We beg to differ.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a golden opportunity for tree-huggers and social justice warriors to walk their talk. A good proportion of Metro Manila residents who could afford cars and use them for their daily commutes to and from work under the old normal can work from home. The pandemic and the lockdown that aimed to…
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the folly in how entire generations had been indoctrinated in the concepts of hooking up to the bigger global market rather than maintaining local self-sufficiency. Even the United States with its decades-long wanton “outsourcing” binge ultimately shot itself in the foot. It created manufacturing powerhouses like China that are now racking…
The scenarios playing out as we move further into uncharted social territory as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages Philippine society seems to be gravitating to just two — worse and worst. The earlier, Worse, is already a known risk today. As social distancing and lockdown periods continue to extend with no end in sight in the…
Read More “A grim scenario for the Philippines as the COVID-19 pandemic runs its course” »
And then what? That is the question that will remain when we finally flatten that curve. The novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 is being combated by isolating it — and isolating people — to preventing its spread. This is the equivalent of cutting gaps through forests to prevent fires from spreading. The trouble is, that…
I was never really much into working from home (WFH), preferring instead to work long hours when required at the office than lug my laptop home to continue working there after dinner like some of my colleagues did. Even as a university student, I preferred to drive to the campus library to study whenever I…
Read More “Reflections after three weeks of working from home full time” »
In the midst of the global crisis surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is worth considering that this “problem” may not actually go away anytime soon. People talk about how things will return to “normal” when the pandemic is “over”. But what if it does not go away? The COVID-19 is caused by the flu-like…
Back in the day (just weeks ago, before COVID-19 came to be regarded as a force of social disruption to reckon with) the familiar social media “influencer” call to action would echo out into the social media ether on late Friday afternoons: “Weekend starts NOW!” Today that call to action would sound quaint at best,…
Read More “Icarus crashing and burning: Where are the social media “influencers” now?” »
Sure, some Filipinos can work from home. But the vast majority of them can’t. This is not to mention the fact that most Filipino bosses can’t even wrap their heads around the notion. Even in the First World, mentioning the term “working from home” is accompanied by the quotation marks double finger gesture along with…
Read More “Can Filipinos work from home as “vice president” Leni Robredo recommends?” »