Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

A year ago, my mother Bienvenida stared into death’s eyes, and death blinked.  She came back to life after losing her pulse and heartbeat, her glassy eyes searching for the familiar faces of her children among the crowd that circled her bed.  At once she realized she had not left, and maybe it wasn’t her … Read more

To Erap, the answer to that question will ever be an unwavering “yes.” The poor are his loyal constituency. He has a special pact with them. They made him president; they alone, he says, can tell him to resign.  As they are the majority of the Filipino people, their support is all that matters. They … Read more

The everyday term for it is “split-personality.” The schizoid is a personality type troubled by a disconnection of mental functions. When attuned to the shared reality of the moment, he is a portrait of lucidity.  Most of the time, however, he is simply lost in the world of his own private language.  His mental framework … Read more

When, finally, this is over, and we are asked to tell the story of what we did – why we tirelessly poured out into the streets to demand the ouster of yet another president — I hope we will remember to recount the big picture and not just the details. This is not just about … Read more

Knowing Erap — knowing where he came from, what lifestyle he led, what company he kept – do we have a right to be shocked by Chavit Singson’s revelations about the man we elected president?  Why can’t we, as Malacanang suggests, dismiss these charges as a boring replay of old gimmicks that a defeated opposition … Read more

R is for Resignation, I is for Impeachment, O is for Ouster, and S is for Snap election, or for the Status quo, as in “Stay, you’re doing well” or “Stay, but reform.” These are the scenarios being offered today as options for resolving the country’s worst political and economic crisis since the 1983 assassination … Read more

A growing number of Filipinos have seen enough, heard enough, to be able to form a conclusion about Joseph Estrada the president — he is destroying the nation.  They want him out as soon as possible. They cannot wait for a tedious impeachment process to strip him of his position.  They are asking him to … Read more

More than the souvenirs that a tourist mindlessly accumulates in the course of a trip, a Filipino traveler’s most treasured memories are those of fantastic bargains struck with local merchants.  The experience has all the flavor of that first historic encounter between foreigner and native.  The huge communication gap is instantly bridged by the most … Read more

The image that summed up China for me in 1983 was that of a vast country of immense highways filled with bicycles.  I went back in 1990 and found a country still teeming with bicycles but beginning to choke from the fumes of motor vehicles.  On my last visit two weeks ago, I was shocked … Read more

One of the intriguing ideas floated at the occasion of the recent UN Millennium Summit is the concept of an international court that will try crimes against humanity.  This idea rests on the belief that acts like genocide constitute a global injury that must be redressed globally. There is a strong feeling that the instruments … Read more