humane treatment for the poor: global ethic and liberation theology

The recent talk entitled “Democracy Update: The Role of Religion in Democracy” by Mr. Peter Schier, representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was a timely reminder about the mutual commitment we have for the entire humanity. His presentation of the principle “Treat others as you would want to be treated” admonishes that everyone has the role to treat others fairly because only when social justice prevails that true freedom, happiness and peace are achieved.
One of the global ethic principles that emerges from the foundational Golden Rule is “Every human being must be treated humanely.” For me, it means having the right to be recognized as a person. Even during the times when there are restrictions to anybody’s freedom, one’s entitlements for one’s person, dignity, ideas, and creed should be respected. In all circumstances, every human must be treated without any form of discrimination.
Humane treatment for every human being prohibits certain acts deemed too harsh to be deserved by anyone. These acts include violence to a person’s life, welfare and honor, chastisement against anyone or one’s properties, anybody’s abduction and detention, stealing from anyone, depriving anyone of access to basic necessities, and threatening anyone with any of these acts. At its most fundamental, respect for human dignity must be provided universally. Only when others are respected that individuals become true to themselves in their desire to be respected. To be humane is a duty over which all humans are responsible, being dependent and siblings to one another.
The abovementioned principle sees parallelism in a strand of Liberation Theology as tackled by Jon Sobrino, S.J., which reads thus: there is a reality of oppressed and subjugated world which calls us to liberate every human being so that they may become human. This aspect of Liberation Theology responds to that principle through the idea that as human beings, the poor should be treated as humanely as any other individual. It does not follow that just because they languish in limited material access, the poor also loses the privilege of being liberated from their plight. On the contrary, all the more that they should be freed because their poverty is an enslaving condition that can linger across generations unless action is taken to end it. Human history let us in on the continuing plight of the poor as the society’s underprivileged: the victims of violence, the materially disenfranchised, the exploited working class, the very components of the marginalized sector. The global ethic principle seeks to give an end to this misfortune by considering the poor as our equal in terms of personal rights. This can become possible when their inherent rights are recognized such that they become free to practice their beliefs, pursue their ideals, possess their dignity, and claim their humanity. This, of course, runs consonant with the Liberation Theology concept that only when they free from oppression and subjugation will the poor become fully human. It means that the suffering and death so familiar to them by virtue of the presence of poverty should also give way to hope, which should never be abandoned by the poor even in the direst times. Quite the opposite, the poor should hope more as poverty aggravates because only with hope will there be any opportunity to achieve freedom from it. Hope shall motivate the poor to remain believing that their burden can be assuaged and liberation can be had, eventually. The striking similarity of the global ethic principle with that of Sobrino’s brand of Liberal Theology is a telling proof that the need or duty for humane treatment is universal.
A world without prejudice is so much better than a world divided by borders steeped in poverty not only of material things but also of the soul. We may all be diverse yet a unifying principle can be found in the upholding of the right to humane treatment. We should commit ourselves to treating one another fairly because only with this commitment will we be able to enter, explore and understand one another’s world. We should will the necessity to cooperate because there is less difficulty in responding to the challenge to break the cycle of social injustices when everybody works together. Only then will we realize that as we alleviate others from their impoverished state, we also alleviate our humanity of our own poverty.

messiah figure: the paschal mystery in resident evil trilogy

The Resident Evil trilogy tells the saga of a universal soldier-like woman who got experimented on for her blood’s capacity to bond with a virus that caused the near extinction of the human race and the entire world. In the inaugural installment, she was an amnesiac who must defeat the virus before it spread outside a hidden facility and into the world. In the sequel subtitled Apocalypse, she got infected by the virus but miraculously survived, mutating into an extraordinary slayer of the undead. In the final installment subtitled Extinction, she continued her mission of wiping out the zombie population while a convoy of the remaining humans traversed the desert in search of an uninfected region. This woman, Alice, is the messianic figure in all three films since her sufferings and eventual reawakening parallel Christ’s passion and subsequent resurrection.
In the trilogy, Alice was shown to suffer by means of her loss of memory owing to a nerve gas attack in the secret facility called The Hive. With only a few time left to remember who she was and what her mission was before the mutated humans devoured the surviving people, Alice struggled to recover her memories in order to quarantine the virus before it infected the outside world. Also, when she got contaminated by the virus herself, she was experimented on in order to ascertain the reason for her immunity. She found herself connected to tubes no less than the animals being studied in the laboratory. Finally, when she got cloned a hundredfold, her clones were made to endure test battles with zombies as well as survival stints against machines and lasers. Because the clones were Alice herself, she could not help but somehow experience the same predicaments as those of the copies. She had even lost her privacy because a tracking device enabled her locators to find her whereabouts.
While the sufferings of Alice would pale compared to those of Christ’s, the uncanny similarity of their purpose for such anguish is noteworthy. Alice’ physical and psychological torture could not come close to the physical and spiritual agony experienced by Christ. Nonetheless, they had to put up with these sufferings for what would turn out to be comparable messianic missions. Much like Christ who had to die via crucifixion in order to save the world, Alice had to be laboratory tested and cloned in order to discover what in her body can provide link to human survival against the T-virus. While God the Father had chosen the anguish that Christ eventually accepted, Alice was reluctant over her own since circumstances threw her onto the path of zombie wasteland as well as onto the experimenting laboratory of experts. While Christ had to die as a consequence of his sacrifice, Alice only had to submit her body to inhuman treatments such that her worst sufferings included amnesia, experimentation and cloning. Alice’ agony might not equal the extreme castigation Christ had undergone, but having only one possession to herself that’s her body, her suffering is all the same a great sacrifice that sanctifies her for the act of love involved, especially that her body must survive in order to save what remains alive in her dying world.
While Christ had to undergo literal resurrection after his self-sacrifice, Alice only had to recollect snatches from her memory, survive her viral infection and reclaim her self-control after undergoing her trials. Like the Christ who had to return to life in order to fulfill the prophecy of world’s salvation, Alice had to survive the death of her memory, of her immunity and of her unique personality to fulfill the mission of the virus spread tantamount to the world’s salvation. When she woke up from her amnesia, she tried to piece back her memory in order to stop the virus from leaking out of The Hive. In Part 2 wherein she gained superpower after getting immunity from the virus, Alice began to kill the undead in order to save the rest of humanity from getting bitten and becoming zombies themselves. In part 3 wherein she got cloned, Alice and her first successfully alive clone made a parting shot that all the Alices will be coming for the enemies. While the Alice before and after was essentially the same brilliant woman, the renewed Alice had gained superpowers and had realized a mission to save what’s left of the world with the few humans around. Since Alice practically rescued the convoy of remaining humans from the attack of zombies, they regarded her as Messiah of their lives. The universal soldier that Alice was affected the world by assuring it that she could be a dependable savior.
By creating a Messiah figure in the character of Alice, the writer and the director could have intentionally wove the Paschal mystery in the film. This can be supported by the fact that the original videogame did not have Alice as a character. In the film, the character Alice was created presumably because in the world about to go extinct, only someone extraordinary enough could have the ability to save it. This Messiah figure had to undergo Christ-like sacrifices and revival to put forth the rationale for her existence as a savior. Like Jesus Christ’s Paschal Mystery which shows the triumph over death for the prophetic fulfillment of world redemption, Alice’ renewal of her self in the trilogy manifests her necessary survival that the world may survive too. The resident evil must be extinguished, and that’s why there was the renewed Alice.

