Without the Pseudonym

I have a bad pseudonym, because it’s actually a shortened version of my real name.  My name is Marck Ronald Chang Rimorin: blogger, freelance writer.  By training, I am a social anthropologist and political scientist.

I’ve often been chastised for having “controversial” opinions on everything from politics to society to sports figures and showbiz stars.  Having a thinly-disguised pseudonym may have helped me get away relatively unscathed for the past few years, but I’ve always been open about who I am, what I think, and what I write about.

I won’t always write about what people will want to read, and over the years, some people have hated me for it.  But in the same way, some people respect me for it.  I would even go to jail - by my own free will - if it means standing by what I write.  Standing by what I write means that I stand by what I think of in the first place, before I even began to commit my thoughts into an entry.  A blogger faces two realities: while I am more free to write about what I like, the laws that protect journalists here do not apply to me.

While I am quite careful and to a certain extent responsible, I know no compromise when it comes to honest, “controversial,” or even “wrong” opinions.  Sure, I sometimes need someone to remind me that I’m stepping over the line every now and then.  But I know what these lines are and where they are drawn: I respect the opinions of others regardless of whether they respect mine or not.  My thoughts and ideas stand for something to some people, so I have to stand by what I write here.

Which is why I have a bad pseudonym, a shortened version of my name.  I have “controversial” opinions that may land me in prison, if free speech no longer applies to a Filipino.  But any which way, I don’t hide under the cover of my pseudonym: only one man in the world has my name.

And that’s me.

- January 28, 2008