Tag: Australia

China militarisation of South China Sea is not a one-administration issue

February 6, 2018 benign0 9 Comments

Filipinos are currently lamenting China’s progressive annexation of their claimed territories in the South China Sea (SCS). But this lamentation is of a confused sort. One of the more controversial “issues” is around the foreign policy trajectory current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is taking his country — one that leans closer within the Chinese sphere…

Government, Politics

International media should move on from Duterte’s rape joke and focus on the hard tasks ahead

May 19, 2016May 19, 2016 Ilda 28 Comments

Australian morning show Sunrise featured a segment on presumptive Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss his win in the recent presidential elections. The show had an Australian political analyst named Dr Keith Suter as guest who speculated on what a Duterte President would be like. Even before he was introduced, the two hosts of the…

Culture, Media, Politics

Filipinos welcome Australia’s Telstra like Jesus’s second coming!

November 2, 2015November 2, 2015 benign0 29 Comments

I switched my entire household’s telecommunication needs to Telstra back in 2007. Today we enjoy about 300 GB of home internet data piped in by cable (not DSL) that is channeled to all our computing and home entertainment devices using a WiFI router provided as part of the package. We also have several mobile devices…

Culture, Development, Lifestyle, Tech Talk

Revisiting Jim Paredes’s “giving up” on the Philippines and moving to Australia in 2006

August 3, 2015August 4, 2015 benign0 22 Comments

Following that whole kerfuffle between singer and die-hard Aquinoist Jim Paredes and Manila Times columnist Rigoberto ‘Bobi’ Tiglao over the question of Paredes’s citizenship, people are now curious about what is it exactly that makes Jim Paredes such a seemingly confused individual. After all, Paredes back in the 1980s already had a United States Green…

Culture, Lifestyle, Media, Politics

Jim Paredes bets 10 million pesos on Australian citizenship row with Bobi Tiglao

August 2, 2015 benign0 9 Comments

Jim Paredes, Filipino entertainer and die-hard fan of President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III, is on the warpath. On a Facebook post today, he lashed out at veteran Manila Times columnist Rigoberto ‘Bobi’ Tiglao accusing him of making false statements about his citizenship. Paredes was reacting to a blog post on Politics.com.ph (Politiko) titled Tiglao…

Lifestyle, Media, Politics

Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand top 2015 World Happiness Report!

May 12, 2015 benign0 6 Comments

Where does the Philippines rank in the 2015 World Happiness Report? Interestingly Scandinavian countries disproportionately topped the “Happy” list and, in Asia, famously stoic countries like Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea made decent showings. It is interesting because Filipinos have always seen themselves as a charmed and “blessed” race leading a peachy existence in a…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Society

First Church of Atheism: Atheism will turn into just another religion if its adherents are not careful

December 19, 2014 benign0 38 Comments

Atheism is becoming a religion and its prophet is Richard Dawkins. The fledgling Church of Dawkins is on track to follow the same evolutionary path trod by other organised religions. Originally, it is intellectuals that embrace the teachings (because they understand their true essence) of the prophet and went about to propagate said teachings. It…

Culture, Lifestyle, Religion, Science, Society

Let’s not allow political correctness to get in the way of a real discussion about Islamic terrorism

December 18, 2014 benign0 26 Comments

Down in Australia’s premiere banking district at the heart of Sydney last Monday, Man Haron Monis, a self-styled Islamic cleric took staff and customers of a Lindt cafe in Martin Place hostage and forced them to raise a black flag bearing an Arabic inscription in white that says “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad…

Crime, Culture, Religion, Society