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 →

Filed under Citizenship/Patriotism

The Aquino Road Map

House Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora asked an excellent question of the Aquino Administration during his rebuttal speech to the President’s SONA speech. As Rappler headlined it: “Where’s the road map?” Zamora was actually gracious in his critique, explaining it is not his place to criticize what the President put into his speech, or left out, … Continue reading →

Filed under Philippine Government

People of Size, Character-Wise

I admire Mother Teresa. She would get out into the field, out with the flies and mud and disease, and help people. I admire Bill Gates, a zillionaire who is giving his money away to help the neediest people around the world. I admire artists who give of their inner soul  so that others may … Continue reading →

Filed under Family/Parenting/Children

“What’s Your Bag?”

I love idiomatic expressions. Sancho Panza is my idol. Well, one of them, along with Barak Obama, George Carlin, Grace Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Charles Dickens and a bunch of people rich of character who are both compassionate and drop dead intelligent. Well, I suppose it could be argued by some that Carlin and Bierce were … Continue reading →

Filed under Blogging/Journalism

Racial Discrimination by the U.S. Embassy in Manila

The American Embassy in the Philippines has a huge problem. It is overwhelmed with applications for tourist and other temporary visas. It is a processing nightmare, something like 1,000 to 1,500 applications a day. This is complicated by the fact that, historically, a large number of Filipinos granted a visa to visit the U.S. have … Continue reading →

Filed under USA/Americans