Is it Good vs. Evil?

I am squeamish any time somebody brings up "good" versus "evil" in politics because in this context, the Church pretty much has a monopoly on ascribing what either one is. In the classic binary of black-white, devil-satan, there is little acknowledgment of the gray in between. Randy David rightly cautions Noynoy Aquino's camp from overtly framing his candidacy along these lines:

For, such moralistic formulations preempt and disparage the need for a careful and reasoned analysis of the problems that confront us as a nation. They tend to focus on the character of the doer than on the origins and consequences of the deed. They ride on unexamined moral prejudices, and simplify the search for political solutions into a quest for heroes. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may be the most despised president in the nation’s history, but instead of ascribing to her sole authorship of everything that is bad in our government, I find it more arguable to think of her as a reflection of our society’s basic problems, or the street-smart personification of a dysfunctional social order.

Perhaps because I have seen what 'evil' professional purveyors of morality can and do perpetrate up close, I share David's opinion. The Church has called pro-Reproductive Health advocates 'evil.' There is no reasoning with anyone who thumps the bible and calls on God as final arbiter on affairs of humankind. There is no room for debate and no room to unpack and balance ideas on what it means to be a mother and what a woman's rights are vis-à-vis her husband, her family and the State.

There is no question that the Church played a significant party in the first People Power. Then, they also framed the Marcos regime as the evil empire to be toppled. Here, let me say I understand where Conrado de Quiros is coming from when he says the battle is that between good and evil:

The people who criticize Good and Evil presume completely unsophisticatedly and plain ignorantly that we think only with our conscious abstract mind, not with our unconscious image-making mind. They’re so busy looking at logistics, figures, organizational charts, they cannot appreciate the power of myth, symbol and archetype. Or the power of the storyline the ad agencies of the “presidentiables” are so desperate to find and mine for their candidates. The phrase “Good vs Evil” is merely a symbolic, mythical, archetypal, shorthand for a situation where the choice has become so stark, so life-and-death, it cannot be captured by trite and sullen articulations.

It was linguist George Lakoff who said our brains are structured to process information and to find meaning in metaphors. The human mind organizes thought by creating categories. For political purposes, Lakoff, a democrat, has written literature on how Republicans have successfully used language to frame many policy issues. It is understandable, then, that De Quiros is hammering the Good versus Evil frame. On the surface, this is a metaphor that has rung true among homo sapiens since they started walking upright. We categorize things as 'bad' or 'evil' if they harm us and 'good' if they don't. In discerning the difference, we act accordingly.

Let me suggest then that David and De Quiros' seemingly opposing views need not be irreconcilable. For the purposes of elections in these extraordinary times - the good versus evil frame will be useful. But for the purposes of governance, the day-to-day nitty-gritty of running a country, we might want to heed David's appeal to careful reasoning.

And since history has shown we have no problem fighting the battle of Good verus Evil, then we might want to shore up our collective capacities to fight the more protracted battle of figuring out how we can function as a just and prosperous nation.

RIP President Arroyo

This is too good to pass up. Thanks to Ade for the head's up! On top of the multiple slips yesterday by news anchors, uttering GMA's name instead of Cory's....we have this on Manila Bulletin today. Ano 'to? Collective desires of our id?



ETA:

Aaaaand...courtesy of E.P. LOLZ



ETA again:

They keep pouring in. Yahoo News



ETA 8/7

Via Nash

That Infallible Heart

I have searched for words to describe my reaction upon learning of Cory Aquino’s death. Days before, knowing she was terribly sick, I did not feel anything. Not grief nor sadness but a sense of inevitability. Nothing is finite and all beginnings must have an end. Since I do not have a god to which to pray, I had no recourse to the usual avenues of comfort.

On Saturday morning a friend alerted me to the news before I could plug in. The whole weekend I searched for a way to articulate my feelings and the thoughts in my head. I watched a few of her speeches on YouTube and sat teary-eyed every so often. I remembered what I had said earlier when the false news of her death had leaked, I’d said “Her death will mark a sunset to many things.”

