Home » Public Lives
You are browsing entries tagged with “Public Lives”
By Randy David
In an ideal world, how would the recent shooting by the Philippine Coast Guard of a Taiwanese fishing boat, which resulted in the killing of one of the fishermen, have been handled? I think that both Filipino and Taiwanese authorities might have immediately sought one another to express grave concern over the incident, and to offer cooperation to ascertain the facts. Both would have drawn assurance from the fact that, despite national differences, a legal order was in place and could be trusted to work.
Posted: May 18th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
“What do you make of this, Kuya?” my younger brother Ambo, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, Pampanga, asked me last Monday, as he showed me an envelope addressed to him containing the campaign leaflet of a party-list nominee and a crisp P200 bill. “All the other priests at my parish got the same envelope through the mail,” he said. “I think the sender had no idea we are priests.”
Posted: May 15th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Electing public officials is the most important act of any citizen in any democracy. Here we choose people who will have the power to make decisions that bind all of us. If we try to do it rationally, we will find that it is also one of the most complex things we can do in life.
Posted: May 11th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
It is a testimony to the undifferentiated nature of our political system that many other social institutions are mobilized during elections. There’s the family, there’s religion, there’s the business sector, and then there’s the science of surveys. Their chief purveyors try to convert the power they wield into the currency of politics. We are disturbed [...]
Posted: May 8th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
The rise in the number of unemployed Filipinos in the midst of economic growth has made our government officials take a serious look at the current economic strategy. This pattern of jobless growth partly explains why the level of mass poverty in our country has remained unchanged even as the economy seems to be growing.
Posted: May 4th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
I had strong reservations about going on a long motorcycle ride in this sweltering summer heat. When you are on a bike and you are going fast, you don’t notice you are sweating. The water your body secretes to cool you down evaporates in the wind as quickly as it forms on the skin. Dehydration occurs faster than the brain can process what’s happening. I’ve seen a fellow biker literally wilt in the sun, drop his bike, pick himself up, and remember nothing afterwards.
Posted: April 20th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in February this year highlights three interesting findings on the state of Catholicism in the Philippines. First, that weekly church attendance has significantly gone down from a high of 64 percent in July 1991 to a low of 37 percent in February 2013. Second, that only 29 percent of Filipino Catholics consider themselves “very religious,” compared to 50 percent among Protestants, 43 percent among Iglesia ni Cristo members, and 38 percent among Muslims. And finally, that 9.2 percent (one out of 11) “sometimes think of leaving the Church.” Are these findings indicative of a looming crisis of faith among Filipino Catholics?
Posted: April 13th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
For many senatorial candidates who take elections seriously and exert great effort to address the important issues of the day, it must be terribly frustrating to be confronted by the results of preelection surveys. Nothing seems to matter except sheer media exposure and possession of a familiar name in order to score high. The preference for incumbents leaves one wondering if the Filipino electorate is content with the way things are.
Posted: April 6th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
To the generation of Filipinos who went through the horrors of World War II, the Korean War (1950-1953) signaled the advent of another global war that had to be stopped before it could spread any further. On this understanding, the Philippines sent 7,500 of its soldiers to fight in the Korean civil war on the [...]
Posted: April 3rd, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
As a sociologist, my interest in religion does not proceed from the axioms of faith, but from an understanding of human society as a system that serves a multiplicity of functions. Whether one is a believer or not, one cannot deny the place that religion occupies and continues to occupy in the human community. It is not a static role. Its boundaries are continuously contested and negotiated, and, indeed, what it means to live a life of faith in the world is constantly being redefined.
Posted: March 30th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
The media have made much of the contrast between the shy, aristocratic aloofness of Pope Benedict XVI and the folksy approachability of his successor, Pope Francis.
Posted: March 27th, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
By Randy David
Someone’s death is always a cause for sorrow and grieving—especially when it is unexpected and unjust. Such is the instant impact of University of the Philippines student Kristel Tejada’s death on all of us who have links with UP. Lament is our first response. We shake our heads in utter disbelief, and, even as we try to pin the blame for this tragedy on particular individuals, we silently seek expiation for our own guilt. We cannot be blameless when one of our promising students is forced to drop out because she cannot pay her student loan. That is how I see the flurry of efforts to repair and compensate for a system whose built-in wickedness has victimized this young student.
Posted: March 23rd, 2013 in Columnists,Columns,Editor's Pick,Featured Columns,Featured Headline,Inquirer Opinion | Read More »
