CBCP blogger Carlos Antonio Palad calls Reproductive Health Bill supporters ‘enemies’

Posted on By benign0 21 Comments on CBCP blogger Carlos Antonio Palad calls Reproductive Health Bill supporters ‘enemies’

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is reportedly now “tapping” Filipino bloggers in the “fight” versus the Reproductive Health Bill currently being “debated” in Philippine Congress. The CBCP’s official press release, indicated that its “media affairs” people had met with “several bloggers.” Though the title of the article described the purpose of the initiative…

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Media, Politics, Religion

Education: how big a factor it REALLY is to Philippine national development

Posted on By benign0 4 Comments on Education: how big a factor it REALLY is to Philippine national development

Making headline news today and filling the columns of the opinion sections of mainstream media are laments (both factual and opined) on the derelict state of Philippine education. According to the Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd), 27.5 million elementary and high school students marched into schools last Monday. That’s more than the population of Australia…

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Development, Education

Filipino labor: cheaper and harder-working is no longer the game

Posted on By benign0 13 Comments on Filipino labor: cheaper and harder-working is no longer the game

Anyone who has purchased a shirt in a department store in the Philippines has probably observed how each cash register is often manned by anywhere from two to four sales personnel — one to scan the merchandise, another to ring up the purchase on the machine, another to make all sorts of notations on the…

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Money Talks

Are Filipinos individualist, collectivist, or just a bunch of moochers?

Posted on By Ilda 40 Comments on Are Filipinos individualist, collectivist, or just a bunch of moochers?

Labels are now the “in” thing among so-called “intellectuals” of the Philippine blogosphere. Some Filipinos who are actively participating in debates are suddenly identifying themselves as either libertarian, conservative, progressive, socialist, communist, etcetera, etcetera. Apparently, there are people who think that you need to identify yourself with a particular ideology. Otherwise, they insist on putting…

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Culture, Development, Society

Foreign direct investment: Are Filipinos up to the task of seizing opportunities served up to them?

Posted on By benign0 18 Comments on Foreign direct investment: Are Filipinos up to the task of seizing opportunities served up to them?

Seeing foreign direct investment, cash handouts, and subsidies as the silver bullet that will cure chronic Filipino poverty? Think again. Lots of lessons are to be learned in what former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad said in a speech at the Harvard Club of Malaysia dinner on 29 July 2002 about how the presence of…

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Culture, Development, Economy, Education

Foreign capital will not solve Filipinos’ inability to apply capital profitably

Posted on By benign0 41 Comments on Foreign capital will not solve Filipinos’ inability to apply capital profitably

In my 2006 book Get Real Philippines Book 1, one of the key solutions I cited to the challenge of effecting fundamental change in the path we have (rather consciously) set for ourselves to chronic impoverishment is to re-evaluate the content of our mass media. I highlighted that it is an easy solution, because much…

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Development, Economy, Media

Jinkee Pacquiao says no to Ellen Degeneres because her English sucks

Posted on By benign0 35 Comments on Jinkee Pacquiao says no to Ellen Degeneres because her English sucks

Pac-woman Ms Jinkee Pacquiao reportedly turned down an invitation to guest in The Ellen Degeneres Show recently “because she feared she would be criticized for her lack of fluency in English.” Specifically she was afraid of making a mistake on live television… “Sabi ko ayoko ‘yong live (I said I didn’t want it live),” said…

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Education, Glitz and Glamour, Society