Just the facts: Noynoy Aquino and me

I’d never seen a leatherette wheelie filing cabinet until the night Philippine President Benigno Aquino spoke at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen another one since.

Rather than the big, agitated crowd or the gaudy slogans unfurled on the front row, it’s Aquino’s portable filing cabinet that has come to represent the strange events of September 23, 2014, in my mind.

During the annual September UN General Assembly, when heads of state and government beat a path to New York, a few, hand-picked world leaders make side-trips from the United Nations complex to Morningside Heights.

The setting for their speeches is the magnificent Low Library, the domed structure at the heart of the Columbia campus. I was delighted to be asked to moderate Aquino’s talk; I’m still not entirely sure why the privilege fell to me.

NYSEAN co-founder Duncan McCargo writes for Asia Times.

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