sa pusod ng binondo: isang pagbabalik

Paghinto ng sasakyan ko sa dulo ng Tulay Jones na inaanuran sa ilalim ng Ilog Pasig, kapansin-pansin ang monumentong bumabati sa bawat dyip, kotse at iba pang motoristang tumutuloy sa tila isang dayuhang lupain dahil sa maraming karatulang nasusulat sa Intsik, mga establismentong oryental ang kayarian, at dominanteng kaanyuang singkit ang mga mata at manilaw-nilaw ang balat paris ng sa akin. Binondo at Manila Chinatown ang taguri sa lugar na ito, at sa pagtigil ng sasakyan ko sa tapat ng arko, siya namang simula ng paglalakbay ko.
Kulang isang kilometro lamang ang Quintin Paredes, ngunit higit dalawampu’t limang sangay ng iba’t-ibang bangko ang nakatayo rito. Dalawa sa mga ito ang pag-aari ng mga mestisuhing Ayala, ang Bank of the Philippine Islands na kakatwa sa prominenteng karatulang Tsino. May siyam na sangay dito ang RCBC samantalang kulang tatlumpu ang sa pinakamalaganap na bangko, ang Metrobank. Napag-isip-isip ko habang lulan ng kalesa na marahil, pinakamalaking konsentrasyon ng mga bangko ang Chinatown sa bilang na higit isandaan at limampu, kasama ang mga dayuhang bangkong Citibank, Chinatrust, Hongkong Shanghai at iba pa. Kinunan ko ng litrato ang mga nakita ko para patunayang bago pa naghari ang Makati, sentrong pangkalakalan na ang dating Binundok na itinakdang tahanan ng lahing Tsino noong panahong kolonyal. Sa katunayan, bago pa dumating ang mga Kastila, nakikipagbarter na rito sa dating kilalang parian ang mga ninuno ko mula sa bansang Tsina. \
Makikitid ang mga lansangan sa Chinatown, ngunit natuklasan kong bawat isa ay may ipinagmamalaking produkto. Pamoso ang Ongpin sa mga tindahan ng alahas. Hindi pa man matindi ang sikat ng araw, tila mumunting araw na ang ginintuang singsing, relos, kuwintas, pulseras at relikaryo dahil sa kakinangan nila. Kaakit-akit hindi lamang ang iba’t-ibang kulay ng mga batong nakabaon kundi ang bawat disenyo ng mga ito mula sa dragon, hugis-puso, eksotikong bulaklak, at iba pa. Bagay sa balat-Tsino ang ginto; sa tingin ko, salamin din ito ng gintong kalooban ng liping nakipagsapalaran sa ibayong lupain at binuhay ang ekonomiya nito.
Sing-ingay naman ng piyesta ang Kalye Raon dahil sa mga produktong de-kuryente, panteknolohiya at elektroniko. Matatagpuan dito ang mga videoke, bilihan ng compact disc, antenna ng telebisyon, mga salangan ng digital, audio at video cd, sound system, kompyuter, printer at iba pa. Madidiskubre namang nasa Kalye Evangelista ang tindahan ng mga kagamitang pang-industriya samantalang nasa Masangkay at Benavidez ang mga kagamitang pang-automotibo. Sentro ng kagamitang hardware ang Kalye Alonzo. Nasa Kalye Nueva ang mga naglilingkod sa industriya ng sapatusan para sa mga balat, de-gomang suwelas, at bakal. Nasa Kalye Gandara naman ang mga tagasuplay ng tolda at gamit sa giikan ng butil. Nakapagitan sa mga ito ang iba’t-ibang sanlaan at palitan ng pera. Iba’t-iba ang mga produkto, patunay ng kapangahasang nagbubunga ng kasaganaan dahil sa kasabay na sipag at tiyaga.
Makikita sa Tomas Pinpin ang mga modernong kasangkapan, sofa, at kandelabrang kristal. Nakakalat naman sa Divisoria at Condensa ang mga tindahan ng papel at gamit pampaaralan, datapwat para sa kumpletong suplay ng gamit pang-opisina batay sa mga napagtanungan, dinarayo ng publiko ang nadaanan kong Times Trading sa Quintin Paredes. Ganunpaman, nasa Divisoria pa rin ang pinakamaraming mapagpipilian ng mga produktong wet-and-dry, mula oryental na mga gamot, Buddha at gamit sa feng shui. Kilala ang Kalye Ylaya sa mga tela at nahabi nang kasuotan samantalang ang Abad Santos malapit sa kanto ng Tayuman sa mga makinang pantahi at mga gamit panulsi. Nakita ko naman sa Kalye Dagupan ang mga nagbebenta ng palay maging ang kanilang mga trak. Sa pagbili ko ng sobreng pang-ang pao, kinausap ako ng matandang may-ari sa mga wikang Fookien at Mandarin, at sa pagsagot ko sa mas gamay na wika, ang ngiti niya’y nagdala sa amin sa mas pamilyar na daigdig ng mga Tsino.
Maliban sa kalakalan, may dalawang dosenang kainan sa Binondo mula panaderyang nag-aalok ng hopya hanggang restorang naghahain ng lauriat. Kahit masikip at maalinsangan, masasarap at mura ang pagkain. Kabilang sa mga dinarayong kainan ang Lido sa Kalye Alonzo kung saan nakararahuyo ang kape, ang Lingnam na gumagawa ng sariwang pansit araw-araw, ang President sa Ongpin na may lauriat fine dining kung saan dalubhasa sila sa lamang-dagat. Lamang-dagat din ang puhunan ng Royal Garden at Green Lake, samantalang pamoso ang five treasure soup ng Chuan Kee. Maipagmamalaki naman ng Quintin Paredes ang Golden Palace, Dragon Seed at ang Ocean Dragon, na katitikmanan ng Buddha soup. Para sa panghapong tsaa at siopao o siomai, dinarayo ang Wah Yuen sa Escolta ngunit para sa mabilisang kainan ang Mey Lin sa Carvajal, Shin Tong Yon sa Benavidez at Ha Yuan at Country Chicken House sa Masangkay. Isa sa pinakamatandang kainan ang Delicious na ibinangon noon pang Dekada ’30. Sa bago nitong tahanan sa F. Torres, hinainan ako ng nakabubusog na pansit at lugaw.
Dumaan ako sa simbahan ng Binondo, pero naisip kong sa isang templong Budista magbulay bago umuwi. Sa pakikisalamuha ko sa kapwa-Tsino, natuklasan ko nang personal ang aking sarili. Hindi nga pala ako uuwi, dahil kababalik ko lamang sa kasaysayan ng aking lahi.

the early bird: the case of premature electioneering by muntinlupa congressional bet dong puno

The 2007 Philippine election race is on…for some. For others, not just yet, but that does not stop these early birds from gaining advantage of supposedly disguised electioneering. The campaign for congressional candidates has yet to begin, but Atty. Dong Puno, among other fielders, effectively thrusts himself to the limelight of Muntinlupa politics through sponsoring activities and advertisements.
If only for the legislative qualifications that embody a true House solon, Atty. Puno is an easy shoo-in. He graduated with honors from the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law in 1969 and only two years hence, earned his Master of Laws degree from the Harvard Law School. As an author, he has written many legal articles published in several periodicals and journals. As a lawyer meanwhile, he practiced aviation and corporate law when he worked as Philippine Airlines’ Legal Officer and Personnel Director before assuming the national flagcarrier’s Vice-President and, eventually, General Counsel. As an academician, he became a professor of Corporation Law and of Wills and Succession at his Philippine alma mater. He now works as a senior partner of Puno & Puno Law Offices while enjoying popularity through the giant media network ABS-CBN, where he assumed various executive posts.
The former Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesperson of the Estrada government now wants to make a comeback in Philippine politics which he has started by sponsoring activities in his area of concern, Muntinlupa City in southern Metro Manila. The brand of Puno politics is nothing new to traditional politicians come election time: he does a house-to-house round in order to know the residents personally. Also, he has staged beneficiary concerts for residents such as free medical check-ups. He likewise spearheaded medical missions to show that he really cares (for the people or for the votes or for both depends on the view one holds toward the candidate). Finally, to boost what may be taken as a semblance of his media popularity, he goes around the city with artistas like sexy starlet Angelica Jones, in an obvious enticement of the celebrity-crazed electorate.
While the time for congressional candidacy advertisements has yet arrived, the road to the ultimate political momentum is already paved with colored intentions. First, he gives away T-shirts to residents. Next, his political machinery has mass-produced stickers and banners. One such banner reads “Congratulations from Atty. Dong Puno” with no one in particular to congratulate, except perhaps the graduating students and their parents who hopefully remember him like they did remember other politicians whenever the latter make similar greetings per election year. As March 30, 2007 sees light, ads saying “Dong Puno sa Kongreso…Muntinlupa” will have to see light too, come hell or high water. Capitalizing on the popularity of the rather nonsense song “Boom Tarat Tarat,” Puno will have a pun-intended campaign jingle entitled “Dong Tarat Tarat.” A little more time and the political ad campaigns shall unfurl, as the T-shirts, stickers and banners have initiated.
To gain more political visibility, Aty. Puno attends important ceremonies in Muntinlupa. For one, in particular schools’ graduation ceremonies wherein a multitude of voters may be highly probably present, he was present too. During the awarding of the Ten Most Outstanding Students of Muntinlupa, he was there possibly more than to reminisce and inspire the students with his own scholarly merits of old; he was present to share the outstanding students’ limelight and become visible in the process.
His speeches and platforms were more pronounced about his political blueprint. He has publicized a relocation plan benefiting 10,000 residents with homes along the “riles.” The site of Puno’s plan, however, can house only 70% of these people; no plan nor new site as yet has been drafted for the remaining 3,000. Using his legal expertise, he intends to abolish a bill proposed by other congressmen about doctors’ malpractice. Upon reviewing the bill, he threatens to file cases against the proponents, finding the bill useless. To whomever the bill was useless was not made clear.
Assessing Atty. Puno’s campaign in the light of most other politicians’ own election time stints, I can see that fate favors this candidate because he uses a formulaic campaign that is found to be effective in translating votes. Given that Filipinos are sociologically found to have a short memory span, it helps to remind them recurrently that this candidate is running for a post, with more care for the repetitive campaigning than for the bombardment the invasive promotion characterizes. It is deemed better to start the campaign early than be forgotten in the middle of the action, in which case election rivals of Puno might just steal the thunder from him. By election time, his chances are higher since he has a name-recall to the electorate, he having been a daily fare to them while they having been practically conditioned into remembering him via the give-aways, the ads, the concerts and the like. Since a cursory overview of the political landscape shows an unripe conclusion to the theory that the Filipino electorate vote wisely during elections, his method of campaigning—basking in popularity like most politicians, that is—more than his qualifications may bag him a seat in congress. While his previous brush with legal theories and practice have yet to benefit the public at-large, he promises to be a formidable legislator. But the more urgent question is: will his campaign charm enough votes to seat him in the House of Representatives?

crabbed destiny: a reading of f. l. espino’s “manila”

Federico Licsi Espino’s “Manila”[1] presents an interesting, hurting metaphor of the country’s premier city as a hermit crab. Written in 1965 when the sixth Philippine president just inherited a twenty-year-old independent but relatively impoverished nation, “Manila” uses the crustacean comparison to show how certain inevitable factors bring disastrous effects to an otherwise pitiable creature.
First, the speaker locates the crab “beside the tides of times” (1), not moving with the tides which means it moves along with or is carried along by the tides of progress, or moving against the tides which means it defies the current mainstream if only to secure its identity. There is no movement whatsoever—just the preposition “beside”—and the suggested stagnation means the crab is helplessly assigned to the margins whereas the tides of change are raging according to the requirements of the times. In the same vein, Manila is immobile and is set aside because at the time of the poem’s writing, two decades have passed but no real development was brought about by the colonial independence.
The “traces” of the crab’s “former homes” (2) refer to the old animals’ shells which the crab uses to protect its rather soft body and which render on the growing crab enduring marks that not even a larger home-shell can erase. The additional description of these shells as ones “of foreign cultures” (3) completes the reason for the lasting marks: the colonial experiences are still recognizable long after one colonial master after another has been dispensed with for a safer home—a stronger mother country—to depend on. The “slime” (3) is but another description of the colonial experiences: it is thick, sticky and disgusting, as befits colonial experiences that are relatively great in extent, painful and offensive to the colony.
The crab’s inability to find food (6) is a regular happening in the crab’s daily existence: there is no unlimited source for both shelter and food so crabs often resort to rioting for what scarce resources are available if only to survive. In Manila, the same thing occurs: with the limited resources after having experienced depleting colonization, people have to struggle for a living, with struggles against each other being highly probable.
The mocking cry of the seagull (7, 9) is a ridiculous reference to the recurring fate of the crab being unable to find food. However hard the crab tries to find food and however hungry it gets, the fact that there is a scarcity of resources will never be changed. As a result of colonization, Manila’s resources are depleted and its independence becomes dysfunctional, and much like the crab, no amount of persistence or hunger can alter the fact that resources will always remain lacking.
The allusion to Filipino poet Nick Joaquin (epigraph) means the crab, being foodless, can literally and figuratively bite the dust: literally because all that is left for the crab to eat is dust, and figuratively because its debility in both movement and foodhunting has left it biting the dust of, say, the mocking seagull. This experience is not unfamiliar in Manila: all that is left to eat is no more than the value of dust, and Manila’s stagnation has left it biting the dust of the colonial masters that made off with Manila’s wealth. Meanwhile, the allusion to Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (11) means the “sidewise movement of the hermit crab” (10) is neither advancing nor retreating, hence undeveloped in terms of mobility. By comparison, Manila moves sideways, too; its failure to move forward is fatal to the much-needed realization of progress, while its failure to move backward is fatal to the retracing of history that is crucial in preventing the past mistakes from being committed in the future.
The crab’s "creeping, crabbing" movement along with "all its tragic flaws" (14) is a mockery of the sideways (thus, unprogressive) mobility of the crab that is the very tragedy of its inherent characteristic. It is nature’s doing that the crab should crawl sidewise but the crab suffers this natural fault. In the same way, Manila is criticized for its slow progress that is not wholly its own doing but mostly due to its colonial experience. Colonization rendered Manila’s creeping way to progress, but now that it is independent, this predicament seems to be Manila’s own fault.
Owing to the lamentable condition of the poem’s central image, “Manila’s” tone is sympathetic. Details suggesting the compassion being invoked in the poem include the crab “bear[ing] the traces” (2) of its past, “look[ing] for food” yet “finds nothing” (4, 6), hearing the mocking shriek of the seagull (7-9), and “crabbing with all its tragic flaws” (14). All these details show instances in the crab’s existence; they arouse pity because despite the hardships the crab puts up with, difficulties do not let up, to think that the crab’s persistence does not deserve being repaid with mockery.
Regarding the poem’s structure, Espino chose the conventional sonnet form to depict a modern subject to go with the poem’s point that the attempt to live out of context—just as the crab moves sidewise when it merits to move forward or backward and as the crab bears its natural flaws—results in tension. This tension between tradition and modernity mirrors the contrast of abiding the old ways in the face of modernity and of tolerating natural flaws in the face of capitalizing on these disguised opportunities, i.e. learning from colonial experience to achieve a semblance of progress.
Regarding the poem’s substance, the hermit crab’s central image invokes ideas such as crab mentality, a flaw said to be characteristic of Filipinos, and crabbing, which is synonymous to criticizing, complaining and ill temper. Crab mentality is a metaphorical reference to a crab trying to spill out of a container full of other crabs that, wishing to follow suit, drag the climbing crab back into the container, in such a way that no crab gets to escape because of the eternal pulling down. This rather short-sighted notion that is made an alibi for the lingering poverty in the country (instead of helping one another toward moving ahead, Filipinos allegedly pull down each other) appeals to the emotion for the much-needed positive change. Instead of opportunism, the crabs that we are must work as a team in order to facilitate development. On the other hand, crabbing, with apologies to the crab, is an image-bashing. Just because the crab has a pair of claws that it uses to protect itself from danger and to help break down its food, it is already unfairly associated to the crab’s capacity to pinch and hurt. Pain, of course, finds familiar domain in criticism, complaints and bad temper. This unjust portrayal of the crab appeals to the emotion that humans project to animals their own faults. With the divisiveness that generates poverty and related issues like starvation, unemployment and illiteracy, the right crab mentality should be to pull one another over the container’s side in order to escape the crisis. The difficulty of fending for oneself only to emerge empty-handed is an everyday reality for Filipinos; “Manila” should remind the well-heeled among us to help and support the needy. Anyway, the crabs that we are inhabit a commonly shared shore.
[1] Espino, Federico Licsi. “Manila,” A Native Clearing, ed. Gemino H. Abad (Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1993).

