Congratulations Egypt! You've toppled a 30-year reigning dictator, and high hopes abound for better times. Your struggle for the last 18 days has been arduous and beyond noble. But the road ahead will be just as difficult if not more so.

If you want to ask what could happen next for a country formerly ruled for decades by a United States-supported "strongman," you could always ask the Philippines. In 1986, we deposed Ferdinand Marcos who was at the helm for 20 years. America supported him because of the Cold War, as our country has had a communist insurgency for over 40 years. And though Ronald Reagan distanced himself from Marcos in the mid 1980s because of "Martial Law," he would have to live with him rather than risk having another Asian nation falling to communism.

In the year of our revolt, it took a breathtaking 4 days from February 22-25 to see Marcos fall from power. What started as a protest against a rigged election resulted in defections from sections of the military, and eventually to a massive civilian uprising led by the Catholic Church. An estimated 1-3 million people flooded EDSA, a highway now forever linked by memory to this event.

EDSA was our Tahrir Square. Though our revolution had nowhere near as much casualties, nor violence as brutal, there was always the constant fear that troops would open fire on civilians, as government forces were known to be behind violent acts against opposition groups throughout the country for many years. Tanks rolled through Manila just as they did Cairo. But when they could not fire on the people, we knew we had won.

Soon enough, Marcos was asking the US for help, with Senator Paul Laxalt advising him to head for the hills. Given safe passage, he fled in shame to Hawaii of all places (Oh, the agony!). He died in exile in 1989, and his remains weren't allowed to return to the Philippines with his family until 1991 after much debate. When he died, the majority of Filipinos couldn't have cared less. Some even felt happy.

We were euphoric when he left. The Presidential Palace was abandoned and hundreds crawled through it, stomping on portraits of our fleeing President. Songs and videos were made immortalizing what we had just done. We were the toast of the world. So much so that the term People Power was associated with our feat. CBS anchorman Bob Simon said, "We Americans like to think we taught Filipinos democracy. Well, tonight they are teaching the world."

Did things get better for the Philippines? It depends who you ask. The late Corazon "Cory" Aquino, wife of beloved Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino who was assassinated a few years before the EDSA revolution, was sworn in as president. She had no political experience whatsoever, but she was an honest lady who embodied the hopes and aspirations of an entire nation. Under her 6-year term, she oversaw a government which drafted a new (though somewhat flawed) constitution and survived 7 coup attempts. Many of the politicians who ran in the wake of Marcos's ouster were revealed to be opportunists over time. Her own vice-president became one of her staunchest critics.

Some of those coups were started by insurgents of communist origin. But by 1992, after the fall of Soviet Union, the US Air Force and Naval Bases were voted by Congress to be removed. Despite the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, it ultimately proved to be a good thing, as surrounding communities were able to adjust. Today, communist inspired insurgent elements are still there, but are reduced to an almost purely criminal element, supplying vigilante justice in absence of competent local governance.

Infrastructure has been a low priority in the time since (except for a short period in the 90s). Government policies were weak in conception and enforcement. Graft and corruption became endemic. Because of the Church's success at EDSA, its influence on individual freedoms and economic growth was immense. In 1986 our population was about 56 million. In 2009, it was over 91 million. Egypt is three times larger than the Philippines, but we have more people. No matter how much our economy grows, our population outpaces it.

You can hear this argument throughout much of South East Asia; that unless you have a strongman running the country, it won't improve. If you ask many Filipinos if they'd want to return to the days of the Marcos era, some will say yes, longing for "order" as opposed to freedom running wild.

But we tend to forget how dehumanizing life can be when you have a dictator who doesn't care about his people. We forget the brutality unleashed if power wants to get its way. We have had Presidents who have been greedier than Marcos since he left, but they never dared play around with the country's constitution. Marcos switched from a presidential to a parliamentary system while ignoring many of the rules he himself laid down. Filipino Press freedom is probably freer than anywhere else in the world. And though it is mostly shoddy and highly suspect, it is impossible to reign in. Our last two Presidents have had more scandals reported on them than have ever been on Marcos in his time.

In the end regardless of what government is running things, or what system is in place, it's the people who determine how progressive a country is. There are many reasons why the Philippines is doing better or worse than it has, but since Marcos we more or less have a say in how that happens and I believe that is a good thing.

Egypt has shown it believes in that too. And to its citizens, believe me when I say that all of us Filipinos who have lived through People Power are with you now. Learn from us and do better. God bless Egypt and good luck to you all!

Growing up in the 80s in the Philippines, way before the MTV age had hit us, TV channels like IBC-13 and GMA-7 would show music videos in the morning (around 6am) as filler to start the day. Filipinos are the most sentimental of South East Asians. When it comes to love songs, we love 'em mellow and worn on a sleeve.

See this picture?  What you see is what's left of the Xinjian Primary School in Dujiangyan, China, in the aftermath of the Sichuan Earthquake.  Notice how a kindergarden building, at left, along with a hotel in the background, are barely damaged  The question of why so many schools crumbled during the recent Sichuan earthquake, is coming to the fore.

From the article:

"This is not a natural disaster," said Ren Yongchang, whose 9-year-old son died inside the destroyed school. His hands were covered in plaster dust as he stood beside the rubble, shouting and weeping as he grabbed the exposed steel rebar of a broken concrete column. "This is not good steel. It doesn't meet standards. They stole our children."

An incredible story (taken from the article):

"SHIFANG, China -- At the moment of greatest despair, Wang Zhijun tried to kill himself by twisting his neck against the debris.

Breathing had become harder as day turned to night. The chunks of brick and concrete that had buried him and his wife were pressing tighter by the hour, crushing them. Their bodies had gone numb.

Then there was the rain, sharp and cold, lashing at them through the cracks.

"I don't think I can make it," he told his wife, Li Wanzhi, his face just inches from hers, their arms wrapped around each other.

She sensed he was giving up. "If God wants to kill us, he would have killed us right away," she said. "But since we're still alive, we must be fated to live."

And they lived. They were pulled from the rubble of their collapsed six-story workers' dormitory 28 hours after last Monday's earthquake, spared the end met by at least 32,000 others."

It's been a horrific month for China and Myanmar, as the human toll from each of their disasters has reached biblical proportions.  For many Chinese parents who lived through the ordeal in Sichuan province, their suffering is especially cruel, as many of the victims of this week's quake were children.  Some reports have stated that the toll could be as high as 900 children, and that figure is expected to climb.

What makes this so heartbreaking is that most families in China are only allowed to have a single child.  As a new parent myself, empathizing with them, it's just too earth-shattering to live through.

The New York Times reports that despite China's unusual openness having this disaster reported on, some details have been covered up with regards to accounting for child deaths.  Parents have even been kept away from affected areas, for as long as two days for suspicious reasons.  Some believe that bodies were taken away and accusations are beginning to mount with regards to the quality of school buildings.

One mother's account made me cry.  She found her daughter's body, without bruises or injury, but with fingernails missing.  She believes her daughter suffocated to death trying to claw out of the rubble.  There are other accounts that'll just make you weep.

The rage and despair these mothers and fathers are going through must not go unnoticed.  And if human negligence assisted in human loss, those responsible should be sought after and dealt with.  But whatever you believe in, keep these families in your hearts and prayers, and hug your children just a little bit tighter.