Philippines

Our weekly documentary film curated by the editorial team at 21WIRE.
Filipino boys Japar and Abdullah are only teenagers, but they’ve already killed and fought for ISIS (Islamic State) affiliates in the Philippine Islands. This film details how the boys were used as recruits by the Abu Sayyaf group which offers money to impoverished families – in exchange for their children. After running away from the terrorist group, the two youngsters recall the horrors they lived through and describe what it’s like to be sold by your own relatives.Watch:

Come to Southeast Asia and enjoy beaches, cheap sex and raunchy massage parlors. Hang around this part of the world in whichever way you like; wearing flip-flops, shorts and t-shirts. You were told that ‘everything is easy here, that things are cheap and people are friendly and happy’. Do what you want, as almost everything is allowed, especially if you are from the West, and have plenty of cash and some credit cards in your pockets.

In recent months, we have seen increased military provocations by the US on the edge of China’s territorial waters. More worrying however, if the fact the US are attempting to drag Japan into their geopolitical chess match. In addition to this, British Royal Naval ships have also being used to provoke China in near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea.

Vanessa Beeley
RT 

by Reese ErlichFilipinos still remember the disaster that hit their country thirty-five years ago.Philippine leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., the leading crusader against the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, was brutally murdered after he stepped off a plane in the Manila airport on August 21, 1983.His murder set in motion the People's Power Revolution of 1986, which brought his wife Cory Aquino to power.

This country is going so far to the right you won’t recognize it…
— John Mitchell (1969) Spoken to New York Times reporter and mentioned in his obit (1988)
Manliness and mastery required regeneration through violence, and by the 1890s, { Theodore} Roosevelt was spoiling for a fight: “I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one,” he wrote. Any opponent would do, but “the most ultimately righteous of all wars is a war with savages”.
— Jackson Lears, How the US Began Its Empire, NYRB 2018

OCCUPIED PALESTINE – Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit to Israel – the first ever by a Filipino head of state – has led to a major tightening of the partnership between the Southeast Asian nation and the settler-colonial state, drawing ire from critics who have compared the bloodshed wrought by Tel Aviv against the Palestinian people to the human-rights violations routinely committed by Duterte against his own people.

KUWAIT – Many have learned the hard way that social media can be a double-edged sword.
Such is the case for Kuwaiti Instagram personality and make-up superstar Sondos Alqattan, whose July 10 video on Instagram not only managed to go viral after being broadcast to her 2.3 million followers – normally a measure of success – but also outraged an entire nation.
It also once again shed light on the bone-chilling conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of Filipino domestic workers across the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

MANILA – As Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte enters his third year in office, his administration has earned the ignominious distinction of ushering in the country’s ranking as the deadliest country for environmental and lands rights defenders in Asia.

DAVAO, PHILIPPINES — The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has roundly rejected President Rodrigo Duterte’s set of stringent conditions for the continuation of peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), blasting Manila’s intransigence and accusing it of seeking to drive “another nail to completely shut down” the process while making it appear that the communists are the ones who are blocking the path forward to peace.