We beg to differ.
The Filipino word “bakla” used to be synonymous with male homosexual. That was back in the day when the stereotypical homosexual male was effeminate and silly-looking. Philippine cinema in the 1960s and 1970s (and even as recent as the 1980s and 1990s) almost always characterised male homosexuals that way. To be fair, even today, they…
Some the the Philippines’ most influential social media “thought leaders” — mostly from the current Opposition camp — are clucking about all the wrong things about three of the biggest issues confronting Filipinos today. Because of a lack of modern and intelligent thinking applied to their chatter, they contribute neither clarity nor value to the…
Read More “Philippine Opposition hopelessly fragmented due to lack of an intelligent leader” »
Do the weak deserve to be bullied? Of course not. But do the weak tend to be bullied? Yes they do. See the difference between the two ways the question is framed? The way a question is framed spells the difference between the two answers. Bullying is wrong and people should stand up to bullying….
Read More “Weakness has CONSEQUENCES: Victims of bullying are NOT entitled to help” »
It seems Filipino sports fandom had achieved a milestone following the results of Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Jeff Horn by unanimous decision. Unlike in the past when Filipinos were united behind Pacquiao, response to the outcome of the fight is now divided along, you guessed it, political partisan lines. It seems Filipinos know nothing about…
Read More “Manny Pacquiao highlights the whole problem with Filipinos” »
Philippine political discourse is too noisy. This seems to be the reason why confusion and lack of perspective reigns amongst the Philippines’ chattering classes. Hardly anything gets clarified, no problems get framed properly and, as a result, all the wrong arguments win. There is a concept in communications engineering called signal-to-noise ratio. In the age…
Read More “The plight of Manny Pacquiao proves that Philippine political chatter lacks integrity” »
During the term of former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III, we criticised his government and his followers as being perpetually in campaign mode all throughout his term of office. His Yellow Camp would incessantly grandstand about his and his clan’s goodness and prayerfulness and every speaking engagement was seized as an opportunity to remind…
Read More “It’s time Duterte’s supporters grow up and stop referring to him as ‘Tatay’” »
How can we “help the poor”? It depends on one’s definition of “helping”. At its worst, “helping the poor” is seen by many as simply dropping a few coins in the poor box at church or donating stuff to a charity. The poor, in this regard, are seen as charity cases, and this has come…
Read More “The poor should be considered equal participants in the economy, not ‘victims’ of it” »
To Filipinos, rich people are “evil” and a life focused on the acquisition of money is a life to be ashamed of. And so there really is no reason to continue wondering why Filipinos remain an impoverished people today. The very idea of aspiring to be rich seems, to Filipinos, to be a thought to…