Cory was our neighbor, my playmates said. She lived a few dozen meters down from my home in Kalookan. My playmates and I would come to her house and steal glimpses of her from outside her gates as she moved about her home preparing meals or scolding her children. We all wondered why she did not wear her trademark yellow. We reasoned, it must only be for her public appearances.

Much later I would realize that this woman was not in fact the new president of the country, as older folks would tell me. “No, that is not the President!” they would insist, but rather a look alike. My little heart was crushed as the reality dawned. And here I thought we had something special in our sleepy little neighborhood.

She has been described as many things – the mother of democracy, the homemaker, the politician’s wife, the reluctant president. As a child, she was an enigma, a leader so charismatic everyone spoke of her only in reverence. I would later come to know her politics in adulthood. I would know that she did not in fact deliver us from evil, that her constitution was a compromise, that the restoration of democracy would also restore the old power alignments peopled by old and new faces. Power alignments that had and indeed continue to threaten our fragile democracy. It is the same kind of realization one has when one realizes one’s parents are not infallible, that they in fact are human beings replete not only with strengths but also with weaknesses.

In adulthood we take responsibility for the successes and failures of the past. As our young nation gropes its way through the dark, we too make mistakes. We must all grow up one of these days.

Corazon Aquino’s death marks the sunset of the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship, where the people’s yearning for order gave way to the rot of centralized power and of centralized greed. That was the struggle of our parents and grandparents.

On Wednesday Corazon Aquino will be laid to rest. I can only hope that as any good daughter, we take with us the memories of her infallibility as child and what made her fallible as a grown-up. Our country’s democratizing project is far from over. It has only begun. Laban.

Corazon, Good Journey

The Jun Lozada in You

There are no saints, no sinners, only human beings.

As I write this, a Filipino who spoke truth to power has been arrested. His offense? That of implicating the powerful in the most heinous of crimes that can possibly be committed by those who are entrusted with the public trust - abuse of authority to commit theft in such unimaginable magnitude.

Graft and corruption, such vague words. What does this mean to the ordinary person? It can range from life and death situations, especially among the most vulnerable, to inconveniences of having to drive on pock-marked, barely-lit roads. Public funds are a lifeblood of a country. How and where they are spent show the priorities of our society. Ideally, public funds should be spent on the provision of public services and public goods. In simple terms, they should be spent to make life easier for all of us.

If Gloria Arroyo's husband, indeed, the President herself - the embodiment of the Filipino people's will - steal from public coffers as Jun Lozada and others like him allege, then they literally make life harder for all of us. Imagine the billions of pesos that would have been spent on the construction of new classrooms, the procurement of books, the funding of public hospitals.

Corruption is not only a public crime committed by public officials. To my mind, corruption is very private, very personal. We all pay for the privilege of being Filipino. Our taxes, automatically confiscated by the State, are a product of our own personal toil. Imagine the fruits of your hard work going to the pockets of those whom we entrust to run this country. More than a slap in the face, it is an abomination.

There are no saints, no sinners, only human beings. Jun Lozada has himself admitted to wrong-doing. A mid-level bureaucrat dabbling in mid-level theft. But there are limits to our descent into perdition, and he probably reached his when he learned he was going to be made to disappear. I remember seeing him for the first time last year, my bittersweet homecoming. I remember thinking he vaguely looked like my father. In his eyes I saw not the absence of fear. He spoke like a man with a death sentence awaiting judgment. Today mayhaps, it has come.

He said he did not want to be a hero, and a certainly not a martyr. In this country's grand narrative, we, all of us, seem insignificant gnats in the order of things. But there are limits to the 'inconveniences' we can bear. There are limits to our consenting to surrender the fruits of our labor to a giant thieving machine. There are limits to the collective deadening of our social conscience. We cannot all be ostriches, willingly burying our heads in the sand in denial of the reality we're in.

