A French manicure.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Tish Martinez

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse to rest on inference.

Thomas Jefferson

WHEN PEOPLE LEARN THAT IM AN ACTIVIST, THEY automatically look at my nails. No matter how much they try, it seems they cannot imagine anyone among the angry horde they see on TV news programs having manicured nails.

Explaining the seeming paradox is never easy, especially if one is not accustomed to explaining to people one has just met. Which only goes to show, I suppose, that after all the education I got in the activist world and after all the people Ive met, I remain indifferent to society at large.

This is not to say that I do not have a heart for the poor or that Im living a double standard. My pretty nails cannot tell you that everything I have learned along this badly ridiculed path has gone to waste. I think that …