The Philippines became self-governing in 1935, but their former colonizer the United States didn't recognize that until 1946. After World War II, the nations remained allies, but a communist insurgent group called Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon, or Hukbalahap (Huk for short), who formed to fight the Japanese, fought for control of the Philippines.
The Americans appointed Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lansdale of the CIA to conduct operations against the Huks, which included psychological warfare. Lansdalen was charged with clearing one area of Huks in order to protect withdrawing American troops and their sympathizers, so he leveraged the legend of the aswang, a shapeshifting, human-animal hybrid vampire. This involved seeding the area with rumors of a curse and the threat of a vampire attack to come. The operation culminated in a staged vampire attack, complete with puncture holes in the victim's neck! Read how they pulled that off, and what happened afterward, at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: Scary Side of Earth)
Comments (0)
"holding people to their obligations" is exactly the same thing a loan shark, drug dealer, pimp or many other nefarious professionals would say to sound just. Though the obligations may not have been justly accrued in the first place.
Not that the phrase itself is toxic. But the indiscriminate use of it is more like propaganda than a belief.
Here in Australia you borrow from the bank an amount of money that covers the cost of the house (minus any deposit you have up front) - the contract between you and the bank is that amount of money. If you can't pay the bank seeks to recover the remainder of that loaned money through such things as sale of assets (the house is first of course), re-arranged payment plan, or seeking out the person that guaranteed your loan if the bank thought the risk was too high and asked for a guarantor. The loan is purely over money which the borrower is obliged to repay.
I don't see how walking away form a loan and a house can legally work? Is the agreement different to a loan of money?
Hello USA, welcome to the rest of the world.
Typically, though not always, your primary loan is a secured loan - it's secured with the title of the house you bought. So if you walk away from that loan, your bank gets the house (but nothing else - even if that house is worth less than the loan).
Secondary loans are almost always recourse loans - so your bank will go after you for every penny of their money.