Archive for August, 2009

I’m sure that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her stooges… I mean… Cerges… I mean, spokespeople, would downplay the whole New York Post Page Six story and play the “gossip news” card.  After all, Page Six is a section of the New York Post that talks about New York, and “no one takes it seriously.”  It’s precisely when your President finds herself in the “gossip sections” of a foreign tabloid not “taken seriously” that you kinda worry about the standing of your head of state.  Just around the five-foot mark… but really?  A million peso dinner?

RLY?  SRSLY?  OMG WTF ME WANT $$$ FOR NOMNOM NAO!  (I swear, I’ll never do that again.)

(Here’s the wine list and here’s the dinner menu.)

The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (YES!) writes that taste is something that is not freely chosen; it is often framed and defined by those who have power.  Taste is one of the many things used by the dominant to assert their power, as well as to keep class distinctions in place.  As a friend of mine quotes: “Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier.”

We rename our streets all too often.  Some parts of C-5, for example, are properly named after heroes: Bonny Serrano, the Katipunan, Eulogio Rodriguez Jr., Carlos P. Garcia, among other names.  There’s bound to be a thoroughfare named “Rizal” in every part of the country honoring the national hero.  Maybe road-naming is serious business in the Philippine political system, considering how much of taxpayer money goes to roads declaring Kalye Banda Diyan as What’s-His-Face Road.  The conventions of street nomenclature, as far as this country is concerned, is either an issue of dynasties or of pandering.

“Brouhaha” is a nonsensical word used to describe nonsense.  In the case of Carlo J. Caparas (and, by extension, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez), that word is fairly adequate.

Let’s consider these interesting bullet-points first:

• Caparas’ defense: In a GMA-7 News report, Caparas says that he “deserves” the honor of the National Artist distinction.  Caparas, in an attempt to massacre the allegations that he does not deserve the accolade, likened his victory to a political one.
• Apologia from a commenter: An interesting series of comments in my previous entry managed to result in some healthy debate.  You have BrianB’s apologia for Caparas, and you have CR’s criticism of Caparas.  Makes for an interesting read, really.
• Ricky Lo’s apologetics: Ricky Lo wrote a very interesting column in the August 4 issue of The Philippine STAR where he enumerates a list of reasons why Caparas deserves the honor.  Among others, a street named after him in Pasig, and the volumes of works he collaborated with and churned out.
• Butch Dalisay’s shoot: Butch Dalisay’s interesting counterpoint came a day earlier, where he points out that the flawed process – and by extension the selection of Caparas – should be decried on the basis that the machinations of a flawed culture are in action.  Dalisay emphasizes a very important point: that a transparent and respectable selection process should be within the bounds of taste.

Let’s keep those bullet-points in mind.