Tag: democracy

Unless social media changes, it will continue to make people dumber instead of smarter

January 7, 2020 benign0 7 Comments

Social media is proving to be less and less effective at delivering across important messages in an increasingly complex world. The trend towards more digestible but, as a consequence, less substantial content shared on social media started back in the mid- to late-2000s when “microblogging” sites like Twitter started ramping up in popularity. As more…

Society, Tech Talk

Recall that Western and Christian ideals were used to justify colonisation and imperial rule

December 29, 2019 benign0 5 Comments

Back when the Spanish Conquistadors first set foot on Philippine shores and claimed all in the name of God and the Spanish king, it would have looked like this all made sense. Christianity, after all, was the “good” religion and Western civilisation regarded as a necessary “civilising” force. Europeans saw themselves as burdened by a…

Government, Politics, Society

Philippine Opposition in disarray again after failed “Magnitsky Act” demonisation campaign

December 27, 2019 benign0 7 Comments

The Philippine Opposition are rotting from the inside. This is because their own “thought leaders” are failing to provide sound leadership. Rather than enrich their party ideologies, the premiere “influencers” of the Opposition are leading their members down dead-end pathways. Over the last ten years, the ideological foundations of what had been an almost four-decade…

Media, Politics

SO WHAT if the Philippines is “less democratic” under Duterte?

December 3, 2019 benign0 9 Comments

Leaders of today’s Philippine Opposition will have us believe that democracy is in crisis — even in decline (horrors!) — and, as such, heralding a coming era of doom and gloom for the nation in the coming years. They, of course, attribute this unfortunate prognosis to the government of President Rodrigo Duterte who, since Day…

Government, Politics

Fear of missing out (FOMO) on a “better” president

September 16, 2019 benign0 3 Comments

We’re all familiar with the experience of looking for parking in a packed parking lot. After spending the last hour circling and, in the case of malls, spiralling up and down in desperate search, we spot that one slot in the midst of a sea of cars and pull into it. Needless to say, finding…

Politics

Genuine Filipino “activists” need to distance themselves from COMMUNISTS and their “New People’s Army”

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019 benign0 3 Comments

In the age of social media, perception is everything. From this reality, the Philippines’ campus “activists” have been on the run. Rather than step up to the challenge of facing and correcting any perceptions about them they believe are wrong, they are instead digging their heels in and doing the same thing. It’s a form…

Education, Politics

Will the Yellow flag still be waved to commemorate Ninoy Aquino’s “martyrdom”?

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 benign0 4 Comments

The anniversary of the late former Senator Ninoy Aquino’s “martyrdom” is coming up again. Unfortunately for his fans, things are not as simple as they used to be. The colour Yellow which had come to symbolise everything he supposedly stood for is no longer the election-winning collateral it used to be. The Opposition in at…

Politics, Society

The UN Human Rights Council assumes Filipino voters are STUPID

July 12, 2019July 13, 2019 benign0 23 Comments

The recently-approved resolution by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) directing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to prepare a “comprehensive written report on the situation of human rights in the Philippines” within a year is an insult to Filipino voters. “Human rights” investigations are premised on the idea that an authoritarian regime…

Crime, Government