Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

A friend of mine, who observes and comments on political happenings, regularly sends me information straight from the “grapevine.” A lot of it does not make it to the news. But a few items are soon enough picked up by various media platforms, and later become the object of congressional investigations. Without grapevine sources, news … Read more

Anyone who has ever turned to ChatGPT for answers may have wondered at some point where this popular artificial intelligence (AI) tool gets all the information it provides. The simple answer is that ChatGPT voraciously scrapes all the English-language data that is to be found on the open web and synthesizes these for you. Everything … Read more

Early this week, a fake video of President Marcos went viral on a popular streaming platform. It showed the president purportedly directing the country’s armed forces to counter China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea. The short video was taken down just a few days after. Not having personally seen it, I can’t say … Read more

When should a country retaliate to an attack on its territory and forces? What form should a retaliatory response take? When is restraint a preferable course of action? Questions like these suggest that conflict is a complex communication system in itself. Norms are observed even in war. No country wants to be accused of igniting … Read more

From a broader perspective, the tensions in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) are only secondarily due to our maritime territorial disputes with China. These tensions are primarily an offshoot of the worsening great power rivalry between the United States and China. That rivalry encompasses multiple issues and has its own dynamics. As a … Read more

When presented by opinion polls with the top choices for senators at next year’s midterm elections, middle-class educated Filipinos typically react with a mixture of disbelief and despair. They rue the fact that from the same list are names of politicians who may someday be perceived as “presidentiable.” In the current election cycle, the ones … Read more

For many of us in this predominantly Christian nation, Easter is a time for spiritual reflection on the meaning of our lives, the certainty of death, and the promise of eternal life. But whether we admit it or not, it’s also a time for a break—whatever that might mean. Perhaps a break from the dullness … Read more

Americans who did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 quickly recovered from the shock of seeing him become United States president in 2016 by taking comfort in the thought that the country’s democratic institutions were strong enough to withstand the autocratic assaults of this supremely narcissistic businessman-politician. The belief in the promise of strong … Read more

Even in our largely pre-modern society, politicians and pastors normally observe a respectful line between their respective domains. To the extent possible, they take care not to cross this sensitive line. But, in the rare times they feel compelled to do otherwise, they do so with studied courtesy, making sure not to offend sensibilities. A … Read more

This piece is not about time travel, though it may well be. It is, more accurately, about the precious experience of seeing people again, more than half a century after we first met them. It is about those rare events in our lives when, in full awareness of the remaining time we have, “everything can … Read more