The Marocharim Experiment

Anarchy for the WWW

Archive for January, 2010

Confessions in Exhaustion

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

“That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more.”  – Popeye the Sailor

I’m drinking deep of the well of inspiration and I find myself parched; these are the moments that I don’t feel like writing, and I can’t write anything of value.  True, I have a share in things that may compel you to buy stuff, but there’s nothing like being bone-tired and bored, and realizing that you’re a bit rusty, tired, and you may need to take up other hobbies.

Like brushing up on photography, or playing computer games.  No, things have to be written.  I think I’ve developed an unhealthy fixation for writing stuff that I need to lay off the blogging and the note-taking and the demands of being creative before I go insane.  I can’t help it, though.  I think I have the rest of my life cut out for me.  That’s a good thing, but it’s becoming a bit frustrating.  You know what I mean?

“Why are you not writing about politics anymore, dude?” a friend of mine asked.  To be honest, I don’t know why: I can probably give you a dozen reasons, and it all boils down to exhaustion.  Losing faith; the institutions and systems and personalities who are supposed to run this country have failed us in so many different instances that you don’t know where to start, where to begin, and every proposal out there triggers the inner cynic in you to ask, “What’s the point?”

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Vetallano Acosta

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

Vetallano Acosta.
(cue Spanish guitar strum)
Aged in oak barrels, for the finest in Spanish brandy.
(cue flamenco dancers)

Smooth, sophisticated, every sip comes alive.
(archetypal instrumental with guitars, castanets and clapping)
Vetallano Acosta, VSOP: Very Special, Only Pilipino.

All we know of Vetallano Acosta is that he is a Presidential candidate for the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan.  He is backed up by Jay Sonza of “Mel & Jay” fame; fallen from journalistic grace, as it seems, for endorsing some brand of rubbing alcohol many years back, and tried his hand at running for the Senate.  The small legion of Senatoriables for the KBL include, among their ranks, the one and only Imelda Papin.  Yet we know zero of a man who’s running for the Presidency.

Yet he is the man Noynoy Aquino wants disqualified; for reasons other than what Sixto Brillante and Juanito Arcilla have, I could only speculate on the power of sheer surprise.  Could he be more badass than Nick Perlas?  Does he have the power of a thousand Megatron clones that he can destroy Dick Gordon?  Does he have a fuller head of hair than JC Delos Reyes?  Is he the one kontrabida that Erap Estrada can’t beat in a bare-knuckle fight?  Is he more blessed than Eddie Villanueva?  Can he change the world faster and better than Jamby Madrigal?  Does he know of more possibilities than Gibo Teodoro?

Pardon the code-switch: baka siya na nga, at hindi si Villar, ang nakaligo sa dagat ng basura, at nakapag-Pasko pa sa gitna ng kalsada. We know next to nothing about the guy.

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Housekeeping

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Yes, my friends: I, Marocharim, am asking for your permission, dear reader, to write in The Marocharim Experiment.

It sounds ridiculous because it is: I pay for the dues of this blog, I maintain it, and I write for it.  Still, because free speech is stifled so much in the Internet these days, I am asking for your permission – which you have implicitly given me – to write.  In my view, if this blog applies comment moderation, I might as well ask for your permission to publish this entry, and since I’m in control of this blog anyway, I might as well publish this as soon as I’m done instead of waiting for the webmaster (in this case, me) to approve this blog entry anyway.

My entry, as usual, will be full of immature and (mostly) scatological references for me to drive my point, but again, I am asking for your permission to write and to read.  In the interest of the fair and responsible practice of free speech, please click that “Read More” link if you want to hear me out.

(Chances are you probably won’t, because I’m not even that important anyway.)

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49th Silliman University National Writers’ Workshop: Call for Submissions

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

I found this at the Silliman University website:

Call for Submission of Manuscripts to the
49th Silliman University National Writers Workshop

The Silliman University National Writers Workshop is now accepting applications for the 49th National Writers Workshop to be held May 3-21, 2010 in Dumaguete City.

This Writers Workshop is offering fifteen fellowships to promising young writers who would like a chance to hone their craft and refine their style. Fellows will be provided housing, a modest stipend, and a subsidy to partially defray costs of their transportation.

To be considered, applicants should submit manuscripts in English on or before March 19, 2010 (seven to ten poems; or three to five short stories; or three to five creative non-fiction essays). Manuscripts should be submitted in hard copy and on CD, preferably in MS Word, together with a resume, a recommendation letter from a literature professor or a writer of national standing, a notarized certification that the works are original, and two 2X2 ID pictures.

Send all applications or requests for information to Department of English and Literature, attention Dr. Evelyn F. Mascuñana, Chair, Silliman University, 6200 Dumaguete City.

Woot!

