Since We Last Met
A thematical megamaxi update
Apologies for a lack of updates, although content’s been cranked out. So here, by way of a start to the year, is a wrap of what’s come out since our last update last year.
I. Over land and sea
There are limits to the usefulness of history: that was the theme of my September 18, 2024 column, The limits of deterrence.
II. Father and Daughter: Rival Restorations
The overarching frame for the Marcos-Duterte showdown is The 2025 plebiscite (September 25, 2024) and it is from this that all else flows: in Peeling an onion (October 25, 2024) I discussed the need for bluster and bluff for Duterte’s political persona to remain potent; in Home-court advantage (October 30, 2024) I discussed why the style of the father doesn’t necessarily sit well with the daughter, in an era when a political premium is put on “authenticity”; the actual, outright, outbreak of hostilities instead of a kind of cold war, is discussed in From meltdown to showdown (November 28, 2024) and continuing twists and turns, in Plus two minutes (December 4, 2024).
III. Dispatches from Korea
In Dispatch from South Korea (1); Dispatch from South Korea (2); Dispatch from South Korea (3) (December 11, 18 and 25, respectively) I took a look at the martial law brouhaha in South Korea, from the perspective of a Filipino observer.
IV. Thoughts on the Philippine Condition
I’ve started the year with two reflections: Broker nation (January 1) on our continuing national Crisis of Modernity as Randy David calls it; and its manifestation, politically, in The party list mutation (January 8) but for this, a necessary prologue is an earlier column, Supporting evidence (November 13, 2024).