Category: Politics

The Philippines and the ICC: The Right Sort of Foreign Intervention

August 28, 2011 BenK 7 Comments

Writing in yesterdayâ€™s Manila Standard, columnist Rod Kapunan demonstrates exactly the sort of violent, misplaced nationalism that is the best reason for the Philippines to join the International Criminal Court. If I was writing this for my own blog, Iâ€™d probably call Kapunan a tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy freak and an uncivilized thug, but since this…

Crime, Politics

Fact by consensus: are we accepting beliefs in lieu of knowledge?

August 24, 2011 benign0 21 Comments

Media spin, political slogans and catch phrases, and “majority rule”. Today, these seem to be the preferred bases for validating what we come to know about our world everyday. At the very top of the hierarchy of this flawed approach with which we validate the “knowledge” we live by is the very concept of democracy…

Culture, Media, Politics, Society

The Mendoza bus hostage massacre: Remembering the victims of a preventable tragedy

August 14, 2011 benign0 51 Comments

Ill-equipped, ill-trained, ill-prepared, and ill-thought-out. These are words that can easily describe anything to do with the Philippines across the board — from its politicians, to its law-enforcement officers, to its Media, and ultimately to the very people they serve (and are consequently reflections of). The propensity to fail consistently is ingrained into the very…

Crime, Media, Politics, Society

Shutdown of the CCP ‘KULÃ”’ exhibit proves the point Mideo Cruz makes in ‘Poleteismo’

August 10, 2011August 12, 2011 benign0 35 Comments

Seems to me artist Mideo Cruz succeeded in proving the point he wanted to make in his collage Poleteismo which was exhibited along with other works in the main gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In Poleteismo, Cruz depicted through a collection of images and artifacts representing celebrities, religious icons, and public personalities…

Culture, Politics, Religion, Society

Senator Zubiri resignation: Is it an admission of guilt?

August 5, 2011 Ilda 22 Comments

Quite a number of Filipinos were shocked by the news that Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri had filed his resignation following allegations of electoral fraud during the 2007 senatorial elections. The move was a first in Philippine political history. There has been no Filipino public official on record who resigned out of delicadeza or shame in…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Government, Politics, Society

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 US debt ceiling crisis: How the world’s mightiest nation may run out of money this week

July 30, 2011 benign0 20 Comments

Anytime between the the 3rd and the 10th of August this year, 2011, the government of the United States of America may run out of money. The estimates vary depending on who is doing the reckoning — the White House, Wall Street hacks — but either way, as with most things associated with going broke…

Economy, Government, 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