(Blogwatch) Noynoy's First SONA

How refreshing, a State of the Nation Address (SONA) that isn't self-congratulatory. I suppose this can be expected, given that this is President Noynoy Aquino's first. He doesn’t have a laundry list of accomplishments to trumpet. Instead he has a laundry list of things the previous administration did wrong. It is always good to juxtapose his administration from the last one. That is a gift that will keep on giving. He reminds us of the horrors of the Arroyo reign, and anything compared to that can only be good. Of course he makes special mention of Pampanga, just to remind us in case we’ve forgotten.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Blogwatch) Engendering rights and other things of ambition

In August last year the Magna Carta of Women finally came out of the legislative wringer and was signed into law. Many feminists were ecstatic, despite a close call just as the bill had been consolidated at the bicameral level. Literally a call from a man of cloth had delayed the bill’s transmission from the House to the office of the President. But no matter, the temporary delay was a mere hiccup in the nearly decade-long history of this piece of legislation. The men of cloth were particularly wary of some provisions on reproductive health services and the prohibition of the expulsion of female faculty and students on account of getting pregnant. But nevertheless these provisions survived intact.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Blogwatch) Health Secretary Ona supports artificial FP

President Noynoy Aquino was notoriously vague on his stand on the Reproductive Health bill during the election campaign. On principle he was not against artificial family planning but did he or did he not support public funding on family planning commodities such as condoms and pills? Was he purposely being vague so as not to antagonize the church? Did he replace former Health Secretary Cabral, a staunch RH advocate, with La Sallite Brother Armin Luistro to please the bishops? Well, now we wonder no more.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Kamundohan) Global land grabbing: When bankers turn to farming

In recent years global “land grabbing” has been fueled by food insecurity and a chance to cash in on biofuels demand. Arable land-scarce countries are looking at “outsourcing” their agricultural production to other nations. Some have responded to the demand for biofuels after the spike in petroleum oil prices in 2008. Apart from governments seeking to secure their population's food security, investors as varied as agro-industrial corporations, investment banks, hedge funds, commodity traders, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and foundations are looking to lease or purchase foreign land. The global financial crisis of 2008 may have also spurred the acquisition of more “solid” investments as prices of liquid assets fell or disappeared into thin air.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Blogwatch) It Augurs Well

We’re inclined to believe the worst in our leaders. It is the automatic option. Faced with a choice between blind faith and skepticism, we are apostates. Is it borne of our revolutionary tradition, this distrust of authority? Or more a fruit of our useless labors throughout the years? How does one cope with perpetual disappointment? A refusal to believe in the possibility of anything.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Blogwatch) Remitting love in a time of global recession

In sterile, technical language, what the finance bureaucrats are reporting this month basically means love trumps global financial crises. “Notwithstanding concerns over sovereign-debt problems in some European countries, remittances from overseas Filipinos continued to show strength amid the gradual recovery of the global economy,” says the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. From January to April this year, $5.9 billion worth of love poured in the country, 6.6 percent more than the same period last year. Standard & Poor's, a company that assesses the credit-worthiness of countries, is essentially saying remittances comprise a force-field protecting the country from "global turbulence."

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Kamundohan) Anatomy of high-tech suicide at Foxconn

China is now the world's largest producer of electronic products. In its industrial zones, all along the coastline, reside high-tech factories which supply the world’s largest multinationals. American-owned Hewlett-Packard and Dell, Taiwanese-owned Acer and Chinese-owned Lenovo all make up nearly half of the global PC market. From mobile phones, motherboards, computer chips and optical mice, Chinese workers produce them all for an increasingly hungry global market. They ship to other Asian countries, to North America, Europe and even Africa. China has become the world’s factory, producing everything from milk to shoes to flat screens. But at what cost?

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

Malacañang’s Magic Machine

I completely understand why our new president, Noynoy Aquino, is hesitant to live in Malacañang. After nearly a decade of having been inhabited by its current occupant, it now comes equipped with its own version of reality. It is a kind of “virtual” reality, an alternate universe separate from that which unfolds outside its walls. In this parallel universe, all data, all information, can be manipulated to reflect a world of one’s own choosing.

Read the rest at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Kamundohan) Gaza Strip Blockade: Security vs. Humanitarian Imperatives

Israel and Palestine have been at an impasse for over half a century, their hot and cold wars a rich source of human misery. As the oil flows all around these two nations, so too, it seems, does the blood. All too easily the conflict might be misconstrued to be rooted in religion, as often protagonists invoke the name of the Almighty in all its permutations. In the name of Allah, in the name of Yahweh, in the name of God, flags have been waved, battles waged. These kinds of assumptions do not form the whole picture however, and may even be precarious assumptions to make. Because in dealing with absolute faith, it would be difficult to find a resolution based on reason.

Read the rest over at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Kamundohan) North Korea: Fighting to Stay on the Axis of Evil?

In an age of unprecedented cross-border exchange of goods, capital, people and ideas, North Korea is something of an anachronism. Where Cuba at least welcomes clandestine tourists from all over, Kim Jong Il’s little kingdom remains tightly sealed from the outside world. Here is a living, breathing relic of the Cold War era, widely regarded as a loose cannon this side of the Pacific. It is led by an icon of sorts, much derided for his oversized sunnies, his bouffant hair-do and his penchant for elevator boots.

Read the rest over at the Philippine Online Chronicles.

(Blogwatch) Rh, elections and the Catholic vote

For four Congresses, the Catholic hierarchy has been successful in putting pressure on the legislature not to pass the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. An effective tactic employed is the threat of the “Catholic Vote.” Through the pulpit, the clergy would wield its influence on the faithful, enjoining them to shun electoral candidates who strayed from the path of the straight and narrow.

Read the rest over at the Philippine Online Chronicles. 

Dora the Explorer: Exploring the America's Illegally?

For over a decade, Dora the Explorer has been regaling children in the United States and elsewhere with her tales of fun and adventure. A creation of Nickelodeon, the Spanish-speaking cartoon character now finds herself in the middle of the immigration debate. Last week, various American media outlets picked up this composite picture of Dora’s mug shot as an “illegal immigrant.”

Read the rest here.

(Blogwatch) Freedom of Information: Antidote to Tyranny

Tyranny may change in form, adapting to the milieu in which it must be deployed and exercised, but it never changes in principle. In the olden days, a naked display of power – an army of mercenaries or soldiers – is enough to subdue an uncooperative populace. The tyrant commands through the monopoly of instruments that physically coerce - instruments of hurt, instruments of pain. The constant principle is that the tyrant gets what she wants, no matter the opinion of those whom she rules. This is the very antithesis of democracy.

Read the rest here.

First Article with Blogwatch

I am a new contributor to the Philippine Online Chronicles and Blogwatch. You may read my maiden article "Dear Noynoy" here.