Get Real Post

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

June 5, 2011June 5, 2011 Ilda 40 Comments

Labels are now the â€œinâ€ thing among so-called â€œintellectualsâ€ 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…

Culture, Development, Society

The genius of Blade Runner

June 5, 2011 benign0 6 Comments

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…

Glitz and Glamour

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

June 4, 2011September 22, 2014 benign0 18 Comments

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…

Culture, Development, Economy, Education

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

June 3, 2011April 26, 2018 benign0 41 Comments

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…

Development, Economy, Media

Jinkee Pacquiao says no to Ellen Degeneres because her English sucks

June 1, 2011 benign0 35 Comments

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…

Education, Glitz and Glamour, Society

Ultimately pointless: the secularist and atheist ‘debate’ versus the religious

May 31, 2011May 31, 2011 benign0 24 Comments

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…

Religion, Science, Society

Metro Manila smoking crackdown: another case of sweating the small stuff

May 30, 2011 benign0 10 Comments

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…

Civics, Environment, Government, Society

Philippine ‘Independence’ Day on June 12: a desperate claim to a false achievement

May 29, 2011June 9, 2013 benign0 12 Comments

Guess what’s coming up: “Independence” Day. More precisely, it is the could-have-been day of independence unilaterally declared by General Emilio Aguinaldo back on the 12th of June 1898 that we are celebrating this coming 12th of June. Many who see that day as a day that defines “Filipino nationalism” are right. We are a nation…

Culture, Society