I’ve been living in Bangladesh since 11 September 2017 – I remember the exact date we arrived. I fled with my wife and four children from Myanmar. We were always threatened in Rakhine. Compared to Myanmar, Bangladesh still feels like paradise. But the conditions here are inhumane. You have to stay in a small room,…
Category: Guest Post
Tuberculosis: Beyond Hospitals and Towards a More Effective Patient Care
Inaccessibility to treatment and drug resistant bacteria are not the only factors that make tuberculosis challenging to address. This is what I’ve learned when I was deployed in 2017 to Zhytomyr Region, Ukraine as Project Medical Referent for Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Zhytomyr is one of the regions in Ukraine with…
A Bangsamoro Millennial’s Reflections on the Plebiscite
The campaign period for the BOL (Bangsamoro Organic Law) Plebiscite has a lot of twists and turns for us. If I were to summarize some of the lessons I learned during the campaign period, it would be the following: 1. ‘What Works’ Overrides ‘What’s Right’ We may have an ideal way of persuading the public…
Manila’s Downtown Cinemas: Flicks and Memories
What was once a beacon of vibrant, colorful, and glamorous entertainment is now a forgotten, struggling and lonely place. Downtown Manila has been known as a center of educational and commercial activities. Movie houses were very prominent as early as 1930s with the screening of local films. First-run theaters such as Times, Dilson, Roben, Vista…
Wheel of Fate: A Short Film about Police Torture
At a secret detention facility, a criminal suspect learns that some games should never be played. #HumanRights #PoliceTorture [Entry 266, The SubSelfie Blog] About the Filmmaker: By day, Emannuel Escalona Jr. is a humble wedding videographer for Pixelfish Concept, taking accounts on conceptualizations, shoots and editing wedding videos. By night, he takes the cape of…
Crossing Borders
“We meet people for a purpose, and it is up to us to define that purpose.”
Balik-tanaw sa Bukas
Lahat naman tayo, darating dito. Pero mapagdesisyon ang ilan. Sunud-sunod ang patayan. Hilaan pababa. Mas clingy pa tayo sa mga alimasag. Hitik rito ang ating lipunan. Ngunit ang ating kasaysayan ba’y may saysay? Lahat nga ba ng nasusulat sa aklat, katotohanan o may naipuslit na kasinungalingan? Marami ang palasimba, pero ang ugali, kay sagwa. Kung…
Hagdan: A Docu Film on Drug Rehabilitation
The “war on drugs” forms a huge part of Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s government platform when he was elected as President in 2016. For the past two years, at least 4,814 deaths have already been recorded in police anti-drug operations—or an average of about six people killed every day. Human rights groups claim way 300% more,…
Ayoko sa Federalism
Personally, ayokong maging Federal Government ang Pilipinas dahil mabubulilyaso ‘yung plano kong #Steno2040. Pero not personally, ayoko sa Federalism dahil lalo lang maghihirap ang mga mahihirap na probinsya sa Pilipinas at lalo namang magiging “imperial” ang Metro Manila. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Sorry, advanced ako mag-isip. Para sa kaalaman ng mga ka-DDS, ang…
My Quest for Employment: Moving Beyond Bipolar Disorder
I usually thought I was late. Back in April 2011, I was a 23-year old Economics fresh graduate from U.P. Diliman wanting to make a mark in the world. But I was also struggling with the thought that many of the young people like me believe we can change the world by finding a job….
Progress
Can we measure progress by the number of infrastructure mushrooming left and right in our metropolis? They do look good; we’ll give them that, be it business firms, malls, restaurants, and technological hubs. But it may just be a sign of the times: that the rich keeps getting richer, and the poor keeps growing in…