Are you Ninoy?

In memory of a man who thought the Filipino was worth dying for. Here is the speech he no longer had a chance to deliver when he returned to the Philippines in August 21, 1983. It has been 25 long years. Much of what he writes remains the same. Are we still worthy of the sacrifices made by those who came before us?

I have returned on my free will to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedoms through nonviolence.

I seek no confrontation. I only pray and will strive for a genuine national reconciliation founded on justice.

I am prepared for the worst, and have decided against the advice of my mother, my spiritual adviser, many of my tested friends and a few of my most valued political mentors.

A death sentence awaits me. Two more subversion charges, both calling for death penalties, have been filed since I left three years ago and are now pending with the courts.

I could have opted to seek political asylum in America, but I feel it is my duty, as it is the duty of every Filipino, to suffer with his people especially in time of crisis.

I never sought nor have I been given assurances or promise of leniency by the regime. I return voluntarily armed only with a clear conscience and fortified in the faith that in the end justice will emerge triumphant.

According to Gandhi, the WILLING sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man.

Three years ago when I left for an emergency heart bypass operation, I hoped and prayed that the rights and freedoms of our people would soon be restored, that living conditions would improve and that blood-letting would stop.

Rather than move forward, we have moved backward. The killings have increased, the economy has taken a turn for the worse and the human rights situation has deteriorated.

During the martial law period, the Supreme Court heard petitions for Habeas Corpus. It is most ironic, after martial law has allegedly been lifted, that the Supreme Court last April ruled it can no longer entertain petitions for Habeas Corpus for persons detained under a Presidential Commitment Order, which covers all so-called national security cases and which under present circumstances can cover almost anything.

The country is far advanced in her times of trouble. Economic, social and political problems bedevil the Filipino. These problems may be surmounted if we are united. But we can be united only if all the rights and freedoms enjoyed before September 21, 1972 are fully restored.

The Filipino asks for nothing more, but will surely accept nothing less, than all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the 1935 Constitution -- the most sacred legacies from the Founding Fathers.

Yes, the Filipino is patient, but there is a limit to his patience. Must we wait until that patience snaps?

The nation-wide rebellion is escalating and threatens to explode into a bloody revolution. There is a growing cadre of young Filipinos who have finally come to realize that freedom is never granted, it is taken. Must we relive the agonies and the blood-letting of the past that brought forth our Republic or can we sit down as brothers and sisters and discuss our differences with reason and goodwill?

I have often wondered how many disputes could have been settled easily had the disputants only dared to define their terms.

So as to leave no room for misunderstanding, I shall define my terms:

1. Six years ago, I was sentenced to die before a firing squad by a Military Tribunal whose jurisdiction I steadfastly refused to recognize. It is now time for the regime to decide. Order my IMMEDIATE EXECUTION OR SET ME FREE.

I was sentenced to die for allegedly being the leading communist leader. I am not a communist, never was and never will be.

2. National reconciliation and unity can be achieved but only with justice, including justice for our Muslim and Ifugao brothers. There can be no deal with a Dictator. No compromise with Dictatorship.

3. In a revolution there can really be no victors, only victims. We do not have to destroy in order to build.

4. Subversion stems from economic, social and political causes and will not be solved by purely military solutions; it can be curbed not with ever increasing repression but with a more equitable distribution of wealth, more democracy and more freedom, and

5. For the economy to get going once again, the workingman must be given his just and rightful share of his labor, and to the owners and managers must be restored the hope where there is so much uncertainty if not despair.

On one of the long corridors of Harvard University are carved in granite the words of Archibald Macleish:

"How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith."

I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer -- faith in our people and faith in God.

Carlos Celdran - Abortionist?!?

