We beg to differ.
Development in understanding in recent years is making real limits on growth a lot more palpable since it is becoming quite evident that our approach to measuring economic value and the costs of acquiring said “value” (i.e. our monetary system) is woefully incomplete. Yet economic growth remains the be-all-end-all that pervades every aspect of human…
I have lots to do today but some mysterious force compels me to spend a few minutes recognizing the 4th of July celebration in the US. I have no problem admitting I was alive when the US turned 200. To this day I was traumatized by how cheesy I found this Twinkie ad. Check out…
It is no secret that Filipinos are collectively extremely sensitive to criticism. In fact, a term exists in the vernacular to describe just how bad Filipinos are at taking it: balat-sibuyas, literally, onion-skinned. The explanation is that, just as onion skin peels rather easily, the Filipino “skin” easily gets hurt. Fact is, there is a…
Read More “Common, irritating ways Filipinos react to criticism” »
According to Philippine Presidential Communications Operations Office head Herminio Coloma Jr., President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino won’t apologize for the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program or DAP after it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. He insists that “the executive branch ‘exercised good faith and due diligence’ in accordance with existing laws and relevant auditing…
It has often been highlighted that to get on a sustainable course towards prosperity, Filipinos need not a change of men but a change in men. It is a social transformation that needs to come from within. An article in Scientific American provides insight on how lessons learned from the success of some past initiatives…
Read More “Change from within: how science and celebrity can effect it” »
The Philippines is a most massive outcome of lots of actions underpinned by very little thinking. So many initiatives, advocacies, “movements”, agendas, and vested interests driven by even more characters in a country of 100 million clueless people — it sounds like a chapter out of John Barrow’s book Impossibility. The Philippines is a case…
Read More “Achieving developmental focus: The Philippines’ Vital Few initiatives” »
How can the Philippines continue to function over the remaining two years until President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III steps down after the completion of his term in 2016? In the last two years, Congress has limped along under the weight of overwhelming public distrust. And now that a presidential slush fund that is the…
Read More “In these challenging times, it really helps that the Philippines is like a cockroach” »
So now that the Supreme Court of the Philippines has declared the administration’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) unconstitutional, many sectors are calling for President Noynoy Aquino’s (PNoy) impeachment and criminal prosecution. The argument goes that the DAP authorized by PNoy qualifies as a criminal act of (technical) malversation of public funds and thus constitutes betrayal…
Read More “PNoy Can Only Be Fined But Not Impeached for the DAP Fiasco” »