“Sunny day…life’s so gay/Then suddenly…it goes away/Without a warning, lightning strikes/I’m heading for another lonely night/Cause I always get caught in the rain/It seems my heart stays in pain.” – Lyrics from the song, I Always Get Caught in the Rain, sang by Dionne Warwick. The Philippines, because of its unfortunate geographic location (referred to as the typhoon… Read More »
“Ah, my child, no one is listening to you, there is no use in crying. You will soon learn that you’re alone in this world! You too will be afraid…” – Marie-Claire Blais, A Season in the Life of Emmanuel (1939). “The sun’ll come out tomorrow/So you gotta hang on ‘til tomorrow/Come what may.” – Tomorrow from the… Read More »
“From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink – greetings!” – George Orwell, 1984. “Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.” The quotation was from a line in George Orwell’s novel 1984, the same book as… Read More »
Just shoot that darn ball will ‘ya “Shooting, obviously, is integral to the mission of any basketball team. You can’t score and can’t win without getting the ball in the basket.” – Nick Nurse, Rapture (2020) When I was growing up, basketball was the only thing that mattered. It occupied all of my being. Not a day was… Read More »
A Life Profiled: Beverly McLachlin “Perhaps, despite the lack of real-world examples, a woman could make a success of law. Maybe it would be a satisfying life – a life that applied abstract principle, the stuff of philosophy, to the concrete problems of people’s lives.” – Beverly McLachlin, Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law… Read More »
By Wilma Gonzales Buenaobra The word karma has crept into our everyday vocabulary. Indeed, in its realization, have we come of age? “As you sow, you shall reap,” after all words from the good book: the Bible itself! Is karma truly one-dimensional? Is it immediate pay-back for what deed done here and now? Maybe it is time to… Read More »
There’s so much pain because of Putin “The beginning of every war is like opening the door into a dark room. One never knows what is hidden in the darkness.” – Adolf Hitler. “And I can see no reason why anyone should suppose that in the future the same motifs already heard will not be sounding still…put to… Read More »
“Through the years and more than a few disappointments, trials, and errors, I have come to see gender-based violence as the literal and figurative foot on women’s necks.” – Anita Hill, Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence. “Please help me mend my broken heart and let me live again.” – Bee Gees By Rey Moreno I… Read More »
“That is a madman: he does not understand life! The curate calls me philosopher for nickname… Perhaps I may really be the fool and they, the sane, who can tell?” – Jose Rizal, Noli Me Tangere (1887) Readers of Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere will remember old pilosopong Tasio. He was described as such in the book but the… Read More »
By Marlene Mogado, former Markham Catholic School Trustee, colleague and mentee of Alex Chiu “2021 BANAAG (Philippine) Presidential Awards for Filipino Individuals and Organizations Overseas… conferred for their significant contributions to advance the cause or promote the interests of Filipino communities in diaspora.” “Banaag: Filipino for daybreak, morning light, aurora, to dawn, to get light.” Markham was a… Read More »