We beg to differ.
What we as ordinary people can contribute to the effort to combat climate change lies in some personal behaviours of ours that we have direct control over — our consumption habits. We just need to pause and take the time to think and reflect upon what motivates us to buy and consume the way we…
At the coffee shop where I routinely get my morning fix, customers mill around the counter in a way that often makes it difficult to distinguish those who are (a) in the process of ordering and paying, or (2) waiting for a concluded order to be served. So it is a normal and routine courtesy…
Motorists who use the Philippines’ Skyway, an elevated express tollway linking Manila’s southern suburbs to the central business district of Makati City have for some time observed flattened carcasses of cats littering the pavement. The baffling roadkill has raised the question of how the animals had somehow made their way onto the elevated structure. A…
Read More “Skyway roadkill: Cats seemingly dropping from the sky onto Manila elevated highway” »
Indeed, the Philippines is a wild trail that needs to be negotiated. And as experienced trackers and wilderness negotiators will point out, navigating a wild trail is not for the faint-hearted and dimwitted. You need brains, you need stamina, you need guts. Do Filipinos have any of those virtues? Well now, don’t get us started….
Read More “Indeed, the REAL issue is not the Philippines — it is Filipinos” »
It’s all so interesting to note. One moment, Filipinos would giddily cheer the successful resupply of Philippine military personnel camped in the derelict BRP Sierra Madre which was purposely run aground in Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to seal the Philippines’ territorial claim there. Then on another, they’d give each other high-fives over what is essentially…
Read More “The Philippines’ Han Solo moment: Why the Ayungin drama made Filipinos ‘proud’” »
So what happens to the Philippines’ claim on the Malaysian state of Sabah following the signing of the Bangsamoro “peace deal” between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)? It seems this is now conveniently in the backburner as Filipinos, on cue, dance to the tune of Malacanang’s “celebration of peace”. But…
Read More “Next step after Bangsamoro peace deal: Philippines to pay up – drop Sabah claim” »
The following is a copy of the Foreword I wrote for my friend Ben Kritz’s new book Same Planet, Different World: An Outsider’s Inside View of the Philippines. You can download the book from Amazon here onto Kindle or any of a variety of apps also supported by Amazon. We in our clique of the…
Read More “The country we’ve made for ourselves: why we need an outsider’s perspective” »
Hours following an announcement by its prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has blocked its citizens’ access to Twitter last night. At his campaign rally in Bursa on the 20th of March, Erdoğan announced “We now have a court order. We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the…
Read More “#TwitterIsBlockedInTurkey: Turkish PM Erdogan mirrors PNoy style” »