We beg to differ.
A few weeks now into my foray into the new-fangled “social networking” facility of Google and I am starting to wonder where the party is. Much has been made of the 25 million-odd signups Google Plus enjoyed over the first couple of weeks as a by-invitation-only Beta site and now the question seems to be…
Apparently the Philippines has a USD3 billion market for liquor which the United States and European Union are salivating over. Now under a ruling by the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation, the Philippines will be forced to lower taxes on imported liquor. Before the ruling, local distillers enjoyed a tax regime favourable to them even as…
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In his recent PhilStar colmumn How Catholic Talibans stormed the CCP, William Esposo lamented “the terrifying emergence of a Catholic Taliban who threatens to destroy the very foundations of our Christian morality.” Indeed, it is happening. On the Visayan Daily Star, Nida Buenafe writes about how parishes in Bacolod are unreservedly demonising artist Mideo Cruz…
Read More “Roman Catholicism’s promise: Nothing in life and everything in death” »
Ill-equipped, ill-trained, ill-prepared, and ill-thought-out. These are words that can easily describe anything to do with the Philippines across the board — from its politicians, to its law-enforcement officers, to its Media, and ultimately to the very people they serve (and are consequently reflections of). The propensity to fail consistently is ingrained into the very…
Read More “The Mendoza bus hostage massacre: Remembering the victims of a preventable tragedy” »
Here’s an interesting claim from an article in today’s online edition of the Manila Bulletin, which is apparently too exciting to attribute to a particular author: Two factors – skilled workforce and competitive labor cost – account for investors’ choice of the Philippines as an ideal investment site. Many foreign companies reportedly prefer Filipino workers…
Read More “MB Claims Philippines Attractive to FDI Based on the “Because We Said So” Metric” »
Check out Alejandro Amenábar’s Agora starring Rachel Weisz. It is a film that dramatises how the early Christian movement morphed from a small annoyance in Alexandria in then Roman-ruled Egypt in the 4th century into a massive lynch mob powerful and violent enough to bully the Roman provincial government into tolerating their own intolerance for…
Read More “Rachel Weisz in ‘Agora’ – experience religious zealotry first-hand” »
According to Miss International 1979 title holder Melanie Marquez, she will “support” Miss Philippines-Universe candidate Shamcey Supsup if she will speak in Tagalog in the coming Miss Universe 2011 beauty pageant to be held in Brazil on the 12th of September this year. Tagalog is a southern Luzon dialect that was branded as the Philippines’…
Read More “Melanie Marquez tells Miss Ph-Uni Shamcey Supsup to speak Tagalog” »
Rioting. Looting. Mugging. Stealing. These are activities people would normally associate with street gangs. But the recent mayhem in London that involved all those activities has baffled every expert in every society. They are baffled because the people involved didn’t just come from the “alienated poor, those without hope, lashing out in rage and despair. 
Read More “Rioting in London: How it could happen in the Philippines” »