We beg to differ.
Of course the best policy is to shut up when faced with an awkward situation. Thus the term awkward silence. The Wikileaks-facilitated expose on what the United States really thinks of the Philippines is one awkward situation indeed. Of course it does not take a genius to work out how a bumbling basket case such…
Pepsi Paloma was best known as one of the “softdrink” beauties along with starlets Coca Nicolas and Sarsi Emmanuel in Philippine Cinema of the early eighties. Her career and life were tragically cut short after an unfortunate alleged crossing of paths with comedy stars and noontime variety show personalities Joey de Leon, Richie d’Horsey, and…
Read More “Recalling Senator Tito Sotto’s Pepsi Paloma connection” »
I enjoyed reading a a blog post recently published in ProPinoy.net authored by a certain “bill” (quoted as it appears on the site — not capitalised). In his article, “reThinking Soriano“, “bill” makes an intriguing statement that got me thinking… So the question is not, “English or Filipino?†The question is how to live and…
Read More “Is prosperity with ‘no one left behind’ really possible?” »
William “The Chair Wrecker” Esposo of Philstar.com has joined in the debate about the Philippine national language (or lack of it) in his recent column. This was in response to the controversial and now removed article written by James Soriano from Manila Bulletin. While Esposo rabidly defended our constitutionally mandated national language, Tagalog, he wrote…
Read More “The truth about Tagalog that James Soriano failed to explain” »
The answer is simple, Tagalog is a language. Why make such a simple question into something so complex? I believe that the answer lies in the confusion between the definitions of a language and a dialect. We all know what a language is; it’s what we speak everyday to communicate, so let’s take a closer…
Lots of people seem to have, at best, a rather shallow understanding of what I mean when I keep harping about the lack of a concept of “efficiency” in the Tagalog dialect. My simple explanation is that the lack of a concept of efficiency native to (or long embedded in) Tagalog reflects the inherent intellectual…
Writing in yesterday’s Manila Standard, columnist Rod Kapunan demonstrates exactly the sort of violent, misplaced nationalism that is the best reason for the Philippines to join the International Criminal Court. If I was writing this for my own blog, I’d probably call Kapunan a tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy freak and an uncivilized thug, but since this…
Read More “The Philippines and the ICC: The Right Sort of Foreign Intervention” »
Whatever it was said by whoever this James Soriano is, if it is the truth about the utter lack of intellectual tools Tagalog provides its speakers, then no apologies are needed to be given to those who take offense from these words. A Manila Bulletin column published on August 24 titled “Language, learning, identity, privilege”…
Read More “English vs Tagalog: James Soriano owes no one any apologies” »
