The Philippines spent “300 years in the convent, 50 years in Hollywood," Stanley Karnow observed in his book In Our Image: America’s Empire in the Philippines, a turn of phrase now often recited across the archipelago, proof of its resonance in reflecting the Southeast Asian nation's unique colonial history. It is a past that has made the country …
Continue reading America’s imprint on the Philippines — the good and the ugly
The above mentioned title is taken from my second piece for the Borneo Post, an ongoing column that I will be writing, which will cover economic and regional relations involving the State of Sarawak, Malaysia's largest state, located on the island of Borneo. As I type away, the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building (pictured left) …
Continue reading Is there no salve Sarawak can apply to Sabah’s scars?
Living in Asia for as long as I have, I've gotten used to the stares that tend to follow the out-of-place foreigner. But every once in a while the context that they come with throws me off. Last week I got to go on a small tour of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the second-fastest …
Tucked away in the jungles of Mindoro, Philippines you'd think that I would have been too remote to be concerned with the chaotic conflagrations of the world. But this idyllic frame of nature at its richest ended up serving as a just reminder of how wild things have gotten in the country's south, where the …
I've landed. Manila, the capital of the world's second largest archipelago, the Philippines, is to be my base for the foreseeable future. After being here for only a pinch over two weeks, I have found myself shocked by how much the city's reality deviates from its perceived rough image abroad. Yes, the retinue of armed …
Justin Calderón 