Tag: wealth

Philippine society is living off unearned pride bought with false achievement

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015 benign0 18 Comments

Groupthink for the sake of “stability”? That might work if you are a Germany or Japan — or even a China or South Korea. But this is the Philippines. Filipinos got groupthink all wrong. Whereas the other successful collectivist societies groupthought their way to scientific, technical, and economic achievement, the Philippines degenerated into a sad…

Culture, Development, Society

Why Filipinos deserve to be ruled by dynasties

June 23, 2015 benign0 14 Comments

A lot of Filipinos enjoy the hit HBO series Game of Thrones. But the strangest thing: They fail to understand why political dynasties exist in their own country. The fact that people can relate to the characters, stories, and conflicts in GoT is because the plot appeals to the deepest recesses of human nature and…

Development, Economy, Government, Society

Why the misfortunes of the rich are more important than the tragedies of the poor

May 19, 2015May 19, 2015 benign0 8 Comments

In case nobody’s gotten the hint yet, nobody really gives a relative rat’s about the plight of those boat people and the 72 factory workers killed in a slipper factory in Valenzuela. Scan the news and the feeds and you will find that the top stories are all about the rich. Binay’s and Pacquiao’s billions…

Culture, Lifestyle, Media, Society

The Girl In The Gutter

February 25, 2015 Grimwald 21 Comments

She was a small creature, no taller than a grown woman’s waist and with her limbs as thin and frail as bread sticks and her body almost nothing more than skin stretched over bone. Dressed in a grimy and filthy potato sack that’s supposed to pass for clothes, she walked on the hot pavement of the…

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Crime, Culture, Education, Lifestyle, Media, Society

The Ethics of Flaunting Wealth

February 9, 2015February 10, 2015 ChinoF 15 Comments

The concept of flaunting wealth, or display/show of wealth, seems to be yet another topic of contention in the Philippine social environment. It became the subject of debate following the discussion of the Marian Rivera-Dingdong Dantes wedding, and was the subject of other discussions such as my piece on Century Properties scion Robbie Antonio. Many…

Money Talks

Telenovelas: Building Walls in Society

January 13, 2015 Grimwald 14 Comments

Well let’s face it: Do the telenovelas of Philippine TV really have anything to offer the common people? I’m an upper middle-class Pinoy who lives with a lot of kasambahays who just love to watch telenovelas. While I hate said shows with a passion, I cannot help but notice a few issues with the…

Culture, Glitz and Glamour, Society

Why it is wrong to spend P100M on a celeb wedding in the #Philippines

January 7, 2015May 6, 2022 benign0 68 Comments

Filipinos’ values are indeed perverted beyond recognition. In many Filipino movies, the bad guys are often pointy-nosed fair-skinned snobs (keeping to the narrow-minded way Philippine cinema’s jeje-culture traditionally portrays the rich) living in obnoxious tacky mansions while the “hero” is an other-side-of-da-riles lad or lass living the Pinoy challenge of scraping together a “decent” life….

Civics, Culture, Economy, Glitz and Glamour, Lifestyle, Society

Filipinos’ obssession with ‘happiness’ is what keeps them mired in chronic poverty

May 27, 2014May 27, 2014 benign0 58 Comments

Again, I’m seeing the Happy card being played a lot these days. Filipinos can’t get enough of that card. It’s a poor man’s Ace. You can’t make yourself rich overnight, but you can certainly make yourself “happy” in the next minute. And so that is why “Happy” is de facto the buzzword of the Loser…

Culture, Development, Lifestyle, Society