We beg to differ.
There is a lot of wailing and weeping in the Philippines lately. Most of the noise is coming from critics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. His critics appear to be disappointed that there was hardly any fallout after his tirade against U.S. President Barack Obama before he left for the ASEAN summit in Laos. They…
Read More “Duterte wants Filipinos to eliminate their colonial mentality” »
Comments sections can be both a boon and a bane for online sites, whether they be news sites or blogs. In an ideal setting, the conversations and insights that can be derived from those who leave comments would be wholesome, respectful, decent, lucid, on-topic, and diverse. The ideal setting does not exist in today’s internet…
Read More “Are comments sections becoming a thing of the past?” »
Sad to say, Philippine “activism” hasn’t progressed much over the last several decades. The “movements” may have moved from the streets onto social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but the quality of the discourse has remained pathetically dismal. The venerable former blogger Dean Jorge Bocobo (DJB, a.k.a. @SagadaSun on Twitter), for example, has taken…
Read More “Social media and the dismal state of Filipino activism and political commentary” »
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,…
Read More “Does President Rodrigo Duterte command an ‘Internet army’?” »
I find it rich the way members of the Philippines’ community of “journalism” professionals could be so precious about what is and what isn’t “journalism”. That is in considering that very few of them can be considered to be exemplars of journalism practice to begin with. Nonetheless, here is the esteemed Ed Lingao, journalist extraordinaire,…
Read More “Here’s why Ed Lingao is no match for Mocha Uson’s journalism…” »
Are you crazy or just plain stupid? According to educator and philosopher, Paul J. Glenn (1933), some of the notable errors in thinking are “the careless acceptance of common and uncriticized opinions; prejudice; and inordinate predominance of personal preference”.1 This happens when a false is judged to be true and the true is judged to…
Read More “Wait… Why blame Duterte? He’s not yet the President!” »
I’ve been observing my Facebook and Twitter timelines over the last couple of weeks. It could be because of the people I follow and the friends I keep, but in between posts and tweets about the NBA Finals and Game of Thrones, I’ve noticed a pattern in the way supporters of the Liberal Party (I’ll…
A key insight during the recently concluded national elections emerged, and was pointed out by many on social media: Filipinos will be divided on whom to vote for, but they all agree on whom to vote against. The candidate for president who was, tough luck for him/her, voted against was none other than Mar Roxas,…
Read More “The issue of “unity” under a Duterte presidency” »