Towns and Cities, not really very pretty

The Philippines is a beautiful country i wrote a blog a few weeks back about natural beauty and its true the natural part is beautiful, very...but.......

Where it isn't pretty is where civilization makes its mark and builds towns, cities and sub-divisions.

Services, mainly electrical distribution cables but also including telephone, satelite and internet cables are "slung" along roads and highways, towns and in fact everywhere. Sure its the practical way to distribute power etc but it isn't pretty, in fact its ugly, practical yes, pretty no.

Secondly and also allied to the above is money, money here tends to be at a premium, Philippines s a poor country and beautification although it does take place, with plantings etc, in general terms the lack of money both in the public and private sector does not allow for too much expenditure on aesthetics.

For example with the "slung" electrical distribution, they could be buried under the roads and pavements but this would be expensive and so, the cheaper more ugly alternative is used.

People don't have the money to "finish off" (paint) buildings, see house example above which has been left with bare cement render finish for years, i guess no money to paint.

Shanty and squatter areas, simply they are not pretty, for obvious reasons, in town they are ugly in country villages they can be clean and structured.

Oh well, the natural beauty more than makes up for it and i quite like the cities, they are grimey and kind of interesting.

Pictures shown are squatter housing Sasa port area, "unpainted house" public building (library or city hall i think) San Pedro and random shots from the highway and in the city.