the film as reflection

Films that focus on the process of production inquire about themselves and, generally, the cinematic institution the extent to which films are commodified. Ever since entertainment came to mean mass entertainment, even films became bedeviled by capitalism. Each production is funded and that being so, it has to do well at the tills in order to make returns on investment lest a non-entertaining production flops and the production may lack break-even returns. This implies that productions solely devoted to artwork may be found too eccentric to popular taste and, eventually, fail to attract viewers. Productions, then, cannot venture into experimentations as they need to appease only that which draws in an audience. The productions’ dependency on the demands of the viewers will stunt the artistic and creative growth of people behind production and entertainment will always be tied up to the requirement of raking in money more than committing the production into art.
8 ½ and Hollywood Ending, both self-reflexive films, are valuable to watch because they can somehow push the limitation of films as primarily committed to earning money. This is because the considerable experimentation self-reflexive films do to themselves is an artistic process, and yet these films can sometimes join the mainstream of films fueled by mass entertainment objective. They do not necessarily sacrifice art for lone entertainment value, although I do not have an idea whether these films did well at the box-office. Still, by the fact that they are produced with all their unconventional trends, the producers have willingly taken the risk of producing alternatives to movies today that are mostly no more than visual feasts. 8 ½ is about a womanizing director suddenly struck by an artist’s block. No matter how he tries, he cannot engage himself to create a film. This seeming pointlessness is the very point of Director Federico Fellini’s film: that even nothing may be a material to a genuine artist. It might have occurred to Fellini that even geniuses like directors may be endangered from creative barrenness, and in turning to the story of a director experiencing difficulty in the process of production, he was able to produce 8 ½. In another case, Hollywood Ending is also about a director with optical disability. It became a challenge for him to show how he envisions a film despite his visual impairment. This non-traditional plot is so removed from the those of the dominant genres we are exposed to and pay to watch. Even so, it was produced because it has a statement to tell: that reflexive films are a step ahead of the mainstream movies in that they are already nitelligently commenting on film whereas the rest are still trapped commenting on the overly-explored world at-large.
The “let’s put on a show” plot in several musicals is a movie within a movie and as such, a musical number is not only comparable to the film containing it as an artistic or creative process but also considerable as self-reflexive. A film within a film is one of the trends of self-reflexive films; that being the case, the production of songs and dances is a separate world altogether from the larger universe that is the mother film. The show to be put on is a distraction from the narrative; it is entirely removed from the plot and is a plot all its own, only less imperfect since the songs and the dances are choreographed. The production of a musical undergoes an artistic or creative process since every step of a dance or every line to be sung is a product of artistry or creativity. The musical as an inherently reflexive genre shares the same characteristics with films as being acted (since choreographed) and as being projected as an entertainment fare (since amusing to the audience). The reference to the entertainment industry makes any musical an agent of the post-industrial notion of entertainment as a commodity that must really entertain to become a box-office hit.
Jane Feuer’s “The Self-Reflexive Musical and the Myth of Entertainment” presents the ideas informing musicals with myths of spontaneity, integration and audience. The myth of spontaneity refers to things that are unrehearsed or natural, such as every instance wherein spontaneous and energetic singing in Singin’ in the Rain comes about all of a sudden in direct rupture of the plot. The episode of “Moses Supposes” best exemplifies this point in the film: Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor employs room furnishings and tools to create a dance. This is one type of an array of prodcution numbers wherein performers make use of properties within reach but may be intended for other purposes but for this particular movie end, to create the imagined universe of the musical number. In “Moses Supposes,” the room furnishings and tools were placesd there but other than for Kelly and O’Connor to dance with but used anyway since they form the material out of which the imaginary production number may be realized. Without props at-hand, they can just simulate props employing their very body as tools, just like in mimes.
As for the myth of integration, it refers to the interrelation with personal achievement with successful performances. The character of Debbie Reynolds is a starlet that’s the closest brush with fame is being the secret beloved of Gene Kelly. She cannot come out because that will ruin the onscreen romance between Kelly and Jean Hagen, who is obsessed with Kelly. However, she strikes double compensation when the scheming Hagen fails to carry the sabotage, and on the premiere night Hagen is asked to perform live before an audience, it is Reynolds who is exposed from the curtains she is kept, and is publicly revealed as the true love of Kelly. In the process, her revealed singing performance makes her a star in her own right.
As for the myth of audience, the successful performance answers a certain need of the audience. In the aforementioned singing revelation scene, it is only belated that the audience knows who the real singer is. Before that, the audience is made to believe that Hagen does not have an understudy because she dubs her own songs. The singing performance of Reynolds, finally exposed to the public, responds to the audience’ need for truth: that it is she, not Hagen, who is the real star.
Richard Dyer’s “Entertainment and Utopia” asserts that there is a utopian mechanism in musicals. He says that the narrative development is postponed so a utopian song or dance may emerge. When Kelly gets to kiss Reynolds as a proof of his requited love, he breaks into a dance almost in synch with the precipitation of the rain. He dances like crazy to the tune of “I’m Singing in the Rain,” a production number that postpones the logical progression of the narrative. The song and dance mark the opposition between the narrative and the utopian act or between the normal world (the plot) and that of a different order (the song and dance). The idea of utopia in musicals determines a feeling, an effect of utopia rather than the world as we know it: bound by laws and rules. When Kelly proceeds in his dancing even at the presence of a cop, Dyer has proven his point that the feeling that is a utopian effect on the lovestruck Kelly matters more than the normal, legal world Kelly and Reynolds inhabit.
Of the films screened in class, I like Gods and Monsters for the message it delivers: that there is a god in every artist. The structure and substance behind this film as well as all manifestations of the arts portray the genius that the artist is. The director, being the Supreme Being behind the film, possesses the freedom to create what he has in mind, and can pull it off especially for arts’ sake. The actors, while merely players, have the same liberation to interpret their roles. As such, an artist oozes with originality, and this is shown in Gods and Monsters. The abovementioned film tell that the artistic process is the making of a genius. It is the most salient form of man’s use of his God-given talent. In a loose extent, man practices his godlikeness whenever he engages in the artistic process. In Gods and Monsters, the artistic process remains generally vivid to the gay director despite the onslaught of age, which says so much of the genius that Whale was notwithstanding the silver hair.
Gods and Monsters is an artwork that refers to itself as an artwork; it describes itself as reflexive. It is self-aware, and therefore concerned with examining its very mechanisms more than the outside world. Films in particular become conscious of themselves as unweaving before an audience, as being acted, treated and directed, as being captured in celluloid, as being projected in silver screen. The film exemplifies reflexivity that showcases the manners of its construction and that the audience like us notices as self-referential.
While watching Gods and Monsters, the cinematic devices used informed me of the fact that I am watching a film. For one, the film played with genuine fiction. In the film, real-life homosexual director James Whale was shown to be the god of his filmmaking career. To go with his godness, the aging Whale was still active despite attacks of strokes. His time of shining in Hollywood was marked by absolute freedom as a creative worker, producing films that were unforgettable. At the forefront of these films were Frankenstein and Bride of Frankstein, which obtained life after creation, much like when the Frankenstein monster acquired life after a triumphant operation by Vincent Frankenstein. When people interpreted his movie, their reactions range from amusement to horror to ludicrousness, but what was important was that the artist as God was able to transmit his message in his films through the intercession of the monster.
The mise-en-abyme or frame within the frame is another device used in Gods and Monsters. This is true to the production of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, which are real-life productions of Whale. These films within the film fit the idea of frame-within-the-frame. What’s more with these mise-en-abyme, they acquired a characteristic independent of their own creation: they have become immortal by virtue of their unforgettable status.
When a film bends back on to show its status as a mere media construct, the text that it is establish that it is authored and produced. Therefore, it is a representation. To know that Gods and Monsters is a representative reflexivity destroys the illusion of life and, thus, makes art seem more lifelike than expected. For this characteristic, I deem it the best example of self-reflexive cinema.

film: a simulation of life

Films with the production process as central purpose ask questions (about themselves and the cinematic institution in general) which read thus: (1) At what point does the production process start and finish? (2) For whose purpose are films produced? (3) When does a film begin to be aware of its production? These three questions are integral to the fact that all films are necessary productions. Question one is asked in order to determine the beginning and end (if it ever does) of the production cycle. Next, question two is asked in order to determine the beneficiary of the film production. Finally, question three is asked to relate production with self-reflexivity, two concepts which touch the ground of film criticism.
