We beg to differ.
Author’s note: This article first appeared in the Manila Times on March 23, 2013. Since it is no longer available online, and since, more to the point, absolutely nothing has changed from one year to the next except maybe the exact nature of whatever goofy promotional stunts have been contrived to mark the “event”, I…
I realised the whole problem with the prevailing discourse within the social media space I inhabit: there is too much discussion about politics and not enough about the underlying issue with Philippine society that I have long highlighted is the real deal here — Filipino culture. Fact is, the Philippines is beset by a really…
Read More “Repeat after me: I am the Philippines and I am home to a dysfunctional society” »
Wow! Despite all the other important things going on here and all over the world, what is really the buzz in the Philippines is the engagement of celebrity model Bianca Gonzalez to her basketballer boyfriend JC Intal. What probably set off the Philippines’ mass kilig is the way the guy did it — in public……
Read More “Bianca Gonzalez engaged to JC Intal after big NAIA public proposal!” »
Hours following an announcement by its prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has blocked its citizens’ access to Twitter last night. At his campaign rally in Bursa on the 20th of March, Erdoğan announced “We now have a court order. We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the…
Read More “#TwitterIsBlockedInTurkey: Turkish PM Erdogan mirrors PNoy style” »
Despite how president Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino keeps telling the public about how he is going to ignore his critics, or how “he prays for their enlightenment”, how he wishes to suppress dissenting views, or even just basically wishes for them to vanish, it looks like he is actually giving them more reason to exist….
Read More “President Noynoy Aquino’s mouth is his own worst enemy” »
I don’t pretend to know much about the nitty-gritty of military life. In fact, the closest I ever came to experiencing it involved being an officer in the Citizen’s Army Training (CAT) program in high school, and being a normal cadet in the Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program in college. If anyone cares to…
Read More “Why cadet Cudia’s case has played out on social media like an EDSA revolution” »
If there’s one good thing I can say about president Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino, it’s that I can count on him to provide entertainment value while he goes through the motions of that role which he “accepted” in 2010, albeit reluctantly. All this started of course, when BS Aquino made news because of a speech…
Read More “The Philippines – not just an Ampaw Republic, but a Kaharian ng Araw too” »
The case of dismissed Philippine Military Academy student Aldrin Cudia has lingered long enough among the chattering classes. When news of it first broke out, it seemed that Cudia was dismissed for being a few minutes late for a succeeding class. Eventually, it became known to the public that Cudia was found guilty of something…
Read More “What the case of PMA student Cudia says about Filipino society at large” »