romanticizing terrorism: deviance in v for vendetta

Notwithstanding the deviance the American writers of James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta (Silver, 2006) have taken to stray from the original plot of the graphic novel in which the movie was based, a slew of deviant acts was also observable in the film. It can be said that the film’s plot was thus customized in order to contextualize the deviant acts in today’s socio-political location.
In V for Vendetta, V is a terrorist who dares take on Norsefire, a Nazi-like regime that tortures and murders people deemed misfits to the society. V wants to prove this fascist government wrong and to liberate the whole population from its slavery. Nonetheless, this totalitarian regime gets attacked by V in an ironical manner: via deviance that Norsefire is so familiar with. He methodically murders people linked to Norsefire by guiltlessly torturing them to craziness and death. He also bombs establishments like the Ear and the Mouth, killing numerous civilians. He manipulates Evey to be his unknowing accomplice by torturing and brainwashing her until she accepts his grim and determined point of view of seeing things in a vigilante’s way.
Terrorism as shown in the film is an act of deviance because it threatens the security of countries, in this film’s case the futuristic Britain. In V for Vendetta as well as the context in which it is produced, security threats have resulted to many losses of lives, the destruction of properties, large-scale injuries, the displacements of huge masses and economic devastation. V’s terrorism uses violence against persons and the fascist regime for purposes of public intimidation and coercion. Instead of letting the hands of the law work for social justice, V challenges the rule of legalities since the very government that must wield justice and peace for people is the very institution that violates this rule with its terrorism. The basic issues of morality, the nature of justice, the boundaries of bureaucracy and the ethical authority of legitimate governance are being warped by V for his one-sided belief that he is just enacting a vendetta. In the process of challenging the law, V puts forward the value of vigilantism. While it is morally laudable to right the criminally wrong, it becomes ambiguous when executed through wrongful means. As manifested in the brainwashed Evey, he attempts to convince citizens that Norsefire is powerless to prevent terrorism that it itself spawns. V wants to turn the tables by victimizing the criminals who make victims out of people. He is pushing the value that his acts are justifiable in the name of the anti-fascist cause he is fighting for. Just the perception of the deviance in the film as something that incites revolutionary participation from the people already poses moral dilemma. Getting people to act like vigilantes as a means of freeing their mind is problematic, because the idea of heroes here gets distorted as they punish the guilty without trial and kill the innocent if they happen to get in the way. This is one radical direction heroism can go.
Films being reflective of life, V for Vendetta shows acts of deviance that mirror the terrorism in the real world. While viewers like me may find ourselves sympathetic of V for the democratic freedom he defends vigorously, his terror attacks are practically deplorable. His brand of terrorism is not unlike that of the Al Qaeda, that global alliance of Islamic militant groups responsible for the attack of civilian and military targets across nations. No matter how this fanatical base justifies its motivation about the 9/11 attacks on the United States, it is utterly inhumane in ruthlessly applying this drive to make the US pay for bullying the world into submission. Like V in the film, Al Qaeda is lost into thinking that anarchy is part of the cleansing process, disregarding the loss of civilian lives in its regional bombing activities. It is frightening to think that the involvement of innocent people during Al Qaeda’s terror attacks is necessarily included in the plan in order to punish these people for actually complying with the lone superpower country’s economic and political hostaging of American neo-colonies. In any case, V’s Al Qaeda-like terrorism can be purgative only for believers that the ends justify the means. For these twisted few, the violent actions may be extreme but change should be generated, so pain is a necessary evil that delivers social catharsis.

ang anim na digring layo sa jologs: isang panunuring pampelikula

Mula sa ginawarang iskrip ni Ned Trespeces at pagdirehe ni Gilbert Perez, ang Jologs (Star Cinema, 2002) ay pumapaksa sa tila ‘di-magkakaugnay na buhay ng ilang kabataang tauhan ngunit sa totoo lang, tagni-tagni talaga ang bawat isa dahil ayon nga sa tauhang si Issa (Assunta de Rossi), anim na digri lamang ang naghihiwalay sa kanilang lahat.
Bastardong anak ng isang mayamang kinatawan si Ruben (John Prats), na natanggalan ng scholarship dahil natuklasan ng paaralang anak-mayaman naman siya. Determinadong makapag-aral si Ruben, pruweba ang pagtratrabaho niya sa Barako Café para may maipantustos sa matrikulang halos ipinagdadamot ng ama at ang pagkapit niya sa desperasyong nakawan ang kongresista kung para lang may maipang-aral. Dominanteng may-ari at tagapamanihala naman ang boss niyang si Trigger, dahil sinisinghal-singhalan siya pati na ang guwardiyang si Mando (Diether Ocampo). Matiisin naman si Mando dahil natatagalan niya ang ugali ng amo kung para lamang sa konting kita ay huwag nang mangibang-bansa uli ang kinakasamang Japayuking si Chona (Michelle Bayle). Magtatagpo naman ang landas ni Mando at ang kaibigang bakla ng Japayuki na si Cheryl (Baron Geissler), na may gusto sa kaeskuwelang si Ruben at muntik magahasa ng pumik-ap na si Trigger. Liberal naman si Issa dahil hindi niya kinailangang maging sunud-sunurang babae sa napupusuang si Inigo (Dominic Ochoa), ang konserbatibong pinagpupustuhan nina Issa at mga kakuwarto niya. Kagrupo ni Inigo sa relihiyosong grupo si Faith (Jodi Santamaria), na nang mapagtantong maikli ang buhay ay gusto nang magpakaligaya sa kamunduhan sa piling ng dating seminaristang si Dino (Patrick Garcia). Si Kulas (Vhong Navarro) naman ay isang desperadong gusto nang magpatiwakal.
Kahit nasa bitag ng maraming “samantala” ang magkakahiwalay na kuwento ng mga buhay ng mga tauhang nabanggit, magtatagpo ang lahat sa isang gabi sa Barako Café. Bukod kina Ruben, Mando at Trigger na nasa café na, nagtagpo rin doon sina Faith at Dino matapos ang katawa-tawang pagsubok nila na magniig. Nasalubong ni Faith si Issa, na tinakasan ang relihiyosong grupo ni Inigo dahil mali ang inasahan niyang magtatalik sila ng pinakikipagpustahan. Nagmumuni-muni naman sa isang tabi si Kulas. Dito rin nagkatagpo sina Mando at Cheryl. Lahat ng ito sa isang gabi sa café. Hindi naman malayo sa katotohanan ang pagkakataong pagkakatagpo sa café, dahil sa Pilipinas, isang dahilan ng pag-usbong ng sandamakmak na café ang paggamit dito bilang tagpuan ng bayan, literal man o pagtagpo man ng katahimikan.
Lumabnaw man ang direksyon ng pelikula dahil sa dami ng mumunting banghay para ipilit ang pagbibigay-balanse ng pokus sa bawat tauhan, naipamalas dito ang masalimuot na tunggaliang pangkatauhan at panlipunan gaya ng machismo ni Trigger laban sa kabaklaan ni Cheryl, ng kapitalismo ni Trigger laban sa uring manggagawa ni Mando, ng liberalismo ni Issa laban sa konserbatismo ni Inigo, ng pagpapatuloy sa buhay nina Kulas, Faith at Dino, at ng pagiging bastardo ni Ruben laban sa lehitimo niyang karapatan sa sustento ng ama. Sa mga naging desisyon nila (o sa kanila ng kapalaran), nabuo ang kasukdulan at naisiwalat ang dahilan kung bakit pinamagatang Jologs ang pelikula: ang pagtatangkang iluwal ang sarili sa pinakamabuting kalagayang puwedeng mangyari. Sa mababaw na tingin sa konteksto ng ating lipunan, mababang-uri o bakya ang tinuturingang jologs, ngunit kung kayang iangat ang sarili mula sa kababawang ito, ibang klaseng jologs ang mamamalas. Nabigo man si Trigger dahil nabaliw siya matapos hindi makayanan ang pagkasira ng kabuhayan niya nang sumabog ang café, nakaraos naman ang iba pa. Nakatapos ng pag-aaral si Ruben samantalang naging mabuti ang ugnayan nina Mando at Cheryl bilang mga magulang sa anak ni Chona. Nauwi sa kasal ang eksperimentasyon nina Dino at Faith samantalang nagkaunawaan pa rin sa kabila ng kanilang mga sarili sina Issa at Inigo. Masaya rin sa buhay-Japan si Chona gaya ng ginusto niya samantalang nakatagpo rin ng bagong buhay si Kulas sa pagiging deboto sa isang sekta ng relihiyon.
Dahil sa kapansin-pansing husay sa pagganap ng mga artista, napiga sa mga tauhang ginanapan nila ang damdaming makaalpas mula sa negatibong kalagayang nagtuturing sa kanila bilang jologs. Hindi ang makisig na si Diether Ocampo ang guwardiyang napanood kundi isang probinsyanong matigas ang dila na may pangarap na makabuo ng pamilya. Hindi si John Prats ang empleyado sa Barako Café kundi isang problematikong estudyante na gagawin ang lahat para lang makatapos sa pag-aaral. Hindi ang glamorosang si Assunta de Rossi ang liberal na babae kundi isang mangingibig na hindi kinakailangang magkaroon ng breeding upang maging karapat-dapat sa isang konserbatibong lalaki. Sa pinagkabit-kabit na mga mumunting banghay, lumitaw ang mensaheng magkakaugnay ang lahat sa karaniwang misyong maabot ang pinakamabuti para sa kani-kaniyang sarili. Lalo itong pinatingkad ng kantang “Next in Line” ng After Image dahil sabi nga sa pambungad na linya, “What has life to offer me?” Sa kanilang daigdig na hindi sila magkakakilala ngunit sa isang banda’y kaugnay ng isa ang isa na kaugnay ang iba pa, walang nakaaalam ng anong mangyayari sa kinabukasan. Nakasalalay sa sarili nilang hatol kung ano ang mangyayari bilang kapalaran nila. Kung gayon, nasa sa kanila kung aalpas ba sila sa kanilang kalagayan upang mabago nila ang takbo ng kanilang buhay, o mananatili sila sa kasalukuyan habang ang ibang nakaugnay sa kanilang anim na digri ng pagkakahiwalay ay nakakalayo na.
Nasalamin ng pelikula ang tunay na daigdig kung saan ang hindi kakilala ay malalamang nauugnay pala sa iba sa pamamagitan ng karaniwang kakilala. Ang kamag-anak na ganito ay kaibigan ni ganyan na kaopisina nino na kasintahan niyan. Samakatuwid, magkakawing ang buhay ng lahat kahit hindi akalain. Samantala, sa komplikasyon ng ugnayang ito, lalo pang nagiging masalimuot kung ituturing pa ang kalagayan ng isa’t isa na nagtatalaga kung kabilang ba sa isang institusyon o etsa-puwera. Kung hindi patriyarkal o kapitalista o relihiyoso o lehitimo, wala nang ibang tawag malibang jologs dahil sa (malimit ay ‘di-makatarungang) pagtatakda ng lipunan ng kung ano ang mataas na uri at mababa. Ngunit kung mapagsumikapan ng jologs na abutin ng jologs ang pinakamabuti para sa kanyang sarili, isa na itong pagbaliktad sa itinakda ng lipunan dahil sa pagsisikap na ito, nagkakapuwang siya sa institusyon. Sa pagpapakita ng kakayanan ng mga tauhang baguhin ang pagtingin sa kanila bilang jologs, nabibigyan ng panibagong kahulugan at pananaw ang salita mula sa kawalan ng class, asal ay pagiging konyo tungo sa pagiging cool, liberal at totoo sa sarili.

