OK maybe this thread deserves some final closure. To make it short: I rather quickly changed my mind of not wanting to move to Manila, the high rate of dead foreigners by means of knife or gun being the main reason for it. That had created quite a rift between me and the wife who wanted to go ahead with her business plans. She went ahead, all planning was done by her and the local (Manila) family. Me getting progressively uncomfortable about investment there given the political circumstances and the high decision input of the local family versus my progressively non-existant input. You know, people of Chinese origin all take themselves for business geniuses and that combined with the local knowledge of the family there…
Result:
Small business No.1 working, albeit not making more than what a booth would make back home (as I had estimated). Essentially a black zero (this business is tied to the pre-existing business of the family there).
Business No.2 being two categories larger soon saw all careful planning of me and the wife being discarded as the local family made clear their knowledge would demand them controlling all decisions. Result: Business setup so loco it appears to be out of a Mel Brooks movie. Total and complete failure (as I had pointed out several times in advance), but at least the death was quick and not without entertainment value.
Wife gave up rented home there, we had tons of expenses including German school and I like to point out “I told you so” occasionally.
But… another version of the small business may follow soon as I know my wife and it might make the black part of the black zero a big better. Or not.
My strategy is to cut all other investment in Manila. Main reason for it is the local family there kind of being the social center (and decision center!) for everything in this Taipei-Manila family that we somehow have become and that is nothing I will live with for a longer time. I like the happy locals there, but I certainly want to decide by myself. Or let wife and mother in law and the run-down temple “priest” ladies in Taipei decide like before. But not Manila. Not Manila. One has to have principles.
The emotional turmoil involved in all this plus the death of my father in just that time has led to the funny postings above. All is well now. Nothing to see here. Go home. Don’t quote Duterte.