This week I just started reading The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith, and I am only up to Chapter 2, Coming to Power. That is already enough to make me question my book choices. Some people unwind with novels. Others read productivity manuals. I apparently relax by reading a cold, clinical explanation of why bad
Tag: political dynasties
I’m sorry, Philippines. I love you. But we need to talk. We are bad at choosing our leaders. Not just bad — catastrophically, world-class bad. Other countries have bad elections. We have recurring nightmares. This Is Not New — It’s a National Pastime We’ve been miscasting our presidents since the Commonwealth. We had Manuel Quezon, brilliant orator, champion of the
Short answer: no.Long answer: hell no—but let’s talk about why it feels like we should. Congress in the Philippines isn’t a store where you can return defective products. If it were, customer service would be the busiest branch in the country, right after DFA passport renewal. You voted for them—or didn’t, because you were busy posting #IStandWithWhatever on Facebook instead
“A nation once poised to soar—grounded by the very hands entrusted to lift it.” Once upon a Republic, the Filipino Dream was real. Not the American kind with white picket fences and Disneyland tickets—but the Filipino kind: a home with hollow blocks that didn’t crumble in a typhoon, a job that didn’t require a passport, a country where your vote