Free access to SAGE academic journals
SAGE will provide free complete access to its academic journals until March 31.

Bush v. the intellectuals
Wall Street Journal had an op-ed on the disdain felt by the intellectuals for US President Bush. The first paragraph:

Many people look back on their college years and regret how much they missed of the great intellectual resources of the university. Not me. My regrets are about failing to meet more of the remarkable people who were my fellow undergraduates at Harvard and nearby MIT. I thought of such socializing as mere fun, which came after coursework. As a result, there were a lot of interesting students I never got to meet, from Benjamin Netanyahu to Benazir Bhutto, from Bill Gates to Scott McNealy, even though some of these people knew friends of mine. But my regrets are more wistful than realistic, since no one knew everyone in college.

PDE National Lecture Series
(Sponsored by: National Economic and Development Authority, National Statistics Office, Tariff Commission, Development Bank of the Philippines and the UPSE Program in Development Economics)

Title : Philippine Economic Development:
LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Guest Speakers : Prof. Gerardo Sicat
Prof. Solita Monsod
Prof. Cielito Habito
Sec. Romulo Neri
Date : February 20, 2004 (Friday)
Time : 1:00 PM
Venue : Development Bank of the Philippines Penthouse Makati City

Entrance Fee is P 150.00 (inclusive of snacks).
For inquiries or confirmation, please get in touch with the following:
Ms. Rose San Pascual of UPSE at 920-5481 or rosemarie.san_pascual@up.edu.ph
Mr. Benjie Turiano of NEDA at 631-3757 or bdturiano@neda.gov.ph
Mr. Jojo Cajita of NSO at 716-0734
Ms. Luming Burgos of Tariff Commission at 924-3123

All Da King's Men
Newsbreak has a story on the people running FPJ's campaign.

BusinessWorld needs Special Features Writer
BusinessWorld is one of the respected publications distibuted all over Asia (visit bworld.com to get more background info). They are in need of FULL TIME SPECIAL FEATURES WRITER. This is an urgent job opening. Those with writing experience are preferred. Please call Ms. Dang at 535.9936 for more information.

The exquisite embarrassment of being FPJ
Minda News banners the story on how Davao scribes were disappointed over FPJ's ignorance on the Mindanao peace issue. Minda News reports that:

Poe, who is known to dislike nosy reporters, could not elaborate on the subject and lamely answered, “ Hopefully we can solve peace and order. Hopefully we can give peace sa inyong lahat.”

The answer sent a chill among reporters who wanted Poe to elaborate more about attaining peace, Mindanao’s main issue.

Of course, Loren Legarda, the ever-reliable sidekick who has recently replaced Berting Labra, was quick to the rescue and said " Peace in Mindanao at all costs," which is pretty much as nebulous as what FPJ lamely said.

If FPJ's answers to queries made by reporters are to be an indication of his coming administration, then for the next six years we are perhaps going to be in limbo, groping our way in the dark. FPJ's pronouncements on policy issues are just about as helpful as beauty contestants' elucidating the ways on attaining world peace.

FPJ is simply at a loss. And it is horrifying that the people around him, rather that honestly doing something about his perceived inadequacies by perhaps coaching him, are trying to hide the obvious by shielding him from reporters.

Jessica Soho's interview of FPJ amounted to more or less seven minutes and FPJ only consented to elaborate on his siring an illegitimate child. I know that illegitimate children may throw some light on a person's sense of responsibility, but sexual indiscretions in the past are hardly an issue of national importance.

I saw the footage on TV where GMA's Sandra Aguinaldo had an ambush interview with FPJ (with Legarda closely beside him shoulder-to-shoulder). Aguinaldo would throw a question, FPJ would say a one-liner, Legarda would explain. There was a pretty tense embarrassing moment though when this oh-so-subtly cruel and nasty Sandra Aguinaldo asked FPJ if he felt alluded to by GMA's recent pronouncements about choosing a leader of brains and experience. Aguinaldo asked--audibly-- the question twice : Sir, do you feel alluded to?

