What the New Year Means to this World and to Me

We have a lot of traditions that make our culture rich. Most of these have no logical reasons but simple demonstrations of our beliefs. Robert Kohl and Gary Weaver’s model of culture iceberg illustrate that behavior, language, traditions and customs are visibly manifested as our surface culture, but their underlying explanations are beneath the obvious — [...]

Driving off Bad Luck this New Year

The belief in “luck” is tied to one’s culture, religion, values and belief systems. People differ in their beliefs about luck, its causes and consequences. Luck is usually associated with fortunate events while bad luck is linked to unfortunate events, and either of them is thought to be a result of one’s inner dispositions or divine interventions.   Good luck [...]

Tracking Santa

There is a Christmas Spirit in that big, fat, white-bearded, old man in red suit. The medieval saint who gave gifts have been a long standing icon resonant in every child and child once imagination. His travel at Christmas eve around the globe to answer every child’s Christmas wish is probably the grandest story that humanity [...]

Statistical Quandary and Policy Ambiguity in Performance Appraisal

Organizations need to employ valid and reliable instruments to measure its performance and so with their members. Likewise, the policies that guide the organization in assessing performance  must be clear to all its members or else it will be subject to various interpretations that could have adverse repercussions. The right tools in measuring, analyzing information and making [...]

Celebrated Court Decisions on Crimes against Women

December 14, 2010. This day will have to be earmarked in the Philippine legal history. At the lower court, an RTC judge acquitted Hayden Kho from the  two charges filed by Katrina Halili related to the violation of RA 9262 or the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children Act. The second is the reversal of the Philippine [...]

What is Wrong with Capitalism?

What is wrong with capitalism? The question was posed to us in our feminism and movement class today. The difficulty in answering this question begins in identifying what it is, what it does and what it does not provide. This analysis considers both philosophical and politcal vantage points, and one way to understand that is through Marxist [...]

Regrettable Invasion of Memories on FB

I have no idea how this advocacy on Facebook started. But there was a campaign that took over the profile pictures of  its users. The campaign ends today. I was surprised last night that most of my friends have changed their profile pictures with cartoon characters from their childhood. I thought “what’s going with the [...]

The “F” with Failure in Education

It was reported in the Washington Post ( Nov. 14, 2010) that West Potomac High School, in Fairfax Country in the United States is dropping the ‘idea’ of putting ‘failing’ mark or ‘F’ on the records of students who are not able to meet the required competency on schedule. Instead of  F students are given [...]