The necessary pork barrel
Reading all the bad things written about the pork barrel in the dailies, one wonders, If it is so evil, then why do we still have it ?

Because the pilfering of the pork barrel funds has a vital social function. Back in his district, a congressman is seen by his constituents not as a lawmaker but as a social worker, a Kuya Cesar with tons of money to help ease life's many inconveniences. The provincial constituents do not care about congressional deliberations, much less how well their representatives intellectually comport themselves with important national issues. What is important is that the legislator is approachable.

If a congressman were to to be as saintly as St. Francis de Assisi, abjuring all worldly temptations, he would be, in a sense, denying his constituents the one service most expected of him. For where else will he get the money to finance the funerals, the hospitalization, the many fiesta celebrations, the weddings of his constituents? Out of his own pockets? C'mon. Even the venerable makers of our Constitution did not envision the Philippine Congress as philantropy central. Besides as Sen. Avelino colorfully pointed out, when Jesus died in the cross He made a distinction between good crooks and bad crooks. I'd like to believe that our congressmen are at least good crooks.

Seriously though, I am inclined to think presently that the abolition of the pork barrel would be undesirable. As pointed out by the Supreme Court in Philconsa v. Enriquez, and as echoed by Rep. Lagman, the pork barrel aims to solve the problem of uneven allocations, of member close to the leadership getting more than their less favored colleagues. With equal pork barrel allocations of P65 M a year, each congressional district is at least guaranteed a decent amount of money for its development.

If the pork barrel is to be abolished. it would not necessarily mean less corruption and less wastage of government money. Most likely, we would just be beggaring our legislators while enriching other officials. What is to be done therefore ?

The Jesuit priest John Carroll, drawing lessons from the US, has written an op-ed piece in the Inquirer ( sorry, the link on the website doesn't work, check today's hard copy) saying that the proper tack would be to strengthen DSWD and engage professional social workers in the department so that people would begin looking for DSWD--rather than for their congressmen whose primary responsibility should be to craft law-- for matters concerning social security.

Miss Universe's wardrobe malfunction
Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins snagged her dress on her shoe during a Sydney fashion show last week, revealing her butt covered by a g-string while she scurried off the stage. Pictures can be seen here.

Reengineering the government
Fred de la Rosa of the Manila Times suggests 50 ways to cut cost in government. Among his suggestions are:

1) Do not hold meetings and hearings at five-star hotels and upscale restaurants.

I don't know if congressional committee hearings are still held in restaurants and hotels today (Batasan has now a new building for that now) , but four or five years ago years ago, it was quite common to hold committee meetings in places like the Sulo Hotel or the restaurant Racks.

2) Recycle office supplies and materials. If you receive an invitation by fax, write your acceptance or regrets on the same piece of paper and fax it back.

We often hear of government offices with huge unpaid telephone bills. I think if the government would make maximun use of new technology, it would be able to drastically cut communication expenses. In fact, if we would really be cost-efficient about it, pace Mr. De la Rosa, fax machines should be tossed away . They are so twentieth century. It is possible now to send facsimile copies directly through internet-connected computers without a need to printing out documents first. As former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad said, a paperless government is possible.

It was, I think, PN Abinales who, tongue-in-cheek, suggested that to save up money in the government's negotiations with the CPP-NPA, it would be better for the negotiations to be done through texting rather than sending delegations to far-away Netherlands. I think texting would be impractical and tedious, a more workable technology for the negotiations would be internet relay chat software. Not only would they be able to exchange views real time, the negotiators would also be able to exchange documents. After the chat negotiations, there would also be an automatic transcript of the negotiations

Job Opening
British Council Programme Officer
British Council Philippines is accepting applications from qualified individuals to fill in their need for a Programme Officer. This post will provide effective administration support for the implementation of projects across the office in Education, Governance, Marketing and Communication. 10 September 2004 is the closing date for applications. Click here for details.

Job opening
CALL FOR PROSPECTIVE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS FOR THE NSCB POVERTY MAPPING PROJECT (posted 01 September 2004)

The NSCB is inviting prospective Research Assistants who can provide technical services to the Poverty Mapping Project in the development of regression models for the estimation of poverty statistics at the provincial and, if possible, municipal levels. They must be statistics graduates, with experience on the use of the Stata software and other statistical softwares, processing of large data sets, and regression modeling. Possession of technical writing skills and a master’s degree or some graduate units in statistics or any related field will be a definite advantage.

All interested applicants are requested to submit the following documents on or before 6 September 2004:

• Expression of interest
• Curriculum vitae detailing the applicant’s qualifications, relevant experience and competence, and references

For inquiries and clarifications, please contact Ms. Didi Ignacio and/or Ms. Bernadette Balamban at telephone number 896-5390 and e-mail addresses rm.ignacio@nscb.gov.ph and bb.balamban@nscb.gov.ph.

Euro pudding
It's really late now, but I feel compelled to write something about a movie I just saw that really made my day: L'Auberge Espagnole or, literally translated, The Spanish Apartment. The movie is about the coming of age of Xavier, a young Parisian who, prodded by his father, decided to study economics in Barcelona to further his career prospects at home. During his one-year stay in Spain, he shared an apartment with other students: Wendy from Britain ; Tobias from Germany; Lars from Denmark; Soledad from Spain; Alessandro from Italy; and Isabelle from Belgium. The movie is one big advertisement for the European Union, I know, but it is also one of those that pleasantly capitalize on the nostalgia for youth (like Reality Bites during the 90s) : the immature practice of breaking up over the phone, finding yourself gorging on MTV during times of great crisis, spending the night with your friends dancing in the club and then afterwards singing No Woman, No Cry on the way home....

The movie also has its funny moments: Xavier getting lessons on making out with a girl from his lesbian housemate, the scene when Wendy almost got caught by his visiting boyfriend in bed with another guy.... The Washington Post in its review of the movie has this to say:

In its broad embrace it also appeals to those members of the audience who merely remember what it was like to be young and foolish and frustrated and full of beans. In case you've forgotten, "L'Auberge" will remind you.

Yes, it does remind you. And it is always nice remembering.

Poetry launching
High Chair, a nonprofit small press that promotes poetry, will launch three new poetry books: Babel by Mayo Uno Martin, The Rosegun by Alex Gregorio, and Kami sa Lahat ng Masama by Allan Popa on September 7, Tuesday, 9 pm at Conspiracy Bar, Visayas Ave., Quezon City.

High Chair members Allan Popa, Alex Gregorio, Kristine Domingo, Mabi David, Mesandel Arguelles, Rosmon Tuazon, Mayo Uno Martin, and Larry Ypil will read their poetry during the event. The launch will also feature a musical performance by the band Purple Chickens. High Chair promotes poetry through the publication of books, the Novaliches workshops, poetry readings, and its online journal www.highchair.com.ph.

Dire straits
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict soars to new heights as this joke is supposedly gaining currency:

What do you call a Palestinian in the sea? Pollution. What do you call 2 million Palestinians in the sea? Solution

The embarrassment of pork
Exactly what is it that is so odious about the pork barrel that just about everybody, save the legislators themselves, seems to hold it in such low esteem ? One Batangas congressman I saw on ANC was quite at pains to point out that allegations of corruption are unfair because congressmen never get to actually touch pork barrel money; other agencies, according to him, handle the cash. Congressmen simply identify the worthwhile projects.

I don't know if that congressman was on medication--he seemed rather lucid--or was simply pulling the legs of the ANC viewers, whom he must have taken for simpletons. Corruption of the pork barrel money is a concrete social fact, so concrete in fact that Sen. Lacson in a privilege speech last year even gave a breakdown of hte various cuts for construction projects funded by the pork barrel:

2% COA as SOP
10% District Engineer/other officials of the DPWH
2% Barangay chairman
5-10% Governor/Mayor
20% Legislator who identifies the project

There is also this sad story of an educational materials supplier about how she was initiated to that delicate art of bribing people:

"When we were new, we were really serious with our presentation," recounts the supplier. "We stressed the benefits the congressman and his constituents could get from our product."

Unfortunately, the first congressman she presented her product to was not at all interested in the materials she was selling. Less than two minutes into her spiel, the legislator, who was then on his second term, interrupted her by asking "Magkano ba (How much)?" The supplier told him the price, but the congressman repeated his query. That was when it hit her, says the supplier; she was being asked how big a cut the lawmaker would receive.

"Sir, 30 percent ang binibigay naming rebate (we give a 30 percent rebate),"she remembers telling him shyly. She still wasn't used to bribing people, she says, especially legislators whom she had often seen on television. The supplier says she could not look at the congressman in the eye because she was so ashamed of herself; at the same time, she also felt embarrassed for the lawmaker. "Totoo pala ang tsismis (The rumors are true after all)," the supplier recalls thinking. "Tumatanggap pala sila (They do get cuts)."