Apparently, FPJ did not understand what being alluded to meant so Aguinaldo translated it: Palagay nyo po ba pinaparinggan kayo? FPJ then curtly answered negative and Legarda tried to brush aside the awkardness of the encounter with a guffaw.

GMA reporters are really nosy and I think have a tacit understanding to embarrass all the presidential candidates--except Roco. Vicky Morales did the same thing to Presidentiable Eddie Gil, when she badgered the latter with the question about his net worth. Eddie Gil did not understand the meaning of the phrase "net worth" so he gave oblique answers thrice. Morales kept on pushing with net worth that Gil, visibly exasperated, asked Morales what net worth meant.

It is such a sad spectacle to see presidential candidates display their ignorance. The Davao reporters had a taste of it recently in the case of FPJ. We will probably have more and more and more of it in the coming days.

A London Review of Books review essay writes about Sappho, the controversial poet from Lesbos.

What kids think of classic rock music
The Guardian has an article on this. Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit was a hit, while Bob Dyalan in Like A Rolling Stone "sounds like he's just smelled something really bad, like cat poo."

Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)

What the grown-ups say: "... reflects Kurt Cobain's skilful mingling of Stooges'-style brute yobbism (grinding guitars and yelping vocals), American punk and late 1970s art rock." (NME)

What the kids say:

Ben This is amazing. The bass is amazing. It's brilliant.

Holly I like him singing, "Hello, hello, hello" - that's funny.

Sophie It's making me think about doing bad things like putting snowballs down my sister's back.

Benjamin This would definitely win Pop Idol.

Holly Good, goodbye, goodbye.

Benjamin 12 out of 10. Actually 3000 out of 3000.

Attention span: Whole song.

Better than Busted? "Yes."

Job opening
Adarna House, the leading publisher of storybooks for Filipino children, is looking for a writer for an upcoming project.

Writer applicants must...
- have highly developed writing skills
- have good command of Filipino and English
- be proficient with MS Word
- be creative
- have excellent interpersonal skills
- be a team player
- like children (or at least he/she should know how kids' brains work)

Please submit copies of your résumé and two writing samples, preferably essays, to Adarna House, Inc., Room 102 JGS Building, 30 Scout Tuason St., Quezon City 1103. You may also e-mail them to pdg@adarna.com.ph.

For inquiries, please call 372-3548 local 108. Look for Luwi Infante.

Human error in capital punishment
The only way to prevent the execution of innocent people is not to execute anyone, says this Findlaw column. Scott Turow basically says the same thing in his new book Ultimate Punishment. Read Observer's review of the book:

There will always be cases that cry out for ultimate punishment, but that is not the true issue. The pivotal question is whether a system of justice can be constructed that reaches only the rare, right cases without also occasionally condemning the innocent or underserving. Let Gacy live to save the Hernandezes and Thomases. Let justice be roughly done to save our politicians from posturing, pusillanimity and vote-grabbing. Let there be no more death by state decree.

I wonder how our politicians can countenance the death penalty and trumpet its deterrent effect when all studies conclude that such deterrent effect is a chimera. On a related note, does approving executions amount to a personal sin on the part of the president, a sin that needs to be confessed ? GMA in hell is simply too disturbing. I must remember to ask a priest.

Fallout from Janet Jackson's breast
At first everybody was denying it was planned, but now MTV and Janet Jackson admit that the breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show was indeed part of the choreography masterminded by Jackson herself as a publicity stunt to promote her coming single (Click here for the pictures.)

The breast exposure has one-upped Madonna's kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. The question on everybody's mind now is who will take the challenge and, in turn, trump Jackson. There is a need though to detemine first if the American First Amendment protects such "indecency. "Michael Dorf of Findlaw addresses that question.

Because of the decision of the Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional some of the provisions of Republic Act (R.A.)7942, more popularly known as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995, 23 mining permits in the Cordillera have been scrapped, the Manila Times reports. Business World also reports on how the SC decision throws a dark cloud on the Malampaya project.

