We beg to differ.
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” »
History’s worst terrorist act against Americans within and outside of their borders will be remembered on Sunday, the 11th September this year. Exactly ten years ago on that date (now known simply as “9/11â€), more than three thousand people died in separate suicide attacks against high-profile targets within the United States, culminating in the total…
Read More “The 11th September 2001 terrorist attack – ten years hence: What have we learned?” »
It seems I started a bit of a firestorm with a recent article among the advocates of constitutional reform, whom I did not actually identify as the CoRRECT movement — because to be quite honest, I’m not at all certain they are necessarily the only reform advocates in the country — but who were quick…
Read More “Reflecting on the Constitutional Reform Movement” »
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…