We beg to differ.
May 13 2013. I want you all to forever remember that date whenever you get the temptation to beat your chest like King Kong over whatever superficiality captures your nationalistic imagination until the end of time. One reason why 2013 may be an improvement over 2012 is a year ago the nation was “captivated ”…
Read More “Pinoy Pride Is Never There Where It Really Counts Elections 2013” »
Hope springs eternal indeed as that other cliché goes. But then, we might ask: Hope in what exactly? Now that the Philippine Fiesta Elections of 2013 have come and gone, the hard questions must be asked, the vacuous campaign rhetoric ditched, and the motherhood statements junked. Perhaps the usual halfwits will continue to squabble and…
“Here we are again Kate… Ups and Downs.” — Dick Gordon, May 20, 2010 Days after garnering 500,000 votes in the 2010 Presidential Elections I cringe at the thought that after the second automated national and local elections to be held in the Philippines, a sizable portion of the country’s electorate is back to square one. For…
If outgoing Rep. Edgardo “Sonny†Angara Jr. of Aurora wins the election to the Senate seat of his father, as he is widely expected to do, it seems he will be starting his tenure in the upper house of the Philippine legislature under an extraordinary cloud of controversy. Last week, in a statement whose timing…
 In 1844, a young German philosopher wrote a book entitled “The Philosophic and Economic Manuscriptsâ€. The said writer is no other than Karl Marx. In that work, Marx begun to examine, analyze and scrutinize the concept of alienation (entausserung). The other term that he used is estrangement (entfremdung). Marx’s central thesis is that: The…
Read More “Alienation and Estrangement: In Defense of Humanism” »
Political dilettantes talk about “enabling steps” because that’s all they know. Most people can’t tell how a chess game will go simply just by looking at the opening game. Â I think it’s actually the middle game that determines a great game from a mediocre one and the greatness of the game is not seen in…
Can a change in system of government really change the development trajectory of an entire nation? Perhaps so, but the complexity of any causal link that might exist between a system of government and the future success — or failure — of a country does not allow us a straightforward way of determining just how…
Read More “Will the Philippines prosper if we change its system of government?” »
[Any major occasion in the Philippines is always a good time to re-visit this most seminal of Nick Joaquin’s works. It encapsulates the character of the Philippine Nation and remains relevant today as Filipinos continue in their efforts to attain the elusive greatness they nonetheless feel is their ultimate destiny. I humbly present, “A Heritage…