We beg to differ.
When President Corazon Aquino established the Fifth Philippine Republic in 1987, she set forth a new constitution that in theory would eliminate the “excesses” of previous administrations. Foremost among these was the “Martial Law” clause that, in the event that a seated President would declare it, would allow it to pass through Congress first; Post-Marcos, this was…
Read More “Why the Current Philippine Republic Needs to Die” »
The Philippines is said to be leading an initiative with other countries that claim to be highly-prone to the adverse effects of the phenomenon referred to as climate change. The coalition calling themselves the “Vulnerable Twenty” (V20) and who are unashamed to admit they “lack resources to combat the adverse effects of climate change” will…
The trouble with the concept of karma is that it is a notion based on the assumption that nature owes humanity something. When we put faith in the notion that karma will catch up with someone who has wronged us, we hinge that faith on the belief that “justice” is some kind of natural order…
It has been becoming increasingly apparent that “natural” disasters are now a routine occurrence all over the Philippines. The idea that Filipinos ought to be more “prepared” for such calamities — whilst something one would think ought to have been an obvious national priority — is only now resonating across the broader public. To the…
Read More “‘Disaster preparedness’ has become an oxymoron in the #Philippines” »
Another United Nations (UN) climate summit, another bunch of promises. Has the UN really been an effective body in efforts to mitigate the worst of humanity’s many scourges that Planet Earth suffers? Considering that China is, today, the single biggest producer of “greenhouse gases”, the role the UN plays in an effort to curb emissions…
Read More “Climate change activism: mere farts in the wind” »
Today may as well have been a day in September 2009 when Typhoon Ondoy struck and devastated Manila. Back then I wrote about the Philippine government’s utter failure to step up and provide relief to hundreds of thousands of its victims (a failure to be repeated many more times since), and how Metro Manilans pretty…
Literally. And this heat is attracting a lot of political heat as well. It is one of the biggest ‘concerns’ aired by the recent set of high-profile senatorial jailbirds about their new accomodations in Camp Crame. A lack of airconditioning to alleviate the oppressive heat there is finally getting a bit of air time (pardon…
Development in understanding in recent years is making real limits on growth a lot more palpable since it is becoming quite evident that our approach to measuring economic value and the costs of acquiring said “value” (i.e. our monetary system) is woefully incomplete. Yet economic growth remains the be-all-end-all that pervades every aspect of human…