from backyard business to corporate empire: the success story of splash

It takes capital to start a business but character to grow it. The success story of Drs. Rolando and Rosalinda Hortaleza in establishing Splash Corporation proves this true as their family values created and continues to create impact in Splash brands’ rise in the local and international market.
While starting out as a newlywed couple in 1985, the Hortalezas used a part of their consolidated wedding cash gifts in buying their cousin’s formula for cuticle remover. Repacking this along with acetone and cold wave lotion for neighborhood salon distribution, the couple struck gold when their initial P12,000 capital yielded P100,000+ revenue. This instinct for what is a potential hit is repeated in such products as the country’s first natural-based facial cleanser and exfoliant astringent. This Midas’ touch for pioneering beauty products doubtlessly helped the family corporation emerge from being a lowly backyard business to a burgeoning all-Filipino corporate empire.
Apart from the capacity to innovate, the family cultivates a sense of excellence. Its P4 billion enterprise was achieved through an unwavering focus to lead. It penetrated the Philippines’ Top 300 corporations in 1998 and never left since, owing to the well-received Splash products like Extraderm, Maxi-Peel, Skin White and, of late, Biolink. All these products are developed in the company’s modern manufacturing complex using the best standards from its own state-of-the-art research institute. Their products, clinically tested for their superior safety and efficacy and creatively designed to attract customers’ attention, are a testament to the family’s quest for excellence all in the name of customer satisfaction.
It helps that the Hortalezas see the big picture in striving to excel, for they act locally but think globally. They believe that the Filipino can excel, proven by Splash’ presence in the foreign-dominated ranking of the Top Ten Philippine-based companies specializing in personal care products. In fact, not only does the company enjoy a nationwide popularity for its celebrity-endorsed products, but its international market includes African, Middle East , East Asian and North American regions. Furthermore, in its aim to share a significant piece of the pie in Asia-Pacific as well as the rich European and North American markets, Splash has faith that a proud Filipino company can be at par with other globalizing corporations. It matches its big dream by producing world-class products made from up-to-date research and manufacturing facilities and by linking amicably with a network of local stockholders and global partners.
For having received so many blessings, the family is admirable too for its social entrepreneurship. Besides being generous employers to their workers who feel important to and who belong in one big happy Splash family, the Hortalezas also established Splash Foundation Inc. to help bring about social development. SFI’s Social Development Center becomes the venue for programs like Livelihood Training, Interactive Literacy and Community Service. SFI trains course takers on cosmetology and hair styling for them to become self-relying entrepreneurs. It also sends to school poor but deserving college students, enrols both children and adults in literacy programs and trains teachers in computer-assisted learning styles. Likewise, it assists child hospitalization in beneficiary hospitals as well as renders community services like free computer and Internet access to students, free library use, adopt-a-school, surgical and dental mission and supplemental feeding. All these contribute to the success of Splash empire builders, for their company is more meaningful to customers’ and community members’ lives for having a corporate social responsibility not too popular among other capitalists.
In addition, the family has integrity that makes it win the trust of both customers and business partners alike. It requires Splash employees to keep up the loftiest professional standards in performing their duties. It also transacts business with partners in all sincerity and goodwill. It likewise keeps in mind to guarantee the satisfaction of customers by honestly fulfilling their needs in the form of internationally-recognized quality offerings. In running the corporation, it follows government-mandated rules and regulations from tax payment to environmental safety implementation as well as standardizing employee security. By adhering to ethical business practices, the Hortaleza family has built a model corporation.
Finally, the company’s faith in God has helped it secure its place because Splash considers its belief in the Almighty as the foundation on which the corporation stands. All the actions made by the company reflect the sound prudence endowed by the Lord. All the corporate decisions are entrusted in God, with the hope that these will weather all problems. As such positive attitude, Splash manages to withstand corporate disasters common in weakly-founded firms.
For a company to make its mark in its highly competitive industry, family values often play a vital role. The Hortalezas can attest to this; just witness the family-owned Splash as it continues to grow.

ang pagtaas ng presyo ng petrolyo at epekto nito

Kada taas ng presyo ng krudo sa pandaigdigang merkado, nagdudulot ito ng pangamba hindi lamang sa mga direktang nangangailangan ng langis para magpatuloy ang operasyon ng negosyo kundi pati na rin ang mga ordinaryong mamimili na hindi direktang gumagamit ng krudo ngunit binabata ang bawat hagupit ng pagtaas ng presyo ng langis mula sa ibang bansa.
Bawat bariles ng langis na inaangkat ng mga higanteng mamumuhunan gaya ng Shell, Caltex at Petron, ipinapasa nang mas mataas sa merkado lalo na kung sinasamantala ng mga ito ang mga pagkakataong magtaas ng kanilang presyo bawat litro ng diesel o gasoline. Pahirap pa rito ang batas sa deregulasyon ng langis pati na ang Expanded Value-Added Tax kaya nagpatung-patong ang taas ng presyo ng produktong petrolyo. Wala namang magawa ang pamahalaan sa pagtatakda ng mga dayuhang kompanya ng langis para sana magpatupad ng mahigpit at epektibong kontrol sa presyo.
Dahil sa patuloy na pagtaas ng presyo ng krudong inaangkat ng Pilipinas, hindi rin mapigil ang pagsunod ng pagtaas ng presyo ng mga pangunahing bilihin. Lagi nang may epektong domino ang krisis ng pagtaas ng langis. Sa pamamayagpag ng kartel sa pagitan ng mga higanteng kompanya ng langis, karaniwang mga mamimili ang nagdurusa sa pagtanggap ng mataas na bilihin.
Ganito maipapakita ang pasa-pasang kalagayan ng dagdag na presyo sa petrolyo at mga pangunahing bilihin: sa paglilipat-lipat ng anumang produkto mula gulay, bigas, de-lata hanggang kagamitan, gumagamit kadalasan ng mga sasakyang kumokonsumo ng langis para mapatakbo ito at makarating sa destinasyon. Habang mas malayo ang paroroonan, mas magastos ang konsumo sa gasolina. Maliit man o malaking mamumuhunan, binabata ang halos lingu-linggong pagtaas ng presyo ng langis sa mga kumpanya ng langis na diyata’t sumusunod lamang din sa dikta ng pandaigdigang merkado. Kaysa naman maapektuhan ang kalakal ng nagdedeliber na mga kumpanya, titiisin nila ang patong sa orihinal na presyo. Kung ayaw namang mabawasan ng mga mamumuhunan ang kanilang kita mula sa binagong presyuhan ng petrolyo, ipapasa nito ang pasakit sa pagdadalhan ng mga produkto. Maiisip ding hindi maaaring makaapekto ang ganitong pagtaas ng presyo sa dati nang kinikita kaya sa mga suki ng dineliber na produkto ipapasa ang patong sa presyo ng nasabing mga produkto. Dahil umangal man ay wala namang magagawa ang mga mamimili kundi lunukin ang dagdag na pahirap na pagtaas na presyo ng bilihin, bibilhin pa rin nila ang kinakailangan nilang produkto upang hindi makaapekto sa takbo ng kanilang pamumuhay. Kung hindi naman nila matanggap ang pasa-pasang pagtaas ng presyo ng mga bilihin, pipili na lamang sila ng alternatibong produkto o di kaya, susubuking tanggalin sa sistema nila ang pagkahirati sa mga produkto. Malaki at masalimuot ang krisis-pang-ekonomiya ito dahil ginagawang palaasa tayo sa mga produktong kinakailangan pang iangkat.
Dahil sa inutil din lamang ang pamahalaan sa, halimbawa, pagtanggal ng batas ng deregularisadong langis o kaya ay suspension ng E-VAT sa mukha ng regular na pag-akyat ng presyo ng krudo, ipinag-utos ang malawakang pagtitipid ng enerhiya sa lahat ng pampamahaalang opisina at tanggapan. Hindi naman ikinukunsiderang maghanap ng alternatibong pagkukunan ng langis o pagkontrol ng presyo nito kaya sa mas mataas na presyo ng langis kada lingo, wala ring humpay ang pagtaas ng bilihin.