The University of the Philippines conferred upon Dr. Onofre Corpuz the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa on January 27. You can read his address during the conferment here.

The Third U.P. Public Lectures on the Philippine Presidency and Administration
(Organized by the UP School of Economics Program in Development Economics in coordination with the Center for Leadership, Citizenship and Democracy of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance)

Title : The Arroyo Presidency and Administration (2001-2004): A self-assessment of the socioeconomic planning sector
Speaker : Hon. Romulo L. Neri
(Director General, National Economic and Development Authority and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary)
Date : February 5, 2004 (Thursday)
Time : 2:00 PM
Venue : Diosdado Macapagal Hall (SE Auditorium)
Everyone is invited. Admission is FREE.

The miseducation of the Filipinos
Felipe Miranda of the Philippine Star and Manuel Quezon of the Inquirer both write about the miserable state of education in the Philippines.

Quezon is writing off the entire miseducated generation of EDSA I babies. He hopes that the new and more stringent grading system will yield a better educated generation. Writing off a generation as forever lost is pretty dour, but Miranda is even more despondent: "If a political development of the first order were to take place within the year, there will be a properly educated Filipino public by the 2080s."

Belonging to the generation Quezon is writing off, I cannot help but feel a little defensive. Is our generation's condition really that bad? Or was there ever, honestly, an educated generation in the Philippines?

I was tutoring a high school student--a relative--last December, and my aunt was so incensed at his educational inadequacies that she started rattling off an almost exhaustive list of my cousin's faults. My cousin retorted back sharply, cutting my aunt in the middle of her litany: "If you were so good, why don't you answer the math questions in the textbook?"

My aunt was taken aback and was at a loss for words. I could not help but smile then because I know my aunt--who has an education degree although she never taught--does not know the answers. Hell, my aunt couldn't tell a quadratic from a linear equation, much more look for coordinates even if her life depended on it.

I think the point of the above anecdote is this: We are a mess because the generations that preceeded as were no better. And come May 2004 members of the generations preceeding ours will crowd the polls to vote for the star of their generations: FPJ "Da King."

Jose Rizal was complaining about the state of Philippine education during the fin de siecle. As far as I know Crisostomo Ibarra's physics class was well and alive before just as it is well and alive now. The scourge of miseducation is shared by all generations.

Our public school system will never be better. Why? Because our ministers of lofty portfolios simply do not have personal stakes in the system. Their children go to exclusive private schools of prohibitive matriculation. The public education can go to hell tomorrow and their own children would be spared. The resuscitation of our public school system is possible, but, sans the personal stakes, our public officials simply do not feel its immediacy.

I myself attended public schools all my life--and I am not talking of some fancy science schools, but the down and dirty public schools of a second-class municipality. It was terrible.

To give one an idea of how miseducated I am (I am almost tempted to say was): My English teacher in high school announced in the class that Shakespeare invented Cleopatra, and when I and one of my classmates accosted and told her that Cleopatra was, in fact, a figure in world history, she would hear none of it, and so it was that Cleopatra never existed in my English class.

Another teacher also announced rather pompously that Darwin's theory of evolution has been debunked, but she never told us by whom. Another science teacher, who prided herself for being the most learned among the science teachers in that school, was erroneously pronouncing cation as keyshon. She will probably be bringing her unique rendering of the word to her grave without realizing her mistake.

And I was luckier than most kids in my town. I lived in the poblacion so I supposedly had the "best teachers." Just imagine what the public school teachers are teaching in the smaller barangay schools. When we graduated, half of my high school section did not bother with university applications because high school was the furthest level of education they could afford.

Personally, I think of my public school education as a red badge of courage. I've been through hell and I emerged probably intellectually wanting but still--one has to grant--I am not exactly out of the race yet. I remember how I hated family reunions when my uncle would brag about his children getting their education in La Salle and the Ateneo and how brilliant they were. He was so condescending. I was too polite then to point out his children and I were simply incommensurate. My parents were paying more or less 100 pesos for my education while he was paying thousands. If my cousins had a thousand times my IQ, it was but just and proper.