I am pressed for time, and so I cannot write a proper post to laud Carlos Celdran's one-man effort to help. But this came out on Inquirer Sunday magazine today. Click photo to enlarge.

Mga Pare Ko!

The greatest Pinoy band of all time. Well, at least of my generation. My gawd. It will be historic!

Butch and I were just talking about it the other day.We weren't even aware there have been rumours circulating about an Eraserheads reunion concert! Yesterday this was confirmed by the Philippine Star's Ricky Lo. The concert will be on August 30 at CCP grounds. Tickets are FREE. However you will have to register at the Marlboro website and you'd be lucky if you win tickets! More details here.

Ninotchka Rosca

First, the name. What a journalist would give to have been born with a name like that. Its intriguing. Is it a man or a woman? Is s/he Russian-Spanish? Romanian (for the perfect blend of Slavic and Latin)? Then Butch tells me she used to be Joma Sison's lover and wrote his biography. My interest was piqued. The lover of the Communist Party's exiled leader who was imprisoned during the Marcos regime. For someone who was born after the First Quarter Storm, I have no memory of Rosca. All I know of her was her article on Ambassador Lauro Baja which came out on the front page of the Inquirer a week ago. A follow up, adds a bit more credibility to her story.

When her first story came out, I thought, wow this person must have balls to write something that could potential destroy a decorated diplomat's legacy. But then looking at Rosca's own achievements, her credentials are nothing to scoff at.

Ah, yet another one of our own, lost to the world, and found again through the www.

Rosca blogs here.

Andy Warhol, Prophet

Fame is just a YouTube upload away. Moymoy Palaboy was on the Inquirer today. I decided to check them out. Their work is derivative of the Chinese Backstreet Boys, but what the heck. I dare say they're funnier. :)

This is my favourite so far. The brothers singing Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend



And Marimar comes in a close second. Hahaha.

For Shame

With my imported degree, people are constantly asking me if I have any plans of joining the Philippine diplomatic corps. Pasensya na ha. I have absolutely no wish to engage in the fiction that diplomacy works for the "national interest." If you mean living the high life at the expense of tax payers' money, then that constitutes self-service, not public service. And then you hear of news like this:

NEW YORK -- AMBASSADOR Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., who headed the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 2003 to 2007, is one of four defendants in a civil complaint alleging trafficking, forced labor, peonage and racketeering.

...The complaint was filed by 39-year-old Marichu Suarez Baoanan through lawyers Aaron Mendelsohn of Troutman Sanders and Ivy O. Suriyopas of the Asian merican Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Ambassador Baja, 71, was also president of the UN Security Council in June 2004.

Baoanan...said she stayed at the five-story Philippine consular residence at 15 East 66th Street, New York—a townhouse where she was made to work 16 hours daily, seven days a week, in the Baja household.

Baoanan said she was paid only a total of $100 for three months of work, and another $100 for taking care of Facundo’s son who, she said, was allowed to hit her.

Wow. If the allegations are true, how many articles of the UN Declaration of Human Rights was violated by this big-time diplomat? You can also read more about Ambassador Baja's sterling diplomatic record here.

Oh my Ambassador. How far you have strayed. If the allegations are true - all that you have achieved and all you have done - will have become meaningless.

Para Maiba Naman

How depressing my last few posts. O s'ya sige. I saw Jo Koy live in Brisbane. He was Russell Peters' guest comic. Even Russell admitted being outstaged by this guy. Needless to say, I have never laughed so hard (and for such an extended time - almost 3 hours) in my entire life.

His material is mostly about his Filipino mother, Asian ethnic jokes, being a father and his family. This short snippet does NOT do him justice.

In Defence of the Truly Talented and the Merit of Merit

Pop culture is reflexive. The tastes and values we see circulating in popular media are reflected back to us. We are both its passive receptors as well as its active purveyors. We are defined by pop culture, just as we define it. In mass media - from radio, to television, to newspapers and the wild and wooly web, we constantly reassure each other of what is acceptable and what is valuable to wear, to read, to eat and drink, to think and to consume in culture.

