When Pia Wurtzback won Miss Universe, it resuscitated an issue on comatose. Many brought to life the debate on beauty pageants being sexist and exploitative of women. As Pia described in one of her international TV guestings, there are three things that are “big” in the Philippines. They are crowd-drawers. And Filipinos, like Colombians (and…
Circulating on Facebook is a poster with a non-Catholic priest openly admitting that he has HIV. The poster reads: “I am a priest. I got tested for HIV. Your HIV status is a medical diagnosis, not a moral judgment.” Many, including myself, are ignorant about HIV. Even those who have contracted it are not fully…
They say that the only constant in this world is “change”. Day in and out, by the millisecond, there is that – change. And even when we refuse to change, the process of refusing to change is hardly consistent. The introspection that we go through is never the same. The factors that weigh in on…
Many misconstrue consumer activism for radicalism. It is not. One serves to increase awareness and initiate action for common good; the other can be considered blind adherence to principles often depicted as misguided and self-absorbed. In a consumer summit I attended in Manila sometime November this year, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) highlighted…
John Garrison, civil society specialist at the World Bank in Washington, DC, made a good point. He said when he started working in the Bank, he was always corrected as regards his take on curbing poverty: “Reduce, not eradicate.” Those two words (“reduce” and “eradicate”) might seem the same. After all, either way, the intent…
(Sometimes it is better to be straightforward about your feelings. Sometimes it proves best to have kept your mouth shut and trapped that heartbeat in. A poem I made some 4 years ago.) The view conspires. Cool breeze wraps the night; Table-setting suppresses formality; Waves whisper comfort; Lamps dim monotony; Candle dazzles disruptions. I could…
Your heart beats faster. Your hands shake. You feel cold and start to sweat bullets. Your eyes squint as you keep balance. “Am I getting a heart attack?” This is a normal occurrence for an abnormality known as “panic disorder”. Not many know its name but a good number have experienced it. Some have overcome…
Nakiuso. In English: riding on the “in” thing. So was the general comment when many on Facebook changed their profile photos to the colors of the French flag. There was that skepticism on whether people really understood what the switch in profile photos was for. Was it a matter of fad? Or did it carry…
(Column in Times Focus published 19 November 2015.) Before imaginations go wandering off, I am not writing about procreation or contraceptives. This is about the value of that essential component of a relationship: trust. But let me narrow it down to the context of taxis. Whenever we ride a taxi, the ideal is we comfortably take the back…
(Invited to be a columnist for “Times Focus”. My first entry released today.) For a column head, SUGARFREE appears quite tasteless. It’s devoid of imagination, a plain twist to something mundane. Harmless, you may say. Quite the contrary, in a gastronomic sense, something that is sugar-free is heaven-sent. It can be among the world’s top…
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