As the Vatican’s College of Cardinals gears for the conclave to choose the next pope, the Christian world is rife with speculation as to who will be chosen. The names of “frontrunners” are bandied about, often briefly described as either “conservative” or “progressive” (like the late Pope Francis). Observers also remind us that the next...
Author: Roderick Toledo (Roderick Toledo)
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Wrestling with cerebral concerns, such as the nature of Nature
It used to be my golf swing that kept me up at night. I would find myself awake at past midnight and crawling out of bed in order not to wake my wife, going to the living room (where I once nicked the coffee table with a golf club while practicing indoors) or the yard...
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‘Nanlaban. Tepok.’
At the height of Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs,” there was a huge billboard along C5 in Pasig City that advertised a pesticide called Tepox. It had an image of a dead cockroach, flat on its back and its feet up in the air, with this message: “Ipis. Nanlaban. Tepox.” The tongue-in-cheek ad played on the...
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Setting forth alone to the familiar, or travel as disconnection
People travel for various reasons. Adventure. Fun. Business. Family affairs. I do travel for all these purposes. But I also travel to be alone. I feel this most in an airport and aboard a full-to-capacity plane. Alone. With no thought or concern except to get to my destination. It affords me an in-between. A shifting...
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Lola Mameng and my kitchen prep
Not everyone cooks. But those who don’t cook and take pride in the inability should be ashamed of themselves. Not being able to cook is surprising, given how popular culinary courses are now and even just how dime-a-dozen cooking shows are crowding television and the internet. In fact, the food and beverage industry is among...
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Finding the quiet
Many movies today, perhaps as a reflection of the world around us, are unbelievably loud, relying on explosions and special effects and outré visuals to stimulate and, at the same time, mesmerize the viewer. Thus, among all the scenes of chaos, devastation and conflict that may be either or both external and internal to the...
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Tying up loose ends, or more unraveling in 2025?
We can see more clearly the cycle of renewal and rebirth whenever the holiday season comes and the new year approaches. We want to leave our old selves behind and become better in our collective and individual lives in the new year. As an economy, we want greater wealth and productivity. As a government, we...
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Tough in more ways than one: UP reclaims basketball dominance
What a rush! It was pure as pure could be: UP is the champion of UAAP Season 87 men’s basketball! Exhibiting both depth and grit, it was an epic struggle between the two current titans of Philippine collegiate basketball: the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons and the De La Salle University Green Archers. ...
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Election parallels: Does a bad world need a bad guy?
The world is in shock, the headlines say, in reporting that Donald Trump has decisively won the US presidential election and defied the odds once more, this time in convincing fashion. As soon as the trend was clear, congratulatory messages from world leaders started coming in, in apparent relief that the result was unassailable and...
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Scum returns, to stay?
The ebb and flow of history is such that the scum that was washed away eventually returns to shore. The problem is, unless we are able to clean the Sea of Human Nature, it comes back thicker and in greater volume. A cursory survey of current events makes one realize that everything has happened before....