THE VIEW FROM RIZAL Dr. Jun Ynares “What’s social media abuzz with these days?” That was the question I asked a staff of our public information office in Antipolo City. I wanted to know what netizens are discussing in the virtual platform. That piece of information, I thought, is a good...
Dr. Jun Ynares THE VIEW FROM RIZAL “Kakanta na ba ko?” That was the caption of a funny social media meme which has flooded Facebook timelines a few weeks ago. With that caption was the picture of a smiling Jose Mari Chan. The combination of the caption and the photo of the recording artist...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL Dr. Jun Ynares Tomorrow, the last Monday of August, the nation will observe “ Araw ng mga Bayani ,” or National Heroes Day. When we were still kids, we looked forward to this day for one simple reason – it is a holiday, which means having the chance to have one more day to...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL Dr. Jun Ynares The month of August is associated by most Filipinos with the “Buwan ng Wika.” It is also the time when the nation remembers the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth and the man considered to be the father of the Philippine national language....
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL Dr. Jun Ynares “Would you trust the vaccine from Russia?” There has been a rash of text messages recently coming from friends. They wanted to know if I have inside information on Sputnik V – the vaccine against COVID 19 which the Russian government claims it has developed...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL (Part 2) Two Sundays ago, we shared with our readers the first part of our piece on Finding Joy. In that column, we wrote about the sentiment of some of our friends and colleagues. They expressed what they described as the difficulty of “finding joy” in these times. “There...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL “Let us not despair.” Those were words from President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA). This was one of the shortest sentences in his speech – and which attracted much media attention and made it to the headlines. That this particular remark caught...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL (Part 1) “These days, it seems difficult to be happy.” That was a remark followed by a deep sigh coming from a fellow Antipoleño. He had given me a quick call and I managed to squeeze in an honest “How are you?”. These days, people hardly mask what they feel. I believe...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL “How do we cope with the many uncertainties we face today?” That was the text message I got from a friend from my college days. I had earlier texted him to ask how he and his family are doing. He was honest enough to say that he and his wife were “experiencing major...
THE VIEW FROM RIZAL Dr. Jun Ynares “So, what do you plan to accomplish this year?” This is the question I usually get – we all usually get – at the start of each year. As a matter of practice, we give canned answers. Canned answers could range from “quit smoking” and “lose weight”...
