Tag: liberalism

New Year and New Decade resolution for Filipinos: MOVE ON from Yellowtard rule

January 2, 2020 benign0 2 Comments

And then what? It’s time we practice what we preach and be really clear about what happens next now that the Yellowtards, the shrinking partisan bloc within the current Opposition loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan, have been soundly crushed. The close of the 2010s marks the end of a decade that saw the crash…

Development, Politics

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

Yellow-led Philippine Opposition continues to fail to win political ground along ideological lines

December 21, 2019December 21, 2019 benign0 4 Comments

Nowadays you’d be hearing a lot of chi chi Western European and North American concepts being bandied around by “thought leaders” of the Opposition. Granted, 1980s relics like “human rights”, “press freedom”, and “people power” had been worn to tatters by the Yellow mob as a result of their habitual use of low-ball approaches to…

Culture, Politics

Filipinos’ little experiment with Western liberalism has failed

September 3, 2019September 3, 2019 benign0 5 Comments

The writing’s on the wall. University campus “activism” in the Philippines has been discredited thanks to communist infiltration. An entire Opposition slate working off a hopelessly incoherent “liberal” platform suffered a catastrophic loss in this year’s elections. Holdovers of the 1986 “people power” revolution have been reduced to a laughingstock. And a shrill bid to…

Culture, Development, Education

Science may hold the key to understanding why Filipinos distrust one another

November 13, 2018 benign0 63 Comments

If there is one thing that has long baffled observers of social norms and collective behaviour, it is the predisposition of Filipinos to clanishness and distrust for one another. This lack of trust and extreme insularness that seem to be roadblocks to large-scale cooperation and organisation are what could likely be signficiantly hindering progress at…

Culture, Society

The Philippine Opposition needs to get a new set of campaign slogans

October 28, 2018 benign0 44 Comments

One would say it is a tried-and-tested set of platitudes that serves as no-brainer fodder for a political campaign in the Philippines. But the whole narrative of “sacrificing”, “pro-poor”, and “championing the weak” personas has lately been taking a beating in the public debate. Recent polls indicate that the methods being applied by the government…

Politics

Filipinos need to get better at killing in order to prosper

October 23, 2018October 23, 2018 benign0 36 Comments

The seeming aversion of Filipinos to large-scale infrastructure projects — the sorts needed to achieve the vast economies of scale needed to compete in the global market likely stems from the Filipinos’ heritage of smallness. This prescient snippet quoted from Nick Joaquin’s seminal piece describes the underlying character of Philippine culture that is at the…

Culture, Development, Economy

Why can’t Filipino Catholics worship in private? A review of the Catholic practice in the Philippines

June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 benign0 31 Comments

It has become a social disease at a national scale. Self-righteous cliques within the Philippines’ chattering classes have turned piety selfies into the latest fad. Thanks to the recent critical statements Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had made against the powerful Roman Catholic Church, this has been observed most markedly amongst the “thought leaders” of the…

Culture, Religion, Society