We beg to differ.
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…
Read More “Filipino labor: cheaper and harder-working is no longer the game” »
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…
Read More “Are Filipinos individualist, collectivist, or just a bunch of moochers?” »
Brilliant sci fi combined with exquisite application of old-fashioned film noir puts the seminal film Blade Runner at the top of my list of all-time greats. Like many sci-fi films and works of the 1980’s Blade Runner paints a bleak picture of the future. The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in…
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…
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…
Read More “Foreign capital will not solve Filipinos’ inability to apply capital profitably” »
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…
Read More “Jinkee Pacquiao says no to Ellen Degeneres because her English sucks” »
Many “atheists” fail to appreciate the size of the beast they are up against when debating with the religious. It is not that the religious are smarter. Far from it. It is their numbers — the rate at which they physically multiply, the sheer number of warm bodies that they can rally behind the drivel…
Read More “Ultimately pointless: the secularist and atheist ‘debate’ versus the religious” »
So I read that the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is going to “crackdown” on smoking in the metropolis. Interesting. Apparently, the legal basis for this “crackdown” is Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003. Note the year: 2003. Makes one wonder what our so-called “law enforcement” officials have been doing for…
Read More “Metro Manila smoking crackdown: another case of sweating the small stuff” »