That was four years ago. Today the supplier claims "pera-pera na ang usapan (money is the point of discussion)" whenever she tries to convince a legislator to buy her products. She says she has learned to accept this reality. "We show the materials sample and then it's straight to 'Sir, the discount is 40 percent.'" According to her, the kickback rates for educational supplies have now also increased to between 40 and 50 percent.

Many more distributors, I assume, must have had the same coming-of-age experience as our jaded educational materials supplier. (Whenever I find myself at the Batasan, I always cannot help but think, If the walls could speak to me, what secrets would I learn, what depravity could I be privy to ? )

No matter how hard we try to deny it, pork barrel money makes every legislator suspect -- including, unfortunately, the righteous ones. What is troubling is that our honorable legislators do not seem to mind the public’s suspicion.

Web prowl
Time magazine reports on the Abu Sayyaf's masterminding the Superferry bombing last February. Also from the magazine, a profile of MILF Chairman Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim. Covering more or less the same ground, Newsweek also reports this week on Mindanao. The Chief of Staff of the US Army provides a reading list for military personnel. Finally, the UP economics paper that has launched a hundred commentaries is available here.

Literary awakening
I watched a thoroughly delightful movie yesterday, and even today I am still thinking of Dai Sijie's Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress. The movie is about two teenage boys sent to a remote mountain-top village for a re-education with the peasants during China's Cultural Revolution. The boys were banished from the city of Chengdu for being the children of reactionary parents who have been branded enemies of the people.

During their re-education of hard labor, they discovered a suitcase full of forbidden books, and so they surreptitiously read Balzac, Dumas, Stendhal, Dostoevsky, Gogol, etc. One of the boys, enamored by the daughter of the local tailor (the little Chinese seamstress of the title), set out on a mission to instill culture on the girl by reading her Balzac. They fell in love, the girl got pregnant and had an abortion. The movie ends with the little Chinese seamstress leaving her village to seek her fortune in the city, abandoning the boy she has fallen in love with. When the boy ran after her and asked why she was leaving him without even saying goodbye, the girl said she learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price.

The movie was shot on a heartbreakingly beautiful mountain, and many times I thought I'd want to be re-educated there myself ( Oh Chairman Mao, where are you now when I need you? ). But what I really found affecting about the story was the intensity of the literary awakening of the characters. The boys were quite taken, mesmerized even, by Balzac's Ursule Mirouet, astonished by its realistic depiction of love, female beauty and sexual desire. Any reader who watches the movie--or read the novel on which it was based--would surely remember that distant time when he too made the first encounter wiith great literary characters.

I myself cannot cannot help but remember with an air of nostalgia my first encounter with great literary characters. The first one I met was the adulterer Hester Prynne of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. I borrowed the book from a classmate for a book review assigned in class and little did I know then that it would change my life's perspective. The book's personal meaning for me is that sometimes the people we condemn as degenerate are, in point of truth only discernable to God, morally superior.

The Scarlet Letter had such deep effect on me. In our small town in Bicol during the time I was in high school, there was this lovely woman who was widely rumored to be a prostitute of some sort. I didn't really know for sure whether she really was a prostitute, and I was also hesitant to believe the rumors because in our uptight town in Bicol ( local townspeople would point out with pride that we are the most religious in the Philippines ), the people have a marked tendency to brand any unmarried girl who had sex as pokpok.

Once when my friends and classmates were on the beach, the woman who was rumored to be a prostitute happened to pass by the beach hut we were then occupying. There was instantaneous hooting and teasing, calling the woman by her name. Some people around us were even making obscene gestures, while others throw meaningful smiles. Some of the men on the beach, not content with teasing the poor woman, even accosted her, blocking her path many times before she was let go.

I was filled then with great sadness in my realization that we were no better than the people who plagued Hester Prynne. What frustrated me was the fact that I was such a coward to stop the whole injustice being done on that hapless woman. For what was I to do ? Tell all those people that what they were doing was wrong ? I am no hero. God knows I even have a problem defending myself. How was I to take the cudgels for other people ? I thought then, What if she really were a prostitute? Did it give us a right to do this to her?

Had I not read The Scarlet Letter, my thoughts would have been less tortured. But instead of stopping, I continued my literary exploration. It was a happenstance that the next two great books I read were about other social outcasts: Philip Carey with his club foot and Silas Marner with his fortune stolen.

The literary awakening of the characters in Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress brought them to a deeper undestanding of the nature of love. Unfortunately, because of my unhappy choice of novels first read, mine led me to searing discontent.

Lecture Forum
Peace, Demilitarization, and the War against Terror
1 September 2004
2:00-4:30 p.m.
UP Asian Center Conference Room
UP Diliman, Quezon City

The pleasures of fiction
I haven't read any fiction for quite some time now. (There was a brief utilitarian time I even felt it was quite a waste of time reading something of no practical purpose.) Having decided to once again read fiction, I wanted to begin with something not too heavy. So I took David Lodge's Changing Places from the shelf, where it was gathering dust for a little over three years now. I didn't know anything about the book or its author when I bought it from a book sale. The thing that recommended the book to me was the recommendation of one blurb, which promised "the cool, cruel detachment of Evelyn Waugh."

And so I began reading with no expectations at all. After some time, my jaw started to hurt because, it turned out, I was in a state of perpetual grin while reading. Philip Swallow of UK"s Rummidge University swaps with the UCLA-modelled Euphoria State University's Morris Zapp in an annual scheme of exchanging professors.

The book's extremely funny, and I wish I can retell here all the funny episodes. Here's one: Rummaging through old issues of The Times Literary Supplement, Zapp found out that an article he wrote for a festschrift was reviewed as a monument to imbecility and perversity in scholarship in the pages of the TLS four years ago. Excerpt from the book ( Zapp in a dilemma):

And my enemy, who is he? Some Ph.D. student I flunked? Some limey scholar whose book i chewed up in a footnote? Some guy whose mother I ran over in my car without noticing? Do you remember, Desiree, any exceptionally heavy bump in the road, driving somewhere four or five years ago?

Prof. Swalllow also devised a game called Humiliation, in which each person had to think of a well-known book he hadn't read, and scored a point for every person present who had read it. He disastrously introduced the game to a party of the English Department at Euphoria, In the course of the game it was learned that the Chair of the department has never read Paradise Regained. Another professor, trailing behind in points and desperately wanting to catch up blurted, Hamlet! Needless to say, that professor who publicly admitted to not having read Hamlet was denied tenure.

Gawad ka Amado 2004
"Mga Karanasan ng Pangingibang Bayan"

Tula, Maikling Kwento, Awit at Sining Biswal

Deadline 5:00pm October 29, 2004

Ipadala sa P.O. BOX 700, Araneta Center P.O, Cubao Q.C. 1135 o sa 3B J.Bugallon St., Project 4, Quezon City, Phillippines 1109

Para sa mga katanungan tumawag sa 4219427 o mag-email sa gawadkaamado@yahoo.com o tumingin sa
www.geocities.com/avhrc/main

Web prowl
Slate compares and contrasts the different diet books in the market, from Atkins to Okinawa. At the 440 B.C. Olympic Games, a hot young author made the scene—Herodotus! Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai defends ASEAN's policy of consensus and non-intervention in this ASEAN lecture delivered on the occasion of the regional organization's 37th anniversary. Psychicpants has an excerpt of a one-act play wriiten by FHM's Eric Ramos.

Democracy and its discontent
From Le Monde Diplomatique, the novelist Jose Saramago calls for a reinvention of today's democracy, noting that while democracy has often been touted as the least bad of the systems of government, "No one seems to realise that resigned acceptance of the least bad is a brake on the search for something better." Saramago laments the fact that the poor are called to elect leaders, but are never called to govern. Elections in today's democracy, according to him, are more like wholesale abdication of civic responsibility rather than genuine exercises in political choice.

The language of the revolution
A rather interesting exchange has developed in the editorial pages of Today. Manuel Buencamino in an op-ed entitled An open letter to Joma brought to task the erstwhile chairman of the NDF for being a little too touchy about the US State Department's tagging the CPP-NDF as terrorist. In the course of the open letter, Buencamino marshals some nasty things to say about Sison, among which was the latter's apparent need for a makeover (Paging: Queer Eye for the Revolutionary Guy). But what drew sharp rebuttal was Buencamino's comments on Sison's use of the English language:

...you [Sison} should stop using laborious phrases like “U.S. imperialism and its die-hard puppets.” They date you, because no one talks that way anymore. If you were to appear in a televised interview, subtitles would be needed.

The very next day Dean Luis Teodoro came up with a rejoinder column bitingly entitled To whom it may concern, defending Sison and his language:

It’s true no one talks like that anymore -- at least not in the respectable, albeit “radical” circles of Philippine NGOs.... Academics favor indirection, subtlety, obscure phrases. Unfortunately, again as Daroy noted, Sison doesn’t write for academics but for the many who actually make history

.

