NIGHT OWL Last April 19, I was offered a platform at the Impact-WorldBank24X event at George Washington University to share not only my personal journey but also a critical message on the power of inclusive resilience and sustainable development. Hailing from the Philippines, a country with a rich...
NIGHT OWL A few years back, the only war we hadwas against a virus. We were all bent on fighting off the disease that brought the world to a pause and changed the way we live. We all wanted to preserve as many lives then. Today, while the scars of the pandemic have yet to fade, new...
NIGHT OWL American author Neal Stephenson is credited for coining the term “ metaverse ” that he used in his 1992 book, Snow Crash, to describe a virtual world where people interact with one another through avatars. Thirty years since, the metaverse is now part of our reality. The...
NIGHT OWL Access to information is essential for society to survive and thrive. According to the United Nations (UN), access to information creates empowered citizens, who are able to make informed choices, to monitor their government, and to know about decisions affecting their lives. In fact,...
NIGHT OWL In the bustling heart of Dubai, as world leaders convened to deliberate the fate of our planet, a groundbreaking consensus emerged from the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 28) last December. The UAE Consensus, hailed as the herald of the fossil fuel era's conclusion, sparked...
NIGHT OWL Have you ever wondered why in some road intersections, there are roundabouts even if the area could actually do one without? For one reason, roundabouts or rotundas can keep our roads safer. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), roundabouts are more effective than enforcement in...
NIGHT OWL In the 1930s, the Philippines used to have 1,140 kilometers of railroad track, but the acceleration of urbanization, population growth, and modernization resulted in a shift to a car-centric culture, which eventually caused the decline of rail lines. In recent years, however, the...
NIGHT OWL Lent, most particularly the Holy Week, is a very important season for Catholics. It is a time of prolonged penance as the Catholic faithful reflect on the passion of the Lord, his suffering, death, and resurrection. In the Philippines, the Holy Week is not only a demonstration of...
NIGHT OWL “It is time to act, and in Lent, to act also means to pause. To pause in prayer, in order to receive the word of God, to pause like the Samaritan in the presence of a wounded brother or sister.” — Pope Francis Amid a very fast-moving society and a rapidly changing world, oftentimes...
NIGHT OWL Eleven years ago, when Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as the new pope, he chose the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi, who he described as “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.” The Pope’s chosen name also...
NIGHT OWL When single-use plastics were on the nascent stage, they were advertised as the better alternatives to those that prevailed in the market then, which were paper and cloth bags. Less than a century after its accidental creation in 1933, we are reverting to paper and cloth bags as the...
NIGHT OWL Oftentimes, when life turns out different than what we’ve planned, it ends up even better. Such is the case of UK’s Upper Tribunal Judge Timothy Herrington; thanks to his wife who persuaded him to apply for the job instead of retiring. Judge Herrington was a judge at the Upper...