Watching films like 8 ½ and Hollywood Ending serves the purpose of presenting the artistic process as a struggle from which one must be able to untangle himself. Director Guido’s exertion of effort to liberate himself from being dried up temporarily or permanently is one such manifestation of that struggle, but the film director himself joyfully indulges in the fact that he is unlike his character in that his creative makeup is not dysfunctional, proven by the production of 8 ½.. On the other side, the blind director Woody Allen played in Hollywood Ending is also trapped in the same struggle of the artistic process: he must be able to let himself loose from the debilitating lack of literal vision by translating his figurative vision into a film.
More importantly, watching self-reflexive films is a break from and an opposition of the mainstream cinema being patronized today. It is valuable to have a break from mainstream cinema because the type of films being produced lately are mostly commercially-driven, with little or no concern at all to the insights and values that our currently troubled world so badly needs. It is also valuable to counter mainstream cinema because some movies produced recently have become an insult to our sensibilities, if not to our identities, i.e. the racist issues in 300, or the plain commercial adaptation of the Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah (both films, by the way, are originally in graphic novel form). The viewing world needs intelligent films that provoke its thinking, and watching self-reflexive films serves the purpose by making the audience recognize the films’ self-consciousness and commentaries on the society for which they are produced, especially on the film making society that created them. While some self-reflexive films indeed get into the mainstream, movies with major or sole consideration for becoming blockbusters almost always win over the former. The audience’s taste does not get any better, sending the message that it does not deserve anything other than being spoonfed with unoriginal ideas or gratifying the shallow fascination for the surface level. The audience can be intelligent because it is intelligent, and watching reflexive cinema is one manifestation of that intellect.
Whenever parts of films suddenly erupt into a riotous dance or into a heartbreaking song, the “let’s put on a show” plot emerges. Yes, the artistic or creative process involved in the musical production number makes the latter a film within a larger film. As such, it is agreeable that the musical is self-reflexive. This self-awareness is most prevalent with the number’s obsession to entertain in such a way that it promotes its entertainment value. More than that, the musical is usually about the production of entertainment. This creative process of entertainment production is, according to film critic Jane Feuer, conducted through “creation and erasure.” This label has it that one practice is overwritten by the operation of another. “creation and erasure” happens in the musical at various levels surrounding form and expresion. At the “micro” level, a created effect may be cancelled by that of another process, referred herein as “erasure.” This “micro” level of creation for erasure is best illustrated by the example of the manner rehearsals are passed off as final products. With regards, though, to the naturalization of the practices of mass entertainment (or a capitalistic product as opposed to mere entertainment which is a pre-industrial product), it is at the “macro” level that creation and erasure apparently work. The snippets of actual rock performances in 24-Hour Party People, for instance, mask the non-choreography of the rehearsals made for these real snatches. Song-and-dance numbers in Singin’ in the Rain, for instance, show awareness of themselves as being created since they were at first choreographed and then taken for finished products, the difficulty of working for the songs and dances having been masked.
Apart from “creation and erasure,” Jane Feuer argues that the MGM “Golden Era” musicals perform for the musical film and, eventually, surviving the myths of entertainment. There is the myth of integration, which suggests that attaining personal fulfillment and performance are interconnected. There is also the myth of spontaneity, which suggests that musical performance is natural, without motivating work. Entertainment, therefore, dissolves the dichotomy separating art and life. The first myth is exemplified in the musical Singin’ in the Rain wherein Don Lockwood sees the opening number of his film in a dream-like sequence. When finally the actual performance unreeled, his satisfaction refelcted the phenomenal success of his film. The other myth is exemplified when after sealing the attraction between him and Kathy Selden with the regular romantic resolution that is the hollywood kiss, Don Lockwood starts to sing in the rain. He expertly moves his feet through the rain using his umbrella, becomes soak but loving it, gets apprehended by a police but never minds it. This complusion to sing-and-dance is the myth of spontaneity that is a staple of musical genre.
On the other hand, Richard Dyer uses musicals to raise the argument that entertainment functions as escapism by offering better images denied to us by our daily lives. He proceeds to suggest that utopian sensibilities like abundance, energy, intensity, transparency and community, all of which are built-in traits in musical entertainment suffice for the particular shortcomings in the society. In ealborating the ideas of Dyer, the film Singin’ in the Rain will be used as a point of application. The first highlighted sensibility, energy, is defined by Dyer as the “capacity to act vigorously; human power, activity, potential. The seeming tirelessness of Don in dancing right aftere a cloudburst defies the fact that during the actor Gene Kelly’s performance, he was socrching with a 103o fever. From the fromt door, he strolls down the two blocks of street passing shop windows of a pharmacy, studio, bookstore and school. He leaps onto a sidewalk and swirls around a lamppost with an outstretched hand holding a folded-up umbrella. He dances further in the cobbled streets like his energy is not extinguished by the big day before. The second highlighted sensibility, abundance, is defined by Dyer as “conquest of scarcity, having enough to spare without sense of poverty of others; enjoyment of sensuous material reality.” When the producer of the film realized the inevitability of the onslaught of talkies, he had onscreen sweethearts Don and Lina prepare to adjust for the changes. The disastrous costume film will transform into a musical, a manifestation of the abundance of ideas to be taken in order to make the film a success. The third highlighted sensibility, intensity, is defined by Dyer as “experiencing of emotion, directly, fully, unambiguously, ‘authentically,’ without holding back…[it is] the capacity of entertainment to present either complex or unpleasant feelings in a way that makes them seem uncomplicated, direct and vivid, not ‘qualified’ or ‘ambiguous’ as day-to-day life makes them.” When Kathy and Don make their historic kiss at the doorstep, Don bursts into a dance in the rain complete with the umbrella and the slide on the street lamp. That is to show how intense the feeling is of Don toward Kathy that he is moved into dancing and singing in the rain. The fourth highlighted sensibility, transparency, is defined by Dyer as “a quality of relationships between represented characters e.g. true love […] sincerity.” In the film, Lina Lamont’s voice is a screechy one with a distracting New Yorker accent, so they hired Don Lockwood’s love interest, the dancer Kathy Selden to dub Lina’s lines. Lina has an unrequited love for Don, and is jealous over Kathy. The onscreen romance between Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont was soon discovered as a hoax when in the premiere night of their film, Lina was requested to sing live but Kathy, revealed behind the curtain, was seen by the fans to be singing in Lina’s behalf. The true love between don and Kathy was made transparent. The last but not the least highlighted sensibility, community, is defined by Dyer as “togetherness, sense of belonging, network of phatic relationships (i.e. those in which communication is for its own sake rather than its message.” When finally it is known that Kathy sings for Lina, Don begins to sing to her “You Are My Lucky Star.” Tears streaming in her eyes, Lina proceeds to the stage while Don reaches out to her until they finish singing together and embrace. Ultimately, the off-screen lovers now belong to one another and Kathy’s stardom now belongs to her.
Of the self-reflexive films screened in class, I admire Shadow of the Vampire by E. Elias Merhige because it shows how an artist is willing to commit sacrifices for art’s sake. Similar to other artforms, filmmaking is rigorous so that the finished product, one done out of labor of love, is always treated as a masterpiece whether or not that product lives up to the claim. In the film, director F. W. Murnau proceeds into employing a real-life vampire in his horror film-in-progress, Nosferatu. The director is so serious in capturing verisimilitude in film that he is ready to take the risk of feeding his entire crew to the vampire, as befits the latter. His sacrifice gets his due, for the director attains his artistic purpose of immortalization through his art, although the sacrifice went overboard when not only his crew was victimized but also his own humanity. This film’s take on the artistic process as a glorious road paved with hardships is evident and admirable.
Shadow of the Vampire’s calling of attention to itself shatters the division between real life and illusion. I am made aware that I am just watching a film, for its work and technology (i.e. the cameras) are not concealed. The bloodbath becomes true (and its subjects are the crew members working on the film), and it’s because a real vampire is hired to act on the film. Are we watching a film or a supernatural version of cannibalism? We also have two non-conventional film characters: the camera that records the events, and the audience, i.e. me who participates in the creative process in my capacity as the thinker, the feeler and the viewer of the thinking, feeling and viewing characters of the reflexive film. I am made to understand how the director really has to be faithful to his craft by keeping the voracious vampire, although in “ordinary” circumstances, I will abhor someone who offers people as victims. The film dismisses the plausible, as when a genuine vampire and not just a pretending vampire lands the acting role in the film within the film. It also alludes to the fictional work Nosferatu and its creator, F. W. Murnau, showing the advanced point of consciousness of itself as an intertext. All these trends of self-awareness are present in Shadow of the Vampire. For the confusion this reflexive film has raised about illusion and reality, it is truly outstanding.

