Geography Now! Philippines

if you don't know anything about Asia the Philippines is like the jolliest of them all they're just happy fun jolly people and you know what it's been three years I'm not taking this anymore I've been pushed around I've been threatened I've been thrown into dungeon I've been the butt of all the jokes I'm the Filipino one this is my time welcome to the Philippines my turn okay [Music] hey everyone I'm Ken and as you know I'm half Filipino years ago I was looking for a job and I saw this ad asking for a motion graphics animator on Craigslist Paul and I literally met up at a Jollibee for my interview he said I was his top three candidates in reality there were only three candidates that applied so technically I didn't lie but yeah the other two people kind of sucked so yeah oh and back then I had this weird mustache and Paul's hair was basically this thing Ken and I have been talking for a long time and we agreed Ken definitely has to be in this episode you've come so far from that Craigslist jollibee interview you've earned this Thanks I'm Donna Maxime Ola the Philippines is an interesting country because there's sort of a dichotomy between labels maybe you ask a Filipino if they consider themselves Asian or Pacific Islanders you might get contrasting answers what do you consider yourself Ken yeah I always thought Pacific Islanders sounded kind of cool so I usually stuck with that so first of all the Philippines is a tropical archipelago of over 7,000 islands about 2,000 of which are inhabited and it is the largest island nation without any land borders or shared island territory with another nation the country is located in Southeast Asia straddling the Philippine Sea in the north the South China Sea in the West and the Sulu and celibacy in the South just to skip away lies the island of Borneo which is split amongst three nations at the closest point only about 22 miles or 40 kilometers away from the nearest island that belongs to the Philippines now in general many people will refer to one of the three main island cluster regions that people are part of their Arles own in the north where you can find the capital Manila and where the half of the population lives Bisaya in the center and Mindanao in the South otherwise the nation is made up of 17 regions one of which is autonomous the Bangsamoro autonomous region of Muslim Mindanao this place has a high level of self-rule and on ami appointed by the government we'll explain more about this later if you want to be absolutely technical guessing city a bit north of Manila is the largest city in the Philippines however the surrounding sixteen towns and cities by Manila are called Manila Metro or the National Capital Region and they basically act as one unit otherwise the largest city outside of the NCR are Davao City in Mindanao and Cebu in the Visayas Manila has the largest and busiest airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport which is basically the hub that services the entire NCR they also have the busiest shipping port at the port of Manila otherwise the second-largest Airport is cebu mactan International and rounding up for third place is de Valle City Francisco bangoy International in terms of land transport though the Philippines is well-connected amongst the islands in fact the longest highway is the Pan Philippine Highway that stretches about 3,500 kilometers across the country and connects listen Samar Liat and Mindanao with underground tunnels connecting them finally the Philippines has only two territorial disputes the state of Sabah in Malaysia on North Borneo the territory once had been part of the sultanate of sulu a muslim state that existed the 15th century to the 20th century and that's a whole other story as for the others dispute as we mentioned quite a few times already this whole area known as the Spratly Islands is a complete mess if you don't know anything about this place it basically goes like this yeah it's pretty crazy this is the map showing what everyone claims in the area this big one right here is China's like yeah they just kind of pretty much went for all of it this has even led to a few skirmishes between nations that have built patrol stations on the islands and when they spot a ship that gets too close things could get kind of ugly it's kind of like this hey hey what are you doing this is my area I'm just doing some fishing and research here you know why do you have a shovel then are you building something well technically there's old land portunity from this reef so there's no land claim so you're just gonna build your own land for research anyway here are some notable spots of interest fort santiago Magellan's cross san agustin church Segarra hanging coffins Aguinaldo shrine Sabu's philippine taos temple shrine imam Ameri in Tagaytay the lapu-lapu shrine Luneta Park MacArthur landing site whanau a rice terraces on malecon yang palace vegan has many historical and colonial buildings the various national museums of three and arts tons of amusement park and that's not even including all the natural wonders of the Philippines they have an underground river the most amazing beautiful beaches in the universe those that look like lumps of chocolate and there's an island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island we should hang out sometime yeah when you have 7,000 tropical islands on a volcanic archipelago chances are things can get pretty crazy landscape wise which brings us to the actual physical land of the Philippines is the biggest treasure you will find here for sure anyway the Philippines lies on the Ring of Fire and is specifically on a tectonic plate named after them the Philippine plate and about 95 percent of the land is made up of the 11 largest islands the country was essentially formed through the tectonic activity between the Philippine Manila and the MENA now trenches the Mindanao being the second deepest