Teodoro further adds that Sison's prose of "brutal, sometimes awkward directness" is explained by Sison's interest in "naming things for what they really were" and "communicating to the legions of the poor."

Was Buencamino really being "academic" in his taking to task Sison's language ? This is funny because, I don't know if it is just me, but I have always thought of Sison as the professorial, academic type, more like Karl Marx than Lenin.

I, however, can totally understand where Buencamino was coming from. There is really something jarring in the image of Sison presented to us by TV clips: the revolutionary in a business suit, going about the peace negotiations like a Makati Business Club executive going over the day's acquisitions. Truth be told, Sison has no charm whatsoever for the cellphone-holding, cono-aspiring collegiates. He inspires not even an iota of curiousity outside social science and national democratic circles. If, for example, the undergraduates at, say, UP were to be quizzed on Sison and the movement he led, the campus would bleed red--for the failing marks, that is. Even among the more progressive Philippine campuses, the national democratic youth are now seen by the majority as nothing more than a campus curiousity. I was told by a friend that if Sison only knew the now reactionary politics of the journalists' guild he founded at the UP College of Mass Communications, he would desist his correspondence to the organization at once.

Sison is, in many ways, the most divisive figure today in Philippine politics, more divisive than Imelda Marcos, for in the latter, no matter how we may loathe or love the Marcos regime, we can always agree on the charm of its first lady. In the case of Joma , there seems to be an invisible hand directing one to either love or hate him.

What is undeniable though is that no matter how people may hate him for the great expectations he unleashed but never quite led to political fruition, Sison was the revolutionary who midwifed the birth of the vibrant civil society we have today. Scratch the resume of any NGO worker or, just about anybody with a genuine interest in Philippine politics (save the dynastic political families, of course) and you will find national democratic roots.

The last decade has spawned many nemeses of Sison even in the Philippine Left. Some have been disenchanted, others took a break and raised families, still others were turned off by the Stalinist purges. Yet one thing is clear: Sison is the Alpha of the Philippine civil society; what is stilll in doubt is whether he too will be its Omega. Probably not. But who can tell? The wheel is still in spin,as Bob Dylan put it, and history, pace Francis Fukuyama, has no ending--at least, not just yet.

Sometimes when we touch
From the Wily Filipino, Filipino translations of some well-known songs:

Imagine - Mantakin Mo
Bluer Than Blue - Malapit Na Sa Hukay
Tonight's The Night - Patay Kang Bata Ka
Hey Jude - Hoy Hudas!
Power of Love - Buntis
Three Times a Lady - Super Bakla
More Than A Woman - Tomboy
Can't Be With You Tonight - Meron Ako Ngayon
Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know - Huwag Mo Kong Gawing Tanga
You Should Know By Now - Alam Mo Na Dapat Ngayon Yan, Tanga!
Sometimes When We Touch - Minsan Kapag Tayo'y Naghihipuan
Touch Me In The Morning - Hipuan Mo Ako Sa Umaga
Stairway To Heaven - Mula Paa Hanggang Singit
Got To Believe In Magic - Walang Himala
Total Eclipse Of The Heart - Maitim ang Puso
King & Queen Of Hearts - Tong-it Na Ko Sa Jack
Macho Man - Walang Ganyan Sa Opis
Pretty Woman - Walang Ring Ganyan Sa Opis
How Deep Is Your Love - Magkano Ang Iyong Deposito sa Bangko

The snobbish Manila Times
The editorial staff of the Manila Times must have a very high regard for the intelligence of their readers. How else can we explain their decision to hire Prof. Escultura as a columnist (who, incidentally, is a townmate)? Just a fortnight ago, the professor was explaining in prose a proof of Fermat's last theorem; today, he is educating his graduate students on the dead ends of mathematics, which he says are foundations, number theory, real and complex analysis, abstract algebra, topology and category theory. (Don't ask me, I have no idea what those are.)

The landlessness of the Muslim people
Eric Gutierrez and Saturnino Borras Jr present an economic interpretation of the insurgency in Mindanao in The Moro Conflict: Landlessness and Misdirected Policies. They argue that it is landlessness that is at the root of the problem. Unfortunately, according to the authors, landlessness never figured prominently as a strategic issue in all the government's negotiations with both the MNLF and the MILF. The CARP also did not solve the problem and, arguably, has even exacerbated it by giving preference to actual farmhands ( usually Christians who have earlier displaced Muslims and lumad ) tilling the land.

If landlessness is such a central issue as Gutierrez and Borras say it is, then what explains the benign neglect of our peace negotiators ? A simple case of middle-age absent-mindedness perhaps ?

Public forum
Voices from the Global South: Women’s Perspective on War and Globalization

Main Speakers:

Ofelia Ortega
Presbyterian minister and member, Central Committee, WCC Principal of the Evangelical Theological Seminary, Mantanzas, Cuba Vice-president of the Ecumenical Council of Cuba

Helen Wangusa
Coordinator of African Women’s Empowerment Network (AWEPON) Chairperson, International South Group Network.(ISGN)

Namsoon Kang
Dean of Programme for Theology and Culture in Asia (PTCA) Co-moderator of Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS) Vice-president of World Conference of Assns. of Theological Institutions
(WOCATI)

This will be on 30 AUGUST 2004 at the UCCP Shalom Centre, 1660 Luis Ma. Guerrero St., Malate, Manila from 9.00 a.m. – 12.00 nn.

Organized by The People’s Forum on Peace for Life, World Council of Churches (WCC), National Council of Churches in the Philippines(NCCP), Ecumenical Women’s Forum and Pilgrims for Peace

The true results of the 2004 presidential elections
Roberto Verzola's paper referred to below is available on the web here.

Who shall guard the guardians themselves?
Former COMELEC Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco must be extremely happy these days. Her erstwhile bete noire, the NAMFREL, is finally on the receiving end of public ridicule following Roberto Verzola’s allegations that the watchdog organization was guilty of bias in favor of President Arroyo during the last presidential elections.

Verzola says that the NAMFREL tally shows clear signs of manipulation through selective tabulation in favor of GMA, making her lead appear to be larger than it really was. As an observer of the NAMFREL operations, Verzola noticed that the NAMFREL was counting GMA’s votes faster than FPJ’s, making it appear GMA had a more sizeable lead than she probably, in truth, had. The votes from known bailiwicks of FPJ, according to Verzola, were suspiciously de-prioritized in the tabulation. Also without completely counting all the votes, the COMELEC pronounced GMA the winner by a lead of 681, 000 votes. Given the trending skew of NAMFREL in favor of GMA, saving FPJ’s votes for last, and the incompleteness of NAMFREL’s tabulations of votes, there is, according to Verzola, a slight possibility that it was FPJ who actually won the elections albeit by a slim margin.

Verzola says that:

NAMFREL officials appear to be keeping the truth from the public, by 1) not including in their system design a provincial or regional breakdown of precincts counted; 2) not releasing this breakdown despite strong demands by the opposition, the media and election watchers; 3) continuing to refuse to release this information today despite repeated requests, and 4) keeping silent on the major discrepancies between their tally and the Congress canvass.

With NAMFREL’s reputation now in question, who shall we trust to tell us the truth the next time we have elections? Or should we begin reading Tancangco’s dissertation on the questionable performance of NAMFREL in the1986 snap elections?

As time goes by
Exactly who is Mark Macapagal kidding? His Old is in in the Manila Times today reads much like what you say to yourself on your birthday when you are depressed and feeling, well, old.

Do people really feel better that they are older? Oh, come on. Perhaps some do, but surely in Macapagal’s paean to senescence, he is guilty of some misrepresentation, to say the least, of the virtues of youth.

I remember one professor, in a side note to a lecture on the young and impetuous Alcibiades ( who famously tried to seduce Socrates and probably inspired The Symposium ), said to our class that we should read as many books as we could while still young and matriculating because we would have no more time to read when we get older. (If only I took his advise to heart and didn't spend so much time daydreaming then ! ) The professor added that in no time again would we find ourselves as curious, as intuitive and as good-smelling. And true enough, now that I am older I find myself not as curious, not as intuitive and certainly not as good-smelling as I used to be. Also, did not Turgenev say something about that bittersweet depression that only the very young can feel?

If we were to tabulate the virtues of the young and old, which tally would end up more substantial in our estimation? The vampires had the best of both worlds: the looks and the agility of the young, and the hoary experience of the old. But that means, of course, we would have to drink blood in exchange. I am presently reading Bill Clinton’s My Life and there was this part there where Clinton recalls an old friend from college as saying:

“You know…life is organized backwards. You spend the best years studying, then working. When you retire at sixty-five, you’re too old to enjoy it. People should retire between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five, then work like hell till they die.”

