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Category: Foreign Affairs

The US junket

Published by Ellen on June 24, 2008

Correction: Iloilo Rep. Arthur Defensor is not with Arroyo in the U.S.

The Inquirer reported that Defensor cancelled his trip to Europe to attend to oversee the rehabilitation of his district (3rd) which was badly hit by typhoon “Frank”. My apologies.

While thousands of our countrymen are pre-occupied with coping with deaths and devastation left by typhoon “Frank,” members of Gloria Arroyo’s entourage are busy posing for souvenir photos with American officials.

A member of Arroyo’s delegation relates a comical incident at the photo session after the meeting of Arroyo with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte. Other officials in that meeting were Ambassador Kristie Kenny, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

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Managing our Foreign Service

Published by Ellen on June 16, 2008

(The following article appeared in the Philippine Star last week where former foreign secretary Roberto R. Romulo writes a regular column.)

by Roberto R. Romulo

From 1989 to 1995, I was in government service as Ambassador and Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Having worked in a multinational corporation for 25 years in various management positions, I presumed that management techniques tried and proven effective in business organizations could be equally applicable in the government bureaucracy.  I am writing on this topic, using my experience in the DFA, in the spirit of constructive criticism.

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Anwar’s anecdotes

Published by Ellen on June 8, 2008

anwar1.JPGFormer Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has an advice to people who complain that they have no time to read: Serve jail time.

Six years in prison on trumped -up charges of corruption and sodomy has not diminished Anwar’s wit and sense of humor. Speaking at a forum in Makati organized by De la Salle University College of Business and Economics, Ramon V del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business, and Asian Institute of Democracy, Anwar said while in solitary confinement from 1998 to 2004, he was able to read the entire collection of the works of Shakespeare not once but “four-and-a-half” times.

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Pakistan: US responsible for creating environment of terror

Published by Ellen on June 8, 2008

Tracing the roots of terrorism, Pakistan officials say the United States planted the seeds of what are now the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

“You reap what you sow,” Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said in a recent briefing with Filipino journalists at the Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi.

In assessing the global war on terrorism led by the United States with Pakistan as one of its key allies, Abbas said one has to go back to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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Hillary phobia

Published by Ellen on June 5, 2008

Poor Hillary Clinton. As America basks in the euphoria of having a first black presidential candidate, everybody wants her to disappear from the political landscape.

Actually American political commentators had been wanting her to quit months ago prompting her to tactlessly recall the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Last May 23 , Hillary defended her staying in the race despite Obama overcoming her earlier lead by recalling that her husband, Bill, did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June. She said she didn’t understand all those Clinton-quit-call and reminded everybody: “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

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Obama clinches nomination

Published by Ellen on June 3, 2008

From MSN:

Hillary Clinton open to being Obama’s vice president

Chicago- Sen. Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, becoming the first black candidate to lead a major party into a campaign for the White House, The Associated Press reported based on its tally of delegates.

Obama arranged a victory celebration at the site of this summer’s Republican National Convention — an in-your-face gesture to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who would be his opponent in the race to become the nation’s 44th president.

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Mindanao simmers again

Published by Ellen on May 29, 2008

I was reading an analysis “The Philippines:Counter-insurgency vs Counter-terrorism in Mindanao” when news of an explosion in Zamboanga City came in.

Two persons were confirmed dead while 23 others were injured. Investigators were looking at the possibility that Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants were involved in the attack.

The analysis I’m reading was precisely warning about this situation. It said that the Philippines is mixing up counter-insurgency with counter-terrorism “with dangerous implications for conflict in the region”.

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