Travel writer, novelist, contrarian

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The human
legacy of
Angeles City’s
sex trade
P22
NOVEMBER 30, 2014
The future
of messaging
P28
Paul
Theroux
Travel writer, novelist, contrarian
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NOVEMBER 30, 2014
CONTENTS
Travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux, in Admiralty.
SUNDAY MORNING
FEATURES
18 COVER Stranger than fiction
The godfather of modern travel writing talks about his famous
family and finding the unfamiliar in familiar places.
22 Loss Angeles
12 Something new
So near, yet so feared
Rant
14 Then & now
Six degrees
16 My life: Kacey Wong
Kwok-choi
Cover, top and above: May Tse
Right: Stephanie Borcard and
Nicolas Metraux
November 30, 2014 Post Magazine
A now
decommissioned
US Air Force
base outside the
Philippine city
begot a sex
industry and
thousands of
children who
will never know
their father.
28 What’s up?
The nature of
messaging apps
is evolving, with
WhatsApp,
WeChat and
myriad other
providers placing
big bets on the
next great service.
9
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Feature
Loss
Angeles
A now decommissioned US Air Force base outside the Philippine city begot a
sex industry and thousands of children who will never know their father.
Words and pictures by Stephanie Borcard and Nicolas Metraux.
Princess Ann, one, is the daughter of a 60-year-old Spanish man who spent a week in Angeles City as a tourist. He does not know about Ann.
Kayla Jolie, six years old, was financially supported by her Irish father for 10 months, before he
Mary Lerace, 16, grew up with her aunt. She has never met her father, a Swiss citizen, but she does
vanished. Kayla and her mother haven’t heard from him since.
know his name. Mary had a picture of him but it was destroyed by the humid climate.
22
Post Magazine November 30, 2014
A
ngeles City, 80km north of the capital of the Philippines, Manila, is known
for its red-light district. From 1903 until 1991, the Clark Air Base – once the
largest US Air Force facility outside the United States – was located 5km
west of the city.
Many brothels and girlie bars opened to cater to the American service
personnel stationed at Clark, turning the city into one of Asia’s most
popular sex-tourism destinations – a status it has retained long after the
GIs packed up and shipped out.
Today, about 12,000 women are working in the bars that line Fields
Avenue, in the city’s red-light district. Unlike in Thailand, where
customers pay by the hour or night, the international clientele of Angeles
City tend to seek a “girlfriend experience”, which can last for months.
Each year, thousands of children are born from such paid
relationships; in this Catholic country, abortion is a criminal
November 30, 2014 Post Magazine
offence. The men often abandon their offspring, and many of these children
grow up searching for an identity with no knowledge of their father’s name
or his background.
Exact figures are hard to come by, but in 1992, the number of Americanfathered Filipinos born to sex workers in Angeles City numbered 10,000,
according to NGO Preda Foundation. It is estimated that more than
250,000 children have been sired across the Philippines by American
soldiers since 1898, when the US colonised the country.
Journalist Jarius Bondoc, quoting a study prepared for the Philippine
Amerasian Research Centre at the Systems Plus College Foundation in
Angeles City, says 200,000 children have been born to Japanese fathers in
the country – mostly during the 1970s and 80s, when sex tours to the
Philippines were openly advertised in Japan – and 30,000 to Korean
fathers, mostly students who come to study English. ■
23
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Feature
Loss
Angeles
A now decommissioned US Air Force base outside the Philippine city begot a
sex industry and thousands of children who will never know their father.
Words and pictures by Stephanie Borcard and Nicolas Metraux.
Princess Ann, one, is the daughter of a 60-year-old Spanish man who spent a week in Angeles City as a tourist. He does not know about Ann.
Kayla Jolie, six years old, was financially supported by her Irish father for 10 months, before he
Mary Lerace, 16, grew up with her aunt. She has never met her father, a Swiss citizen, but she does
vanished. Kayla and her mother haven’t heard from him since.
know his name. Mary had a picture of him but it was destroyed by the humid climate.
22
Post Magazine November 30, 2014
A
ngeles City, 80km north of the capital of the Philippines, Manila, is known
for its red-light district. From 1903 until 1991, the Clark Air Base – once the
largest US Air Force facility outside the United States – was located 5km
west of the city.
Many brothels and girlie bars opened to cater to the American service
personnel stationed at Clark, turning the city into one of Asia’s most
popular sex-tourism destinations – a status it has retained long after the
GIs packed up and shipped out.
Today, about 12,000 women are working in the bars that line Fields
Avenue, in the city’s red-light district. Unlike in Thailand, where
customers pay by the hour or night, the international clientele of Angeles
City tend to seek a “girlfriend experience”, which can last for months.
