Having been in the U.S. for the last Presidential election and then the Philippines for the recent Presidential election I would like to offer a couple of observations about the differences I saw. Now I must warn you that I watched news programs during both elections but my English is better than my Tagalog so in the latter case I might have missed a little bit in translation, bear with me. Also, I’m only making observations of what I saw and not choosing one country over another or one candidate over another, just my opinion.

The main difference I noticed was the television coverage of the two different countries. In the U.S. I witnessed many ads that were not much more than smear campaigns not focusing on what a candidate would do if elected but what his opponent had done or would do wrong. In the Philippines of course there was a little bit of that but on a less personal case. The Philippine candidates promised to rid the country of corruption and help the needy while the U.S. candidates focused on what would happen if the opponent got elected.

Secondly, since I am a history buff and enjoy the little sayings that go along with a campaign I was disappointed not to see any in the last campaign or the ones in recent history. I’ve read about “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” the 1840 U.S. presidential slogan of William Henry Harrison and his Vice President, John Tyler and “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!”1948 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Harry Truman, among others. These just aren’t present in American politics anymore.

In the Philippines there were political slogans along with catchy nicknames there was “Noynoy” “Gibo” and “Erap” along with Aquino’s catchy politcal slogan “If there were no corrupt, there would be no poor.” among others. And everywhere you went it was a festive mood with shouts from the children of Noynoy! Nonynoy! completely different from what I experienced in the 2008 U.S. election.

Now a catchy slogan or phrase or shouting a nickname may not make a difference in election results but I wonder how many people went to the polls undecided and all they have heard in their heads were little kids yelling Noynoy or Gibo. It makes you wonder!

Now that we’ve got the political commentary out of the way I’m going to post that latest two pics I have of our home construction so those following along can see how it is going. You can see all of those pics by visiting my Facebook album just click here