Our INTGLOS professor showed to us a short travel documentary about Manila entitled Manila, Queen of the Pacific. For your information, Manila is also known as “The Great Dame of the Orient”. All the 10 minutes of watching the clip were worth the time because it detailed how Manila used to be before the emergence of World War II in 1945. Despite its filming in black and white, the narration was perfectly executed and the landmarks featured there brought us nostalgia of what the nation’s capital has been. In contrast to what you will see, it looks like Manila has not lived up to their title as the regal highness of the Asia-Pacific region. Based on the users’ comments on the documentary, they were really disappointed with the slow progression of Manila compared to the highly-developed neighbor countries in the border such as Singapore (Orchard Road was patterned from Taft Avenue), Thailand, Indonesia, etc.
The question lies beneath: what can our country do to climb to the top of the pole like we once were? Let us take time to reflect on this.
