tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867Fri, 25 Oct 2024 08:11:34 +0000My National Disaster, also known as the Republic of the Philippines.http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)Blogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-8514816817580660561Mon, 26 Jan 2009 20:15:00 +00002009-01-26T13:41:57.051-08:00 This wall tells Palestinians to stay in the pockets of land that Israel has decided they can keep - for now. And another wall that might one day hear not justhttp://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2009/01/wtfs-almost-in-real-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-2257710219274442969Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:13:00 +00002008-11-17T12:25:52.170-08:00At work, I was asked to write something brief in response to this question: "What are 5 key economic, environmental, social, political, local factors and global/regional forces in the next 5 years that will have a determining effect on (the field of transitional justice)"? I don't like these open-ended questions, but here's what I said --1. Capitalism from the East. China, India, Singapore http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2008/11/east-saves-west-south-teaches-north.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6032256028880537669Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:33:00 +00002008-10-24T23:01:39.173-07:00I work for a non-profit organization just a block off Wall Street. That used to be an odd thing to say and to be -- what is a non-profit organization doing in the neighborhood of profit? Now, it's just sad and funny. There are so many -- even too many -- non-profitable institutions standing forlorn on Wall Street, and my daily commute is filled with these anxious voices around me, talking abouthttp://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2008/10/heard-on-wall-street.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-2949705734276098239Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:31:00 +00002008-09-24T12:37:40.696-07:00I'm back, but briefly just for now, while I am still recovering from the cycle of work-related travel (but not, sadly, travel-related work, which would be the kind of traveling that might bring me to the places our peripatetic President and her entourage find themselves in.)And that gives me just the right reason to explain what that spread -- from Marvel's Secret Invasion #5 -- is doing here. http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2008/09/im-back-but-briefly-just-for-now-while_24.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6470833143575486398Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:54:00 +00002008-04-03T12:57:06.064-07:00to Manila again this week. I spent 3 weeks in Manila near the end of February and up to the middle of March, and that included speaking at a conference on Impunity and Press Freedom in the Philippines co-organized by the Center for Media and Press Freedom (CMFR) and the Southeast Asia Press Alliance (SEAPA), with funding from the Open Society Institute's Justice Initiative.One thing that made me http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-manila-and-back.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-4412480291002700769Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:04:00 +00002008-01-28T04:16:51.865-08:00So I was busy and will be traveling for work again soon; but I did make time to for what I have to say about three plots a-thickening: (1) an anti-Salonga smear plot that wants to smear itself ahead of smearing Salonga, (2) a military-fed, media-consumed coup plot that reinforces that non-adage about old generals and (3) a plot that Hong Kong police suspected the Estradas would try to carry http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2008/01/threesome.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-1311786174534195164Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:18:00 +00002007-12-20T09:25:28.568-08:00In a post on his blog some weeks back, Manolo Quezon asked if "a deal is looming with Danding?" Most of the 142 people who took the time to comment didn't seem interested in the answer to that (and a few were actually more interested in a flame war over the alleged cult of Ellen Tordesillas). But with the farmers from Sumilao marching into a calloused capital and demanding respect for what has http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-post-on-his-blog-some-weeks-back_20.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6962186480756362008Mon, 10 Dec 2007 05:06:00 +00002007-12-10T10:18:56.774-08:00I didn't realize that Robert Sison, Imelda Marcos' lawyer, actually believes in his client's innocence, until I saw that letter he sent to the Inquirer in response to something that former Justice Isagani Cruz wrote in the paper. Sison had earlier filed a motion before the Sandiganbayan invoking Imelda's right to a speedy trial. Apparently, the plunderer is concerned that she might die before http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/12/i-didnt-realize-that-robert-sison.