This item in the New York Times will turn a lot of us green with envy. My jaw dropped with when I read it.

The global economic downturn doesn’t seem like such a bad thing after all, if you’re an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher and Flom, the largest U.S. law firm in terms of revenue. Due to the recession, which would predictably cut into its projected revenues, Skadden has offered its 1,300 associates worldwide 80,000 U.S. dollars each to take the year off. They’re encouraged to find pro-bono work and render meaningful service to any cause of their choice although “the lawyers could also spend the year catching up on every episode of “Top Chef” that they missed during the boom years, or traveling around the world“. Read the rest of this entry »

The American sea captain held hostage by Somali pirates for five days was rescued by members of the U.S. special ops unit Navy SEALS in a daring made-for-Hollywod firefight which left three kidnappers dead and another captured. Captain Richard Phillips of the U.S.-flagged Maesk Alabama was saved from captivity and possible execution by a surgical strike which resulted in zero casualties on the rescuers’ side. Per CNN, one of the pirates “had an AK-47 leveled at the captain’s back”, prompting SEAL snipers to immediately open fire on the Somalis. Phillips was unharmed. Read the rest of this entry »

To weigh in belatedly on the Chip Tsao brouhaha, the piece was indeed limp satire. Nevertheless, it’s still painful in that it is uncomfortably too close to the truth. That’s why it raised a lot of hackles.

But are we missing the bigger picture ? Carl, commenting on Manolo’s blog post, correctly points out:

Chip Tsao is a nobody. A trying-hard writer who really doesn’t make the grade. Besides, I am not very fond of the caustic Chinese sense of humor. All this outrage about Chip Tsao will soon pass. And Chip Tsao will continue to be a Z-list writer.

The most important question for me is, after this furor dies down, will we become less of a nation of servants? When one sees those Filipino domestics congregating in public in Hong Kong, it does seem to project that image of our country. For many Chinese, who don’t know better, that is the image they have of the Philippines. I have also noticed how it makes many upper-class Filipinos uncomfortable, preferring to turn another way. They would much rather not be lumped along with those domestics.

I would rather focus my indignation on those who were responsible for making our country a nation of servants. Why are our people fleeing in droves, happy to just be domestics in another country?

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