We beg to differ.
While watching Immigration officials stopping former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from leaving the country on TV, I marveled at the people who would scream at the top of their lungs at the TV screens, saying something like, “catch that thief! jail her! Hahaha!” I thought, that was such immature or trivial behavior. As if they…
Read More “The Filipino Rage to Punish: A Convenient Escape” »
Apparently, Filipino boxing champ Manny Pacquiao does not think too highly of immigrants. In an interview he implied that naturalised citizens cannot claim to be considered to be a true national of their adopted country… In a press conference after his return to General Santos City, Pacquiao fired back when the press asked him about…
Read More “Is Manny Pacquiao implying that Filipino-Americans are ‘not real’ Americans?” »
Why the focus and circus around retribution while more pressing and forward-looking initiatives like growing the economy, for one, languish at the bottom of media hyping priorities? It could be because Filipinos are culturally predisposed to being retrospective rather than prospective in the way we think. Back in 2009 just as the campaign of then…
When you think of the Philippines, what’s the first thing that comes into your mind? Have you ever given it much thought? Do you imagine white beaches, tranquil waters, and unique wildlife? Congratulations, you’re a tourist. Do you imagine chaos, poverty and corruption? If you did, you’re a realist. But if all you think about…
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Philippine President Noynoy Aquino (PNoy) is bad for the economy. The incumbent president is not at all focused on building a solid financial system for the country despite predictions that the economic instability in Europe and the struggling economy of the United States of America could…
Read More “President Noynoy Aquino and the instability he created is really bad for the economy” »
The news feed was just too hard to ignore, it headlined: “EDSA to be renamed Cory Aquino Avenue?” and it opens with “The House of Representatives is now tackling on first reading a bill seeking to rename Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) to Cory Aquino Avenue.” and ends with “”It would be but a fitting…
Read More “Do we ditch the scholar in favor of the politician?” »
So today is supposed to be some kind of “International Day to End Impunity”. I hear some folks are making the little factoid that this “event” coincides with the Maguindanao Massacre (no, that is not the title of a 1980’s Filipino movie) something to add credence to the Filipino’s place of honour in commemorating such…
Read More “The only sensible Filipino take on the International Day to End Impunity” »
In my book, I recounted the words of University of the Philippines sociology professor and occasional Inquirer.net columnist Michael Tan who was cited in Diana Mendoza’s article “Between Sensationalism and Censure” published on the Philippine Journalism Review (April 2002). The article was a commentary on the bizarreness of Filipinos’ regard for sexuality as it is…
Read More “Arroyo mugshots – visual opiates for a politics-crazed society” »