Throughout the trip one theme kept running through my mind. This is the America the Republicans would build! There is nothing for the people. When children beg in the streets, when there is no police presence controlling the flow of traffic or protecting the people, when an ambulances sit tied up in traffic with the lights flashing and siren blasting only to get edged out by someone who HAS to get ahead, when there are people wandering in and out of traffic trying to sell whatever they can, when businesses (including restaurants) have to hire security guards to manage customers and banks keep their doors locked by armed guards inside and out, when you can drive from beggars to shopping mall in five minutes assuming the traffic in front of the yacht club doesn't slow you down, then you will know that the Republicans have had their way.

There is no oversight of cleanliness of restaurants, no control of traffic, the sidewalks are not safe and nobody does anything about it despite crowds of people using them, there is no system to move from one side of the city to the other quickly, i.e., no highways or other limited access transportation routes, and so much more. That is when you know that the conservatives are glorying in the running of the country into the ground.

And some of you might say we already have it in the USA. I don't know. It's been a while since I was in an American city. Maybe we are already there. I know there are areas like this in most cities in the USA. I know that there are plenty of examples of what I've listed above to be found in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, etc.

I think the difference is in the scope. In Manila it is everywhere. There were housing units (the name gives them way too much dignity for what they look like) that look like piles of broken boxes leaning over the filthy slime that fills the river flowing through the neighborhoods. You know the river is bad because you don't see any children playing in it. Or that might be because they are out begging in the streets.

This is the America of Mitt Romney and his compatriots.

(There is one exception to the comparison with America. The streets are dirty but there is no trash! Everywhere you look you see people with brooms keeping the litter under control. Too bad they cannot emigrate to the USA and teach us something about this.)