Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

By “terrorist talk”, I mean absolutist talk like President George Bush’s “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” Such talk does not allow any room for alternative viewpoints.  Its speaker has seen the “truth,” therefore any other view must be false or evil. What President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the other day … Read more

In its simplest sense, terrorism is the use of fear to force an individual or a community to act in a way contrary to reason.  It is the opposite of debate, argument, or persuasion. You cannot argue with a terrorist.  He is not interested in dialogue or discussion.  His mind is closed.  He feels superior … Read more

From day one since Sept. 11, 2001, America has waged a campaign to make other nations see the world with American eyes, feel its pain as humanity’s collective distress, and view the future through the prism of America’s quest for justice.  And the effort has been successful. Today hardly anyone can voice a reservation about … Read more

Edsa II was the culmination of a movement to restore accountability and idealism in government. Its constituents were the young, the middle class, and the educated who refused to be led any further by an inept, corrupt, and archaic president. While its actions were political, it rode on the wave of a general contempt for … Read more

Who’s afraid of coups?  People who invoke the law to defend privilege, those who justify power by pointing at institutions, and those who oppose all change except that which they can manage.  They are afraid of coups. But those who measure their rights by the norms of substantive justice, those who affirm their power by … Read more

A trip to Baguio on any long holiday break would persuade any visitor of the paucity of leisure in our society.  This city on a hill originally founded by Americans for the rest and recreation of colonial bureaucrats has become simply too small and too lacking in facilities to accommodate Filipino families in search of … Read more

At about this time last year, Filipinos delayed their Christmas parties so they could watch television.  On the last day before the Senate impeachment court went on holiday recess, Clarissa Ocampo came on board as a surprise witness against President Joseph Estrada. Thus began the most politicized Christmas break we ever had in our nation’s … Read more

Marilou Diaz-Abaya goes against the grain of her culture in almost her films.  She questions the truisms of common sense not by marshalling logical arguments against them but by telling stories of people who are victims of these truisms.  She invites her viewers to suspend the imperatives of their beliefs even only for a moment, … Read more

She turns one year old today, a child who first saw light as the Filipino nation began one of its darkest moments – the impeachment of a sitting president.  I constantly thought of her during those days when everything seemed uncertain, when the routines of our lives were replaced by the swirl of daily demonstrations.  … Read more

Nothing more powerfully communicates the self-understanding of a nation than the identity of its heroes.  We first teach the history of our country to our children by telling them the lives of our heroes.  Our heroes’ personal sacrifices mirror the nation’s own suffering, and their hopes define the nation’s moral identity. A nation that is … Read more