in the world this makes the country susceptible to small earthquakes and minor volcanic activity about 53 active volcanoes can be found in all of these largest islands except for palawan the most famous and picturesque of these include these three see this island here coming green it actually has more volcanoes than towns on it seven versus five making it the place with the most number of volcanoes per square kilometer in the world in fact the tallest peak in the Philippines is a potentially active volcano Mount Apple located in the south mindanao area the country has numerous mountain ranges and highlands that dip into the fertile valleys the largest range being the Cordillera range in the north busan area hooking into the sierra madre range on the east side which feeds the longest river of the country the Cagayan that flows into the cagayan valley this valley along with the central asan valley are the largest arable cropland and produced nearly all the rice in the Philippines the Bisaya are known for growing the most sugarcane whereas mindanao specializes heavy in coconut and fruit production back in listen though you can find the largest lake in the country Lake Laguna de Bie which is actually in the caldera of a dormant volcano the lake has a weird detached island called column and is actually drained by the Pasig River that flows through the capital Manila and finally the country is the heart of typhoon territory they can comment almost any time of the year the nation will experience on average about 20 of the turbulent storms annually which often flood - there are many river systems but yeah if anything Filipinos are the most cyclone adapted people on earth they're used to it the water has always been kind of their thing so sailing fishing just not exactly quite diving into it otherwise the Philippines is one of the seventeen mega-diverse nations on earth they actually have the largest level of marine biodiversity in the world within their waters and the highest rate of animal discovery on the planet with 16 new mammal species that were discovered in the past decade alone they have everything from the longest snake in the world the reticulated python the largest fish in the world whale sharks seven of the eight known species of giant clam are found in the Philippines the world's smallest hoofed animal the philippine mouse deer and their national bird is the largest eagle in the world economically speaking the Philippines is considered a newly industrialized nation it is transitioning out of becoming agricultural based system to a service and manufacturing base one they have like three of the top ten largest malls on earth oh just you wait I'm taking the top spot soon they're one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and as the thirty fourth largest economy in the world their GDP purchasing power parity has surpassed the two trillion dollar mark basically the Philippines is definitely becoming a key power player in the world stage it's like someday for what it's worth though mining fishing and agriculture are strong industries as well they are currently the world's largest nickel and abaca or Manila home producers and a second largest coconut producer after Indonesia tourism though is another important industry taking up about 8 percent of their GDP employing over 3 million people and now food now in the Philippines every region has their own specialty in culinary strange yeah every dish looks like a fairy exploded lots of dishes you could eat from a guy in kamae or eat with their hands yeah pretty much everything has rice and then you're gonna get a lot of grease and salt and vinegar and a lot of like I don't care if that looks like it goes there or not I'm still gonna eat it anyway right Ken yeah that's Filipino food yeah there's really no official national dish but 3 meals that are well known for our adobo lumpia and sinigang and in the non-muslim parts Letran is a huge deal there are also dishes like tagalog steak teen ola conceit blue blue karikari 60 top silho balut Guinea Lau and my favorite Filipino dish Paula Bock put some nice little lemon juice on it actually got this at jollibee if you don't know what jollibee is it's like the most popular fast-food chain in the philippines it's like if McDonald's and KFC adopted a Filipino baby and they even added spaghetti to their menu for some reason otherwise Filipinos are dessert experts they love their ube ooh everything will be ice cream booby bread ooh beep I do bake cakes oh they also have like subpoena subpoena and cassava cakes those are the best desserts in my opinion they also have hollow hollow legit flat throne buko pandan and puto don't you call me if you're either Latin American or Spanish you may notice some of those foods are also found in Latin cuisines and there's a reason for that yeah we'll explain that in now only in the Philippines can you find people that have spanish names speak English celebrate an Austronesian culture and cook Chinese General MacArthur once said give me a thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world yeah for some reason Filipinos are like the best friends of Asia Filipinos still have the best attitudes and smiles they even give time off felony sentences if the prisoners volunteered to take part in a Michael Jackson dance performance to the public but we're getting ahead of ourselves first the graph the country is about a hundred and ten million people and is the eighth most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world there are about 175 ethno-linguistic people groups in the Philippines the majority of whose languages are Austronesian of these groups the largest ones are the Tagalog at about 28% 13% are sea bwando 9% are Ilocano and 8% are Bisaya the rest are made up of other groups plus a small minority of non-native citizens mostly Asians and Americans it's important to note though that the Philippines has about ten