We beg to differ.
Again, I’m seeing the Happy card being played a lot these days. Filipinos can’t get enough of that card. It’s a poor man’s Ace. You can’t make yourself rich overnight, but you can certainly make yourself “happy” in the next minute. And so that is why “Happy” is de facto the buzzword of the Loser…
Read More “Filipinos’ obssession with ‘happiness’ is what keeps them mired in chronic poverty” »
One thing a military organisation worth its salt is good at is acting swiftly and decisively under duress to resolve a serious crisis. This is exactly what the Thai Army has done to untangle a government paralysed by civilian politics. Following the imposition of martial law by the Army last week, further measures have been…
Read More “Thai Army shows how to decisively cure a country of its cancerous civilian politics” »
Back to the beginning. I first got to know about the Philippines as I was travelling in other countries and met a number of Filipino Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs). Over time I often helped some with English, form filling etc., and heard more about their lives, loves, and hardships, and was never once asked for…
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act” – George Orwell Improving systems and changing cultures invariably starts with looking under the covers, and with brutal honesty sometimes. Self-delusion doesn’t — shouldn’t — feature in corporate life, nor should it in national governance. Would you prefer your taxes be…
Read More “The brutal business of implementing change in the Philippines” »
Until recently, the core dysfunction in the collective thinking faculties of Philippine society has largely gone unpenalised. Careers have been broken, people unjustly imprisoned, and suicides committed because of this. The current imbroglio that Philippine politics has now found itself neck-deep in following the grossly-misguided release of various lists of alleged pork barrel thieves by…
Read More “Senator JV Ejercito exacts groundbreaking apology from Napoles List mongerers!” »
So, yeah, the gay thing. Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago makes a big deal about former Senator and Philippine National Police Chief Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson’s sexual orientation seemingly to save her ass which had been included in a list of alleged crooks. On the other side of the planet, there is on-going chatter about upcoming…
As expected, the usual suspects are taking the top-management cue and mounting a massive online quibble over the contents of a bunch of name-and-shame lists, purportedly of members of Congress who’ve had “dealings” with alleged pork barrel scam ringleader Janet Lim Napoles, floating around. What exactly will these lists prove? Nothing really. What is at…
Read More “And the massive national quibble over the content of the Napoles Lists is on!” »
See, this is why I continue to assert that the Philippines is an intellectually-bankrupt society. Well into the second decade of the 21st Century, Filipinos continue to fail to step up to the challenge of injecting a bit of innovation in their politics. For all the hoo-ha about “empowering” effect of “social media”, activism has…