My Manila

There is a reason why I titled my blog "My Manila" and never changed it even after it was accepted into the City Daily Photo community. Metro Manila is composed of 17 cities and municipalities, after all, and I move in only a tiny part of it. And I mean that in both the geographical sense and, much as I hate to admit it, also in an economic sense. The World Bank estimates that 40% of Filipinos live in poverty. And if the World Fact Book's July 2008 population estimate is correct, that's a whopping 38.4 million people! In Metro Manila, the hard fact of poverty can be seen in large squatter communities, homeless people sleeping under bridges and in parking lots at night, and men, women and children selling flowers, candies, cigarettes and rag rugs on the streets. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), these are things I have had no opportunity to take pictures of—for various reasons which will take too long to explain—though I know I have hinted at it several times already. Here, finally, is more than a hint: a man rooting through garbage bags to get boxes, cans and bottles that he can sell to a recycling center. I wonder if he even makes 40 pesos a day doing this…