By Herman M. Lagon “Filipinos are resilient.” It is our favorite national line — spoken by officials, flashed on headlines, posted with hashtags every time disaster strikes. After Typhoon “Tino” drowned parts of Cebu, Negros and Panay, and earthquakes shook the Visayas and Mindanao, the same phrase echoed again, as if endurance were our greatest …
Impulses
Euler is everywhere
By Herman M. Lagon You do not need to understand Euler to be in awe of him. Just the fact that many of us unknowingly use his legacy daily in our classrooms, computations or even memes (yes, Euler’s identity made it to Reddit and TikTok) proves the kind of timeless mind we are talking about. …
Diploma mills rising!
By Herman M. Lagon There was a time when a master’s or doctorate felt almost sacred — a capstone of grit, patience and ideas tested by long nights and tougher mentors. Yet somewhere between the rush for promotions and the ease of shortcuts, graduate education in the Philippines began to lose its shine. The latest …
The power of perspective
By Herman M. Lagon There is something quietly heavy about hitting a low point mid-year. Maybe you are a public school teacher in your 5th class, sweat dripping, trying to teach a lesson you crammed at 4:00 a.m. Or a college student staring at a borrowed laptop, turning in a paper that feels more like …
Saints among us
By Herman M. Lagon You learn a lot about a culture by how it remembers — not just the dead, but the living who lived with purpose. On All Saints’ Day in the Philippines, celebrated every November 1, the focus may seem to be on tombs and candles. But look closer, and you will see …
Luck or logic
By Herman M. Lagon Superstitions, a fundamental part of Filipino culture, live in daily routines, whether skipping the ladder on a sidewalk or avoiding that rogue black cat (my neighbors call it “kuring mundo”) on a misty night. To the casual observer, these practices might seem a little odd, even amusing. But here’s the catch: …
When logic fails
By Herman M. Lagon There’s something about how certain political statements manage to land far from the original point — illogical, jarring and, frankly, baffling. They often do not seem to follow from anything previously said or done, yet they are thrown out with such conviction that listeners are momentarily stunned, nodding along, trying to …
Low-key self-care
By Herman M. Lagon Some of the absolute greatest life improvements do not arrive in bottles, on our phones or at a high-end price tag. They appear free, lying unobtrusively around us — not endorsed by influencers, no, but by our lolas. And we overlook them, assuming they are too simple to make a difference. …
When easy is the enemy
By Herman M. Lagon Some pandemics do not come with breaking news or body counts. They show up quietly, like the damp heat in a crowded office — felt, but unnamed. These are not viral outbreaks but everyday habits we have slowly accepted: the shortcuts we take, the rest we ignore, the disconnection we …
Quiet clues of genius
By Herman M. Lagon He did not look the part. No thick glasses, no medals, no highfalutin words. He barely spoke in class. But one day, when our math teacher scribbled a tough problem on the board and everyone froze, he casually stood up, solved it with quiet ease, then sat back down. No fuss. …