I was learning a bit about old Manila and it went from being called the pearl of the orient to becoming overpopulated and filled with slums. What happened? Was it just always like this or something?
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the philippines is not a poor country. it is even a middle income country depending on who you ask, and it is in a bordering state to be categorized as one. it is also home to a handful of the world wealthiest.
what the philippines suffers from is inequality. this is true then as it is today. there were less slums before because there was simply more vacant space and most people lived through agricultural subsistence.
so the question is not “why did things go bad”
but more “why did things not progress much?” it depends on who you ask. at one level, its because the philippines never decisively overcame its colonial history unlike its neighboring thailand and indonesia who now overtake it economically. the filipinos did not win against the spanish and the americans. the share of power therefore never really changed hands to those who were fighting for “the country”, and were kept in the hands of those who were collaborating with the colonialists (“for themseves”).
we see the results of this lack of sharing of power today through the families that occupy politics then vs now, and those who owned land then vs now, and those who are able to decide on changing those things then vs now.
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