calls I need to make; calendar notes and important reminders such as bills that are due; and topics to post here on my blog. I never get to all of it -- my reach naturally exceeds my grasp when it comes to productive ambition anyway, and there is almost always something that throws a wrench in the works as the week progresses -- but I go through the exercise all the same. 

For this week, I had a list of 4-5 blog entries that I wanted to make, but of course I didn't get to that at all; now that it is 6:42 pm on Friday and I am probably minutes away from getting into the adult beverages, I had the inspiring notion to catch up all at once. Crossing things off the list, no matter how that is accomplished, is officially achievement in my book. Thus, this catch-all entry. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I do indeed write 3/7 of The Manila Times' daily editorials, in effect adopting the guise of the voice of the paper. I used to try to be discreet about that, but everyone knows it's me, so while I don't highlight the fact (for instance, I avoid re-posting or sharing the editorials I have written, although I'll sometimes do it for one written by one of my Editorial Board colleagues), I no longer deny it. The newspaper pays me to do a lot of things, and that just happens to be one of them; and while I sometimes find it frustrating, I think it's good exercise, so I do the best job I can. 

Anyway, on to some actual substance: My column for Tuesday (Nov. 26) was "Congestion pricing as a traffic-control measure," a commentary about the program that is already being used in places such as London and Singapore (and Paris, my urban planning muse reminded me), and is planned for lower Manhattan. Metro Manila has some of the most congested streets in the world, and the idea has been occasionally floated here, although not seriously being considered at the moment, probably for justifiable reasons. 

Also on Tuesday, my new show, "Newsmakers," which will appear on The Manila Times' streaming app and other multimedia channels, finally got off the ground after several weeks of frustrating though understandable delay. My first interview was with Scott Morris, who is the Asian Development Bank's Vice-President for East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific:

We had an interesting discussion about what ADB is doing in the region, particularly in helping climate-vulnerable countries deal with what is quickly becoming an existential threat. The show will be airing sometime this coming week -- I think; that depends on the production staff and the schedule of the other shows -- so I will certainly provide the link here and elsewhere. 

What tickled the hell out of me about meeting Scott was that we are practically homies; I knew from his professional background and exchanging some messages a couple of months ago on LinkedIn that he studied at Franklin & Marshall College, which is in my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. However, I was under the impression, for some reason, that he was from somewhere in the Midwest. He's actually from Williamsport, which is in the northern part of the state, about 90 miles from Lancaster as the crow flies. Small world, indeed. 

On Thursday (Nov. 28), I wrote about Thanksgiving, "A most curious holiday". Obviously, it is not a holiday here in the Philippines, and the few times I've tried to celebrate it have been challenging. For one thing, it has only been in the past year (out of the 20+ I have been here) that I've even seen a pumpkin in a store, and then only as a rare and horribly expensive import. On the plus side, if I do decide to get a turkey, the native turkeys here are far superior to those factory-farmed, tasteless blobs we have in the US, more akin to a North American wild turkey, and somewhat less expensive (although a luxury on the scale of most Filipinos). 

I didn't bother to go to any effort this year, because we had a business forum -- the last of the year for The Manila Times -- on Thursday afternoon. My Thanksgiving meal, such as it was, came from an Indonesian canteen located across the street from the office tower where the forum was being held: 

Lunch was great, and only 220 pesos (that's about $3.75 in real money), though I had to make it a point to hunt down some mints before heading up to the venue, lest I breathe fire on anyone I talked to. The forum itself was kind of strange -- the subject matter and the speakers were fine, quite interesting, but it was an odd space, and there were annoying problems with the sound system, so the whole thing was a bit chaotic. And then my daughter sent me this via WhatsApp, which had turned up in the staff photo submissions that she handles in the newsroom: 

Aren't kids a treasure. 

Finally, the big drama that has consumed the Philippines over the past week has been the utter insanity of the Vice President, Sara Duterte. She is the daughter of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, and seems hell-bent on outdoing her father for the crazy; he is famous for ordering a murderous "war on drugs" that resulted in at least 6,500 people being killed, but despite being uncouth, never came across as being the underpants-on-head level of lunatic that his daughter is. 

There has been friction between Sara (and by extension, the rest of the Duterte clan) and President and Mrs. Marcos for several months, which began with revelations that several hundred million pesos in "confidential funds" -- a kind of discretionary slush fund added to most agencies' budgets every year -- from the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, which she led for about two years, were unaccounted for. Duterte has steadfastly refused to provide any explanation, to the point where the controversy is now the subject of full-blown investigation by a Congressional committee. 

That hasn't made her cooperate, either, and in fact, has only encouraged the Vice-President to dig in her heels. Things finally exploded last Friday evening, when the House committee declared her Chief of Staff in contempt for trying to obstruct the investigation and ordered her detained. This sparked an enraged, late-night rant wherein Duterte said that she had contracted an assassin to kill the President and the First Lady if anything happened to her. When practically the entire country responded with, "That's so not cool," she claimed her comments were being "maliciously taken out of context." 

