Category: Culture

Filipinos should junk the 1986 People Power narrative in order to TRULY progress

August 18, 2016 benign0 77 Comments

It’s time Filipinos pause, step back, take stock, and ask: What is really going on here? If one would attempt to answer that question using the common frame of mind with which Filipinos have coocooned themselves within, the responses would be unsurprising, quite trite, and peppered with certain key words prevalent in mainstream discourse today:…

Crime, Culture, Development, Economy

Will Filipinos be able to learn anything from Hidilyn Diaz and the Olympics?

August 16, 2016 FallenAngel 31 Comments

Give credit where it is due. No doubt weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz took whatever training conditions she could get, worked her ass off as hard as possible, and put it all on the line when it counted. The result? She got a silver medal at the Rio Olympic games. To this we say, congratulations! After celebrating,…

Culture, Lifestyle, Society

5 Reasons Why I Think We Should Boycott The Local Mainstream Media Altogether

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 Grimwald 73 Comments

Look, I know I’ve always been a staunch opponent of the local media and that I wail at it whenever the opportunity to do so presents itself. In fact, over the years, I think I’m becoming tiring and redundant when it comes to bashing the local media. However, I’m going to have to apologize to…

Culture, Lifestyle, Media

Tough love will work better for Filipinos in the War on Drugs

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 Hector Gamboa 22 Comments

In my last article, I presented an argument against the folly of subscribing to a silver bullet idea that promises to wipe out our country’s drug problem. There have been ideas floated that either or both decriminalization and legalization will solve the drug menace since these have been shown to work in featured western countries…

Crime, Culture, Government

Social media and the dismal state of Filipino activism and political commentary

August 10, 2016August 10, 2016 benign0 4 Comments

Sad to say, Philippine “activism” hasn’t progressed much over the last several decades. The “movements” may have moved from the streets onto social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but the quality of the discourse has remained pathetically dismal. The venerable former blogger Dean Jorge Bocobo (DJB, a.k.a. @SagadaSun on Twitter), for example, has taken…

Culture, Development, Politics, Society, Tech Talk

Filipinos can only keep romanticizing about what Singapore has succeeded at DOING

August 9, 2016August 9, 2016 FallenAngel 24 Comments

The year 2015 was both a significant marker in the history of our Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore. It was the year of both the fiftieth anniversary of its founding as a nation (August 9), and the year Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), widely considered its founding father, died (March 23). Therefore, starting this year, 2016, Singapore…

Culture, Development, Economy, Politics, Society

Is winning Duterte’s War on Drugs mission impossible?

August 9, 2016 benign0 47 Comments

Everyone loves the Mission Impossible franchise. That’s because the best stories are about people who’ve hurdled the seemingly impossible, stared down the intractable, and succeeded against all odds. It is the reason that Star Wars fans find that over-used battle ending where proton torpedoes are used to hit a target that is “only two meters…

Crime, Culture, Society

Forcing a western style liberal approach in solving the Philippine drug menace may not work for us

August 9, 2016August 9, 2016 Hector Gamboa 38 Comments

The on-going war on drugs in the Philippines is a hot topic nowadays. Supporters of the country’s new President (Rodrigo Duterte) have hailed the energized efforts of the government to put a stop to this drug menace plaguing the country while detractors of the President have cried foul over the bloodbath that has resulted and…

Crime, Culture, Government