Heroism, apologies, and overseas ballots
Perhaps my mind was already focused on the idea, because of big mango’s blog entry some days back, on leadership and sacrifice. But when I read that a professor at Virginia Tech (who had barricaded the door to his classroom until all his students could escape, but who was slain by that deranged gunman) turned out to be a Holocaust survivor and also died on Holocaust Memorial Day, I was stunned. Now that was leadership to the point of the ultimate sacrifice. You can read about that professor in my entry in Inquirer Current.
Bloggers are focusing on the killer, Cho Seung-Hui, his “disturbing note,” and his becoming “the new face of evil” (or just another evil face?). Also, an elegy by Marc Fisher and by Nagsusulat Lamang makes for thoughtful reading. Buzz Machine says the massacre story as it developed, points to “a new architecture of news.”
The government is irked by reports on the World Development Indicators 2007 (see its data on the Philippines: the figures on agriculture, exports, capital formation, merchandise trade, and foreign direct investments and the debt service are interesting: and you can see how overseas remittances compensate for the drop in some of those figures).
The Inquirer editorial focuses on a debate sparked by a Japanese writer who argues Japan shouldn’t be so eager to apologize for enslaving women during World War II. Read the controversial commentary by Hideaki Kase, and the response by Jeff Klingston; and the blog Comfort women and other legacies of war.
My Arab News column for this week is A Gigantic and Tragic Potential. The Wkipedia entry on Overseas Filipinos has some interesting facts and figures; what’s a bit confusing is the difference between the official census data (granted, always a bit behind because it takes so long to compile official statistics) and all the other numbers floating around.
Manuel Buencamino pens an open letter to the Comelec Chairman.
In the blogosphere, Ricky Carandang is back to blogging. Philippine Commmentary ponders the figures that might represent the voting population that votes on command.
Bunker Chronicles agonizes over a national character trait: influence-peddling. Thirtysomething doesn’t like it when journalists have cat fights.
YugaTech has an interesting entry on why mobile blogging has flopped in the Philippines.
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