For many parents involved in their children’s schooling, annual rites include buying school supplies. With so many goodies available from large retailers at the mall, children tag along with parents to shop for supplies and all have a grand time. All, that is, except the wallet. On average, the price markup at large chains is […]
If you’re often on the road, you must have witnessed angry drivers shouting at each other. Sometimes, this argument ends up with just evil stares and horn blowing. That’s all right. No harm done. However, there are instances when the fight escalates with one person physically mauling or using a weapon to hurt another. This […]
He bought his first car at 25, his first 350 sq. meter home at 28. This is Sean Si. He’s now reaping the rewards from running several successful technology-based businesses that he started at the age of 22. But it wasn’t always that way. Technology is how he’s making a comfortable living now, but it’s […]
According to legend, a child enters the world with a mirror that holds his soul, and this mirror reflects not only his image but also the love shaping his soul. Should the mirror break, the child’s soul will be marred forever. This metaphor forms the basis of Broken Mirror: Inside a Chinese Marriage, the story […]
I have finished my Buddhist studies with wise senior Buddhist nuns in a nunnery on top of a hill. Time to take the final exams – attend a Nepali wedding! A word of caution: Do not take the same curriculum –this ‘exam’ only happens once in a blue moon! It just so happen that the […]
Growing up in Binondo, I always wondered about other Overseas Chinese communities. What fascinates me is the integration process – how they combine their culture with that of the country they now call home. So, whenever I visit a country that has a Chinatown, I check it out. When I visited Japan this year, I […]
My father grew up in Davao but left in the late 1930s to study in Shanghai. When he returned in 1947, he decided to settle in Manila where he married. My sister and I were both born and raised in Manila. I was about five when I took my first plane ride, my mother bringing […]
“The Angry Christ” is a play by Floy Quintos that follows the creation of Alfonso Ossorio’s iconic painting – from conceptualization up to the reveal of the finished obra maestra. The story opens with a short background of the painting and a brief summary of Ossorio’s childhood before he came to the family sugar mill […]
Road accidents are the fourth leading cause of deaths in the Philippines. This translates to around 36,000 preventable deaths every year. Reckless driving, cell phone use and drunk driving all contribute to fatal collisions. Here are major factors affecting road safety and what the government can do about it. I have also included some safety […]
Summers in the 1980s were in part spent in my mother’s home province Pakil, Laguna. The last week of our stay was often Holy Week. Good Friday meant visiting the traditional stations of the cross. Except Pakil had its own tradition with the stations of the cross. Towering over Pakil is Mt. Ping-as. Every year, […]