The only context that could possibly apply other than, "take these comments at face value," is that she is a complete psychopath; either way, the overwhelming, nearly unanimous impression of online commenters if one reads those posted in response to various online news articles or YouTube clips of local TV reports is that she is in fact batshit crazy and needs to be ejected from office. 

And then we have our own columnist, Rigoberto "Bobi" Tiglao, who has had his head so far up the Dutertes' collective asses ever since the elder Duterte decided to run for the presidency in 2015 that he can probably taste what they eat for lunch. In the face of widespread public condemnation of Sara Duterte's vicious antics (and the growing evidence of her having plundered public funds on a breathtakingly massive scale), several criminal complaints filed against her, a disbarment case (she is, like most Filipino career politicians, a lawyer by education), and an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation -- which she has run afoul of already by ignoring a summons to be interviewed by investigators -- Tiglao comes off with an utterly tone-deaf and desperately simping screed like his column for today, "Dutertes have beaten Marcos-Romualdez duo". It's sad, really; once one of the country's most respected columnists, Tiglao has become a hopelessly compromised, angry old man, one who certainly gives the impression that most of what he writes is paid PR work -- although I wouldn't go so far as to make that accusation, because I do not know that it is true, despite rumors to that effect -- and who responds to criticism with the dignity and intellectual gravitas of one of the Mean Girls. 

It's people like him who are actively helping to erode public trust in the mainstream media, but it's honestly more trouble than it's worth to call them out on it; the best one can do is to mind one's own journalistic ethics and work standards, provide credible reporting, and not draw attention to their dreck. Obviously, I have made an exception to that rule this time, for illustrative purposes, but it's something that I will avoid making a habit.

For his part, President Marcos has taken a similar attitude toward his off-the-rails Vice President; when asked about it earlier today, he confirmed that he had urged his Congressional allies to hold off on impeaching Sara Duterte -- which would be a completely justifiable thing to do at this point -- because it would be "a waste of time," and would distract Congress from more important business. People like Bobi Tiglao will crow about the apparent "victory" for Sara Duterte in this, but if I were her, I would sleep with one eye open. President and Mrs. Marcos are lovely people (I've met them both, and I like them), but I wouldn't cross them; President Marcos' implying that he doesn't think an impeachment is actually necessary may mean a nasty surprise is in store for the talkative Ms. Duterte. 

Have a great weekend, everybody.
 

Noted musicians I’ve seen, in alphabetical order

CREDIT for this idea goes to nejomo on Bluesky (@nejomo.bsky.social), who thought of it first and posted his own impressive list there. I don’t mind copying a good thing, so I’ve racked my old brain and tried to remember my own list. I specified “noted” in the title because I’ve seen many, many bands that no one has ever heard of (and for a fair number of them, that was appropriate), and I don’t think this would be interesting if it was bogged down in hipsterish obscurity. So here goes:

A: AC/DC, Asia, Alison Moyet, ABC, Tori Amos, Agnostic Front, Laurie Anderson

B: Boston, Brian Adams, Black Flag, Big Country, Bad Brains, Big Audio Dynamite, Tony Bennett, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bad Religion, Butthole Surfers

C: The Cars, The Cramps, Cake, Circle Jerks, Corrosion of Conformity, Shawn Colvin, Phil Collins

D: Dead Kennedys, Depeche Mode, The Damned, Dayglo Abortions, Devo, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Dropkick Murphys, Danzig, Def Lepard, Thomas Dolby

E: Edgar Winter Group, Eddy Grant, The Exploited

F: Foghat, Filter, Fine Young Cannibals, Foreigner, Foo Fighters

G: The Go-Go’s, Garbage, David Guetta, Godsmack, GBH, Green Day, The Gun Club

H: House of Pain, Hole, Hüsker Dü

I:  INXS, Incubus

J: Joe Jackson, Journey, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Jimmy Eat World, Joydrop

K: Korn, Kansas

L:  Level 42, Linkin Park, The Lords of the New Church

M: The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Madness, The Monsters, The Meatmen, Motley Crue, Meat Puppets, Misfits, Mojo Nixon, Moby

N: Nazareth, No Doubt, Nip Drivers, NOFX

O: The Offspring, The Oppressed

P: The Pretenders, Pixies, The Pogues, Poison, Political Asylum, Pet Shop Boys, Primus

Q: Queensryche

R: Bonnie Raitt, Ramones, Rush, Lou Rawls, Lou Reed, Ratt

S: The Scorpions, Simple Plan, Stone Temple Pilots, SNFU, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, Soundgarden, Simple Minds, The Smiths, The Steve Miller Band

T: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

U: U2, The Undead, The Undertones

V: Violent Femmes

W: Wasted Youth, Weezer, White Zombie

X: X

Y: Youth Brigade, Paul Young, Neil Young, Young MC

Z: The Zombies

Looking over this list, the first thought I have is a tinge of regret at how many bands I would have liked to have seen that I didn’t. For a few of those, I may still get a chance, but sadly the opportunity for most has slipped away into the mists of time. The second thought I have is that while there are a lot of great memories here, there’s more than a few stories I should probably keep to myself.

Mixed feelings about cat shit coffee

 

(Note: This is a somewhat recycled post, having been written last year. I don't know if it counts as actually recycled, however, because as far as I know no one ever saw it.)

