Independence Day

Tuesday (June 12th) was INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Google even made a doodle!

This is most significant in that I had the day off of school (its a national holiday so almost everyone gets the day off).  There were no parades - and the only fireworks I heard were Monday night - when my oblivious self thought they were backfiring cars at first.  The pomp and circumstance was perhaps lacking from what I have come to expect from American Independence Day - but then again, not everything is like it is in Amurca.

Granted, I'm only taking three courses right now, one of which isn't even for credit, and I don't have classes on Friday - so getting the day off school doesn't have the same relish as primary school when a day off school was a day of unequaled freedom and often a special trip or time with mom and dad.  Nor does it have the same relief as high school when a day off meant a chance to catch up on all the busy work shunted out of the day by 6 hours of class (I can't believe I ever endured that on a daily basis), sports, and extracurriculars.  Neither does it have the carefree relaxation of college pool parties and laying out on the quad with a good book.

But I digress.  A day with out class is to be appreciated regardless of the intensity of present studies.

Flag of the Philippine Revolution - ironic much?

According to Wikipedia  Philippine Independence Day is celebrated on June 12th because that is the day the Philippines declared independence from Spanish colonial rule back in 1898 following the Philippine Revolution which started in 1896.  "But wait!" you may say, "I don't know much about Filipino history but I could have sworn it was one of America's colonies after that.  Has the Philippines really been independent for that long?"  Good point.  It hasn't.  Neither Spain nor America recognized Philippine Independence and Spain ceded the Philippines to America in the 1898 Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish-American War.    That one seems less like a gain for America than it seems like the Spaniards seizing the opportunity to hoist their troublesome territories onto the US.  But America got what it asked for, given that it aided the Philippines Revolution: the Treaty of Paris was effectively the end of the Spanish Empire and the beginning of American Colonialism.  The US also paid Spain $20 million for Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Given America's apparent double dealings with the Philippines it is no surprise that the succession of the Philippines from Spain to America marked the beginning of the Philippine-American War as the Filipinos continued to struggle for independence.  Three years later the war was ended in the favor of America.  The Americans stated their "intentions" to grant the Philippines independence - the question was when, and under what conditions.  The Americans set up schools, businesses, local government, and bureaucracy in English and continued to fight Filipino insurgents in various areas for several more decades.  The Philippines was formally granted Independence on July 4th, 1946 by the United States in the Treaty of Manila at the end of the Second World War.  July 4th was chosen intentionally by the US.  Independence Day was officially moved back to June 12th by the government in 1964, prior to which it had been celebrated as flag day

You can thank me later for your daily dose of history.

June 12th, also happens to be Carl's birthday.  Because of this the pastor came to the house in the morning in order to give him a special blessing.

Later in the day we went to visit relatives.  It was a fairly typical family reunion, especially for Filipinos, in that  there was a lot of food and all of the aunts assumed I must be starving if I didn't presently have food in my mouth.  There were many questions about my stay in the Philippines, my family, what I am doing at school (I haven't seen any of these people in at least four years), etc.  Then the talk mostly degenerated into reminiscences.  I'll have pictures up of the family at some point soon.

Given that this was a fairly long post mostly unrelated to what I'm actually doing in the Philippines I'll leave off here!