Author Archives: admin

Our year of living disastrously

By admin | November 19, 2013

Written for the CNN The images of the devastation wrought by super typhoon Haiyan as it hit the Philippines the past two days have shocked people across the globe. But be prepared for even more heartbreaking images and stories of the storm’s aftermath once reporters and rescuers are finally able to reach remote coastal towns […]

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Singapore’s ‘Tuition Industrial Complex’

By admin | November 5, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Policymakers are debating the social impact of private tuition or tutoring classes which have proliferated in recent years. The numbers are simply staggering: More than 90 percent of primary students are enrolled in after-school tuition centers while parents spend an estimated $680 million annually on tutoring services. Soon, it will be […]

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Information Fatigue

By admin | November 2, 2013

Written for Bulatlat If journalism is history in a hurry, can we describe social media as the hurrying of history? Because of mobile Internet, events are ‘instantiated’ in our timelines and webpages. We constantly access the Internet not simply to read the mirror images of this morning’s newspapers or videos of last night’s news reports […]

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Why Rallies Are Not Really Rallies in Manila and Phnom Penh

By admin | October 31, 2013

Written for The Diplomat, before the September 11 anti-pork EDSA event. Since last month, Cambodians and Filipinos have been staging massive outdoor rallies in their respective capitals but curiously they are denying that these are protests. After accusing the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of manipulating the July 28 election results, the opposition Cambodia National […]

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Across Rivers, Atop Mountains: A Constituency Unreachable via Internet

By admin | October 30, 2013

Written for Global Voices, The Bridge project What are the duties of a party list legislator? Draft laws, participate in plenary debates, and yes, even climb mountains. A lawmaker’s job is to articulate the demands of a constituency. Therefore, a lawmaker must regularly consult his people. In the context of a Third World agrarian archipelago […]

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Beauty, Race, and Politics on the Pageant Circuit

By admin | October 28, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Beauty queens Megan Young of the Philippines and Moe Set Wine of Myanmar soon found themselves facing issues of race and racism after winning the Miss World and Miss Myanmar competitions, respectively. Moe Set Wine will represent Myanmar at the Miss Universe pageant after she was crowned Miss Myanmar early this […]

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Invisible violence

By admin | October 25, 2013

Written for Bulatlat South Korea’s Tower Infinity will feature the world’s third highest observation deck. But the building’s main attraction cannot be seen, literally. Using an LED façade with optical cameras, the building will ‘disappear’ which would wake it the world’s first ‘invisible’ highrise. The trick works by displaying images of the building’s surroundings onto […]

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Suu Kyi Lectures Singapore on Materialism

By admin | October 21, 2013

Written for The Diplomat Singapore received a stinging, albeit friendly criticism from Nobel Peace Laureate and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who reminded one of the world’s richest countries that there are greater goals to achieve in life than wealth. Suu Kyi attended a leadership summit in Singapore where she discussed, among other […]

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Protests and Alternatives

By admin | October 15, 2013

Written for Bulatlat Rallies are sometimes caricatured as noisy and irrelevant street spectacles. Dismissed as futile ranting of a mob obsessed and afflicted with negativity. They offer only problems not solutions. They are contrasted with other political acts that focus on providing so-called practical alternatives to everyday evils. A responsible protester is someone who does […]

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Anti-Americanism, anyone?

By admin | October 6, 2013

Written for Bulatlat I believe in America. This is the famous opening line of the Hollywood film The Godfather. Incidentally, I share the same sentiment and I’d like to believe that most of my activist friends have a similar high regard for what America stands for. So why are we called anti-Americans? First, America should […]

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