Spike is living in Manila and all is not well: A Scam A Day Keeps The Philippines A Third World Country.

I’ve been coming here since 1997. On my first trip, I remember seeing people in the street selling single cigarettes and single sticks of gum. I said to myself, “This is a poor country.” 20 years later, I still pass people selling those single cigarettes.

[…] at the core this is still a desperately poor country and the biggest export here still seems to be people.

Almost everywhere you go in the world you will find Filipinos who have left the country to earn a living. Two of the smartest people I have worked with in Hong Kong are Filipinos, but many of their compatriots are way over-qualified for the jobs they are doing, often in the service industries (it is a rule that musicians in hotels throughout Asia have to be Filipinos).

As Spike says, when the brightest and best leave the country, where does that leave the ones who are left behind?