point two million people overseas worldwide it is one of the largest diaspora populations spanning over 100 countries the US alone has about four million I mean they were at one point colonized by the US so go figure they use the filipino peso as their currency these types a BNC plug outlets and they drive on the right side of the road oh and keep in mind the word Pinoy is synonymous with something that is Filipino you might see that use a lot now back to the ethnic groups thing since there are over 175 of them you would think how do they all communicate well the Philippines has two official languages English which makes in the fifth most english-speaking nation on earth and Filipino which is the standardized version of the gallop the Philippine Tagalog language spoken today is a very different from pure Tagalog it actually has about 14% Spanish 10% malai and 7% English mixed into it with a slew of other borrowed loan words you can see the influence in words like menthol adorn Guapo zapatos and Pamelia often Filipinos will substitute an F with the P or a V with a b or a V with a B yeah same with Koreans actually yeah high five with min more consonants hey-oh and fun fact ken taught me this in Tagalog you can actually say an entire conversation just using the syllable ba for example ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba well that was fun otherwise in the Visayas and Mindanao area cebuano is a common language as well as the other regional tongues like what I and da Boa know they even have the only spanish-based creole in asia java condo located in sub Ohana City now the Philippines is unique in that over a past few centuries they've gone through three periods that shape their identity before European intervention the Philippines has had a multitude of early civilizations that built kingdoms and dynasties like the Tonto enemy on the pangasinan and the Sulu Sultanate many of these kingdoms had their own indigenous writing system such as the ba bian qu he s cayenne and colita genetically Filipinos are classified as belonging to the broader Austronesian people group with their closest cousins being the Micronesians like the Mariana Islands Guam and Palau although over the years many people have mixed and today it is speculated that somewhere around one-fifth or more the population may have some kind of Chinese ancestry after the Spanish came in they adopted many of the customs traditions and cultural traits which have Spanish roots their own countries named after Spanish King Phillip the biggest trait though would be the fact that they are predominantly Catholic at about eighty one percent of the population adhering to the faith the rest are mostly Protestant with a small Muslim minority in the south mindanao area the Philippines is the largest Christian nation in Asia fifth largest Christian nation on earth and third largest Catholic nation after Brazil and Mexico they have so many holidays and festivals devoted to Catholic themes like All Saints Day Holy Week and Easter and of course the largest one Christmas the Philippines has the longest Christmas season out of anywhere else on her okay so now we're just gonna rapid-fire a list of 12 fun cultural facts for the Philippines Filipinos have a ton of superstitions for example whistling at night will turn you to a werewolf for formal occasions you may see Filipinos wearing traditional borrowings for men and Maria Clara or misty so dresses for women there are many other traditional costumes and customs for the other 170 ethnic groups too many to cover but it goes everywhere from feathers coconut fibers hair dresses tribal tattoos and so on speaking of which the Philippines dominates major international beauty pageants with a grand total of 15 victories at the Miss Universe Miss world miss international and miss earth competitions basketball and boxing are the most popular sport by far they have the oldest basketball league in Asia and the second oldest in the world after the United States and come on we all know Pacquiao the Philippines is the leading nation to train and export nurses abroad it's been said at one point every Filipino has their should I just drop everything and become a nurse moment in their life crisis that's a fact I've had those and the word balikbayan means returner or returning family it is used when someone comes back from expat work abroad you might hear the honorific title of pull or opal for elders and a lot of people often raise the back to the hands of their elders to their forehead as a sign of respect and say bless in the Philippines you have your name and you have your panini nickname and they get really weird and creative Pepsi bing-bong jelly boy pinky bum bum and Earl every Filipino on every island in every region can tell you Filipinos are obsessed with karaoke the first karaoke machine was actually patented by a Filipino Roberto del Rosario even though some Japanese do it invented it but he patented it obviously that means music is a big deal in the Philippines besides taking modern cues from American pop they also have traditional style instruments include things like good yuppie Gillick dong gimble Koo Bing Anto Valley in addition there are many different styles of dance but the most famous one considered the national dance is denying a dance done between two pairs of perpendicular bamboo poles that are clapped together as percussion tools and the dancers must weave their feet in and out in the spaces before getting hit or tripped now on a bit of a more objective note we do have to talk about some of the controversies the Philippines is beautiful but if you've been keeping up with current events they do have their fair share of issues that have made headlines we don't sugarcoat everything here human trafficking whether in the sex industry slavery or organ smuggling has been a problem in certain areas and even though anti trafficking acts have been passed by the