Silent Slander

While watching CNN with 2009 Hero of the Year being awarded to Efren Peñaflorida I was filled with disgust over watching many of our countrymen and politicians joining the hand clap bandwagon in celebrating the award.

Here's my bet...when Efren was knocking at our doors asking for donations or asking people to volunteer for his cause probably large percentage of our countrymen wont even bother to listen or open for him. Damn, I remember seeing a friend inviting people few to join us for Gawad Kalinga none of them bothered citing "i having better things to do"! Efrens cause isn't an exception. Most of us walking along the streets before would probably ignore him, sneer at him since none of this international media body recognizes his work. But today you might run after him on the streets riding his popularity.

But when things are over and Efrens popularity fades would you be willing to join his cause?

..and now hooray for the bunch of hypocrites clapping for and applause for our dear president for recognizing Efrens work after someone recognized it! Sadly it took a CNN to recognize a heroic deed before our country does. Shame. And hey..a silent slander..when a person I know saw this he said "Are things that worse in Philippines, you have pushcart schools?" I replied....... "haven't even seen the half of it buddy, not even a half of it". A scene rose into my mind, 10 students sharing on 1 book, 200 students on 1 classroom with 1 teacher.


Maguindanao massacre


A Deadly Massacre in The Philippines



No need to write anything about this.

Once and for all the only way to clean our country's politics is remove all the politicians we have and set things under one regime who knows how to "think".

It took communism to cleanse the political system of Russia, China, a federal system to cleanse the political system of USA, and a monarchy to cleanse United Kingdom.

Grand O.T.

While the Macau grand prix is being held, I would be sitting here (the usual workplace) on weekends. Road networks would be my racecourse, buildings as F3 class...it would be something like a modern "green dragon" as client describes it, and yes a great coincidence, it would be somewhere in Macau. That gives an idea to use F3 as an inspiration! Great, I have my batteries full charged, lens and tripod cleaned and everything I have in my small storage "kodak" bin was out. Now I have to put them back in place. Thanks to our boss whom we suspect will be watching it! We might ask him on Monday what happened there. lol. But anyway the boss is still the boss! I Salute! :P

20 Philippine Congressman to watch Pacquiao's fight

When Pacquiao fights, everything in the Philippines halts, crime, traffic, establishments, AFP, every corner of the street from tricycle drivers, garbage collectors up to the corporate and the elite just to give few minutes/hours to glue themselves in front of a TV.

One funny scene I could recall was way back in our small province, there was this Catholic priest who held a "rapid mass" because he don't want people (including himself) to miss the Pacquiao fight. When the priest ended the mass people were running out from from the church and all the clergy folks on the altar could never be found. They were like knitted with one goal, finding the nearest television set.

Another story was, I attended this Christian service way back. It came to the part where the service has ended and we have to pray for something suddenly a man on stage spoke loud in outburst, "Manny won the fight, our prayer was answered."

Every international event whether music, sports etc..with a Filipino on centerstage, the whole nation will definitely give its support. One may wish that Pacquiao should fight someone everyday so our nation from politicians to by standers will unite under one goal. But sadly that isn't the case, yes its daunting to know that we need some boxing icon to get a "short term" grip of unity.

Yes UNITY, ETHICAL unity because there is one thing I would never support in an event like this; the presence of politicians, and Manny's career is one big perfect example. Most of them will try to squeeze themselves just to make sure they are seen on HBO cameras and obviously even the one interviewing Manny gets irritated with all of them around. Like some dogs licking out to ride Manny's popularity, they thirst going to MGM and spend millions of money they claimed "out of their own expense".

Did you see flocks of Mexican politicians crowding to get to MGM to see a Morales, Barrera, Márquez etc..fight? Did you see US or British politicians postponing bills, work just to see a Dela Hoya, Hatton or even Mayweather fight? Well probably one or two they will, but take this record breaking attendance during the Pacquiao-Hatton bout, 50 Philippine congressman went last time to see it!. And thats surprising considering the ratio of that to the ratio of congress, Batasang Pambansa, attendance! Another surprising thing was their bold claim (as Lourd stated it on the video above) "ni singkong duling wala silang kinuha mula sa taong bayan". Who would believe in such thing? For a congressman who earns solely from his government salary, how can he afford to spend millions of pesos to watch the bout in MGM?

