“The words are not good for the secret meaning, everything always becomes a bit different, as soon as it is put into words, gets distorted a bit, a bit silly—yes, and this is also very good, and I like it a lot, I also very much agree with this, that this what is one man’s treasure and wisdom always sounds like foolishness to another person.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
This is one of my articles published in the now defunct The Philippine Post newspaper. I posted this on my websites. But since the advent of Web 2.0 and the popularity of blogs, I have abandoned my websites. I am posting this in this blog, for posterity's sake. I added a list of the languages,… Continue reading Growing Up In A Multilingual Household
A certain James Soriano, an Ateneo de Manila University student and columnist of Manila Bulletin, wrote an essay titled "Language, learning, identity, privilege" for his column. Apparently, it caused quite a storm among some Filipinos such that Manila Bulletin removed the piece in its website. His first sentence is: "English is the language of learning."… Continue reading James Soriano, his language and his little world
Here's an article I wrote more than a decade ago about our great-grandfather Sheikh Yahya ibn Hadi and his descendants in Mindanao and Brunei: "I now know that wars do not end wars," said Henry Ford. For the Moros, wars are simply followed by more wars. Wars usually correspond to turning points in our lives.… Continue reading Sheikh Yahya ibn Hadi and his descendants
Last March 7 was the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Bud Dajo, the massacre of some 600 Moro men, women and children by the officers and men of the United States Armed Forces, with some (Christian) Filipino soldiers. In 1999, I wrote a newspaper article on this episode of Moro history to commemorate the… Continue reading Bud Dajo Massacre
On those three days and four nights of February in 1986, so many of us thought that finally, we would see the dawning of a truly free, progressive and prosperous Philippines. On February 25, 1986, the Filipino people (mostly those in Metro Manila) with the help of a military faction, installed Cory Aquino as the… Continue reading Remembering EDSA
Postprandial Musings, 2.0 