government enforcement has not always been on par drug trade has also been a major inconvenience for decades affecting millions of people in the country this has led to the new controversial laws instituted by President Duarte which encouraged the public to seek bounty in exchange for hunting down drug pushers many have died in the process and finally you have the motor-oil conflict and insurgency in the predominantly muslim mindanao region which sought to take parts of Eastern Malaysia and break away through conflict the fight has been going on for nearly half a century and now it's just ending at the turn of the 21st century and for what it's worth though in the Philippines everyone is family at the end you don't have to be related to anyone to call someone out there or Kuya there's even a word bayanihan which means something like helping one another through community spirit without expecting anything in return in any case we got to finish off the segment with history austronesians tribal kingdoms and Sultanate this guy came to the islands Catholicism comes in lapu-lapu and Magellan dies in battle five Spanish dudes followed through they finally become a colony of Spain the galleon trade British Philippines and then back to Spain the Treaty of Paris philippine revolution the spanish-american war first Philippine Republic philippine-american war American occupation World War 2 Japan invades American pushes them back finally Philippine Independence Ferdinand Marcos turned from President to dictator martial law this guy gets killed because he was against the regime people power revolution in 1986 growth from agricultural society to an industrial one and here we are today and now we finish off with the notable famous people condensed some famous people you guys the Pinoy geography police arrested we mentioned in this episode include lapu-lapu jose resolved these two saints Melkor aquino manuel/oh Kazon Lakan Dula Josefa Yanis Skoda and Vicente Lim Carlos Pena Romulo and all the Miss Universe winners and there's a ton of Americans with Filipino or partial Filipino descent yeah you can see there's lots of American Filipinos those two get along pretty tight we'll explain more on how that happened because of the long history in the Philippines being colonized by two major Western powerhouses it would make sense that it would have ties with the outside world in many different ways for friends the Philippines is generally close with all the ASEAN nations and does great business with them particularly Indonesia and Malaysia their closest neighbors the Marshall Islands Palau and the federal States of Micronesia are all cousin countries many of which have Filipino microts in them and they all share the same history of being former US territories and US influence States of course Spain will always be in the back of their minds as the former colonizer that they gained much influence from although Filipinos are not considered Latino the Spanish and many Latin Americans kind of see them as like the adopted Asians that totally fit in their family it's like come on you're Catholic you eat flan every fifth word you speak is Spanish you're basically one of us interestingly enough the relationship with Mexico has historically had been always strong the Philippines was ruled under a Mexico based Viceroyalty of New Spain the Manila galleons were Spanish trading ships which for two and a half centuries linked the Philippines with Mexico across the Pacific Ocean making one or two round-trip voyages per year between the ports of Acapulco and Manila and Mexican traditions were brought in like the day of the Dead and champurrado when it comes to their best friends however most Filipinos would probably say even though colonial years were a little bit bumpy ultimately the USA and South Korea South Korea was one of their closest best friends from the 20th century on world war ii really bonded with them after the Japanese occupation year and they supported each other diplomatically Koreans are the top number one tourist demographic that visit the Philippines Koreans kind of admire the fact that even though they were both influenced by the u.s. Filipino speak better English whereas Filipinos practically obsessed over Korean products and media ah US for the USA ties were close ever since they became their colony in 1898 the u.s. also had the largest number of oversea filipinos at over four million most of whom live on the west coast eights like Hawaii and California they are one of the oldest Asian partners of the u.s. they have a mutual defense treaty and they are the largest export partner and second largest import after China American pop culture dominates much of the youth influence Hollywood studios love filming there and Gallup polls have shown that the USA is favored on average by over 90% of the people asked making it one of the most American countries on the planet and can you take the conclusion in conclusion if you enter a room full of Asians you definitely know who the Filipinos are while everyone's so uptight we're the ones who can karaoke and somersaulting you could just feel the energy of a Filipino there's a touch of Latin flavor with American pop undertones but in the end no matter what island you're immediately considered part of the panel Jen one of my best friends I love you man I'm so proud of you Thanks stay tuned Poland it's coming up next [Music]

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Views: 2,162,907

Rating: 4.9313674 out of 5

Keywords: Geography, facts, info, cool, education, learning, countries, history, class, lesson, funny

Id: LVFvRNRTEd4

Length: 19min 41sec (1181 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 02 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Heya from ur neighbor

[u/dhkendall]

Ken was an excellent host! Easily the best presenter of the team outside of Barbs!

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