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Ces Drilon is a veteran broadcast journalist who has been at the center of many an unfolding news story, often under perilous circumstances. She was first on the scene during the failed putsch and siege of the Manila Peninsula in November of last year. No stranger to danger, she has done many features on Mindanao, and seemed particularly at home in the Sulu and Basilan areas, where she covered numerous newsworthy events for ABS-CBN.

She is now in the unenviable position of being in the news herself. Yesterday, rumors had been circulating that Ms. Drilon and two of her cameramen, Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderrama, were seized by Abu Sayyaf militants in the village of Kulasi in the town of Maimbung, Sulu. She was with Octavio Dinampo, a professor from the Mindanao State University, who was helping Ms. Drilon in her coverage. They were reportedly taken to the hinterlands of Indanan town. Read the rest of this entry »

Read also: Blackwater Worldwide and the Role of Mercenaries in 21st Century Armed Conflicts Part I

Like it or not, 21st century warfare, characterized by areas of “low-intensity conflict”, will be influenced by entities like Blackwater, which has given a corporate face to the previously shady world of mercenaries.

Inevitably, Blackwater found its way to the Philippines and has been quietly but very actively recruiting personnel from our underpaid and overworked (though generally resourceful and courageous) members of the armed forces. This caused a flap a few years back when its recruitment efforts were exposed by the media. Read the rest of this entry »

Outsourcing is one of the givens of the 21st century global economy. This includes armed security services. No one realizes this more than the George W. Bush. In waging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush administration relies to a large extent on private guards . Or, more to the point, on mercenaries.

According to the New York Times, the United States is dependent on 30,000 or so private guards to plug the holes in its understaffed military forces.

Patrick Kennedy, the Undersecretary of State for management was quoted as saying:

We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq. If the contractors were removed, we would have to leave Iraq.

The preeminent firm responsible for supplying today’s global mercenaries is Blackwater Worldwide, based in North Carolina. Gone are the days when soldiers of fortune were considered as pariahs, derisively called the “dogs of war”, a phrase popularized by the eponymous 1974 novel by Frederick Forsyth. Mercs have now gone mainstream. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s one way to take it with you, your achievements I mean. The NY Daily News reports that the Cincinnati chemist who invented the iconic (that word again!) Pringles potato chip can was buried in one.

Mr. Fredric Baur, organic chemist, food storage technician and inventor died May 4, 2008 in Ohio and, per his last wish, part of his cremated remains were buried in a Pringles chip can. Read the rest of this entry »

Eight years ago on this day, the 27th of May, my son died. Thus, began for us who loved him, and love him still, a journey of mourning and grief from which I sometimes feel there is no way back. In a sense, this is true. Having walked through the valley of death, by way of lamentations for those we lost, we can never return. At least not as we once were.

For one thing, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis in his classic “A Grief Observed”, some aspects of my fatherhood must be written off. Never, in any place or time, will I have my son on my knees, or bathe him, or tell him a story, or plan for his future, or see my grandchild.

Or get a haircut together. And share some burger and fries after. Which we used to do on a regular basis, just the two of us.

Still, I cling to memories and mementos of our time together, specially books, which he loved. It gave me indescribable pleasure to read to him, most often in bed just before sleeping. A particular favorite, “The Sailor Dog”, about a dog that always wanted to go to sea and realizes his dream, has pride of place in my bookshelf. Read the rest of this entry »