walang iwanan sa bayanijuan? *LOL*

i hate to rain on abs-cbn channel 2’s parade but i must say, medyo ill-timed ang kanilang “bayanijuan” papogi promo, coming as it does when the people’s lopez-meralco woes remain unresolved. this must be why ang dating sa akin ay tipong damage control. the network’s way of distancing itself from the lopez owners’ other bigtime earner meralco, as if to say, wala kaming kinalaman diyan, ha. haha, how ilusyonado naman.

even more unfortunate, the campaign was launched in the wake of anc’s news embargo on the ces drilon kidnapping, so that my kneejerk reaction was, ano daw? walang iwanan? in my book, iwanan blues ang nangyari when maria ressa simply refused to tell us what she knew, even when ces drilon was already out of danger. iwanan blues ang patuloy na nangyayari since ayaw pa rin nilang magkuwento, how afraid, how careful, naman.

hindi bale sana kung naiiba itong kampanyang bayanijuan, eh not in the least. it’s just another show (pakitang-tao) of “corporate social responsibility” as practiced by oligarchs who make sooooooo much money out of selling us all sorts of things, they assuage their guilt by “giving back,” i.e., undertaking relief projects for disaster victims and donating a small percentage of their huge profits to generate income and services for the poor, which, really, barely make a dent on the country’s poverty and hunger situation, much like government dole-outs. teaching a man to fish instead of giving him fish no longer works, not when the big ships get to the fish first.

‘ika nga ni environmentalist maximo “junie” kalaw back in the ’90s:

Quite a few business enterprises would be found caught in the internal contradiction of donating to the poor with one hand and contributing to their poverty with the other.

A better way of approaching the issue is to consider the business community’s relationship with the people and with the resources utilized,in the context of the whole community.

The questions to ask are not about which social projects may be appended to a business enterprise but about what goods it is producing and how; what resources it is using. . . . what technology is being used. . . . what its effects are on the people and the environment; how profit is earned, who benefits, and who is deprived by the economic activity.”

kumbaga, kung media ang pinagkakakitaan, sa pamamagitan din ng media mag-give-back to the people. if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan it is in a very good position to do so simply by broadening its thrust – imbes na puro escapist entertainment, give the public some intelligent informative stuff naman, yung meron silang mapupulot na kaalaman na maaaring ikaangat ng kanilang buhay.

topping my list would be daily 30-minuters (to be aired three or more times a day) that would teach us all to speak better english (and tagalog, and maybe the basics of bisaya, ilokano, kampampangan) harnessing the potentials of audio-visual technologies to teach classroom stuff in appealing interesting effective ways.

i can hear the sighs. walang mag-a-advertise sa ganyang show, saan sila kukuha ng pera pang-produce? aha. here’s precisely where “giving back” (good for the soul) or “paying forward” (good for the karma) kicks in. abs-cbn shoulders the expenses, of course, in the spirit of corporate social responsibility. who knows, if they’re smart and call in their judays and claudines to pitch in and take turns hosting the shows, i’m sure may mag-a-advertise.

and how about bringing back the public affairs talk shows? if abs-cbn truly wants a bagong simula sa ating bayan, ibalik naman please ang public affairs talk shows, which are essential to a democracy of adequately informed decisions. wag naman puro showbiz talk at reality tv. e ano kung walang mag-advertise. corporate social responsibility nga, di ba?

unfortunately, i’m not optimistic about abs-cbn. seems to me that its creatives are not quite tuned in to the real world. take the script of a series of video clips designed to inspire the youth to action:

“Jose Rizal, edad 26 nunglumabas ang Noli Me Tangere. . . . Jacinto at Del Pilar, 19 noong sumali sa Katipunan. . . . Ikaw, ilang taon ka na?”

LOL! AS IF! kung meron bang sumulat ngayon ng librong tipong noli me tangere, meron kayang magpa-publish? meron kayang magbabasa? basahin kaya ng mga taga-abs-cbn? at kung sumali ang kabataan sa isang samahang tipong katipunan, hindi ba’t ha-hunting-in lang sila ng military at makukulong, o mawawala a la jonas burgos? hahanapin kaya sila ng abs-cbn? LOL! AS IF!

how many deaths will it take…

my mind keeps singing to me these haunting lines from bob dylan’s sixties classic “blowing in the wind”:

…how many ears must one man have
before he can hear people cry
…how many deaths will it take till he knows
that too many people havedied…”

too many of our people have died, too many more of our people will die, if this fourth disaster courtesy of the notoriously careless sulpicio lines is allowed, as usual, to go unpunished.

writes marlen v. ronquillo of the manila times:

From time immemorial, the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), Philippine-version, has been identified with two things. It is either a fangless tiger or a board that almost always tilts to the side of a negligent shipowner.

