‘MORE GUNS THAN FUN “ ?

Spain’s tourism industry reaps the highest revenues in the world, so successful that an estimated 57 million visitors flock to the Iberian Peninsula’s Mediterranean seashores and tourist spots annually.
Why is Spain a top destination for visitors?
Travel executives and experts all agree: “In all of Europe, Spain has the monopoly of sun while the rest of the continent shivers in cold and snow “.
But the big clincher is anybody can roam the cities and countryside’s in utmost peace and quiet.
Comparatively, an Associated Press report showed the Philippines’
emerging tourism program is encountering rough waters.
“It’s more guns than more fun “ ,blares its headline, spoofing the now popular government’s tourism catchword of “Its more fun in the Philippines “.
The recent spate of brazen armed robberies , the latest of which occurred inside one of Manila’s biggest mall is causing a big headache among law enforcement agencies and government officials in pursuing its dream of enticing 10 million foreign tourists to its shores.
If Spain has a “monopoly of the sun in Europe “ the Associated Press news report would tend to give credence to the Philippines as having a “monopoly of loose and illegal guns in Asia“, which is of course untrue .
If guns and violence are the standards to gauge a nation, then the Philippines is not alone in this area.
If we were follow logic , then the United States should top the list of “more guns than fun“.
There is the Newtown, Connecticut massacre of 2012, the Colorado theatre shooting, to name a few and more recently the Los Angeles killings by an ex-LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) officer who went on a personal vendetta before being cornered in his mountain hideout and presumed dead.
Add to this that in this country firearms ranging from the small
“Saturday night Special“ to high powered assault weapons can be procured like buying soda pop in your local grocer. It can even be mailed to your doorstep, which is why every Tom, Dick and Harry
can be fully armed to the teeth.
Just how crime and violence can destroy or ruin a country’s image
is dramatized by the recent gang rapes of five Spanish nationals in
Acapulco, Mexico by a group of gun-wielding thugs who broke into their cottage.
Now Acapulco, known as the playground of the rich and celebrities is tainted by this incident.
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IT’S MORE FUN IN A SNOWSTORM: Defying the onset of a super-snowstorm in Metro Toronto last Feb.7, a group of hardy souls braved the nasty weather to have fun at the Prestige restaurant and nightclub in Dufferin to surprise birthday celebrant Rolly Mangante on his 60th birthday.
Fittingly, somebody even sang these lines from a J. Fogerty’s composition for his group, Credence Clearwater Revival band
“ Someone told me long ago, there’s calm before the storm”…..
Have you ever seen the rain (or snow ?)…Actually, it was a duet rendered by that somebody and her husband, John.
That somebody is Philippine Consul-general Junever Mahilum –West, Rolly’s boss and one of the co-conspirator in that secret surprise party who concocted the ploy that they have to work overtime for the induction of the Kababaihang Rizalistas (true enough, Rose Cruz was there at the door).
Hell or high water, a cross section of Toronto’s Filipino community trekked through slush and snow to listen to a barrage of songs and tributes to the well loved long-time consulate staffer who started at the term of Congen Susan Castrence in 2000 .
Rolly was joined in by his wife Nieves, children Raymond, Jessica and Yoyo.
This column congratulates Rolly , the impresario, restaurateur, promoter, consulate pilot, organizer par excellence, Jack of all trades..what else you cannot do ? cheers !
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OTHER MILESTONES AND TRANSITIONS: Happy Valentine day and birthday to my kumpare, my former editor at the Daily Express, Manila Standard and neighbor at this newspaper, VAL ABELGAS (Feb.14). Val is based in Los Angeles, California.
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PASSED AWAY: LOLONG, the world’s biggest saltwater crocodile in captivity who expired last first week of February at Bunawan town in Agusan del Sur where he was kept in an ecology park since its capture in 2011.
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HONORED : Fil-Am Nurse Menchu Sanchez, as a heroine by US President Barack Obama during the State of the Nation address
for her rescue of hospital patients many of them children and infants in a New York hospital where she works at the height of superstorm “Sandy “.
Sanchez was seated beside First lady Michelle Obama at the US Congress when she was singled out by the US president for her act of heroism during the calamity.
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