Tag: gated community

People who defend Tambays should open their subdivision gates to the public

June 25, 2018 Kate Natividad 25 Comments

Here’s another reason why we should not believe all those virtue-signalling millennials who are making a lot of noise about President Duterte’s anti-Tambay police campaigns. Many of these “socially-aware” libtards actually live in gated subdivisions complete with mean-looking shotgun-wielding security guards. These guards have orders to screen people and vehicles entering the subdivisions of their…

Lifestyle, Society

Should expensive private schools like the Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle be banned?

May 23, 2018 benign0 16 Comments

A report on the work needed to reform Malaysian state services now that a peaceful change of leadership had transpired provides some insight on the growing private school industry in southeast Asia. For the average outsider, the reliance of a society’s elite on private schools to educate their youth is regarded to be not normal… There is also…

Education, Society

Manila’s gated communities should be opened to public access to alleviate traffic

August 14, 2016September 16, 2019 benign0 16 Comments

Gated communities, like jeepneys, are stopgap measures that became institutionalised and so ingrained in the national psyche that, as we see in the general tone of the debate surrounding this issue, people simply find it next to impossible to comprehend the cancerous nature of their existence. They are legacies of a succession of weak and…

Civics, Crime, Society

The hypocrisy in the way Filipinos ‘welcome’ the Rohingya boat people

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015 benign0 116 Comments

I cringed when I read Patricia Evangelista’s The Rohingya and the port of last resort, a piece that reeks of the sort of perverted Pinoy Pride we once again put up with that all-too-familiar uniquely-Pinoy brand of pomposity. According to Evangelista… We know what we are. We are the port of last resort, and have…

Civics, Culture, Society

5 things that will happen when Jejomar Binay becomes Philippine President

November 15, 2014February 13, 2017 Ilda 212 Comments

A lot of Filipinos are scared of a Binay Presidency. A Catholic priest even said it is a “scary prospect” after meeting Vice President Jejomar Binay himself. It is quite understandable why. If Vice President Jejomar Binay wins the Presidential Election in 2016, he will simply continue the world-renowned Filipino tradition of patronage politics. This…

Crime, Development, Government, Politics, Society

Colegio de San Agustin road rage! Is the Philippines home to a decent society?

November 5, 2014November 5, 2014 benign0 50 Comments

We make one big assumption whenever we express indignation and outrage over the instances of banal injustice that make regular news fodder in the Philippines — that ours is a “decent” society. But step back and ask a more fundamental question: Is Philippine society really a decent one? Just now I spied a recent post…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Education, Lifestyle, Society

The country we’ve made for ourselves: why we need an outsider’s perspective

March 25, 2014November 22, 2017 benign0 2 Comments

The following is a copy of the Foreword I wrote for my friend Ben Kritz’s new book Same Planet, Different World: An Outsider’s Inside View of the Philippines. You can download the book from Amazon here onto Kindle or any of a variety of apps also supported by Amazon. We in our clique of the…

Civics, Development, Economy, Government, Money Talks, Politics, Society

Lessons learned following the Junjun Binay Dasma incident: Are gated communities even legal?

December 20, 2013 benign0 73 Comments

Now that the buzz was created, the Netizens stirred into an outrage fad, the subjects of the brouhaha forced into a pathetic response, and the “input” from the intelligentsia collated, comes the time to step back, take stock and reflect on what it all means. Very few people sympathise with Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Lifestyle, Media, Politics, Society