Oo nga naman. That way you maximize the virtues of youth when you are still young and the virtues of age when you are old. A happy solution that, unfortunately, can never be.

Job opening

Date of Posting: August 2004
We are a non-government organization working on intervention for girls at risk from the streets, and/or abused and expolited. We are looking for a SOCIAL WORKER CENTER DIRECTOR for TAHANAN STA. LUISA Crisis Intervention Center for Sexually Abused/Street Girls. She must at least be an MSW or BSWW graduate with 2 to 3 years experience in a center-based program for street children.

Qualifications:

• A graduate of Bachelor of Science in Social Work.
• With at least two (2) years experience working with street children
• Preferably with training on psychosocial intervention and counseling with children in need of special protection.

Interested applicants can send their resume to CHILDHOPE ASIA PHILIPPINES, INC., 1210 Penafrancia Extension, Paco 1007 Manila or chap@childhope.org.ph or contact Ms. Lourdes Ilagan at tel. no. 563-4647 / telefax 563-2242.

Ateneo the plagiarist

Fresh from a concert in Toronto, Jim Paredes of the APO blogs on how the Ateneo school anthem, the same song we hear at the UAAP, was ripped off from the Canadian national anthem.

The sound and the fury

Keana Reeves's expose of the thriving escort industry has turned out into a bigger story than I previously thought. But unfortunately, she chickened out at the last minute despite the coaxing of Rep. Liza Maza so we will never know now exactly who was the congressman she worked for and what were the particular services she performed on the honorable. Ah, these are the times we wish Maceda were in the Senate again.

Limpbwizit though is far from being amused by all the commotion created by Ms. Reeves:

e kung di naman sya gaga di ba, sa dami na pala ng mga kongresman na naka-kangkang sa kanya, ngayong lalabas pa ang pelikula nya at tsaka sya na-death threat. at eto na't nade-death threat sya at lahat, ayaw pa nyang i-suplong kung sino ang mga kumangkang sa kanya at nang maimbestigahan na at makasuhan ng grave threats yong mga in-escortan nya.

medyo nakakabwiset na kasi na lagi na lang sa news, isang segment tungkol sa mga putatsing na yan yong binabalita, e kahit obvious naman na sa pagmumukha pa lang ng mga hindot na 'yan, mahal na ang gumastos ng isang libo.

Reeves's revelations have piqued the curiosity of the public regarding the hidden sex lives of the powerful. We all wonder now exactly what a pork barrel does to one's sex life, to what exotic pleasures can it lead to. My fascination though in the issue is with regard to the exorbitant price tags escorts carry --- 25,000 to 125,000 daw. Why, these are the ugly excesses of a deregulated industry! With the prevailing stratospheric prices, how can we expect a common man to afford a piece of Ms. Reeves or other starlets. Surely, if there is any justice in this world, the DTI should make market inspections a la Mar Roxas and institute price caps at once.

If you are still interested in hearing or reading about the sex lives of people in politics, you can look to the other end of the political spectrum and make do with PN Abinales's forthcoming book, Love, Sex, and the Filipino Communist (or Hinggil sa Pagpipigil ng Panggigigil), as announcedby the Wily Filipino.

Ateneo workshop

The Ateneo Institute for Literary Arts and Practices (AILAP) is now accepting applications for the 4th Ateneo National Writers Workshop to be held on Oct. 18 to 22.

Applicants must submit a portfolio of works containing five poems or three short stories written in Filipino or English, together with a title page containing the author's pseudonym and a table of contents. The portfolio must be accompanied by a diskette containing the file of the documents in rich text format (rtf).

All submissions must also include a sealed envelope containing the author's real name, address, contact number and one-page biodata with a 2x2 ID picture.

Twelve fellowships will be awarded to writers from all over the country and will include travel fare, food and accommodations.

Entries must be addressed to: Dr. Benilda Santos, The Director, Ateneo National Writers Workshop, c/o the Filipino Department, Dela Costa Building, Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City.

Deadline of submission is on Aug. 27, 2004.

For inquiries, please contact
Mr. Jason Jacobo at 426-6011 local 5321 or 5323 or
Mr. Lawrence Ypil at local 426-6001 local 5311.

Hell hath no fury like an author scorned

The Manila Times reports today that Joma Sison wants the peace talks cancelled because the the US treasury froze royalties on sales of his book. The book referred to is Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World (Portrait of a Revolutionary), Conversations with Ninotchka Rosca, whose title refers to its New York-based coauthor (who, incidentally, will do a book signing for the same title in Manila come August 19, see earlier blog below).

The corruption of the media

When a journalist is murdered, it isn't always a case of a society's deteriorating respect for press freedom. Sometimes it is just karmic retribution. Professor Luis Teodoro brings to our attention that despicable brand of journalists who have been corrupted by their part-time practice of the profession:

Many journalists in the communities are not professionals in several senses. They were not trained in journalism. Many do what they think is “journalism” part-time. Still others do it for no other purpose than to use the media for narrow, personal ends.
XXX
Many “journalists” in the communities, to sum up, are caught in a web of complex relationships in which they invariably accumulate enemies, in addition to their doing violence to the core ethical and professional values of journalism. General Santos radio reporter Abayon, for example, was described by those who knew him as not likely to have been shot because of his work, perhaps because he fit the description of many local “journalists” who have one foot in the media but who have the other -- and probably both arms as well -- in other pursuits.

One of these complications is the common practice of serving as the attack dogs of these interests, which in many instances has led to inaccurate and biased reporting, virulent attacks on their patrons’ rivals, libel and slander, and plain, garden-variety lying.Some victims of journalistic malpractice have gone so far as to declare that filing libel suits is too good for those who habitually destroy reputations and who poison the well of public opinion by spreading lies rather than the truth that’s the fundamental responsibility of journalists to report.

Bushism of the week

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
---U.S. President George W. Bush, at the signing of a new $417 billion defense-spending bill

Book signing

IBON Books invites you to a

Book Signing by Ms. Ninotchka Rosca of her new book

Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World: Portrait of a Revolutionary

August 19, 2004 6:00pm
POWERBOOKS-Greenbelt (near Landmark)
Makati City, Philippines

Ms. Ninotchka Rosca, recipient of the American Book Award for Excellence in Literature, is coming to the Philippines to launch her latest book. She has written five books, including the two highly acclaimed novels State of War and Twice Blessed. Her novels have been translated into Dutch, German and Catalan. Now based in New York, she one of the internationally best-known Filipino writers.

For confirmation, please call Gina, Mario or Mena at (63-2) 7132729 or (63-2) 7132737 or visit http://www.ibon.org.

2004 Maningning Miclat Award for Painting

The Maningning Miclat Art Foundation, Inc. (MMAFI) announces the launching of the 2004 Maningning Miclat Painting Competition. Open to all young painters age 28 and below, the open art competition Grand Prize winner will be awarded a Ramon Orlina sculpture trophy and PHP 28,000.00 cash prize.

MMAFI, in cooperation with Shangri-La Plaza, will accept entries at the Shangri-La Plaza's Gallerie 828 at Edsa cor. Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City. Entries may be done in oil, watercolor, acrylic or mixed media. Three dimensional works are allowed, provided the final product is wall-bound. All artwork must be original and done within the period 2003-2004. Entries must be framed, with a minimum size of 45 cm x 60 cm and maximum size of 120 cm x 180 cm or equivalent area without the frame. The winner and the semi-finalists will be included in the exhibition/sale at Shangri-la's Art Plaza.

The Award is named after the late Maningning Miclat , a multi-awarded artist, trilingual poet and creative writer, translator and art instructor. She won the 1992 Art Association of the Philippines Grand Prize for her abstract painting, "Trouble in Paradise" while a BS Fine Arts student at the University of the Philippines. She had published a book of poetry in English, Filipino and Chinese, "Voice from the Underworld". Maningning was named one of the World's Top-rate 39 Women Poets writing in Chinese in an anthology published in Beijing.

For the 2004 Maningning Miclat Painting Award Contest Rules, email : acmiclat2004@yahoo.com or call Shangri-la Events at 633-7851, loc 151/107. You can also log on at www.maningning.com .


