Blaine's latest...

... is another great story about the Philippines at election time.

This country generates so many sad stories: it exports its workers (including many women to Tokyo as domestic "helpers," whose children stay in the Philippines) and fails to make progress on social improvements and infrastructure. Here's the top:

In Philippines, pre-vote largess doesn't translate into post-vote progress

By Blaine Harden
Tuesday, April 27, 2010

MANILA -- It's election season in the Philippines, and the short-term forecast is for manna from heaven.

For voters who live in Baseco, a slum built on garbage beside Manila Bay, it's hard to keep track of all the incoming goodies. Roads have been paved. Playgrounds have been built. A maternity clinic is under construction. One candidate bankrolled a beauty contest. Another sent in doctors bearing free antibiotics. Demolition of squatters' huts has been halted. Free food is expected on May 10, election day.

"It is like a fiesta," said Ray Campanera, senior councilor in the local government here. "Life is a little bit happier."

Yet for the residents of Baseco, as for the poor who account for a third of the 92 million people in the Philippines, pre-election good times are almost always followed by post-election betrayal.

Politicians who win election in this former U.S. colony have one of the worst records in Southeast Asia for stiffing the poor, coddling the rich and indulging themselves, according to a mountain of data and a chorus of economists....