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I have never been to the Philippines, and know very little about it, but I have been looking for an obelisk for my story, and there is one in the Philippines that might fit what I'm looking for. In a serindipitous twist, there is a creation story that I am using in my story too, that just happens to originate in...the Philippines! All of which leads me to think that part of my novel will be set there. (A small part, but still!!!)
I have never tried to write about a REAL place before, and I'm not sure where to begin. I can do some research on-line, but, sadly, I will not be travelling to the Philippines before I write this section, since I am not yet made of money. So...I was wondering if anyone had any particularly good resources they could point me towards. I am hoping for a good novel, set in modern days, that could fill in some of the details I might otherwise miss. My second choice would be a good movie or documentary. Non-fiction would be appreciated also. Thanks! Melanie
Google. I know, sounds too easy, but check around. I was writing a story on Japan in he 40s, and found a digitized journal from a professor that lived there during the occupation. You never know what you'll find. Just double-check it.
Flickr. You've be amazed at what you can find on foreign locales, usually you'll stumble upon someone's photo-blog, etc
Food. If there's a Filipino restaurant nearby, stop in, have lunch and talk story. Most people love to talk about where they're from.
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Thanks to both of you! And I'll be e-mailing you within the week Spaceman. I appreciate it. Melanie
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I lived in the Philippines when I was a teenager - my middle high school years, about 20% of my FB friends have spent a good chunk of time there, would be happy to help either connect you with one of them (my best friend from HS lives there still and now works at the High School we attended!) or try to answer your questions myself.
Also, a lot of what you want might be on wikipedia. I did a Liberty Hall flash story set in Manila once, featuring the Rizal monument and around the old city, and was able to find what I needed on wikipedia really quickly.
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PS Platoon and Born on the Forth of July were both filmed in the P.I. while I lived there (mid-late 80s.) Some of the guys I knew in HS were in Platoon in the opening scene. My HS was the set for a scene in a (very forgettable) Chuck Norris movie, Delta Force II. Pretty much all of us were in it (it was a HS basketball game. We cheerleaders played...the cheerleaders! LOL.) Chuck Norris is a short dude.
'Nuff frighteningly random trivia from me for tonight.
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As I was looking at the list of movies that JamieFord sent me, I was struck by how many of them are war type movies. That isn't my impression of the Philippines at all. The movies KayTi mentions are that way too.
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It's only because the Philippines has a wide variety of terrain and makes a good stand-in for vietnam that it has been used as a location for so many war movies (90% of them set in Vietnam.) A large portion of the population speaks English at least well enough for tourists to get by with little to no Tagalog or Pilipino (two of the main dialects...there are hundreds in the Philippines, but I believe those two are the main ones spoken on Luzon, the main island where Manila, the capital of both commerce and government, is located.)
As a people, Filipinos are very warm and welcoming, and are particularly friendly to Americans (or at least to me. ) I think these are some of the reasons movies have been shot there, though I imagine there are economic reasons as well (an american dollar can go a long way in the phils.) While you may occasionally hear tales of terrorist cells in the Philippines, that's usually limited to islands in the south where strife has been part of life for generations, quite removed from the tourist and business centers on the island of Luzon. Not to say there aren't problems elsewhere, but they are limited. Since the 86 EDSA revolution, the country has also been running as a moderately stable representative democracy. Some coup d'etats in the late 80s but they were all squashed somewhat quietly and almost always (one notable exception in I think the fall of 1989, right after we moved away) without bloodshed.
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I think Pilipino is a modified version of Tagalog which is intended to be a national language, and not an organic dialect anyone speaks from birth. Or it is just another name for Tagaolog, because that was the national language a while back. Ilocano is a major dialect on Luzon. Until the two American bases were closed, all school was taught in English.
There are two major rebel guerrilla groups, the New Peoples Army (NPA) which is all over the place in rural areas but hasn't really been in the news for a long time, and the Moros, who are a Muslim extremist group mainly on the southern island of Mindinao. They are thought to have some connection to Al Qaida.
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) I think these are some of the reasons movies have been shot there, though I imagine there are economic reasons as well (an american dollar can go a long way in the phils.) While you may occasionally hear tales of terrorist cells in the Philippines, that's usually limited to islands in the south where strife has been part of life for generations, quite removed from the tourist and business centers on the island of Luzon. Not to say there aren't problems elsewhere, but they are limited. Since the 86 EDSA revolution, the country has also been running as a moderately stable representative democracy. Some coup d'etats in the late 80s but they were all squashed somewhat quietly and almost always (one notable exception in I think the fall of 1989, right after we moved away) without bloodshed.