RULES OF THE CONTEST :

1. The contest is an open art competition open to all painters, age 28 and below. A painter can submit only one entry.
2. Entries may be done in oil, watercolor, acrylic or mixed media. Three dimensional works are allowed, provided the final product is wall-bound.
3. Entries must be original and executed in 2003-2004.
4. Work which has been entered in another contest is not qualified for the award.
5. Work which has been exhibited earlier may be entered in the contest.
6. Entries must be framed. The minimum size is 45 cm x 60 cm and the maximum size is 120 cm x 180 cm or equivalent area, without the frame.
7. Each entry must have taped to its lower right hand corner the pen name of the artist, title of the painting, medium, size (width & height ) and the price if it is for sale. No artist signature must appear on the image side of the painting. Signatures may be covered with tape for the competition. Real name and pen name of the artist should be submitted in a sealed envelop together with a biodata, copy of birth certificate and a notarized declaration of originality and authenticity of authorship of the entry.
8. Entries must be submitted to the Gallerie 828, Art Plaza, 4th Level, Shangri-la Plaza, Edsa cor. Shaw Blvd. on September 14-15, 2004 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Late entries will not be accepted. The painter is responsible for transporting and submitting entries to and from the Shangri-la Plaza. The painter hereby releases the Shangri-la Plaza and the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation from any claims of damage to artwork due to storage or transport in connection with the competition.
9. Only one Grand Prize winner will be awarded. The prize consists of a Ramon Orlina Glass Sculpture trophy and P28,000.00 . The winner and the semi-finalists will be included in an exhibition/sale to open on the Award Ceremony on September 29, 2004. The winner and the semi-finalists will be notified before the opening. Due to space limitation, not all entries can be exhibited. The Board of Judges has the sole discretion to choose the paintings to be exhibited.
10. Paintings to be exhibited may be for sale. A 30% commission shall be retained on all sales during the exhibit from
September 17 -29, 2004 for the benefit of the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation and Gallerie 828.
11. All entries must be claimed on September 30 from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
12. MMAFI is granted the right to use the name and photo of the painters and the entries for free in any broadcast, telecast, print or electronic medium.
13. Forgery is anathema to the contest and MMAFI has the right of action against the author, if it may be later on discovered that said person is not the creator or owner of the winning work. The foundation shall not be liable to any court action if a third party files a case against the winner who forged the work of the said third party.
14. The Board of Judges shall have the discretion not to award any prize if in its judgment, no meritorious entry had been submitted.
15. MMAFI has the sole right to designate the persons who shall constitute the Board of Judges. The decision of the Board of Judges shall be final.

The more, the poorer?

Many people are amazed that President Arroyo, a former economics professor, would display a cavalier attitude toward the need for population control to alleviate poverty. Why, GMA should be having fits by now, they say. With a population now estimated to be 84 million and growing 2.3 % in a year (a "ticking time bomb," according to Senator Biazon), why does GMA not place population control high on her agenda? Is this intellectual dishonesty, or a case of presidential pandering to men in robes?

Hardly. While the popular press may think that there is a necessary inverse link between population growth and development, truth, however, is that there is little empirical foundation to support such conclusion. More people do not necessarily mean poorer households. The economists Sudhir Anand and Jonathan Morduch in Poverty and the Population problem, suggest, based on their observations in Bangladesh, that while poverty MAY be immiserizing in the short term, people act rationally in having more children because more children CAN mean better economic security in the long term. They write:

Thus,despite there possibly being a positive correlation between income-focused poverty and household size, reducing household numbers will not necessarily improve the welfare of poor households,and in the long-run it may exacerbate poverty --both narrowly and broadly construed.

The evidence on scale economies from Bangladesh suggests that adding children is likely to be much less costly than often thought, and the consequences for income-focused poverty may be considerably over-stated.

The economist Amartya Sen, writing for the New York Review of Books, also has this to say:

The appeal of such slogans as "family planning first" rests partly on misconceptions about what is needed to reduce fertility rates, but also on mistaken beliefs about the excessive costs of social development, including education and health care. As has been discussed, both these activities are highly labor intensive, and thus relatively inexpensive even in very poor economies. In fact, Kerala, India's star performer in expanding education and reducing both death rates and birth rates, is among the poorer Indian states. Its domestically produced income is quite low—lower indeed in per capita terms than even the Indian average—even if this is somewhat deceptive, for the greatest expansion of Kerala's earnings derives from citizens who work outside the state. Kerala's ability to finance adequately both educational expansion and health coverage depends on both activities being labor-intensive; they can be made available even in a low-income economy when there is the political will to use them. Despite its economic backwardness, an issue which Kerala will undoubtedly have to address before long (perhaps by reducing bureaucratic controls over agriculture and industry, which have stagnated), its level of social development has been remarkable, and that has turned out to be crucial in reducing fertility rates. Kerala's fertility rate of 1.8 not only compares well with China's 2.0, but also with the US's and Sweden's 2.1, Canada's 1.9, and Britain's and France's 1.8.


So if there is no incontrovertible proof in economics that a big population harms a country's development, why should we ever bother planning families? Because one documented problem with high fertility rates is that girls and women bear a disproportionate burden associated with the high fertility rates. The mothers needlessly face death every delivery and female children get served last during meals. ( Ever wondered why the women in destitute families are so skinny while the men seem to enjoy robust growth?) The issue therefore shifts from development (which has been our preoccupation hitherto) to gender.

What is to be done? Must the women suffer high fertility rates? Echoing Andre Gide in Corydon, Today half-seriously considers same-sex relationships as a possible low-budget solution since they offer " the same measure of pleasure without the demographic consequences deplored by Edcel Lagman."

But why is the president dismissive of overpopulation? Why does she prefer to focus on macroeconomics instead?

Not because she is pandering to the Catholic Church (although her stance now has the felicitous indirect effect of gratifying the priests) but because it is the pragmatic thing to do. Notwithstanding the vast literature on population and development, creating the conditions in which people decide to have fewer children has usually been a matter of improvisation. And that improvisation is too risky to undertake now that we are running stratospheric budget deficits. The President is right: all her energies, isandaang porsyentong lakas in anime-speak, must be applied into getting the nation's macroeconomics right-- before anything else.

As Newsbreak reported in an earlier issue, government debt is now 80% of the GDP. It goes as high as 127 % of GDP if the obligations of money-losing state firms are included in the computation. The clear and present danger is in the country's macroeconomics, not in our fertility rate as a people. Pace Rep. Lagman, the President needs to get our macroeconomic figures right first before worrying about fringe issues, our "overpopulation" included.

Web prowl

The New England Journal of Medicine writes on the complicity of doctors and medical personnel in the tortures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The London Review of Books digests the Atkins diet. On the eve of the Olympics in Athens, The Economist ( here and here ) features the uneasy relationship between sports and drugs.

The sins of Pablo Neruda

On the centennial of Neruda's birth, the Weekly Standard calls the Chilean poet "a bad writer and a bad man," and his poetry, "doggerel."

Smooth

I caught Santana's Smooth on the radio tonight and was reminded once again just how beautiful the song's bridge is:

And if you say this life ain't good enough
I would give my world to lift you up
I could change my life to better suit your mood
Cause you're so smooth

Web prowl

If you are feeling especially religiouse these days, you might consider faking your own stigmata. Here is a profile of one suspected faker, where you may take some hints in your quest to imitate Christ. Sudan President Omar al-Bashir is interviewed by the UPI on the Darfur crisis and the civil war that triggered the exodus of people. The Manila Times writes on where Jose Rizal got his name. And from the New York Times, why revenge is still the best dish served cold.

Brods at war

Via the Expectorants, Sassy Lawyer blogs about her ugly close encounter with fraternity boys from UP, in which her car's fender was pulled out. Sometimes, I find myself wondering exactly what causes frat rumbles. There were times I could have asked, but I was simply too polite to raise the question myself. So here I am now wondering.

When you come to really think about it, those who engage in frat wars hardly know each other, except perhaps for the fact that this particular pimply guy belongs to a rival frat.

I think it is quite a pity to hate people at such an early age, when there are many things waiting to be done, people to get to know and interests to share. Besides, when you are young ( and with an inflated opinion of your own abilities), declaring war against a rival frat just seems too puny an enterprise to put your mind into when you can freely declare war against social injustice, oppression and the evil US Empire instead.

What could be the grave diffrences that trigger murderous enmity among frats? I can understand why the Palestinians would want to club, or blow away, every Israeli they see, but frat squabbles elude me. I guess those frat wars are nothing more than a deadly mix of testosterone and bourgeois boredom, a case of completely vaccinated young men from middle-class families longing for a more Hobbesian world of strife. My friend though had another take on this. He said that warring frat men probably were not breast-fed as babies. His opinion is highly doubtful, of course, because it was widely known among us that no frat wanted him as a brod.

Indonesia's demokrasi

From Malaysiakini, an interview in three parts ( Part 1, part 2, part 3 ) of Professor Dewi Fortuna of the Habibie Center on the subject of Indonesia's democratic transition.

How 9/11 happened

The full report of the American 9/11 Commission can be read here.

Julien Sorel in China

A young undergraduate stabbed his classmates to death in China, after a couple of them teased him about his being too poor to afford to go home during the spring break. Another one, Xue Ronghua, went on a killing rampage, mortally knifing two students inside an internet cafe, after the school forced him to leave in a campus dorm.