of self-reflexivity, myths of entertainment, and utopia

There are various questions about self-reflexive films like “Shadows of the Vampire,” “Gods and Monsters,” “Being John Malkovich,” “Pleasantville,” and cinema in general regarding their form as production process. First of these questions is, “Does creativity equate productivity?” This question arises for it seems to me that as long as the creative imagination does not get sterile, there will always be films to produce. This question also begs to tell that the only death mentionable in the process of film production is the physical death of people involved, while cinema lingers on as new people engage in the organic cycle of production. The way the aforementioned films was produced was a twist in creativity: instead of films commenting on life, these are films that comment on themselves. Another question is, “Are the films an end to the production process in themselves?” for most films, when the credits roll, that is the signal that the film—thus, its production—is ended, but there are self-reflexive films that pretend to be ending but suddenly change their supposed ending. While the films screened in class did not exhibit this film-as-a-work-in-progress, I discovered some self-reflexive film that in their awareness of their film being produced, they literally turn to their script right in the filming to check if the ending was faithful to the original production. An example is the film “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” wherein the characters argue while the camera was rolling whether the ending should have Robin Hood lost an archery tournament to Prince John, only that he complained that the losing was not part of the script, which Robin produced from out of his costume. The film was conscious of itself as being produced, so its characters were likewise conscious of the parts, of the ending that not necessarily signals the ending of production itself.
In the name of reflexive cinema, it is valuable to watch films like “8 ½” and “Hollywood Ending” to assert the point that no disability should ever come in the way of production. Always and always, especially for the pure genius, a film may be created, giving us viewers the idea that everything may be mined, whether from life or from cinema itself. “8 ½” conveys the point that an artist’s block can become the whole point of a film, so a film director may not stake at validity if he/she uses the alibi that an artist’s block gets the better of him that’s why he cannot produce a film. Meanwhile, “Hollywood Ending” transmits the message that it does not take a pair of eyes to envision a film in current production. Even if the director is blind, that disability should not hinder him/her from projecting the movie the way his mind, not his eyes, visualizes it. Both films praise the many-splendored genius of the director, who has the natural talent for creating from something or, especially at this juncture of post-modernity, even from nothing.
Musicals, especially those that revolve around the plot of putting on a show, are indeed inherently reflexive. They are aware that they are supposed to be watched, so they exhibit production numbers. They show the process by which they can call themselves an illusion in order to reassure the importance of the illusion and necessity of entertainment. As they are, these musicals can be metaphors for the artistic or creative process. For instance, in “Singin’ in the Rain,” Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) depicts to his surprised producer the extravagant finale this film star carries in his mind for his new movie. The production number, termed “Broadway Melody,” stars an excited young provincial who comes to New York, shrieking “Gotta dance!” and rising through the ladder of musical comedy to become a star, only to be left heartbroken by a nightclub attendant. Kelly does not picture it for the whole routine was exhibited, with its riotous collection of singers and dancers. The sequence is shown through various visual and dance styles of burlesque and ballet by Kelly and Charisse. After the big production, all that the producer says is that he cannot quite visualize the number so he has to see it on film. The whole sequence is a necessary comment on the power of cinematic imagination. Other self-reflexive comments by real and imagined musical comedy by “Singin’ in the Rain” include the sequence wherein that lavish production number was to be incorporated in a 1927 black-and-white film entitled “The Dancing Cavalier” but in living technicolor of 1952. The whole joke, of course, was a dream-like improbability. The more ambitious intention of the film was to comment on musical itself, tracing the history of Hollywood wherein the silent drama transformed into an ideal, comprehensive form of cinema: the MGM musical. The script itself was a comment on the development in film history, since the silent-screen pair of Lockwood and diva Lina Lamont was about to be displaced from their career with the coming of sound. One whole routine emerged out of a piece of a technological detail when there were tries to record voices in the studio. Another routine transformed a swordfight romance into a musical. Every opportunity to manifest intricate artful musicals was mined, such as in the scene wherein Kelly leads Reynolds on an abandoned sound stage and turns on switches to throw light on his beloved, was self-reflexive in that they continuously flaunts its art form. If only for “Singin’ in the Rain,” musical has the inescapable characteristic of self-reflexivity. The musical productions are all trends of the artistic and creative process in that each shows a perfect performance of sing and dance in between a narrative that is otherwise flawed for the plot conflict that must be resolved. They exhibit the significance of illusion of perfection with the perfect singing and dancing, on top of feeding the audience’ ultimate requirement of entertainment with the elaborate production numbers within the film.
Jane Feuer’s “The Self-Reflective Musical and the Myth of Entertainment” shows how self-reflexive MGM musicals of the 1950s flaunt their own value as entertainment. Meanwhile, they take away the mystery of bad, usually non-musical entertainment and also create myth out of musical entertainment by relating the musical with the myths of spontaneity, integration, and audience. The myth of spontaneity darkens the work of performance to imply that musical performance comes out of a joyful and responsive attitude toward life, and is available to everyone. With the myth of integration, successful performances are closely tied up with success in love, with the combination of high and low art, and with the assimilation of the individual into a community or group. The myth of audience implies that successful performance will be sensitive to the needs of the audience. “Singin’ in the Rain” fits the mold of these ideas by Feuer: it is a self-reflexive MGM musical in 1952, so unlike the “bad” movies that does not share its musical genre. More than that, its created myth of spontaneity sets the labor of performance secondary only to the musical performance of Kathy whose revelation as the true singing voice of Lina is a cause of celebration for the audience. The myth of integration was manifested when the premiere of the first talkie proved to be a tremendous success; it suggests that the romance between Lockwood and Kathy succeeded the leading lady’s sabotages. Finally, the successful performance of the test screening—Lockwood’s venture from silent movies into the world of talking pictures—responds to the audience’ necessity for development.
On the other hand, Richard Dyer’s “Entertainment and Utopia” takes into account the frequent dismissal of entertainment as “escape” and “wish-fulfillment” to imply that entertainment responds to the real needs of the society and offers that the musical puts forth a non-specific utopian vision—what it would feel like instead of how it would be organized. The musical fights off social flaws through utopian views like scarcity through abundance, exhaustion through energy, sluggishness through intensity, manipulation through transparency, and fragmentation through community. In which case, “24-Hour Party People” fits the entertainment and utopian picture in that it may be dismissed as just another biopic dedicated to the cannibalized themes of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll but in actuality, the director was brilliant enough to raise the musical standard by offering the viewers with an insightful and strong musical melodrama that may be wild but all the same fresh and informative. This label of entertainment, the director points out, is the very vision that must be achieved by our society: a 24-hour celebration (party) of life because despite the difficulties, the seeming meaninglessness of life, we humans manage to survive. The foremost social inadequacy that may be perceived in the film was the boredom musicals are unfairly associated with; in “24-Hour Party People,” the music is zesty, as if to say how very much alive is the biographical movie.
Strange and unrealistic it may be, “Being John Malkovich” is laudable for its rendition of reflexive cinema with extreme originality, especially in the light of present Hollywood productions which seem too obsessed with superficiality, i.e. special effects, superstar cast, to the detriment of the point being conveyed by art forms like film. In the film, the bankable Hollywood stars were deglamorized, the risks were taken in presenting a non-mainstream, abstruse film and, most importantly, it bounces on itself to make a comment that by ignoring this film, the viewing audience does not have enough maturity to decipher a difficult film and that by watching it, the viewing audience plunges in on a mockery that the film feels different because too many popcorn movies have assailed the audience’ sensibilities. Among the self-reflexive films screened, “Being John Malkovich” is an easy favorite of mine because of its exemplification of “allegories of spectatorship,” wherein I can say sway and identify the film the way I want to interpret it, so it can be social, psychological, religious, philosophical, any field I can align it with. Besides drawing parallel of this viewers’ control with Craig’s puppeteering, it seems to me now that as a self-reflexive film, “Being John Malkovich” comments on the dangerous puppeteering capacity of Hollywoodization over the people: viewers the world over are inexorably drawn to the current crop (or crap) of Hollywood movies that are mostly inferior in art form versus Euro films, but Hollywood does to the puppets that we are whatever it wants the outcome to be, which is to achieve box-office hit.
It is noteworthy too to comment on the recurring theme of escapism in “Being John Malkovich.” The entire length of the film showed an unsatisfied Craig longing to escape his plight. When he saw an opportunity to be someone rather superior in the embodiment of Hollywood actor John Malkovich, he instantly grabbed it and wished he could remain trapped in his body forever. As viewers of the film, the character of Craig is a mockery of our own streak of escapism in the form of film watching. About two hours of our lifetime, we are ushered inside the theater and into an entirely different world altogether. The movie we watch empowers us by making us forget the present cares of the world and by leading us into the world wherein a major problem gets neatly resolved in an hour or so. We escape the world of problems and through the film we watch, we encounter a utopian world so unlike the one we will again emerge to after the credits have rolled.
The self-reflexive film that is “Being John Malkovich” says so much about our own obsession to be somebody else just because we feel uncomfortable with our own selves. Similarly, the film is aware of itself as a production in that it could be some other film, an epic with gorgeous special effects and divine Hollywood superstars, but the greater need to be true to itself it has fulfilled first than the lesser need to be just beautiful and blockbuster, sacrificing artistry, creativity, the good and the true.

