Simon Scott Plummer

Will the bad luck of the Philippines ever turn?

With its devastating cyclones, rising sea levels and decades of corrupt government, it seems doomed to remain one of the world’s poorest nations

Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos in 1981, whose rule became a byword for authoritarianism and corruption. [Getty Images] 
issue 07 May 2022
  • Comments

  • The Making of the Modern Philippines

    Philip Bowring

    Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 272, £20

The Philippines is the odd man out in Asia, a predominantly Catholic country colonised first by Spain, then the United States. An archipelago with more than 2,000 inhabited islands on the cusp of the Indian and Pacific oceans, its strategic location is obvious. Yet it receives scant coverage in the British media beyond its natural disasters, the flamboyance of its leaders, whether Imelda Marcos or Rodrigo Duterte, and its long-running Marxist and Muslim insurrections.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Read next

Trending

Patrick West

It shouldn’t be illegal to burn a Quran

We now live in a country where, once more, it appears to be a crime to commit blasphemy. This is the inevitable and justifiable conclusion many have made following the news yesterday that a man who burnt a copy of the Koran was charged with ‘harassment, alarm or distress’ against ‘the religious institution of Islam’.

More on asia

From the Magazine

Latest

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in