Category: Development

The truth about Tagalog that James Soriano failed to explain

September 4, 2011June 18, 2014 Ilda 42 Comments

William “The Chair Wrecker” Esposo of Philstar.com has joined in the debate about the Philippine national language (or lack of it) in his recent column. This was in response to the controversial and now removed article written by James Soriano from Manila Bulletin. While Esposo rabidly defended our constitutionally mandated national language, Tagalog, he wrote…

Culture, Development, Education, Society

Why there is no Tagalog word for ‘efficiency’

August 30, 2011February 13, 2018 benign0 37 Comments

Lots of people seem to have, at best, a rather shallow understanding of what I mean when I keep harping about the lack of a concept of “efficiency” in the Tagalog dialect. My simple explanation is that the lack of a concept of efficiency native to (or long embedded in) Tagalog reflects the inherent intellectual…

Development, Education, Science, Technology

Ninoy Aquino’s assassination: Another year in the Philippines’ journey of progressive disillusionment

August 21, 2011 benign0 34 Comments

The death of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr is being commemorated today the 21st of August. The fact that this event, which happened 28 years ago today, is so revered illustrates a fundamental problematic aspect of the Filipino Condition. The issues that the Philippines faces in its journey through time — presumably towards that much aspired-for…

Crime, Development, Media

The catch-phrase administration of President Noynoy Aquino

August 1, 2011 benign0 29 Comments

Score so far in this game of clever marketing that Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is playing on the Filipino people — three. As in three catchy slogans that have so far proven to be effective in its stickiness to the Filipino psyche: – Use of the Yellow pedigree platform and its symbols —…

Development, Media, Politics

The truth about the second SONA of Noynoy Aquino delivered on July 25, 2011

July 28, 2011July 29, 2011 Ilda 57 Comments

People in general and Filipinos in particular love hearing the good news, and President Noynoy Aquino (PNoy) loves giving it. On his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered to Congress on the 25th of July this year, he continued the tradition he started since being sworn into office a year ago of assuring…

Development, Politics, Society

The Mystery of the SONA

July 28, 2011 BenK 15 Comments

For a speech that lasted nearly an hour and was so heavily-laden with facts and figures, the much-anticipated second State of the Nation Address by President Noynoy Aquino has seemed to have left much of the country scratching their heads. Two days have passed since the SONA, and public interest has scarcely waned; that should…

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Development, Economy, Politics

An analysis of the second State of the Nation Address delivered by President Aquino on July 25, 2011

July 25, 2011 benign0 47 Comments

I echo my initial thoughts on the second State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III before joint sessions of Congress today, the 25th July 2011: The speech seems thick in narrative, thin on conceptual substance, and lacking in vision. This verdict I make on the basis of the…

Development, Economy, Government

Facts and figures: President Noynoy Aquino’s promises by the numbers

July 24, 2011 benign0 6 Comments

Politicians are quick to grandstand about their achievements and their “contributions” to the development of our wretched land, the Philippines. Whenever statistics about the economy or survey results describing public sentiment is released, politicians will go on a media blitz to ensure that an association between these and themselves are implanted in the vacuous minds…

Development, Economy, Politics