Xue apparently was teased by his classmates for being an unsophisticated provincial person. It didn't help that Xue was sensitive, "like a woman," it was said. Xue didn't confide to his parents, but he did cryptically write them in March: "Being poor is not something that one should be afraid of," Xue wrote, "but if one loses their will, then that should be something to fear."

Xue was probably scared that he was losing control of his will. It must have been disturbing, nay devastating, for a young man with hopes of social mobility, to watch his only possession trampled by kids who would never know, in their insular charmed lives courtesy of Deng Xiaoping , the feeling of having to sleep on an empty stomach. And so before his will deserts him, he decides to use it in one last display of self-assertion and individuality, by murdering those who caused his distress, much like what Julien Sorel did in Stendhal's The Red and the Black when he resolved to kill Mme de Renal while hearing mass.

We will never know for sure the reasons behind the crimes (The Beijing Review attempts a psychological profiling of the students ), but the recent incidents in the campuses have thrust to the fore the massive economic inequality in China ( gini-index score was 46 last year ) , Newsweek reports. There is a nagging suspicion among the Chinese public that the socioeconomic background of those students, their having come from poor families in China's countryside, had something major to do with their adjustment problems in the city's campuses. What makes the story of these students doubly sad is the fact that China is supposedly a socialist haven, a redoubt for the downtrodden and the oppressed. How could some of its students be tortured by their lowly social class?

Hear yuppies come

Robert JA Basilio Jr. worries about the upscaling of UP's outlying areas in today's Manila Times, noting that "if such growth continues, the beloved, down-to-earth, no-nonsense, unpretentious neighborhoods around UP may finally become transmogrified into Quezon City’s version of Greenbelt."

Some time ago Psychicpants also expressed the same sentiments with regard to Virra Mall in Greenhills, which has undergone a facelift aimed at more accurately reflecting the status of its upmarket customers. Even Cubao, the seemingly impregnable redoubt of urban decrepitude, has joined the fray: COD kicked out, Araneta Coliseum rebuffed, Fiesta Carnival excised and a mall looking suspiciously like Glorietta now under construction.

Development is all well and good, sure, but why do we feel pangs of loss when the lift trucks come and begin the transformation from decrepitude to world-class? One, of course, is that not all can afford things world-class. When a place goes upscale, people who used to frequent it do not necessarily enjoy concomitant upward social mobility. They are, so to speak, left behind while yuppies--and Koreans, Basilio pointed out-- swarm all over the place. Also, after some time, one gets tired of the same American antiseptic architecture in malls, business centers etc. and begins longing for a more idyllic and simpler past. This feeling is probably akin to what the hobbits might have felt when Saruman employed all labor force to develop the Fanghorn forest.

Human development report

The United Nations Human Development Report for 2004, which focuses on the relationship between development and cultural diversity, is now available here. The Economist also has some comments on the report.

The virtue of vice

Manolo Quezon, some of us may have almost missed reading, wrote on wickedness and the attraction of immorality in his latest column in the Inquirer. Quezon writes a pseudo-paean to vice, in effect saying that in order to fully appreciate goodness, some wickedness must be present, if only to provide contrast.

It was Oscar Wilde who wrote (was it in Salome?) that morality is nothing more but the standard we apply for people we do not know. A character from Brecht's Good Person of Setzuan also lamented the loss of joie de vivre when she quipped: It was when I was bad that I felt so alive. Michael Jackson in his red leather jacket also let the whole world know in the 1980s that he was Bad.

Related reading on the same vein can be found in the latest issue of the New Humanist, Rob Colson's Why I strive for an amoral existence.

The right decision?

Just about everybody now is glad that Angelo de la Cruz has finally been freed. President Arroyo was ecstatic talking with De la Cruz on her mobile phone. The prevailing opinion seems to be that the caving in by the president to the demands of the kidnappers was the right and moral thing to do. The logic behind this position is often put this way: 1) The war in Iraq is wrong. 2) The kidnapping of De la Cruz was a consequence of our particiaption in the war. 3) Therefore, giving in to the demands of the terrorists was but setting things right because we should never have been in Iraq in the first place. Bishop Bacani, for example, says:

One had very good reasons to believe that President Arroyo supported the war because of her reelection bid. Whatever her reason then, her decision was wrong, and many of us told that to her loudly, though she did not heed it. Now, with the seizure of Angelo de la Cruz, she was confronted with one consequence of her wrong decision, and now she has undoubtedly found out that it is also to her political advantage to stop supporting the war with our troops no matter how small. It is still a good thing to make the right decision even if pressured to do so. It certainly is better than prolonging support for an unjust war.

The problem with this kind of thinking is that it wrongfully supposes that our hasty withdrawal in Iraq, a record setter according to funny man Jay Leno, is a mea culpa for our complicity in the invasion of Iraq. It certainly is not; President Arroyo has no plans to issue an apology for supporting the invasion of Iraq last year. The withdrawal therefore basically amounts to this: We as a nation have no guts to commit our troops and follow through on the principles enunciated by our own president.

The premature pullout of our troops is symptomatic of our sorry character as an international player. We make international commitments and we don't honor them. We, for example, have a penchant for signing every human rights convention that goes our way and yet we do nothing to seriously enforce them. Our word to our international partners is as wobbly as a nipa hut in a storm. How can we expect other countries and people to hold us in high esteem?

Alex Magno is right:

We put individuals ahead of the nation. We put short-term comfort ahead of long-term considerations. We are constantly unable to subordinate the particular to the general, the peculiar to the universal. When the going gets tough, we are prone to seeking out quick fixes that bring momentary relief at the price of further complications down the road.

Felipe Miranda is also sorry about President Arroyo's "pragmatism" in this case, one that he says sacrificed the national interest and "historically...beggared the nation and pushed it ever deeper into debt."

So what should have been done?

Thw president should have withdrawn the troops and issued an apology for supporting the invasion. And what about our prior commitments? The president can then testily declare that it is the United States, after all, that has not been following its international commitments as it is actively flouting the Geneva Conventions both at Guantanamo Bay and in the Abu Ghraib prison (as Anthony Lewis succinctly points out here.)

Web prowl
Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man (who, incidentally, never wakes up in the morning without a single profound idea on his head), will not vote for Bush come November. For list buffs, the 40 most influential Australiams are listed here.

Web prowl
On the eve of a new film starring Gael Garcia Bernal, the The Observer asks whether Che Guevara was just another pretty face in the history of failed revolutions. Ever wondered why the queen and not the king is the most powerful piece in chess? Here is an speculation that the reason was probably the rise of Isabella I of Castile, who married Ferdinand , prince of Aragon, and ruled jointly with him.

Dante Ang dares BF to piss in public
Dante Ang, in today's Manila Times, bemoans MMDA's pink urinals. He writes:

I can’t imagine Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York or any city—modern or otherwise—in the world putting up pink urinals in their streets. MMDA officials may not realize it, but those “pinkies” are sources of embarrassment. They denigrate the Filipinos. At the very least, the pink urinals exhibit our damaged culture as a people.

Ang goes on to dare BF:

Now, if Fernando and the other MMDA officials disagree with me, they should demonstrate their belief in their projects by peeing in their pink urinals in full view of the public once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

And while they are doing that, I wonder how they will feel peeing in full view of the public. True, they will be relieved, but will peeing in public give them self-respect or pride? Watching them peeing in the pink urinals, how do you think the people will look at them? With respect? Or with contempt?

I understand many people hate those unsightly urinals. Rather than training the men to properly relieve themselves in appropriate places, the MMDA's pink urinals seem to encourage pissing in public. One friend testily declared: If women can get by without urinals why can men not?

All true, but I have alwasy believed that the pink urinals are a compromise and pragmatic solution, a case of a Third World solution to a Third World problem. Directives like Bawal ang umihe (sic) dito multa 5000 plastered on walls are, I think, more embarrassing and degrading than the pink urinals, especially because no one seems to heed the prohibition. Anybody who drinks the minimum number of 8 glasses of water a day are bound to experience a disturbance in the loins. Male pedestrians find the urinals useful, becuase, let's face it, there is no public restroom system in Metro Manila. If you want to pee, you have to pay (and that's if you're lucky enough to find a pay CR), or march to a Jollibee nearby, use the restroom, discreetly leave the fast food without ordering a value meal and risk the inquisitorial gaze of the security guard.

Without the pink urinals, people would be peeing on walls, lampposts, tree trunks.... And come the rainy season, the urea from the urine and God knows what else will get washed out by the floods. The urinals may be unsightly, but they serve a hygienic purpose. They are an unideal solution to the problem, but they are effective. The pink urinals should stay until we as a people become properly toilet trained, which is the responsibilty of our parents, not of BF.