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Face the Music

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

The presentation of evidence and the sharing of testimony in an investigation or trial are not mere exercises in establishing guilt or proving innocence, but the realization of justice.  There is no hiding from – and there is no escaping – justice.  The laws of the land, and the institutions that enforce and secure justice for all, exist without partiality to the accused and the accuser.  Without regard to power, without partiality to wealth: “justice for all.”

Manny Villar has made it painfully clear (in more ways than one) that he has no intention of facing his accusers in the Senate.  At the very root of this, Villar says, is politics: that ever since his survey numbers shot up, the C5 controversy is used against him to pull him down.  For all intents and purposes, Villar is not being asked to face the chamber to shoot himself in the foot, but to establish and administer the very notion of justice and the system that ensures it: to prosecute the guilty, to uphold the rights of the innocent, and to keep society in harmony.

By boycotting the Senate hearings, Sen. Villar obstructs a lofty goal that is within the reach of citizens if they strive for it enough: justice.  If anything, it is a most brazen, deliberate obstruction of justice, and an abandonment of the processes and institutions that make up a fair and just society.  More importantly, it is the denial of the truth.  It is injustice.

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Karaoke Hits Translated 1

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Let’s deal with a few karaoke staples, just because I feel like it.

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A Discriminating Taste in Toilets

Monday, January 25th, 2010

My friend Sharlyne wrote a very interesting article today on public toilets for LGBTs.  In a GMA report, the Alyansa ng Media at Showbiz, Inc., led by Leo Martinez, proposes “gay toilets;” that “gay male” and “gay female” toilets may be built in government offices and commercial establishments.

I’m sure that Mr. Martinez and his group are genuinely concerned for the welfare and the security of gay people, and I wouldn’t begrudge any gay, lesbian, or transgendered person the right to say that a separate toilet for their gender is a genuine solution to the problem, if he or she believes so.  Yet the struggle for LGBT rights isn’t about excluding and separating one’s self from society.  It’s about inclusion and acceptance: if the whole struggle has to boil down to a matter of toilets, it’s the gay male or the lesbian or the bisexual or the transgendered to enter a comfort room of his or her own choice, without fear of repercussions or discrimination.  It is to be included and accepted by society, without being judged by toilet habits.

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Malice in Wonderland

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

In a report by GMANews.TV, former DSWD (now DOH) Secretary Esperanza Cabral, through the National Bureau of Investigation, has filed a libel suit against a blogger named “Ella,” who exposed some irregularities and alleged hoarding activities of the DSWD, at the height of the Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng relief efforts.  On the one hand, some people believe that Cabral is right to sue Ella, if only because the practice of “exposing” irregularities and the expression of dissent and disagreement can sometimes be irresponsible.  On the other hand, some people believe that the suit can set a precedent for the Government to muzzle the Internet.

Libel, as we all know, could – and should – be proven with one very important element: malice.

Malice is the exact opposite of one of the precepts that keep society orderly, harmonious, and civil: “do no harm.”  Malice, at least in my view, is one of two things: 1) it is the deliberate intention to cause harm, and 2) it is to go about one’s gains recklessly such that harm is caused.  A lot of criminality revolves around malice: causing harm, whether intentional or out of spite and recklessness, is to live in dishonor and not to give everyone his or her own due.  That’s how dangerous malice is, and one reason why libel is difficult to prove.

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A Love Story

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Where do I begin: this is not a love story of boy-meets-girl, or a tale of girl-meets-boy.  There are no magic potions, curses from evil witches, or Prince Charming laying a kiss on a Beautiful Princess.  There is no once-upon-a-time, or a happily-ever-after.  It is a story of everything falling into place, at just the right moment.

This is not a love story.  This is not a love song.  This is, simply put, love.

It’s either Tetris, or life itself: everything falls into just the right places with a bit of a nudge, and luck on your side.  When the right piece falls.  When the right connections are made.  It isn’t about fleshing out characters or committing everything to the plot of a proper story, with graphs and whatnot.  A time, a place, two different people with so many things in common, yet so many things setting them apart, falling in love.

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Rainbow Hat

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

I don’t know if your mid-twenties should classify you as “old,” but I like to think I’m a hodgepodge of obsolesence and idiosyncrasy in fashion.  Black shirts weren’t as cool as they were when I was younger.  Nobody wears jackets in the oppressive heat of Manila.  Button-down jeans are so last century.  High-topped Chucks and boots are pretty much passé.  Long hair is a vestige of a bygone era: these days, it’s no longer fashionable because it’s perfectly acceptable.  Heck, I needed to ask a friend if the frames of my new glasses are more… well, “cosmo.”

Yet colorful trucker hats that are carefully balanced on top of your head aren’t.  Every offensive class-related slur can cross your mind, until you realize that almost every young man is wearing one of these hats.  It’s the “in” thing, so much so that I don’t know if it’s “gangstah” or “Rastah.”

Like everything involving fashion and the latest trends in headwear, I don’t get it.  Maybe I don’t even have to get it.

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