We beg to differ.
In the first of two moves widely considered to be landmark decisions towards the advancement of same-sex marriage and civil liberties for gay people, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has just recently ruled against Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996. This section defines marriage as fundamentally between…
Australia has a new old Prime Minister. Kevin Rudd has been sworn in as PM three years after being ousted as head of the Australian government by his then deputy Julia Gillard in a bitterly-fought jostle for leadership of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in June 2010. At the time Rudd had served for only…
As GRP colleague ChinoF has pointed out, as long as someone who wins any international competition possesses even a tinge of Filipino blood, despite not even growing up here or honing his/her talents here, then Filipinos will, predictably, latch on to that person’s success and claim it as a victory of the Filipinos as a…
Read More “Did you root for the Miami Heat’s opponent? Hater!” »
Squatting does indeed pay in the Philippines. The most recent pandering to this vote-rich sector of Philippine society is an 18,000-peso “rental subsidy” to be provided by the Philippine government to each squatter family relocated to other settlement sites. This follows a reported announcement from Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio Singson that “there is…
Trust Philippine President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III to take credit yet again for a project progressed initially under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Despite undertaking a massive campaign to cancel key infrastructure projects initiated by Arroyo when he assumed office in 2010, the Aquino Administration has glided on the wind of many…
It’s hardly even surprising that such things have been happening all along for so long. The Philippines’ Overseas Foreign Workers (OFW) export industry is huge — at least 2 million Filipinos residing overseas can be classified as OFWs. The National Statistics Office (NSO) reportedly estimates that more than 52 percent of these are females and…
This is a response to the call of the eminent and radical American Professor Noam Chomsky with regard to his call to the world to support the Turkish Resistance/Occupy Movement. I overwhelmingly concur with the great professor in his stern condemnation of Turkey authorities’ brutal police crackdown on protesters who merely are denouncing the demolition…
There are reform movements and there are people critical of said reform movements. Perhaps it is time that certain “reform” movements learn from their critics. That assumes of course that there is such a culture of learning within said movement. Indeed, the template had long ago been set for “movements” that behaved more like cults…
Read More “It is time to reform the way ‘reform movements’ are run in the Philippines” »