Looking at the research below one report stands out for me and I hope for you too. And hurrah for that because it has been a dull old week here otherwise. So dull I even resorted to asking Sophie, only an occasional source of inspiration, for help with what to prattle on about today. It appears however she has spent most of the last five days leaning over the puppy den and most other things have passed her by.
Anyway, our research report on the Philippines has sparked me off. I first came into contact with the country on my GAP year. Havn’t told too many people too much about my experiences working my way round the world on a chemical tanker, but I learnt a lot about life and if the Filipino crew were a little suspicious of me to begin with, once I brought out my recorder to accompany Roger the bosun who played Beatles tunes on his guitar, the ice was broken and regular smoky and San Miguely fuelled evenings in the crew mess as we ploughed our way across the Pacific ensued. Alas the ship didn’t subsequently go onto the Philippines which was maybe just as well for a number of reasons not least because the only Tagalog I learnt were some fairly elaborate swear words several of which have been wielded by President Duterte in recent months.
I think it might have been my rudimentary grasp of the language that caused me, when Hen was newly born and we lived in Hong Kong, to be so insistent that Norelyn, our Filipino amah, should not talk in Tagalog when looking after our newborn. But time after time I would come into the kitchen and find her yabbering away unintelligibly to the little baby darling who was literally only a few weeks old at the time! Eventually I felt I had to lay down the letter of the law and gave her a final warning not to speak to Hen in Tagalog again, otherwise we would have to part company. Just a couple of days later I caught her at it again. But she was the indignant one when I reminded her of our last conversation and informed her that she should begin to look for a new job. “But Suuuurrrr, I wasn’t talking in Tagalog. I was using my local dialect.” Terrific. 65 million people spoke Tagalog. Maybe a couple of thousand used her local language. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to hear she kept her job. She was a nutcase to be honest but a funny one. By the way you guys…..I’m no soft touch. Don’t think that. I sacked our night-watchman in Bangkok for failing to stop the frogs, who gathered nightly around our swimming pool, from croaking.
Anyway, needless to say I shouldn’t have got so stressy. Some months later when Hen started to talk, Tagalog didn’t much feature. Mind you, her English left a lot to be desired. She had only just got past the “Maaamma” and “Dadda” stage when she shocked us all by exclaiming “F***-it Daddy” as she struggled to get her pink tricycle over the front door step. There’s a bit of the Duertey in us all, particularly, and I pointed the finger at the time, in Sophie.
At the risk of embarrassing our research team too, I include my own report of a visit to the Philippines in 1994 which is crammed with data/detail and perspicacious comments. Eg..“ The cemetary business is a huge money spinner. As they put it “ people are dying to try out Manila Memorial”. And, in my own self-deprecating, but hopefully insightful way, I note that the share price of San Miguel Corp , “ the best company we visited and which should be a core holding in any P’pines portfolio “ ) was 34 peso then and, 22 years on, has risen to the giddy heights of 80 peso. Alas, over the period, currency depreciation has weighed heavily. If anyone had listened to me in 1994 and plonked their pension in the Philippines leading consumer sector play, they would have made 34% ( excluding dividends ) in US$ terms over 22 years. And I wonder why I’m not a fund manager???
Oh there are so many more Philippines stories….none of them to do with me of course…..but what goes on in Manila stays in Manila.
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