Category: Culture

#PrayForMarawi? The folly in Manilenos’ calls for solidarity with Mindanao Muslims

May 25, 2017 benign0 7 Comments

Chi-chi Manilenos have made waxing liberal poetic about being in “solidarity” with their “Muslim brothers” in Mindanao the current fashion trend. Social media timelines are filled with flowery euphemisms and platitudes on the subject fit for Hallmark greeting cards all punctuated by hashtags such as the multi-day trending hit #PrayForMarawi. All nice and peachy, of…

Culture, Government, The South

Can Marawi City’s reputation as a no-go-zone for Filipino Christians be changed?

May 24, 2017 benign0 11 Comments

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte finally found a reason to declare Martial Law in Mindanao, the Philippines’ second biggest island and host to the country’s most troubled flashpoints. This follows an eruption of violence in the Mindanao city of Marawi, Lanao del Sur in which pro-Islamic State insurgents based there known as the Maute clashed with…

Culture, Religion, The South

Why the West holds license to comment on slavery in the Philippines

May 19, 2017 benign0 9 Comments

There has been an overwhelming and varied response to the late Alex Tizon’s moving piece on how his family enslaved Eudocia Tomas “Lola” Pulido for decades — even after moving to and settling in the United States. Most interesting of these responses is how some Filipino social media “influencers” are incensed with the way Americans…

Culture, Society

“My Family’s Slave” is a story familiar to a lot of Filipino families

May 19, 2017May 19, 2017 Ilda 17 Comments

The treatment of household help or katulong by Filipino families has been put under the international spotlight thanks to the essay “My Family’s Slave” written by the late Filipino-American award winning journalist Alex Tizon. His article was recently published by the American publication, The Atlantic two months after his death. Many readers were moved to…

Culture, Society

How one becomes a Yellowtard

May 16, 2017 benign0 23 Comments

A person becomes a Yellowtard not because he is better or smarter than all the rest but because he prefers to allow popular but obsolete clique sentiment to hijack his better thinking faculties. Indeed, it seems too much of the “right” kind of education could be the culprit behind the scourge of Yellowtard disease. What…

Culture, Politics, Society

Is the Duterte presidency fated to be a wasted opportunity?

May 7, 2017May 8, 2017 FallenAngel 44 Comments

What happens if President Rodrigo Duterte is toppled? Easy. Things revert to the status quo. The Liberal Party (LP) – the no-results, hypocritically decent, group of politicians whom Filipinos have had to bear with for the past thirty years – will be back in power. The drug problem, which has been the cornerstone of Duterte’s…

Crime, Culture, Economy, Politics

Filipinos need to lighten up about Tito Sotto’s “Eat Bulaga” humour

May 5, 2017 benign0 5 Comments

The reality is, Tito Sotto has full license to crack misogynist jokes in Congress because it was the stardom brought about by his gig in popular noontime variety show Eat Bulaga that got him the votes to begin with. In short, Sotto’s character merely reflects the character of the society that ushered him into power….

Culture, Media, Religion, Society

We Rip What We Sew: Hindrances to Genuine Progress in the Philippines

May 4, 2017 zaxx 3 Comments

As if being relentlessly subjected to searing heat and powerful devastating typhoons, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes on the Pacific Rim of Fire was not enough, many Filipinos like savage wolves are having a field day tearing apart their little would-have-been tropical paradise. Analogous to termites which build their house by slowly destroying their host’s fully…

Culture, Development