Toughest Place To Be A Bus Driver - Manila

Did anyone here watch "Toughest Place To Be A Bus Driver - Manila"
BBC2 last night at 9:00pm??

I did. I really enjoyed it and thought it a fascinating, enlightening and worthwhile documentary.
Although it did contain some unavoidable and stereotypical Manila squatter area stuff, I did feel it was presented in a balanced way.

Humorous, thought provoking and insightful are words that come to mind.

The main theme of London Bus Driver (Josh) to Manila jeepney driver (Rogelio) held it all together nicely.
The key, for me, was the growing respect and relationship between the two of them.

Josh happened to be a naturally funny and large guy with an equally large heart.
He struggled with his main task of driving, and struggled even more as the witness to grinding poverty and the eating of the P5 pagpag meal amongst a vast ocean of smiling faces.

Humbling stuff. Highly recommended.

Watch it here on BBC iPlayer:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00z08wd/Toughest_place_to_be_a..._Bus_Driver/

Oh, just noticed you are in Makati. Sorry yuna.
To watch BBC iPlayer you need a UK IP address.

If you know how to access a UK proxy server you could do it. Wish I was techie enough to help, but I'm not.
Maybe someone here knows?
If it's allowed?
Maybe a torrent is already out there.
It's worth the effort.

I thought the same.
Then I recalled that there are some charities here in UK who distribute so called 'out of date' food to those in need. I know it's not really the same at all though as the food is still in original packaging.

What was your overall opinion of the documentary?

cant see it either proxy doesnt work with globe wimax as its already a proxy between the ariel and the phone network

Am I allowed to post some potential UK proxy servers??

I'm still wondering if I would ever choose to try that pagpag. I've eaten some strange and wonderous things in my time but..... pagpag.
Even just for the experience..................I think I would not.
As walesrob said, it's heartbreaking. Honestly.

My wife comes from a large family spread throughout the Philippines, though mostly concentrated in Mindanao around Davao bay.
Probably like most families there are the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'. At the outer edges of the family there are rich and very poor. None that I know of are living in the heartrending poverty of city slums/squatter area.
But having said that, many of her family are living 'on the edge' economically speaking. Those with high level educations do much much better than those without. That's why we do all we can to provide good education to those with potential and motivation. It's tough when making the decision who to sponsor and who not.
Anyway, those who we have helped have generally put back something into the wider family.

Whenever we go out to eat we always try to take out whatever is left. This can be given to kids as we make our way back home. Often people will tell us the kids are all organised by gangs, which may or may not be true, but we still give.

there are loads of local (Pinas) documentaries about similar topics (poverty) in Pinas... and it is still frustrating to see that nothing has changed! it was still the same 13 years ago when in uni, my class produced a documentary about the same topic... same old, same old... and yet, most pinoys would still say that Pinas is not poor... mama mia!!! are we blind?

I guess the way forward is to accept that we are poor.. Pinas may not be as poor as bangladesh or milawi, but we are poor!!! our economy can't simply feed the entire nation and can't provide the benefits that we all deserve. we cannot justify the "richness" of Pinas by saying that there are still loads of people in malls, and that malls in Pinas are better than the malls here, or that you can see loads of luxury cars in Makati... well, that only comprise of a small percentage of the entire population...

free contraceptives are available the coil and condoms its the education and motivation thats missing the seperation of men and women here emotionaly is huge

That's a perceptive observation.
I do believe that women may be the key to impacting:-

The massive population explosion that cancels out most of the economic gains. (This is really not helped by the continuing dogma of the Catholic Church.)

The hugh number of people unable to find or create jobs because there is just no finance available for them to participate in any form of education.

A deep rooted social pattern of elitism that practises extreme exploitation of the proletariat

Endemic corruption and favouritism

I watched this program again last night and still found it an extraordinary and compulsive documentary.

My life has been blessed in that I managed to work, travel and live in many places around the world for most of my life, When I think about the all years and all the tears, I considered myself somewhat immune to in-you-face poverty.

But this documentary has really gotten under my skin. Just makes me wonder what keeps these people going, what is it makes them get out of bed every morning and go out and do whatever they do, when they pretty much know that life simply isn't going to get any better for them.

I feel so lucky to simply to be alive and healthy, just by a chance of being born in the right place, and now keep thinking if these people ever see the beauty that is all around them and whether their whole world has any real joy.?
Seeing the kid's eyes light up and the smiles on their faces, I believe that beauty and joy is there in abundance .. amazing

Can beauty and poverty exist side by side? (Mmm Maybe a new thread topic coming on)

Sometimes the world is such a sad bad place.