It is alll disappearing....
Feb 20, 2018 2:35:02 GMT 8
Karl Welteke, beirutvet, and 1 more like this
Post by cbuehler on Feb 20, 2018 2:35:02 GMT 8
I feel the need to share some thoughts regarding our common interest in keeping history alive in the PI these days.
I just returned from a very short trip to visit our house near Tagaytay in which my wife and I plan to retire within a few years.
To my very great surprise, I was able to see Caballo Island, Malinta Hill and the tail of Corregidor as well as most all of southern Bataan from our balcony off in the distance, which, due to haze and cloud cover, I had not been able to make out before.
I realized that I have not been to Corregidor in over ten years now and even Bataan has been over four years for me. I could not help but feel very disconnected with it all now.
Development in Manila and elsewhere is going at a pace so fast and relentlesly that, excepting the island fortresses and parts of Bataan or the far north, all traces of how evenj the land itself, much less the history that occured, has gone or is going.
I learned that much of the AFP bases currently in Fort Bonifacio (For McKinley) have been sold to the government for development, the AFP affected to transfer to a new location near Tanay Rizal.
BGC and other developments have made the Manila Cemetary all but enclosed, leaving no trace of how the area appeared not very long ago.
Clark, which again I have not been to in nearly a decade, is rapidly changing, according to accounts from aquaintances, and is on track for massive development that will likely erase everything other than (hopefully) Fort Stotsenburg itself.
Perhaps worst, all the people I knew that had experienced WW2 and had sometimes accompanied me exploring areas of historical importance in the PI have now passed away. Even the vast majority of us who contribute to this board have turned gray long ago!
I must say that I now have some trepidation in retiring there now. No interest or knowledge is ever expressed in history from those I now associate or come in contact with these days.
Government and business have absolutely no interest whatsoever (other than lip service) in maintaining anything in its historical context, not just ww2 related, but virtually everything prior as well.
CB
I just returned from a very short trip to visit our house near Tagaytay in which my wife and I plan to retire within a few years.
To my very great surprise, I was able to see Caballo Island, Malinta Hill and the tail of Corregidor as well as most all of southern Bataan from our balcony off in the distance, which, due to haze and cloud cover, I had not been able to make out before.
I realized that I have not been to Corregidor in over ten years now and even Bataan has been over four years for me. I could not help but feel very disconnected with it all now.
Development in Manila and elsewhere is going at a pace so fast and relentlesly that, excepting the island fortresses and parts of Bataan or the far north, all traces of how evenj the land itself, much less the history that occured, has gone or is going.
I learned that much of the AFP bases currently in Fort Bonifacio (For McKinley) have been sold to the government for development, the AFP affected to transfer to a new location near Tanay Rizal.
BGC and other developments have made the Manila Cemetary all but enclosed, leaving no trace of how the area appeared not very long ago.
Clark, which again I have not been to in nearly a decade, is rapidly changing, according to accounts from aquaintances, and is on track for massive development that will likely erase everything other than (hopefully) Fort Stotsenburg itself.
Perhaps worst, all the people I knew that had experienced WW2 and had sometimes accompanied me exploring areas of historical importance in the PI have now passed away. Even the vast majority of us who contribute to this board have turned gray long ago!
I must say that I now have some trepidation in retiring there now. No interest or knowledge is ever expressed in history from those I now associate or come in contact with these days.
Government and business have absolutely no interest whatsoever (other than lip service) in maintaining anything in its historical context, not just ww2 related, but virtually everything prior as well.
CB