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Friday, May 30, 2008

Anti-Patriotic?

I had once been accused of being an anti-patriotic person in a comment on my Sabah post. Some may say that nationalism means that you should support a fellow countryman, no matter what he is doing. Support your country, even if it is corrupt and doing wrong. I disagree with all this.



Just think of it from the point of view of Germans in World War II. We all know today about the Holocaust against the Jews. It was an evil and condemnable thing. But the German civilians mostly did not know about it. So what if the German civilians who have a sense of decency learned about what their Nazi leaders were doing? What if they realized that Hitler ordered a genocide and said that this was a national imperative?


Tuesday, May 27, 2008

What is True Altruism?

One time as I decided to research on altruism on the Net, I found myself disturbed by other people's impressions. Some comments define altruism as "the desire to please others." I found it disagreeable because I hate pleasing other people. Yeah, no kidding, it's one of the things I hate doing the most. But aside from that, I've heard people advise, stop trying to please everybody. In addition, pleasing others in not necessarily doing good. I agree with this. But why is pleasing others not necessarily good? Isn't that a show of love of others in the Christian manner, as some would say?



Sunday, May 25, 2008

Work at Home!!

I will finally be able to focus on my dream job - work at home. I recently resigned from my work at Mega Publishing, where I wrote for magazine Celebrity Living and S Magazine. My last day was May 30 (or 29? My date of effectivity is May 30). Good magazines, but not my cup of tea, and I look back and wonder, why did I get myself into showbiz mags?



Well, anyway, my tour of duty is done, and I can stop contradicting myself in terms of interests. I can now focus on a job that I am interested in, and not into just for the money. It's a research writing job, and I only need to do it at home!

Monday, May 05, 2008

Reading on The Prehispanic Filipino

Recently, I got a book called Looking for the Prehispanic Filipino by William Henry Scott. Scott is an American historian and anthropologist who specialized in the Philippines and his book details the bulk of his work in looking for an accurate picture of Philippine society before the coming of colonial powers.



What interested me is the explanation of Filipino slavery, namely the alipin in Tagalog and Visayan oripun. These were not slaves that were owned like chattel by masters. Rather, the pre-Hispanic Filipino slavery system was maintained by debt.