Opinion

Latest surveys indicate that most Filipinos want to hear tomorrow in the State of the Nation Address of President Duterte an assurance that everything is well, or turning out to be, especially with household livelihood concerns. Gut issues directly affecting households appear to loom bigger than foreign relations problems in the consciousness of most Filipinos, especially among those who Vice President Leni Robredo describes as hanging on to the laylayan (hem) or fringes of society. Surveys show that creating more jobs (15.2 percent), raising wages (17.1 percent) and reducing prices of basic goods (17.1 percent) – in short, livelihood – are the top issues most Filipinos would “most like” to hear from Duterte in whom they have renewed their trust by giving him a grade of 80-85 percent. In separate nationwide surveys of 1,200 adult Filipinos in June to cap the second quarter, Social Weather Stations reported an 80-percent satisfaction rating for Duterte, … [Read more...] about Livelihood issues top SONA interest

Books that changed history Barack Obama is a known bookworm and has regularly publicized his book recommendations. His book lists are eclectic – history, current events, sociology, political science, philosophy, memoirs, literary fiction, thrillers and science fiction. After all what better way is  there to learn about the current state of the world, to absorb the lessons of history and to understand the varieties of human experience than by reading books. It is not only political leaders and academicians who highly value reading books as the key to their success. Bill Gates reads about 50 books per year, Mark Cuban reads three hours  every day, Mark Zuckerberg resolved to read at least 24 books per year, and Warren Buffett spends 80 percent of his day reading.   Aside from enriching our lives, a select number of books have influenced the history of humankind. This is the theme of the book BOOKS THAT CHANGED HISTORY: From the Art … [Read more...] about Books that changed history

US says: ‘Don’t forget your old friend’ In a New York Times article titled, “As Duterte Courts China, US Says Don’t Forget Your Old Friend,” it referenced the discussions during the recently concluded 8th Bilateral Strategic Dialogue (BSD) with the Philippines stressing that “…the country was not drifting into the military orbit of China, despite President Duterte’s perceived warming ties with Beijing and fresh concerns about Beijing’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea” (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/16/world/asia/philippines-united-states-duterte.html).   “The Philippines has been America’s closest Southeast Asian strategic ally for the last seven decades, with Washington a consistent source of military aid and arms sales to Manila,” the article went further.  We of course gave assurances that the relationship between the Philippines and the United … [Read more...] about US says: ‘Don’t forget your old friend’

POLITICAL FUTURES - Ian Bremmer (The Philippine Star) - July 21, 2019 - 12:00am Back in the fall of 2016, both the Republican and Democratic candidates for the US presidency came out against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), an enormous trade deal that would have tied together economies comprising roughly 40 percent of global GDP. US President Donald Trump would go on to withdraw the US from TPP in his very first week in office. The “America First” era had officially begun. Two and a half years into the post-American world order, Washington continues to confound traditional US allies. Europeans suddenly find themselves branded as “currency manipulators”; security ties with Japan are being openly questioned. All the while, the US-China trade war continues to progress in fits and starts, weighing on global economic growth. But while the trade war captures international headlines, there’s another battle brewing between Beijing … [Read more...] about Digital TPP

Welcome to our world, all of you who were surprised or shocked this past week by US President Trump’s outrageous racist challenge. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came?” Trump wrote on Twitter about four women of color who also happen to be elected opposition representatives in a deeply divided democracy. Welcome to the immigrant experience in lands of hypocrisy and cynicism; this is the lived experience of actual people in the nation that is supposed to be our closest ally in that other world of geopolitics. “Give me your hungry, your tired, your poor, I’ll piss on ‘em/ that’s what the Statue of Bigotry says/ Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ‘em to death/ and get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard,” quipped musician Lou Reed of the immigrant struggle in the USA. This is a world where it is all too easy to shrug off Trump’s … [Read more...] about The statue of bigotry