A benighted and repressive Comelec, Part 2

(Continued from last Tuesday’s column) Is it just homophobia that drove the Comelec to deny the petition for accreditation of the Ang Ladlad LGBT Party? Yes, but homophobia is deeper and more serious than most people think. Homophobia is defined as the heterosexual’s extreme and irrational aversion to, and contempt for, homosexuality and homosexual people, ... (more)

The anatomy of a rumor

After writing a few articles about my firstborn who is now a college freshman, an obviously curious reader e-mailed me asking why my daughter was taking up a vocational course. I said she wasn’t and explained that A.B. Photography is a regular college course. But there’s no such thing, she said. Yes, there is, I ... (more)

Understanding the origin of poverty

Last Tuesday’s and today’s columns were a two-part essay on poverty; in particular, an attempt to understand its origin from an anthropological context, vis a vis the role of government in the development of poverty. Tuesday‘s column: Poverty and private property Poverty is not a modern-day phenomenon. Of course, that is not the same as ... (more)

The future (vice) president of the Philippines?

This is a true story. There’s this girl, a high school junior, whom I’ll call Anita. She was a candidate for Vice President in the student government and she won by a slim two-vote victory. She won. There was no doubt about that. There were no accusations of cheating or anything. As far as the ... (more)

The girl worth marrying

In an earlier entry about “pikot”, Jon commented: My wife sometimes asked me if I would’ve married her had she been a fling or a one-night stand. My answer was “of course not!” Marriage is reserved for people worth marrying. Anything less is a broken family in the making. I asked him to define what ... (more)

What is pikot?

(Today’s column) Every three years, my husband’s eldest brother, his wife and two sons spend three weeks in the Philippines. He and his wife have been living in a suburb of Chicago for over 20 years and both of their sons were born and raised there. They arrived over a week ago and, last Sunday, ... (more)

The less than perfect child

I was reading the case of Danielle (via Dooce), now called Dani, and please go read about this mind-blowing case of child neglect, about a feral child adopted by a couple with a young son. I am simply amazed at the care that the adoptive parents are giving her. Part of me says the article ... (more)

Coffee, dear?

(Today’s column) We had our occasional red meat last Sunday. We really wanted steaks and mashed potatoes but S&R ran out of rib eye steaks so my husband bought pork loin instead. Then, he cooked tequila porkloin, a beloved dish from Tucker Shaw’s “Gentlemen, Start Your Ovens: Killer Recipes for Guys”. Sunday in our house ... (more)

Emergency

At 10.30 a.m. today, one of the house helpers came up to my study to tell me that we had no more rice to cook for lunch. Wow, and I was hoping for a leisurely day. We had a huge bowl of leftover stir fried beef and vegetables that I cooked for the kids’ packed ... (more)

The Cinderella mentality in a democracy

My current desk editor (she’s my third) in Manila Standard Today also writes an op-ed column. In her column published a month ago, she wrote her thoughts after seeing The Other Boleyn Girl. As to what led me to that particular column, well, I was digging through the archives looking for Emil Jurado’s column lambasting ... (more)

Poor little rich girls

While watching the trailer of the film “Mamma Mia!” on television a couple of nights ago, there ensued a discussion as to whether the lead star is one of the three witches in the now-defunct TV series “Charmed.” My older daughter Sam said that wasn’t her. Rather, she’s one of the girls in the supporting ... (more)

The agenda of the prejudiced

When the civil case filed by the former domestic helper of Lauro Baja Jr. against the ex-Ambassador to the United Nations hit the headlines, I was a hundred and ten percent certain that three extremist camps would make themselves visible, each taking a different stand as to which party is guilty and which is innocent. ... (more)