“Dial this number, and just listen to the voice message; don’t ask what it’s about,” my daughter admonished me the other night.  A classmate of hers had earlier beeped her to do the same.  My son got a similar tip from a friend.  Our youngest daughter got phone calls from at least two other friends, … Read more

You could see the little miracles wrought by their handlers’ wise counsel by the way they conduct themselves in front of the media these days.  Erap Estrada has been telling less and less jokes.  We now hear him on radio on Saturday mornings seriously addressing questions of governance and problems of policy, the stuff we … Read more

The present problems of Monte de Piedad began with the idea of extending small loans to tricycle drivers.  The project bore all the credentials of piety, Christian love and charity, which alone could justify Church involvement in commerce.   When it was shown that the project would not only help the poor become productive, but that … Read more

The famine that is today rapidly descending upon North Korea reminds me of a rare visit I made to that country in 1986.  The North Koreans were then just beginning to expand their interaction with the non-socialist world.  They had invited some scholars from the United Nations University (UNU), including myself, to come and meet … Read more

Misconduct involving sex and money is always hot material for media everywhere; more so when it involves persons of power and moral influence.  That is why politicians and priests are particularly favored subjects of reportage on sleaze.  It is not right to assume that the media attention is necessarily “politically-motivated” or “wellorchestrated”.   Nor should it … Read more

How shall we compare candidates: by their personal values or by their stand on issues?  This is the usual question that Americans ask in every election.  In the last US election, President Clinton appeared strong on issues, but was vulnerable on values.  Bob Dole, on the other hand, was oozing with values, but he seemed … Read more

I have studied, taught, and lived in the University of the Philippines for the last 36 years, and I cannot remember a time when UP was not in bad need of money.  A book on UP’s first 75 years notes that the creation of the State University, first proposed in 1904, could not be realized … Read more

At a conference on globalization held recently in France, someone in the audience asked me if Filipinos exported mushrooms too.  I had mentioned in my paper that our farmers were being prodded to shift to high-value crops like asparagus in order to survive the global competition.  I couldn’t tell him if we had begun to … Read more

The editors of the Reader’s Digest wanted to know what people from all over the world would do if they found a lost wallet.  They dropped 10 wallets, containing an address and a modest sum of money,  in every city they chose, and observed what the finders did with the wallets.  It was a clever … Read more

A long time ago, the Jesuit psychologist Fr. Jaime Bulatao invented the curious term “split-level Christianity”.  Very simply, it meant the superimposition of imported Christian meanings upon native religious beliefs and practices. For example, scapulars replaced amulets.   Images of saints displaced the wooden gods in our ancestors’ homes.  Priests took the place of our local … Read more