We beg to differ.
The other day I was waiting for a friend of mine — let’s call him David — who was arriving from a quick trip overseas to ping me on WhatsApp (as we had agreed in our last conversation) as soon as he fired up his mobile phone at the airport. Aba, it was already two…
Read More “Love in a time of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Oculus” »
The Republic Act No. 7721 is set to be amended to allow more than ten foreign banks in the country. But do you know what the financial implications on Filipinos are? The Philippine Senate committee on banks studies the approval of recent legislations and these are the pros and cons we can expect from this new legislation….
Read More “You Want A Progressive Economy? Let The Foreign Banks In” »
I realised the whole problem with the prevailing discourse within the social media space I inhabit: there is too much discussion about politics and not enough about the underlying issue with Philippine society that I have long highlighted is the real deal here — Filipino culture. Fact is, the Philippines is beset by a really…
Read More “Repeat after me: I am the Philippines and I am home to a dysfunctional society” »
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” »
Many Filipinos fall victim to satire sites. I myself admittedly had been taken by a few, being unfamiliar with them. One recent article tries to analyze why most Filipinos are unable to understand or detect satire. The reason given is the lack of intellectualism that allows one to understand it. I agree this is one…
I’ve come to realise that much of Philippine history was really all about a monumental effort to counter centuries of butthurt. The Philippine “revolution” of 1898 was an epic reaction to 400 years of butthurt in the hands of Spain. The arbitrary re-defining of the 4th of July, 1946 from “Philippine Independence Day” to “Philippine-American…
Read More “Much of Philippine history was motivated by Filipinos’ kneejerk butthurt reactions” »
GetRealPhilippines repeatedly points out the sensitivity of da Pinoy as something that is immature and something we should grow out of–and fast, for many reasons: Ego distorts our way of thinking–it helps Pinoys make excuses for bad behavior instead of correcting them. Ego shifts blame–it helps insists that it’s Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s fault that the Philippines…
Read More “Why is da Pinoy so easily butthurt? Is it an excuse?” »
Long time acquaintance and friend Junep Ocampo just posted this revelation on Facebook about President BS Aquino III‘s much publicized interaction with students from Tacloban City who are now studying at Hope Christian Highschool: I finally got to talk with the parents of some of the students from Tacloban who were part of the dialogue with…