UPDATE: TAIWAN's PRESIDENT FALLS INTO A DEADLY PATTERN

This reminds me of Japan's Abe and Thailand's Thaksin. Whenever their domestic performances go down, they try to look for foreign enemie that their country can unite against. In Japan, as Abe's popularity dipped, he went nationalistic with his controversial war denial and historical revisionist stance (lots of related posts in this blog). In Thailand, when Thaksin was being hit by billion dollar corruption charges, he tried to rally his people against the Philippines by fueling allegations of cheating in the South East Asian games.

And just recently, Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian went to the the conflict area Spratly Islands to assert his country's claims against several others like China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei. This was said to have been done after his Democratic Progressive Party suffered a humiliating loss in the legislative elections three weeks ago.

The pattern seems to be so evident. So what's next? Chen's downfall? It happened with Thaksin and Abe...

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Land Reform: Land of Bondage Land of the Free

One of the most moving speeches that I've read. During grade school, this was the most often recited elocution piece in my school. Here it is, the text of Raul Manglapus' Land of Bondage, Land of the Free. Land of Bondage, Land of the Free By Raul Manglapus And yet, ladies and gentlemen, the tao is constitutionally free! No wonder, then, that the tao being a slave has acquired the habits of a slave. No wonder that after three centuries in chains, without freedom, without hope, he should lose the erect and fearless posture of a freeman, and become the bent, misshapen, indolent, vicious, pitiful thing that he is! Who dares accuse him now? Who dares rise up in judgement against this man, reduced to this subhuman level by three centuries of oppession? Ladies and gentlemen the tao does not come here tonight to be judged -- but to judge! Hear then his accusation and his sentence: I indict the Spanish encomendero for inventing taxes impossible to pay! I indict the usurer for s...

US PRESIDENTIAL CONVOYS

A columnist for a Philippine newspaper talks about the costs and massive preparations required by the US Secret Service whenever President Bush and other (US Presidents) travel outside of Washington DC. I remember watching a CNN report that showed how big a US presidential convoy is, compared to the two vehicle transport being used by Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK.

Grief and Anger as Minnesota protests turn violent

It is all about the senseless and meaningless death of George Floyd. He was a lone and helpless black man apparently killed by white cops in a peaceful arrest in a supposed non-violent crime. Most shockingly, it happened at a time when the world is supposed to be moving towards the general direction of tolerance, understanding, and equality. What happened is dreadful beyond imagination. George Floyd is black and he died due to methods that are perceived to have been deliberately inflicted by white police officers. Arrested for an alleged non-violent crime, he suffered a gruesome death. While Floyd’s and the cops' skin colors may have not have been a factor in the way they treated one another, the line being used by protested strongly surmise otherwise. He was lying on his belly, hands cuffed behind him, pinned by three white officers with one using his body weight and knee to pin his neck to the pavement. He was begging that the knee be released, that he cannot breathe, but...

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