to diet, not to die: facts and fallacies related to dieting

What is dieting all about? In nutrition, diet means the sum total of the food consumed by an organism or group. People do this deliberate selection of food to regulate their body weight or nutrient intake. The practice of ingesting food in a controlled fashion is always fueled by the achievement of a specific objective, and in most cases the goal is loss of weight. A minority such as certain athletes go on a diet to gain weight in the form of muscle while others doc dieting to maintain a stable body weight. There are several kinds of diet such as weight-loss diets and weight-gain diets but the most common dieting practices this paper will focus on include the popular South Beach Diet, Water Diet, Atkins Diet and plain exercise. As it involves human health, dieting is not without its posed risks, for there are some humans who are physically suffering because of the misconceptions that they have with the different dieting exercises.
Dieting not only involves controlling one’s food intake but it also involves other methods such as exercising and doing sports. Weight-loss diets limit the intake of particular foods, or food in general, to reduce body weight. What works to reduce body weight for one person will not necessarily work for another due to metabolic differences and lifestyle factors. Likewise, for a variety of reasons, most people find it very difficult to maintain significant weight loss over time. There is some thought that losing weight quickly may actually make it more difficult to maintain the loss over time. Meanwhile, there is more to dieting than just involves food; exercising is involved in dieting, too. Physical exercise is an important complement to dieting in securing weight loss. Aerobic exercise is also an important part of maintaining normal good health, especially the muscular strength of the heart. To be useful, aerobic exercise requires maintaining a target heart rate of above 50 percent of one’s resting heart rate for 30 minutes, at least 3 times a week. Brisk walking can accomplish this. There are also some easy ways for people to exercise, such as walking rather than driving, climbing stairs instead of taking elevators, doing more housework with fewer power tools, or parking their car farther and walking to school or to the office. Finally, sports can be a form of diet, too, for certain sports activities require key ingredients like carbohydrates, fluid and iron. Carbohydrates is a crucial fuel for exercise, drinking water is perfectly adequate in preventing dehydration that could be dangerous to health, and iron supplements in order to combat stresses of sports such as tiredness and poor recovery from the training.
People undergo diets to satisfy their own personal needs in life such as changing an unhealthy lifestyle so as to avoid getting diseases, entering a career that they want or simply just to feel good about themselves. Be them the ones who used to pig out on pork until they learned of the perils of coronary illnesses, or who are newly-promoted professional athletes, or who want to feel sexy despite the age, they are all fueled by the desire to be healthy hence the diet.
At this juncture, I will be talking about what the South beach diet is all about and what it has in store for the individual that practices it. I will then mention the misconceptions that people do with the diet that physically harms them. The South Beach diet was made by Dr. Arthur Agatston for his chronically overweight heart patients. Developed in Miami, Florida by the aforementioned cardiologist, the South Beach Diet stresses the consumption of “good carbs” or high in fiber for slower digestion and absorption and “good fats” or poly- or monounsaturated fats with omega-3 fatty acids for cardiac patients after Dr. Agatston’s study of scientific dieting research. The South Beach has three phases which are “the foods not to eat and foods to eat” phase, “foods to add back to your diet” phase and “maintaining the practice” phase.[1] In all the diet phases, the cardiologist recommends reducing consumption of bad fats. In the two-week Phase I, dieters try to eliminate insulin resistance by avoiding high or moderately high-glycemic carbohydrates like sugar, candy, bread, potatoes, fruits, cereals and grains. Phase II comes after two weeks, when whole grain foods and fruits are slowly returned to the diet, in smaller amounts and with continued stress on foods with decreased glycemic index. After the dieter achieves the desired weight, Phase III starts wherein the diet widens to include three servings of whole grains and three servings of fruit per day. The diet stresses a permanent alteration in one’s habit of eating, a range of foods, and ease and flexibility.
There are a number of benefits from a low-carb diet, such as “severely obese subjects receiving instruction on a carbohydrate restricted diet achieved greater weight loss by 6 months when compared to subjects receiving instruction on a low fat/calorie restricted diet.”[2] Also, “energy-restricted low-fat and very low-carbohydrate diets both significantly decreased several biomarkers of inflammation. These data suggest that in the short-term weight loss is primarily the driving force underlying the reductions in most of the inflammatory biomarkers.”[3] Another is that “there’s more and more evidence that many fats are good for us and actually reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. They also help our sugar and insulin metabolism and therefore contribute to our goal of long-term weight loss and weight maintenance.”[4] Lastly, Dr. Agatson himself claims, “I created the Diet to help my patients lower their levels of harmful cholesterol and triglycerides and to lower their risk of pre-diabetes (the condition that precedes full-blown type 2 diabetes and that has been linked to risk of heart attack and stroke.”[5]
However, the common misconceptions of these diets are that it is a low-carb diet and one must lessen food intake leading into the weakening of the body. South Beach is not a low-carb diet because it does not focus on the carbs present in the food but rather it is focused on what the food can do to your body. To begin with, in the first phase of the diet, water weight becomes the initial loss after carbohydrates get eliminated from the system.[6] “Consuming a high-fat diet for as little as five to ten days significantly alters the body fuel selection from carbohydrate to fat,”[7] which potentially weakens the body. Since people believed that South Beach diet is a low-carb diet, people tend to avoid carbohydrates but what they don’t know is that the body needs carbs for energy. Another danger is that “untested alternative weight loss diets, such as very low carbohydrate diets, have unsubstantiated efficacy and the potential to adversely affect cardiovascular risk factors.”[8] In yet another account, “very low carbohydrate diets are popular, yet little is known about their effects on blood lipids and other cardiovascular disease risk factors.”[9]
This time, I will be talking about the Water Diet and how it is done. I will also mention about the common misconceptions of individuals regarding this diet that leads them to physical suffering. The Water Diet was developed for cleansing the body of individuals because water carries nutrients to the cell thus cleansing our body. The Water Diet is done by taking in water every meal so that the nutrients contained in the food will then be distributed to the body. As it is, “Water plays an enormous role in how well our body functions. Simply put, the more fresh water we drink, the healthier we become. Weight loss can also be achieved by drinking the right amount of water daily.”[10] This heedless placement of importance in water resulted in “[s]everal novel water treatment products [appearing] on the market with claims to promote better health and to energize and purify the body by adding oxygen to water or by changing the molecular structure of water.”[11] Nevertheless, the common misconception here is that people believe that the water diet is all about drinking water thus leading to the unhealthiness of the individual because man cannot survive on water alone. Some drinking water get fouled by added minerals, fluoridation and chlorination. Furthermore, non-distilled water is impure and may contain contaminants that will harm the drinker’s body. Economically, water can offer disadvantage since bottled water, for one, can be an additional expense and is not sometimes not readily available. Moreso, some drinking water have indispensable metals and, worse, trapped bacteria that does not get effectively removed however treated.
I will be talking about the Atkins diet and how it is being practiced by people. I will also mention about the misconceptions of people regarding this diet and how it physically affects them. The Atkins diet was made by Dr. Robert C. Atkins telling individuals to take in less carbs in their meals. The Atkins diet is done by eliminating foods that have high carbs in them and only taking those that are low in carbs. It promises that not only will one lose weight and never feel hungry with a low-carb diet, but also inherit better heart health and memory function as well as other wellness benefits. It is based on the theory that obese people eat too many carbohydrates. The human body burn fat and carbohydrates for energy, although carbs get consumed first. By seriously limiting carbs and consuming more protein and fat, the human body naturally loses weight by burning stored body fat with more efficiency. On top of the weight-loss objective, Atkins dieters follow the diet for weight maintenance, good health and disease avoidance. It is good for diabetics in that “Short-term use of the Atkins diet in patients with type 2 diabetes caused weight loss due mainly to reduced calorie intake, improved insulin sensitivity and glycemic control and reduced plasma cholesterol and triglyceride levels.”[12] Likewise, “When relative energy intakes were similar, regardless of dietary macronutritional content, mean changes in weight anthropometric inidices were similar. These results suggest that an Atkins diet produces no more weight loss than an energy-matched LF diet.”[13]
Nonetheless, the misconceptions in this diet is that people are too concerned with taking foods that have few carbs that they don’t realize anymore that what they are eating is dangerous to their health. Other disadvantages of this diet include its very restrictive nature, tolerance of high consumption of saturated fats, and risks of bad breath, nausea and headaches particularly in the early period. By default, Atkins diet reduces many valuable nutrients. It also relies heavily upon proteins from meat, fish and dairy products. Therefore, it practically bars vegetarians from trying it. There are equal concerns about the effects of high levels and fat upon vital organs like the kidneys and the heart.
Finally, I will be talking about people who simply exercise and practice their own diets. In this part, there are a lot of misconceptions regarding dieting. Anyway, physical exercise is the performance of certain activities in order to enhance or sustain physical fitness and overall health. Frequently, it is directed toward polishing athletic ability or skill. Regular and frequent physical exercise is a vital component in the prevention of some diseases like heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Appropriate nutrition is as significant to health as exercise, When exercising, it becomes even more significant to have good diet to ensure the body possesses the accurate ratio of macronutrients while providing adequate micronutrients in order to aid the body wit the recovery process after a rigorous exercise.
Exercises are mainly classified into three types depending on the general effect they incur in the human body. First are flexibility exercises such as stretching which improves the range of movements of muscles and joints. Next are aerobic exercises like cycling, walking and running which center on upgrading cardiovascular endurance. Lastly, anaerobic exercises like weight training, functional training or sprinting which increases brief-term muscle strength.
This diet is the most common of all because it is not found in any books but can only be found in an individual. In this diet, each individual practices one’s own diet that one believes best suits one’s lifestyle. One of the benefits that may be had from exercise is its importance in the maintenance of physical fitness. Physical exercise contributes positively to the maintenance of a healthy weight; building and maintenance of healthy bone density, muscle strength and joint mobility; the promotion of physiological well-being; reduction of surgical dangers; the fortification of the immune system. Likewise, frequent and regular aerobic exercise has been able to help prevent and cure serious and life-threatening chronic conditions like high blood pressure, obesity., heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, insomnia and depression. Strength training seems to have constant energy-burning effects that recurs for about 1 day after the training, even as they do not offer the similar cardiovascular benefits of aerobic exercises. Exercise can also intensify energy and reduce one’s risks to pain. “Exercise is very useful for minimizing the 'plateau' effect of dieting, which occurs within a few weeks of starting a diet, as the body 'adjusts' to a lower calorie-intake.”[14] “If [caloric restricting program and energy expenditure program] factors were equal, exercise alone can be as effective as caloric restriction for weight loss.”[15]
The misconceptions in this form of dieting are that people tend to exaggerate it since they want fast results and some even risk their health to attain their goal. People tend to exaggerate this form of dieting by skipping meals and exercising too much, therefore endangering their health. People risk their health by going through drastic dieting such as not eating at all and taking pills so that they burn more fats without taking in any. The stress of exercise also creates a catabolic effect on the body—contractile proteins within muscles are burned for energy, carbohydrates and fats are likewise consumed and linking tissues are stressed. Excessive exercise can be harmful in that exercised body parts need at lease 24 hours of rest, which is the reason some health experts advise three times a week or every other day. Without appropriate rest, the chance of stroke or other circulation dilemmas increases, and muscle tissue may develop gradually. Improper exercise can do more harm than good. Many activities incur serious injuries with poorly regimented exercise schedules. Over-exercising, in desperate circumstances, creates serious performance loss. Sudden overexertion of muscles leads to damage to muscles seen most often in new army recruits. Overtraining is another danger wherein the intensity or volume of training surpasses the capacity of the body to recuperate from bouts. Halting excessive exercise abruptly can induce a swing in moods. Feeling of agitation and depression can happen when withdrawal from the natural endorphins generated from exercise occurs. Whereas one set of joints and muscles may have the tolerance to endure multiple marathons, another body may be damaged by half an hour of light jogging.
In conclusion, I will be summarizing all the diets and will question which diet would be the safest and most effective of all. I will also give recommendations on how to practice these diets better for a safer and more effective result. The cardiac patients’ consumption of good carbs and good fats in the South Beach diet may be well-intentioned, but the reduction of carb and the loss of weight water pose danger to the body by weakening it. Similarly, the Atkins diet which take away high carbs and patronize only low-carb also threaten the body with loss of energy due to the minimal consumption of energy-giving carb. Meanwhile, The intake of water each meal helps spread food nutrients around the body, which diet seem less harmful than the cut down of carb in the two previous diets. Ultimately, physical exercise that complement controlled food ingestion develops physical fitness and overall health, but with the necessary physical and related risks. Of these diets, the safest is apparently Water diet because it does not subject the body to torturous activities like the reduction of energy-supplying carbohydrates as in South Beach and Atkins diets, and the strenuous performance of the physique. This diet only entails the regular intake of water and the only major risk about it is if the water is contaminated.
Diet’s association to the welfare of human health makes it somewhat improbable to think that misconceptions about diet may have destructive results to the human body. However, it is imperative that whenever and whatever activities humans subject their bodies in, prudence should be practiced in order to avoid risks that may be fatal at its extreme. The body is the human cultural and spiritual temple, and the reason the mind is attached to it is to decide wisely the body’s best interest.


Bibliography:
Agatston, Arthur, Ph. D. The South Beach Diet: Good Fats, Good Carbs Guide. London: Rodale, 2004.
Boden G., et al., “Effects of the Atkins Diet in Type 2 Diabetes: Metabolic Balance Studies.” 64th session of the American diabetes Association, June 8, 2004.
Brehm, B. J. et al., “A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women,” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2003.
Foster, G. D., et al, “A Randomized Trial of a Low-Trial of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Obesity,” The New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.
Goedecke, J. H. et al., “Metabolic Adaptation to a High-Fat Diet in Endurance Cyclists,” Metabolism, 1999.
http://www.annecollins.com/weight_loss_tips/exercise-tips.htm
http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/articles/water_in_weight_loss.html
Ingram, Colin. The Drinking Water Book: How to Eliminate Harmful Toxins from Your Water. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2006.
Paez, Christina J. and Len Kravitz, http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/exandwtloss.html
Sharman, M. J., et al., “Very Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets Affect Fasting Lipids and Postprandial Lipemia Differently in Overweight Men,” Journal of Nutrition, 2004.
Sharman, M. J. and Volek, J. S., “Weight Loss Leads to Reductions in Inflammatory Biomarkers after a Very Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diet in Overweight Men,” Clinical Science (London), 2004.
Stadler, D. D. et al., “Impact of 42-Day Atkins Diet and Energy-Matched Low-Fat Diet on Weight and Anthropometric Indices,” FASEB Journal, 2003.
Stern, L. et al., “The V.A. Low Carbohydrate Intervention Diet (VALID) Study,” Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2002.


[1] Agatston, Arthur, Ph. D. The South Beach Diet: Good Fats, Good Carbs Guide. London: Rodale, 2004.
[2] Stern, L. et al., “The V.A. Low Carbohydrate Intervention Diet (VALID) Study,” Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2002.
[3] Sharman, M. J. and Volek, J. S., “Weight Loss Leads to Reductions in Inflammatory Biomarkers after a Very Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diet in Overweight Men,” Clinical Science (London), 2004.
[4] Agatston, Arthur. The South Beach Diet: Good Fats, Good Carbs Guide. London: Rodale, 2004.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Foster, G. D., et al, “A Randomized Trial of a Low-Trial of a Low-Carbohydrate Diet for Obesity,” The New England Journal of Medicine, 2003.
[7] Goedecke, J. H. et al., “Metabolic Adaptation to a High-Fat Diet in Endurance Cyclists,” Metabolism, 1999.
[8] Brehm, B. J. et al., “A Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women,” The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 2003.
[9] Sharman, M. J., et al., “Very Low-Carbohydrate and Low-Fat Diets Affect Fasting Lipids and Postprandial Lipemia Differently in Overweight Men,” Journal of Nutrition, 2004.
[10] http://www.southbeach-diet-plan.com/articles/water_in_weight_loss.html
[11] Ingram, Colin. The Drinking Water Book: How to Eliminate Harmful Toxins from Your Water. Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 2006.
[12] Boden G., et al., “Effects of the Atkins Diet in Type 2 Diabetes: Metabolic Balance Studies.” 64th session of the American diabetes Association, June 8, 2004.
[13] Stadler, D. D. et al., “Impact of 42-Day Atkins Diet and Energy-Matched Low-Fat Diet on Weight and Anthropometric Indices,” FASEB Journal, 2003.
[14] http://www.annecollins.com/weight_loss_tips/exercise-tips.htm
[15] Paez, Christina J. and Len Kravitz, http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/exandwtloss.html

ang postkolonyal sa "basilia ng malolos"

