Archive for August, 2010

Stopovers

Stopovers

The Benguet bus crash hits so close to home – I’ve travelled that route many times in my life, and that city is home – that I think it’s best for me to keep this somewhat experimental.

Somehow there are always those places where the concrete breaks.  The eroded section of the road is closed, surrounded by bamboo stakes and caution tape, while the construction crew starts repairing the road.  Only one lane of the highway remains open to traffic.  No one really took to repaving the highways; just the old ways of kabiti. That meant hauling the quarried rock over to the eroded area, building a reinforced wall to hold the new pavement, hoping that everything holds.

At least the old Marcitas buses – the ones Father jokes about – are gone.  The air-conditioned buses ply the Marcos Highway – Palispis-Aspiras, whatever one calls it these days – route, while the top-loaded jeepneys, private cars, and buses negotiate the curves of Naguilian Road.

August 20, 2010 0 comments Read More
All The Guvmint Projects (If You Made It, Then You Should Have Put Your Name On It)

All The Guvmint Projects (If You Made It, Then You Should Have Put Your Name On It)

Y’know what, I kinda wanna go there.

Although the sight of Reps. Suarez, Syjuco, and Magsaysay dancing to this little jig right here is just wrong, but:

Wala naman sigurong masama kung ilalagay mo ang pangalan mo at picture mo lalo na kung gwapo ka o maganda ka… Iyong sa President, sa pagkakaalam namin, ayaw niya na nilalagay iyong pangalan niya tsaka iyong kanyang mukha. Kung ayaw niya, okay, ‘wag ilagay, pero kami naman kung gusto naming ilagay sa aming distrito, sana naman ‘wag kaming pakialaman. Kanya-kanyang discretion iyan.

- PDI, 8/16/2010

Uhhh… yup, I’m going there.

August 16, 2010 1 comment Read More
Tungkol sa Orihinal na Musikang Pilipino (On Original Pilipino Music)

Tungkol sa Orihinal na Musikang Pilipino (On Original Pilipino Music)

Muli akong nagpapaumanhin sa anumang pagkakamali ko sa paggamit ng wikang Filipino sa maikling kuro-kurong ito, ngunit naniniwala akong dapat isulat ang talang ito sa wikang Filipino.  Anyway, translation follows. – Marocharim

Tungkol sa Orihinal na Musikang Pilipino

Iniutos ni Pangulong Aquino na muling ipatupad ang Executive Order No. 255, na kung saan dapat magpatugtog ng apat na awiting Pilipino ang mga istasyon ng radyo sa Pilipinas kada oras sa kanilang mga programang pang-musika.

Hindi layunin ng koryong ito na makipagtalastasan tungkol sa kung ano nga ba ang “awiting Pilipino” na ipaloloob sa debate ng kabihasnan at nasyonalidad, ngunit hindi ito maiiwasan.  Hindi maipagkakaila na marami sa ating mga magagaling na mang-aawit ay bihasa sa mga awiting banyaga, sa mga cover version o sa revival, o di kaya’y sa pagsasalin (tulad ng inyong lingkod, bagamat hindi ako mang-aawit).  Maaari ding ipahayag na walang “orihinal na awiting Pilipino,” hindi dahil sa usapin ng kabihasnan, ngunit tungkol sa mga katangian ng makabagong OPM na di mapagkakailang halaw sa mga istilo ng banyagang kompositor at mang-aawit.

Para sa akin, ang konsepto ng OPM ay mga istilo at porma ng musika na bahagi na rin ng iba’t-ibang kultura sa Pilipinas, gamit ang kanilang mga instrumento, wika, at pananaw.  Ang musika ay bahagi ng ating kuwento at kasaysayan; bagamat ikinalulugod nating pakinggan ang mga awitin ng ibang bansa, hindi dapat natin kalimutan o di kaya’y kasuklaman ang mga awiting atin.

Bagamat dapat purihin ang layunin ng EO 255, naniniwala pa rin ako na ang musika ay isang personal na kagustuhan, libangan, o di kaya’y kahalingan.  Naniniwala po ako na hindi solusyon sa sitwasyon ng OPM ang pagsasabatas na dapat makinig at magpasahimpapawid ang mga istasyon ng radyo ng mga awiting Pilipino.  Sa aking palagay ay walang batas sa mga istasyon ng radyo na pumipigil sa mga empleyado nito na magpatugtog ng awiting banyaga.  Sa aking hamak na pagpapalagay ay taliwas sa napakapersonal na karakter ng musika na ipilit na ipasahimpapawid ang mga awiting sadya naman ayaw pakinggan ng makikinig, o di kaya’y hindi bagay sa imahe ng istasyon.

Nakalulungkot na isipin na ang isang instrumento ng kalayaan – ang musika – ay ginagamit sa isang mapagpilit na paraan.