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6815864281745931801Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:32:00 +00002007-12-08T07:07:29.899-08:00To say that the PCGG is in a mess -- and worse, mostly a mess of its own making -- is an understatement. But at the outset I must say that this post is not an argument for the abolition of the PCGG. Who will gain with its abolition? The usual suspects. Instead, this is simply a list of what I think can still be done and undone and who should be doing what to whom. If that sounds as obscene as thehttp://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/12/to-say-that-pcgg-is-in-mess-and-worse.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-2960569911271639247Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:40:00 +00002008-12-09T20:37:11.597-08:00Is it the tableware? Is it the mini-refrigerator? Or is it the convenience of valet parking -- which apparently does not apply to certain government vehicles (and which explains the remodeling of the Manila Peninsula lobby in the accompanying photo, taken from Bloomberg News)? So, what is it with fancy hotels and failed coup attempts? There must be some overdue textbook taken by Gringo Honasan http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/11/checking-in-with-our-coup-plotters.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-777965474268322538Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:35:00 +00002007-11-23T05:08:08.372-08:00in Myanmar. Our President has scathingly described the generals in Myanmar as "forces of authoritarianism." So how should the generals in Myanmar describe our own Generals Ebdane, Esperon and Palparan -- "our fellow friendly fascists"? This is a situation where someone who lives in a glass house decides to throw rocks at a neighbor who has not only endured this kind of rock-throwing before, but http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/11/erap-suu-kyi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-2541679676743438741Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:17:00 +00002007-11-13T07:02:02.159-08:00Ex-convict and ex-President Joseph Estrada was right: "Hindi nilalambing ang krimen. Dinudurog. Hindi kinukupkup ang kriminal. Pinaparusahan." (Crime should not be treated gently. It should be crushed. Criminals should not be coddled. They should be punished.). Those were Erap’s words in his 1999 State of the Nation Address (SONA), obviously spoken without the benefit of foresight. Seven years http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/11/ex-convict-and-ex-president-joseph.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-4594059990540558192Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:32:00 +00002007-11-02T12:19:31.308-07:00Here's a Newsbreak article where I get to talk about the many ways Mercie Gutierrez and Agnes Devanadera might, if they wanted to, go after the plunderers roaming pardoned and un-pardoned. I once worked with both when I was still laboring in government (and laboring under the impression that it would matter) In Mercie's case, it was more like I found ways to work around her -- she is essentially,http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/10/plundering-and-laundering.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6418367326682239139Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:20:00 +00002007-11-02T13:14:26.001-07:00Not the district but the politico. The Philippine News Agency (PNA) gave an expectedly governmently-friendly account of a forum that I attended last week, October 24, at the Philippine Consulate in New York, where Executive Secretary Ed Ermita spoke.(Ermita was in NYC and met with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour as well as with the UN Special Rapporteur for Forced http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/10/ermita-in-new-york.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-6470185218537537519Sat, 27 Oct 2007 01:29:00 +00002007-10-26T20:04:54.907-07:00Here's the list-- 1. Former South Korea President Chun Doo Hwan was convicted for, among other crimes, accepting $275 Million in bribes. He was sentenced to life in prison. How much time did he serve in an actual prison before he was pardoned by President Kim Dae Jung? Two years.2. Former South Korean President Roh Tae Woo was also convicted for the same charges of bribery with Chun and sentencedhttp://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/10/was-that-fastest-pardon-of-convicted.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-1348839462796066544Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:13:00 +00002007-10-23T21:02:06.059-07:00About a century ago, I wrote --In my next posts, I will most likely deal with the following things, listed in no particular order:1. The present PCGG and why Imelda Marcos likes loves them.2. The Philippine military and why some of the worst human rights violators in the AFP also have the most atrocious English3. Where I will be working soon. Or maybe now, depending on when I finally get to writehttp://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/10/that-pcgg.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-612749308695823994Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:45:00 +00002007-10-23T13:59:13.921-07:00human rights-unfriendly, politico-bootlicking police general, but with the bonus of being already known for the company he has kept. I didn't realize he had been appointed "tsip-PNP" which is how Pinoy policemen call that person who has taken his turn at that fountain of corruption and parody of law enforcement leadership. It is so apt, since the Mendozas, Ebdanes Esperons and now Razons of the http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/10/avelino-razon-as-tsip-pnp-is-your.