no whispering allowed at sofitel

spoliarium as luna's postcolonial appropriation of european aesthetics

Juan Luna's Spoliarium might have been informed by Western aesthetics but he was able to customize this in the Philippine context as a means of grappling against the colonizing stance of the Spaniards.
In his painting, Luna portrayed a tragic Roman scene wherein corpses of gladiators where being hauled from a chamber underneath an arena toward a dark area where more dead bodies were possibly piled. Aside from the subject, the strokes of Luna showed the influence of Renaissance masters to whom he was exposed when he was an expatriate student. The non-Filipino depiction is a testament that some European artistic aesthetics influenced Luna.
However, the European colonization of Luna's aesthetic sense ended there since he was able to appropriate this in the socio-historical location of the Spanish colonial Philippines. The painting's subject--the brutality toward the dead gladiators--is comparable to that toward the native Filipinos by the colonizing Spaniards. As the gladiators were stripped of their last earthly possessions, the Spaniards also stripped Filipinos of their humanity and racial dignity with their maltreatment. The slaves in the painting were not unlike the lower-class natives who were conscious of this wickedness of the Roman opportunists and Spaniards, respectively.
Luna's award-winning work was able to capture a foreign concept and turned it into a Filipino property by manifesting that beyond the colonial inhumanity, the Filipinos were able to withstand the stripping of native belongings because they still carried their honor and glory as a people. The cruelty that came with the colonization, so vividly symbolized in the painting, showed that the Philippines was not a completely lost paradise for the natives still stood proud despite their conquered selves.
By Luna's appropriating of Western aesthetics into a postcolonial tool, he expressed the native consciousness that the Filipinos could survive what grave misdeeds had been accorded them and, being metaphorical gladiators, they are not inferior warriors.

the postmortem worldview of precolonial filipinos

The ancient tools and burial jars of precolonial Filipinos articulate their worldview that life is a journey and physical death is not the end of everything in this travel. In fact, they see continuity of this voyage after death, which means the Filipinos have a concept of the afterlife wherein whatever the dead had engaged in while still alive, they can still proceed performing in life after death.
The ancient tools used by precolonial Filipinos for fishing, hunting, gathering and homemaking show the journey that life is. Being travelers, the precolonial Filipinos needed to equip themselves in order to survive. The spears, knives, grinding tools and the like were used to find the sustenance for the day. The palayok and tapayan, for instance, were used for cooking and storing water, respectively.
Meanwhile, when these early people's lives ended, their journey didn't necessarily. These folks saw a kind of postmortem life so when the living buried their dead, they placed their deceased relatives in jars that symbolized their boat sailing to the afterworld. Along with these jars were food, adornments, ancient tools and other materials used in the living world just so the spirits could go about easily as they had done while still alive. Examples of jars and their associated articles include but not limited to the Maitum Anthropomorphic potteries of Sarangani province as well as the iconic Manunggul jar of Palawan.
In such a case, the deceased somewhat defied death because it was as if they were still very much a part of the living world: there was continuity in their travel and there was even fluidity in this continuation of life.

dear sir

let me share to you a letter i received today from a former world literature student who insisted that i open it long after he's out of sight. the content of the epistle echoes the words i've gotten from students for the past seven years of my teaching. to you, g.r., and the rest of the students whose lives i touched in ways i could not imagine, you inspire me into becoming a better practitioner of my craft each new day.

***

November 21, 2007
9:00 P.M.


Sir Minor,

It’s been three months since I decided to write a letter that contains my gratitude for your understanding of all my predicaments. I truly appreciated it. However, I did not do the letter because I did not want you or even my classmates to think that my intention was completely for the sake of my grades. I had attempted three times to send an e-mail but all failed; I had searched for your phone number but I lost it (now I have it already). Today, I know that this would be the perfect time to express my gratitude…to say THANK YOU!!! I am lucky to have met you and so much proud that I became your student—my tuition was not in vain…it’s worthy!
You’ve changed my point of view about this school and about the professors. I do admire your pure and ardent desire for teaching without asking anything in return.
Your passion for teaching is undoubtedly real; your wisdom mirrors how God blesses you; your commitment resembles how God loves you; your methods in teaching reflect how God guides you; and your principle is a path that I must follow—for it will guide me to the fulfillment of my dreams.
I know that this letter is not enough to compensate your kindness. I myself cannot even express exactly what I really want to say—it is an ineffable emotion that only you can comprehend.
But one thing is for sure: I am one of your students who admire you and will continuously admire you.

the deceptiveness of appearance in “sandpiper”

Elizabeth Bishop’s “Sandpiper” is about a shorebird that is “obsessed” [line 18] about “something” [line 17] in “[t]he beach” [line 5]. The object of its obsession is “the spaces of sand between [its toes]” [line 9], although it is suspect what reason the sandpiper must have to obsess over something it does not get its food from. This obsessive attitude contextualized within the poem’s text will eventually tell why the sandpiper is obsessed to begin with.
While a shorebird, the sandpiper does not hunt food right on the beach because it is among rocks where it can find its meals of aquatic and terrestrial insects and under water where it can find mollusks also for food (Parmelee, 29). Its ignorance of “[t]he roaring alongside” [line 1] and “the world…bound to shake” [line 2] go against its nature of foraging for food underwater if not along rocky shores. Finding the sandpiper running along the beach “to the south” [line 3] is, therefore, a kind of dislocation not only for the bird itself but also for the viewers who will deem the bird’s actuation unusual.
If the sandpiper’s dislocation from its specific feeding areas is questionable, much more is its “[w]atching…the spaces of sand between [its toes]/where…the drains/rapidly backwards and downwards” [lines 9-11]. Again, there is no reason for the bird to do the abovementioned, since it cannot scratch food from there. Given that the bird is a non-rational being, it cannot be that the bird has gone meditative, attempting “[t]o see a [w]orld in a [g]rain of sand,” to quote William Blake, as a student of whom the bird is being likened [line4]. At most, it has an instinct, but then again, its instinct gives up on the bird because no mollusk or rock-sheltered insects may be strewn atop the grains. It could be that the bird just got distracted from foraging by the “dragging grains” [line 12] that “the interrupting water [coming and going/and glazing] over [its] dark and brittle feet” [lines 6-7] has swept over. What creature will not be drawn toward “[t]he millions of grains [that] are black, white, tan, and gray/mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst” [lines 19-20]? The explosion of colors that are the grains of sand must have caused the sandpiper to act obsessively about that piece of ground underneath its feet. After all, its instinct, no matter how aware the bird’s watchers are about its blunder, must have informed the sandpiper that the shifting colored grains is a promising food location. Hence, that “something, something, something” [line 17] that the bird so obsessively looks for may most probably be food that’s necessary for its survival.
Outside the head of the sandpiper, it is recognizable that the bird commits the mistake of looking for something in an unlikely location. This is because its view is limited to the distracting appearance of the millions of colored grains. But nothing in the sandpiper’s manners tells that it will ever be conscious of its own error (only until the end, hopefully) since its obsession has clouded its better judgment. It runs “finical…,/in a controlled panic” [lines 3-4], which shows that it instantly wants to unearth what the tide-swept, varicolored sand grains promise to compensate the bird’s effort with. Also, it watches particularly [lines 9-10] and “stares at the dragging grains” [line12], concentrated on finding what lies hidden in them. Furthermore, its beak “is focused” [line 16], poised to pick with it creatures that will serve as its meal.
Finally, its “preoccupied” [line 16] demeanor suggests that its distraction is so intense—it “couldn’t [even] tell”if “[t]he tide/is higher or lower” [line 15] and that the minute, vast, clear, misty world [lines 13-14] will unfold an impending disaster—that only afterwards will the fruitless effort be revealed to its bird senses. Thus, the persona of the poem cannot help but utter the interjection “Poor bird…!” [line 18] because the sandpiper’s obsession has defied the logical and its well-meaning concentration will go unrewarded, ultimately defeating the bird’s determined purpose.
What the sandpiper experiences is a case of wrong investment of focus owing to the deceptiveness of its location’s appearance. Really, when a setting looks so inviting, any bird on the lookout for its survival requirements will be deceived into judging that this is more promising that the bird’s regular foraging grounds. In effect, a choice of the deceptive over the true has drawn the bird to obsess over something that proves to be unworthy of the effort in the long run. It is a pity that just when the sandpiper is so close to the rocky terrain and watery part where it can hunt its food, it gets distracted by the alluring grains of sand which, naturally, does not harbor what it is searching for.
It is not a mistake that the persona ironically metaphorizes the bird as Blake’s student because it may have been that the sandpiper tries to see a world in the grains of sand as in the poet’s “Auguries of Innocence,” but the bird does it literally in Bishop’s poem, manifesting its lack of common sense for seeing beyond sizes or, in the case of the poem under study, facades. Surely, humans know better than repeat the sandpiper’s narrow judgment.

