YPS

From this day forward November 29, 2007 will be known by many names; Are you a COUP Pal day, the Tri(llanes) Stooges Day, Where in Metro Manila was our Mayor Day, and maybe even Clergy for Rent Day, but to me, November 29, 2007 will be known as the Day the President Grew Balls.

OK so it was a little itty bitty non event (except to the clean up crew of the Penn) to finally flex the right set of muscles. But a paraplegic that twitches a finger has to be given his props right?

I mean be honest. Gloria did good. Give the devil her due.

Desperation

I was asked by an interviewer what I was afraid of in the coming years towards the election in 2010. I did not hesitate in my answer. I said I was afraid that some elder members of civil society are getting desperate.

Let me explain.

A Nation of Patriots and Nationalists NOTE: This piece was inspired by the realization that while most people want to be nationalistic or patriotic, many of then don't know exactly what it means and therefore cannot act on this noble compunction With all the bombings, explosions, and their current alleged cover-ups and misdirection, we can only assume that the perpetrators of both the act and the deceit are equally confident that they are acting in the best interests of the country. To assume otherwise would point an accusing finger back at us for our inaction.

In the past, politically inspired violence has in many cases been the result of local area politics and its necessary mafia type rivalry for control over localized areas. Politicians, mayors, Baranggay captains, and even the occasional congressman, have been assassinated, regardless of whether in Manila or in their respective districts, by their political rivals, local armed groups with a grudge, or by local citizens in their districts that they may have pillaged maimed or otherwise abused.

* I wrote this piece amidst the haka haka that the impeachment complaint that was going to be presented to congress was defective and flawed. I found it even stranger that the complaint came from an individual whose only (alleged) connection to congress was a congressman he had met, by chance, at some event in the past.

*This was written a few weeks prior to Erap being released from his luxurious prison in Tanay. Despite this clear attempt to start buying off the UNO leadership, UNO’s members have still expressed interest in pursuing impeachment. Not only that, Erap’s son still cannot publicly call GMA the legitimate president and Erap looks and sounds like the cat that ate the canary and seems to be barely holding on to the promise that he will not interfere in politics.

Our Filipino brains have sadly grown acclimated to a culture of acceptance and resignation. The sad fact of the matter is that the path of least resistance is the path most taken. The status quo has allowed us to be at our most glaringly indifferent --- as such, most of us have blindingly accepted our fate, muckin.

For the first time in my "oh-so-many" years, i was part of this year's national population census. The census taker (officer?) knocked on my door, respectfully requested a few minutes of my time then proceeded to take down information that would place me, i suppose, into statistically convenient categories. He asked for my name, age, birthplace, educational attainment, college course, religion, current job, civil status, whether i was head of the family and if there was an overseas Filipino worker in the family.

One of the criticisms that is being raised against the proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) beside the allegations of attempted (or actual?) pay-offs made to government officials is the lack of clear guidelines that would define the terms of contract for the supplier of the system.