Category: blogs

blogwise

when i first started blogging in september 2007 – thanks to joel who wouldn’t stop telling me i should and who managed to patiently guide li’l ol’ me long-distance through the internet – i had been surfing seriously for a year, mostly for news and opinion, local and foreign, the better to understand, have a sense, of what’s really going on ba here and abroad.

all that googling of course led me to the pinoy blogosphere, the political blogs in particular, and i thought it was great, the freedom of expression, the freewheeling exchange of ideas, and the option of every reader to comment and be published in the blink of an eye. instant gratification, what joy all around. i could see myself thoroughly enjoying it, puwedeng pag-trip-an, ‘ika nga. my concern was, i would be taking away from time spent finishing two book projects na gumagalaw naman pero ubod nang bagal.

well. as it turns out, i’m managing to blog AND to continue writing one of the books. better yet, the blogging is good exercise, which must be why the book is really moving now, slowly but surely, the writing almost easy. best of all, blogging keeps me sharp, keeps my braincells alive as i try to take in and make sense of diverse schools, and levels, of thought, from the wonderfully sublime to the really really arrogant and really really crass.

but i wouldn’t go so far as to proclaim the internet and blogs as the new media. “a new media,” perhaps. it is hardly a threat to mainstream media, considering that access to the internet is limited to a small educated-and-wired sector of our mostly poor population. newspapers and magazines and radio and television reach a more diverse public, which is as it should be.

for a change

so did cocoy really say anything new? manolo is right, the dream of a nontraditional political party that we all could support, thereby doing away with trapo incumbents and their family dynasties, lock stock and barrel, is not new. what’s new is the level of rage. he is so “fucking” angry. such passion. such youth.

interestingly enough, what set him off was the idea that nonviolent resistance isn’t futile, which is to say, don’t let up on this lying cheating stealing president. cocoy thinks this is divisive and crappy – gma is not the problem, the system is. and so he calls for “good people” to step up, form a political party, and run for election in 2010. how simple.

manolo’s right, resistance isn’t futile. not to show signs of resistance would send the message that we don’t care, it’s all right, go ahead and do what you want. in fact we do care, it’s not all right, stop whatever you’re doing. never mind that no one seems to be hearing it but us.

gma IS the problem. apart from the lying cheating and stealing, she could have fulfilled promises she made, such as good governance, but she didn’t. she it is who has the power to change the rotten system, but she does not. instead she makes the system stronger by the day. 2010 might be an illusion.

but let’s say 2010 is truly there for the taking. i’d say the call for “good people” is premature. first we need a sense of what’s “good” for our purposes. how much change do we want? will anti-corruption anti-cheating, population and information measures be enough because the economic and foreign policies are okay naman?

or do we want persons good enough to tackle the economy, and globalization, and rice, and power, and education, and garbage – the whole rotten system that is tied up with unregulated capitalism and unscrupulous foreign creditors?

these good people have to be really good, really brave, and adequately informed so they know what patterns they’re breaking from and what new patterns they’re creating for future generations.

and we the people have to be very clear what we want them to do in our name. i’d want them to have a bias for the filipino masses, and to stand up, rather than grovel, to mighty america, crafty china, and wily japan. for a change. sana kayo rin.

brian’s blog 2

interesting developments on delfin dj montano’s blogspot.

upon the importuning of fans, brian gorrell is now accepting donations. and the expectation seems to be that when the $70,000 has been raised, he would should consider himself paid.

meaning what? that brian must call a halt to donations? shut down the blog?

parang hindi tama. what the generous ones are doing should be meant to benefit not the alleged swindler ex-lover but the swindled and heartbroken victim who has HIV. it should not let the alleged scoundrel off the hook – where’s the justice in that? kung sinong maysala, siya ang magbayad, di ba.

and don’t say that being crucified on the blog is punishment enough. i don’t think so. i mean, how do we know? until the guy comes forward or puts up his own blog (maybe named briangorrell.com) to either confirm or deny brian’s story, we won’t even know that he’s been punished justly or unjustly, much less that he’s been punished enough.

i suppose this is why there are libel laws, to protect the alleged swindler. kung pinoy si brian, tiyak meron nang restraining order. i suppose also this is why kitty go, a jetsetter lifestyle writer who has written two small books dissing the alta syudad’s shameful decadence, herself stops short of naming names. check out this great review:

And even if I read it voraciously from cover to cover, I can’t helpbut wonder if I only found it interesting because I already knew the people you were talking about. And if people don’t kinda realize that apparently these purported characters were supposedly Antoine Saint Diyego, Aryel Losada, Emilee and Selene Lopes, Josiefene Knocks, Andrue Gan, Jonattan Matthi, Meelet Manankheil, Sary App, Gretsen Bareto and Teena and Ryko O’campoe, would the book be just as interesting to them? And some parts are a little too harsh I have to say. Ok, perhaps the stories about some of the characters’ penchants for embezzlement and backstabbing might be a cause for alarm, but a lot of people you mention in the book only suffer from the harmless inborn crime of being baduy* at the very most. One could turn the tables and think of it as a case of the kulangot** calling the other one grey here. Because if you are going to start picking the noses of these folks, then I certainly hope your nostrils are clean too.”

sey ni kitty sa tv patrol interview where she expressed support for brian: that if brian hadn’t told all, she would have written about it in her next book. really? would she have been as brave as brian kaya? brave enough to name names? which would mean she might never come home?

in defense of gossip

the supreme court has ruled that romulo neri is right to invoke gma’s executive privilege and to refuse to answer questions that might could would implicate his president and her fg in the nbn-zte bribery scandal.

as a result, there is no way now that we can get to the truth of the matter. so biglang all the talk about gma and her fg’s involvement in the corrupt deal is reduced to the category of gossip, as in tsismis lang, because it is unproven or unconfirmed, and never natin mapu-prove o maco-confirm. unless of course the court reconsiders and reverses itself, which seems quite unlikely.

well. let’s look at the bright side. at least all the anti-gma nbn-zte tsismis is an improvement on showbiz tsismis that’s mostly petty and personal. how great that we’re swapping stories not only about gretchen & tonyboy, piolo & sam, sharon & kc, but also about political figures gloria and mike, luli and joey, jun and cory, the bishops and romy, on matters of national importance.

the thinking about gossip is right:

. . . gossip can be a form of political resistance to undermine entrenched systems of power and domination. Getting the scuttlebutt about salary discrepancies, executive perks, kickbacks, nepotism, conflicts of interest and the like ”benefits those excluded from power more than it helps those who exercise power since the former have less to hide.”

sometimes, gossip is our only revenge. just as it might be brian gorrell’s only revenge on the sosi peeps who he says lied to him and cheated him and stole from him.