Randy David | PUBLIC LIVES

Watching the ongoing jueteng investigation in Congress, a friend asked: what do you think is the game plan?  Like most everybody else, he was thoroughly skeptical about the public motives that inform the investigation, and was searching for a hidden agenda that would account for this sudden militancy in law enforcement.  He could not believe … Read more

An examination of the route that led to former Korean President Roh Taewoo’s public disgrace suggests that the initial investigations did not immediately target him.  Rather they zeroed in on his close associates and members of his Cabinet, who were later convicted.   The trail of illegal transactions in which these associates were involved  led to … Read more

(Read at the November 10 Kilosbayan Forum) “I feel ashamed and full of remorse for betraying the expectations of the people,” said Roh Tae-woo.  As president of South Korea between 1988 and 1993, Roh admitted taking illegal contributions from businessmen amounting to $654 million.  From these illicit funds, he said, he put away $220 million … Read more

At the height of typhoon Rosing’s fury, someone in my family expressed a thought that must have lurked at the back of every Filipino mind last Friday: “Is this a curse?  Is our country being singled out for punishment by Nature?” Except for those who regularly monitor the international news, we are often unaware of … Read more

A former student of mine, Thetis Abrera-Mangahas, who was in the very first sociology class I  taught in the 1960s read my column about life and illness last week and suddenly remembered our discussions about life and death in Sociology 101.  She sent me a sweet note and enclosed a fascinating essay by the writer … Read more

The title belongs to a short essay by the great modern Chinese writer Lu Hsun.  He had written it just a few months before he died. Recurrent illness exhausted him so much he likened it to excessive manual work.  It was during moments of recuperation, between sleeping and staring blankly at nothing, that he discovered  … Read more

Apart from the deaths and the huge losses in property, the Pinatubo lahar’s greatest impact on the people of Pampanga has been the defamiliarization of the landscape.  The landmarks we knew as children — the old houses, the majestic trees, the placid rivers, the stolid churches and the abundant markets —  are all gone, erased … Read more

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