According to Newsweek, American and Philippine economists estimate that [former president Ferdinand] Marcos and pals shipped as much as $20 billion out of the country. We’re not talking about Michele Duvalier’s fur collection. Continue reading
Ferdinand Marcos
There are 11 posts tagged Ferdinand Marcos (this is page 1 of 2).
Bongbong Marcos on the family business
Monocle Magazine April 2013, courtesy of Jing Garcia, that features the article about Imelda and Bongbong Marcos
“When I saw what my father went through in 1986 I didn’t want anything to do with politics,” [Bongbong Marcos] says. “I wanted to make money.” After high marks at the London School of Economics he earned an MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. But, he says, he realised that politics was in his blood. “It’s the family business.”
— From the April 2013 issue of Monocle Magazine in an article written by Mort Rosenblum entitled “It’s All Relative—Philippines.”
The Wire and the coconut levy (mainly the second than the first)
If you haven’t seen The Wire yet, please do so as soon as you can. The dialogue and narrative are about the finest you can find—and, for that matter, see and hear—on television. [See: The Wire]
Of course, I’m biased.
I’m currently on the third episode of Season Four and if anything, the series teaches patience—exactly the same patience exhibited by Lester Freamon and Roland “Prez” Pryzbylewski.
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Slack-O-Rama (or adventures in reading, drinking, and thinking, in that order)
Position of the feet when either reading, drinking, or thinking.
I’m in a rut.
Which means that for the past week or so—perhaps probably longer—I have been doing nothing but read—and of course, drink—in copious amounts. (I’ve been doing a lot of thinking too but then again, I’m just saying that.)
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Kurt Vonnegut, Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr., the coconut levy, and San Miguel Corp.
- This copy was published in 2006 by UK-based Orion Books which features an introduction by Jasper Fforde.
NO two people could arguably have been more different.
Despite his death in April 2007, Kurt Vonnegut remains a celebrated American author. For his part, Eduardo “Danding” M. Cojuangco Jr., who will be 77 on June 10, is still trying—vainly—to live down his reputation as a crony of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. [See: Vonnegut, Cojuangco]
Marcos loyalists help save the Earth by planting trees in UP
A Marcos loyalist shows the back of her membership card.
MARCOS loyalists don’t get any respect these days.
Just ask Josefina Mangilit, the 59-year-old Quezon City coordinator of the Friends of Imelda Romualdez Marcos (FIRM 24K), which she says has 13,000 members across the country.
Everytime she goes out to attend the group’s twice-weekly meetings—Saturdays in Quezon City, Sundays at the Luneta—she dons a bright red vest that displays her affiliations (an outfit the group calls its uniform). Continue reading
Twice blessed
It’s also the title of a Ninotchka Rosca novel.
Except that I haven’t read it yet.
But these two words can also describe what my life is like right now, despite the pressures of meeting rent payments while keeping at least six bottles of beer in the fridge. (Not an easy balancing act, I can tell you that.)
A few years back, for no apparent reason, journalist and writer Frank Cimatu — whom I still have to meet in person — asked me to submit one of my short stories as part of Mondo Marcos, an anthology of short fiction and essays about the experience of a generation to which I am ashamed to belong (and only because it reveals my age): Martial law babies.
And now, that volume, to be published by Anvil, will be launched this year. Or so Frank has told its contributors on Facebook.
If it does get produced, the book will be the second anthology featuring my work.
Another short story of mine — The Man Who Came Home — was included in Nine Supernatural Stories, which was published by the University of the Philippines.
And for these achievements however minor, I deserve an ice-cold beer.
The question now is: how many short stories should I chalk up to entitle myself to a deep and meaningful relationship with a really hot chick?
Just thinking out loud of course.