I don't have to search on the conditions they live in in such countries as I've lived in one for 2 years.
I've seen it up close and personal every day.
I've seen people whose home was a cardboard box. Not kidding. Family with young kids.
I've been to a kampung (domestic village) that they then made sure was really tidy and clean so it'd look its best. Their homes prettied up with some drapes and stuff, not even the size of my bedroom, and trust me, my bedroom isn't big.
No electricity, no clean running water, no loos or showers, no washing machines and so on.

Our driver lived in a one-room-house which was quite normal and he had it better than most as his salary was relatively high.
Yet during rain season there often were floods that went through his and other people's home and this also meant snakes would come up.
Then the whole family had to sleep on something higher, like a table, to stay dry and safe.
The next day they still have to show up at work in clean clothes and look the part.

May be sad, but don't forget it's their normal. Bear in mind we lived in very similar circumstances ourselves not that long ago.
Both here in Europe as well as the colonists in the US.

It's also not our responsibility but their country's government's.
About half the world lives in similar way that we deem unlivable in spite of the billions the western world has pumped into them for over half a century.

I also know from living there (my stepfather was high up, had contacts in government etc.) that most of those billions truly never reach the people they were meant to reach.
It disappears directly into the pockets of the already rich & powerful. Mostly the ones running the country & rest of government.

All we're doing is milking our own poorest people to give for those poor people over there while in actual fact those hard-earned dollars only feed the rich over there.
So it's our poor lining the pockets of the rich over there.

As Gerard Butler said in the movie: "And that's the ugly truth!"

I don't typically watch scary movies as they scare me too much.
But tonight I watched "Willow Creek".
I think a very low budget movie and yet it scared the Bejesus out of me.

Clear. Thanks for taking the time to explain :)


This is normal as the pay in such countries is lower due to cost of everything there being lower too.
That's exactly the reason why many have people from such countries do our work. Helluva lot cheaper than paying their own people.
And probably no sick pay, no pension, no unemployment benefit, and healthcare costs either. All stuff an employer over here would immediately get.
People often don't understand those things.

This is from the net:
Is it cheaper to live in the Philippines or the US?
The cost of living is significantly lower in the Philippines than in the United States. The average cost of living for an individual is 72.4% lower than in the United States. For a family, the average cost of living is 68.9% lower in the Philippines than in the United States.

To be honest, I didn't know mods got paid, even if a little.
I thought you mods always said it was volunteers work.
It would stand to reason you would get some form of reward considering the amount of work & time is involved in moderating a large forum. But I do recall you (former) mods saying it was volunteering.

No matter what, it is totally rude to just cut people off without any notification or explanation.

Well, if that's how it's gonna be here now this site will sure go down the tubes very fast as well.
Won't take long for the creeps, bots & scammers to figure out there's no one monitoring the site.

I've never seen one episode of it. It always started at 22.30 and I had to go to bed that time in order to feel fit and focused the next day at school.

So Hill Street Blues starting on tv was the sign for me to go to sleep, even though I didn't want to, hihi.

Thank you, Julie!
I used different brushwork for most of this painting. Kind of an experiment.
At first I got frustrated because of it, felt it didn't work for me, yet in the end the parts where I did that worked out really well!

Thank you, Julie!

I've done more work. It's as good as done. I'll go over it to maybe do some finishing touches.

The colour of the light part of the wave has not been altered. Any difference is due to light at time of taking the photo.

The previous one isn't totally finished yet, but I did start a new painting yesterday :)
Back to acrylics, which takes getting used to again.

I'm doing a seascape, started out in another way of painting only to find out it's not really my way of going bout it.
Nevertheless I do feel it's coming along nicely!

NOT done with it yet.

I've also reported all of them and yet came across one of the posts just now regardless.

Well, this part used to be an island but got connected to the next piece of land -which was a peninsula- by landfill.
Then there's bridges which connect to the next peninsula and/or island so it's not like being on an island in the middle of the ocean or something.

If you see The Netherlands in this image, then look at the bottom left you get an idea of what I'm talking about.
All peninsula's and islands that nowadays are connected to one another by bridges, or landfill here and there in the past.

So you don't really notice you're actually on an island.

Where I live you cannot do without a car. Not that I'm completely out in the sticks, but this area only has hamlets, villages, a few small towns.
Relatively lightly populated.
As such public transport is meager. No trains, and every now and then a bus.
These days not even a regular bus connection anymore but more like a taxi service that you have to book at least 1 hour prior to departure.
If no one books, there's no bus.
We should consider ourselves lucky with that as they initially had planned to cancel any form of public transport on the island :o

So if I want to be able to make it out of this village I simply need a car.

Thanks, will do! Back in my own car which isn't as smooth as the Audi, so won't be a problem, hihi.

Little Meggie got neutered Monday.
She's doing really well :)
I'd been in 2 minds about letting her have a litter once but in the end decided against it.

She has to stay indoors for another week, then she can go out and run & play & have fun!

I'd sure as heck get a lot of speeding tickets in such a car, hihi.
When you only put the least little pressure on the accelerator you're already doing 40-50km?! I'm only allowed 30km in the village :p

I now totally get why people with such cars almost always drive too fast!

Tonight's the last episode of Expedition Bigfoot season 6!
They've kind of said they have a big surprise/revelation, like 'finally!'

Last episode they had footage of alleged Bigfoot walking through the woods, captured after Russell had followed it for hours on end.

In tonight's episode the entire team is going back to the one area where Russell picked up its trail.

I cannot wait to see what they've got since they're basically saying -indirectly- that they've done it.

It airs tonight at 10 US NY time, meaning I'll have to add another 6 hrs to it, which would be 4 at night. I'm sound asleep then, hihi.

Tomorrow... then I can watch it!! So excited about it!

I of course meant to say "Me prAying..." and not "Me prEying..."

I was so danged nervous I got it wrong.

Feeling a helluva lot more relaxed :D
The drive back went okay.
I figured that maybe I'd had the car in the wrong gear so I made sure I had it in 1st and yup, dammed thing took off like a lightning bolt, haha.

Feeling nervous --->>

First time in my life driving an Audi, owned by the garage that had to fix my left rear wheel.

I am a good driver, have driven for yonks, various cars, never a problem.
But this Audi... I had to pull up in 1st gear, damn thing nearly quit on me there while I'd barely moved half a meter, hihi.
That happened another 5-6 times until I managed to pull out of the garage driveway onto the road.

Me preying I wouldn't have to come to a full stop and go through that nerve-wrecking scenario again, potentially with a car behind me.

Made it home, but in 10 mins I have to drive the poxy thing back to pick up my own car.
Wish me luck!!

Interesting!
Keep us posted, I for one would sure as heck like to know what the findings are!