Isa akong masugid na tagapakinig ng musikang Pilipino, at kung kailangan man ay narito ako para ipahayag ang kagandahan ng ating musika, at kahusayan ng ating mga artista at ng industriya ng musika sa Pilipinas.  Ngunit ang ating sariling panlasa at pagkatig sa musika ay mga suhestiyon lamang sa gustong makinig.  Naniniwala ako na mas mapapasigla ang OPM kung ito ay may matibay na pundasyon; kung mamumuhunan ang pamahalaan sa mga istasyong pag-aari nito at patuloy na magpatugtog ng OPM.  Lalung-lalo na, kung ito ang mangunguna sa pagtangkilik sa OPM.  Sa pamamagitan ng de-kalidad na mga istasyon, na may makabagong kagamitan at mga dalubhasang empleyado, ay mas epektibong maibabahagi sa sambayanan ang kagandahan ng ating mga awitin, at kagalingan ng mga mang-aawit, kompositor, at manunulat sa industriya ng musika sa Pilipinas, sila ma’y nagsisimula pa lamang o batikan na sa larangan.

Hamon na rin sa kinapipitagang industriya ng musika sa Pilipinas na patuloy na gumawa ng mga de-kalidad na awitin; hindi natitigil sa kung anuman ang uso o di kaya’y kung anumang revival ang kikita.  Ang musika ay hindi idinidikta, kundi pinakikinggan: kung maganda ang awitin ay tiyak na ito’y pakikinggan.  Muli, bagamat ang layunin ng kautusang ito ay kapuri-puri, ang pagsasapraktika nito ay sumasagi sa ating sariling panlasa – at sa isang kaduluhan, ang ating mga karapatan – na mamili kung ano ang musikang ating kinahuhumalingan at pinakikinggan.  Ang sagot ay nasa mga prayoridad ng pamahalaan at sa industriya na mismo, at hindi sa sapilitang pakikinig sa awiting atin.

Translation after the break.

August 15, 2010 2 comments Read More
Demolition

Demolition

A friend of mine, Prudence, has this to say about eight people hurt in a demolition site at Quezon City:

It is silliness to remain thinking these people are the “helpless and innocent” ones.  Just think, there were 20 improvised explosives, besides the pillboxes, that were found in these shanties during the demolition.  Think of what these people are capable of.  If only it were directed to a more productive way, these people could be contributing citizens of the society.  But they choose not to.

I repeat, they have a CHOICE.  Poverty is no excuse.  There were a lot of those who have been poor but were able to rise above it, through honest means.

- Compassion or Justice? @ Prudence, M.D.

In many respects, yes, when people start throwing pillboxes at police officials and resort to violence to defend “their property,” it is wrong.  Then again, demolition – with the presence of authority figures who are anything but prudent and just in the exercise of their duties – is itself a form of violence, so it gets eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a-tooth really fast.  Of course it’s not compassionate for police officers to violently disperse people who are there fighting for their right to abode, but it is not just for people to merely occupy a space for their own without thinking of the right of the property owner for that land, too.

I think that as long as we look at things in the black-and-white of who’s right and who’s wrong, we’ll always have a problem with informal settlers.  We’ll be stuck in that cycle of settlers occupying land, and authorities taking people out of that land.

August 13, 2010 2 comments Read More
A Question of Accreditation

A Question of Accreditation

The beauty of “citizen journalism” – for purposes of this entry, bloggers who do journalistic work on the side – is that it works from the periphery.  The “citizen journalist,” in the case of something like “Boto Mo, Ipatrol Mo” or BlogWatch.ph, for example, was that it never needed accreditation to create news and commentary; that even the simplest tools can be used to document newsworthy stories.

The blog is an intensely personal medium fortified by friendships and networks, the most formal being very loose associations, but there was never a need to “accredit the blogosphere;” the handful of those actively seeking accreditation not (and never) representative of the entire population of bloggers in the Philippines.

As a blogger, I understand where Tess Bedico (in invoking Regina Bengco) are coming from: more than territorial pissing, it’s to uphold journalistic standards in the Malacañang Press Corps.  Sure, a passionate blogger would have all the right to get all riled up and perhaps even insulted with being called hao-shiao (to drive the point home, fake journalists), but it stops at the swipe.  The rest of the rant, where “blogging is the future of reporting” and “some journalists are hao-shiao anyway” fall under the category of conjecture.

It’s a tired line from those making noise in the periphery (including myself), but again: journalists can be bloggers as bloggers can be journalists. The relationship between bloggers and journalists is a matter of difference, not inferiority or superiority.  That comes with the caveat that every blogger who writes about current events and politics is a consumer of “traditional,” or “mainstream,” media; an opinion-maker in a symbiotic relationship with the journalist.

August 10, 2010 5 comments Read More
Whoa! WOW: Women of Wrestling

Whoa! WOW: Women of Wrestling

At the risk of being called a chauvinist, sexist, and a misogynist, women’s wrestling leaves a lot to be desired.  There are talented divas in the WWE roster in the absence of Lita, Trish Stratus, Victoria, and most recently Mickie James: there’s Beth Phoenix, Gail Kim, Natalya Neidhart, and Melina Perez.  Joshi, or female puroresu, has always been a hotbed for great wrestling talent; with the likes of Chigusa Nagayo, Lioness Asuka, Megumi Kudo, Akira Hokuto, and Manami Toyota setting the bar for women’s wrestling worldwide.

Again, at the risk of offending the female population, setting the bar high means having to set another bar low.  I’m not talking about Michelle McCool matches on SmackDown! (trembles) or seeing Kelly Kelly wrestle (shudders).  I’m talking about…

For those of you who are old enough to remember Jack TV in its early days, there’s that fabled wrestling federation of botches, gimmicks, and all sorts of awesomely horrible women’s wrestling: WOW.

August 9, 2010 0 comments Read More