ang muling pagbubukas sa daang carriedo at rizal sa maynila

Kamakailan lang, binuksan ni Mayor Alfredo Lim sa mga motorista ang mga Daang Carriedo at Rizal sa Santa Cruz , Maynila. Sa unang mga proyektong ito ng muling kahahalal na alkalde, binaliktad nito ang proyektong pedestrinisasyon ng nakaraang nanungkulan. Sa nakaraang administrasyon kasi ng lungsod, ipinatupad ni dating Alkalde Lito Atienza ang pagsasara ng mga 530-metrong bahaging ito ng Avenida sa mga bumibiyaheng sasakyan upang maging lakarang pantao. Sa halip na matupad ang layunin nitong bigyang-buhay ang nasabing lugar apat na taon na ang nakalipas, naging pugad lamang ng mga istambay at tumamlay lalo ang kalakal ng mga tindahang nandito. Bunsod nito, ipinatanggal ni Mayor Lim ang proyektong pagpapagandang lakarang pantaong ito sa Daang Rizal hanggang kanto ng Claro M. Recto sa unang araw ng kanyang panunungkulan noong Hulyo, 2007. Sa loob ng isang buwan, unti-unti niyang ipinabakbak ang mga pulang bloke upang maaspaltuhan at muling madaanan ng mga dyip papuntang Taft o kaya naman ay Monumento. Maingat niyang ipinatanggal ang mga ito upang magamit muli sa iba pang proyekto ng kanyang pamahalaan gaya ng mga parke at bangketa. Makaraan ito, hinawi rin niya sampu ng kanyang konsehong panglungsod ang mga puwesto ng manininda sa 198-metrong kahabaan ng Carriedo para madaanan pa rin ng mga sasakyan noong Agosto, 2007. Winalis niya mula sa mga bangketa at lansangan lahat ng mga nakahambalang na nagsisipaglako ng samu’t-saring mga bagay, mula mga piniratang DVD hanggang mga laruang pambata hanggang mga prutas.
Mahahalaga ang dahilan ng pagbubukas ng pamahalaang Maynila sa mga daang ito. Una, inilaan ng Korte Suprema na gamitin ang mga lansangan hindi para sa layuning pangkalakalan. Ipinaalaala ni Mayor Lim sa mga naglalako na isinaad ng batas na gamiting daanan ng mga sasakyan at mga tao ang mga lansangan imbes na gamiting lugar pangkomersiyo. Hindi maaaring maglagay ng puwestong pagtitindahan sa mismong daanan mula lansangan hanggang bangketa, pagdidiin ng alkalde. Sa lehitimong mga establismentong hindi lalagpas sa mga bangketa dapat pumuwesto ang mga manininda. Layunin ng pagbubukas ng mga daang ito ang pagbawas ng paninikip ng trapiko. Una, pagiginhawain nito ang paglalakbay ng mga sasakyang hindi na kailangang magpasikut-sikot pa sa masisikip na Daang Tomas Mapua, Florentino Torres, Ongpin, Sales at Evangelista para lamang makabiyahe pa-Taft o pa-Monumento. Pangalawa, makadaraan nang mas maayos ang mga taong namamasyal sa lugar para magsimba, mamili o bumiyahe. Layunin din ng pagbubukas ng mga daan ang pagpapasigla ng komersyo sa lugar. Mabababaan na ng mga pasahero ang mga kainan, groserya, at maliliit na department store na naghingalo ang negosyo dahil sa kawalan ng tamang-tamang puwesto ng mga dumaraang tao. Sa pagluwag ng daanan, makakakuha ng mga pasaherong nasa lugar na ito ang mga dyip dahil nasa estratehikong lansangan at hindi sa kung saan madalang ang mga tao. Bukod dito, lalakas ang bentahan sa mga tindahang nakapuwesto sa lugar. Mas makikita ng mga nagsisilakad dito ang mga tindahan ng sapatos, damit, kasangkapan sa bahay, libro at iba pa na maari nilang bilhin kung kinakailangan.
Magaganda ang ibinunga ng pagbubukas ng mga daang nabanggit. Una, nabawasan ang pagsisikip ng trapiko. Dahil madaraanan nang muli ang dulo ng Avenidang tutumbok sa estasyon ng LRT sa Carriedo, hindi na magsisiksikan ang mga pampubliko at pribadong sasakyan sa pagbagtas sa Chinatown . Nakaluwag sa mga motorista ang mababagtas nang lansangang pansamantalang naging parke at tambayan ng mga tao noong administrasyon ni dating Mayor Atienza. Nakinabang din ang mga nakapuwesto sa bangketa. Hindi tuluyang pinaalis ni Mayor Lim ang mga nakapuwesto dahil binigyan sila ng metro kuwadradong pagtitindahan sa bangketa. Sa parametrong ito, makakapaglakong muli ang mga manininda ng mga gamit-pambahay at gamit-pang-opisina, dangan din lang at hindi nila kakayaning mag-upa ng puwesto sa mga lehitimong establismento. Bukod dito, hindi papayagang mangotong ang mga pulis sa mga nakapuwesto sa mga daang ito. Nangako si Mayor Lim na papapanagutin niya sa batas ang mga awtoridad na mangingikil sa mga nagsisipaghanapbuhay sa mga Daang Rizal at Carriedo. Dagdag pa, makikita na ang mga sikat na tagpo sa lugar sa paghawan ng mga nakadidilim na tindahan. Matatanaw na ang Simbahan ng Quiapo na dinarayo ng mga deboto dahil sa Itim na Nazareno. Mas madali na itong makita ng mga Katolikong hindi pa gamay sa pagsikut-sikot sa lugar. Matatanaw na rin ang Simbahan ng Santa Cruz . Dahil wala nang harang, mapupuntahan din ng mga tao ang alternatibong institusyong Katolikong ito sa bahagi ng Chinatown . Nabawasan na rin ang mga masasamang elementong tumatambay sa lugar. Humina ang mga insidente ng pandurukot o pananalisi dahil hindi na nagsisiksikan ang mga taong maaaring dukutan nang walang kamalay-malay. Nawalan ng tambayan ang mga nagbebenta ng panandaliang aliw dahil kung mapapansin silang nakahambalang sa daan para maglako ng laman, maaari silang hulihin agad-agad.
Sa pagbubukas na muli ni Mayor Lim sa mga Daang Rizal at Carriedo, inaasahang bubuti na hindi lamang ang kalagayang pangtransportasyon sa lugar kundi pati na rin ang namamatay nang komersyo sa pusod ng Kamaynilaan.

made in china: the pinoy opportunities out of the sino-crisis

China is touted to be the world’s next superpower, out to oust the United States in terms of the burgeoning Chinese economy. With cheap labor and expansive market, China products are sold cheaply and, more likely than not, patronized over similar yet less affordable products. Furthermore, the range of items China sells around the globe is so wide that many of them, from food to clothes to cosmetics, bear the mark “Made in China.” Raw materials, goods, drugs, toys, among other items with touches of Chinese industry, are readily available as they are affordable. Chinese-made products dominating our homes are being carried all over the market, from the shopping malls to the supermarket, from groceries to bazaars.
This pervasiveness of China-manufactured items is set to change after recalls of products like tires, toothpaste and toys had been made. If these products were found to contain components that pose health hazards, it is not far-fetched for patrons to question whether other China-made items can be dangerous to our well-being, especially the coincidental recalls. The pullout of White Rabbit candies as well as other Chinese sweets for their health-threatening formalin content can lead to a boycott of sort since no one in one’s right mind will consciously take in something that is dangerous to one’s health. One will more likely cast a doubt whether to go use or consume a China-made product if it means risking one’s life. After all, there are similar items that do not originate in China which may be had without necessarily creating the same threatening impression. If the market teems with competitor products that are publicly perceived as safe no matter how many more pesos inflated, China-made goods may lose out on them. It will have to take a matter of time (or the dreaded short-term memory of the Filipinos) before the affected products’ problem blows over and rouse the Chinese economy into a bullish state again.