Each year, thousands of children are born from such paid
relationships; in this Catholic country, abortion is a criminal
November 30, 2014 Post Magazine
offence. The men often abandon their offspring, and many of these children
grow up searching for an identity with no knowledge of their father’s name
or his background.
Exact figures are hard to come by, but in 1992, the number of Americanfathered Filipinos born to sex workers in Angeles City numbered 10,000,
according to NGO Preda Foundation. It is estimated that more than
250,000 children have been sired across the Philippines by American
soldiers since 1898, when the US colonised the country.
Journalist Jarius Bondoc, quoting a study prepared for the Philippine
Amerasian Research Centre at the Systems Plus College Foundation in
Angeles City, says 200,000 children have been born to Japanese fathers in
the country – mostly during the 1970s and 80s, when sex tours to the
Philippines were openly advertised in Japan – and 30,000 to Korean
fathers, mostly students who come to study English. ■
23
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Feature
Eilsy, 11, and Shaggy, 16, were adopted
as babies. Eilsy’s father is German and
Shaggy’s dad is from Canada.
Mark Anthony, 29, got called “peke” (fake American) at school. He
Samantha Elise, six, and her half-sister Briana Louise, three,
Mechelle, 19, works in a bar on Fields Avenue. When she was nine,
has no contact with his father, a Latino-American US Marine who
are raised by their aunt. Samantha’s father is from India and
her mother pointed out a man in the red-light district and said:
came to Angeles City on holiday and had a one-month relationship
Briana’s dad is from Canada.
“That’s your dad.” Mechelle cannot recall his face but she knows
with Mark’s mother, Rose. She refused to have an abortion.
he is a doctor from California, in the US.
Josephine, 58, is one of the oldest
offspring of Fields Avenue. When she
30NOVEMBER2014 FEATURE 2 POST MAGAZINE
was seven years old, her mum died.
Her father, who was in the US Air Force,
refused to acknowledge that she was
his daughter, so Josephine was
adopted by her mother’s best friend.
Benny, three, and his mother – who still works in Fields Avenue – are
John Peter, 12, received financial support from his British father
Angela Paula, four, was not allowed to meet her Korean architect
sent 10‚000 pesos (HK$1,725) every month by his Australian father.
until he passed away in Bangkok last year.
father, aged 47. Her mother feared he would take Angela to Seoul.
24
Post Magazine November 30, 2014
November 30, 2014 Post Magazine
25
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Feature
Eilsy, 11, and Shaggy, 16, were adopted
as babies. Eilsy’s father is German and
Shaggy’s dad is from Canada.
Mark Anthony, 29, got called “peke” (fake American) at school. He
Samantha Elise, six, and her half-sister Briana Louise, three,
Mechelle, 19, works in a bar on Fields Avenue. When she was nine,
has no contact with his father, a Latino-American US Marine who
are raised by their aunt. Samantha’s father is from India and
her mother pointed out a man in the red-light district and said:
came to Angeles City on holiday and had a one-month relationship
Briana’s dad is from Canada.
“That’s your dad.” Mechelle cannot recall his face but she knows
with Mark’s mother, Rose. She refused to have an abortion.
he is a doctor from California, in the US.
Josephine, 58, is one of the oldest
offspring of Fields Avenue. When she
30NOVEMBER2014 FEATURE 2 POST MAGAZINE
was seven years old, her mum died.
Her father, who was in the US Air Force,
refused to acknowledge that she was
his daughter, so Josephine was
adopted by her mother’s best friend.
Benny, three, and his mother – who still works in Fields Avenue – are
John Peter, 12, received financial support from his British father
Angela Paula, four, was not allowed to meet her Korean architect
sent 10‚000 pesos (HK$1,725) every month by his Australian father.
until he passed away in Bangkok last year.
father, aged 47. Her mother feared he would take Angela to Seoul.
24
Post Magazine November 30, 2014
November 30, 2014 Post Magazine
25
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Feature
30NOVEMBER2014 FEATURE 2 POST MAGAZINE
Azumi Rain, one, and her mother,
Angelica, 24, at the Renew Foundation
shelter, which helps women leave the
sex industry. Azumi’s father, a German
hotel manager in the red-light district,
does not believe she is his daughter
and refuses to take a DNA test. He
cut all ties with Angelica.
Christian Jayson, 11, seen here in the Ipil-Ipil neighbourhood of Angeles City, knows only that his
Jeremy, 26, lost the only picture he had of his German father a few years ago. He finished Grade 3
father is American.
and wants to complete his education but has no savings and survives by doing odd jobs.
26
Post Magazine November 30, 2014