What these candidates articulate about themselves and their platforms is part of what sociologist Erving Goffman calls ‘impression management.’ In the attempt to control situations, individuals act on the basis of impression management.
Should the Philippines continue to depend on its erstwhile colonizer for the defense of its territorial waters? Or should the Philippines take a more independent stand and try to deal with the issue through negotiations with China?
Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them — and then, the opportunity to choose. -C.Wright Mills Caricature made by Karen Liao.
She was hailed as the “most prepared” of all the presidential candidates during the debate. An irony in view of a campaign constantly hounded by accusations of her inexperience, something that did not escape the scrutiny of the audience and the other presidential aspirants.
One might think that this country is barely a generation away from the trauma of dictatorship to believe itself ready to embrace yet another strongman’s rule. But such is the unraveling of the times. History is governed by a relationship between action and reaction, often between or amongst opposites.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) seeming inaction on the Rohingya crisis came as a shock to many. However, for those who have been observing ASEAN development, its failure to enact a coherent policy towards the Rohingya crisis only adds to the long list of matters it failed to address such as the “Cambodian Problem,” the South China Sea Dispute, and many others.
Our economy is growing dramatically but poverty rates are not dropping substantially. Where have we gone wrong? To begin with, faulty paradigms about the poor.
Upon squinting our eyes to the sun, we feel our skin wrapped with sunlight that provokes feelings for the summer season, causing us to quiver lightly, always ambiguous at its memory and attracted to its significance.
Capitalist development driven by a maximisation of profit for the owners and shareholders makes it prone to practices that are environmentally unsustainable, that promote a kind of individualism that disregards the fortunes and efforts of others, and that disrupts social mores. They often obstruct flows that meet basic needs, endanger livelihoods of those dependent on natural capital, and furthermore accelerate inequality and disrupt social cohesion within the community.
While we may not have a quick and ready solution to this long-standing peace and security problem in Southern Philippines, we also have a responsibility to examine the social processes that we create and re-create everyday and that lead to the construction of a divisive social structure. (Image by Patricia Evangelista/Rappler)
VERSTEHEN 