Skip to main content

On the news very recently

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo plans to go back to teaching. The blurb quoted Mrs Arroyo's son Mikey.

I never had Mrs Arroyo teach me economics (only the indomitable Winnie Monsod). But in the words of Sister Lucy (the nun I helped in teaching science to indigenous Australian kids when I was doing my PhD in Oz) I would say "She would make a good teacher!'

Being a prof myself I immediately realised that Mrs Arroyo ran the country as if she were managing a rowdy freshie class. The freshie prof should be able to 1) Throw a bit of temper trantrums some of the time, 2) be imperious , 3) shut up psuedointellectuals and "philosophers" and 4) know what he/she's talking about and come to class prepared.

Mrs Arroyo for all her faults was extremely good at this. She would make a good PhD supervisor!

As for Mikey, the only way he could shed his "mama's boy" image is to do an act of rebellion that all normal teenagers do.

Statements like this

"I’m already near 40-years old and on my second term, and I have two kids. I suppose my mother would give me my independence”

don't help! I have a tip for Mikey. You have to match your mother's intellectual acuity!

Yesterday Rotary International had a letter to the editor asking readers not to link Joc Joc Bolante's name with the club.

The letter says

"While we acknowledge that Bolante distinguished himself as a Rotary officer, it is unfair to consistently link his name to Rotary in an attempt to demean the international organization. If the media were truly aware of what Rotary is all about, they would surely realize that linking Rotary to Bolante is hardly fair to all concerned."

and continues

"As Bolante has not yet had his day in court and undergone due process, the imputations of guilt and scurrilous behavior on his person are most unfounded and uncalled for and do not serve the interest of justice and fair play."

We have to disagree. I don't think reporters are demeaning Rotary at all. What they are saying is fact. Rotary International has stated it. Bolante distinguished himself in the club.

Also the imputations of guilt and scurrilous behaviour on Bolante's person isn't unfounded at all. If it were, why did US immigration detain him for two years?

While we leave it to the courts to make a public judgement on Bolante's innocent or guilt, that never stops people from making their own private judgement on his character. Rotary is a private organisation. Nothing stops it from making its own judgement of Bolante.

This is what Rotary fails to grasp. Washing its hands of Bolante hardly makes the club more respectable. Unless it expels Joc Joc from the roster, it has just to live with the fact that people will link Rotary with Bolante.

C'mon Rotary! Even employers have notices saying so and so employee is no longer connected with them. They need not even say what the reason was but it is sure that the employee no longer holds up to the company's standard.

Isn't the Four Way Test Rotary's golden standard? Does Bolante still live up to that?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

How should we remember General Antonio Luna?

Well it seems with that proposal to rename Camp Aguinaldo to Camp Antonio Luna in time for National Heroes Day has generated a lot of social media buzz. We really have to really understand our national heroes. Antonio Luna was a remarkable personality but like all of us was flawed. He likely would be an academic had the revolution not intervened. He would have been the first Dean of a College of Science of the Philippine University had the nation made the transition to indepe ndence in a peaceful manner. That was recognized by the American College of Pharmacy when they feted Dr Luna on what would have been his 60th birthday noting his work in combating malaria. But that was not to be. He became a soldier. General Luna was for a professional military within the bounds of the constitution. Perhaps that is the biggest sign of contradiction for today. Please answer the question: Would President Duterte (or a President Aquino, Marcos, Arroyo, Quezon etc) have a General Luna as his c...

Simoun's lamp has been lit, finally.. not by one but by the many!

"So often have we been haunted by the spectre of subversion which, with some fostering, has come to be a positive and real being, whose very name steals our serenity and makes us commit the greatest blunders... If before the reality, instead of changing the fear of one is increased, and the confusion of the other is exacerbated, then they must be left in the hands of time..." Dr Jose Rizal "To the Filipino People and their Government" Jose Rizal dominates the Luneta, which is sacred to the Philippine nation as a place of martyrdom. And many perhaps all of those executed in the Luneta, with the exception of the three Filipino secular priests martyred in 1872, have read Rizal's  El Filibusterismo . Dr Rizal's second novel is a darker and more sinister one that its prequel but has much significance across the century and more after it was published for it preaches the need for revolution with caveats,  which are when the time is right and who will in...

Marikina River and the "janitor" fish

My newest environmental science research project is to determine the evolutionary biology of invasion by the "janitor fish" in Marikina River. Today we made our first survey and collections. Marikina River is the"greenest"in Metro Manila but that is just on the surface. One master's student is doing her thesis on biotic integrity and a volunteer MD is working on the project too. The "janitor fish (Pterygoplichthys sp) is the dominant fish now in the river,displacing traditional Marikina food fishes such as dalag and hito. The fish are collected and left to rot on the riverbanks. Despite this, there is still some subsistence fishing on the river. The highest densities of the fish are observed near sewage outfalls where they find food to eat. It is likely that the fish can be controlled if we can clean up the river! BTW the name "janitor fish" insults janitors. The fish thrive in dirty rivers and don't clean them up. Janitors on the other hand, ...