In the light of these pullout events, Chinese products that are already available in the Philippine market may have to suffer a domino effect. The bad impression created by their compatriot products will possibly drag even the unaffected products from their previously high demand. For fear that the unaffected products may prove to be unsafe for mass consumption too, authorities may have to conduct more careful inspection of imported goods. Stricter laws on products regulations will have to be implemented. Companies will be enjoined into incorporating environmental awareness in their product samples like waste management practice so as consumers are assured of their quality and supervision. Meanwhile, Filipino buyers will have to take quality top consideration and will have to forego being easily blinded by low-costing goods. They will have to think twice about doing certain purchases and, in effect, widen their options to more credible brands, locally-made goods included. Also, they will have to become more aware of the alarming effects of affected products’ contents to their health, thereby they develop safety consciousness. Therefore, the crisis that posed immense risk to the Chinese industry in general may produce opportunities, after all.
This dark industrial setback for China may actually present some silver lining for Chinese-Filipino entrepreneurs. Given the bad image China products currently suffer from, Chinoy businessmen may deem it high time to strike while the iron is hot. They can enact a marketing strategy that will heighten consumers’ awareness on the quality of local products compared to that of the Chinese-made goods. Its manufacturer can promote Hapee toothpaste, for example, as an inexpensive Filipino product that offers affordability as well as safety. The market share of the Chinese toothpaste can be lionized by any other competitor, except that Hapee stands a chance for its inexpensive price.
The Chinoys can possibly export locally-manufactured products like rubber plastics in order to expand into the global market. This is less prohibitive since the focus on China-made products became weaker and, thus, facing serious challenges in the global market. These products which were discovered to have defect and low quality can be challenged by local products which can offer more customer value and satisfaction to catering countries. This is an opportunity for the local products to come stronger in terms of manufacturing in order to win a sizeable market being vacated by the declining demand for Chinese goods. To illustrate, Pinoy entrepreneurs can supply plastics, rubbers, tires, coconut oils—products China is currently weakening at or altogether lacking—to territories in which defective Chinese goods got recalled. Developing products that are not yet fully developed in China
The local entrepreneurs can further seize the opportunity by creating more aggressive campaigns that will market their goods to the consumers. At this time of the year when Christmas is fast approaching and gift giving is the season’s rage, the occasion calls for answering more demands to manufacture toys. If the patronized (until recently) Chinese goods lack on significant quality, manufacturers can create modified versions of such goods so that they will have better features, better packaging and the like and, therefore, better competitors than the product from which the concept was derived. Coinciding with the peak season, the better products will enjoy greater demands and, as a result, higher patronage of local products.
Most importantly, in the wake of the weakening Chinese grip on business dealings, the local entrepreneurs can improve on relational networks with local and foreign companies and markets. They should build good relationships in order to have partners or associates that will strengthen product development in such a way as to avoid repeating the corporate blunder involving Chinese products. These relationships can also make way for the exportation of local products to places where business partners are far-reaching. Companies may also send personnel to train in business trips and to attend trade fairs that will not only bring ideas for product development brainstorming but also open opportunities to make dealings with more businesses. In improving the external structure of the company in a bid to fortify it, the company should also develop a sophisticated industrial structure as well as manpower that can be globally competitive. Hiring English-proficient workers is one thing but more importantly, these workers should be highly-skilled so that they can lend their global market advantageousness to the products they will develop.

battling the heritage of smallness: pinoy liabilities and the toyota experience

Of the 14 Toyota Way Principles, I believe that the principle saying “build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time” is hardest to apply in the Philippines. Why? Because the Filipino culture tolerates the “puwede na,” “bahala na” and “ningas cogon” attitudes, three liabilities that aggravate what National Artist Nick Joaquin unerringly labels as a heritage of smallness. If only the Philippines learns much from the discipline of Japan in general and the Filipinos from Toyoda family’s discipline in particular, then we can become great as a nation. Unfortunately, discipline is not a piece of cake, and it gets harder to come by when quality is being sacrificed by acceding to the second-rate, by leaving everything to fate, or by losing interest midway toward completion.
The Filipinos could learn so much from the Toyoda family, whose members include the founder’s predecessor who gave a new meaning to getting dirty, the founder who persevered despite his own physical frailness, and his cousin who religiously did things to learn. Sakichi Toyoda, who created the power loom that paved the way to the mother firm of Toyota group, defied the absence of research and development accessibility by doing everything himself. He took the work via trial and error and got his hands dirty in producing the “mistake-proof” automatic power looms that liberated the women in his family from the punishing labor of the weaving cottage industry. Meanwhile, his son Kiichiro, who studied facts rather than depend on intuition, created a miniature engine painstakingly before producing the automobile engine. His cousin Eiji learned things from doing like Kiichiro and Uncle Sakichi, researching the machines he hardly knew about and, until the time he led the Toyota Motor Manufacturing, molded the sales, car development and the principles underlying the Toyota Production System. Their characteristics show discipline that puts quality on top priority.
However, the principle of fixing problems to ensure quality may find it hard to assimilate itself in the Philippine setting because for one, Filipinos have the penchant for “puwede na.” This means giving something a passing mark even if its quality has not yet been tested or has flunked against standards. In the Philippines, it is rare for workers to repeat everything especially if the process involved is tedious. They may be too conscious of the limited time of production, but sacrifices quality in the process. If they learn from the discipline of the Toyoda family, they will put in mind that quality matters more than anything else, because in the end, they might end up repeating the process anyway, or might cause accident for their poorly qualified products.
The fatalism of the Filipinos is also working at their fault, since they trust God so much but do not couple this faith with love for labor. It entails more than relying on supernatural powers, as the case of the Toyoda family attests. They persevered doing everything in order to generate the quality products that Toyota offers today. This should see practice in the Philippines because God Himself will not be pleased if His followers are not even resourceful.
Finally, becoming a grass flash-fire is disadvantageous to Filipinos because the quality that is thought of in the beginning loses reality in the process of approximating it. The success of the Toyota conglomerate did not come about easily; the Toyoda family had to get their hands dirty in order to achieve quality products. They did not stop or give up what they so lovingly labored for a long time because they believe that as little problems got fixed, quality would be assured. Whether they succeeded or not fixing the problem, they could not forsake quality.
Only when these three liabilities are eliminated will the Philippines achieve greatness.

isko-lonization

when the registration for graduate students opened in the state u, i was perhaps one of the first to appear in the graduate school office, only to be turned this way or that owing to the papers i had to submit before being permitted to transfer to the english studies program. i was happy to have found both my comparative literature and new program advisers such that my papers were signed in no sooner time. it did not matter that classes then were suspended because of the raging typhoon, making me admire more these professors who get a pittance of a salary yet help build the nation via teaching.
it excited me that besides having the department chair as my professor, i will attend a subject entitled new english literatures which, i researched, will tackle the state of literature in former british colonies. i may not be able to study the reliable latin americans but i will be able to make readings from postcolonial regions that spawned such works as the rice mother, hullabaloo in the guava orchard, in the skin of a lion, the bone people, waiting for the barbarians and the like. the die-hard postcolonial in me is at it again but at least, i won't be accused of lounging around proclaiming, "i am not an asian!"
it took me the last day of the registration to finish everything, from enlisting online to paying for my tuition (i was not included in the tuition fee increase! jump!jump!), and while i did not pay more than P3,000 for my enrollment, my funds have depreciated alarmingly. queuing up was a different story altogether, since the UP has been satirically referred to as university of pila. living up to the mockery, the queue in palma hall and, i later learned, in pnb reached up to the geography department and shopping center, respectively. the serpentine line reminded me of a box-office film starring judy ann santos, and so in the event i lose consciousness because of the heat and the rigor of the effort, i might end up shrieking, "ang ganda-ganda ni juday, promise! panonoorin ko ito ng isang libong beses!" the inaugural attempt for UP to go crs online full-blast apparently defeated its purpose, for i observed that there had been more time wasted than conserved.
after a gruelling day at the UP, i rushed to makati to have my books signed by jessica hagedorn. i will have to put this off because in its specialty, it deserves a separate blog altogether.

