In a democracy, the exercise of power is a proper object of press scrutiny. By making those who rule more visible than ordinary citizens, the press exerts greater pressure upon them to account for their actions. This watchdog function is a necessary check against the abuses of power, that is not easily replaced by the … Read more
The quest for justice within the rigidities of the law is what has filled my mind in the past week. Three young men have just been sent to their deaths one after the other for robbing a passenger jeep and killing a policeman in the process. A few days later, another man, past middle age … Read more
All punishment, says the Israeli writer Avishai Margalit in his book “The Decent Society”, aims to convey the idea that crime is a disgraceful act. By punishing him, society inflicts on the offender a loss of social honor. But does justice require that a criminal be also humiliated? “If humiliation means damaging people’s self-respect,” Margalit … Read more
Bohol Representative Ernesto Herrera has a bill prescribing imprisonment for mothers who do nothing even when they know that their daughters are being sexually abused by their fathers. I have not seen the full text of the Herrera bill, but I have the feeling that it is unnecessary, insensitive, and possibly counterproductive. Charging them with … Read more
A friend who teaches at a Japanese university tells me of a phenomenon in the classroom that he calls the “shut-out syndrome.” It refers, he says, to the ability of students to mentally block everything they hear inside the classroom. They are physically present, their eyes are on their professors, they appear to listen, yet … Read more
The trouble with Father’s Day is not only that it is steeped in commercialism, but that it also trivializes the complex emotions that characterize our relationship with our fathers. Setting aside a special day to remember fathers has become an invitation to replace unique feelings with stereotype sentiments, to articulate tenderness by the glibness of … Read more
The annual celebration of a country’s Independence Day is always an occasion for kitsch. On such a day, the state invites its citizens to pause from their ordinary preoccupations in order to imagine themselves as the collective inheritors of a great tradition of struggle and heroism. In the past, the high moments of that tradition … Read more
A friend visited me at home the other night. Unable to state the real purpose of the visit over the family dinner table, this friend sent me a desperate e-mail that same evening, followed by a fax version of the same message. The contents of the letter were private, and I understood why they could … Read more
It is a typical day on television in the society of the spectacle. In one channel, we watch the honorable senators of the Republic gravely intone their deepest reservations about a document they regard as a watershed in the nation’s life. In another, all eyes follow the country’s representative to the Miss Universe pageant when … Read more
One year ago today, Joseph Ejercito Estrada ran on a pro-poor platform and became president of the country. He made history by making the radical elimination of poverty the principal burden of political leadership. His moral slogan was as urgent as it was simple: Erap para sa mahirap. Cynics scoffed at the ordinariness of this … Read more