Archive for December, 2008

Golf and the Excesses of Governance

Golf and the Excesses of Governance

I was informed by a friend that I’m back in the news… again.  Following the incident at Valley Golf and Country Club, my take was taken up by posts in Inquirer.net and PinoyExchange by DJ Yap and Alex Villafania:

One blogger, Marocharim (http://www.marocharim.com) criticized the re-appropriation of agricultural land into golf courses. “The least you could expect is to demand courtesy and respect from everyone in the [golf] course.”

Rather than having at least one reader out there wonder how in the heck do you pronounce “Marocharim,” what I did in fact say was this:

A lot can be said about the issue of agrarian reform (like, say, CARP) at this point.  Heck, it’s ironic – even sarcastic – to speak of the caprices of golf when you’re running the Department of Agrarian Reform, and if you’re a mayor in one of the poorest provinces of the Philippines.  That, though, can wait for another day.

OK, I wasn’t “misquoted” by Yap and Villafania; I suppose that one of my Plurks may have leaked out to the world.  Today being the “another day,” allow me to take advantage of the angle that both Yap and Villafania decided to highlight.  (I don’t know how and why, but thanks anyway…)

The interesting question: if you hold a Government position, should you play golf?

Hmmm…

December 31, 2008 4 comments Read More
La Piedra

La Piedra

Before the infamous “No mas” fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, the legendary boxer Roberto Duran was true to his nickname: “Manos de piedra,” or “hands of stone.”  Coupled with his excellent boxing skills and mastery of the ways of the ring, Duran was known for his hard punches.  When Duran fought, his opponents felt like they were beaten up by a machine with rock-hard fists.  It may sound like a cliché, but Duran inspired a nation with his hands.

If there’s anything I learned this year, inspiring a nation with a pair of hands only comes easy if you’re a boxer.  When you’re a writer, the hands that turn to claws at the end of the working day do not inspire a nation at all.  While I can inspire a half dozen people with a good blog entry about 60% of the time, I cannot do that all the time.  Somehow, the nobility of the profession of writing has its own novelty value all worn out.

With more than a hint of bitterness, I often lament about how writers like myself are underappreciated.  Being a writer is not easy; no matter how talented or committed you are to what you do, you almost always end up on the short end of the stick.  I don’t know how inspired people can get every time they see something I write, but inspiration has ceased to be a goal for me some months back.  Like every writer, my goal has turned into a necessity to get paid, to pay for everything I need, and save a little something for a rainy day.  The nobility of it wore off some time ago, when I realized that inspiration is only secondary to making sure you’re alive.

I guess that the worth of writing lies in the fact that no matter what other people say, you’re always in the position of knowing that other people cannot – and I mean cannot – do what you do.  Writing may have lost its nobility for me, but what it takes to write is something that is not lost on me.  There’s a reason why writers are few, and why it takes a lot of gall to call yourself one outside of job titles.  To be a writer means to give yourself a place in history where you become immortal… where you become part of it.

I do not know if what I have done over the years has merited me calling myself a writer; in truth, I am not one.  At best, I am a scriptor engaged in the perpetual precis and perrenial paraphrase of thoughts already written, of concepts already articulated.

December 30, 2008 1 comment Read More
Irony to a Tee

Irony to a Tee

In the Grand Theft Auto series, my favorite handheld melee weapon is the golf club.  There’s nothing like swinging the damn thing all over the place, beating civilians up for their money.  There’s also a kind of fun and enjoyable carnage to be enjoyed in it.  But when your government officials start to act like Tommy Vercetti – or if there is an allegation of it taking place in the news or in the blogosphere – I bet you have the right to be pissed off.

Caffeine_Sparks has a rather interesting entry over at Filipino Voices; apparently, Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and his son, Masiu Mayor Nasser Pangandaman, beat up 56-year-old Delfin dela Paz and his son, 14-year-old Bino, at a golf course in Antipolo City.  GMA News has an interesting account of the story, and Bambee dela Paz writes an eyewitness account of what happened to her father:

We leave.  We walk to the clubhouse to file a complaint.  My brother asks for a doctor.  My dad could barely walk.  Their group comes to the clubhouse, sees my brother.  Once again my brother pleads, says sorry, and is crying.  He was CRYING, for crissakes.  But no.  The relentless mayor still punches him in the face, and then sees my dad and goes after my dad again.  Him and his friend pull my dad to the ground, pulls at his feet, and steps on him like he’s dirt.  I run to him and try to hold him back, holding him back by his shirt, while this other guy and this girl tries to stop me.  She tells me to just stop it.  I scream in her face “they’re beating my father up and you want me to stop?!”  I pull at his shirt–I don’t let go.  All I can see was my dad being trampled on.  I didn’t even see my brother getting beat up.

To be fair to the Pangandamans, I think we need to hear their side of the story.  Based from what we have to work with right now, both Pangandamans and their bodyguards beat up Delfin and Bino because of their slow playing.  The other side of the story was that the elder Pangandaman asked dela Paz to play at a faster pace in a nice way, but the latter ended up hitting the DAR Secretary with an umbrella.

