We beg to differ.
The recently-concluded Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Metro Manila proved that to get the best results out of the Philippines’ premiere metropolis, its residents need to be excluded from major events like these. This is quite ironic considering the theme of APEC Manila 2015 was inclusion — getting as many ordinary Filipinos in…
Nakakahiya na rin!! First it was the Mexican people’s calling out Filipinos for our baffling beholdenness to the looks of their president Enrique Peña Nieto. Now we get a veiled lecture from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to focus more on what is real rather than on the merely superficial. I can only thank the…
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held in the Philippines is evidence that if the government’s priorities are right, it can accomplish or do important and difficult tasks. Case in point is the way the government spruced up Metro Manila in preparation for the arrival of the international delegates attending the summit, which included world leaders…
Read More “Noynoy Aquino wasted Filipinos’ time and resources on the wrong priorities” »
Horror traffic gridlock stories juxtaposed with VIP lanes through which APEC bigwigs zip by smoothly have been flooding social media timelines over the last couple of days. Accompanying the images, memes, and footage depicting this horror are ordinary Filipinos’ complaints. And they are pouring in by the bucket loads. The key argument used by people…
Read More “Why Filipinos should complain about inconveniences caused by #APEC2015” »
What do ordinary Filipinos really want to get out of the imperative to “showcase” the Philippines’ best foot to the delegates of the coming Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that Manila is hosting this year? For many, it will be an opportunity to go on an extended vacation, taking up the “encouragement” coming from…
Read More “APEC 2015: a time for Filipinos to reflect on their place in the global economy” »
Everything is such a huge drama in the Philippines. The coming Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) is no exception. It promises to effect immense disruption across a vast swath of Philippine society — which makes the very hosting of this forum by the Philippine government quite ironic. Economies rise and fall on the back of…
Read More “Mass national disruption as APEC Manila 2015 circus comes to town!” »
 In 1844, a young German philosopher wrote a book entitled “The Philosophic and Economic Manuscriptsâ€. The said writer is no other than Karl Marx. In that work, Marx begun to examine, analyze and scrutinize the concept of alienation (entausserung). The other term that he used is estrangement (entfremdung). Marx’s central thesis is that: The…
Read More “Alienation and Estrangement: In Defense of Humanism” »