Archive for February 6th, 2009

Political Valentine

Political Valentine

I guess it’s another one of those “epic fail” things that make for good political showbiz: yet again, US President Barack Obama and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not meet up.  Again; it seems that every opportunity that This President has to meet with our favorite geopolitical boyfriend, she gets stood up.

Ever the tragic, hopeless romantic, I can’t help but feel bad for GMA.  Prepare the buffet tables and the marching bands: I, Marocharim, lyrics-translating rabid anti-Government destabilizer, have empathy for Gloria Arroyo.  I feel for ya, sistah!

Now I know what the girls I loved before felt when I stood them up on those moments they wanted to “communicate.”  I can now imagine (sort of) the feeling they may have had when they were sitting alone in some restaurant at Session Road, waiting for me to swing by and talk.

Ah, yes, the dinner that never was: changed the whole course of my life, really.  Had I been more persistent, less torpe, and more in touch with my romantic side, I would have had a steady relationship by now.  Had I not stood up either one of them on at least one occasion, I wouldn’t be writing about my love life (or the absence of it) on a regular basis.

Then again, if you like someone so much, wouldn’t you set them free?  Wouldn’t you allow them to make decisions on their own?  Wouldn’t your love for them remain so pure, so genuine, and so real that you’re willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, and just let them go?  Set them free?  Set a higher goal for yourself?  Wait for that moment that someone will love you enough to not stand you up on a random restaurant measuring time in terms of maki rolls, rice bowls, and frozen margaritas?

(I have a prodigious memory for these things, you know.)

If there’s anything I learned from relationships that have gone bust, it’s that letting go is not a “sacrifice,” but an open declaration of how much you love somebody.  See, when you keep hounding and pursuing a relationship to the point that you become possessive, you have no “relationship” to speak of.  Sometimes you have to take the hint right away and admit to yourself that try as you may, many relationships don’t work even in a parallel universe.  If he or she doesn’t want to talk, just leave him or her alone.

You don’t wait for a dinner that will not happen.  You don’t light a candle by the window waiting for the love of your life to walk on by and see your love flicker in the darkness.  There’s lots of love to go around in the world; it’s something that doesn’t devalue because of recessions or crises.  You let go, set yourselves free, you give yourselves a whole new chance and find a way back into love.  If it doesn’t work now, it probably will never work anyway, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.

Although the man-thing would be that Obama really didn’t mean it.  Then again, that’s what they all say.

February 6, 2009 3 comments Read More
Bad English

Bad English

A few days ago, I wrote about how “sick books,” represented by a book called “English For You and Me,” is a betrayal of the next generation.  In the February 2, 2009 issue of the Inquirer, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus makes a pretty good excuse (if you will) for the errors in the textbook:

“When something like this crops up, we always tell Mr. (Antonio Calipjo) Go that rather than we read it in the papers first – and then it’s like that’s the end of it, he already scored – if you really want to help, talk to the author,” Lapus said.

“Some of (the alleged errors) are poetry so it’s not grammatical. It’s always misleading if you only use one line or a few phrases,” he added.

“It’s like you write a book and then you use my own writings as part of your book to prove a point and then you mix up what you pick up from me. That does not give the complete sense,” Lapus said.

- Report by Philip Tubeza
“Lapus trying to stop go: That’s poetry”
Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 2, 2009

Let’s not get into philosophical rants on Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida: I leave that to the philosophers.  Yet after reading bollocks passed off as “poetry,” I think I know where they’re coming from.  After all, you can play the “so-called error” card these days.  Then again, I’m not an educator, I don’t have Ph.D. credentials, but I think I’m correct when I point these out:

  • “But what is more important is that she lives in a place that, to Celine, is drowned in mystery.” – Sentences should not begin with the word “but.”  Unless mystery is a liquid that causes flooding and death by edema, the proper term is “shrouded in mystery,” not “drowned.”
  • “‘Gem, what souvenir did you take from lola’s place?  I had a dragonfly with a body like jewels and wings like lace,’ said Cindy.  ‘I got a butterfly with flower designed wings.’” – “Body like jewels…” I don’t get it.  I think that there are better similes and metaphors to describe the body of a dragonfly than jewels; or at the very least, use the term “bejeweled.”  ”Flower designed wings,” I don’t get it, either.  Flowers do not design wings; the proper term is “wings with flower designs,” or “wings with floral designs.”

“So-called error?”  Hmmm…

February 6, 2009 1 comment Read More