Word: sagas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Pretenders is the fourth of José's five Rosales novels, which together span a hundred years of Philippine history from the end of Spanish colonial rule to the declaration of martial law by a besieged Ferdinand Marcos in 1972. José's saga, an outraged testament to the inequalities that wrack Manila and the country at large, is rivaled in his nation's literature only by José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), both acknowledged influences on José's writing. In Dusk, the first in the saga and set at the wane...
...headache, you can take a cab to the "golden ghetto" of Makati - the city's CBD of stockjobbers and starched luxury malls - and be haunted by the thought of Antonio Samson's slum-dwelling illegitimate son Pepe. He features in Mass, the book that ends José's impassioned saga. In the novel's closing pages, Pepe confronts plutocrat Juan Puneta at his Makati mansion. After hearing Puneta say "I love exploiting the poor," Pepe kills him in an act of class rage and flees this town of heartbreaking contrasts, convinced his act was righteous. Though they may not harbor...
...Regrettably, a similar Hollywood ending to the recent Senate appointment saga proved elusive. Following Election Day, President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton all resigned their Senate seats. Nepotism, political power plays, and outright corruption sullied the search for their replacements. This should come as no surprise, since gubernatorial appointments to Senate seats are fundamentally undemocratic. They reward famous names, connections, and fundraising ability while denying the citizens of a state the chance to decide who their senator will be. Instead of relying on this outdated process for selecting interim...
Fifty years later, Barbie is becoming a star even in China--not to mention the lead character of a compelling business saga. It's one of unrelenting ambition that ends sadly but not unsuccessfully. Sales of Barbie, plus her carefully tailored outfits and paraphernalia, garnered more than $1 billion last year, helping keep Mattel the world's No. 1 toymaker. The curvaceous doll, who would measure 39-21-33 if she were an adult woman, is both an icon and a kitsch object that has provoked feminist ire. In recent years, Barbie's sales have vacillated because of competing dolls...
...leaves the electorate completely out of the process of selecting its own representative. Governors’ personal political interests can easily take precedence over voters’ preferences, leading to the selection of senatorial appointees with little or no appeal outside their district. Moreover, as the Blagojevich-Burris saga demonstrated so well, there are virtually no limitations on a governor’s power to appoint, which raises the possibility that corruption and nepotism could play into the decision. By the time the competence of appointed senators is eventually put to the test before voters during reelection, they already have...