LIFE is truly unfair. In poorer countries like Bangladesh and the Philippines, people who rummage through garbage dumps for a living are called scavengers. In the US, they are called recylers.
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In Nakhon Phanom, northeastern Thailand, a 26-year-old waiter Somphon Chanthawong recently took a 73-year-old woman Thongsuk Phutthawan for a bride. No kidding.
The Brahmin priest, as part of the wedding ritual, took a hard-boiled egg, split it and give each half to the bride and the groom to wish them a long marriage – something he obviously doubted.
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There are benefits in marrying a woman of Thongsuk’s age.
During these hard times, the senior-citizen discounts she enjoys at moviehouses and on bus fares can mean a lot for the guy on a budget date.
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“Singapore is an expensive city” – Singapore Straits Times headline, referring to a recent survey by a human resources firm ECA International showing that the island-state has now become one of the 10 most expensive cities in Asia for expatriates to live.
We knew that all along.
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After midnight in Singapore, roadblocks are set up on streets leading from the city’s entertainment district. Drunk-drivers caught by the trap can’t drive for one year, among other sanctions.
Do that in Bangkok and traffic jams would be gone overnight.
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After hitting below $50 a barrel in January from a high of almost $200 last year, the price of oil, now hovering at $70-$72 a barrel, is on a comeback – leading Opec to declare in its latest monthly report that the worst is over for the oil markets.
Just the beginning of the worst for consumers, however.
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The newly crowned Miss Indonesia 2009, half-American Kerenina Sunny Halim, who speaks fluent English but very poor Indonesian, needed a translator to help her understand the judges’ questions during the pageant.
Now people start calling her “Missed Indonesian 2009.”
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The unemployment rate in the US recently hit a record high of 9.4 percent while that of the Philippines, according to the latest jobs data released by its National Statistics Office, has fallen to 7.5 percent.
No truth to rumors Americans are queuing up by the hundreds for work visa at the Philippine Embassy in Washington.
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While the swine-flu virus has now spread to at least 78 countries, Brunei Darussalam, a non-pork eating country, remains unaffected by the global pandemic.
It may have something to do with pigs after all.
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Or with alcohol. Reports say that 21 cases of the pig virus were discovered in a bar in Pattaya recently.
In case you didn’t know, there are no bars and alcohol in Brunei.

(A daily update of this column is available at www.felipeolimpo.com.)