the anitos in the guise of colonial santos

The statues of saints in the Philippines are a manifestation of how Filipinos vernacularize the foreign. All along, the colonizers believed that they have conquered the people's spiritual lives when they uprooted the precolonial religious institutions yet they persisted even in the guise of the innocent-looking holy icons.
The religious images reminiscent of the Spanish colonial style were nothing but the same anitos which the natives had worshipped before the white men arrived in these shores. They might appear to be Caucasian and all, yet these were the same idols with which the babaylans communicated for the devotees to guide their general lives.
Vicente Rafael's concept of "fishing" can be used to describe this customization by the Filipinos of the colonial statues. The colonizers were fooled into believing that the natives did learn to worship the foreign icons with the manifest idolization of the Santo Niños, Birheng Marias and other statues. However, this was deemed superficial, since the natives did not truly know what this idol-worship meant in the Catholic context.
What they knew, in fact, was that they continued attending to the anitos which their Babaylans had them turn to for their daily needs. In short, they were just fishing what the Spanish thought them, the worship of santos in this case, but did not truly took them to heart because what was truly in their heart was the spirit of the anitos guiding them, only in a different (because white) form. Essentially, these statues kept their native form and that was what made the natives worship them.
While it seemed to foreigners that they completely paralyzed the Filipinos' "savage" animism by introducing their own brand of religion, it seemed to Filipinos meanwhile that they knew better than to divorce themselves from their native spirituality, hence the false worship of the statues and the continuation of their precolonial religiosity. This appropriation of the foreign by the natives is a way of showing that the Filipinos remain inscrutable in spite of the conquistadors' effort to colonize them consummately.

the evil and the good in star wars

We may consider the fictional setting of Star Wars an ultra-futuristic view of the universe; however, the trains of thought and the course of action of the individuals in the film do not appear to be any different from the way people in our society think and behave. Therefore, it became easy to notice parallels between the sociology of the fictional Star Wars universe and of our real world, especially the concept of the opposition between the good and the evil as valued by the people involved. In the movie, the opposing forces are represented by the Jedi Knights and the Sith warriors. However, what makes one or the other good or evil?
In Star Wars, it was necessary for each boy who aspires to be a Jedi to go through different phases of training with increasing levels of difficulty. This required procedure was that which gave stability to the reputation of every Jedi knight, and it was through this structure that all Jedi knights were able to carry on their role as Galactic Republic’s guardians. This was the role of the Jedi knights in their society—to bring peace and justice to their universe. The Jedi knights’ counterparts, the Sith warriors, also had a role to play in their society that is to tap the dark side of The Force in order to unleash its true potential. This philosophy fueled the desire of the Sith Order such that they were willing to employ brutal methods in order to acquire the power they single-mindedly lusted after.
Despite the binary pitting the Jedi against the Sith, they function in such a way as to render each member collaborating in order to promote solidarity and stability of their respective complex social systems. It is a relative stable pattern of behavior for each Jedi Knight to train extensively in order to assume their guardian role as it is for each Sith warrior to use means (no matter how cruel) by which they can further be empowered by the dark side of The Force. These respective social structures of the Jedi and the Sith are to be maintained to effect consequences for the operation of their societies in general.
The roles being played by these opposing orders are not entirely divorced from our own social reality, as each member of the society has an inherent social function which needs to be performed in order to solidify and stabilize the society. From the menial workers up to the heads of states, all have a social duty to consummate for the society to operate soundly. If, say, the garbage collector fails to do to his or her job, it spells social catastrophe since this results to the possibility of jeopardized public health. Meanwhile, if a city mayor falls short of acting in response to the probability of an epidemic resulting from the failure of garbage collection, whether this action involves firing the sanitation administrator or tapping the public health unit, it also spells social disorder. The members of the society are inscribed in a complex network of regular functions which form the structure that every society appear in. This is how our society as well as those of the Jedi and of the Sith looks like.
There was a need for the Jedi to continue to maintain peace and order in their galaxies because the Sith, by resorting to atrocious methods to be empowered by The Force’ dark side, were a competing force trying to do the opposite. These two opposing orders, the Jedi and the Sith, were the very reason why conflicts-turned-war arose in their universe. The epic battles involving the two, however, characterize the society as a site of inequality that engenders conflict but, more importantly, change. The Sith, in particular, take conflict as central to the pursuit of the Sith philosophy. Conflict is believed by the Sith warriors as empowering individuals and civilizations by enjoining them to change, develop and progress. Furthermore, it guaranteed that only the strong are capable of surviving, paving the way of perfection for Sith warriors. With their strength, the strong deserved more than what the weak cannot even protect themselves from. Meanwhile, the Jedi carries opposite principles that are pacifist by nature and, therefore, perceived by the Sith as obstacles to growth since lack of conflict generates stagnation and devolution. The Jedi’s brand of morality prevented the Sith’s capacity to see and grapple opportunities for progress, hence it was considered an obstruction to be hurdled. Whatever side wins in the conflict, there is a corollary change that subverts the status quo. As a worshipper of the dark force said it succinctly: “Without strife, your victory has no meaning. Without strife, you do not have advance. Without strife, there is only stagnation.”
This binary opposition of the Star Wars universe is likewise a feature of the real-rife society, for a confrontation of social powers are being stages in the arena that’s the society. Very much like the Jedi and the Sith who both aspire for acquisition of power, binaries in the society clash against each other in order to gain the upper hand over the other. The rich versus the poor, the male versus the female, the heterosexuals versus the homosexuals, the whites versus people of color, among other social classes, use their power to exploit their less-empowered antagonists. They function as such in order to create a social structure featuring the empowered class in the center while the exploited class, in the margins. As Emperor Palpatine himself puts a semblance of real-life social conflict in view of the Star Wars universe, “It is natural for him to want to destroy me. It is not crude mundane ambition, as it would be in an ordinary man; it is part of his growth. And of course it does not offend me—it is why I chose him. But he needs to grow still further.”
Still in the movie, the two orders were portrayed such that we would see the Jedi as good and the Sith as evil. This was how Anakin Skywalker viewed the two orders before he turned over to the dark side. If I may quote, Anakin said this in a conversation with Palpatine: “The Jedi is good because they are selfless. The Sith wants power.” In his eyes, the Jedi were good people because he grew up with them and believed that they were protecting their universe from the Sith. However (and again, I shall quote), Palpatine answered him: “And the Jedi do not?” These contrasting views are a product of a difference in perspective. When Anakin became desperate to save his wife from dying from delivery, he resorted to cross over to the dark side, and when he did that, his whole perspective of society changed. He then believed the Sith were good and the Jedi were evil.
This change of heart in Anakin is understandable in the light of symbolic interaction, which supports the fundamental principle that humans act toward things based on the meanings ascribed to those things. This meaning of things is derived from or emerges out of the social interaction that, say, Anakin had with the Jedi first and the Sith next. When the meaning multiplied, the produced meanings were handled in and modified through an interpretive process employed by Anakin in dealing with the things he encountered. He acted favorably at the pacifism of the Jedi because this was the way for the Star Wars universe to achieve peace and order. Living all along with the Jedi made him view pacifism as right and, therefore, good. Because the Sith contradicted the Jedi regarding pacifism (after all, “peace is a lie,” according to the Code of the Sith), Anakin viewed the former as bad. But these views were subverted when Anakin started to suffer nightmares involving his pregnant wife, Senator Padme Amidala, dying at childbirth. Having suffered loss when his mother got murdered, Anakin was bent on discovering a means to avoid death using the Force. He eventually got tempted to accept deceitful Palpatine’s offer to become an apprentice of the dark force in favor of the secret he had been to searching for. By switching loyalties, Anakin also switched perception of the opposing sides.
As in the Star Wars universe, the symbolic interactionist views the real-life society as full of meanings arising from who or what interact within it. They are interpreted as good or bad against the standards of encountered things. For instance, a child growing up in a family of thugs views terrorism as a macho thing. In the same vein, a person who constantly deals with drunkards might have a different way of seeing a vice commonly associated with unproductivity. Another thing, a person who interacts with people with criminal tendencies will have a depreciated notion of criminality as an immoral behavior. In which case, society may have relative concepts of good and evil. It may be bad to kill for one society, but if killing someone in the name of honor is justifiable for another society, then it may not occur as evil at all.
The idea of who are good or evil between the Jedi and the Sith, in conclusion, depends on whose side one is on. If one is for the Jedi, then they are deemed as good and the Sith, evil. If one is for the Sith, then they are deemed as good and the Jedi, evil. In the performance of their respective functions as required by a stable social structure, it is inevitable for them to clash against each other, having opposing ideologies. But to call one or the other good or evil will have to be decided by the values held by the society. Values being social constructs, they may change under specific conditions, as attested by the switch made by Anakin from Jedi to Sith. The pacifist priority of the Jedi might have influenced Anakin into going for the Jedi’s pacifist social behavior. Nonetheless, the lust for power valued by the Sith had eventually influenced Anakin into mebracing the dark side of The Force. In our real-life society, people value things and ideas positively and negatively, and they have reasons for making their evaluations. Substance abuse, for example, is valued negatively because of the ill-effects it creates toward the overall well-being of the person involved in it. For a drug user, however, it may be valued positively as it gives a high. As these values are applied, the views will explain the concept of the good and evil across the social world.
The social structure’s stability and order are sustained by all our consolidated functioning, whether valued as good or bad or even oppositional. The very implication of conflict presents the possibility that what is relatively good for one may be bad for the other, contributing to either the stagnation or development in social structure. What is good for one is often evil to one’s enemies. This already dashes the universality of good and evil. It may occur that even the things perceived as most universally good may turn out to be evil to other species or to the environment, perhaps. What works for a society that yields a good outcome, that is good. What works against one in a society that makes it go against the grain, is nothing else but evil. Conflict between good and evil is a symbolic interaction that functions to givev meaning to social structure. Like the Force that binds the galaxy together, the society has a good side and a bad side, and it depends on the members of the society to relate with one or with the enemy.

