The Life of a Little Boy Growing Up in the ’50s. By: Edwin de Leon In this season of gift-giving, as usual, I gave books to some select friends.  In keeping with my practice not to give anything too controversial ( nothing like a Harpur (religion ) or anything to do with Lying King Trump), it would be more… Read More »

By Edwin de Leon During my parochial high school years, practically everyone was on the same socio-economic level.  This helped us to be less sensitive with our lot. The staff was distant and generally aloof; rapport in an all-boys school with mostly women teachers is not the ethos promoted in Catholic schools. The priests of the day were nothing… Read More »

Part I In one of my commentaries, I signed my name as a “Recovering Catholic.”  One of the online comments read:  ” welcome back, people do realize the advantages of being on the inside,” to which I replied: “you obviously are not familiar with the phrase. A “Recovering Catholic” is similar to a recovering alcoholic. It is based on the… Read More »

Evolution is a term that does not endear to a significant number of peoples. It is controversial because people of faith see it as an affront to their beliefs as it postulates that humans are just another member of the animal kingdom. In contrast, they see us as God’s unique creation with a body and “soul.”  On the other… Read More »

Ramon Farolan, a columnist with the Phil Daily Inquirer, in his March 22, 2021 column ” Not the Best of Times for Asian Americans,” asserted that in 2020 there was an upsurge by 150% of Asian directed racism, mainly in L.A. and New York. From verbal harassment to physical assault, in 2021, more than 500 incidents have already… Read More »

The Life of a Little Boy growing up in the ’50s In my entire boyhood, I never had the opportunity to travel to other parts of the Philippines.  As can be expected, each region has unique practices and traditions. It is common in our town to identify people with an “alias,” especially if the first names are the same. … Read More »

PART II BY: EDWIN DE LEON Newfoundland was far from the consciousness of the world community until John Cabot, in the late 1400s, declared: “fish ( cod ) was thick by the shore that we hardly have been able to row a boat through them.”  Thus began the waves of Southern Europeans, chiefly migratory fishers from Spain and Portugal took… Read More »

PART I That sound, that jabbing, reverberating buzz of a chainsaw; not very often, you hear it around Mississauga.  It was distant but distinct to me, one that I can identify from miles away.  A flood of memories when I hear that sound. Why? Am I a lumberjack in the off-season?  Close!  There isn’t a hint of it in my resume—forty… Read More »

I take this opportunity to share my feelings on today’s concerns and the many developments in recent memory. The COVID pandemic has focused many life issues front and centre.  It broke open people’s feelings about Science, Politics, and Religion.  It is as if the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, work-at-home arrangements, school disruptions, and a general curtailment of normalcy brought… Read More »

PART III,  The Final Chapter I arrived in Newfoundland with little skill outside of my chosen profession. I did not have the savvy and skillfulness that allows you to get into projects that ordinarily require a pro.  And yet, by the time I left, 25 years later,  I learned skills that would otherwise be left unlearned had I stayed in an… Read More »