Just for posterity’s sake: my video feature at Blogworld by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Estrada: The Vendetta Brother
March 7th, 2010 by Marocharim
The political milieu of an entire generation was molded around the contempt of the people against Former President Joseph Estrada. He is, after all, a very good example of what we don’t want from a President, whether it’s superficial or something that runs deep into our political consciousness. Countless times, Estrada has proven himself to be a man without remorse: whether it’s for womanizing, drinking, his lack of education compared to his peers, plunder. Pardoned after what passes for a prison sentence, Erap is back in the game: seemingly running for the Presidency for the sole purpose of vindicating himself.
In any other society – even within this one – where shame and dishonor is carried through entire lifetimes and generations, Erap seems to be the exemption, as he was years ago when he governed without regard for it. Yet from a certain perspective, Erap deserves to run, if only to take back the Presidency which, in yet another brazen note, he thinks of a trophy rather than a mandate. After EDSA II, with the massive discontent that followed the administration that replaced him, Erap sees his bid for the Presidency as vindication. As vendetta upon those who have taken him out. To vindicate himself in the eyes of the populace that once gave him the most support in a single election year.
Crazy With The Heat
March 7th, 2010 by Marocharim
The Philippine Star reports that Saturday peaked at 35.8 degrees Celsius (roughly around 96.4 degrees Fahrenheit) here in Metro Manila. The high temperatures meant a trip to Bench Fix at Podium to get a haircut, and getting as many Quickly taro shakes as I can into my system. I’ve taken to filling my beer glass with more ice cubes at the risk of diluting below-zero beer, smoking menthol cigarettes, and wearing thinner jackets.
Yes, it’s that freaking hot.
Address to a Condom
March 4th, 2010 by Marocharim
In Scottish literature, the highlight of the Burns Supper is the “Address to a Haggis,” that Robert Burns once penned to celebrate the Scot’s identity through food. Incidentally, I was refreshing my memory with the poem about haggis when I read that the Catholic Church wants to ban condom advertisements because the condom – a rubber sheath – weakens the moral fiber of the youth.
Note, of course, that the fundamentalist belief is that a rubber sheath is the source of such sin and destruction. Never mind that the condom is one of the best forms of protection against AIDS and other venereal diseases. Never mind that condoms can help reduce the incidence of HIV and other sexually-transmitted illnesses. Never mind that condoms represent one of the many ways to manage our population, to safeguard public health, and provides us all with the moral right to free choice.
Never mind that common sense dictates that the sight of a condom will not encourage promiscuity and stimulate one’s sexual unless that person has a condom-related paraphilia. Yet we’re not talking about just big powerful groups here: we’re talking about big powerful groups whose idea of morality and immorality is based on a backward, medieval sense what they say is right and what they say is wrong, and any other argument for reproductive health is a sin and should be subject to contrition and penance.
Never mind that that’s all bollocks.
Trackspotting
March 1st, 2010 by Marocharim
Choose life. Choose sports. Choose a reasonable distance. Choose a comfortable pair of running shoes. Choose a singlet, cap, running shorts loose enough to wick away moisture but tight enough to keep you from chafing. Choose a number. Choose the dramatic angle by which you cross the finish line. Choose amber-colored sunglasses to keep the sun from fucking up your vision. Choose brand placement and advertising on every miserable line of the race course. Choose marathons, sprints, jogging, off-road trails. Choose sport pedometers. Choose Velcro arm-straps for your iPod. Choose running. Choose life.
Why would I want to do a thing like that?
More Translations of Poems
March 1st, 2010 by Marocharim
I was aboard the train a few days ago when I saw the familiar verses of Luis de Gongora’s poem translated in Filipino. Longfellow translated the first lines of “Andeme yo caliente” in this manner:
Let me go warm and merry still;
And let the world laugh, an’ it will.
Let other muse on earthly things,
The fall of thrones, the fate of kings,
And those whose fame the world doth fill;
Whilst muffins sit enthroned in trays,
And orange-punch in winter sways
The merry sceptre of my days;
And let the world laugh, an’ it will.
“Makan” in the Kitchen of the Colonized
February 24th, 2010 by Marocharim
I sometimes think that if a French chef – and a well-respected one at that – starts to make gentle reminders about how Filipinos should preserve their own culinary identity, it behooves us to rethink our whole cultural identity in terms of food.
Take halo-halo, for example: back in grade school Civics class, our teachers reminded us that halo-halo is the quintessential Filipino dish, because it incorporates all the influences of our foreign colonizers into a distinctive, delicious, delectable Filipino dessert. “Ice from China, ice cream from America, confections from Spain.” While dried, rotted meat (etag) and the joys of saluyot are hardly things we serve in Filipino restaurants, it’s pretty difficult to establish the roots of Filipino cooking, where a dish could be properly established as “Filipino” without debating on the colonial origins of a particular dish.
Cantal: The Lost Presidentiable
February 21st, 2010 by Marocharim
Felix “Peck” Cantal is very forthright with his Presidential bid. He’s not campaigning with sweeping proclamations, vague platforms, and promises that will probably be forgotten.
James Jimenez says that the election laws are silent on the matter; there’s nothing in the law, it seems, that a candidate declared a nuisance cannot come out with a campaign advertisement. Then again, he’s doing a much better job at being honest compared to our other Presidential candidates. Cantal pulls no punches or strings: the standard-bearer of the Philippine Green Republican Party is campaigning on a very simple, passionate premise: “Maawa po kayo sa akin.”
Now that’s what I call an honest campaign.
The Rime of the Ancient Waterboy
February 21st, 2010 by Marocharim
Water, water, everywhere.
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.- Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
I sometimes imagine the journey of the Mariner and his crew taking place not in the troubled high seas, but in an ocean made entirely from iced tea, cola, or perhaps beer (in retrospect, a giant wave of Pale Pilsen is awesome). There would definitely be enough to drink there. No need those reverse osmosis machines and seven-step purification processes they have in water refilling stations.
Teodoro: The Necessary
February 13th, 2010 by Marocharim
I see his face painted on the back of many buses, in the attempt perhaps to boost his reputation and to improve recognition. “Posible,” the advertisements read, that he is the key; he is the answer. “Galing at Talino:” the Harvard Law graduate, the most intelligent in the motley crue of Presidential aspirants, the man with the plan. Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. is poised for the grand prize of Philippine politics: the Presidency.
He is the most articulate among them, bringing with him the kind of surprising charisma that turns him into a most enigmatic, charming figure brimming with confidence at every word and spiel. One can make the case of him being the most intelligent: there are brains, in a way, to be glossed over when you do go to Harvard and bring with you such stellar credentials to the Presidential race. Yet perception – the very thing that makes up anything and everything about politics – is reality, and political at that.
In Presidential debates, Teodoro finds it difficult to shrug off questions about the President. He parries them, avoids them, dodges them, strings artful responses, and yet he cannot escape them. He is who he is: Gibo Teodoro, the hand-picked successor to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Every parallelism and judgment passed to him because of that is justified and warranted, never mind that it seems “unfair” or “underhanded.” He is Arroyo’s golden boy, and whether that’s a medal on his neck or a monkey on his back is something he has to – necessarily – contend with.