Fighting Cocks

Fighting cocks are everywhere in this country.  After all, cockfighting is the national sport of the Philippines. In order to fight cocks you have to breed and raise them so what better place to set up huge fighting cock breeding grounds but in a gated residential community.

It's cock-a-doodle-do all day long.  They don't just crow at sunrise.  They crow whenever they feel like it. Even at 2am!  Such a cacophony of noise along with the motorcycles, tricycles, fish vendors, barking dogs, and loud music and televisions coming from each house.

In the second picture you can see they didn't even bother to put up a fence around the area.  Instead they sit out in a chair all day and watch their cocks.  They also have two dogs tied up to trees.  How is that supposed to stop any of the stray dogs from stealing a chicken at night?  

Its really a waste of space.  The land could be used more productively by growing crops or building a house.  Build a house?  In a gated residential community?  No let's just raise fighting cocks.  

The are in the fourth picture doesn't just have fighting cocks.  There's also a goat and a few turkeys.  Of course the only real turkeys are the men who fight cocks and decide to raise them in residential areas.  

But it's not just residential areas.  It's everywhere! Hens and cocks are literally all over the place in this country.  Everywhere there is a spare area they will tie one up and build him a little hut. Makes no sense.  

But that's the Philippines.  Nothing here makes sense.

Typical Filipino Linemen

In the Philippines the power often goes out. In my city the power company regularly schedules brown outs that last from 8-12 hours. The alleged reason is the need to work on the lines. They don't advertise this on their webpage.  They advertise it in the notes section of their Facebook page.  Why does the local power company have a Facebook account? Because everyone has their nose buried in their phone  browsing Facebook.  It's as if that's the only website they know here. But that's material for another post. Suffice it to say if you want to get information to Filipinos you have to do it through Facebook. But even so who thinks to look on Facebook for information that should be on the electric company's main site?  And they don't even publish it there.  It's Facebook only.

But back to the electrical situation here. Power lines are strung all across the city in a horrid mishmash and tangle of black lines.  Some lines even dangle precariously into the street.  Are they live?  Dead?  Who knows!  It's certainly dangerous to have power lines dangling in the street. Many of the wooden poles  hoisting these lines are rotted and toppling over which further heightens the danger of electrical fire or brownouts as well as death to passersby.  It's simply not a good situation in any way.

Here's a picture of a typical Filipino lineman.  No bucket truck.  No safety harness.  Just a ladder resting against a thick nest of power lines. Workers standing idly by not even attempting to secure the ladder. Working in the middle of the street on a busy day.  I have seen this exact type of hazardous work situation many times in the city. This is not atypical. In fact it's a very typical carryover of the DIY fix-it attitude that is prevalent here.  That's great if you are repairing your own electronic devices but not when you are repairing the power lines which give life to an entire city.

With such unsafe, unprofessional, hazardous, and potentially deadly workmanship is it any wonder the electricity fails so often here? 

Introduction

The original website Philippinefailblog is no more.  The owner decided to shut it down and focus his attention on a new anti-Trump blog.  Therefore I have decided to pick up his mantle and continue this site on my own.  I have also decided to use the banner from the original site to let others know what this site is about.  Living in the Philippines can be crazy at times.  Writing about those crazy times can be cathartic.  I cannot do this alone and I hope to hear from you.  Please submit stories, preferably with a picture, to: philippinesfailblog@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Philippinefailblog.com is back up but it is a wholly different site and nothing from the old site was saved.  I will still keep updating this blog as well as posting entries from the old PFB as found on archive.org.

UPDATE: I have changed the logo since the old site is back online and the owner asked. It was something that had been bothering me a bit since his return. No theft or misrepresentation was intended. This website is NOT Philippinefailblog.com nor is the owner of that site affiliated with this one.

UPDATE: This blog was formerly Philippinefailblog.blogspot.com but is now Philippinesfail.blogspot.com

UPDATE:     This introduction has outlived its usefulness and will now be pulled from the top of the blog and put back chronologically.