The discrimination I experienced before during those reunions make me only too aware of the massive gap between the education of the elite children and the education of the rest of us.

Public schools do not have the resources, the books, the teachers. Potentially bright minds are going down the drain simply because parents could not afford private schools. Students from public high schools, especially those from the provinces, are lagging behind in academic performance so much so that the University of the Philippines has found it necessary to engage in some form of affirmative action program.

The public school system is falling. Why should the elites care when they can afford private schools? Simple. Miseducation of the Filipino people makes it possible for FPJ to be president, for Bong Revilla to be elected to the Senate. Give the people good public liberal education and there would be no need for People Power. And besides whatever happened to good old noblesse oblige?

Free workshop
Scriptwriting for radio workshop sponsored by Creative Collective Center, Incorporated will be held at University Hostel, UP Diliman. (near Balay Kalinaw) on 4 February 2004 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Mr. Rene O. Villanueva, the multi-awarded writer, Dra. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, respected psychologist and
professor from UP Diliman and Dra. Junice Melgar, director of Linangan ng mga Kababaihan, are the lecturers.

For details, please call 925-8066.

The end of postmodern literary theory
The Christian Science Monitor brings us the pleasant news that postmodern literary theory is growing passe--and as a corollary, non-lit majors unschooled in Derrida and company, can once again participate in the discussion of literature.

Berlusconi the metrosexual
"I look in the mirror and I like what I see. And I think I am more pleasing to others, too."
--Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,on his new look after having cosmetic surgery around his eyes and going on a diet. He added, "I am not finished yet, as you can see."

Jose Sison of the Philippine Star summarizes the arguments of the pro and contra side regarding FPJ's natural-born Filipino citizenship.

Democracy versus the free market
Amy Chua, a Fil-Am law professor teaching at Yale (who, if internet rumor is to be trusted, wears leather trousers during lectures), has this thesis that is increasingly becoming popular among academic circles, which she expounded in a number of essays (like this one appearing in the Wilson Quarterly).

Globalization, according to Chua, is simultaneously inundating the developing world with free-market capitalism and democracy. Those two, however, make different sets of people powerful. The ascendancy of the free market means more power to the minorities who dominate national economies (like the Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Lebanese in Westy Africa); the promotion of democracy though gives political power to the majorities. Chua says that when these two groups of people collide you get explosions of ethnic violence.

Market-dominant minorities are the Achilles’ heel of free-market democracy. In societies with such a minority, markets and democracy favor not just different people or different classes but different ethnic groups. Markets concentrate wealth, often spectacular wealth, in the hands of the market-dominant minority, while democracy increases the political power of the impoverished majority. In these circumstances, the pursuit of free-market democracy becomes an engine of potentially catastrophic ethnonationalism, pitting a frustrated “indigenous” majority, easily aroused by opportunistic, vote-seeking politicians, against a resented, wealthy ethnic minority.

Chua offers a new way of looking at what is happening in the Third World. The American audience though is interested because Chua says that the Americans are a market-dominating minority in the global stage, and the resentment being generated by American success is comparable to the resentment being directed against, for example, the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia.

Chua's sexy thesis rings true. The poor and the wealthy are naturally predisposed to collide (didn't Marx say this before?). Two-pronged globalization (free market and democracy) is making those potential collisions deadlier by empowering both the poor and the wealthy.

Chua extrapolated her thesis from the murder of her wealthy Chinese aunt (who gifted her with a gold bar during graduation!) by the Filipino family driver. I wonder though if she is correct in saying that the Filipinos resent the welath of the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines. My opinion is that Filipinos, like Americans, do not resent great wealth; otherwise, with the feudalism and inequality of the Philippines, the communists should have made significant inroads and should be close to a revolution by now.

The above thesis has been developed by Chua into a book: World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability. The book has been hailed by the editors of the Economist as one of last year's best books on current affairs.