Let’s face it. Bad as they were, our Spanish conquerors did not spend all day dreaming up ways to make us miserable. They made us miserable by their very existence, milking our labor and resources to feed their empire. Still, we have to admit that their centuries as our overlords left us some good things [...]
Every settlement in this country that rates a paved main street has a street named after Dr. Jose Rizal. This is less out of respect for our national hero, whose shoes (though small) are impossible to fill, than out of a national guilt at having only read his works in school, and doing it cursorily [...]
Most of you are probably too young to remember this, but video game arcades used to be a lot more Darwinian than they are now. The amusement megaplexes that we have now are very heaven compared to the noisy, dingy holes-in-the-wall that we had in the nasty nineties. Back then, if you were: a. a [...]
“How can an agricultural country not have enough rice?”-Mikonawa, Eater of Moons We don’t feel it yet, but there is a shortage of rice in this country. The government has resorted to rationing inexpensive NFA rice, and lines form before dawn as the poor and hungry prepare to stand for hours for the chance to [...]
“If it will be down to hand-to-hand combat, why not?” –AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. on the defense of the Kalayaan Island Group Meaning no disrespect to the Filipino soldier, probably among the hardiest and fiercest warriors that any fighting force in the world can muster, but this will never happen. [...]