Job opening

UBE Media is looking for Researchers/PA for a tv show that it will be producing. if interested. pls email me (theresevillanuevaATyahooDOTcom) your resumes's and sample scripts (that you've done), also UBE is looking for writers with atleast 2 years experience and possible talents :) for inquiries pls call UBE Media at 8891900.

Made in America by Sam Walton

I have taken to reading business books lately, and looking for inspiration, I read Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's Made in America. I didn't expect to like it --I have heard how Sam Walton fed the ugly appetite of American consumerism and killed small-town merchants in the process-- but I did.

Sam Walton is considered by some to be the towering genius in twentieth-century business (along with Henry Ford). He started his retail business in a small town in Arkansas with a population of 7,000, parlayed his capital and ended up with the world's largest retail business. I've heard that in some parts of the US, Wal-Mart stores are like gasoline stations; they are present every few kilometers. Four Waltons are now in the Forbes's list of Top Ten richest people in the world.

So what was Walton's secret to success? He enumerates some advice in the book, but what what strikes me was his fanaticism. The man breathed retail. His life was consumed by it. In the summing up chapter off the book Walton says that "If I wanted to reach the goals I set for myself, I had to get at it and stay at it every day. I had to think about it all the time."

Walton also commented on his reputation for parsimony. He still flew coach even after he became a billionaire, and he said he never bought anything brand new when he was starting the business. When they purchased merchandise in distant cities, they cramped as many people as possible in a room. Later on when Wal-Mart became a billion-dollar business, Walton would berate some executives for their ostentatious lifestyles. For Walton, lower overhead costs simply mean lower price tags for Wal-Mart customers.

Walton also retold some funny episodes in his life, like when he was spying in a competitor's chain store in California. The store's personnel caught him with his tape recorder while he was recording the prices and confiscated the tape. The son of the president of that chain store however was too kind and a few days later the tape was returned to Walton intact, with all the price quotations.

The book is a good read and I recommend it for anyone with time to spare.

Best and worst national anthems

Taking off from a criticism of the "Star-Spangled Banner" as nothing more but a "warmed-over drinking song," Pupu Platter discusses how national anthems, however corny and atrocious the lyrics, unify a nation. Quoting from Benedict Anderson:

T]here is a special kind of contemporaneous community which language alone suggests -- above all in the form of poetry and songs! Take national anthems, for example, sung on national holidays. No matter how banal the words and mediocre the tunes, there is in this singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image: unisonance.* Singing the Marseillaise, Waltzing Matilda, and Indonesia Raya provide occasions for unisonality, for the echoed physical realization of the imagined community. (So does listening to [and maybe silently chiming in with] the recitation of ceremonial poetry, such as sections of The Book of Common Prayer). How selfless this unisonance feels! If we are aware that others are singing these songs precisely when and as we are, we have no idea who they may be, or even where, out of earshot, they are singing. Nothing connects us all but imagined sound.

I have often considered it a curious fact that most people I know never seem to remember the words of the Philippine national anthem when singing alone, but has no problem remembering the lines when singing in a crowd. I ike to think that this curious fact shows the value of a community in everyone's effort to find a political voice, that, as Aristotle put it, we find full expression only as part of a political community. My friends however dismiss it as nothing more but lousy writing on the part of Felipe Buencamino and Jose Palma (did i get these two right? My history class seemed eons ago.)

"Lupang Hinirang," otherwise known to many as Bayang Magiliw, certainly is no masterpiece. Critics, for example, have been gnawing at its defeatist finale line "Ang mamatay nang dahil sa iyo,"' which pales in comparison with America's melodramatic--but highly affirming-- "land of the free, home of the brave."

If national anthems were to be popularly vetted and ranked Billboard-style, which would become hits? Which are the best national anthems? My own favorite is South Africa' s Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika. It has the distinction of being the only anthem that makes you want to dance on your feet. It is also in sang in four languages, following South Africa's Rainbow Nation all-inclusiveness. The sound of the drums are simply amazing, almost too good to be found in a national anthem.

Another favorite is Israel's Hatikva, a solemn anthem of such great and profound sadness that I always think I could feel the pain of exile just listening to the lyrics. In heaven it would probably be highly inappropriate and parochial to sing one's national anthem in front of God and the angels. But the Jews can sing Hatikva and be forgiven. Whenever I hear the anthem, I am struck by the tragedy of the present conlict in Israel: the Jews who were oppressed in Europe are now the oppressors of Palestinians. It is a real tagedy, and listening to Hatikva always reminds me of it.

China's National Anthem "The March of the Volunteers" also makes me think of hardships, self-sacrifice, and climbing mountains and bivouacs. Leon Lai's techno version of the March of the Volunteers (for which he was banned in the mainland) would surely shoot up to number one in a Billboard of national anthems. It is, of course, hard to argue with the European Union's choice of anthem--Ode to Joy: Beethoven is a master. The unooficial anthem of the American blacks--Lift every voice and sing-- is also worth mentioning.

Which are the worst anthems? I have heard it said that Australians do not disabuse foreigners in thinking "Waltzing Matilda" is the Australian national anthem because the truth is even more of an embarrassment. Although highly affective, the American national anthem is unsingable, save if you're Whitney Houston. If i remember correctly Argentina's anthem is too long. I heard it played once in a film festival and I was standing too long I thought my feet would begin sprouting veins all over.

Best movie songs

The American Film Institute ranks the best movie songs. I wonder where The Godfather's Speak Softly Love figures in the ranking.

Call for papers and Panel Proposals

4th National Philippine Studies Conference
Conference Theme: Ethnic Identities in the Philippines
September 17-18, 2004
Sponsored by: Philippine Studies Association, Inc.
Institutional Host: University of the Philippines Baguio
Venue: The Golden Pine Hotel and Restaurant, corner Cariño and Legarda Roads, City Center, Baguio City

On September 17-18, 2004, the Philippine Studies Association, Inc. and the University of the Philippines Baguio will hold the 4th National Philippine Studies Conference. The theme of this year's conference is "Ethnic Identities in the Philippines," which is intended to cover broad multi-disciplinal perspectives and approaches to the issues associated with the general theme. Ethnicity and identity being the major themes, they can be treated both as interrelated topics or distinct and unique constructs. The conference also intends to cover the following sub-themes:

* Philippine Ethnic Identities in Historical Perspective
* Ethnic Politics
* Ideology, Identity, and Ethnicity
* Ethnicity, Identity, and Communications
* Gender, Sexuality, Identity, and Ethnicity
* Literature, Ethnicity, and Identity
* Ethnicity, Identity, and Popular Culture
* Economic Development, Ethnicity, and Identity
* Environmental Issues and Ethnicity
* Demographic Perspectives and Philippine Ethnic Communities
* Globalization, Ethnicity, and Identity
* Pre-colonial, Colonial, and Post-colonial Identity

The conference also intends to discuss other issues and concerns that may be related to the general theme or sub-themes.

Deadlines:

16 July 2004 -Submission of Proposal - Title and One-page Abstract
31 July 2004 - Notification of Acceptance of Paper
30 August 2004 - Confirmation of Participation with Submission of Full Paper

Paper:

The final paper should be no more than 25-page double spaced, 12 points font size, Times New Roman. Notes, bibliography, illustrations, and pictures are not included in the 25 pages. The authors are welcome to use all relevant theoretical frameworks and analytical methods. All papers must be original, unpublished, and not yet delivered in previous conferences, and will be peer reviewed.

The organizers are doing their best to get sponsors to provide speakers with full board and lodging and travel reimbursement. Meanwhile, please do your utmost to secure institutional support to attend the conference. Presentors of accepted papers will be advised accordingly on the progress of our solicitations.

Registration fee:

Php 3,300 each participant to cover full board and lodging on triple sharing for three days (at The Golden Pine Hotel and Restaurant) and conference kit with bag. Conference papers can be ordered for duplication at participants' cost. The special package rate offered by the hotel is for limited slots, hence, it is advisable to reserve early (on/before 31 August 2004) as accommocation is on a first come, first served basis (arrival on the afternoon with dinner on September 16, departure with breakfast and lunch on September 19). Other hotels may require additional transportation expense for commuting to-from the conference venue, or charge more expensive rates.

For live-out participants, registration fee is Php 1500 to cover the conference kit and bag, snacks and lunch for two days. Breakfast and dinners will be the responsibility of participants. (Please contact Rowena Reyes-Boquiren for information on other accommodations in Baguio City.)