Nothing on the voluminous archives of the BMI inquiries reveal sympathy and empathy for the victims of sea tragedies. The anti-victim tilt is understandable. It is the scum of the earth, the poor, thewretched that board the overloaded floating coffins. They can perish at sea and no one-after the initial media hysteria-will mourn their passing.

The owners of the shipping lines are rich, powerful, politically connected. They have lawyers and political sponsors, if they are not big political families themselves. The past and present names of Philippine shipping giants, including the responsible ones, are a collection of Philippine society’sWho’s Who: Aboitiz, Escano, Madrigal, Chiongbian, Go, Ledesma, etc….

The inquiries and recommendations of BMIs, past and present, have a pattern. Ship tragedies, even those that kill passengers by the thousands, are always ” acts of nature.”

Shipownersand operators, if they are cited at all, are mostly given a slap on the wrists.

It is the shameless and almost criminal pandering of past and present BMIs to the interest of shipowners and operators that provides the ideal environment for the creation of special admiralty courts. These are the courts that try maritime cases.

England and the other First World countries with long maritime traditions have these courts. Maritime justice is rendered fairly and swiftly. In England, the courts always tend to rule in favor of the victims, not the shipowners and operators, even if this means a hemorrhage at the Lloyd’s of London, which insures the ships, cargo and passengers.

If there is an ideal time and context to create Philippine admiralty courts, it is now.”

bushwhacking gloria

by ninotchka rosca

It’s the most popular item on the HuffPost, with nearly 200,000 viewers and nearly 1,500 comments, most expressing astonishment at what George W. said to Gloria Mac-Arroyo, de facto president to de facto president. He said “First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that — in which there’s a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.” And then added: “And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President. ”

I wish she’d replied, with a smile, “thanks and General Taguba was no pushover either” or “I hope she serves you dinuguan” or “have you checked on your dogs lately?” But she sat there like stone, muttering “thank you” as George W. Bush stereotyped her and her entire nation.

Oich! To discern ethnic stereotyping can be difficult, especially if one has had little experience with racism. In my early months in New York, a guest at a dinner given in my honor started telling me about her maid in Italy. This guest was Rome bureau head of a mega news magazine and she had a “Filipino maid” who was, as she put it, a “good person” but who had started pilfering small items. Embarrassed, I vacillated between allegiance to my compatriot (how much was this news great paying her?) and being polite, per Catholic nuns’ instruction. Fortunately, my host returned from the kitchen, asked what we were talking about, gave me a swift glance, and started shouting at her guest: “Why are you telling her this? She’s a journalist and a writer. What’s she got to do with maids? With your maid?”

The Rome bureau head stuttered, turned red and said, “I just thought…” My host snapped: “Well, you just stop that thought right now!”

Not having experienced insidious, constant and subtle ethnicstereotyping, I had to work out the subtext of that conversation in my sleep and woke up furious. A year later, as guest of honor at a one-woman show at a Washington D.C. art gallery, I was introduced to the artist’s mother, who promptly said: “Oh, you’re from the Philippines! My daughter’s nanny is from the Philippines.” By then, I could snap back: “What a coincidence! My secretary’s white!”

How ironic that one had to be prickly to fit into this society, especially when one wasn’t white. But one had to acquire armor against the subtle put-downs, usually given when one was occupying, in the eyes of the put-downer, a “privileged” position. When my first book was reviewed favorably by the Times and my excited landlady made practically everyone in our building read the article, one neighbor who had a toy terrier with a diamond collar asked, “is it true Filipinos eat dogs?” I said of course and called out to his dog, “here, Foxy, here; straight to the kitchen, I’ll make you a good dinner.”

Sometimes you just have to out gross “them.”

Many Filipinos do not get this kind of nuanced insult. Some would even be flattered that George W. remembered the Filipina chef in the White House kitchen, “a very good cook,” chrissakes. It’s akin to the pleasure we feel when a feudal warlord joins the town fiesta and dances with the hoi polloi; never mind that he’s just taken away half of the harvest. I’ve had Filipinos tell me to “please not insult our American friend” who’s just insulted me galore, as if they, despite citizenship, weren’t Americans. I would’ve dearly loved to have said “neither can your president” to this guy in my neighborhood – a guy who, upon catching sight of me walking on the sidewalk, said over his cell phone that the place was beginning to be full of aliens “who can’t even speak English.” As it was, I could only advise him to buy a Vlasik and sit on it.

Two things mystify me about this Gloria Mac-Arroyo visit. First, the “roll-in-the-dust” gratitude for the paltry sum of $700 million in aid, considering the public humiliation. If it’s just a matter of money, overseas Filipino workers send home up to $20 billion per year, without needing to insult anyone. Had Gloria Mac-Arroyo been attentive to their needs – ordered the government to negotiate for really decent wages and working conditions for domestic workers, instead of the monthly $200 they get at the United Arab Emirates, for instance, working 16 hours 24/7 – the bloody $700 million would’ve meant only a hundreddollar donation per OFW. Were the Philippine government just a shade more caring, OFW’s would’ve sent home an extra billion dollars, with pleasure and without subjecting even the most deserving public servant to public embarrassment.

