In a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, U.S. President Donald Trump is viewed negatively in majority of countries outside the U.S. Few countries express support or trust for Trump.
But among those countries where Trump is popular, it is in the Philippines where he has the highest score – 77 percent of Filipinos love Trump.
Why is it that Filipinos support Trump, while many other countries dislike him? Maybe other countries do not have good tastes when judging presidents.
If Trump has 77 percent, President Rodrigo Duterte has 81 percent, according to Pulse Asia.
Did we come close to World War III?
Many foreign political observers held their breath when the U.S. ordered and accomplished the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. He was viewed as Iran’s second highest ranking official. The fears of a possible confrontation with worldwide implications came after Iran authorities vowed bloody revenge.
But after some zarzuela moves, both the U.S. and Iran seemed to back down and did not call each other’s bluff. After Iran bombed U.S. bases in Iraq and carefully “avoiding” any casualties, their call for blood has been quenched or they have only just begun?
World War III has been postponed? Or has it?
Cold chills went up and down our spine after Soleimani was assassinated. This was because we remembered that World War I was sparked by an assassination.
This was when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914. As a result, World War I broke out and over 17 million people were killed.
Yes, a seemingly isolated incident such as the assassination of just one man can result in a war, even a world war. Have we passed the danger of World War III? We hope so. No one really wins a war. Especially a nuclear war.
Even if the Philippines is miles away from the U.S. and Iran, we are sure that if war breaks out, we cannot avoid getting affected, or even involved. Even before any actual hostilities erupted, Philippine authorities had already placed on standby, evacuation orders of Filipino workers in Iran and Lebanon.
Like Eleonor Roosevelt observed: “No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.”
We have not had the privilege of going to Australia, even if we had long wanted to. And it is regrettable. Now, even if we would get to visit it, it would be too late. We won’t get to see the original Australia, or Australia before the great fire.
After all those fires, Australia will not be the same in our lifetime, or even in the lifetimes of many who are far younger than us.
We pray that the Philippines will be spared from such a fate. We have had devastating storms and typhoons, but we always bounce back. We wonder how long a country can bounce back from fires that kills not only people, but wipes out millions of wildlife and vast areas of forest and flora.
To get an idea of how massive was the Australian conflagration, the fires have already wiped out some 33,400 square miles. Can you imagine almost the whole of Mindanao in flames? Mindanao is some 37,656 square miles.