timezone, minus pangga

after having dropped by at my student lor's place where i fetched two chocolate bars from hong kong and an ang pao worth a unit at the graduate school, i went to see donita horse in gateway where we would hang out at timezone. it was my first time to be playing there without my pangga, so i was somewhat sad. he got to text me, though, so he eventually learned that i won in the trivia game but without his inspiration, i didn't manage to win jackpot prizes. i had to settle for a few tickets, which donita had exchanged for a violet watch and multi-colored ballpens. she gave me one of her eight-colored writing tools so i could deal with different kinds of papers without having to pick up various shaded pens or to grow mutant arms to handle imperial purple, grass green and infrared ones.
we had a chance to sing at a videoke booth, so we belted out covers including kenny rankin's "hiding inside myself" and martin nievera's "each day with you" (the lyrics of which remind me of my first pangga who deliberately omitted the part following "you give my heart a source of inspiration...," fell silent and turned to working on origamis. i found out that the next lines read: "your beauty is beyond imagination"). beauty seems to be the motif of the hour, as i did covers of fra lippo lippi's "beauty and madness" and celine dion's "beauty and the beast." pangga texted that i should get a hundred percent for singing the latter, to which i replied, "do i get 50% for your beauty and 50% for my beastliness?" he chuckled. donita wanted to sing cristina aguilera's "beautiful," but not having found it, insisted on singing the ballroom staple "time of my life." it must be her characteristic blunder working, since when the machine blared, greenday's "time of your life" rent the air.
it can't be that i won't croon bonnie bailey's "ever after," for that is my and my pangga's theme song. donita was surprised to hear me sing it without the aid of the lyrics, which were frustratingly absent in the videoke machine's monitor. i had to restrain myself from mimicking beyonce's energetic moves while performing the house music. donita was determined to share the theme song with me and my pangga. i could smile. many gays find "ever after" as befitting love theme. why not, when in the midst of heterosexual domination, homophobia and incredulity over lasting gay relationships, we're still humans who won't stop believing a happy ending with each other? i felt relieved, despite pangga's absence. he's far, but then, he's ever so close.:)

mooncake (for m.)

Open the red box, Love,
And savor the oven-fresh aroma
Of each hopia.
Pick one and feel its paper-thin wrap
Crumble at your slightest touch.
As the remaining mooncakes slant domino-style,
Munch on your flaky piece,
Relishing the sweet mongo filling
In your tongue.
Sense your mouth watering for more
To delight your tastebuds.
Your mother was right
About this product of your hometown:
The world is about this plump roundness
And nothing else besides.
It takes after that pale light in the night sky
But see how many suns it can eclipse
Each time the chewy dough
Reveals its creamy mungbean.
One crunch, and the flavorful mooncake
Can please a multitude’s cravings.

presidential pardon to erap: end notes

Manila Bulletin’s October 26, 2007 news story “GMA pardons Erap; hopes aired for reconciliation” shows one such case in which the Philippine President exercises executive power. In the article, current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bestowed Executive Clemency to her ousted predecessor Joseph Estrada after his six-year litigation culminated with his conviction on corruption charges. The former president has since accepted his much-criticized successor’s granted pardon, notwithstanding if his lifetime sentence for plunder was meted just a month before and if the restoration of his civil and political rights was interpreted as the other end of a political bargain.
Indeed, the President of the Philippines enjoys a constitutionally-vested executive power, one manifestation of which is the executive clemency exemplified above. This executive capacity vested on the President is stipulated in the Article 7, Section 1 of the Philippines’ supreme law (de Leon, Hector: Rex, 2005). In fact, this inherence of power to only one person that’s the Philippine President makes him or her as the Executive rather than the misnomer Chief Executive, which would mean that there may be other though less powerful executives. Given that Arroyo heads a presidential system of government, the Chief Executive that she is actually implements legislations, among other things, through the many subordinate executives under her office. In the case of freed Erap, Arroyo has her order read by Press Secretary and acting Executive Secretary Ignacio Bunye, served by Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, and only noted by the Sandiganbayan, which decided Erap’s corruption penalty of reclusion perpetua.
Cooley, as noted by de Leon, has defined executive power as “the power to administer the laws, which means carrying them into practical operation and enforcing their due observance.” This means the executive power of Arroyo is defined apart from the judiciary and legislative branches of her government. Whereas the Supreme Court along with the smaller courts interprets the laws and both the Congress and Senate make laws, the President as Executive implements laws which, de Leon adds, “include the Constitution, statutes enacted by Congress, decrees (issued under the 1973 Constitution), and executive orders of the President, and decisions of courts.” Apart from the Section 19 executive capacity to bestow reprieves, commutations, and pardons as in the case of Erap, the Philippine President can summon the armed forces to crush rebellion or invasion as the Commander-in-Chief, can declare martial law and suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, can contract or guarantee foreign loans, and can make bureaucratic appointment.
In granting pardon to Erap, Arroyo cites “her government’s policy of releasing inmates who have reached the age of 70 and have served considerable amount of jail time.” While the first qualifier is acceptable since Erap is already 70 years at the time of his conviction, the second qualifier is questionable since the one-month prison service of Erap right after the Sandiganbayan’s sentence and just before the handing down of the presidential clemency is hardly “considerable amount,” if at all. It may be interpreted, though, that the six-year litigation of Erap while in house arrest in Tanay, Rizal is that relatively long “jail time” being referred to in the order. The rapid period in which the pardon came just when Erap was in the initial days of his lifelong imprisonment naturally reeks of a political trade wherein Erap promises never to run public office in the future. The bargain from Erap does not seem an acceptance of guilt (his legal counsels are still making an appeal, after all) nor an expression of public apology, so the presidential pardon appears being jeopardized for abuse. It can even be read as a preemption of what bleak future in jail probably awaits Arroyo if she should suffer the exact same fate as her predecessor. On the other hand, it may indeed be euphemistically read as a much-awaited “national reconciliation amid years of bitter political division.” Whatever the agenda, the case in question is Arroyo’s exercise of her absolute power of presidential prerogative to grant executive clemency. First qualifier is “absolute”; second is “prerogative”—there appears to be no argument when it comes to being the Executive. What is worth pondering upon is the fact that the Philippine President, herself mired in issues of moral ascendancy, remains the only and final judge of national interest in a country so divided over a controversial pardon.