Cordilleras Philippines Quotes

I've met writers who wanted to be writers from the age of six, but I certainly had no feelings like that. It was only in the Philippines when I was about 15 that I started reading books by very contemporary writers of the Beatnik generation. ~ Romesh Gunesekera

And, of course, in the Philippines there were so many thousands of Americans that were captured by the Japanese and held and who were rescued by Filipino Americans, or Filipinos I should say, and by U.S. troops near the close of the war. ~ Dana Rohrabacher

To do my best, to increase and never lessen my country's pride was the underlying motivation of all I might attempt. ... I had to be outstanding, to make the greatest effort to win, to prove I was capable not in spite of having been born Filipino but because I was a Filipino. ~ Carlos P. Romulo

As you can see, there are quite a number of things taught in school that one has to unlearn or at least correct. ~ Ambeth R. Ocampo

Tourism is a crucial industry that could employ millions of Filipinos, skilled and unskilled alike, cross those 7,107 islands of the Philippines. From the current projection of 3.3 million tourist arrivals in 2010, our aim is to eventually attract 6 million tourists. In the process, we expect to create 3 million jobs in the next six years. ~ Benigno Aquino III

The big nest was in Afghanistan, thats not quite cleared, then there are nests in the Philippines, there are nests in Indonesia, the Malaysians are clearing up their nests. ~ Lee Kuan Yew

Peace in the Middle East is of prime importance to the Philippines, due to the presence of around 2 million of our countrymen working in that region. ~ Benigno Aquino III

From my keen observation, it is a very sad fact that the Philippines' current administration's drug war crisis has fully pressed the pedal of acceleration to more division, hatred, cycles of violence (copycat killings, summary killings, extra judicial killings, collateral victims of drug war), toxic revenge, and perpetual impunity. ~ Angelica Hopes, reflections on Drug War in the Philippines ~ Angelica Hopes

Before September 11, we were fighting terrorism in our southwestern Philippines, and it was a lonely fight. However, we were able to contain it now in one island in that part of the Philippines. But after September 11, and after the creation of the global coalition against terrorism, now we have allies, and I believe now it will easier with allies. ~ Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

We soon fall asleep in each other's arms, knowing to myself that I captured her, like a prisoner in a cage. ~ Fernando Lachica

Arab-led Islamic fundamentalism destabilizes nations from Algeria to the Philippines. ~ P. J. O'Rourke

General Otis is proclaimed American Military Governor of the Philippines and I protest a thousand times and with all the force in my soul against such pretension. ~ Emilio Aguinaldo

The Philippines are ours forever. They are not capable of self- government. How could they be? They are not a self-governing race. ~ Albert J. Beveridge

One need not bellow to be believed. Ears seal automatically against anger, and unreason takes over when an argument becomes a tirade. ~ Carlos P. Romulo

I read a blog about this young filmmaker in the Philippines who made a short film, and one of the characters in the film reads my novel and then starts discussing the novel with someone. The idea that my book can inspire another artist and be part of that other artist's work ... that's the reason I write. ~ Miguel Syjuco

The government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh and estimate them better, and this need increases when a country like the Philippines is concerned, where the inhabitants speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities. ~ Jose Rizal

In the Philippines around 1916, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high trajectory to be struck by another player-the set and spike-was introduced. These players also developed the bomba, or kill, and called the hitter the bomberino. ~ Bonnie Kenny

We feel that we fit into this fandom even if we're an outcast or misfits in this world." -Mary, 16, Philippines ~ Jazmin Williams

You can't bring an unwritten place to life without losing something substantial. Manila is the cradle, the graveyard, the memory. The Mecca, the Cathedral, the bordello. The shopping mall, the urinal, the discotheque. I'm hardly speaking in metaphor. It's the most impermeable of cities. How does one convey all that? ~ Miguel Syjuco

Mine was a good race. Ours was a good country. I loved every foot of it that I knew...I had been reared in a wonderful country among wonderful people and I wanted all the rest of the world to know and respect the Philippines. ~ Carlos P. Romulo

I can easily go to America, or I can easily escape to some places in Europe with friends. But the place for me is the Philippines. The struggle is there. I cannot turn my back on it. It's a responsibility. ~ Lav Diaz

In the Philippines, we don't have that much of a problem. There's not much difference between the men and the women. In our business, we always have a good mixture of the men and the women. ~ Teresita Sy-Coson

When the kids see the poverty in their neighborhood, but they see these successful kids who come from the countries they come from, come from Mexico, come from Korea, come from the Philippines, come from Salvador, and were doing really well, it motivates them to do better. The former students give them a vision of what's possible. ~ Rafe Esquith

Should hostilities once break out between Japan and the United States, it is not enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii and San Francisco. We would have to march into Washington and sign the treaty in the White House. ~ Isoroku Yamamoto

I knew my affection for the Philippines was equally as telling: a democracy on paper, apparently well ordered, regularly subverted by irrational chaos. A place where I'd felt instantly at home. ~ Alex Garland

I swear to God I was freaked out about the Aswang when I was a kid in the Philippines. ~ Reggie Lee

I really had no great love for shoes. I was a working First Lady; I was always in canvas shoes. I did nurture the shoes industry of the Philippines, and so every time there was a shoe fair, I would receive a pair of shoes as a token of gratitude. ~ Imelda Marcos

Can you imagine the feeling of being an oppressed colonial being addressed respectfully by a colonizer in the mother country? ~ Ambeth R. Ocampo

It's a little-known fact that most terrorist groups fail, and that all of them die. Lest this seem hard to believe, just reflect on the world around you. Israel continues to exist, Northern Ireland is still a part of the United Kingdom, and Kashmir is a part of India. There are no sovereign states in Kurdistan, Palestine, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Chechnya, Corsica, Tamil Eelam, or Basque Country. The Philippines, Algeria, Egypt, and Uzbekistan are not Islamist theocracies; nor have Japan, the United States, Europe, and Latin America become religious, Marxist, anarchist, or new-age utopias. The numbers confirm the impressions. ~ Steven Pinker

I didn't finish the stories until we went to the Philippines and I got malaria. I couldn't work and I didn't have any money, but I had seven stories. So I wrote three or four more. ~ Denis Johnson

Religion, in refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime imputed to you; the government, in surrounding your case with mystery and shadow, gives reason for belief in some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, in venerating your memory and calling you martyrs, in no way acknowledges your guilt. ~ Jose Rizal

It is ironic that many Filipinos learn to love the Philippines while abroad, not at home. ~ Ambeth R. Ocampo

I hated to have us take the Philippines, but I don't see how in the world we can give them up. ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin

We've supported the U.S. every step of the way. The Philippines was the first government in Asia after September 11, in fact, the night of September 11; it was nighttime for us then. It was daytime here. We were the first government in Asia to come out and say that we're supporting the U.S. ~ Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

The Philippines bear witness to the youthfulness and vitality of the Church. ~ Pope Francis

I usually go out riding late at night when there's no traffic because L.A. has become almost like the Philippines now as far as traffic. ~ Richard Grieco

Language as a Prison

The Philippines did have a written language before the Spanish colonists arrived, contrary to what many of those colonists subsequently claimed. However, it was a language that some theorists believe was mainly used as a mnemonic device for epic poems. There was simply no need for a European-style written language in a decentralized land of small seaside fishing villages that were largely self-sufficient.

One theory regarding language is that it is primarily a useful tool born out of a need for control. In this theory written language was needed once top-down administration of small towns and villages came into being. Once there were bosses there arose a need for written language. The rise of the great metropolises of Ur and Babylon made a common written language an absolute necessity - but it was only a tool for the administrators. Administrators and rulers needed to keep records and know names - who had rented which plot of land, how many crops did they sell, how many fish did they catch, how many children do they have, how many water buffalo? More important, how much then do they owe me? In this account of the rise of written language, naming and accounting seem to be language's primary "civilizing" function. Language and number are also handy for keeping track of the movement of heavenly bodies, crop yields, and flood cycles. Naturally, a version of local oral languages was eventually translated into symbols as well, and nonadmi ~ David Byrne