Halaw mula sa nalathala noong 2004 na “The Women of Malolos” ng batikang kritiko, manunulat, guro at iskolar na si Nick Tiongson ang kontemporanyong zarzuelang “Basilia ng Malolos” na siya rin ang sumulat ng libretto, at idinirehe naman ni Jose Estrella sa musika ni Joy Marfil. Malapit sa puso ni Prof. Tiongson ang paksa ng kanyang likhang binigyang-buhay ng Dulaang UP ng Pamantasan ng Pilipinas sapagkat siya ay tubong Malolos, Bulacan at ninuno niya ang ilan sa sirkulo ng magkakabarkadang babaeng itinuturing na unang gumawa ng pemenistang pagkilos sa Pilipinas. Dalawampung dalaga sa pangunguna ni Basilia ang gumawa ng petisyon sa kolonyal na pamahalaan na magbukas ng isang paggabing paaralan kung saan sila makapag-aaral ng wikang Kastila. Hindi madali ang proposisyon ng magkakaibigan sapagkat sa pangkasaysayang tagpuan nila, matindi ang pag-ayaw ng mga prayleng Kastila na matuto ng wika ng inang mananakop ang mga katutubo dahil nga naman ang pagkatuto ng mga nasasakupan ay magpapantay sa kalagayan nila sa kalagayan ng mga mananakop—isang paghihimala sa kalagayang kolonyalismo. Bukod pa rito, hindi rin kaibig-ibig sa mga prayle ang mungkahing ito sapagkat ang pagkatuto ng mga katutubo ng Kastila ang maglalapit sa huli ng mga liberal na kaisipang nasusulat sa Espanyol, isang agwat na lamang ang layo sa pagpapalaya sa sariling bayan sa pamamagitan ng paghamon sa pamamalakad ng Espanya. Sa likas na kasigasigan ng mga dalaga, sukdulang makompromiso ang kahinhinan upang masuway ang mga prayle at malapitan ang makapangyarihang si Gobernador Heneral Valeriano Weyler, pinayagan silang magbukas ng panggabing paaralan para sa wikang Kastila. Mismong ang Pambansang Bayaning si Jose Rizal ang nagpugay sa tagumpay na ito ng mga dalaga sa pamamagitan ng pagsulat sa kanila mula sa Espanyang pinag-aaralan. Hindi man nagtagal ang paaralan dahil sa kagagawan ng umaayaw na mga Kastila, hindi nawalan ng loob si Basilia at gumawa ng mga hakbang mula pagsali sa Katipunan hanggang pag-aktong mediko noong Digmaang Pilipino-Amerikano upang maisulong ang pambabaeng pag-aalsa para sa kalayaan.
Ang huling salita ng nagdaang talata ang magsasaad na maiuugnay sa postkolonyalismo ang halaw-sa-kasaysayang dula. Bawat bayang napasasailalim sa kolonyalismo, nagiging biktima ng marahas na pagtutulak para tanggapin ang mga institusyon ng mga mananakop hanggang dumating sa puntong wala nang sariling pagkakakilanlan ang kolonya. Tungkulin ng mga katutubong ipagtanggol ang kanilang inang bayan sa pamamagitan ng pagpreserba ng pagkakakilanlan at sa pagpalis ng kontaminasyon ng mga banyaga. Hindi man maaaring isulat pang muli ang kasaysayan upang maituwid ang mga pagkakamali lalo na ang pagkakamali ng pagkapailalim ng bayan sa kolonyalismo, maaari pa rin namang magpatuloy ang bayan sa pagbuo ng kanyang nadurog na identidad sapamamagitan ng pagsulong ng kung ano ang meron siya pagkaraan ng pananakop.
Ganito ang masasalamin sa dula ng pakikibaka ni Basilia: ang pagtangging manatiling alipin ng ibang bayan at magsikap na makahulagpos sa tanikala ng pananakop. Sa paghiling na magkaroon sila ng paaralang mapag-aaralan ang wikang Kastila, gusto ni Basilia sampu ng kanyang mga kapwa babae na huwag silang igapos sa gawaing pambahay lamang taliwas sa itinakda ng lipunang pananatili ng babae sa loob ng tahanan upang magluto, maglaba, at iba pa nang walang pakundangan sa karapatang pantaong makapag-aral at magkaroon naman ng karerang dating eksklusibo sa mga kalalakihan. Pinalaya nina Basilia ang mga sarili sa pamamagitan ng pagsuway sa itinakdang mga kaasalang pambabae gaya ng pagtungo, paninikluhod at pagyakap sa bulag na pagsunod sa batas ng kalikasang lalaki ang mamumuno sa babae. Patunay ang pagsugod nila sa tinutuluyan ng Gobernador-Heneral kahit na nakabantay pa ang kontrabidang mga prayle. Gamit ang kanilang nakaaangat na ilustradong uri, gusto nilang makilala sa larangang hindi lamang itinakda ng lipunan para sa kanila, kaya nga kahit Katipunan at paglahok sa Digmaan ay pinasok ni Basilia at ng kanyang mga kaibigan. Kailangang masira ang pambabaeng konstruksyon ni Basilia upang maipagpatuloy niya ang pagpapalaya sa mga babae, gayundin sa inang bayan. Kahit na noong hindi matuloy ang kanyang kasal, hindi naging balakid ang pagiging matandang dalaga ni Basilia upang magbangon ng samahang Asociacion Feminista Filipina, Club de Mujeres de Malolos at iba pa bilang pagkilala sa pangangailangan ng Katipunang mapalaya ang inang bayan sa pananakop ng Espanya at Estados Unidos. Sa mga pakikibakang ito, binubuo ni Basilia at ng kababaihan ng Malolos ang pagkakakilanlan nilang nasira ng makalalaking batas ng kalikasan at kinakalakal ng pananakop pati na ng mga literatura ng kanilang panahon.
Postkolonyal ang dula dahil ang inangkat na zarzuela ay binigyan ng kalayaang ipakita ang pulitikal na kaisipan ng panahon kasabay ng tradisyunal na tugtugin at paglalaro sa tema. Pati mga Kanluraning awitin, nilapatan ng katutubong titik upang mamalas ang pagkampeon sa katutubo. Ang materyal mismo ay tila sibuyas na binabalatan unti-unti upang ipakita ang sapin-saping pagpapalaya sa mga babae mula sa makalalaking lipunan, kolonyalismo at kawalang-kaalaman at -katarungan.

