The Long Way Up

You can choose a lot of things in your life. From the time you are able to form your own thoughts and make decisions for yourself, you can pretty much exercise your right to abide by your preferences -- in clothing, in food, in friendships, in employment, in entertainment, in leisure, in religion, in political affiliation, and so on and so forth. Life, however, reserves the right to make some choices on your behalf and deals you with certain givens that you do not have a say in. One such given is the family that you are born into. Another is the country wherein that happens. In my entire life, there have been moments where I wished, perhaps prayed, to have never been born in the Philippines... and to have never become a Filipino at all. That's as honest as I can be about this subject matter. These thoughts came to me when I was much younger, more inexperienced about life, and reacting to my country of birth and nationality without the benefit of intellect and time. I was e...

Yeah, so February 14, 2018 is just around the corner, and for sure many of my romance-rabid countrymen are going to go gaga for all things mushy -- flowers, chocolates, dates, cards, candle-lit dinners, proposals and whatnot's. I have no problem with that, really. Especially if the mushy stuff is actually backed by sincere sentiments and concrete commitments. What worries me are the "kids" that speed headlong in to "love" without any concept of what relationship are for (I used to be one of those). Here in the Philippines, one of the pervading cultural malady is the extraneous exigency of finding "forever" -- that special someone who will supposedly satiate all of one's emotional longings. Mr. or Ms. Forever is the one who is believed to never give you up, never let you down, never give you the run around, never desert you, never make you cry, never say goodbye, never tell a lie, and never hurt you . Many adhere to this mindset. ...

I was out to dinner the other night with two friends from Germany and our conversations led us to one of the topics that I don't frequently sound off about: POLITICS. My guests talked about the respective political atmospheres in their countries (the guy is a German; the girl an American) and naturally they asked me about the state of things in the Philippines as well. They were curious about what it was like to have "this current president" rule over the country. I turned to my American friend and told her, "Our president is somewhat similar to your president: they're both very liberal with their use of words; they're controversy-magnets; and their selection as president polarized our respective nations." My German friend asked if I thought President Duterte (Digong for short) was doing a good job at the helm of the Philippines. So I proceeded to tell my guests what I have seen on the "street level" and what I believe the president has d...