August 1 - 20, 2018
OPINION
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
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Breaking
Point
By Rosette Correa
One of my favourite authors, Oscar
Wilde, penned the phrase “life imitates
art” in his essay, The Decay of Lying. In
it he says that, “Life imitates Art far more
than Art imitates Life,” and from what
is happening in the world today, noth-
ing could be farther from the truth. Who
would have thought Wilde, who wrote this
in 1888, would prophesy the sad state of
the world we live in.
The dawn of social media is not
without its merits, but it has certainly bro-
ken many rules of polite society and order
that Wilde once thought to be disgrace-
ful, until the law took his freedom away,
as well as his sons. He died a miserable
death, realizing that fighting the system
(which, while it was repressive, was nec-
essary to promote an orderly society) was
futile and detrimental to his own destiny,
which was to be a great playwright recog-
nized in his own time.
Social media is pretty much doing
a great damage to many people’s per-
spectives on truth, goodness and beauty,
as well as the perspectives of life and re-
spect for it. It is no secret that US Presi-
dent Donald Trump uses social media
extensively, and his tweets on Twitter have
been the source of many broken proto-
cols. While he uses it to gain popularity in
the US grassroots, he seems to have for-
gotten the dignity and honour of the of-
fice he holds, and that there is a plethora
of rules that the US President must follow
to keep his office respectful, to make sure
he does not make pronouncements that
may upset people and nations he deals
with, and so much more. This is why
there is a diplomatic corps that encamps
Bulong
Pulungan
By Deedee Siytangco
Reprinted from Manila Bulletin
Angel Thoughts
There are only two lasting be-
quests we can hope to give our chil-
dren; one of these is roots, and the
other wings. —Hodding Carter
**************
Former PEZA head, the multi-
awarded Atty. Lilia de Lima, re-
cently celebrated her birthday with a
thanksgiving dinner. And her many
friends came to celebrate with her.
Lilia served several presidents and is
credited for increasing the number of
PEZA zones, its income,and investors
during her term. And not a drop of
scandal or illegal transactions tainted
her leadership!
Just like her previous thanksgiv-
ing dinners, it was also a mini-concert
featuring the best of the best of her
A bird flew over the cuckoo’s nest
in every city that the US is hosted,
to ensure that diplomatic ties are
kept safe and secure; thus, his
tweets are divisive and never help-
ful, whether domestic or international.
So, if the US President does it,
why shouldn’t the Liberal government do
it as well? In a tweet, Canadian Foreign
Minister Chrystia Freeland told the Saudi
Government to release civil society activ-
ists Samar Badawi, a gender-rights activ-
ist and the sister of Rai Badawi, a blogger
who was arrested in 2012 for “insulting”
Islam. This resulted with an abrupt sever-
ing of diplomatic and trade ties. Canadian
Liberal officials were left scrambling to
understand (what’s new?) what had hap-
pened. Of course, PM Justin Trudeau went
to Freeland’s rescue, saying he backed
her up, not really knowing what the impli-
cations of that one tweet was - full-trade
pull out, and the ending of scholarships
and internships of more than 16,000
Saudi students, who bring in $450 million
in revenue for the schools and hospitals
here in Canada in which they are study-
ing. Within 24 hours, Canadian Ambas-
sador Dennis Horak was told to leave the
country, and a few days later, all Saudia
Airlines was cancelling their flights.
One tweet. That’s all it took for an
entire trading partner to pull-out its re-
sources.
While it is unacceptable for activists
to be jailed and treated badly in any way,
someone who is in public office should be
very careful with he says, especially on a
social platform like Twitter. First of all, the
tweet was unofficial, and very unprofes-
sional.
What I cannot understand is that
if this happened in a company, where an
employee commits a
mistake that is detri-
mental to his employ-
er, he would instantly
be fired. Sometimes I
wonder if PM Trudeau
remembers that he is
actually the boss, and
that he has command
responsibility for ev-
erything that happens
in his cabinet, includ-
ing the reprimand of
an employee that has
done great damage.
Protocols, especially in govern-
ment, should be followed, otherwise, the
dignity and honour of an office will be
tainted, and it will no longer serve its pur-
pose - to uphold the rights and the needs
of the country and its people it serves.
Whatever happened to good old diploma-
cy and diplomatic conduct? Has our tol-
erance of many things include the ruin of
the respect a government position holds?
If, as a minister of a government, Free-
land is allowed to break protocols, then
other ministers are allowed to break other
rules as well. This means that as a regular
Canadian citizen, I am allowed to do the
same thing, I can also break protocol and
some rules. Is this what the Liberal gov-
ernment trying to tell us? It may sound
oversimplified, tweeting an opposition to
a misconduct is simply a breaking of a
rule and an act of cowardice. If Freeland
and the Liberal government were brave
enough to start this war, why didn’t they
just do it through a formal, diplomatic
protest? Why tweet it? It is a very juvenile
move, and Freeland is getting away with
it.
In this day and age, social media
rules. I get it. I am totally opposed to its
rule, but it’s like swimming against the
current. For entire trade relationships
with other nations, however, to disinte-
grate because of a tweet, this takes the
cake. Trump and Trudeau, both millennial
leaders, have taken leadership down to a
whole new level, and it’s not coming up
daisies.
Ken Kesey penned the book One
Fle w Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel
about a motley crew of individuals in a
mental institution, who followed a lead-
er that claimed he knew everything. I
couldn’t resist using the title of his book
to describe the chaos that is degrading
even the most honoured institutions such
as the presidency of a country and the
prime ministership of another, especially
when it is being led by leaders who seem
indifferent to many, and run by a crew
gone rogue. We’re in a cuckoo’s nest al-
right, and the bird may bring forth more
damage than what it was originally set up
for.
Women Empowerment
friends from the music industry,
both professionals and amateurs
alike, including the Manila Hotel
president Atty. Joey Lina. Her guests
were treated to a delicious buffet and
sparkling songs from Ryan Cayabyab
and his wife Emmy, Rachel Geordias
with husband Byeung In Park who
was a terrific baritone, and the fabu-
lous Celeste Legaspi.
Lilia’s co-TOWNS awardees
were also there to support her, includ-
ing their president Olivia Ferry, Elsa
Payumo, Paulym Sicam, Teresita Ang
See, Evelyn Singson, Nina Lim Yuson,
Corazon de la Paz Benardo, Yoly Ong,
Karina Bolasco, and Bing Carrion.
There were also Lilia’s friends from
the Judiciary, the likes of chief justice
Hilario Davide and his wife Gigi, SC
justice Art Panganiban, and judges
Helen Gutierrez and Telly Bernabe.
There were also former cabinet mem-
FOR MAMA BETH Sen. Cynthia Villar inducts Elizabeth Sison Tagle as chairman of Distric
283 of the Inner Wheel Clubs. With them are IWCPI national president Donna Jao and the
sons of Beth, Eric, Erwin, Ernest, and George, and daughter-in-law Sarah.
bers, like DTI’s Greg Domingo, BIR’s
Kim Henares, and DOLE’s Nieves
Confesor. Present from the diplomatic
community were Japanese ambassa-
dor Kuji Haneda, Singaporean am-
bassador Kowk Li Oeng, and former
Philippine ambassador to the US Joey
WWW.PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY.COM
Cuisia.
Thank you for the music and
cheers, Lilia!
* * *
Earlier, we were at the gala event
of District 381 of the In-
ner Wheel Clubs of the CONT PAGE 9