December 27, 2008 16 comments Read More
On Eduardo Gullas’ English Bill

On Eduardo Gullas’ English Bill

I am of the belief that there are many other skills that are necessary for global competitiveness.  You have countries like Japan, France, and China who do not consider English as a primary language, yet still manage to succeed in the world of business.

Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas proposed a bill espousing English as the medium of instruction in Philippine schools.  According to an Inquirer.net report, Gullas defends his English bill on the basis of it being the key to a globally competitive Filipino.  However, Valenzuela Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo opposes the bill, pushing for a multilingual approach to education.  However, the most powerful argument Rep. Gunigundo makes against English is that Gullas’ bill will only foster a workforce that will supply a steady stream of employees for call centers.

Gunigundo has a good point; if there’s anything that will doom this generation to call center employment prospects in the medium term, it’s the insistence on English.  Not that there’s anything wrong with being a call center agent, but we cannot bank our entire economy on outsourcing.  While there is merit in Gullas’ assertion that English is necessary for sustaining a globally competitive workforce, we should also expend our energies on sustaining what is necessary for the national polity.

Gullas asserts that the  “language of technology” is English, but even this can be challenged.  At best, English is the language of public relations and advertising, which is what is necessary for jobs in outsourcing and call centers.   The language of technology is code and numbers.  If Gullas does indeed want a globally competitive economy that focuses on technology, then competitiveness in mathematics and computer proficiency should be emphasized.

December 26, 2008 2 comments Read More
Marocharim’s New Year’s Resolutions

Marocharim’s New Year’s Resolutions

I doubt I’ll make good on any New Year’s Resolution I’ll make.  Truth be told, I can’t stick to a single resolution, much less the seven I’m planning to fulfill this year.  These resolutions have nothing to do with destabilizing The Government or enacting change in society (no, they don’t), but they do have a lot to do with improving the lot of my life.  Seven small resolutions for 2009:

  1. I plan to cut down on cigarettes. I’m still pretty much a thirty-sticks-a-day smoker on a good day, but I think I’ll do well with taking 10 sticks out of the cigarette quota and smoke a pack a day by December 31, 2009.  Then again, I can hear the distant laughter of some people at this point.
  2. I won’t overexert myself at work anymore. I’ve been kicking ass at work for the past 10 months that I think some slacking off is necessary.  I’ve been looking at the monthly reports and realized that my social life is dead because I’ve been working a bit too hard.
  3. I’ll try to correct my posture. It’s not my hair that’s the problem with my overall look, but my posture.  My parents have observed that my rather mild case of scoliosis has now turned into a horrible hunch.  I have to admit: my shoulder and spinal alignments are turning me into an 80-year-old man.
  4. I’ll try my best to drink less. I’m not sure how I can give up the daily beer, but I suppose I can tone  down my hard drinking in time for my liver to cope with the copious amounts of alcohol I consume.  These days, I think that reducing alcohol consumption is all for the best.
  5. I’ll read more books. To kill boredom, I read, and my apartment is already filled up with all sorts of books.  I already have about three dozen thick ones, which goes to show you how bored I can get.  I resolve to get more for 2009, and I’ll probably end up sleeping on a pile of books at the end of the year.
  6. I’ll bloghop more often. I’ll be honest; I haven’t been the most conscientious blogger in the world, and I probably have missed out on a lot of cool blogs out there that I haven’t read yet, or haven’t heard of.  Bloghopping more often means that I will have to eventually update my blogroll.
  7. I’ll get a girlfriend. Fat chance, I’ve been making this exact same resolution for years without success.
December 26, 2008 5 comments Read More
Eva Fonda Is My New Crushable

Eva Fonda Is My New Crushable

The Christmas break has been a time for me to catch up on my TV viewing habits, which has been on hold for quite a while because I don’t have a TV yet in the apartment.  It is often the case that I end up crushing on a lot of leading ladies in soap operas; there was Angelica Panganiban in “Iisa Pa Lamang,” Rhian Ramos in “Lalola,” and of course, Anne Curtis in “Dyosa.”

Courtesy of Flow, an autographed picture of Anne is now hanging on the wall of my pad.  Save for the glow-in-the-dark stars left by the previous tenant, that’s my only decoration for the place.  Not that there’s anything wrong with my choice of decor; if all I had in a castle was a poster of Anne, I would absolutely have no problem with that.

I never really paid much attention to Cristine Reyes, but that cute smile and those mesmerizing eyes are now keeping me glued to the TV screen every time “Eva Fonda” is on.  It’s not because Cristine shows off her nice legs every time she wears those denim skirts (OK, that has something to do with something), but there’s something about Eva that’s so seductive: for one, she doesn’t have the arms of her sister Ara Mina.  For two, she has the cutest smile I’ve ever seen.  For three, she’s just so damn cute for a sexy star.

My mom and my sister are rather perplexed that I’m riveted to the TV screen every time “Eva Fonda” is on.  My Christmas crushables now include Cristine Reyes.  Which begged them to ask: “Sino ba talaga, si Anne o si Cristine?” For the first time in my life, I couldn’t make my mind up about a woman.  Sheesh.

December 25, 2008 2 comments Read More