Pop culture is a reflection of society. Because human beings are social, what is popular in culture communicate what a society deems important. What a society values are usually the ones which resonate in mass media.

But mass media is more complex than just a set of institutions which serve as "conveyor belts" of culture. They are businesses, which means they must operate on principle of profit. This implies they must pander to the "demands" of an audience. If the audience demands inanity, mass media will have to provide inanity. If the audience demands excellence, then mass media will have to provide excellence.

It is disheartening, the kinds of values the old media reflect back to us. The culture we are forced to consume are pandering to the least common denominator. The "popular" after all must coalesce somewhere in the centre. But for how long must we tolerate a pop culture of mediocrity? Especially in today's age of globalisation - of the easy accessibility of other cultures, cultures which push the imagination, cultures that challenge the "normal", cultures that invite creativity and innovation.

Our pop culture should showcase our best, reflecting our best. Our pop culture should serve to reassure us that what our society deems valuable - in fashion, in literature, in film, in our ways of doing - are the best we can offer each other, the best we can offer ourselves and the best we can offer the world.

That said, are Tim Yap and Celine Lopez the best our pop culture can offer?

Read also:
AbsurdiTV
What Damaged Culture?
In a Wowowee State of Mind
Excising Cinderella, Maria Clara and Inang Maria From Our Minds

Deconstructing Celine Lopez' Book Report

I like seeing patterns. Sometimes I think my brain is especially configured to see them. This is probably why I cannot write a paper straight on - that is, think of an argument and find evidence for support. I have to wade through literature on the general subject, and then trust that my brain reads a pattern that (hopefully) no one has yet seen. I cannot start from the conclusion (argument) then work my way backwards. I dip in the middle, and ripple my way to the shores. This is probably why papers are so agonising, they take me off tangents, like now.

The theme on picking up where our ancestors left off a hundred years ago seems to be snow-balling lately. Jester-in-exile picks up on Sylvia Mayuga's column yesterday. She likens the present crisis of the country to a real-life sequel of the Noli and Fili.

This sequel carries the 19th century’s main plotline into the 21st century – an enslaved people trying to break free from a very old unjust system.

I have said before how I thought it bizarre that we are still fighting to give birth to a nation. And so our language lately, in the old and new media, are full of modern terms - truth, justice, enlightenment, poverty, inequality.

I find that Manolo's blog is often underscored with modern ideas - of the French revolutionary kind. Not coincidentally my whole series on Malu Fernandez also carried this theme.

Which finally brings me to Celine Lopez' column yesterday, link courtesy of Sandwich Spy. She entitles it "A book report," one on French revolutionary Victor Hugo's most popular novel.

The summer he passed, I read Les Miserables for the first of many times in my life. Being suddenly a stranger in the world I had inhabited for some years now, the book suddenly provided me with a lesson my grandfather failed to teach me: that the perfect world is found in an imperfect world, my world after him.

How bizarre that one of the main protagonists in the Pinoyblogosphere's latest revolts against the so-called elite's exposed decadence, should choose a book that is the anti-thesis of her and her friends' reason for being . Peddling values which belong to the 19th century. Guiltless partying and bacchanalia of the sin-free. Values that say you have your world and I have mine and never the twain shall meet.

But Celine Lopez' column is not a book report. It is not even about the book. She chose the title and the book to tell us she is a woman of substance, that someone so young could read something so old. Quelle classe. I have never before read her column, but at least she can string words together to make pretty. It is mostly self-involved, as I imagine most of her columns are. But then we are all self-involved to a degree aren't we? So, moving on.

Second she writes a cute little story of when she was a little girl and how she coped with her grandfather's death.