meditations of marcus aurelius: an introspection

Born on A.D. 121 in Rome, Marcus Annus Verus was renamed Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the name by which the would-be emperor is referred to in history, after having been adopted by the Emperor T. Aurelius Antoninus. He inherited the empire in A. D. 161 and was a ruler until his death in A. D. 180.
M. Aurelius was taught by the orator Fronto, but shifted from studying rhetoric to studying Stoic philosophy—that which circles around the denial of emotion in order to free man from the pains and pleasures of the material world—of which he was known as the last distinguished articulator. Among his most memorable articulations under Stoicism, the “Meditations,” written in Greek during his campaign in Central Europe in A. D. 171-175, stood out since the emperor practiced what he philosophized. With extreme conscientiousness, M. Aurelius carried out his randomly-composed reflections with great consistency both in his public and private life.
M. Aurelius wrote his diary as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is vague whether or not he intended these writings to be published in order to survive and inspire up to this day, so the title “Meditations” is only one of the many usually designated to this collection. These meditations assume the structure of quotations with length that varies from one sentence to kilometric paragraphs.
Calling his collection “The matters addressed to himself,” M. Aurelius’ “Meditations” literally means “thoughts/writings addressed to himself.” As was mentioned above, he wrote his personal reflections and aphorisms during his march to public military service in Central European battlefields. Hence, Book I is entitled 'This among the Quadi on the Gran,” and Book II, “Written at Carnuntum.”
All twelve books contained in M. Aurelius’ “Meditations” have philosophical questions that resemble the teachings of fellow Stoic Epictetus (A. D. 55-135). The latter philosopher’s fundamental principles were “Endure” and “Abstain.” M. Aurelius emphasized these principles in his musings by reflecting that freedom is to be achieved through the submission to the force of the universe, and rigid detachment from the things beyond one’s power. The emperor went on to say that the only way a man can be injured by others is to permit his reactions to intoxicate him. While there was no specific evidence of his religious faith in “Meditations,” the author seems inclined in the belief that a rational, good force arranges the universe in such a manner that even bad happenings happen for the benefit of the whole. This is proved by the beginning of Book I, Chapter XVII:
“Whatsoever proceeds from the gods immediately, that any man will grant totally depends from their divine providence. As for those things that are commonly said to happen by fortune, even those must be conceived to have dependence from nature, or from that first and general connection, and concatenation of all those things, which more apparently by the divine providence are administered and brought to pass. All things flow from thence: and whatsoever it is that is, is both necessary, and conducing to the whole (part of which thou art), and whatsoever it is that is requisite and necessary for the preservation of the general, must of necessity for every particular nature, be good and behoveful.”
One such bad occurrence is the collapse of the well-received Pax Romana, which happened during his reign. This must have influenced what continues in Book I, Chapter XVII: “And as for the whole, it is preserved, as by the perpetual mutation and conversion of the simple elements one into another, so also by the mutation, and alteration of things mixed and compounded. Let these things suffice thee; let them be always unto thee, as thy general rules and precepts.” A significant component of Stoicism was the recurrence of everything: the entire universe turns to fire and then repeats itself. The Rome he was ruling had had a great celebration of imperial peace, but all was set to end; in the case of Pax Romana, one and a half centuries. It was the will of the providence at work in the demise of Roman Peace.
Book I of “Meditations” offers a readable organization and unity, yet the others do not show these qualities. Marcus Aurelius pondered upon his philosophical summary during the last years of his life while on campaign along the marshlands of the faraway Danube . Among the central themes is man's destiny to die and be forgotten. "What should be valued?", he queries, but does not find the answer in the rewards of glory. When Stoic philosophy pointed to humanity’s duty of discovering living harmoniously with natural order, he sadly hoped he could this live this out, too: “Even in a palace life may be lived well.” His meditation on death is paradoxical: “He who fears death either fears the loss of sensation or a different kind of sensation. But if thou shalt have no sensation, neither wilt thou feel any harm; and if thou shalt acquire another kind of sensation, thou wilt be a different kind of living being and thou wilt not cease to live.”
Speaking of death, death was integral to the emperor’s philosophy. He was not an avid fan of the afterlife. “We live for an instant,” he wrote, “only to be swallowed in complete forgetfulness and the void of infinite time on this side of us.” He said further, “Think how many ere now, after passing their life in implacable enmity, suspicion, hatred... are now dead and burnt to ashes.” According to Marcus Aurelius, all things will become absolute oblivion, including legends. “Of the life of man the duration is but a point, its substance streaming away, its perception dim, the fabric of the entire body prone to decay, and the soul a vortex, and fortune incalculable, and fame uncertain. In a word all things of the body are as a river, and the things of the soul as a dream and a vapour; and life is a warfare and a pilgrim's sojourn, and fame after death is only forgetfulness.” “Everything existing” is already disintegrating and changing... everything is by nature made but to die." 'The length of one's life is irrelevant, "for look at the yawning gulf of time behind thee and before thee at another infinity to come. In this eternity the life of a baby of three days and the life of a nestor of three centuries are as one." 'To desire is to be permanently disappointed and disturbed, since everything we desire in this world is "empty and corrupt and paltry." For Marcus Aurelius, death was something to be desired since it is an end to all desires to be had..
In spite of these reflections on life and death, Marcus Aurelius was an advocate of logical virtue. He harbored indifference towards the brutalities in life. As an emperor, he had Christians subjected to persecution and fought regularly on military campaigns. He rationalized his actions by pointing at the unimportance of global affairs. A zealous devotee of the Roman religion, Marcus Aurelius deemed the Christians fanatics, who do not face death with stoic dignity. “How lovely the soul that is prepared—when its hour comes to slough off this flesh—for extinctions, dispersion, or survival! But this readiness should result from a personal decision, not from sheer contrariness like the Christians...” Perhaps, Marcus Aurelius was virtually of Christian beliefs. It was significant to point out this context in the emperor’s because the ferocious ruthlessness with which the persecution was implemented in Gaul was a contrast of his writings. He doubtlessly believed that the religion threatened the values that established Rome’s glory.
Aurelius might not have been an original or clever thinker, but his “Meditations” manifest well the Stoic spirit in Greco-Roman culture. The recurrence of themes and the groups of quotations from other authors improve this impression. One example may be found in Book III, Chapter XVII: “To be violently drawn and moved by the lusts and desires of the soul, is proper to wild beasts and monsters, such as Phalaris and Nero were. To follow reason for ordinary duties and actions is common to them also…” This runs parallel with that one-liner found in Book VII, Chapter VIII: “To a reasonable creature, the same action is both according to nature, and according to reason.” Via the “Meditations,” he put stress on the importance of reason as the guiding arm of Stoicism.
The “Meditations” faithfully depict the mind and character of the noblest of the Emperors that’s Marcus Aurelius. These musings, uncomplicated in style and sincere in tone, are an enduring record of the proportion attained by pagan aspiration in its attempt to address the problem of conduct. The “Meditations” were the theoretical manifestation of the practical character Marcus Aurelius exuded in his tempered life as a Roman emperor.

subersiyon sa kanayunan

Sa dokumentaryong pinanood hinggil sa mga kababaihan, inilalarawan ni Lourdes Calma ang halimbawa ng babaeng nakikibaka para tuligsain ang patriyarkal na lipunan sa rural na pamayanan. Isang pinuno ng kababaihang magsasaka, isinalaysay ni Lourdes ang masaklap na kalagayan ng isang babae sa bukid. Una, tinatrato ang babae bilang alipin at nagpapalala rito ang pagiging ignorante ng pamahalaan sa pang-aaliping ito. Dahil hindi rin pinapag-aral ang babae, itinatalaga lamang siya sa bahay samantalang may kakayanan naman sila, ayon kay Lourdes , na lumabas ng bahay para magtrabaho. Hindi rin maiwasan ng mga kababaihan ang humanap ng karagdagang kita sapagkat hindi maaasahan ang kakarampot na kita mula sa inaani sa bukid. Kinakasangkapan din ng panginoong maylupa ang militar upang buwagin ang binubuong union ng mga manggagawang tagabukid. Sa kanyang personal na karanasan, pinatay ang kan yang asawa dahil namumuno rin ito ng grupo ng mga magsasaka. Inulila siya ng asawa para suportahan ang lima nilang anak.
Sa mga isiniwalat ni Lourdes , maraming impormado ng patriyarkal na lipunan ang uusig sa kanya dahil sa pagsubok niyang baliktarin ang kapalarang laan sa mga kababaihan, ayon sa dikta ng machong lipunan. Ang mga institusyon ng pamayanang rural—ang panginoong maylupa, mga asawa, piyudalismo, ang gobyernong hindi kumikilala sa repormang agraryo—ang nagdidikta sa pagkaalipin ng babae, ngunit iginigiit ni Lourdes na mapalaya ang babae sa tanikala ng pagkalipin dahil may kakayanan silang magtrabaho nang higit pa sa pagbubungkal ng lupa. Kung sa bahay man naaalipin ng pag-aasikaso ng pamilya at ng asawang magsasaka ang babae, ibinukas din ni Lourdes ang daan para makitang hindi lang pantahanan ang kakayanan ng babae kung nakapag-aral man lang sana siya. Iginigiit niya rito ang karapatan sa edukasyon ng mga babae. Sa paglalahad na dapat maging maparaan ang babae sa pagkita nang higit pa sa naibibigay na barya-barya sa trabahong-bukid, sinusubok na palayain ni Lourdes ang babae sa kapalarang itinakda ng lipunan. Subersibo rin si Lourdes sa pagtuligsa sa militarisasyon sa kanayunan na sinasangkalan ng panginoong maylupa para huwag bumuo ng unyon ng mga magsasaka. Sa lahat ng nabanggit, ipinapakitang mabangis na babae si Lourdes dahil hindi siya nagpapasawata sa itinakdang limitasyon ng lipunang patriyarkal sa mga babaeng dapat tumalima lamang sa dikta ng lalaki. Magkagayunman, kahanga-hanga ang katapangan ni Lourdes para ibandera ang peminismo, durugin ang mapag-aliping alamat ng pagsunod sa lalaki ng babae at sikaping isulong nang isulong ang karapatan ng babae sa gitna ng pananalasa ng kawalang-katarungang panlipunan.

how economy is sustained by miniskirts

The comic strip’s commentary on the miniskirt as an indicator of robust economy may be seen in the light of fashion in general in relation to, first, production and, finally, consumption issues.
When Betty gushed over how a miniskirt becomes “a sign of a strong economy,” it is a necessary comment on the strength of the economy because of the active role of the capitalists and the labor force in manufacturing the demands of the society depending on the production sector for the realization of their imagined fashion. With the boom of fashion since the last few decades, manufacturers from the advanced industrialized countries (AICs) transferred their resources to less developed countries (LDCs) to cut labor and operational costs. With the exploitation of women and minority workers, i.e. cheap salary, the capitalists can rechannel their sources on more production of fashion as dictated by elite consumers in both AICs and LDCs and, eventually, by the other consumers down the social strata. More capital to use means more production of miniskirts, pantyhose and boots, among others, first for the can-afford elites, and then the larger mass of fashion-hungry consumers. The faddish characteristic of fashion will merit that the elite consumers will demand for new styles (to set trends and to sustain their high-end identity) once their present styles get copied by the rest of the society, and so the production does not die down, sustaining the life of factories empowered by the labor force and funded by the capitalists. Whatever is in vogue, be it a miniskirt, a textured legging and leather boots as was in the comic strip, it will be manufactured by the production of labor.
More importantly, fashion spells consumption issues in that the capacity to purchase indicates an economy alive and well. The class differentiation discussed above shows to what degree consumption is being taken by both the elite and the lower classes. They have both the power to buy, but more so with the elites, so they are the primary targets of producers. They have to show a distinct culture, apart from the rest of the social strata. One such manifestation is the way their fashion distinguishes them from everyone else. Their separation may be observed with outward signs, one of which is fashion. They can buy fashion so they can set its trend. Corollary to this, the bourgeois which is the next closest to the elites will want to copy the elite trend in order to get identified with their social status. They would copy their fashion given their money’s worth of second-class fashion. Emulating the elite gives the bourgeois the sense of superior status associated to the elite. In turn, the classes lower than the bourgeois copy their fashion, still aiming to share superiority of the upper classes and repeating the fashion down the social strata. All of the social strata are now consuming, feeding the economy with its necessary lifeblood: money. When the elite class loses its uniqueness, it will think of novel signs of class differentiation to create yet again the lines demarcating it from the classes down its status. After a trend is set, the classes will proceed with its mimicry, fueling the consumption needed to strengthen the economy. Betty’s miniskirt, whether an elitist or a low-life’s fashion, is generated through the consumption process, and so are the associated accessories of pantyhose and boots, which are essentially copies of elitist fashion itself, given that the “work” to which she will wear her fashion defines her as a labor of production as well and not the elite her expenditure complaints betray her to be, i. e. ranting about the $400 she has to pay for accessories on top of the $125 worth of 12-inch skirt.
Indeed, the economy is strong because fashion fuels the mutualism between production and consumption. As money evolves in the economic cycle, production will have the capital to manufacture fashion, and consumption will be consummated because all of the social strata can afford to have a varying taste of what’s manufactured. As long as this cycle does not get disturbed significantly, economy will remain robust.