Miguel Syjuco Quotes
I don't see myself as any different from all the other Filipinos who have gone abroad looking for opportunity, to be a nurse, a labourer, a maid or a prostitute.
Syjuco, Miguel. "A life in writing: Miguel Syjuco." Interview by Alison Flood. The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2011.
The 13th Amendment prohibited slavery, and she argues that if pimps who force prostitutes to work for them were arrested and prosecuted for slavery, a much more serious crime, it would discourage the pimps and in her view greatly reduce prostitution. Critics argue that other mechanism for the commercial organization of prostitution would replace the pimps. However, the critics have not been able to refute the notion that pimps were the most socially undesirable and criminal elements of prostitution merchandising, and eliminating pimping would be constructive even if there were no change in the number of prostitutes.
Schopenhauer was one who believed that monogamy was not a natural state and therefore could never really be enforced. No matter what laws, rules, norms a society has about monogamy, large numbers of people—often majorities—find ways around them. Those who have been the most passionate and public about the importance of monogamy, are often those who personally do not follow that path.
France, which in the 18th and 19th centuries was the center of science and technology for the world, has become more culturally conservative and has developed a maturity towards money and materialism which admires science and innovation but is reluctant to make the sacrifices in living and social style that is often required. Corporate regulations and banking and investment standards made it hard to form a Silicon Valley type organization in France. Many young people had gone to other countries to develop their skills and gain experience, but few return to France while many will start companies, they do it elsewhere.
Miguel Syjuco is a Filipino writer from Manila and the grand prize winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize for his first novel Ilustrado.
