Page 62 - Gary's Book - Final Copy 7.9.2017_Active
P. 62

four to six hours except to Manila,  which is just a chip shot on the course - about
               an hour’s flight. With the Philippines being so close to Hong Kong and being a
               country having several U.S. military  bases, the people speak English,  enjoy our
               music, and are mostly Catholic. This made it the easiest culture to adjust to. (In

               2016, Obama, unfortunately,  blew all of this. The Philippines  government
               announced that they had had it with him and were no longer going to have a
               military  or trade relationships with the USA.)

               The Philippines was typical of most Asian countries in that thirteen  families  ran the
               country - all 7,002 islands (during high tide but more than 9,000 islands during low
               tide). There were two rungs on the economic ladder - the wealthy  and the
               extremely  poor.  The wealthy  families  made the Kennedys and Melons appear like

               paupers. In fact, in Thailand a game very popular for the wealthy  was chess or
               checkers -  only they play by moving “people” from one position to another on a
               large stadium field. Yes, this is true. There were numbered red and black boxes all
               over a field, and they used an audio system to direct people. “Red box 5, move to
               red box 7; remove black box 6.”


               My distributor, the Delgado family,  had three sons. The first son oversaw all  the
               hotels (Sheratons, Hiltons, etc.). The second son had the responsibility for all
               service stations (Shells, Marathons and Amocos), and the third son oversaw all the
               import and export shipping freighters. I recall one time that I was requested to
               bring my golf clubs, so we could play during the product training meeting that
               week. Upon arrival  at their Manila  headquarters, Mr. Delgado called a meeting  to
               discuss which son was going to fly me to what island and to what golf course. I

               said, “You belong to the country club right here, what’s wrong with that?” That
               wasn’t good enough; they had to fly to some exotic island somewhere to play golf.
               They owned everything  on the island! They were wealthy  – I mean really  wealthy  -
               up there with the Marcos family!  Remember Ferdinand Marcos and his wife,
               Imelda Marcos, who owned 600 pairs of shoes? He was the prime minister  of the

               Philippines  when we were there. Very wealthy!  They owned shopping centers,
               businesses, grocery stores, restaurants - everything.  Their wealth was
               unbelievable!

               Friendships and entertaining  were very important in the Asian culture. These
               relationships led to their wealth. Dow Corning and I made these distributors much




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