Jose Manuel Tesoro

Latest posts by Jose Manuel Tesoro

Singapore: Stability not Diversity

  22 March 2006

A Xeno Boy in SG tells a little fable about how Singapore's threatening diversity was domesticated and coopted. “The city mimicked democracy, mimicked prosperity, mimicked diversity, mimicked lives. It was a wonderful performance. And the City became the City of Laughter.”

Thailand: Money and Sex

  22 March 2006

Claudio Romano at wanderingkhunphu struggles with the eternal question of money and sex as he fights off Thai transvestites.

Vietnam: Ban on Overseas Films

  22 March 2006

Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information is considering banning overseas Vietnamese filmmakers from releasing films within Vietnam. Diacritic.org has more here.

Philippines: Linguistic Divide

  22 March 2006

Howie Severino talks about the linguistic divide in the Philippines between Tagalog a.k.a. Filipino (the language spoken in and around the capital Manila) and English (the widely-used colonial lingua franca). “…a foreign correspondent once noted that our presidents use Filipino only when they want to tell jokes or be folksy....

East Timor: Fast Rise

  21 March 2006

tumbleweed in timor lorosae tells the story of a local East Timorese woman who went from janitor at a UN facility to principal secretary to the local UNICEF chief.

Indonesia: Against the Progressive Tax

  21 March 2006

Nearing tax reporting date in Indonesia, Cafe Salemba decries the progressive income tax. “In addition to being the cruelest income cutter, progressive tax is also the meanest disincentive to work hard(er).” He starts a discussion with his co-group blogger, another economist.

Singapore: Blog Credibility

  21 March 2006

Malaysian blogger Mack Zulkifli comments on a recent survey in Singapore that ranked blogs as lowest in credibility and newspaper reports as highest. But Mack says there is more than meets the eye.

Thailand: Rural-Urban Divide

  21 March 2006

Maytel 2020 describes the rural-urban divide in Thailand that characterizes Southeast Asian politics as a whole. “Southeast Asia has long been noted for its ‘patron-client’ political structures which many theorists believe stem from the primarily agrarian nature of most of the region. Farming rice is a precarious livelihood strategy and...

Malaysia: Fund for Public Transportation

  20 March 2006

A Worm's Perspectives… praises the Malaysian government's decision to use some of the money saved from slashing the fuel subsidy to set up a fund to develop public transportation.

Philippines: Historic Highway

  20 March 2006

Howie's Sidetrip talks about old pictures of Epifanio de Los Santos Avenue, or EDSA, a major Manila urban artery on which the country's 1986 People Power Revolution was played out. Not that long ago, EDSA skirted rural rice fields. Now it passes by malls and skyscrapers.

Singapore: Bear Arrested

  20 March 2006

bobafett81 has pictures of the arrest in Singapore of an animal-rights activist dressed as a bear during Queen Elizabeth's visit to the city-state. The activist had been protesting the ceremonial use of bearskin hats by Buckingham Palace guards. Mr. Wang guesses what charges the bear might expect.

Vietnam: Catching Up

  20 March 2006

R. Streitmatter-Tran comments on how the IMF thinks it will take two centuries for Vietnam to catch up with Singapore.

Indonesia: Potemkin Harvest

  17 March 2006

Sarapan Ekonomi comments on local farmers on Buru Island being prevented from harvesting their rice until the President of Indonesia shows up for “Great Harvest Day.”

Philippines: Red Spectre

  17 March 2006

caffeine sparks criticizes the Philippine government's “resurrection” of Communism as a threat to national stability. She recounts meeting a real Communist and not being very scared or impressed. “I don’t remember the details of what he said, but I remember thinking he didn’t say anything I didn’t already know and...

Singapore: Suicide Watch

  17 March 2006

Singapore Election Watch discusses the disturbing trend of Singapore's suicide rate. In the famously safe country, it's now one of the top three causes of death.

Vietnam: Home Design

  17 March 2006

Antidote to Burnout is an architect from San Francisco who now works in construction in Vietnam. He's started a series evaluating the small design touches on Vietnamese homes he sees in Saigon.

Singapore: Meritocracy

  16 March 2006

Singapore Entrepreneurs has some thoughts about meritocracy and entrepreneurship, and how many Singaporeans have traded their passions and risk-taking in exchange for social stability.