What is Freedom?

  Freshman year, a friend asked of me, half-hopefully, half-skeptically, “what is freedom?” It’s a fair question. We found ourselves slumped across couches in a common room overlooking an ivied-brick quad because we had followed the path laid out before us: assignments, graduations, competitions, applications, a big purple folder, now another stack of assignments. Had […]

Saving Lives

It is common for Filipino families to have at least one relative working in another country. My father is one and I know many others in the same situation as well. Due to the very bleak employment opportunities in our own country, people opt to find “greener pastures” abroad. Many who leave are less educated. […]

Are Cultural Sensitivities an Impediment to Democracy?

Cultural sensitivities come to the forefront whenever the discourse of democracy, liberty, and human rights are brought up. We have to constantly keep in mind that people have different cultures, which entail different perspectives on said rights and dignity that a person is allowed. So whenever it is thought of to ‘proliferate’ democracy, we must […]

Practice Before You Preach

Often times we believe that we know all we need to know in order to live in harmony with the people around us. Mahatma Gandhi teaches us that it is okay to make mistakes because from these mistakes, we grow and we learn to live in peace. He believed that an ounce of practice is […]

Humans Were Harmed in the Making of this Reality

While plain old in-vitro fertilization (IVF) has reached small-talk status in the US, we are actually lagging behind in the world of IVF “treatments.” Racing ahead is the UK, where February saw the unleashing of IVF’s latest and greatest, donor mitochondrial IVF, with a 382-128 Parliamentary vote of approval. As some gleefully celebrate in total […]

International Solidarity Forum: The US, the UN, and the Journey of a Dream

Three weeks ago, I participated as part of the Asia Pacific Delegation for the 2015 International Solidarity Forum (ISF) held at the World Youth Alliance Headquarters and the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. I flew a long way from Jakarta to New York for approximately 24 hours onboard. But the jetlag never bogged […]

Kenya Flag at Half Mast

The hashtag, #GarissaAttack is the recent trend on social media here in Kenya, and it is not good news trending. Social media is a good way to show solidarity. On Thursday 2nd April 2015, 147 students were killed and 79 injured after Al-Shabaab terrorists shot their way into Garissa University College in Kenya, almost 370 […]

Did you make a nice day today?

Just how many days or how many times a day do we complain about things? And what also pops into my mind regarding the subject I want to deal with is that sentence we say to each other of ‘have a nice day!’ Firstly, why do we complain so much? I think we should look […]