Journey to Kabankalan

As I mentioned in an earlier post, [The Amlan VW Beetle] a friend from the U.S. is in Kabankalan City visiting relatives, and my wife, son and I drove over the mountain to see her.

It was my first trip to Negros Occidental and I was not sure what to expect when driving over the mountains here. As seen from the screenshot of our route, we drove north along the Western Nautical Highway - turning onto the Kabankalan-Mabinay-Bais Road near the Universal Robina Sugar Milling Plant.

Not knowing exactly where to turn off, we drove closer to Manjuyod than we should have - asked for directions and drove back to the unmarked turn off. I would have expected a major road to be marked with a sign, but I suppose all the locals know where they're headed and find a sign unnecessary.

For the most part, the Kabankalan-Mabinay-Bais Road is in better condition than I expected. There were areas undergoing repair, but it wasn't so bad. Winding....sure; but that didn't stop more than a few impatient suv drivers passing when they really shouldn't.

Other than beautiful scenery, there was little of note until we reached Mabinay, and even then there isn't much to speak of. Mabinay does have a few natural attractions which we will one day visit, but none of these are visible from the highway.

When we arrived in Kabankalan, we immediately checked in to the Zaycoland Hotel. The Filipino accent tends to pronounce this name as "psycho land". We did not, however, have any encounter with Norman Bates.

The lower screen shot is of a comparable journey to give my friends in Georgia an idea of the distance. Google Maps gives the distance between Sibulan and Kabankalan as roughly 77 miles. The distance from Rome GA and Chattanooga TN via US 27N is nearly the same. Both trips are over mountains, but you'll see more coconut trees and sugarcane traveling to Kabankalan. The Rome to Chattanooga journey takes about 1 1/2 hours. The same distance in Philippines takes about twice as long.

The Amlan VW Beetle

Wednesday morning, we left Sibulan for Brgy. Binicuil, Kabankalan City across the mountains on the other side of the island to see a friend from the U.S. who is home for a few weeks visiting family. Not long after we left Sibulan, as we were coming in Amlan, we spied this dead VW Beetle on the side of the highway.

I'm not at all sure why I've never noticed this one before. We don't drive through Amlan all that often, but this one has obviously been parked in that spot for a long time.

I Spoke Too Soon

In an earlier post, after posting yet another blue Beetle photo, I stated that, perhaps I'd run out of unique Beetles in this area to photograph. It looks like I spoke (or wrote) too soon. While driving down Flores Ave., near Hayahay Treehouse Bar and Lantaw Native Restaurant, I spotted this copper-colored VW.

I especially like the placement of the side mirrors.

Cocoa, Slavery and Child Labor

In a recent post on the connection between "Big Chocolate" and slavery, Mark Shea stated that "Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and Cadbury exploit child slavery in the chocolate trade". I've heard of the use of slavery and child labor in the production of chocolate - and coffee - and I seem to recall reading that Cadbury has been involved in the fairtrade movement for a number of years. Unlike Mr. Shea, I'm a bit skeptical about everything I read on the Internet. It's possible that Mr Shea accepted the information given in the article he linked to because it fits the narrative that all corporations are evil.

A quick search lead me to this statement on the fairtrade.org.uk website informing us that "Cadbury Dairy Milk has been Fairtrade since 2009 and was the first mainstream chocolate brand to become Fairtrade certified. Cadbury and Fairtrade are now building on this relationship through a global partnership between Cocoa Life and Fairtrade". Looking further, I found out that Mars Chocolate is working with fair trade certifiers through its Sustainable Cocoa Initiative to certify its products. If the information I've come across is true, Cadbury and Mars don't belong on the list with Hershey and Nestlé.

Shea is correct in putting Nestlé on the list of companies supporting slavery and child labor as well as the Hershey company. My main problem with Mr Shea's post is his immediate attack on conservative, pro-life Catholics. He believes that those in the pro-life camp will defend "Big Chocolate" and turn a blind eye to the slavery and exploitation found in the cocoa business.

Reading his post, I get the impression that Mr Shea has only recently discovered the slavery component to cocoa and may have feelings of guilt about his love of chocolate. Perhaps his attack on pro-life Catholics helps to ease his conscience.

Only in Philippines...........

Returning home from taking my son to school this morning, I found myself behind this vehicle. I noticed the sign on the back of the car immediately - "CAUTION!! NEW LADY DRIVER" -

One can only see this in Philippines. Obviously, you'd never see this in Saudi Arabia; there are no lady drivers there - new or otherwise. If a car were to sport this sign in the U.S., it would not be long before the car would be vandalized and the male driver beaten to a pulp. Even if this were a joke (which isn't clear in Philippines) this sign would not go over well in the U.S. and probably most of Europe.