Newly reclaimed developments in Singapore come at a hefty price. Once intact mangrove forests now carved and eroded, gone. A real tragedy, if you had the chance to visit Southeast Asia before the fall...
They are now replanting and protecting mangroves in the Philippines as far as I can see––that is how behind-the-times wholesale destruction of this sort is. The irony is that Singapore's new developments are touted as green and environmentally friendly.*
Climate scientists are already warning us that it may be too late, accelerating warming is irreversible. I can't believe I had this argument with my father three decades and nothing still has been done. I could have done more. He was not the only one who purported not to agree... when the evidence, if one read intelligently, was incontrovertible.
It is time to create a system such as Fabric that plants cloud-derived money where it can really take root and make a difference. In local communities that need money the benefits them and is not funneled out. It is not about right or wrong, it is about survival. This is why I fight.
The Philippines, long a relative backwater, is between a geopolitical rock and a hard place... and as $13 billion proves, this can be lucrative.
Unless China has suddenly gone green in the economies it plants FDI in this cannot be good news. Can Duterte simultaneously halt new construction in Manila, make mining companies accountable for reckless practices, ban smoking, limit videoke to decent hours, and reign in ninja cops, while accepting (let's get our heads around the number) $13 billion in tied FDI.
As Yoda would say: "hands tied behind the back, Duterte is." He just sold his country upriver to the highest bidder, without realizing that many of the notes will never be paid out. US aid, while not perfect, has been somehow buffered from political demands of the type that make people feel like slaves.
That said, as a writer and a human I do find this an interesting time to be alive. And I understand that many Chinese (and Russians) have different and probably valid viewpoints. And I know and get along with quite a few. This is why I am going to say that the world is young, after all.
Though a host of "isms" might disagree, Fabric has never truly been tried. Because the cloud did not exist as such. Internet silver-lining playbook.
#endwriter