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Manila: The City that Might Have Been
thisjustin:
followyourbliss:
“I have lived at various times in Manila over the course of some 30 years. And it was always this way. A jumble of painful neglect punctuated by liveliness inspired, one imagines, by the need of its residents simply to survive. I admire the tiny shops that spring up selling roast chicken or repairing flat tires for a few pesos, but while other Asian cities have become hubs of progress, Manila has gone from being the cosmopolitan heart of Southeast Asia in the 1950s to being a place often feared and loathed by both travelers and residents. But I like it.
No, I love it, not because it glitters with efficiency like Singapore or is finding a way to cope with the messiness of massive growth to build a new urban landscape like modern Bangkok. I love it because its citizens persevere with such good humor despite a lack of urban planning, the abandonment of most of what must have once been elegant about the city’s public spaces and the fact that it is hard to imagine Manila ever getting much better. “
The line that really caught my eye (and saddened my heart) was: “It’s probably too late for the lovable, sprawling Philippines capital”