Category: Culture

Dutertard vs Yellowtard: Cult of personality is a hard Filipino habit to break

April 3, 2017April 3, 2017 benign0 12 Comments

Filipino activists have it all wrong. The scope of their advocacies is defined by people, and not by principle, issues, and ideas. When one defines her interests or advocacies around a person, she necessarily locks herself into a non-negotiable loyalty to that person’s own advocacies. It is a lazy sort of advocacy — picking based…

Culture, Politics, Society

Leni Robredo epitomises the deep impoverishment of Philippine society

March 23, 2017 benign0 10 Comments

You made your bed. Now you have to lie on it. This is the underlying principle that guides whether or not “vice president” Leni Robredo was right to get onto the world stage to shriek about the “horrors” of the “extrajudicial killings” (EJKs) going on in the Philippines. The EJKs (whatever way it is defined)…

Culture, Government, Society

Has the Philippines EVER been truly a country FOR Filipinos?

March 21, 2017 benign0 19 Comments

Think about it. The Philippines is named after a Spanish king. Its current sovereign territory was one defined by its Spanish colonial masters. Its current state religion is an imperial legacy of the Spanish Inquisition — an epic geno-“evangelisation” of an entire native culture by colonial forces. Then the “Philippines” became an American colony at…

Civics, Culture, Society

Go forward with Duterte, or slide backward with the Liberal Party – Filipinos are left little choice

March 20, 2017March 22, 2017 FallenAngel 32 Comments

Of course, the “logically obsessed” would beg to disagree. They will contend that just because one criticizes Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, it doesn’t mean that they are “dilawan”, or siding with the Liberal Party (LP) – arguably the loudest voice in the opposition, or some people would like to say, the anti-Duterte camp. And vice…

Culture, Development, Politics

Killing The Culture of Idolatry and Personality Politics

March 9, 2017March 9, 2017 P. Farol 2 Comments

Despite the best efforts of the current crop of social media superstars in the Duterte firmament, the discussions of late have been mired in a clash of whose idol is better or worse and seems devoid of any discussion of policy or strategic direction other than the political death of one idol or the other….

Culture, Politics

Old colonial scars revealed: The presumptuous diplomatic row over the Madam Secretary circus

March 8, 2017 benign0 43 Comments

Filipinos have long been known for their inability to distinguish between real life and reel life. Theirs is a society, after all, that elects showbiz politicians to power on the basis of the achievements their fictional characters win on screen. Thus it is hardly surprising that a diplomatic row would erupt over a recent fictional…

Culture, Media

The Mess the 1960s Created

March 1, 2017March 1, 2017 ChinoF 35 Comments

The 1960s was a fascinating decade. It’s where all the most lasting modern fixtures in both popular and underground culture were set. This is where we got the free-spirited, free-wheeling, rowdy, casual, “hang-loose” attitude associated with American culture that is commonplace today. I like that attitude too, and it’s a stark contrast to the stiff…

Culture

Middle ‘Popcorn Camp’ grows while polar Dutertard and Yellowtard camps slug it out

February 28, 2017 benign0 7 Comments

There was one thing celebrity “activist” and former Apo Hiking Society singer Jim Paredes achieved after his spectactular tililing rampage during the 31st anniversary celebration of the EDSA “people power revolution” last weekend. He managed to expose just how intellectually-bankrupt the Philippine national “debate” had become. Or perhaps the more appropriate conclusion to draw from…

Culture, Politics