Imelda Marcos and her shoes

So, as I will be taking off to the Philippines in the next couple of days, I decided to write a bit about the history of the country with a focus on...beanpasteness of course!

Since Asia has it's share of tyrannical regimes (Khmer Rogue) and bloodthirsty dictators, I decided to focus on a regime that is remembered something else other than blood or tiny prisons.

The year is 1965 and the new president elect of the Philippines Ferdinand E. Marcos stand tall and proud next to his wife and former beauty queen Imelda Marcos.






Imelda, a member of the politically prominent Romualdez family, she soon took power with her husband, putting together organizations such as Philippines Heart Center, Philippine Lung Center Center, and Philippines Cultural Center. She also secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant in Manila.She negotiated oil deals with China and began family planning programs.

Unfortunately, all of her little accomplishments did not little to outweigh her MEGA beanpaste accomplishments: flying privately around the world for million dollar shopping sprees to New York and London, sending a private plane to Australia to collect some white sand from a beach, buying $51-million dollar apartments in New York, and owing a private art collection of 175 pieces by the most prominent artists ever such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Canaletto. Crazy? yes, and what was Mrs. Marcos response to all of this? "it's my duty to be some kind of light, a star to give guidelines (to the poor)."

                                                                    Guidelines, eh?

                                      3,000, 1,060, or 7,500?

After declaring martial law for years, attempting to assassinate opposing party members, and abolishing the 1935 Constitution, the Marcos fled the Philippines. When people stormed the Malacañang Presidential Palace what they found was, well, MEGA beanpaste. Imelda's extravagant collection included 508 gowns, 1,000 handbags, and 1,060...(no one knows the real amount) pairs of shoes!

 

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE THINKING....

                                                                    OMG!!!!!


After Ferdinand Marcos died in exhile, Imelda eventually came back to the Philippines, where she resides today and where she has semi-successfully ran for public office. Her shoes were put on display, to show the extravagance of the Marcos regime. And Mrs. Marcos came back later, to explain which pairs of shoes she wore while visiting which dictator.

                                                           CONCLUSION

Even though the Marcos regime was marked by cruelty and extreme poverty, we will always remember it for...shoes! I guess there have been worse things to remember your regime by....