Category: blogs

new kid on the blog

yehey! my daughter katrina has finally stepped out of her multiply closet, it’s about time, as she has a lot to say, too, manang-mana, ‘ika nga.

but where i was a sixties college drop-out and learned and earned my credits in the school of hard knocks, she’s done it the good-girl academic way, grounded in comparative lit and philippine studies, with a touch of tibak, pero medyo burgis.

and where i started out writing strictly showbiz stuff and slowly worked my way up to politics, she’s already writing about it all, and more.

my all-time favorite is incredible kris that she wrote at the height of the ball-breaking krisaquino-joeymarquez scandal, which we emailed to all our friends on the internet and which came back to us, full circle, from everywhere around the globe.

of course we got some hate mail, too, hehe.

battle of the blogs

si manolo quezon ba ang pinatatamaan ni benignO?

one blogger’s citation of another blogger’s work serves the double purpose of also promoting the former’s own blog (at least if the latter sets their blog to allow trackbacks). This eureka moment of mine suddenly makes the style of some bloggers suspect in my book – those who pepper their work with so many links to other blogs. I made the observation yonks ago about how the style of a noted blogger has evolved from making very sharp-edged, highly-focused entries to the ones we see today that have more of the stock-take-cum-shotgun approach of a content consolidator.”

the daily dose is the only blog i know that is always peppered with links to other blogs, which style, yes, promotes the daily dose, but also provides a unique service to readers like me who want to know the latest developments and utterances on the political scene but can’t be bothered or don’t have the time to do all that research. i don’t know though that manolo’s posts have lost some edge and focus over time – i haven’t been into the blogosphere all that long. truth is, i never count on manolo for edge or focus. for that i read dean jorge bocobo and ellen tordesillas.

but yes, benignO raises a valid concern re the “establishmentisation” of the pinoy blogosphere where the success of a blog is measured by its popularity, i.e., the number of other blogs that link to it and the comments it gets per post, never mind the substance or lack of it or the vision or lack of it. it’s like preferring formula box-office hit movies to indy films when indy films are easily the more edgy and visionary:

For Indy film producers, an audience is a bonus. For Studio movie producers, an audience is the whole point. The latter is driven by credentialism and the former by insight. We all know mass appeal brings home the bacon, whilst edginess and loyalty to vision attracts a far smaller subset – insightful minds. That ultimately is the choice faced by every content producer, be they film makers, illustrators, writers, and – yes- bloggers.”

which brings me to tonyo cruz (whom i found through manolo’s daily dose) and the filipino blogosphere’s insipid aristocracy.

… the Pinoy blogosphere aristocracy are just behaving as expected: aristocratic and elitist. Some would cry “repression!” only when its their own voices that are being muffled or muzzled. Some would gladly lay down a virtual red carpet for their own online writing projects on Philippine issues, but would demean the efforts of others. At other times, these clowns cry for “democracy” when all they really want to say is “listen to me only” or “listen to me first”. Some are fans of a near-total absence of online accountability. As to the threat of repression, the question of the need to fight repression is set aside by insinuations that the new ones may be inviting harm all by themselves (ain’t that the same “blame the victim” outlook which they also detest in posts elsewhere).

There is a danger to the way these characters view themselves. They may be harboring not ill thoughts about others, but an overestimation of their self-worth. Given the discussions on related topics, it is not farfetched that they would soon propose a canon for the Pinoy blogosphere and anoint themselves as the new “gods” to whom we should solely and exclusively look for truth.

That is not democracy. That is only a complete reproduction of mass media and Philippine education in general. Full of elitism and bullshit, exclusivist rather inclusive, and finds as questionable the entry of new voices such as Lozada, Panlilio and the nameless masses.”

i LUV it. this is the kind of “edgy” i’m looking for – not the personal angst-laden kind of edgy but the politically edgy that takes a stand, that selflessly fearlessly speaks out against elitist bullshit, never mind kung makasakit man o makasagasa. ‘ika nga, truth hurts but it cures. (well, it should.)

tonyocruz is, i gather, correct me if i’m wrong, referring to some of his fellow bloggers in filipino voices whose reactions to the recently launched blog of jun lozada verged on the supercilious, judging it wanting just because it’s not like their own blogs? because jun lozada dares do more? because, oh no, he has hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments already, talbog silang lahat, talbog tayong lahat, pati si kitty go? he must be doing something wrong, like brian gorrell? LOL

even the noted blogger has fallen into the trap. almost belittling lozada’s filipino ideology of nationhood just because it wasn’t crafted with the help of the blogocracy? and even warning of capital flight because jun lozada quoted lenin, never mind that lenin was speaking a truth about land reform? maybe benignO’s right.

