By Ninotchka Rosca |  In my New York neighborhood, a 20-block run takes you to Argentina, Chile, Columbia, India, Pakistan, Philippines; 30 blocks and you’re in Africa, Jamaica and other places whose names escape even a geography fan. Over a hundred languages are spoken here and one meets Filipinos from every region of the archipelago, chance encounters blooming into friendship at the spurt of “ay, Pilipino ka, kumusta ka, saan ang lakad, kumain ka na ba?”

Manila, Philippines, September 25, 2008 – We’ve learned over the last ten years at Google that great ideas can come from anywhere. For that reason, Google is announcing as part of its tenth birthday celebration Project 10^100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th), a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

Philippines – September 17, 2008 – Google Inc. today launched Google News in the Philippines, providing 24 million Filipino Internet users the latest local news from more than 4,500 English-language sources, including a wide range of Philippines news outlets. The Philippines is the first country in Southeast Asia to get its own local edition of [...]

Manila, 17 September 2008–Five leading brands are making significant
progress in greening their electronics products, Greenpeace’s latest
Guide to Greener Electronics released today reveals (1).
Nokia regains the lead, ranking seven points out of ten (2). Its
table-topping score is due to improved take-back practice in India (3).
“Most of the brands are responding to the more stringent chemical and
e-waste [...]

The successive oil price reductions should have amounted to some relief for us Filipinos. However, we have yet to feel the relief of having oil prices slashed. For one thing, the minimum fare still stands at PhP 8.50.

By Carlos H. Conde
About the only thing that is different in the present war are the names of the military commanders running it. Everything else remains the same — the displaced civilians, the suffering children, the fragile peace process, and the ever-burning desire of the Moros to attain self-determination.

Frankly, I cannot imagine a post-Firefox browser that does not have the capability to run add-ons or extensions.

By Carl Baker
Any peace settlement in Mindanao will require a serious rethinking of sovereignty in the Philippines and a lot of creative thinking about how to accommodate the interests of all parties.

With the delay in the release of the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act 9504 (which amends the income tax law), this government is obviously not sincere in providing relief to minimum wage earners. What else can grass do for a dead horse, other than to cover its carcass?

Wired magazine has the lowdown on how Google Chrome came to be. Titled “Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Web,” the story offers an inside view of Chrome’s genesis and why Google has just re-ignited the browser wars.

Still watching the Repubs and feeling uncharacteristically drained of energy; something about the spectacle is deadening. I can’t even take seriously the debate about Sarah Palin, the shrill outcry of “sexism!” whenever her credentials as a politician and/or as a soccer mom are questioned. Seems to me that there’s sexism in here, all right, but everybody misses what it is, exactly.

All in all, Chrome is a very promising browser. The key to its success, I think, is the availability of plugins and add-ons that would extend its functionality. (Chrome was released only today so there aren’t any plugins or add-ons yet.) Google Chrome should give Firefox and IE a run for their money.

Reuters reported this afternoon that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has threatened to altogether abandon the peace process if the Arroyo regime does not sign the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain.
“We’re not only disappointed and frustrated over government’s decision to turn its back on the ancestral domain deal, we’ve completely lost trust and [...]

“In honoring the plunderers of this nation and letting them off easy without any punishment (like Erap) we not only condone their infamy; other rapists of this nation will also feel redeemed, convinced that they did no wrong. Then, they pave the way for future criminals to do the same, sure that, like Imelda and her gang, they will not be punished and that after their foul deeds, they can even preen in the limelight before a people without memory.”

The other day, I found myself walking almost two kilometers from the office to a bus stop along Edsa. I was to go to the printing press to pick up a job. I haven’t commuted along Edsa for a while now, and I was not really surprised with all the rows of steel nets strewn [...]

Pakistan’s “dictator,” Pervez Musharraf, has announced his plans of resignation.
Impeachment charges have been filed against him in Pakistan’s parliament, which include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct.
The Pakistanis held their ground and stood united against Musharraf. Elections held in February this year saw Musharraf’s rivals winning in national and provincial levels.
We can also factor [...]

Tomorrow comes another payday. Tomorrow, I will again come to realize the benefits of being a salaried man — the fixed wages, the automatic contributions to social security and health care. Tomorrow, I will again curse this fake regime for taking more than it’s supposed to take — the income taxes.
I understand the concept [...]

A hollow-point bullet strewn inside her head, a dull driver and his equally dull passengers going along Imelda Avenue in Cainta, Rizal — all made life miserable for Tara on the eve of her 23rd birthday. You know what a hollow-point bullet does? It expands upon entering the flesh.