LANDSCAPE The first Holy Mass was celebrated not in the Visayas but in Mindanao because that historical event, that first step to staking territory in the name of God and King, occurred not in Limasawa which is part of the Visayas, but in Butuan (Mazaua) situated in northern Mindanao. Please do not...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Like it or not, believe it or not, Cuba and Venezuela are forging ahead of us in this battle against COVID-19 and its deadlier mutations. At this writing, a first case of the dreaded UK variant was reported in Pasay City, which makes one wonder if there are many more...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Historically speaking, Cuba is our sister republic. Both of us were colonies of Spain and launched our anti-colonial movements at the same time. In fact, Jose Rizal and Antonio Luna wrote to each other about the Cuban revolution; Rizal observed that the Cayo Hueso (Key...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta When the presidential elections in the USA were over, I felt it was time to unglue myself from You Tube and go back to listening to local news on AM radio. But when Capitol Hill was attacked on 6 January, breached and occupied by what looked like a...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta “Maybe, I will have to leave the country,” former US President Donald Trump said, jokingly, in one of his super-spreader rallies. He firmly believed that there was only a one in a quadrillion possibility that he could lose the 3 November elections. Well, he did...
LANDSCAPE The United States of America is no longer a ship at full sail, it seems. Although I am not a US citizen, I am afraid for President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as their lives are and will always be in constant danger. They are the moving targets of...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Yes, that’s us, the Republic of the Philippines, the “showcase of democracy.” It used to be the United States of America that was the light on the hill, the beacon of democracy. But, after that shockingly violent epiphany at their Capitol Hill, I dare say the...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta The first time I saw him at Café Havana, he did not look as if he had five daughters, 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren – perhaps the latter were not born yet. nevertheless, I would not have believed that he was already a grandfather. He cuts a lean and...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta The oldest person I know may, sooner or later, be no other than myself. That entered my awareness with a jolt; there are now very few people whom I know, who are at least 10 years older than I am. Frightful, isn’t it? One fine day before the pandemic, I was thinking...
LANDSCAPE Just when I was beginning to feel like Scrooge of Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol,” a group of young people sent me an email asking if they could serenade me with the season’s well-loved songs. Humbug! Scrooge would have screamd. But I am not like him, I am always interested...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Frankly, I am surprised that the institutions of the United States of America have remained immutable through the course of centuries. I thought their judiciary system was going to crumble in the face of the well-planned onslaught of outgoing president, Donald J. Trump....
LANDSCAPE The 75 th Postmaster General of the USA, Mr. Louis Dejoy, is M.I.A! In May, 2020, the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service appointed him to that strategic post, not exactly to everyone’s surprise. Although he was an outsider, Mr. Dejoy is a successful businessman who...