ka amado, national artist

does it matter that ka amado was a “commie”?

not to pedestrian observer, ligaya, kartunista, and leni whose reactions to my “sassy” posts point to an unexplored facet of the birds of prey column.

pedestrianobserver : was it because she saw him as a “commie” that whatever literary contribution Hernandez gifted us she simply would rather ignore?

kartunista: nasisilip kong sekundaryong dahilan na lang niya ang “paraan” ng pasusulat ni Ka Amado. Tingin ko, mas politikal na pagkamuhi ang nagtulak sa kanya para isulat ang anti-Ka Amadong pyesa. Kapansin-pansin ang pagpapalitaw niya ng punto ng pagiging Komunista ni Ka Amado. at dito ako lubos na na-intriga. ang galit niya sa mga komunista ay ginamit niyang dahilan para kuwestyunin ang pagkakabilang ng “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” sa mga required readings ng mga mag-aaral ngayon. Kasi, kung papaniwalaan siya sa kanyang claim na Tagalog nga ang kanilang pangunahing gamit, lumalabas na pabalat lang ang mga bira niya sa estilo ni Ka Amado. Nadamay na lang si Villa sa pagsisikap niyang maglatag ng iba pang halimbawa ng “crap” na piyesa, para magmukha naman siyang maraming alam. At malamang, yun ang punto niya. Bakit may mga komunistang mas magaling pa sa kanya?

ligaya: magaganda ang mga sulatin ni Ka Amado. I will admit having a hard time with his writing, partly because I didn’t grow up fully literate in Filipino, and partly because I don’t exactly share his Communist ideologies – not because I don’t like Communism per se, but because I’ve seen that the principle and the practise are two entirely different things. . . . Pinababasa ko sa aking ina (a finance director in one of the leading research companies of the world) ang mga akda ni Ka Amado dahil ang salitang Tagalog/Pilipinong ginamit nito ang siyang kinalakhan niya, kung kaya’t natulungan akong intindihin ang “Isang Dipang Langit” at saka “Mga Ibong Mandaragit.” Sa kasamaang palad nga lang, may mga kamag-anak si Inay na pinatay ng ibang mga Komunistang dahil hindi sila sumang-ayon o sumapi sa ideyolohiyang ito, kaya nama’y nahihirapan akong kumuha ng akda ni Ka Amado. 6^_^0 if you have any idea where else to find “Mga Ibong Mandaragit” here in Manila, please do drop a line. v^_~v

last but not least, leni, who didn’t just comment,she blogged about it too, angrily quoting “sassy”s I.D. of ka amado (emphasis leni’s):

I did a little research and found out that the author was the defendant in the landmark case People versus Hernandez, a required reading for first year law students in Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. Hernandez had been charged with rebellion with murder, arson and robbery during the height of the crackdown against communists in the 1960s. No such thing, the Supreme Court said. Common crimes like murder, arson and robbery are naturally absorbed in the rebellion. But enough about why the name Amado Hernandez rang a bell.“

leni : WTF. Hindi ko nainitindihan kung anong punto niya sa pagsabi na may kaso si AH* sa salang rebelyon. Like seriously, when you hear the name Amado Hernandez, do you think communist with rebellion charges in the 60s!! ? I’d like to think not. AH, National Artist for Literature. *ding-ding* Conditioning the minds of the readers, I tell you.

haha, the red bogey! like i said to pedestrian observer: actually mas maganda nga sana if that had been her excuse. at least then we would be exchangingthoughts on nationalism, and how government propaganda through the years since (quirino and) magsaysay has downgraded it to something evil and worthless. at least mas mataas ang antas ng diskurso, di ba naman.

strike two

oh my, the “sassy” one strikes again. how boring. pwedeng di na lang patulan pero on second thought, why not, lalo na’t baka isipin niyang tama siya porke walang response.

having trained in psychology, i cannot but read “tyranny of the insecure” as a demonstration of freud’s “defense mechanisms” (projection and intellectualization, in particular) – the product of a mind feeling “undermined” and “threatened” by criticism. in effect most of what she says applies to herself mismo, if she would only see.

infinitely more interesting, actually, is that she manages – by sticking to generalities – to steer away from the language issue she raised against ka amado’s mga ibong mandaragit, as though that’s all been settled in her favor and there is nothing more to say. (it’s called “being in denial,” another defense mechanism.)

in fact, nothing’s settled in her favor. contrarily, the sentiment is remarkably, wonderfully, pro-mandaragit, such as jaywalker‘s comment to salamat, “sassy”:

This is a classic caseof one spitting against the wind……… naturally it goes smack in ones’ face, lol. . . . So now we know, to increase the sales of Filipiniana books all one has to do is to get sassy to read it, enough for her to rant about it and voila… success.”