In the end, with all my infallible adoration, I realized my lolo was like every human being. A Jean Valjean. It was my idea to put him on a pedestal; he never asked for it. He never insisted on it. Unlike Cosette’s and especially Marius’ grief in learning of Valjean’s truth, I loved him more for his humanity and not his godliness. A betrayal of thought redeemed by truth.

Other than herself, the main subject in her story happens to belong to one of the most powerful families in the Philippines, of which she is a part. Old landed aristocrats, remnants of the old world. In her own words, she was lost without her grandfather, a little girl worthy of empathy and understanding.

As a young adult I constantly tested what was truly right and wrong. Embracing my lessons from my mistakes more than my triumphs, I grew up still fragile, flawed and questioning.

So, she grew up fragile, little-girl-lost-y without her anchor. Empathy. We are also supposed to empathise with her sins, in her ventures from the perfect world.

It’s ironic that, in his theatrical setting of the perfect life for me in my early years, he further made me want to discover what makes the world ill. Perhaps feeling I had been stupid and fearing I would continuing being so, it drove me to find every flaw and to ultimately understand it.

And every flaw means doing what has been alleged in that blog down under? Well, that makes for a lot of understanding.

Then she ends her little ditty with a piece of advice. She is, after all, a woman of substance.

Life is a dramatic comedy and tragedy, forever interchanging until the curtains draw. Like in every story, what gives it meaning and remembrance is the plot, the characters and the struggle.

Let your will be the engine, your loved ones the wheels and your struggles the inspiration in creating your plot. Then, in this imperfect world, with our imperfect selves, we find perfect dreams in sleep.

So, let us be humble in our imperfections, she says. Let ye who hath no sin cast the first stone. Woman of substance. Family of substance. Fierce pride, but willing to learn from mistakes. She paints herself as battle-weary, little-girl-lost-y, experimenting-with-life kind of girl.

Oh the bravura.

I just wish she chose another book to "report" on. Because all she seems to have learned from the implied numerous times she has read the book, is that the world is not perfect and that people can change. A pity. In this day and age, it is tasteless and callous to draw comparisons between someone like her and the truly down-trodden and oppressed in Hugo's imaginary.

----

This post has been edited. Apparently, I can be sued for libel for:

Quoting a libelous sentence on the blog or re-publishing/summarizing allegations thereof.

Publicly mentioning names of people being exposed in the blog.

Publishing the URL of the blog or linking to the blog.

So here's to Freedom of Speech. How dear you have become. Only a few can afford you. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.

Brian Gorrell's Blog is Alive!

This blog is not above juicy gossip. Wehehe. The DJ Montano blog (written by a certain DJ Montano's spurned lover) has a new post. He ends it with a threat:

I will shame your entire family because of DJ's crime against me.

DJ, do the right thing. Borrow the money from your family. Borrow it from a friend. Just give it to me.

Because I will re open this blog.

Nyahahaha. As Gibbs Cadiz says, its schadenfreud. I caught wind of this too late, and so I didn't get a chance to read the entries with all the comments. Even though he has deleted his posts, they're still floating in the ether. Make some popcorn, get comfy on your favourite meuble and "read" at your heart's content. Mwahahahaha.

ETA:

I am deliriously, ridiculously happy to report, that my post is the top search result when you google "tim yap."

Read also:
Deconstructing Celine Lopez' Book Report
In Defence of the Truly Talented and the Merit of Merit

Malu Fernandez, You Attention Whore You

She has some choice words for us upstarts in her latest column. Just because her words come to life in ink and ours in pixels, does not make her a journalist. I'm a blogger. Five years of my life and my thoughts are chronicled on this blog. I don't think that's slacking...that's providing intellectual capital for free.

