In military parlance, a killing zone is the area in which the enemy is to be lured or forced to occupy so as to concentrate fire upon them, often through ambush. Substitute “civilians” for “enemy” in the foregoing definition, and you have the perfect description of the operational aspect of the terror acts recently unleashed by alleged jihadists in Mumbai, India. Of course, they did not have to “lure” their victims, they just had to choose their targets carefully. This was the horrible, shockingly simple beauty of their plan. Within a few square kilometers in the heart of a major urban center were ready-made killing zones, sure to deliver easy prey on a silver platter, almost. The operative phrase was, and is, for acts of this nature, to “concentrate fire”.

And concentrate fire they did. Anyone or anything that moved, breathed, twitched or blinked an eye was shot, with lethal effect. Read the rest of this entry »

And the question in most everyone’s mind is, can it happen in Manila ?

Of course it can.

Any group with enough political motivation, a modicum of resources and sufficient planning can pull off the horrific attacks which has so far claimed at least 125 lives. Another 327 people were wounded in the terrorist assault, including British, American and Australian citizens. Extremist gunmen are still believed to be in two luxury hotels, the Oberoi Trident and the Taj Hotel, as well as a nearby Jewish center, where they have taken a still undetermined number of hostages, many of them foreigners. A previously unknown group called Deccan Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the outrage. Read the rest of this entry »

The House of Representatives committee on justice, voting 42-8, junked the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for being insufficient in substance. While the outcome was not unexpected, it’s infuriating just the same. Not only in the cavalier manner by which the committee railroaded the dismissal but because among all the impeachment raps (four so far) brought againt GMA, this was the most detailed in terms of corruption, electoral fraud, human rights abuses and other acts constituting culpable violations of the Constitution. To have it thrown out immediately without the issues having been given even a perfuncory chance to be aired is an insult to all who had placed their faith, misplaced as it turns out, on constitutional processes. Read the rest of this entry »

Former House Speaker Jose De Venecia will testify today before the House justice committee hearing on the latest impeachment complaint against President Arroyo. He promises to disclose “as many” other scandals in the Arroyo administration as he can.

Joe the Venecia as rat. It remains to be seen whether he can be a convincing one. He certainly looks the part, with his ears and all. Read the rest of this entry »

Malcolm Gladwell made both Time and Newsweek issues this week and was featured both for himself and his new book “Outliers“. Outliers, subtitled “The Story of Success” follows the the basic approach of his other bestsellers, The Tipping Point and Blink, which started the current best-selling genre termed as “pop economics”. Although his books go well beyond economics to encompass sociology, psychology, science and politics. He seeks to explain the story behind the story.

Outlier is a noun which refers to: 1) something which is situated away from or classed differently from a main or related body and/or; 2) a statistical observation that is markedly different from the others of the sample. By this definition Gladwell is an outlier, and it makes sense for him to write about other outliers, or those people we usually consider as extraordinarily “successful”, whether they be lawyers, nuclear physicists, rock stars, Silcon Valley billionaires or best-selling authors.

Typically, his explanation for their success is counter-intuitive, or different from what conventional wisdom says. Exceptional achievement is less about intelligence, ambition and other personal qualities than environment, opportunity and, yes, plain dumb luck. Read the rest of this entry »