Nationalist writers
EDUCATED in English from grade to graduate school, I belong to the generation(s) of what Renato Constantino called “the miseducated Filipino.” My exposure to Tagalog literature was limited to a high school subject using Diwang Kayumanggi as text. At home, my parents spoke Spanish to each other and English or “garil” (fractured) Tagalog to their children, who in turn spoke Manila street Tagalog to each other. Ilokano and Bikol were also heard at home whenever my father’s relatives or my mother’s kin visited us.
Read on…
mo & RHian
i didn’t even “know” rhian ramos before the sh*t hit the fan; these showbiz girls all look the same to me. but mo twister i couldn’t help noticing from the first because he speaks perfect english and is simpatiko naman, reminded me of martin nievera in MAD days.
that they were a couple pala i only found out when a few facebook friends posted mo-rhian related statuses. in fairness, no one posted the video, or link, unless i missed it lang, which still means it wasn’t being posted all over the place. which led curious me to pep.ph to get the gist and find out the latest — to wit, the video was recorded by mo while in singapore, crying over his girlfriend’s abortion against his wishes, which video was released on the internet by unidentified ones, which has led to apologies from mo, but no denials from rhian, only complaints of what-sounds-like emotional battering.
amazing approval ratings
MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III has maintained his high trust and approval ratings amid issues that hounded his administration.
In its latest poll, Pulse Asia said Aquino enjoyed the 72 percent approval rating in his performance in office as chief executive, while a huge 74 percent of Filipinos trust his government.
The survey also revealed that the President has “big approval and trust ratings” in various geographical areas and socio-economic classes in the country.
The poll was conducted on Nov. 10-23 in face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents.
of course i wish it were a larger sample.
An Economic Report from the Republic of Noy’s Brain
In the country which exists inside the mind of Dear Leader Aquino the economic situation is actually pretty good, as he explained in an interview reported by the Philstar yesterday:
Say what? Up until now I’ve been saying Peenoy’s elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top floor mainly in jest, but I had no idea it might actually be true.
Read the rest here
Disaster and imagination
I MISSED the Philippine PEN conference (Dec. 1-2) at which I was supposed to chair a panel on “Apocalyptic Writing: Disaster and Imagination.” I inveigled Gilda Cordero-Fernando to be one of the panelists. But recently I experienced my own “apocalyptic” moment that compelled me to skip everything, cancel all my appointments, and declare that my column “Romance of the Seas” might be my last. Faithful readers swamped my e-mail with queries “Why?” My daughter Mo who sometimes has a strange sense of humor, rejoined, “Why only now?”
But here’s why. We in the family have learned to accept fate. My wife, the afflicted one, and I, both of “uncertain age,” have become philosophical about it. None of that Dylan Thomas thing about not going “gentle into the night” and raging against “the dying of the light.” It’s more like just coming to terms. The lyrical stuff may or may not come later.
Read the rest here
The Piolo predicament
has gone viral. posted just two days ago by gma news online, the link has been shared 44,500 times! the charice challenge, that made it to the list of Best Music Writing 2011′s honorable mentions, was shared some 2 to 3,000 times, and we thought that was a lot.
Dear Teddy Boy Locsin
I believe you were trying to be funny and witty, your followers will say ah, it was satire. But truth to tell there was nothing here that could be taken as constructive criticism really, and therefore there was no reason, there is no justification, for the kind of homophobia, the kind of discrimination, that was in that piece you call the NAIA Mess. And since those words you used couldn’t function as satire, in the end it’s all just literal, it’s all just you and what you think. Ah and what a revelation that is.
Guillermo Luz Statement on NAIA1 Project
because you still wrongly think that Cobonpue-Layug-Pineda were not given this project by government
and they deserve our thanks, not opprobrium just because the new dotc sec prefers to work with his own kind.
cobonpue, pineda, layug: “the filipino is worth designing for”
sharing katrina‘s tweets from AIM where bill luz of the National Competitiveness Council and kenneth cobonpue, royal pineda, and budji layug were holding a presscon earlier today. not surprisingly, no live coverage by anc where mar roxas guested two nights in a row.
NCC’s Bill Luz confirms that Cobonpue etal were INVITED by govt to work on the NAIA project.
Luz confirms design team proposal was adopted by MIAA subject to funds.
Read on…
mar, naia, changi
caught on anc last night: mar roxas explaining why the cobonpue, pineda, and layug group that had been working pro bono on rehab plans for naia 1 upon the request of some members of the aquino cabinet were unceremoniously dropped from the project. the gist of his defense was, the naia has structural defects that were not addressed by the cobonpue group. besides, he cleared it with ping de jesus (whom he replaced in the dept of transportation) who said wala namang kontrata. when asked about the cabinet people who requested the help of cobonpue et al, ang sagot ni mar, something to the effect na, walang namang sinabi sa kanya ang mga ito. ang dating sa akin, parang hindi sila nag-uusap?
at ito namang sina butch abad et al, not a squeak from them, either to confirm or deny. lumalabas tuloy na prisintado lang sina cobonpue at gusto lang mangumisyon?
Slim pickings @ Manila’s lit fest 2011
Let me begin with a confession: I take festivals and conferences, no matter how big or small, seriously.
Regardless of whether I pay to get in or not, whether it’s here or elsewhere, whether it’s an art fest or a literature conference, I go in on that first day, knowing I will go the rest of the days, always ready to get involved in discussions and prepared to be blown away by the brilliance of artists who are ready to discuss their work and the landscape of creativity that they are necessarily part of.
phnoy & kris: feeling entitled (updated)
“In agrarian reform, there are two objectives: number one, empower the farmers so that they could have their own land to till. Second, don’t exhaust the capital. There should be just compensation for the land owner. The capital that will be returned to the landowner could be used to invest in other endeavors,” he said.
“The two objectives should have been met. One sector should not be favored over the other,” he added.
that’s the prez’s statement on the SC decision ordering the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to the farmers. he wants just compensation for the family. daang matuwid? he should read stephanie dychiu’s history of the hacienda buttressed by james putzel’s 1992 book A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines.