Panoramic Thoughts

by Francine Manzana

The growth of Korean Pop into a global genre in the recent years is undeniably commendable. Accompanying the accessibility and influence of social media with formulated songs and choreographies, the Korean music industry exhibits systems of manufacturing artists with toxic anchors rooted within the genre and culture. Perhaps it is the way of which artists are debuted and promoted that international enthusiasts become attracted to what is otherwise merely another classification of music. K-pop is the product of recently attained liberty in the expression and consumption of art and drive to compete in a cutthroat global competition. These have led to consequences such as mass production, absolute control, and abuse.

by Ryan Koa

For the past few years, the Philippines has been in territorial disputes with China in several key areas in the West Philippine Sea. Due to this and the Philippines’ alliance with the U.S., the foreign policy of the Philippines has always been hostile against China. This has been the case up until recently when Duterte came into power and ever since then our foreign relations has changed.

by Janna Koa

Release me from this pile of concrete,

I demand you to do as I say—

A follower once, now turned into a weapon.

There shall come a day where I'll learn how to stand alone.

by Francine Manzana

his skin is thick thinly scented by summer’s dew

his threads are sewed and colors sickened

with drunken pursuits upon their fickle cheeks

by Mia Hocchuan

In the dead of winter, she forgets her name.

(Oh, was it Rose, was it Diana, was it Sophie, was it Claire?)

Her fingers cool straight down to the bone and the length of her back shivers with nervous anticipation. Her hair lays lightly on her shoulders without a single strand out of place and the tips of her fingers itch with a sudden urge to move, but she waits. She waits until the sun crawls its way back into the way it was before—the days when the coldness of winter didn’t take the world into its small, petite hands and place it lightly onto December’s tongue to swallow it whole.

by Mitchel Raven Rey

As an elementary student, the idea of finding someone to be my best friend was one that I was fixated upon. And I did find someone — I got along extremely well with a certain girl. I thought that was it. But in high school, we drifted apart.

by Phoebe Uy

When I was a child,

I used to observe the ants at work:

A trail of them,

Sometimes in twos or threes,

Their ink-black bodies glimmering in the light.

And as my head shadows over them,

So does the darkness that follows any good.

by Rafaella Mae Handayan

Want to have a good laugh, shed a few tears, scare yourself or just spend time with your loved ones I’m sure there is Korean drama, or k-drama for short, that would surely catch your attention. Whether you are a boy or a girl, a student or an adult, it’s never too late to try and watch one.

Hwaiting (Fighting), Finger heart, Oppa, Ramyeon, I’m sure you have heard a few of these terms. As a k-drama addict myself, I want to share some of the dramas that I have watched and give a brief background as to how it captured my heart and might surely capture yours too. If I could just share all the k-dramas I have watched, I would definitely would. I had a hard time choosing a few so i decided to group them into different categories namely, action, suspense-drama, fantasy, romance-comedy, family drama and about school.

by Allaine Tan

The discussion on how our education system needs reform from its outdated and traditional ways is not a new one. In 1995, Robert Sternberg opened the dialogue on how schools stifle creativity by encouraging conformity. In his book “Defying the Crowd”, he reveals that “gifted” children oftentimes struggle with producing new and insightful ideas because of how schools prioritize the ability to memorize and analyze material over original thinking. In 2008, Tony Wagner names gaps in the educational system in his book “The Global Achievement Gap”, saying:

“However, it has become increasingly clear to me that even in these “good” schools, students are simply not learning the skills that matter most for the twenty-first century. Our system of public education—our curricula, teaching methods, and the tests we require students to take—were created in a different century for the needs of another era.”