22 years ago, Norah Jones’ debut album “Come Away With Me” was released. It became number one on the Billboard charts and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Feels like 22 years have just flown by, and it’s great to see her first studio album in nine years. It’s something to brighten up 2024. Here’s the first single from “Visions,”
Sarah Fergusson interviews BBM – a masterclass in journalism
Sarah Fergusson of ABC News, Australia interviewed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It was a masterclass on how to interview a politician – asking the hard questions that, unfortunately, most journalists in the Philippines seem to have forgotten or have chosen to forget
Here’s a portion of the interview:
SARAH FERGUSON: There is one series of questions that comes up in relation to your father’s time which is, which is, of course, the question of corruption which became wholly associated with the Philippines for a long period of time. I think contemporary court judgements acknowledge the atrocities that were committed but also the plunder of the country’s resources.
Why wouldn’t you want all of that money back in the hands of the Filipino people?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Well, with the narrative…[laughs dismissively]
SARAH FERGUSON: May I just ask you why that is funny?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Why that?
SARAH FERGUSON: Why that is funny. I’m asking you a question about the plundering of large sums of money from the Filipino people…
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: No. I’m thinking that that maintains, that idea maintains because I take exception to many many of the assertions that have been made.
And I think we have been, we have since the cases were filed, the government fell. Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate etc and up to now we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue.
SARAH FERGUSON: Quite a lot of money, I think $5 billion was already recovered. I guess the quetion is …
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, again, again…
SARAH FERGUSON: Do you not want to see all the money that was taken returned to the people?
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, we have signed, this family has signed a quitclaims, we have signed many quitclaims. Any money that you find is yours and finished and everything was taken from us.
We went, we were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us with nothing, we have nothing left.
SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I’m sorry?
SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission. This is my final question on this topic.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Which presidential commission?
SARAH FERGUSON: In the Philippines? Their view is there is a large amount of money outstanding.
FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I think that having seen the facts, as they have been slowly revealed, further true investigation, not propaganda, but actual true investigation, the court cases and investigations by all kinds of NGOs, different agencies, that has changed and people can see that it was propaganda.
Hello there, Copilot
This is how I welcomed Microsoft’s Copilot AI on my Windows machine:
Juan Ponce-Enrile celebrated his 100th birthday today and it has prompted a lot of content about timelines and relevant dates to show or mock how he seems to be immortal. Speaking of dates with real relevance here are some: having been born in 1924, Enrile was 48 years old when he faked an ambush against himself which became the excuse for the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr to declare Martial law in 1972. Enrile was 53 years old when Filipino student activist Archimedes Trajano was murdered by state security forces in 1977.
Logitech C270 – plagued by a design flaw
As with most other users of the Logitech C270, my unit started to show the dreaded ‘white screen’ error. It has become so bad I had to take it apart and fiddle with its innards as it is the most common temporary fix coming from other users. By all indications, the C270 seems to be suffering from a design flaw which is a shame because I’ve always held Logitech products in high regard.
Now I’m shopping around for a replacement although this doesn’t mean I’m parting ways with Logitech, as maybe this is the universe’s way of telling me to finally get that C920 or C930C that’s been in my shopping cart for almost three years now.