To sleep, perchance to dream...
My first day off for a while and sleep was the order of the day...much against my will I might add...I woke up at 8am and made tea and toast...then not to sure what happened but I woke up later, around 1pm, with cold tea and toast by the bed...marmalade having been licked off by marauding moggies...
After attending to domestic stuff I made my way down to Makati to visit the Ayala Museum
I had a very enjoyable hour or so browsing first the art exhibition and then the dioramas portraying the bloody history of the Philippines. The dioramas are good, but you really need the guide book to make any sense of it all. I knew that the British had 'ruled' the Philippines for a couple of years, but the section in the guide book that described the circumstances surrounding the 'British colony', made me smile....
When Britain and France were engaged in the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the far-off Spanish colony in the Philippines did not know about it. Thus Manila was not alarmed when a fleet of 13 British ships from India appeared at Corregidor on 13th September 1762. Due to delays in communication, no one in Manila was even aware that there was a war in Europe, and that Spain had allied itself with France.
Mistaken for trading ships, the British landed an attack force of over 3,000 men, far outnumbering those assigned to the defense of Manila and its antiquated medieval walls.
...
When the Seven Years War ended in Europe, it took a year for news to reach Manila.
Continuing round the museum I read a quote from Manuel L. Quezon’s inauguration speech
"We shall build a government that will be just, honest, efficient, and strong. So that the foundation of the coming Republic may be firm and enduring - a government, indeed, that must satisfy not only the passing needs of the hour but also the exacting demands of the future."
One of the greatest blows to the Philippines must be that Quezon's vision didn't come through to present day politics, otherwise things would be slightly different around here...
Having said that, whilst searching for the quote I found this quote from Quezon as well "I prefer a country run like hell by Filipinos to a country run like heaven by Americans. Because, however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it." – probably a little more prophetic, although as yet the 'we can always change it' seems to refer only to the leader at the time, not the system of government. I imagine that it is the kind of quote that gets bandied about at times of political unrest...however not having been here long enough I am just presuming….
I found the end of the exhibit rather disappointing…I had been looking forward to learning all about 'People Power'...but the final two rooms were too small and claustrophobic to take in all the information...I would like to have been able to sit and watch the two separate movies being shown without having my ears buffeted by the sound from both TVs...having said that the content looked great and depending on how much material is there would make up a good documentary that I would be very happy to sit and watch at home on a DVD. The videos shown make up the most interesting part of Philippine history (well at least to me anyway); that a country can remove its leaders so quickly and peacefully in such (almost) rapid succession, and still remain operational is amazing.
As a short aside...whilst at the museum yesterday I didn't have either my camera or my pen and paper...so did not write down the quote from Quezon's speech...I thought it would be easy to find either a copy of the speech on the net or in a book about him at the book store…no such luck...either the National book store doesn’t stock it/them or there are no books covering the lives and speeches of Presidents of the Philippines – I was thinking along the lines of the little Ladybird books...and as for finding the speech on the net...no,...I eventually had to call the museum and they kindly texted the quote to me...
After attending to domestic stuff I made my way down to Makati to visit the Ayala Museum
I had a very enjoyable hour or so browsing first the art exhibition and then the dioramas portraying the bloody history of the Philippines. The dioramas are good, but you really need the guide book to make any sense of it all. I knew that the British had 'ruled' the Philippines for a couple of years, but the section in the guide book that described the circumstances surrounding the 'British colony', made me smile....
When Britain and France were engaged in the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the far-off Spanish colony in the Philippines did not know about it. Thus Manila was not alarmed when a fleet of 13 British ships from India appeared at Corregidor on 13th September 1762. Due to delays in communication, no one in Manila was even aware that there was a war in Europe, and that Spain had allied itself with France.
Mistaken for trading ships, the British landed an attack force of over 3,000 men, far outnumbering those assigned to the defense of Manila and its antiquated medieval walls.
...
When the Seven Years War ended in Europe, it took a year for news to reach Manila.
Continuing round the museum I read a quote from Manuel L. Quezon’s inauguration speech
"We shall build a government that will be just, honest, efficient, and strong. So that the foundation of the coming Republic may be firm and enduring - a government, indeed, that must satisfy not only the passing needs of the hour but also the exacting demands of the future."
One of the greatest blows to the Philippines must be that Quezon's vision didn't come through to present day politics, otherwise things would be slightly different around here...
Having said that, whilst searching for the quote I found this quote from Quezon as well "I prefer a country run like hell by Filipinos to a country run like heaven by Americans. Because, however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it." – probably a little more prophetic, although as yet the 'we can always change it' seems to refer only to the leader at the time, not the system of government. I imagine that it is the kind of quote that gets bandied about at times of political unrest...however not having been here long enough I am just presuming….
I found the end of the exhibit rather disappointing…I had been looking forward to learning all about 'People Power'...but the final two rooms were too small and claustrophobic to take in all the information...I would like to have been able to sit and watch the two separate movies being shown without having my ears buffeted by the sound from both TVs...having said that the content looked great and depending on how much material is there would make up a good documentary that I would be very happy to sit and watch at home on a DVD. The videos shown make up the most interesting part of Philippine history (well at least to me anyway); that a country can remove its leaders so quickly and peacefully in such (almost) rapid succession, and still remain operational is amazing.
As a short aside...whilst at the museum yesterday I didn't have either my camera or my pen and paper...so did not write down the quote from Quezon's speech...I thought it would be easy to find either a copy of the speech on the net or in a book about him at the book store…no such luck...either the National book store doesn’t stock it/them or there are no books covering the lives and speeches of Presidents of the Philippines – I was thinking along the lines of the little Ladybird books...and as for finding the speech on the net...no,...I eventually had to call the museum and they kindly texted the quote to me...
posted by Madame Chiang at 8:31 am
1 Comments:
thanks for the link...and the book title...will include the book in my next wild rampage around a bookstore..shouldn't be too long - my pile of books to read is slowly dwindling!
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