Category: Environment

This is our planet. Let’s work together to secure and sustain it.

Template disasters, the backhoe and why Andal Ampatuan is like Typhoon Sendong

December 22, 2011December 22, 2011 benign0 5 Comments

A lot of people who have followed the investigation, apprehension, and building of a case against accused mass-murderer former Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr had made that topic the epicentre of everything about the Philippines that has to do with impunity. Ampatuan is accused of masterminding the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province,…

Culture, Environment, Government, Media, Society, The South

Burying Filipinos like garbage – Typhoon Sendong need not have been as deadly as it was

December 20, 2011September 18, 2018 benign0 45 Comments

The Philippines has now become renowned for template disasters. These are disasters that are caused by systemic issues that are profoundly inherent to the country. They are templates and therefore, by design, are highly repeatable. They happen again and again. Here’s the template for the sort of tragedy unfolding in northern Mindanao today… Heavy rains…

Culture, Development, Environment, Government, Politics

Kris along with Ballsy and Pinky use star power to speak for PNoy

December 20, 2011 benign0 61 Comments

Lately I’ve noticed that we are getting more and more of our updates on the President’s whereabouts, views, and positions on some important matters of state from the Entertainment sections of our venerable newspapers. Most recent was the revelation that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was at a party â€œlaughing at [the] jokesâ€ and â€œenjoying…

Environment, Glitz and Glamour, Media

PNoy reportedly laughing at jokes amidst the tragedy unfolding in CDO and Iligan

December 19, 2011November 1, 2022 Ilda 126 Comments

Social networking sites keep undoing the impeccable image President Noynoy Aquino (PNoy) is trying to project. Gone are the days when Malacañang Palace officials can keep their shenanigans hush-hush while regular folks battle for survival outside in the real world. Facebook and Twitter are social networking sites that act as double edge swords for high…

Civics, Environment, Government, Media

Valerie Concepcion allegedly wows PNoy as Sendong strikes Mindanao

December 19, 2011November 1, 2022 benign0 101 Comments

The last thing a nation needs in time of extreme crisis is more political intrigue. It seems however, that the administration of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III simply attracts that scourge of useless chatter and even fans its flames. The other night as, reportedly, “the nation mourns”, Noynoy was apparently busy “laughing at [the] jokes”…

Culture, Development, Environment, Glitz and Glamour, Media, Society

What Typhoon Sendong’s destruction of Cagayan de Oro City says again about us

December 18, 2011December 18, 2011 benign0 147 Comments

While scanning the news the other day, a friend of mine made a rather glib remark. She said that Filipinos have lately been so fixated on their petty politics — the bickering among politicians and justices over the jurisdiction of their respective offices — that the only way to force people to step back from…

Development, Environment, Media, Politics, Society

Palawan’s Underground River: Winner by Hive-Mind

November 21, 2011 MidwayHaven 10 Comments

When I heard that the Puerto Princesa Underground River was included in the provisional listing of the New 7 Wonders of Nature, the first thing that came into my mind was the Borg. In the Star Trek science fiction series primarily made for television, the Borg were a villainous cybernetic race with one mind and…

Environment, Media, Society

Miss Earth links global warming to Philippine earthquake

July 28, 2011 benign0 6 Comments

According to 2010 Miss Earth Nicole Faria who is from India, there apparently is some kind of link between “global warming” and the Earth’s continental plate tectonics. This it seems was a conclusion she arrived at after she felt a tremor while in her hotel room shortly after arriving in Manila… â€œI got scared at…

Environment, Glitz and Glamour