Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

There is something humiliating in suffering and something elevating and superior in sympathy.  Which is why these two sentiments, said Nietzsche, will always be strained.  Their interaction must be handled with care. The problem of lahar in Pampanga is compounded by the fact that its victims have been unable to bear their suffering with dignity.  … Read more

For 87 years, Oseola McCarty of Hattiesburg, Mississippi  lived her life in total simplicity and  anonymity.  Today, she is America’s new-found hero. Recently the New York Times paid homage to this wonderful black woman in an editorial, and US President Bill Clinton asked her to be his date at a testimonial dinner at the White … Read more

Sarah Balabagan is only 16 years old.  By the standards of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, she is just a child.  By the norms of the majority in the civilized world, 150 countries that have ratified that Convention, she should not be in a regular prison, let alone sentenced to … Read more

What is interesting about the Catholic Church’s position on the reported Marian apparitions in Agoo is that while it claims there was nothing supernatural in the occurrences, it did not say that miracles could not happen. The Church Commission that investigated the Agoo phenomena and the devotees who are now protesting its findings actually share … Read more

“Look at the world through women’s eyes” admonished the souvenir T-shirts, bags, umbrellas, banners  and posters from the NGO Forum on Women.  It is an eloquent slogan, poetic and immensely more powerful than the official UN Fourth World Conference’s own “Development, Equality and Peace”. The struggle for women’s rights must indeed begin with a change … Read more

Senator Edgardo J. Angara’s rise to political power has largely passed unnoticed.  This may partly be ascribed to  his  non-confrontational and noncontroversial persona.  His style is that of the quiet consensus-builder; he threatens no one.  He is not a leader of great charisma.  But he gets things done.  He is an organizer, not an ideologue; … Read more

I first met Mang Pandoy in 1989. He grew all kinds of vegetables then on a strip of cogon land inside the UP campus, and  I was one of his regular customers.  I distinctly remember how this city farmer jauntily watered his plants, balancing a pole on his shoulders with two sprinklers on both ends. … Read more

Civility is the art of living with others.  It is also what we so terribly lack in this country.  Those who have money, power and technology go about their daily business, completely unmindful of the effects  they create on the life circumstances of others. The State, whose function it is ideally to balance these effects … Read more

It was as if a memory nerve had been activated, and it could not be switched off  even after the lights had gone out in the studio.  Lola Juanita’s sharing on Public Forum last Monday was the most gripping and also the most pained. We were talking of war memories and Japanese apology. Juanita Jamot … Read more

I am certain that the late Gerry Gil of the Standard would have postponed his death by at least a week if only so he could read what his friends and admirers have written  about him after his untimely passing.  But hasn’t this always been the unhappy side of dying?  That we do not get … Read more