PRESIDENT Donald Trump, as of press time, is in Hanoi, Vietnam for his second rendezvous with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to talk about denuclearization. This comes despite no concrete verifiable evidence that North Korea has started to comply with the United States’ denuclearization requirement of the United States during their first summit in…
(Remarks of former Philippine speaker Jose de Venecia – founding chairman, International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP); co-chairman, International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP); chairman emeritus, Universal Peace Federation (UPF); Special Envoy of the President to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and for Intercultural Dialogue at the UPF World Summit 2019 “Peace, Security…
Part 2 of 3 (Remarks of former Philippine speaker Jose de Venecia – founding chairman, International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP); co-chairman, International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP); chairman emeritus, Universal Peace Federation (UPF); Special Envoy of the President to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and for Intercultural Dialogue at the UPF World…
TWO YEARS into President Donald Trump’s presidency and a lot of Americans ask, “How did we get here?” After a scandal-free Obama presidency, America now is being “led” by a business mogul who runs the country in the same way as his reality show — full of drama, cliff hangers, no respect for the truth,…
HOW does one win in a senatorial election where 63 candidates are fighting over 12 seats? The advertising geniuses at the watering holes in Makati insist that name recognition is vital. But the harsh reality may be that money, which is also known as “the root of all evil,” is the foundation of Philippine elections….
(PART 1 of 3) (Remarks of former Philippine speaker Jose de Venecia – founding chairman, International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP); co-chairman, International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP); chairman emeritus, Universal Peace Federation (UPF); Special Envoy of the President to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and for Intercultural Dialogue at the UPF World…
“DEMOCRACY is the government of the people, for the people, by the people” is an old adage that we have associated with the very democratic principles that have been guiding the United States of America toward a more perfect union. Abraham Lincoln went further in his Gettysburg Address to say that “The government of the…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump finally got to deliver his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, February 5, facing the divided and most diverse Congress for the first time in his two-year presidency, after the Democrats won back the leadership in the House of Representatives. The address was consistent with Trump’s record of embellishing his accomplishments,…
DID you know that among Asian foster care children in Los Angeles, Filipino foster children make up the highest count? My objective is to share more with our local Filipino community so that we can educate our kababayans to help find culturally sensitive homes for these children and youth. As a social worker for the…
AS OF PRESS TIME, President Donald Trump addressed the American people on Tuesday night, February 5 through the State of the Union (SOTU) address, which was originally scheduled for January 31, but had to be rescheduled because of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. This tradition has a basis in the U.S. Constitution. Article…
The hot topic at my favorite watering hole in Daly City is the 2019 midterm election in the Philippines, scheduled on May 13. That date is an unlucky one for the superstitious and will certainly be unlucky for most candidates, but lucky for some. Only 12 Senate seats are open for who knows how many…
Roger Stone arrested for coordinating with WikiLeaks on release of Clinton’s hacked emails AFTER 35 DAYS of the government shutdown, there’s finally temporarily relief for the chaos in America after President Donald Trump on Friday, January 25 agreed to open the government for three weeks even without getting a single cent for his border wall….
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Day is one federal holiday in America that invites us immigrants to this great nation to introspect on something so profound I do not know if we have had a conscious effort to think about it before we chose to uproot ourselves from the Motherland and start a new life in…
In Washington D.C. and wherever in the U.S. federal employees proliferate, there is a lot of weeping and wailing over a wall. This is not Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall. It is President Donald Trump’s border wall. It is the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico that Trump boasted the Southern neighbor would pay for…uh, er,…
BUZZFEED News reported on Friday, January 18 that President Donald Trump personally directed his long-time personal attorney/fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress under oath during the hearing about negotiations to build the Trump Tower in Moscow, by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement….
AMID President Donald Trump’s fabricated “emergency” crisis at the border that has caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history because he won’t sign a spending bill without his wall, the United States of America may have been facing a REAL EMERGENCY crisis based on a report that came out revealing that the 45th president…
AS a social worker for the only Asian-focused foster family agency in the United States, I often get asked what the challenges and rewards are in fostering a child. We hear from prospective foster parents who tend to bring up many questions during our agency’s informational sessions and when I think of how best to…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump walked out of his meeting with Democrats aimed at finding common ground to solve the border crisis and END the government shutdown. This happened after he asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if he would be getting the $5.7 billion to fund his wall (which he claimed during his address from the Oval…
Mike de Leon is a multi-awarded cinematographer, screenplay writer and director in Philippine cinema. Among his first works as a cinematographer was Maynila, Sa Kuko ng Liwanag, directed by Lino Brocka. It was a harsh portrayal of life in the metropolis and the struggle for survival by its masses. Mike’s latest film as director was…
I AM grateful to Commissioner Justin Jones and all the Clark County Commissioners for their work ensuring diversity and inclusion of all Nevadans. Commissioner Jones’ district has the largest growing Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) population in the state, and the appointments of Paul Nimsuwan, Kathy Godges, and Duy Nguyen reflect that great diversity. This…
PUT YOURSELF for a moment in the shoes of some 800,000 federal workers who have been working without pay or have been furloughed for almost three weeks now because of the partial government shutdown, and are worried about rent or mortgage obligations to pay, sending their kids to school, putting food on the table for…
HISTORY has been made when the members of the 116th Congress were sworn in on January 3, including Filipino-American TJ Cox, representing California’s 21st District. This new Congress reflects the face and energy of America today with a record number of women and people of color elected into office — including a refugee from Somalia,…
AMID all the negative vibes from transgressions made by elected and appointed officials — despite being accorded the public trust through their post in public service — it sure feels good to read a story so close to home about the goodness of people. This holiday season, one of those stories that I have posted…
IT’S still such a shocker that there are roughly 200 Filipino children in the Los Angeles foster care system at any given month, with very few Filipino foster parents to take them in. Whenever we share that statistic with kababayans who are interested in fostering or fostering-to-adopt, the first question we typically get is, “What…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s quotable soundbites during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections campaign trail as compiled by TIME: “She’s likely to be under investigation for criminality for a very, very long time to come,” Trump said during an Oct. 31, 2016 speech in Warren, Michigan. “We’re going to be tied up in court for the rest…
TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year 2018 honored journalists worldwide who have been harassed, imprisoned, or even killed just because they were doing their sacred responsibility of reporting the truth so that people may be better informed. They are the “guardians” of truth who have courageously been seeking the truth behind every story, despite intimidation,…
“And so it came to pass that a choir of elves appeared in the night sky singing, ‘We bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for on this night Santa Claus is coming to town.’” Can you imagine the Christmas story being told this way? Well, that’s exactly how…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s response to reporters last November when asked about who should be Person of the Year: “Trump…I can’t imagine anybody else other than Trump, can you imagine anybody else other than Trump?” His bubble of self-aggrandizing must have painfully burst when the very people he has been denigrating, demonizing and undermining have been…
PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s train has been getting all the more derailed by the events of the recent week, and based on what has been happening under his leadership in the past two years, we may be in for a more exasperating bumpy ride ahead. First, the stock market has plummeted several times this week, erasing…
“When I think of 600 to 800 abused and neglected foster kids of Asian descent who need a home that meets their culture, that’s a lot of kids that need help.” – Connie Chung Joe The month of December is a time for family, for tradition, and for precious moments spent with loved ones; however,…
