We beg to differ.
The thing with the precarious position the Philippines finds itself in its dealings with China and the handling of the two big diplomatic crises surrounding it — the dispute over various territories within the West Philippine Sea and the row over the Philippine government’s unsatisfactory resolution of the 2010 hostage crisis in which nine Hong…
So there is this Coke ad aired during the Superbowl that features some Tagalog words in a rendition of the American nationalist song “America the Beautiful”, specifically the words “Sa ibabaw ng mga prutas” (which translates to “Above the fruited plain” for those who speak American). Speaking of fruity plains, the ad also touted Coke…
Read More “Coca Cola desperately needs to get the world hooked on Coke” »
Time and again, Filipinos and their government (which, in a democracy, reflects its citizens’ character) have proven a lack of ability to step back and manage their affairs to a level of competence befitting a modern 21st Century state. In key occasions when it was a national imperative to exhibit a collective resolve to squarely…
Read More “Noynoy’s 2016 presidential promise to Mar Roxas is destroying the Philippines” »
America’s decades-long orgy of “outsourcing” its irreplaceable manufacturing might to China is now coming back to bite. Pollution dumped into the atmosphere by China’s growing carpet of factory smokestacks is now reaching the United States’ mainland according to a US National Academy of Sciences study. “We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but…
Read More “China ‘outsourced’ air pollution now reaching US mainland” »
Child abuse in the Philippines has been going on for the longest time. It is in plain sight. Some of it is relatively benign abuse, like allowing children to grow fat on a diet of soft drinks and junk food or making them perform in exploitative television variety shows. Others are horrid, using kids to…
Gone are the days, it seems, when priests walked around confident that a crucifix in hand and a rosary in their pockets sufficed to protect them from harm and “evil”. And then there is the now obsolete saying that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. Apparently “journalists” have now lost confidence in that notion,…
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is reportedly drawing up plans to invade the Spratly Islands this year, 2014. China’s claim is based on an assertion that the Han Dynasty had “discovered” these islands in 2 BC. The islands were claimed to have been marked on maps compiled during the time of Eastern Han Dynasty…
It’s a common mistake to liken the way one feels for or regards a country to the way we feel for or regard an actual person. So when we say we “love” our country, poets will wax lyric about how this “love” is like the love we feel, say, for a parent. In reality, that’s…
Read More “Is ‘love of country’ a concept that is still relevant in the Philippines?” »