Was Cunanan a Pinoy?

Andrew Cunanan was born in the US of a Filipino father and an Italian-American mother,  was raised in American neighborhoods and educated in American schools.  His father, Modesto, who once worked in the US Navy is now most likely a US citizen.  Yet melting-pot America refuses to assimilate Andrew Cunanan, the prime suspect in the … Read more

Money and the monastic life

Like the many who have so little of it, I’ve often wondered what rich people do with the material wealth they accumulate.  Bill Gates, for example,  or the Sultan of Brunei, or our very own Tan Yu, Henry Sy, and George Ty – all recently listed as among the world’s billionaires. What do they do … Read more

Mayor Lim’s experiment

Highly unusual, and most certainly illegal – this is how human rights lawyers have described Mayor Alfredo Lim’s order to spray-paint the homes of arrested drug pushers with anti-drug graffiti.  A petition for injunction they will file seeking to stop the mayor from pursuing this unorthodox campaign will likely be resolved in favor of the … Read more

Global engagement and solitude in Sweden

I’ve often wondered why some people joke about suicide as being Sweden’s national pastime.  It is hard to believe that a society so prosperous,  so seemingly intimate and relaxed, and so communal in the way it attends to basic needs, could produce one of the highest suicide rates in the world.  But then maybe, we … Read more