Important Thoughts About Random Things

Tagged with american, filipino, military, philippines, plastic, science fiction, united states on July 7, 2024

These are some important, yet random, thoughts about things that bother me. They’re probably not as significant to you as they are to me.

Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity

After I read Scientific American’s article, “Supernova Slowdowns Confirm Einstein’s Predictions of Time Dilation” as much as I could, I winced as I usually do when reading anything about Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity.

To sum it up, the theory says that as we travel approaching the speed of light, time slows down for us (but we perceive it normally) while it continues at the original speed for the people standing still. The movie, “Interstellar (2014)”, used it as a major plot point.

What I want to know is at what speed the time dilation effect begins. The theory will always remain a theory until someone can prove it happens even at lower speeds. Real proof. Until then, it’s nothing more than science fiction to me. If we ever figure out how to attain faster-than-light travel, the speed of time probably won’t be affected.

America’s Shrinking Military

I didn’t have to read an opinion piece at The Hill, “America’s shrinking military is a cultural crisis”, to know the United States has a military recruiting problem. The leaders have overreached in controversial, progressive policies, and those eligible for military service have reacted exactly as I expected.

In the civilian world, you don’t have to live, work, or associate with anyone you don’t want to. In the military world, you have to work and associate with people you may not want to. If you’re single, you may have to live in single-type quarters with those people. You don’t have a lot of choices in the matter.

There are other sources of personnel, if the United States government wants to pursue those sources. The Philippines, for example, used to be a valuable source of personnel. That is, up until the bases in the Philippines closed in the early 1990s. I served with Filipinos at some of my assignments while I was in the military, starting in 1978 and ending 20 years later.

There are thousands of non-Americans who would love to become American citizens. Serving in the United States military is one just one path of many. I know many young Filipinos who would jump at the opportunity to serve when it means they can eventually become American citizens.

Residence in the Philippines

Even though the bases in the Philippines have been closed for more than 30 years, there are still quite a few retired American military people living here. (Not just military, of course). I’m living here with a permanent resident visa (for 18 years), which has its own unique set of rules. Although the visa is permanent, the card isn’t. I have to get a new one every five years. Since the pandemic, I can only get a new one in Manila.

When I leave the country, I’m only allowed to leave for one year because I can only get a reentry permit good for one year. Every year, between December 31 and March 1, I have to register as an alien at the local Bureau of Immigration office. No other time of the year. That means if I leave the country, I have to return before the end of February, regardless of when I leave.

I don’t like being limited to a one-year trip to the United States, my home country. I’d rather be limited to a one-year trip to the Philippines. Therefore, I’m planning to downgrade my visa sometime before my ACR I-Card expires in October 2027.

Single Use Plastics

Before I entered the military, I never saw bottled water, unless you consider the 5-gallon bottles used with water dispensers. I never saw plastic bags to carry groceries in. We had paper grocery bags that we used for everything. Butchered meats were usually wrapped in a different kind of paper.

We’re slowly returning to those methods, which should be happening faster. My younger son recently told me plastic bags are no longer used in the military commissaries where he is in Washington State. He has to bring his own bags. The commissaries should be using paper grocery bags by now. At Royal Subic (where I shop), they use empty cardboard boxes.

Canned water is slowly replacing bottled water. Even though the bottles are supposed to be recyclable, they frequently end up in landfills. The cans, made of aluminum, are infinitely recyclable. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any canned water (like “Liquid Death”) being sold locally in the Philippines. Because bottled water can contain microplastics and nanoplastics, we really need to phase them out as quickly as possible.

Image by Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons