Pinoy Blog of the Week 03/11/2005

Pinoy Blog of the Week 03/11/2005 

I am absolutely flattered that my blog was recognized as blog of the week by Pinoy Blog! Thanks to all of you who regularly visit my blog. It is my hope that through discussions in this medium that we will be able to better understand the problems that confront the Philippines today. With better understanding comes more effective individual decisions. Again thank you!

The following is the write up for Divergent Poles at www.pinoyblog.com :

When Mell Ditangco started blogging in 2002, he was single and all wrapped up in his career which was on a definite upbeat swing. Seven months later, he was an entrepreneur and a married man. Soon after that, he was reaching out to his roots. A Filipino-Chinese living in the United States started blogging about the Philippine political scene. He names the government, the academe and organized religion as the causes of poverty in the Philippines. There was a time when he thought that micro-financing would provide the much-needed capital to uplift the lives of marginal Filipinos. Then, he realized that the inability of the masses to rise from the quagmire is anchored on more deep-rooted reasons.

As with many Filipinos who migrated to the U.S. as adolescents or adults, Mell retains many fond memories of the country he left behind. His memories of Christmas in the province is nostalgic. On the other extreme, his ties with his native land despite the physical distance still made him emotionally vulnerable to to news of political corruption.

Mell Ditangco's Divergent Poles is quite a ride despite the intermittent posting. It is a package containing a young man's journey through life. It is also an intellectual journey as he grapples with possible solutions for the problems besetting the country that he continues to love from afar. Well, the journey goes on. The young man is about to become a dad.