Mailing Address:

The Philippine Studies Association, Inc.
Philippine Social Sciences Council, Inc.
Commonwealth Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City 1101
Attn: Karen Barrios

For inquires, please contact the following:
Bernardita R. Churchill: nitachurchill@hotmail.com or TeleFax: (02)926-1347
Eufracio Abaya: boiabaya@pacific.net.ph or Tel. (02) 928-1928
Francis A. Gealogo: fgealogo@ateneo.edu
Rowena Reyes-Boquiren: rowieboq@yahoo.com or rrboquiren@upb.edu.ph or Telefax 074-442-2427

Book launching

Presentación literaria
Two Spanish Books on the Philippines
LOS PRIMEROS DE FILIPINAS by Pedro J. de la Peña
LO úLTIMO DE FILIPINAS by Jaime Rosa

29 de junio de 2004
7 de la tarde
Salón de Actos
Instituto Cervantes
2515 Leon Guinto, cor. Estrada St.
Malate, Manila

Instituto Cervantes invites you to the joint presentation of two Spanish writers Pedro de la Peña and Jaime Rosa. De la Peña will launch in Manila LOS PRIMEROS DE FILIPINAS, a novel which garnered the 2003 Ciudad de Salamanca Award. Rosa will present his anthology on contemporary Filipino poetry, LO úLTIMO DE FILIPINAS. He will be accompanied by various Filipino poets in the reading of their poems.

Poets included in LO úLTIMO DE FILIPINAS:

Nick Joaquin, Ramón C. Súnico, Ricardo M. de Hungria, María Luisa Cariño, Gémino A. Abad, Alfred A. Yuson, Marjorie Evasco, Lorenzo M. Alberto, Herminio Beltrán Jr., Erwin E. Castillo, Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez, Eric Gamalinda, Marra Lanot, Noel Guivani Ramiscal, Salvador Malig, Mario Aguado, Ramón Guevara y Biel, Emmanuel Perlas Andaya, Amador Rey Beloncillo, Macario Ofilada Mina, Wynstan de la Peña, Virgilio Almario, Benilda Santos, Lilia Quindoza Santiago, Joi
Barrios, Ruth Elynia Mabanglo, Rogelio Mangahas, José F. Lacaba

Bill Clinton's life

Clinton's My Life is outselling Hillary's memoirs seven to one. Those who are looking for the sleazy details though may be disappointed. The juicier details are not included in the book, but can be found in Bill Clinton's blog.

Political celebrities on the net

The Weekly Standard reports on former US Speaker Newt Gingrich's secret life as an avid reviewer of books for Amazon.com. Gingrich mostly reviews spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, but he occasionaly slips in some non-fiction like Bob Woodward's Bush at War, which he deems "useful" and Wesley Clark's Waging Modern War, which is "Required, timely reading." Last week, the Guardian also reported that Cherie Blair, the wife of the British prime minister, shops at ebay, an online shopping site for secondhand items. Among her purchases: 99p for Winnie the Pooh alarm clock, £1.99 two Disney videos, Dumbo and Aladdin, £15 for a pair of sandals described on the blurb as "great for summer, weddings or evenings out" and a pair of second-hand Roland Cartier shoes advertised as "gorgeous, retro, vintage, disco-diva, 80s, bright red shoes".

The milk of human kindness

I was rummaging through my old things today, looking for things i can throw away, when I saw my xeroxed copy of Brecht's The Good Person of Setzuan, which I photocopied when a friend appeared on a production of it by Dulaang UP. I was very happy to find it after such a long time.

Shin-Te of the play, is a kind and good person, the epitome of godly virtue, but her kindness has not brought her any worldly happiness. Instead, she lives in destitution and even derided by the people whom she sought to please. There is this part in the play where one character says that if you extend one arm to help people they would rip it off. That line is the one thing I distinctly remember about the play, and in many occasions when I was feeling dejected at the seeming absence of kindness in the world, I found myself mulling over and over again that particular line: extend and arm and it will be ripped off.

Another book, Marquis De Sade's Justine, dwelt on this same topic. The protagonist of the novel was good; her sister was evil. Justine suffered (and was struck by lightning at the end); her sister was rich and triumphant at the end. Justine has such incendiary memorable lines that whenever I feel momentarily Machiavellian, i would re-read some passages. Here's some:

What is virtue if it cannot prevent the tyranny of the strong over the weak, or the rich over the poor, or those who are in power over those who are not in power! Filled with the will for power, the voices of virtue forge irons in which to chain men.

Then there's this passage which I quoted in a paper (on the demand for social justice as the most potent political force in the modern period) for my Political Ideologies class:

"The justice of God!--his rewards! his punishments!--all nonsense. Don't you see that the cruelty of the rich forces the poor to rebel! Why don't they open their purses to our needs? Let humanity rule their hearts, then virtue will rule ours! Our misfortune, our patience, our faith, our servility only strengthen our fetters. We are all created free and equal by nature; but if chance puts out of order this first law of nature, is it not up to us to correct its caprices by our strength and numbers? Because we are poor, Therese, must we crawl in humiliation, must we quench our thirst with gall, must we satisfy our hunger with stones! Would you have us abstain from crime and murder, which alone can open the gates of life to us? As long as this class domineers over us we'll remain degraded, in want and tears! No! no! Therese, either your God is rich or impotent! Understand, my child, that if your God puts us in a situation where evil is necessary and at the same time gives us the ability to perform it, it is evident that your God gains as much from the one as the other!"

I don't know if I am being weird, but sometimes I have the same disturbing thoughts. If I were a Jedi, I probably would be tempted to walk over to the Dark Side. I remember that as a boy I cheered for Darth Vader whacking Luke Skywalker and desperately wanted the evil Emperor's kuryente power.

Socrates was famously asked the question whether it is in one's interest to be good, his answer--a solid affirmative-- resulted in Plato's The Republic. Many people remain unconvinced.

The ignorance of the people

Professor Felipe Miranda in his Philippine Star column today is highly despondent with regard to reforming the country's educational system. He laments that:

Half a century of historical evidence should be sufficient in demonstrating the improbability of this educational system changing for the better and assisting the larger community, the nation, toward that change. The same evidence also should help in understanding that whoever seriously thinks of effecting mandatory changes in the education of Filipinos must work to change the political character of their society first.

Our educational system is disturbing. Consider this: 99.5 percent of 1.4 million elementary school graduates tested for high school readiness fail to score at least 75 percent; 700, 000 of them also had scores lower than 30 %.
Could this be really true? Our children are a bunch of ignoramuses? I have a suspicion that the real figures are worse than the above, considering the possible leakage that usually happens in achievement tests. Some public school teachers are known to leak exams. ( I know one particular instance of this leakage.) Achievement test results therefore can be rosier than the truth.

So how did these kids able to advance to sixth grade with such little knowledge? Because public school teachers just kept on giving them passing grades. The student-teacher ratio is so lopsided that a single pupil with back subjects is a huge burden for the teacher. Rather than further draining the public resources--not to mention their own patience-- teachers simply opt to pass their underperforming pupils.

Secretary De Jesus's bridge program, while commendable for its attempt at reviving the moribund pulic school system, is ultimately an exercise in futility. It is hard to imagine how one year of remedial classes can turn around six yearsof miseducation, especially since the teachers who will teach those remedial classes are from the same pool of teachers responsible for the miseducation in the first place. I think the more pragmatic solution to the problem is pointed by Raul Roco's Makabayan curriculum: create a super-lean curriculum where all extraneous subjects are excised. All repetitions in the curriculum must be removed. A shrinking ship, so to speak, must jettison all unnecessary baggage.

Bloomsday centenary

Today, June 16, is the centenary of Bloomsday, the beloved 24 hours of Leopold Bloom's wanderings chronicled in James Joyce's Ulysses. The Economist asks the question, Is the fuss over James Joyce's Ulysses greater than the book?

I can only imagine the nostalgic joy of the book's fans around the world for I have not yet had the pleasure of reading it. Ulysses is, simply put, the towering book of fiction in the twentiteth-century Western canon. I have been meaning to read it for a very long time now, but it seems whenever I am about to open the first page I lose the courage. And so Ulysses has remained in my reading backlog for many years now and I don't quite know when I would end up reading it. Perhaps this centenary is a good time to read it. I would once again give it a try next month and will report my opinion of the book as soon as I finish reading.

I read Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for my undergraduate Humanities class. (My crappy paper for that class was on Joyce's theory of aesthetics, which was basically a reformulation of Aquinas's.)I didn't expect I would like the book, thinking it was too dense for my taste, but some of the passages just blew me over. In Joyce's prose, there is no extraneous word that can be excised, every word seems able to justify its presence.

How can one possibly describe Joyce? Joyce at his best reads like Dante writing English prose. He is that good, at least as I read him in the Portrait and Dubliners.

Jpop

The most jubilantly obscene song I've heard: Gackt's Vanilla.

Web prowl

We have, according to this Wall Street Journal op-ed, a moral obligation to amass wealth. The irrepressible Christopher Hitchens, writing this time for Slate, is unforgiving of Ronald Reagan's stupidity.

Thought of the day

Great men can change the world. Ordinary people like us--all we can do is survive in it.