More, that would’ve been cold, hard cash — unlike foreign aid, which is usually spent on goods made by American corporations and on salaries for American experts who tell Filipinos what to do and how to do it. Aid is not aid for the recipient country; it is aid for American big business who thus are spared the need to be grateful for U.S. taxpayer’s money. More, such goods invariably change the lifestyle of the recipient country so it becomes a vulnerable market for U.S. goods. It’s part of the national US budget for advertising. Consider that at one time, the weight-loss meal replacement Metrecal was sent to the Philippines as part of foreign aid.

After all these years of receiving foreign aid, one would expect Philippine government officials to conclude that foreign aid, foreign investments, etc., do not solve/resolve anything; that issues of poverty and inequity have to be resolved at ground level, by our bootstraps, as it were.

The second mystifying thing is why Gloria Mac-Arroyo started thanking U.S. congress people for the Filipino Veterans Equity Bill – which is not even approved yet. The bill is intended to provide pensions for the few surviving Filipinos who fought with USAFFE in WWII; they were denied equal benefits as U.S. soldiers by the Rescission Act of 1946 which declared that the services of some 250,000 Filipinos under the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East “shall not be deemed to be or to have been service in the military or national forces of the United States or any component thereof or any law of the United States conferring rights, privileges or benefits.”

That clause meant no medical attention, no recognition, nothing whatsoever, all history of that service erased. I have occasionally exclaimed, “that’s what you get for fighting under a foreign flag” but this is such a palpable act of racism it cannot be overlooked.

Over the years, the veterans and a few allies have fought to eke out “rights, privileges or benefits,” starting with access to the Veterans Hospital. Now here comes Gloria Mac-Arroyo thanking US legislators for an unpassed bill, pretending that she had had a role in the struggle for veterans’ rights. And who weren’t thanked for this struggle for equal rights? Why the veterans themselves, the Fil-Am community of supporters, advocates who’d gotten old and hoarse trying to correct this discrimination. As 86-year-old veteran Faustino Baclig said, “sobra ang tsu-tsu” (too much of a suck-up).

Because the Philippine government refuses to recognize and rely on the indomitable character of the people it purportedly governs and represents, because the Philippine government continues to be led by suck-ups, all who are of Philippine ancestry become vulnerable to ethnic stereotyping, public humiliation and the disgrace of being perpetual beggars even as the Philippines gives away all of its resources — from human to natural. Sad, just too sad. — ##

giggling gloria, blundering bush

someone should tell gma to STOP with the happy press releases trumpetting US aid and investment prospects etc. and to STOP with the videos showing her giddy and giggling and pa-cute while conferencing with her disaster officials.because back home here where death and destruction reign, we’re in no mood for such sophomoric shows of “success” and gaiety.

i just saw a woman ranting (justifiably) on tv news, demanding na tulungan sila, gusto nilang mahanap ang mga katawan ng mga pamilya nilang nadisgrasya ng sulpicio, ang nanay niya, dalawang anak niya, kapatid niya, gusto niyang mailibing man lang sila nang maayos, wag naman ilibing na lang kung saansaan ang mga bangkay… she started out dry-eyed, then became teary-eyed, and by the time she was cut off, i was in tears too.

ang sakit ng kalingkingan ay sakit ng buong katawan. whether or not acknowledged by the whole, the pain of the poor and the oppressed is the pain of all. nagluluksa ang bayan. kung hindi ka nasasaktan sa nangyari, ibig sabihin hindi ka totoong bahagi ng katawan -borloloy ka lang, singsing o sinturon o silicone.

~~~

on blundering bush, read fil-am benjamin pimentel. how disconcerting indeed that george w. it would seem knows no filipino in the u.s. other than the white house chef. and knows no philippine-american history other than the part where they “liberated” us from spain.

I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that — in which there’s a lot of Philippine-Americans,” Bush told President Gloria Arroyo during her recent visit to the White House, where the head chef, Cristeta Comerford, is Filipino.

“They love America and they love their heritage. . . . I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.”

“And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.”

… “America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people,” he said.

But it quickly became pretty clear that he didn’t really completely get that story.

For Bush also declared before his Filipino hosts that the United States “liberated the Philippines from colonial rule” — conveniently forgetting that our homeland was once an American colony.

ONCE an american colony? more like, STILL an american colony, which would explain giggling gloria’s “special” relationship with the white house, AND why there are thousands of american troops in mindanao, AND why the u.s. government, according to ambassador kristie kenny herself, is building two airports in sulu and tawi-tawi, construction to begin before the year is out, “to encourage commerce and development in the two provinces.” kuno.

more like, to serve the anti-terrorist, anti-russia, anti-china purposes of the u.s. armed forces in this corner of southeast asia, a la subic and clark, never mind the constitution, never mind the muslims.