If we continue to hold elections the way the Commission on Elections held them in 2004 and 2007, it won’t be long before we begin to believe that all elections are nothing but optical illusions. They look real, we experience them as real – but they are all really a mirage, a perception made possible … Read more
Richard Rorty, an unusual American philosopher who rebelled against his own discipline, died last week. He was possibly the most important thinker of his generation. While most of his colleagues in philosophy departments chose to ignore the challenge of European postmodernism, Rorty responded to it by finding a home for many of its themes in … Read more
Her candidates may have been clobbered in the senatorial race by the opposition and her most strident critics, but Gloria Macapagal Arroyo knows better than to complain. The defeat of her candidates strengthens the system over which she presides, and effectively removes the issue of her own contested legitimacy from the national agenda. Despite the … Read more
She came into the world a year ago today, the first grandchild of my sister Raquel. Her parents named her Erin, a lovely Gaelic word derived from “Eire” or Ireland. On this blessed day, they have ordered a cake and balloons for the little girl, acutely aware that her first birthday could also be her … Read more