Hiv infections in the philippines
[QUOTE=Rubberyman; 1108247]Do you have evidence for this assertion?
For example, if it were true, then there would be suspiciously high numbers of people coming home to other countries with HIV. The Phils Govt MIGHT be able to hide their own statistics, but if for example, holidaymakers coming back to countries like the US, Germany, Australia, UK etc etc etc had a noticeable rate of infection, then the health authorities in those countries would be on the alert, and blow the whistle on the Phils Government. I am not aware of any such statistics. Perhaps you are though, and it would be interesting to see.
Is that happening? Or are you just expressing an opinion (which you are entitled to do, of course)? [/QUOTE]It is important to recognise that there are many incentives for governments and NGOs to inflate figures such as HIV, trafficking etc, because it increases the likelihood of donor funding.
There is no benefit for you to assert that the numbers in one country are more / less than the numbers in another.
If you are going to make these claims, say where you got the information, total number of reported infections in the selected year, how many HIV cases arose from intravenous drug users, how many from homosexuals, and how many from heterosexual activity.
For example, figures for Australia are commonly reported as being about 1100 or 1200 reported infections for the year. These are the figures that the Australian government uses in its fear campaign to convince everybody to use condoms.
But if you dig a bit deeper, you find that after homosexuals are discarded, then intravenous drug users, there are only 5 actual cases arising from plain heterosexual sex. Only 5, in a population of about 20 milliion. That would equate to about 25 in the population of the Philippines.
And there are far more prostitutes per head of population in Australia than there are in the Philippines.
When you have the equivalent numbers of HIV infections from heterosexual sex for the Phils, then report them here.
Until then, your assertions, or gross numbers are worthless.
G
Negotiating for property, or buying anything
Westerners are notoriously bad at negotiation for a purchase price, for almost anything.
We are particularly bad at negotiating with asians. And there is a general expectation that we will always pay more, because we are rich foreigners. And we are very impatient, we want to do the deal on the spot, quick time.
However, if we negotiate asian style, we will eventually strike a fair price.
My Aussie mate, B lives in Cavite. He asked me to come with him one day to check out a house that he was thinking of buying. It was a very big place, I think 5 bedrooms, and came with a spare vacant lot next door. It needed quite a lot of maintenance.
The owner set the price at 8 million pesos. My mate's counter offer was 5 million. The owner threw his hands in the air, no way.
B waited, and 9 months later, the owner changed, and accepted the 5 million offer.
Deal done, everyone was happy. The key was to hold his ground and to not hurry.
G
Flights from Los Angeles.
For July are under $1100 (Hawaiian Airlines, if you don't mind a 32-hour trip) , and under $1200 on several others. These are great prices for the US summertime.
