We beg to differ.
While I find a bit justified the whole stink being raised around the way the Torre de Manila highrise condominiums being constructed in Manila by developer DMCI Homes is supposedly “ruining” the view of the Rizal Monument, I think we are missing the bigger picture. Metro Manila is an ugly city. And that ugliness did…
Metro Manila is a dump. And it is getting worse, not better. The city is being crushed under the weight of its own success as a magnet for domestic migrants looking for jobs the Philippines’ barren hinterlands cannot provide. But why is Metro Manila, the Philippines’ premiere economic and cultural centre, not improving? Not only…
The mounting desperation of the average Metro Manila commuter is becoming so palpable you can taste it in the air every morning when you come out the door of your home and face the hard slog to work. It is utterly depressing to face a day where the first thing you will be experiencing is…
Read More “Traffic has sentenced every Metro Manila resident to prison time befitting murderers” »
According to the IESE Business School website post on the subject, the Cities in Motion Index (ICIM) is basically a ranking of the world’s “smartest” cities along ten dimensions: “governance, public management, urban planning, technology, environment, international outreach, social cohesion, mobility and transportation, human capital, and economy.” The aim of the ICIM initiative is to…
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…
Read More “The country we’ve made for ourselves: why we need an outsider’s perspective” »
True to form, Filipinos are abuzz again with half-assed ideas on how best to cope with the heavier-than-heavy traffic that will snarl Metro Manila as construction on the long-overdue “Skyway Stage 3” project which will link the South Luzon Tollway (SLT) to the North Luzon Expressway (NLE) via an elevated six-lane 15-kilometre elevated highway through…
Super-typhoon Haiyan (Philippine code-named “Yolanda”) continues to barrel towards the Philippines threatening to wreak havoc across southern Luzon, the Visayas, and northern Mindanao as it plows through the Philippines… Haiyan is expected to reach central Philippines as a super typhoon by Friday noon local time, packing winds of 233-249 kilometres per hour, according to Michael…
Read More “Super-typhoon Haiyan (code name Yolanda) set to plow through central Philippines” »