How some other people think [View all]

I have retired to the Philippines. The Philippines has had a terrible drug problem through the years. The drug is called Shibu, which is really meth amphetamine.

Rodrigo Duterte, the former President, declared war on this drug and its dealers and users. Duterte used extra-judicial methods to combat this problem. He green lit the police to commit what amounted to summary executions of any suspect, dealer or user.

As a traditional American. I believe in the rule of law and every suspect getting their day in court. However, the Filipinos I know didn't care if, for example, 100 suspected drug dealer s and users were killed or imprisoned without following the rule of law, even if only 80 or 85 were really guilty.

It seems that El Salvador, Ecuador (pending today's election), and Trump's America, in regard to immigration, feel the same way.

I was brought up with the old saying, "I'd rather see 99 guilty men go free than to see 1 innocent man wrongly punished".

It seems both of my countries, the Philippines and the United States, don't believe that at all. If the Philippine government can get 85 guilty druggies off the streets, even at the cost of 15 innocent people getting caught up in the sweep, that's OK. In America, if immigrants, documented or undocumented get deported and imprisoned without following the rule of law, that's OK with them. They just consider it "collateral damage".

It's a different world I live in than what I am used to.