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in September of last year, in a conversation about the PNoy government that was riddled with questions from a British filmmaker newly met, i found myself talking about the disappointment that is Malacanang. the palace with a three-headed communications office that takes pride in being connected to the people, and yet has proven time and again to be releasing either the wrong information, too much information, or just not speaking up when it should. that conversation led to many things, though… Continue reading »
from “on criticism” by eli guieb: Criticism shatters. It shatters the shibboleths of our silenced lives, the deep silences about the wrongs of society. To challenge those silences has often come to mean courting tragedy. Criticism challenges those silences. It breaks silence free from its silence. It proffers breakthroughs that break down debilitating silences, and, in the process, rejoices in the breakdown of unwanted silence.
because i’d be lying if i said that Maria Ressa throwing the words libel and malicious my way didn’t render me speechless, literally and figuratively. but maybe what was worse than throwing that my way was the fact that it was also retracted with a brush-off: filing a case would be too much for too little. i haven’t been patronized like this publicly, have never felt let down by someone i respect since, oh i don’t know, i applied for… Continue reading »
what is being brought to light too, i find, is that while Lito Zulueta’s biases are questioned precisely because of the place he occupies in the Philippine Daily Inquirer vis a vis UST, his engagement with this issue has not happened in the broadsheet he works for. whereas Luis Teodoro’s attacks on him have happened in a regular Business World column. the discussion, thankfully, continues.
two weeks since the discussion that had most everyone ganging up on UST and Lito Zulueta and siding with Marites Danguilan Vitug ang rappler.com, where is the discourse on media (online and otherwise) at this point? rappler has quietly revealed itself to be about helping out government instead of being a critical voice that at the very least asks: how much was paid BBDO for this campaign and is it worth it? i guess no questions like that for “uncompromised journalism” now tagging… Continue reading »
congratulations are in order: the DOT after all has triggered a meme of itsmorefuninthephilippines and its campaign has functioned exactly the way they imagined (with the help of a media enterprise now admitting its bias, yehey!) it is not without its critics, myself included, but i don’t mind letting it have a life all its own, commentary included about as much as unthinking celebration: if we can trip on the DPWHere, how can we not trip on this one? which… Continue reading »
because 2011 ended with some sadness, and the new year had me on a roll, which is to say it forced me to hit the ground running. one must be thankful. the yearender for arts and theater and the one on popular culture were up before the end of 2011. though with the Metro Manila Filmfest happening at the end of the year, too, these could only be overshadowed by the notion of ending-with-a-bang and a foreboding of the year to… Continue reading »
truth to tell i didn’t care much about this “expose” of Marites Danguilan Vitug because it was a non-Corona non-issue to me. non-Corona, because exposing the lack of a dissertation, the number of years he took to finish the phd, his ineligibility for the honors he was given, point to the fact that this was always a UST issue. the basic question being: why make corona an exemption to university rules? and i didn’t care for that question because i knew without… Continue reading »
or let’s begin 2012 by talking about oppression, shall we? My issue with self-help books is that they are mostly American. And anyone who lives off of the Philippines’ contradictions and silences, crises and sadnesses would know that not much of American self-help applies to the every Pinay. The 11 stupid things women do by Veronica Pulumbarit, based on the book by Dr. Laura Schlessinger Ten Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives among other sources, reeks of a… Continue reading »
the cultural discourse on bayanihan and the Filipino’s propensity for kindness and reaching out has undoubtedly changed since the disaster that was Ondoy in 2009. then, relief efforts were galvanized online, like a grand display of how we could all be heroes, how we could help in our own ways, with narratives on heroism cutting across artistas going on their boats and surfboards to help out those stranded on the rooftops of their homes, with the nameless | faceless pinoys… Continue reading »
will be joining bloggers_united and other bloggers for this tomorrow: old books from my and stuartsantiago‘s shelves, and some CDs from past lives / tastes / interests. do come! you might find something you like, and we can chika. :) cheers!
“An old student once quoted to me Allan Gurganus’ remark that it was the writer’s job to take the world personally. I think that that’s true. When I read about The Who or John Ashcroft, or the disaster at Chernobyl, I’m reading about it because I’m interested in the subject, and by interested I mean to suggest that not only my intellect but my emotions have been engaged. And when I’m reading, I’m trying to read receptively; that is, I’m… Continue reading »
By Joel Santiago I practically exhorted my Mom into writing in fairness to the president. “This is a show of force, a fierce display of political will,” I said. This is how he’ll get things done in Philippines politics — with change happening so fast it’ll make the trapos’ heads spin. And isn’t this how you’d want it? The only possible way it can happen? The only way to dig out of our entrenchment in the status quo? (Yeah, I was… Continue reading »
and this isn’t even about the fact of those tweets from the celebrity guests at what apparently was a christmas party in Malacanang on Sunday, December 18 — which cannot be denied, such is the curse of tweeting, such is the power of screen grabs / captures, and no those women weren’t irresponsible, they were being themselves. what is irresponsible is the fact that there’s talk at all of a party happening at this point in the most powerful halls of… Continue reading »
this timeline via typhoonk shows how Sendong was being monitored a full week, since december 9, as a potential storm that at some point was considered part of “hurricane season.” PAGASA announces that a storm was headed our way on december 15, at 5pm, with nary a warning of how dangerous it would be. the storm hit Mindanao the following day, the 16th, and as predicted through CDO and Iligan in the middle of the night. How can a typhoon… Continue reading »
via stuartsantiago. and then really i realized PNoy didn’t order the release of any political detainee / prisoner on human rights day. perspective on the wheel of justice.
Ninoy Aquino and Ericson Acosta might seem light years away from each other, and yet i’d like to think that more than what makes them different, what carries weight here is what makes them the same. illegal detention, trumped up charges, a military blinded by getting some “big fish” and not getting enough of the red scare, being forced to face your accusers everyday, being removed from and having limited access to the outside world, being treated like some dangerous… Continue reading »