Law and Order

If getting involved with the drug battles on the good guys side is what you’ve always dreamed of then this is for you. Also, if you’re a smart one, you have the ability to ease your way up poles, you don’t mind hot humid weather, and bad traffic jams - these things will make you an excellent candidate for a job with the US Embassy in Thailand.

Consider an exciting posting titled “narcotics investigator,” working with the DEA using your specialized skills including an electrical engineering degree, or take advantage of your five years of working with vehicle surveillance, cell phone monitoring, or surveillance camera hiding and installation. The most interesting part of the job posting however is the clearly stated skill in the list: the ability to climb poles!

We really don’t understand what climbing poles has to do with working enforcement, or why the job posting was put out in this very revealing way but it seems that the Embassy has no qualms about being so open about its needs. Also local enforcement we suppose doesn’t mind knowing that Americans are climbing their poles.

We reached out to the US embassy for clarification and all that they told us was that the pole climbing bit was really about the need to deal with internet and cellular systems. Again, these are systems oftentimes located on poles hence the need for climbing. The responsibilities go beyond simply working with said systems one would have to be able to develop, maintain, and oversee the operations of lots of very sophisticated surveillance equipment and devices geared towards accomplishing the same goal. The candidate would also need to demonstrate very current understanding of today’s electronics theory along with all of the up to date technology for carrying out investigations. A local blog in Thailand named Stickboy Bangkok referred to it as "basically bugging and spy shit."

You’re probably thinking no way - this isn’t the way that spies are recruited. This isn’t how James Bond was scooped off the streets of London! Certainly not in such an obvious as putting what amounts to an ad out in the public space. I mean do you get on google to search for spy job opportunities - has it come to this?

Meanwhile the president of the philippines Duterte is full swing in a war against drugs that has resulted in an innumerable amount of dead. He has urged people on by publicly promoting vigilantism with statements like “Throw them in the ocean or the quarry. Make it clean. Make sure there are no traces of the bodies.” Reports say that in 1989 when he was mayor of an island named Mindanao he issued his first order to his first death squad to go out and attack drug users and drug dealers.

A former police officer named Arturo Lascanas was the only one brave enough to testify publicly and under oath in 2016 in front of the country’s senate. He claims, from a Manila hiding place, to have been part of the first hit squad. He lives under security protection and knows that he could die at any moment.

Duterte was mayor of Davao for twenty years then he ran for president on a law and order platform, promising the death of every single drug dealer whose corpse would feed the fish in Manila Bay. Duterte at 72 years of age was the strong man that voters thought they needed to set things straight because of fears that the country was descending into a narco state.

In spite of Duterte’s promises based on his supposed track record, his former province Davao continues to have the highest murder rate in the country, and second place in terms of rapes. The fear of pervasive drugs has caused everyday filipinos to see the mass murdering of dealers as a necessary evil in the effort to right the ship.

In the meantime first 6 months of Duterte’s administration saw a $60,400 increase in Duterte’s net worth. Something similar happened with his predecessor Benino Aquino but his dramatic rise in net worth had to do with inherited wealth following the death of his mother Corazon Aquino.

Duterte reported a wide variety of properties from 8 residential lots to farming properties, a volkswagen and a modest Rav 4 car. The salary hike that Duterte has taken is two fold the hike that his predecessor took, which has raised eyebrows.

It goes without saying that many Filipino people are uneasy about the ways of their president. Whether it’s the way that he handles domestic affairs or the way that he has publicly insulted public dignitaries like President Barack Obama or Pope Francis, there is a feeling of a lack of control at the top.