Talk about life in surreal Philippines. The other week there was a news article about a man who had committed suicide after his girlfriend broke up with him. Her name was Hopeless. As a university administrator I have to sign countless documents with all kinds of names. Reading about Hopeless reminded me of a [...]
I FOUND quite amusing Roderick M. Frago’s Youngblood article “My name is…” (Inquirer, 10/20/12). It reminded me of the countless comments people made about my kilometric name—Claude Lucas de Castro Despabiladeras—which often gets mispronounced.
A name gives an identity to an otherwise obscure character. It defines a human being, making him/her tangible, unlike a concept that one can think of but can never really feel or visually identify.
