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Strength of Age
In the Philippines, it’s still common to bow one’s head and lift an elder’s hand to the forehead in a gesture of deep respect (mano po). It’s a simple and beautiful act that says, ‘I see you, I value you, I ask for your blessing.’ In many Western societies, this…
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Silent Life
Silence has been so present in my life over the past nine years that I’ve come to call this period The Years of Silence. It was never planned. The silence I now write about appeared like an old acquaintance when my wife, Grace, and I moved from Davao, Philippines, to…
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Imagine Something Better — and Act Now!
Warnings of an impending civilizational collapse are numerous. Many of our leaders belong to an establishment unable to respond with the responsibility the moment demands. Those who understand the gravity of the situation are not being heard. So what can we, those of us beginning to grow uneasy, do now?…
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Road to the North
It all began back in the Philippines before I ever set foot in Europe. My husband spent some time in front of his computer, checking out different Spanish regions. He was excited to show me the newest area he had found online. The photos were of the North: green, lush,…
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The Knowledge That Great Powers Ignore, at Everyone’s Expense
While the UN and many civil society actors continue to advocate for a more just, cooperative, and compassionate global order, the knowledge needed to build such a world is consistently overlooked, especially by the most powerful nations, whose priorities remain entrenched in rivalry, deterrence, and domination. This neglect now threatens…
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Strategy for Survival
A civilizational collapse rarely happens suddenly. Most often, it’s a slow, creeping unraveling. We won’t wake up one morning and find civilization gone. It will dissolve, one system at a time, not everywhere at once but in waves. In my previous article, Heading for the Brink, I highlighted Stephen Hawking’s…
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Heading for the Brink
I recently wrote about two thinkers I discovered in the early 1960s: Erich Fromm and Bertram Dybwad Brochmann. Both gave me hope that I would grow old in a good society and a peaceful world. That hope is now shattered. I believed that their powerful warnings—and equally powerful hopes—about how…
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How Stoicism Helped My Wife Find Peace Without Losing Her Faith
My wife, Grace, is Catholic, and her religion means a lot to her, just as it does for most Filipinos I’ve met. But what surprised me was how deeply she was drawn to Stoicism. It wasn’t something she often mentioned initially, but when we began working together on this blog,…
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Lies or Cultural Misunderstandings? An Everyday Story from the Philippines
I recently read a post in Philippines Expats by an American living in Manila. He had left his headphones at a restaurant and returned shortly afterward to ask if they had been found. A polite young employee told him, “Sorry, sir, we already looked—we don’t have them.” The American was…
