We beg to differ.
A familiar concept to us Filipinos is the utak-talangka, or crab mentality. Explaining it in the simplest terms possible, I define it as the “if I can’t have it, neither can you” kind of mindset. Take crabs in a pot. In order to avoid that one of them escape from the pot, they all pull…
There is something about the hoo-ha around pine trees being uprooted from SM property in Baguio City that kinda just bores me. Last I heard there were some “flash mobs” organised by some “activists” in one or the other SM mall in Metro Manila to protest this latest atrocity. Perhaps these “cause-oriented” groups derived some…
Read More “Megamall flash mobs vs SM Baguio: still missing the point” »
We need to exercise a bit of that non-Filipino trait of lateral thinking when we regard this whole issue of “credentials”. I find that the best way to induce this rare form of thought is to ask a child-like question: What are credentials? Any schmoe can Google the term or look it up in Wikipedia…
Read More “Why credentials matter in a non-thinking society” »
The Japanese have a proverb/saying: 仏の顔も三度 – hotoke no kao mo sando Literally, this means “Buddha’s face lasts only three times”. What this means is that even the nicest of persons can get angry after being provoked to a certain extent. Why three? I don’t know, but for simplistic reasons just think of it as…
So now we’re suddenly protesting the removal of a couple hundred trees from an area of land upon which an expansion of the SM Baguio mall will be built. I wonder, though: Why only now? Last I heard, the destruction of Baguio City had been going on for decades. Indeed, Filipinos have been destroying Baguio…
Read More “Protesting the destruction of trees by SM Baguio: a pointless exercise at best” »
April 9 in the Philippines marks the Day of Valor (Araw ng Kagitingan), where in 1942, Bataan as the strongest opposition to Japanese invasion fell. To many of us, it’s just another day off from work. On a side note, it kind of feels weird for me to be writing about topics related to Bataan…
Now that the Mindanao power situation is on the verge of becoming a nationwide crisis, it looks like the issue of what to do with the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) will again be thrust into the spotlight. Your usual protesting militant and activist groups will say that health concerns, the unsafe technical and geographical…
Read More “A monument to Pinoy stupidity: the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant” »
In a society wrought with crises and treachery, the importance of two concepts become more and more pronounced; truth and justice. Countless adages and proverbs were associated with the two ideas; the truth will set you free… the truth hurts… justice delayed is justice denied, and so much more. The sheer influence of the concept…