We beg to differ.
A certain Geoffrey James wrote a scathing review of the Philippines or rather, as he quickly pointed out, a scathing review of it’s capital, Manila on Travelblog.org. I’m glad he decided to be specific because the country as a whole is not ugly. Nonetheless, I am pretty sure Manila was once as beautiful as the…
First it was “constitutional reform” and now it is “reproductive health”. The thing with issues and the advocacies that seek to address them is that they follow an all-too-familiar lifecycle. They first start out as nice ideas firmly rooted in a robust intellectual construct. And then the simian behaviour starts. Hold that thought for now…
Read More “Has being ‘pro Reproductive Health’ become a mere fashion statement?” »
A great man died the other day. And so I’ve been seing a lot of tributes to Steve Jobs, for the man and for his achievements — he built one of the most valuable business enterprises on the planet, created great products, and established the services behind them that re-defined entire industries and entire ways…
Read More “Do we really know what admiring Steve Jobs is really all about?” »
The other day, I got pulled over for turning into a U-turn slot on Metro Manila’s Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) at a time when I shouldn’t have. Unlike Chris Lao, however, I was in no position to go around stomping my feet claiming that I was not informed. There were signs leading to…
Read More “Metro Manila’s EDSA: laboratory of Filipino dysfunction” »
I have been following the bizarre drama of Philippine Airlines, “the world’s most entertaining air carrierâ€, for nearly a year as it has struggled mightily – and at times, comically so – towards implementing an outsourcing plan which PAL hopes will turn its financial fortunes around. The sticking point throughout the whole sorry saga has…
A word or a sentence from someone can dramatically change our life; that is, if we are strong enough to take it in stride. Let’s take a slice from history and use Alexander the Great as an example. His tutor was no less than the famous philosopher, Aristotle. Surely what Alexander got from one of…
Perhaps it has something to do with the rise to business prominence of the ADD (attention deficit disorder) generation. This was, after all, the generation that was made to believe that they were necessarily entitled to a “rewarding career” where it was mainly their “creative potential” to contribute to “shareholder value creation” that would be…
Any motorist who’s spent enough time negotiating Manila’s potholed streets will attest to how the Philippines’ surreal complex of culturally-ingrained bad manners, ill-thought-out road layouts, inconsistent law enforcement, and the overall unsightliness that blankets the Philippines’ capital cities contributes to an experience like no other. At the root of the banal dysfunction of Philippine-style motoring…
Read More “Road rage and the Filipino ego – like navigating a bubble through a forest of pins” »
