Tag: democracy

Here’s the real reason Donald Trump is now the 45th #POTUS following 2016 #ElectionDay

November 9, 2016 benign0 38 Comments

It’s easy to make a fearless election forecast when the stats are already showing a “>95%” lean towards a particular candidate. As of this writing a kick-ass New York Times up-to-the-second election results monitoring board is showing a needle that has gone squarely into the “very likely” field in a speedometer-type widget labelled “Chances of…

Media, Politics

Filipinos’ overall extrajudicial way of life is the reason Duterte remains popular

October 24, 2016 benign0 31 Comments

It is quite evident by now that the notion that “extrajudicial killing” is “bad” doesn’t sell very well to the ordinary Filipino. This is, after all, a people renowned for their overall extrajudicial way of life. To bring the point across more pointedly, doing things above, below, beyond, and around the framework of the law…

Crime, Culture

Ninoy is NOT a hero: Let’s rename NAIA back to “Manila International Airport”

August 24, 2016 zaxx 138 Comments

Ninoy, Salamat sa demokrasya. August 21, 1983. “Handog ng Pilipino sa mundo…”, “Magkaisa at magsama…” Yaaawn… OK, change the channel please! Now that the Filipino people have been awakened to the reality that there are better channels to watch on their TV and that the many years of fairy-land “democracy” that Ninoy’s death at the tarmac…

Development, Government, Politics

Filipinos abandon The Yellow Narrative and embrace The Duterte Way

August 22, 2016December 17, 2020 benign0 75 Comments

Filipinos’ gripes are really quite simple and straightforward. There is no justice. There are no consequences for law breakers. Due process is too slow. Nothing changes. There is no political will to change. The genius in the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is hinged upon a simple habit. His government listens to and empathises…

Government, Society

Filipinos can only keep romanticizing about what Singapore has succeeded at DOING

August 9, 2016August 9, 2016 FallenAngel 24 Comments

The year 2015 was both a significant marker in the history of our Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore. It was the year of both the fiftieth anniversary of its founding as a nation (August 9), and the year Lee Kuan Yew (LKY), widely considered its founding father, died (March 23). Therefore, starting this year, 2016, Singapore…

Culture, Development, Economy, Politics, Society

Does President Rodrigo Duterte command an ‘Internet army’?

August 2, 2016 benign0 13 Comments

According to some pundits, President Rodrigo Duterte is waging not just a “war on drugs” in the streets of major Philippine cities. He is, they insist, also waging a war on social media, commanding an “Internet army” that disseminates content supposedly meant to discredit his enemies. Are these assertions based on fact? For one thing,…

Media, Politics

Of Dogs And Men: On The Complacency And Gullibility Of Pinoys

July 23, 2016 Grimwald 10 Comments

My grandfather, Heaven keep his soul, died a few weeks ago after suffering a fatal heart attack in the hospital. He died at the age of 90, an age I suppose some of us here can only envy. Anyway, truth be told, he was never really my grandfather by blood. An American from North Carolina,…

Culture, Education, Politics, Society

COMELEC SOCE Debacle: ‘Sovereign will of the people’ is NOT a valid argument @commrguanzon!

June 18, 2016January 7, 2022 benign0 26 Comments

There is something fundamentally wrong about Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon’s defense of the decision of the COMELEC en banc to bend election rules to accomodate the Liberal Party’s late submission of its Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE). According to COMELEC rules, all candidates and their nominating parties had until the 8th…

Development, Government, Politics