THE annual revenues it promises to corporations easily come to millions of dollars each. For governments, the figures can reach billions. The materials it extracts also end up in a wide range of products for all sorts of uses — from fuel to infrastructure components, to luxury goods, including the gaudiest gems — and it is capable of providing employment for thousands of people per site for decades. Indeed, if only it weren’t intrinsically destructive, mining would be a thorough winner of an industry.
THIS early, some politicians are already gearing up for 2010. But there’s another year that’s worth keeping in mind: 2015, which is the deadline for countries that signed the Millennium Declaration to meet the Millennium Development Goals or MDGs.
SO we’re just a couple of weeks away from Holy Week, and music might not exactly be the regular topic of choice during Lent. Then again, we do have the tradition of the pasyon during cuaresma — which just goes to show that even a week without some kind of music would be hard for Pinoys, and even if not all of us are gifted with enough talent to carry a tune or play an instrument. Of course, many of us are contented just to listen, but the urge to belt out along with the professionals is simply too much for some to resist (alas).
AS in barya. That’s what most Pinoys have in their pockets at the start of each year — that is, if there is anything there at all. After that bacchanalia that we call our extended Christmas season, we usually face each coming year with full hearts but empty coffers. It does take a few more days for that reality to sink in, but when it finally does…well, some political observers have said that’s why Edsas 1 and 2 were successful.
by Harry Roque
The author is the director of the Institute of International Legal Studies at the University of the Philippines Law Center and is an assistant professor of law at UP Diliman. In this issue The ultimate verdict Legal eagles… and eaglets Guilty! But special concessions for accused show flawed system Continuing coverage at the PCIJ blog […]
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| Posted Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
THEY don’t necessarily go together, although today’s political scene certainly has them looking like a tightly intertwined tandem. But it’s actually energy and all sorts of toxic substances that i Report will be tackling for the rest of September and the whole month of October. So while many people keeping track of the latest political scandal these days could end up seeing red, we will be thinking green — at least much of the time, anyway.
We are already on our second female head of state, and for some people that may be enough to say we have achieved gender equality. We can also point out that the female participation in the labor force is quite high; one business advisory firm says as well that 85 percent of local companies have women in senior positions. Girls are even doing better in school, and have higher retention rates than the boys.
HERE’S one reason for staying in the Philippines: the world has been coming to our doorstep, anyway, so why even leave?
WE’VE always made much of our being a highly literate people, but somehow that hasn’t made us into a nation of readers. Surveys have shown that our primary sources for information are radio and television, and years of annual book fairs have done little to prop up our ever-struggling local book industry.