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-4993346970384498503Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:19:00 +00002007-03-10T09:41:14.722-08:00More than a year later, in fact. Since then, so much has happened in My National Disaster of a country. Which means nothing much has changed. Which also means I can resume blogging as if I wasn't gone from here for over a year. Ah, the advantages of random, unfettered attacks on people who don't read my opinions.In my next posts, I will most likely deal with the following things, listed in no http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2007/03/one-year-later.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-113005072656033146Sun, 23 Oct 2005 06:58:00 +00002005-10-24T06:50:19.196-07:00Here’s one less excuse not to go on with this blog: Google has come up with Blogger for Word. Google spoils lazy bloggers like me by letting me write my self-indulgent blah on MS Word, which now has a button that says “Publish,” sending the blah on its way to my Blogger blog. That convenience, however, doesn’t address the other problem that comes up when Bad Grammar meets the internet, often the http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/10/blah-resumed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-111169614260743809Thu, 24 Mar 2005 19:33:00 +00002015-09-21T11:07:31.935-07:00 (I wrote this years ago for my old newspaper column in the Inquirer's Cebu Daily News. I guess it is the right day to link to this again.) Ferdinand Marcos Sr. asks Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to swear to be as  shamelessly corrupt and unrepentant as his father. I was in second grade, walking to Cebu Normal School with my mother. We reached the corner of P. Del Rosario and Jones Avenue. We http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/03/my-memories-of-martial-law.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-110894127633497510Sun, 27 Feb 2005 22:14:00 +00002005-02-27T12:30:50.273-08:00Last week, the Manila Times ran a story on who might be the next chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP). Avelino "Sonny" Razon was named as one of those who might get the appointment.What do we know about him? From my only encounter with Razon as a policeman, he doesn't seem to have respect for the Philippine Constitution. That's the same Constitution we came up with in 1987 where we http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/02/will-next-pnp-chief-be-friend-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-110904427274411970Tue, 22 Feb 2005 03:51:00 +00002005-02-21T19:54:11.413-08:00The Manila Times has an incisively written article by Efren Danao on morality and why it doesn't seem to matter to those judging the fitness of millitary officers and Cabinet members for confirmation of their promotions and appointments.The Commission has been told, through somebody's sworn statement, that the Justice Secretary-designate -- too old and too married for those who think morals can http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/02/sex-and-ca.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-110903021317713271Mon, 21 Feb 2005 23:56:00 +00002005-02-21T16:24:15.006-08:00Jane Magturo, "Today" newspaper's regular commentator on the judiciary, has never hesitated to describe how flawed the Judicial and Bar Council's process for vetting nominees to the judiciary can be. Magturo points out that a group of JBC members has been consistently nominating notoriously corrupt trial court judges to the Court of Appeals and to the Sandiganbayan. This has made honest trial http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/02/in-that-case-maybe-oscar-barrientos.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-110858130744519542Wed, 16 Feb 2005 19:15:00 +00002005-02-21T15:56:30.356-08:00The Tramp with the Trump, back when she didn't have to bribe anyone so she could travel using stolen money. If the Supreme Court ultimately lets this absolutely corrupt judge get away, I am going to be a very, very unhappy boy. Here's why:The judge: Oscar BarrientosThe court: The Regional Trial Court of ManilaThe case: Twenty-three (23) criminal charges of dollar-salting -- what we now call http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/02/corrupt-judge-corrupt-litigant.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9637867.post-110844746597511151Tue, 15 Feb 2005 04:05:00 +00002005-02-15T12:36:50.946-08:00Yesterday, a centuries-old war still being fought in Sulu between adversaries bound by the unfortunate accidents of colonial history and religious identity re-opened an old front that had been silent since the LRT bombings in 2000. The nearly simultaneous bombings in various Philippine urban centers including the bombing of a bus in the Makati financial district, are a reminder that "terrorism" http://mynationaldisaster.blogspot.com/2005/02/leon-is-growing-up-in-world-of-war.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ruben Carranza)0