Category: Philippines

Remittances: the dreams of the San Joaquin, Part 2, the dreams

5 November, 2010 (13:10) | Global news, Housing, Immigration, Philippines, Remittances, Slums |

By: David A. Smith   Yesterday, via a surprisingly mournful New York Times article, we discovered the self-sacrificing parents of Mabini, Philippines, who have removed themselves halfway around the world for the sake of their children’s future, pouring remittances back into their homeland, back into a future for their offspring better than the one to [...]

Remittances: the dreams of the San Joaquin, Part 1, the lucky few climb on

4 November, 2010 (11:48) | Global news, Housing, Immigration, Philippines, Remittances, Slums |

By: David A. Smith   People move for money, especially money for their children back home.  But, as revealed in this haunting New York Times story, when the absence is protracted, where is home – potentially nowhere?   Mabini, the Philippines — Mediterranean-inspired, pastel-colored houses dot the coast and hills of this rural town in [...]

Bring the city to the people

18 November, 2009 (11:53) | Cities, Global news, Infrastructure, Philippines, Slums, Speculation |

By: David A. Smith   “Either you bring the water to LA or you bring LA to the water.” – Noah Cross, Chinatown   “‘Course I’m respectable.  I’m old.”   Someday I’ll post in detail about Chinatown, because it (and its spiritual cousin, True Confessions) is a great film about housing development and municipal infrastructure, [...]

Help the Philippines

1 October, 2009 (11:58) | Global news, Infrastructure, Philippines, SDI, Slums | 1 comment

Manila, yesterday   Sonia Fadraigo, Federation leader and Board member of AHI’s client Slum Dwellers International wrote this morning: Federation not OK.  Badly hit.  Biggest disaster ever.  Don’t know where to start.  Still gathering info as to how many died.  Thousands of Fed members lost their houses – washed out by the floods.  We need [...]