Of creativity, that is.

Actually the title of his new book is “When You Are Engulfed in Flames”, the latest in his collection of first-person essays on his unconventional life. Quite apropos, as he has been described as a “furnace of creativity” when working on a book.

I discovered Mr. Sedaris by accident, when Powerbooks was giving away free books as a promo to loyal customers during the annual Manila bookfair and I received a copy of “Naked”. Sardonic and offbeat, I find Sedaris’ writing a cross between Mark Twain and Haruki Murakami, satirical and surreal snapshots of life as lovable loser, in the mould of Woody Allen. From pictures, he even resembles a youngish Mr. Allen.

I missed seeing him at a public reading and book-signing at Powerbooks Greenbelt two years ago. I didn’t know who he was then, and I was there for another book launch, scheduled earlier in the afternoon. They were ushering us out early to make way for Mr. Sedaris and I didn’t linger. Sayang. It would have been a treat to see and hear the man behind the stories. Read the rest of this entry »

Has the internet made us stupid, a recent article in the Atlantic asks. The author, blogger Nicolas Carr, frets about the effect the internet has had on his thinking processes, on the way it has rewired his brains’ very circuitry.

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now, I’ve been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. Even when I’m not working, I’m as likely as not to be foraging in the Web’s info-thickets—reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link.

I’m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon.

I have the same problem and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I haven’t read a book in its entirety in ages, even though I keep buying them. I have piles of books at my bedside table which, when I got them, I knew I would devour in one reading. Months, even years after, I haven’t gone beyond a few chapters, at best. I stop and start and finally give up at some point, distracted by the flickering text and images on my monitor. Read the rest of this entry »

Manolo Quezon wrote in his column (Bringing the World to Our Shores, Inquirer, 06 July 2007) about his plans to take up graduate studies, specifically an MBA, in an international program offered by an Australian university. His reason for doing so is to keep up and deal with the complexities brought about by an increasingly borderless world, in the context of his vocation as a political commentator.

As bigger and bigger chunks of our population become less insular and more comfortable with the complexities of the modern world, I have a hunch that people like me, who have the task of commenting on national affairs, will find it increasingly hard-going unless we make an effort to understand these complexities. These complexities, on the whole, have to do with economics and finance as disciplines, and business as an activity: and how all three have been used to discourage citizens from being politically engaged.

I confess to sharing his concern, a sort of low-level anxiety, a vague fear that my knowledge and present skills level may not enable me to understand and cope with the speed of globalization and change. It seems there’s nothing unusual in this, as I found out in a piece written by David Brooks of the New York Times. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s the only way to end this downright criminal enterprise and save lives.

I’ve previously written about the legal bases to hold Sulpicio Lines accountable for the hundreds of deaths caused by the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars.

But legal arguments side, there are even more compelling moral and practical reasons to put a stop to the murderous reign of what is believed to be the most accident-prone and negligent commercial shipping company of modern times. And I mean worldwide.

It’s hard to outdo Sulpicio Lines’ record, even in this age of massive global terrorism. One Sulpicio ship sinking alone, that of the M/V Dona Paz, claimed significantly more lives than the September 11, 2001 bombing that pulverized the New York World Trade Center.

And the 9/11 terrorists intended to kill as many as they could. Sulpicio Lines beat them without even trying. Read the rest of this entry »

Lawyers behaving badly. And stupidly.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Avelino Razon Jr. confirmed a new attempt to overthrow the Arroyo government, with the arrest of five of the suspects allegedly involved in a “proposal to commit coup d’etat”. One of the suspects is former lawmaker and now minor opposition figure Homobono (“Call me Bono, not Homo”) Adaza. Four other military and police officers were also brought into custody.

Also charged were Army Lieutenant Colonel Oscarlito Mapalo, retired Colonels Ernie Amboy and Cesar dela Pena, and police Superintendent Rafael Cardeno.

Aside from coup d’etat, complaints of swindling and estafa were also brought against them. Now that’s an strange mix of crimes. While toppling the government, why not make a little money on the side ? Read the rest of this entry »