AH!  What a glorious sunny-cool day again today! You can’t beat the weather in the Philippines at this time of the year. Despite climate change, there is still an excellent window of the old “dry and cool” Jan-Feb. Month. Occasional rain cannot dampen the generative  power of a warm climate to an aging “infrastructure,” anatomy now stiff, crumbly,… Read More »

A SENIOR’S NEW YEARS RESOLUTION LIFE IS TOO SHORT,  my wife’s favourite catchphrase, takes a renewed meaning at the start of the New Year—a not-so-subtle reminder if one belongs to a circle of friends or an organization catering to seniors. The inevitable demise of the older members comes in a more distressing regularity. The point of this piece… Read More »

“Dreaming of a White Christmas” is a fantasy that heightens the spirit of the season, just as “I’ll Be Home for Christmas “ provokes the romance of a tropical Christmas. ONCE again, we are heading into the year’s most anticipated holiday. And once again, it will be a time of the year when Filipinos of my generation will… Read More »

There are 72 gender identities.  This emerging classification indicates that we are not completely beholden to the conventional two-sex ( binary ) designation. It means none of us is 100% male ( XY ) or female (XX ). One day, a blood test will determine our individual male-female ratio, a tantalizing medical breakthrough of all time! PART II… Read More »

WITH the advent of the Internet Revolution and the growth of social media, every voice, lifestyle and action, once insignificant, trivial and inconsequentially irrelevant, is making headlines. A quiet voice in the shadows could be the stuff of a rally, a protest of major significance. A dominant culture of the community is no longer a guaranteed universally accepted… Read More »

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.“ – Albert Einstein  My my, if I take Einstein’s words seriously, I would have been a ” World’s Most” of a lot! That’s because I could be passionate about many things but have absolutely no special talents to pursue them. But of course, Einstein is being humble; besides… Read More »

A Retrospective of Mother’s 100th How many of us will get to say “Happy Birthday” to a 100-year-old? I am proud to say I did for the first time in 76 years! That’s why I persevered and stayed beyond the cooler month of March into the heat of May to greet my mother on her hundredth year, May 18,… Read More »

I was intrigued by an article by Eleanor Pinugu’s UNDERCURRENT, “Panata,” and the challenges of modern faith,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 10, 2023.   She relates her grandfather’s “Panata” ( Religious Pledge ) of providing free meals to his fellow farmers on Holy Thursday.  The grandmother and seven children were all involved in preparing morning dishes and distributing… Read More »

DURING my tenure with a First Nations School in Northern Ontario, the Governor General of the day would send a regular infusion of books for use by the elementary students of that school.  The books were quite apart from the regular ones prescribed and supplied by the Ministry. However, they provide further reading and library materials to school… Read More »

Dateline: Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila, Philippines When I used to be driven around by my wife’s family driver, before leaving the driveway, I would see him make a sign of the cross and then rub the head of some saint on the car dash while mumbling a prayer. I nearly surrendered my atheism while going through my first… Read More »