(Address delivered during the University of the Philippines
College of Mass Communication Commencement Exercises, April 24, 2005.)
If all roads once led to Rome, today all roads lead to the homeland of another empire–into the very belly of the beast itself.
Social Weather Stations tells us that more than a fifth of the population–20 percent, or some 16 million souls– want to leave the country in response to the brutal realities of economic need, in the desire to assure themselves a future staying in the country of their birth cannot give, or in a quest for order the chaos and violence of Philippine society cannot provide. Continue reading