Ulfuls breaking up?

Here’s one classic Ulfuls video:

My friend from Osaka told me Tortoise Matsumoto is coming up with his own solo album. Is the 42-year old vocalist finally leaving my favorite Kansai-ben band? I hope not.

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Pizza and karaoke with Ate Arice.

Surprise, surprise! LDS alumna Ate Arice showed up during the first day of our summer debate training camp yesterday. She treated us at Pizzahut in nearby SM City Manila, then went for karaoke and- listen now- game arcade! 

Here are some pictures.

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Tokyo should be concerned on the Spratlys

This short letter to the editor of mine appeared on the Easter Sunday, March 23 issue of The Japan Times.

Spratly accord no cause to relax

The recent tripartite agreement between China, Vietnam and the Philippines for joint exploration of the Spratlys in the South China Sea should be a concern to all of Asia. The agreement is a breach of political solidarity with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose influence has been key to containing Chinese hegemonic expansion in the region.

Beijing can easily deploy its "grab and talk" tactics with individual claimants, but not if the claimants bind themselves together and deal with China as a group through the ASEAN framework. Once ASEAN unity is broken, China can build up its presence in the region, as it did when it put up a fortress in Mischief Reef in the late 1990s.

Tokyo should be concerned about this matter because Chinese control of the Spratlys would be a threat to the economic security of Japan and South Korea. Seventy percent of the oil exports to both countries pass through the sea lanes between the Spratlys and Palawan. Surely, allowing one power to control these sea lanes would disrupt the balance of power in the Far East.

This is my second letter to be published in the said newspaper, the other one being my piece on how Tokyo should react to the softening stance of Washington towards Pyongyang, which also appeared on the Yomiuri Shimbun.

Is foreign intervention in Tibet the way to go?

In his letter to the editor of one major newspaper in Japan, Takeshi Suzuiki compares Tibet and Kosovo and laments the fact that, unlike in Kosovo, the international community has "done nothing significant" with regards to the so-called cultural genocide in Tibet:

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Thanks, MBW.

A million thanks for Manila Bay Watch’s praises for my recent post called Manila’s Best Option on The Spratlys Dispute.

Read the feature here. 

I discovered Manila Bay Watch while doing a web search on the Jabidah Massacre and the Philippines’ claim on Sabah, and I became an avid fan ever since. MBW is a big-shot political blog, which explains why being featured there makes me feel like I’ve won an Oscar. It made more determined to be a Foreign Service officer someday.

Again, countless thanks to MBW. 

Manila’s best option on the Spratlys dispute.

Much has been said about the treasonous deal Gloria Arroyo forged with Beiijing and Hanoi. But only a few seems to be looking for the best way out of this imbroglio for the Philippines.

The agreement breached the Constitution, offered Philippine terittories for exploration by foreigners and destroyed the political solidarity of the ASEAN, which was the key to the region’s successes against Chinese provocations during the last decade. But now that these damages have been exposed, what steps should Manila take to clean the mess?

 If the Philippines would have the JMSU cancelled, she would incur the wrath of China and Vietnam without gaining back the confidence of other ASEAN claimants who must have felt betrayed when Manila bypassed them during the forging of the agreement in 2004.

I can say there’s nothing wrong with scrapping the deal and upsetting Beiijing, if only to promote Philippine interests in the region. But before Manila do that, she must first make sure that she would have the ASEAN to back her up once China explodes in anger. That’s because the Philippines alone could never handle China’s wrath. The Philippines needs to stick with the ASEAN and urge the bloc to face Chinese threat as a united group. This has consistently worked in the past.

Sadly, however, the damage with regards to the unity of these ASEAN claimants has been done and scrapping the deal at this point would not repair it.

What, then, should the Philippines do? Here are my suggestions:

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Just what exactly is The Sentinel trying to say?

In its recent editorial entitled Outnumbering the Numbers, the Lyceum Independent Sentinel has this to say about rallies and protest actions:

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We won. We lost.

Last Wednesday, the Lyceum Debate Society was hailed as the Best University-wide Student Organization in the Lyceum. Our GC, Suzy Claire Selleza, on the other hand, topped the Search for Outstanding Student Leaders of the University while Mr. Gil H. A. Santos was awarded as the Best Faculty Adviser to a Student Organization.

We’ve been aiming to get these awards for ages now, and we really didn’t expect we would win them this year. So you can’t really blame us for being so overwhelmed. 

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