Category: Society

Metro Manila smoking crackdown: another case of sweating the small stuff

May 30, 2011 benign0 10 Comments

So I read that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is going to “crackdown” on smoking in the metropolis. Interesting. Apparently, the legal basis for this “crackdown” is Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. Note the year: 2003. Makes one wonder what our so-called “law enforcement” officials have been doing for…

Civics, Environment, Government, Society

Philippine ‘Independence’ Day on June 12: a desperate claim to a false achievement

May 29, 2011June 9, 2013 benign0 12 Comments

Guess what’s coming up: “Independence” Day. More precisely, it is the could-have-been day of independence unilaterally declared by General Emilio Aguinaldo back on the 12th of June 1898 that we are celebrating this coming 12th of June. Many who see that day as a day that defines “Filipino nationalism” are right. We are a nation…

Culture, Society

Hypocritical respect

May 27, 2011December 2, 2011 Ms. Mike Portes 7 Comments

Is this an honest mistake or a subliminal message from the Office of the President based on PNoy’s warning to China regarding the disputed Spratlys? To quote: “â€œWe may not have the capabilities now, but that might force us to increase our capabilities also,â€? Or is this a message that the PNoy administration is dead…

The key dysfunction of the RH Bill ‘debate’: leaving out the ‘being’ from the ‘human’ equation

May 24, 2011 benign0 59 Comments

A lot of the “debate” around the issue of Reproductive Health in the Philippines revolves around the notion of the “human” life at stake during various stages of pregnancy from the time of conception. According to Fr Joaquin Bernas in his now famous Inquirer.net column, “The Constitution commands that the life of the unborn be…

Development, Religion, Science, Society

Iran: model of successful population control and an inspiration to Filipinos

May 23, 2011July 23, 2013 benign0 9 Comments

The Iranian experience in implementing a successful population management program has become a model for many countries that seek to overcome the debilitating burden overpopulation presents to development aspirations. The most remarkable aspect of Iran’s program is in how what was once a religious directive to go forth and multiply had been repealed by the…

Development, Economy, Education, Media, Religion, Society

Over-population is not just a problem of poor countries

May 20, 2011May 20, 2011 benign0 19 Comments

Think of what it takes to sustain human civilisation at the standards of living we believe that everyone is entitled to. Have we stopped to think what it would mean for a billion Chinese people, say, to have access to a standard of living equivalent to that enjoyed by Western Europe and North America today?…

Development, Economy, Environment, Society, Technology

Philippine-style religion equals Philippine-style poverty

May 18, 2011May 18, 2011 benign0 13 Comments

Over at ProPinoy.net, blogger Doy Santos presents a comprehensive statistical picture of religious fervor in the Philippines. According to Santos’s figures the Philippines counts itself among the Top Ten countries with populations that have the highest rated “confidence in their church”. This Top Ten is predominantly Islamic. Tanzania is reckoned to be 50-50 Christian/Islamic and,…

Culture, Development, Religion, Society

The Church’s flaccid ‘all-out war’ against Philippine Reproductive Health

May 12, 2011May 12, 2011 benign0 5 Comments

The Church of nowadays is doing what it does best, pointing a finger at the “Infidel” and launching a crusade against it. In this case the Infidel is President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and his MalacaÃ±ang and the “crusade” is a step up of its “all-out war” against the Reproductive Health Bill currently being pushed…

Culture, Development, Religion, Society