THERE are certain culinary delicacies in human culture that make one wonder, “Who in the hell was the first person to look at this and have the thought, ‘Hey, I wonder if that would taste good?’” Coffee made from cat shit, a discovery of some unknown Filipino, or Indonesian, or Vietnamese lost in the mists of history, is one such example.

Civet coffee, called kape alamid in the Philippines, kopi luwak in Indonesia, and whatever Vietnamese words mean “coffee made out of weasel shit” in that country, is coffee produced from the scat of the Asian Palm Civet, which is also colloquially (but incorrectly) called a Civet Cat – hence, cat shit coffee. A civet is a small, omnivorous mammal that somewhat resembles a cat, but seems to be more related to animals such as mongooses or raccoons. The little creatures seem to regard the fruit of coffee plants as quite a treat, and eat them in large quantities. The civet can digest the softer berry part of the coffee fruit but not the hard seed – i.e., the coffee bean – inside, and so these are passed, thence to be collected by people who must have one of the worst jobs in the world.

The digestive chemistry of the civet affects the beans, so when they are cleaned – thoroughly, one would hope – dried, roasted, and ground, they produce a rich, unique flavor that is actually a bit hard to describe. I’ve read descriptions of it as earthy, with somewhat sweet notes of chocolate or caramel, which is not at all how I would describe it, because even though I live in one of the most fantastic coffee-growing regions on Earth and probably drink more coffee than I do actual water, I’m not a pretentious asshole about it. I would say, imagine the best cup of freshly-ground arabica coffee you have ever had, but without any hint of the acidic or ashy bite to it so that you can actually taste the smell.

It's really good stuff, is what I’m saying, and I would unquestioningly drink it exclusively if I could afford it, and if I didn’t know where it actually came from – not the cat shit part, I can look past that, but the industry that produces it. More on that in a bit.

Civet coffee is wickedly expensive, even on the Southeast Asian scale where one can enjoy the finest (non-cat shit) coffee in the world for hardly more than the cost of a cup of that boiled bat piss from the machine at 7-11 that they never clean. A pound of dark-roast arabica beans from the mountains of Sagada Province – the very best produced in the Philippines – will cost you about $7 at the current exchange rate. The same amount of kape alamid costs about $26, and that’s only if you know where to look for a bargain. It’s two or three times as much in the usual tourist spots, and it is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world by several orders of magnitude if imported to other countries; I found a listing for it on Amazon for $13.50 per ounce, which works out to $216 a pound. 

Given the somewhat exotic way in which it is produced, one would assume that the high price of civet coffee is a consequence of its rarity. The picture painted by the usual description of civet coffee is that an average coffee farmer has to wait for a specific wild animal to cruise through his coffee patch, snack on the almost-but-not-quite ripe coffee berries, and take a dump somewhere the farmer can find it. That’s not a mass-production kind of setup, and the price reflects that.

The problem is, it’s complete bullshit.

Almost all civet coffee – absolutely all of it produced in the Philippines and Vietnam, and almost all of it from Indonesia – is produced by farmers with captive populations of palm civets. The only reason it’s “almost” in Indonesia is that Indonesia is surprisingly progressive in many respects, and has exerted some effort to curb the inhumane farming practices. In Vietnam, and especially the Philippines where enforcement of anything having to do with the environment or biodiversity is a complete joke, the natural palm civet population is being absolutely decimated for the sake of producing the prized coffee.

Wild civets are captured and kept in filthy, cramped pens, where they are fed a diet exclusively consisting of coffee fruits. This is fatally unhealthy for the poor animals, which left on their own would have a sustainable, varied diet of coffee, other fruits and plants, bugs, and even the occasional rodent or small bird. Within a few weeks, the captive civet dies of malnutrition, and is simply replaced by another captured in the wild, often by children, who are paid a few pesos or rupiah or dong by the farmers for each new animal delivered.

It's a damn shame, really. The coffee is so good, and part of what makes it so is the idea that it is one of those little wonders of nature, but that turns out not to be the case at all.

So, I have drunk my last cup of cat shit coffee, and so should you. And if you’ve never tried it, I’m sorry you missed it, but don’t be an enabler of an unnecessarily cruel business.

(Image: An Asian Palm Civet. I understand this one's name is Kikko, and that he is a resident of the Hopefield Animal Sanctuary, located in Brentwood, England, about halfway between London and Chelmsford. I hope the good folks at Hopefield and Kikko don't mind my using his picture here.)

On to the next disappointing summit

 

On to the next disappointing summit -- My Manila Times column for Thursday, November 21, 2024. This commentary is about the 5th and supposedly final round of negotiations on a global plastic treaty, which are to be held in South Korea starting Monday, November 25, just after the end of the COP29 climate summit. 

Spoiler alert: I have low expectations for the outcome of the upcoming meeting, an unfortunate feeling that has only been reinforced by the news coming from Baku, which indicates not much is being accomplished at COP29. 

(Image: Volunteers cleaning up garbage along the shore of Manila Bay, sometime in 2018. Credit: Break Free From Plastic)