Hemingway, I have said my piece on this one, so I won't jump into the fray. Just happy to report on everyone else's reaction so far:

From Jego:

Let us ignore the fact that she calls herself a journalist. I prefer to call her a columnist, but that is neither here nor there. The difference between a journalist and a blogger is that journalists have to adhere to certain guidelines that govern the freedom of speech. Last I checked, freedom of speech and the "guidelines" thereof cover both journalists and bloggers, and in fact cover all citizens. The principle of freedom of speech does not discriminate between journalists, bloggers, butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker. Perhaps what she means is journalists are covered by the standards of the publication said journalist happens to work for. Bloggers, not working for anybody for the most part, do not have to adhere to standards other than their own. A blog is a private space where the blogger can do whatever he or she wants, say anything he or she wants, insult or edify whoever he or she wants. The only courtesy a blogger affords to his or her readers or to his or her targets is to open the blog up for comments, an open invitation to his or her readers to agree or disagree with whatever was written. A blog is just like any other conversation, or at least it should be. The only standards bloggers adhere to are the standards of the society at large.

From Pedestrian Observer:

It is unfortunate and at the same time a reflection on the liepapers’ credibility and poor standard in hiring a shallow “writer” dipping her fingers on subject she knows nothing about comparing it with shopping experience is so absurd and ridiculous...One is allowed to make a fool of themselves, that is the essence of living in a free country and she can stay that way because she is fixated on accessorizing herself with name brand items unfortunately wearing expensive name brands does not necessarily make one look better. It is not what you wear that counts but what you are deep within that determines your character as a person.

From Carlos Celdran:

But I'm also wondering what's the deal with her smarmy remarks about some blogger of Spanish descent. I wonder who she's talking about. And what is it about this year? It's just one bloody ta-e* explosion after the other on the blogosphere.

From Bryanboy:

Are you THAT disconnected with what goes on these days? I have no idea what it's like in that insulated cave you live in but woman, get on with the program!

From Nightdreamer:

She ridiculously claims that us, Filipinos, are a culture of whiners. And what was she doing exactly? Not whining?

Oh. And Yugatech has awarded her Master Link Baiter of the year.


Related Posts:

Putting on the "Other's" Shoes
On the Democracy of the Pinoyblogosphere a.k.a Malu Fernandez Take Your Cue
Let Them Eat Cake
OFWs Are No Heroes
The Philippines' First Cyber Counterculture Movement, Malu Fernandez, Hala Lagot Ka!

The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela

A couple of years back, before I even knew I'd even be in Oz working for an online dating company, my significant other Butch Maddul shot a docu in Cebu for a filmmaker from Iceland. The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela is the fairytale journey of a Filipino/a ladyboy. How bizarre is it that I literally see stories like hers every time I clock in for work these days?

Congratulations to Olaf de Fleur Johannesson for making it in this year's Berlinale film festival.



I will need to see the movie again to write a decent review!

Join the TFC

I am joining the Trillanes Fan Club. Courtesy of Philippine Comedian, here is our logo.




Related entries:
The Soldier is a Drama Queen
Communists are Dead so What's All the Fuss?

Protest Against Panggagago

Via Manolo, the Black and White Movement is arranging a mass post-card sending event on Friday, November 9 at the post office. They're also planning simultaneous symbolic gestures in key cities with Diasporic communities.

Again a minor caveat on this movement's slogans, I don't know if they are being self-consciously bourgeois (and thus inclusive) or they're making fun of the apathetic middle class. See, the message behind the postcard below:




Remember I didn't like their slogan "Patalsikin na, now na!" in previous mass actions. But really, this is just piss-poor translation of Lincoln's quotable quote. Sheesh. I humbly propose a better one, without (hopefully) losing the oomph:

Kayo mong linlangin ang lahat ng mga mamamayan sa ilang pagkakataon at ang ilan sa kanila sa lahat ng pagkakataon, ngunit 'di mo kayang gaguhin ang lahat ng mga mamamayan sa lahat ng pagkakataon.

ETA:

Hehe, thank god the Pinoy Big Briber movement made some modifications to their translation.

Jo Koy

Filipino-American comic Jo Koy wears his heritage proudly on Jay Leno.