"As a rule of thumb, a total fertility rate of 2.1 births per woman approximates the replacement threshold in affluent countries with high life expectancy—but the replacement level is somewhat higher in countries with lower life expectancy or marked imbalances in the ratio of baby boys to baby girls."
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| Ann Dunham |
They burn less gasoline, make less noise than cars and take up less space than freeways.
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| SALN Lockdown |
MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of thousands gathered Sunday for the start of a three-day rally organized by a religious group in the Philippine capital to demand accountability over a flood-control corruption scandal that has implicated powerful members of Congress and top government officials.
As of 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, crowds came in droves. The Manila City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office estimated attendees to be at 650,000 by 6 p.m.
It’s the latest show of outrage over accusations of widespread corruption in flood-control projects in one of the world’s most typhoon-prone countries. Various groups have protested in recent months following the discovery that thousands of flood defense projects across the country were substandard, incomplete or simply did not exist.
BATANES, Philippines - Marilyn Hubalde still remembers the first time she heard the thunderous chop of military helicopters swooping over this northernmost outpost of the Philippines, less than 90 miles from Taiwan. It was April 2023, when Filipino and American troops descended on the cluster of 10 emerald green islands of Batanes province for amphibious warfare drills.
“We were terrified,” the 65-year-old Hubalde recalled. “We thought China might attack when they learned there were military exercises in Batanes.” Hubalde’s helper, who was in the fields when the troops arrived, panicked and hid in the woods until nightfall. “She thought the war had already started,” said Hubalde, who owns a variety store in the provincial capital, Basco.
Since then, Batanes’ 20,000 residents have become accustomed to high-tempo war games in these islands of tightly packed towns and villages wedged between rugged slopes and stony beaches. Among them: a series of joint exercises from April to June this year in which U.S. forces twice airlifted anti-ship missile launchers here.
Until recently, locals say, this smallest and least populous province of the Philippines was a peaceful backwater. But geography dictates that it is now on the frontline of the great power competition between the United States and China for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. The islands sit on the southern edge of the Bashi Channel, a major shipping lane between the Philippines and Taiwan that connects the South China Sea with the Western Pacific.
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| New York Times |
A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong is a comprehensive exploration of how the concept of God has evolved across three major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Below, is the outline of the thesis, a detailed summary, and strategic insights based on the key arguments and themes Armstrong develops in the book.
The central thesis of A History of God is that the concept of God has evolved over time in response to changing cultural, historical, and social contexts. Armstrong argues that the image of God is not static, but rather, it is continuously reinterpreted and shaped by human experience, philosophical development, and theological reflection. Throughout history, each of the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—has wrestled with the nature of God, and these struggles have influenced not only religious thought but also broader societal structures, political ideologies, and personal identities.
Armstrong proposes that religion, especially in these three traditions, often becomes more about human attempts to understand the divine and its relationship to humanity, rather than a purely objective revelation. The quest for understanding God, according to Armstrong, is a deeply human endeavor marked by constant tension between faith, reason, and experience.
SAVING THE HOUSE, NOT BURNING IT DOWN: A Moral Call Amid a Political Crisis
Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David
(Please spare ten minutes of your time to read this reflection.)
In the midst of the nation’s latest political turmoil—sparked, ironically, by the President’s own call to investigate corruption—we find ourselves at a moral crossroads. The crisis has revealed both the fragility and the resilience of our democratic institutions. It also confronts us with a question that transcends partisan divides: How do we purge the rot of corruption without destroying the house of democracy that generations of Filipinos have struggled to rebuild?
For decades, our cries of protest—ibagsak! and lansagin!—were formerly directed against oppressive regimes or unjust structures. But today, we raise those same cries in a different spirit. We say ibagsak at lansagin—calling for a dismantling, not of the government itself, but the corrupt networks that have captured and crippled it. We seek not the collapse of the state but its redemption.
As my brother, the sociologist Randy David, reminds us in his PDI Sunday column today (October 12, 2025), “The government of the day—the administration of President Marcos Jr. and Congress—is not the entire state. Its failures may expose flaws in the Constitution, but they do not necessarily undermine the viability of the constitutional state itself.” This distinction is crucial. It means that to criticize, investigate, and hold accountable is not to destroy but to strengthen. To reform is to renew. We do not need to burn the house down to get rid of the rats. It would be folly to throw the baby out with the bath water.
