Latest posts by Jose Manuel Tesoro
Singapore: Stability not Diversity
A Xeno Boy in SG tells a little fable about how Singapore's threatening diversity was domesticated and coopted. “The city mimicked democracy, mimicked prosperity, mimicked diversity, mimicked lives. It was...
Thailand: Money and Sex
Claudio Romano at wanderingkhunphu struggles with the eternal question of money and sex as he fights off Thai transvestites.
Vietnam: Ban on Overseas Films
Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information is considering banning overseas Vietnamese filmmakers from releasing films within Vietnam. Diacritic.org has more here.
Philippines: Linguistic Divide
Howie Severino talks about the linguistic divide in the Philippines between Tagalog a.k.a. Filipino (the language spoken in and around the capital Manila) and English (the widely-used colonial lingua franca)....
East Timor: Fast Rise
tumbleweed in timor lorosae tells the story of a local East Timorese woman who went from janitor at a UN facility to principal secretary to the local UNICEF chief.
Indonesia: Against the Progressive Tax
Nearing tax reporting date in Indonesia, Cafe Salemba decries the progressive income tax. “In addition to being the cruelest income cutter, progressive tax is also the meanest disincentive to work...
Philippines: Poverty and Science Fiction
Jardine Davies, an ardent Filipino science-fiction reader, analyzes why in so many science-fiction novels poverty is juxtaposed with high technology.
Singapore: Blog Credibility
Malaysian blogger Mack Zulkifli comments on a recent survey in Singapore that ranked blogs as lowest in credibility and newspaper reports as highest. But Mack says there is more than...
Thailand: Rural-Urban Divide
Maytel 2020 describes the rural-urban divide in Thailand that characterizes Southeast Asian politics as a whole. “Southeast Asia has long been noted for its ‘patron-client’ political structures which many theorists...
Malaysia: Fund for Public Transportation
A Worm's Perspectives… praises the Malaysian government's decision to use some of the money saved from slashing the fuel subsidy to set up a fund to develop public transportation.
Philippines: Historic Highway
Howie's Sidetrip talks about old pictures of Epifanio de Los Santos Avenue, or EDSA, a major Manila urban artery on which the country's 1986 People Power Revolution was played out....
Singapore: Bear Arrested
bobafett81 has pictures of the arrest in Singapore of an animal-rights activist dressed as a bear during Queen Elizabeth's visit to the city-state. The activist had been protesting the ceremonial...
Thailand: Covering the Protests
Bangkok Pundit has some thoughts on the international media's coverage of the protests in Thailand against PM Thaksin Shinawatra.
Vietnam: Catching Up
R. Streitmatter-Tran comments on how the IMF thinks it will take two centuries for Vietnam to catch up with Singapore.
Indonesia: Potemkin Harvest
Sarapan Ekonomi comments on local farmers on Buru Island being prevented from harvesting their rice until the President of Indonesia shows up for “Great Harvest Day.”
Philippines: Red Spectre
caffeine sparks criticizes the Philippine government's “resurrection” of Communism as a threat to national stability. She recounts meeting a real Communist and not being very scared or impressed. “I don’t...
Singapore: Suicide Watch
Singapore Election Watch discusses the disturbing trend of Singapore's suicide rate. In the famously safe country, it's now one of the top three causes of death.
Thailand: Love of Sports
Steve Suphan at thai-blogs.com discusses the Thai love of sports!
Vietnam: Home Design
Antidote to Burnout is an architect from San Francisco who now works in construction in Vietnam. He's started a series evaluating the small design touches on Vietnamese homes he sees...
Singapore: Meritocracy
Singapore Entrepreneurs has some thoughts about meritocracy and entrepreneurship, and how many Singaporeans have traded their passions and risk-taking in exchange for social stability.
Philippines: Right to Be Heard
Dean Alfar at notes from the peanut gallery argues for the Philippine opposition's right to be heard.
