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 »
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 »
The games that we played The Life of a Little Boy Growing Up in the ’50s. THE SEQUEL (part II ) In the 50s, even a slight relocation changes the dynamics of culture and tradition within the same population. Since most marriages were with people from the same town, many would confine their moves close to relatives and workplaces’… Read More »
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 »
Are you feeling overwhelmed these days? Or am I just getting more angsty, being cooped inmore as a result of COVID-19 restrictions? Maybe I am watching too much news, and a lot of itis not uplifting, more depressing to be precise. I looked deeper into some statistics to gauge thedistress in the general population. In a nutshell, my… Read More »
In Sept of last year, I wrote a two-part article for BALITA about the gathering of “dark clouds” in the Philippine educational landscape. I couldn’t have been more prescient when in Dec 2019 the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment ) results of 2018 computer-based, 2-hour test were revealed. The assessment was administered to 600,000 15-year-olds in 79 participating countries. We… Read More »