The internet says for those who don’t know yet their meanings simply explains: “The swan song is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or RETIREMENT [from some activity]. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful song just before their death, having been silent during most… Read More »

Many Metro-Manilans suffer from the common cold all through out the year. Said to be caused by a virus, people are told there is only relief, there is no curative drug or medicine against the cold virus that will vanish it permanently. However, people are advised to do this and that to avoid catching the virus or wait… Read More »

One early May morning while waiting for a public bus at Derry Road  chilled by a gentle breeze  of  8 degrees Celsius, the thought hit me like a Sigma Rho paddle. Why my second country  is “cool”  so cool  than  Philippines My Philippines, the country of my birth.  Men, macho men may not compare past with  present girl… Read More »

The ending (of this series) is the beginning so says me who also have tipsy moments trying to impress silent and sober readers. It is really the shut up piece and the beginning of silence waiting for another think coming, from readers. If as Heraclitus has said character is fate and if essays have character, then this is… Read More »

NOT  LAWYERS or Psychics  but  Professors of Management who teach  quantitative techniques (within  operations research) in decision-making should be able to give the ultimate advice to Vice President Binay to pull him out of the quicksand where  he is bumbunan-deep now.  I don’t have the credentials as my UPCA transcript of math grades will attest high probability to bungle it. But I can try as I  have… Read More »

  PH2030 is a dud.  In Tagalog  it means mintis,  in Espanol  Pidgin: pallado.  For Pinoy New Year’s Eve revellers  it’s a  fizzled whistle bomb.  Very  likely by  2030 in   the Philippines  24/7   it is still happy days for the sons of guns (sanamagans coined by the late Max  Soliven).  That is if the realist  reader has read PH 2030 to the 3rd of  this series.  I told my realists friends the  essays on PH2030  are  fiction based on truth learned from 17… Read More »

What was it that I wrote in the first two pieces using my crystal  ball in my time travel? FIRSTLY: “By  2030 the country would have undergone four national  parliamentary elections held every four years simultaneously with  the twelve  regional parliaments; massive no nonsense nation building have  involved the more than and still growing 100 million citizenry from… Read More »

By oneself one cannot know whether one’s reaction and formed opinion about a tragic event like Mamasapano when put in writing will be mere rubbish or have any use at all to those who will read it. At best for the writer it is like a release from a chest load of pain for the victims and anger… Read More »

Two much  ado seeming to spoil  Pope Francis visit  to the Philippines: ONE: From what they see after pausing and zooming in the video footage of the visit, Pope Francis seemed to have refused Noynoy to Kiss His Ring. What’s the spin? Pope Francis did not want Noynoy to kiss his ring, so it seemed twice when Noynoy… Read More »

After several decades of being a witness and at times participant in the celebration of Valentine’s Day,   I am not even sure that a Valentine is a man or a woman, or a child or even esteemed dead ancestors.  I can accept though it is gender neutral, asexual, not age specific and not time bound.  As commemorated or remembered across… Read More »