The emptiness of a self-referential presidency

On the eve of her 8th State of the Nation Address (Sona), the polling firm, Pulse Asia, sought to quantify the public attitude toward President Arroyo’s speeches before the joint session of Congress. Only 13% of the 1,200 randomly selected informants said that Ms Arroyo’s previous Sonas were “truthful,” while 40% believed they were “not … Read more

The “epidermalization of inferiority”

This fascinating phrase comes from the book of Frantz Fanon, “Black Skin White Masks.”  Fanon, the black psychiatrist from Martinique, and author of the classic “The Wretched of the Earth,” diagnoses the neurosis of wanting-to-be-white as a product of the internalization of colonial subjugation.  “If there is an inferiority complex,” Fanon writes, “it is the … Read more

Because we allow it

When Romulo Neri’s appointment as Administrator of the Social Security System was reported in the early evening news, our house help, who was watching, exploded and let loose a torrent of untranslatable expletives. “Ayy p___, pera namin yan ah!” she shouted.  More than the reality of rising prices, what flashed in her mind was the … Read more

A world without Filipinos

At the end of their brief June 24th meeting at the White House, US President George W. Bush and his visitor from the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, faced the press for a photo opportunity.  President Arroyo arrived in the US at around the same a powerful typhoon was battering her country, and a Filipino … Read more