blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The urban dictionary defines obamination as "The disastrous result of doing or following the speakings of a smooth talker." The Pro-life camp is up in arms over Barack Obama's EO removing the Federal ban on funds for organization providing abortion services outside the USA. What Barack Obama has done according to them is "An obamination in the eyes of the Lord!"

EWTN has noted that President-elect Barack Obama no longer goes to the Church of the Lord, but to the Church of the Gym. The same global Catholic network also noted that US presidents have regular churchgoing habits whether they are Episcopal, Catholics, Methodist etc. Americans while holding steadfastly to the separation of church and state doctrine, still expect their presidents to go to church. Americans tolerate religion in public life as long as no religion is given preferential treatment. Obama may herald a European type of secularism that completely separates the religious from public life.

Watching the concession speech of Senator McCain and Barack Obama's victory speech, it amazes me that despite the tensions in American society, the 238 year old way of American democracy still works. Barack Obama now enters the stage where all his actions count. He got 338 electoral votes.Only 270 are needed to win. Now the post-mortems have begun. There are the party pooper pundits, who throw cold water by emphasizing the difficulties that Obama will face and very little will be resolved in his first term. Obama to his credit realizes that. He knows that some of his fans will be disappointed. Also the soon to be First Family is being sized up. Obama's kids know that their lives won't be the same again. For the first time in US history, gays were mentioned in a presidential speech. This shows the inclusive direction Obama is going to take. How the Bush-Obama transition period will work out is of interest now. There is growing impatience with Bush. For a Pinoy like me, the c...

Americans are expected to deluge the polling booths on Nov 4. In a society where no one is required to vote (and not voting may be considered a political statement) , the electoral system may not be able to handle the record number of voters. The blurbs report that for some senior citizens,this will be their first time to cast a vote! The rest of the planet is "voting" too. Even in Russia's Siberia people are either for John McCain or Barack Obama. However aside Georgians who are for McCain, many people interviewed are for Obama. Indians are for Obama. Residents of Obama, Japan are for Obama, subarashii! It isn't just Obama's skin colour that matters but for many it is the disaster that George W Bush's leaves as a legacy. As of this moment, Bush has entered history with no victory against the terrorists and a destroyed financial sector. Bush is the president that destroyed the United States of America. For us Pinoys we can't cast a ballot (though wansapana...

The Inquirer has this editorial about Mrs Arroyo dogged pursuit of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Palace apologists see nothing wrong with that. We could agree. After all in many ways Filipinos are still celebrity crazy and will do nothing less than to get an autograph. But I have to agree with the Inquirer. The celebrity that Mrs Arroyo is chasing is really not yet the lead star. He still has the real chance of not making it to the White House. Besides she is the Philippine Head of State. Paying the usual courtesies to the sitting Head of State in the White House is part of diplomatic protocol. Whatever she and Mr Bush conversed in that meeting we trust is in the interests of the Philippines. But it is really in poor taste to chase the presumptive next White House tenant even if the press says he already has the keys to that house. She could at least wait to see him elected and when that happens then diplomatic niceties dictate she meet with him. Paparazzis make a liv...