The Philippines: Tiger or Stuffed Kitty?
The Philippines is fascinating, a nation with well-developed democratic institutions but underdeveloped democratic principles, a nation of broad economic reach and almost no economic depth, a nation of foul-weather patriots who rip money from the civic coffers and fair-weather patriots who tie their soul to the fists of a boxer and lash out with indignant … Continue reading
Third Stage Sovereignty
Blogs are like large rocks. If you write a big enough pile of them, you eventually have enough shapes – wedges and edges and planes – to fit together to form a wall. The wall may even be strong enough to become a foundation for a structure. I rather like that notion, that The Society … Continue reading
Breaking up Dynasties by Breaking up Campaign Contributions
Compiling this blog has been fascinating as I was forced to confront my own presumptions and discover them to be, if not wrong, at least a bit shaky. The headline was written in anticipation of what the blog would conclude. Let’s go through the facts and arguments and see where we come out. Philippine democracy … Continue reading
The Shallow Press Defines the Philippines
This may seem like another of those obnoxious “Americans do it better” blogs. But if America DOES have a more constructive standard, are we to ignore it, refuse to learn from it, wave a Filipino pride shirt high in the air and go ignorantly forward? Not me, bubba. The journalistic standards in the States, up … Continue reading




