Andre Taban > Recent Status Updates

"A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns."

"He had long ago learned that society imposes insults that must be borne, comforted by the knowledge that in this world[,] there comes a time when the most humble of men, if he keeps his eyes open, can take revenge on the most powerful."

Hopeful to get over my reading slump.

I really have to finish this book. Only one chapter remaining!

While Chapter 1 is a bit redundant in proving that Imelda embezzled public funds--making such chapter boring, IMO--Chapter 2 tackles a history of extravagance dating back from the Spanish colonial era. The analogy is, in a way, off-tangent and perhaps non-sequitor, IMO. But, unlike Chapter 1, this chapter is interesting as this aspect of Philippine history was not discussed in my history classes.

I love his writing style! But his history is a bit inaccurate, at least as far as this book is concerned.

"What was leadership, after all, but the blind choice of one route over another and the confident pretense that the decision was based on reason?"

Just one more story. The book that I have to finish.

Chapter 1 is filled with excruciating details about how the Marcos Family, most especially Imelda, bought so many unnecessary luxurious items using public funds that it bores the senses. The author has gone to great lengths in highlighting the specifics of the embezzlement, even though history has already established how the family plundered the public coffers.

For me, Chapter 1 is boring. Still gonna read it tho.

The systematic embezzlement of public funds by the Marcos regime in the 80s is unbelievable! Truly an insatiable hunger for wealth and power!

Hopeful that I can get back from a reading slump!

Back from a reading slump!

Came back from reading slump!

"Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity."

"A man who loses a battle with his king may be forgiven, but a man who win such a battle is doomed."

"It did not occur to them that a woman can be dangerous. How foolish they were. Women could do most of the things men did. Who was left in charge when the men were fighting wars or going on crusades? Why, it had been a woman, the Empress Maud, who caused the civil war that had gone for fifteen years! Yet, these wooden-headed men-at-arms did not expect a woman to be an enemy agent because it was not a normal thing."

"In impoverished societies with few accountable institutions, power rests with gangs disguised as "militia" or "political parties".