Right, Left and Centre: The Politics of Some Canadians. Chapter 32, Part One: by Dave Jaffe.

      Chapter 32, Part One: Clarita in Canada


   Clarita Ramos is a short, brown-skinned lady who came to Canada in the 21st century. "I couldn't make any money in the Philippines," this 26 year-old Filipino says. "So I came here to Vancouver."
    Now Clarita works a few days a week for a home care firm in Vancouver. She scrubs old people's floors, vacuums their carpets, takes them to medical and dental appointments, washes their laundry and often cooks for them. Yet she doesn't make much money. She clears about $150 a week. She survives by living with her sister, Isabella, her mother Mabel, and her aunt Isabella who's Mabel's sister.
    All of them crowd into a two bedroom apartment on Vancouver's east side. It wasn't the world that Clarita thought she'd be living in when she left the Philippines. "It isn't any paradise," says Clarita.
     Yet Clarita's homeland of the Philippines isn't any paradise either. Its 100 million people are spread out over more than 7500 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Philippines were settled for thousands of years before 1521 by Asian peoples. Yet in 1521 the Spanish showed up. By the mid-1540's, Spanish soldiers or conquistadores started to sieze parts of the islands. Soon Spain had conquered most of the islands. They named the conquered lands after their ruler, King Philip of Spain, and the Philippines became a Spanish colony.
    Yet Filipinos did fight back. In the 1890's a huge rebellion in favour of independence swept across the islands. The rebels were on the point of winning, when up pops the Americans. "Walk softly and carry a big stick," said Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, the arch American imperialist and later U.S. President. Roosevlelt led U.S. troops to victory over Spain in Cuba in 1898. The U.S. then grabbed all of Cuba nd then tsurned its attention to the Philippines..
     U.S. troops killed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and crushed the nationalist rebellion. The U.S. then annexed the Philippines and ruled it as a colony. Yet then came World War Two. "I will return," proclaimed General Douglas MacArthur as Japanese invaders swept MacArthur and hiss U.S. troops out of the Philippines. When MacArthur returned a few years later, he faced not only the Japanese army but also Filipino nationalists led by the Hukbelahuks or 'Huks'. The Huks were  communists who were a tough force. In the end, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders  and Indians defeated the Japanese and the Huks.
     Still after this, the U.S. had to grant independence to the Philippines but with strings attached. The U.S.  kept two huge bases in the country and also ruled the country indirectly through financial pressures and investments. Since the Philippines won its independence, the country has lurched between being ruled by dictators and democrats. Its current president Rodrigo Duterte is something of both.