The three biggest shopping malls in the world are located in Metro Manila. Malling (not to be confused with shopping) has become the national pastime. Why do malls thrive in a poor country like the Philippines? One reason is the emergence of the overseas Filipino workers, or OFWs, and their families as reliable customers of…
Month: November 2008
Hidden Culprit*
Indeed, neoliberalism supplanted Keynesianism which advocated active government intervention through public works projects and fiscal and monetary policies to ensure economic stability and growth. The impression created is that government thereafter stood aside disinterestedly while market forces operated freely. Thus, even when “neoliberal globalization” started wreaking greater havoc on weak economies rather than globalize progress…
Haranang Handog sa Isang Aktibista, Hinahamon ang Tadhana
NI E. SAN JUAN, JR. Inilathala ng Bulatlat Pambihira ka Matatag matingkad mabagsik ang luntiang apoy sa iyong mga mata Habang dumadampi ang hamog ng umaga Sa iyong pisnging hinog sa pangarap ng masamyong kinabukasan— Nagliliyab ang iyong tapang, nakapapaso ang dingas ng iyong determinasyon— Nabighani sa sanghaya ng iyong dangal at sa panaginip Nangahas…
Int’l Mission on Attacks against Filipino Lawyers, Judges to Start Tomorrow
BY BULATLAT The International Verification and Fact-Finding Mission (IVFFM) on Attacks against Filipino Lawyers and Judges will begin tomorrow, November 4. Judges and lawyers from the Dutch Lawyers for Lawyers Foundation (L4L) will conduct an eight-day follow-up verification and fact finding mission in Manila and Mindanao regarding cases of harassment and killing of lawyers and…
An Entourage of Fools
First, it was retired Philippine National Police (PNP) comptroller Eliseo de la Paz to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Then came former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc Joc” Bolante’s turn. The only people missing in this tragic comedy are Benjamin “The Broker Abalos Sr., made famous by his role in the graft-ridden $329.5 million…
‘Don’t repeat Brazil’s Biofuel Experience’
A Brazilian lawyer, development specialist and activist, said Brazil has ample experience from which the Philippines can draw important lessons from. She said the most important of which is ‘not to repeat the experience of Brazil in order to avoid biofuel production’s devastating impact.’ BY KARL G. OMBION Bulatlat While biofuel production is still a…
Iisa pa Lamang at Camp
Ang camp ay nababalot ng artifice, nakikita ang tistis kaysa sa perfeksyon ng saplot. Nagiging fluid ang relasyong pangkapangyarihan, at ang resulta ay carnivalesque laughter, tulad ng isinasaad ng lingwistang si Mikhail Bahktin. Sa isang temporal na saglit, nababaligtad ang relasyong pangkapangyarihan, tulad ng mahirap at mayaman, at naibubuyanyang ang konstruksyon ng aktwal at historikal…
Soldiers Raid Evacuation Center in N. Cotabato
Early last month, Rakman Suleik and his 17-year-old son Samsudin, together with a few others, fled from the fighting between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Aleosan, North Cotabato. They had evacuated, to safety or so they thought, at the house of a certain Colonel Maguid of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Barangay (village) Nalapaan in Pikit, North Cotabato. But even in the house that had served as their refuge, they would not be safe from atrocities by soldiers.