TAMED EDITION. The Church and some “guardians of public morals” are up in arms over the Philippine edition of Playboy magazine, whose first issue came out this week. But they have been largely silent on the existing sex magazines that are way raunchier than Playboy, such as Playhouse magazine (right) published by Atlas Publishing, the komiks giant. Read the story.

In his latest post today, Brian Gorrell said that he received more than $1,600 in donations (via Paypal) yesterday alone. That, to put it mildly, is phenomenal. If he keeps at this — dishing out more juicy stuff on the Gucci Gang and the uber-pretentious Philippine high society, stuff that his thousands of daily readers [...]

By Fr. Shay Cullen
In times of injustice, structural tyranny and overwhelming a corruption, everybody longs for strong outspoken prophetic leadership in word and action. That’s what committed Christians look for in their pastors, bishops and priests and lay leaders. The pastoral letter of Palm Sunday signed by 16 Catholic bishops led by Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales [...]

The blog of Brian Gorrell, the Australian who launched a personal Internet movement to get back the $70,000 that his former Filipino lover allegedly stole from him, is steadily penetrating the mainstream press. Although the people he exposed in his blog as cokeheads and thieves have not been identified or seen, this should be welcome [...]

By Dieter Ernst

The contentious political debates over NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) in this year’s presidential race may miss the central point about the emerging international threat to the American economy.
The real threat is not the shift of manufacturing jobs to South America or Asia, the traditional concern of unions and those who [...]

By Brad Glosserman

It is an item of faith for many Japanese – and many Japan watchers – that their country will never build or acquire nuclear weapons. Japan’s nonnuclear status, a product of both the searing experience of August 1945 and a calculation of the strategic value of nuclear weapons, has been a pillar [...]

By Robert Sutter

Teaching a graduate seminar on contemporary Taiwan, I was asked by a student, “Will you be teaching this course in the future? Isn’t Taiwan over?”
The student’s assessment that a Taiwan separate from China was approaching its end is not surprising. It reflects China’s growing international clout and effectiveness in picking off one after [...]

By STEVEN ROOD | The Asia Foundation | The politicization of anti-corruption activities in the Philippines has long been a problem. When charges are used as part of the struggle for political advantage, the public can become cynical, believing that all officials are alike and nothing will change.

Brian Gorrell, the Australian whose explosive blog about his “social-climbing” Filipino ex-lover is now a certified cause célèbre, has launched a boycott campaign against The Philippine Star, the newspaper that carries the columns of at least two of the main (sordid) characters in his real-life telenovela.
Gorrell argues that, by not doing something about his [...]

By Fr. Shay Cullen

“My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Mt 27: 46). There he was, Jesus from Nazareth, the son of a mere carpenter, the miracle worker, the man so loved by the poor and believed by many to be the Messiah. Jesus, the one whom
God sent to lead the world from [...]

By Ninotchka Rosca

New York lost its governor, he who rode to victory on 70% of state votes. Eliot Spitzer, who was reputed to be the scrubber – he would clean corruption out of every aspect of state politics – resigned after revelations of sex trysts with (a) prostitute(s) which reportedly cost him as much as [...]

The US think tank The Heritage Foundation weighs in on the political turmoil in the Philippines. It says the ZTE scandal “has driven politics in the Philippines off the rails.” The US, it says, “should help it avert what has the potential to become a major constitutional crisis.”

By Fr. Shay Cullen
Josie Magano is one of the bravest Filipino women I ever met. One day she came asking help to rescue her teenage daughter from the clutches of a Danish sex tour operator who owned a hotel in Baloy Beach in Olongapo City. Josie was from the poorest part of Samar Island, had [...]

The clearest signs of economic failure under the Arroyo administration are in the poor conditions of millions of Filipinos.
By Sonny Africa
IBON research head
IBON Features– The administration has made much noise of its economic performance in 2007. Most of all it crows about rapid growth in gross domestic product (GDP), the peso’s appreciation against the dollar, [...]

The Arroyo government is trying to scare the people from pursuing calls for President Arroyo’s resignation or ouster with the specter of a reversal of the gains of economic growth. But with the worsening poverty situation, one wonders whether there really is an improvement in the economy and whether the Filipino people would lose [...]

By Fr. Shay Cullen
It is Fair Trade Week in Europe and hundreds of thousands of customers are committed to buying products that are produced justly and without exploitation and under proper working conditions. As one concerned parent said to me recently, “The one thing I don’t want my child wearing is clothes made with child [...]

NEWS ANALYSIS The “critical mass” that can lead to the resignation of President Arroyo can only rise from the diverse groups and personalities agreeing who or what will replace the widely discredited president.