Now, if a congressman is eager to shout out his full support is it necessary to fly to Vegas, spend a million there and wave at the HBO camera hoping his constituents to see him internationally on TV? When I was a kid there were like one or two household in our barangay who owns a nice bright colored TV, and out of deep pity a Mayor on the nearby town decided to spend some of his salary and bought some projector and a big canvas where movies are shown at night every weekends. People would try to squeeze themselves on this small plaza to watch their popular movie/movie icons for free. How much would a projector and a canvas would cost? Its not even a fraction of a million. I'm still glad some of this spirit still lives on some areas in our country. I did saw one politician declaring on tv "kesa magpunta pa ko dun mas maiinam dito nalang sa malaking screen para mapanood ng lahat ng tao lalo na yung walang mga tv".

One thing we should follow I think is a nice law I know where in public offcials are forbidden to go to places like casino and non duty luxurious events.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/03/09/solons-urged-skip-pacquiao-cotto-fight

"At this time that House quorum is much needed, maybe they will try their best to skip witnessing this particular championship bout of Manny Pacquiao. Magkakahiyaan na rin," House Majority Floor Leader, Iloilo 3rd District Rep. Arthur Defensor told radio dzMM.

"Defensor expressed hope that with congressmen's sensitivity to possible negative public opinion, and their "stand to the call of high sense of duty," only very few lawmakers will watch the Pacquiao-Cotto battle in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 15.

There were reports that at least 20 congressmen, including House Speaker Prospero Nograles, may watch the fight."

There you go, "they will try their best to skip witnessing this particular championship bout of Manny Pacquiao"?

--

But whatever it may be, win or lose, Manny will still be the Pinoy Pacman who once lived in our country and throw up some dreams to our fellowman who lost their hopes from our country ensnared by the haunting grip of poverty.

...Manny should start knocking out those politicians behind him.

Onion Skin (Balat Sibuyas)

This video brought me back to the memories of Mr. Chip Tsao, the Hong Kong writer who was deeply criticized for what he wrote few months ago.



Ms.Ho: *grabs her phone, dialed a number* Wei (Hello), Inday where are you?
Inday: Hello, yes, misis Ho, I'm presently on the street, I joined a protest against a columnist named Mr. Tsao and now we are parading all over the streets of Hong Kong.
Ms.Ho: What the hell is this protest all about Inday?
Inday: Mr. Tsao called our country a "land of servants". Thats absolutely not true misis Tsao!
Ms.Ho: Well whatever is that Inday make sure at 6 PM sharp, after your day off, fetch the kids, cook dinner, clean those toilets and try to clean those furnitures I have told you to clean several days ago.
Inday: Yes misis Ho, bye.

First and foremost I am a FILIPINO and a proud SERVANT working for a company with 6 Chinese Directors.

Tsao has faced various accusations of racism for his English-language writings. In October 2005, an article he wrote for the South China Morning Post entitled "Have Hong Kong girls stopped looking for Mr White?"

On January 12, 2008, Tsao published an editorial for the local Chinese newspaper Apple Daily entitled "Monkey President". [12] Tsao began his article with, "Unless America has gone insane, it would be impossible for this Obama to be elected as the next president of the United States."

When Tsao wrote this did any "white guy" cared? Did you see a "monkey president" or any politician condemning, bashing Mr. Tsao on TV just to get noticed?

The point is, why are Filipinos so sensitive about things written by a sarcastic writer who's only goal in life is to be noticed? Thanks to our country we fulfilled his wish. There are more issues for Filipinos to consider and to care about (jobs, poverty, crimes etc..) Rather than watching our television 24x7 waiting for someone to speak anything about Philippines, why don't we face the FACT written by Mr. Tsao?

This was in regards with Spratlys Issue..

"as a nation of servants,"

Is there anything untrue with what Mr. Tsao wrote? Most claim that "workers" should be used instead of "servants". What difference would that make? Fact is the one should understand the difference between a "worker" and a servant".

worker – noun
1. a person or thing that works.

servant - noun
1. one that serves others ; especially : one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer

A "worker" could never be a "servant" in his own farm/land. Face it, our country's economy marginally relies on the millions of its citizen "employed by other countries." Our country earns from those citizens "that serves others, that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer." Whats wrong with being called "a nation of servants" when statistics proves its true?! Why would I bother to pretend something that I am not? A sample I would take here is the humble office we are working with here in China . Most of us Filipinos here generally accepts being SERVANTS catering to "serve" the requirements of our clients and boss..and so does our fellow Chinese office mates, largely accepting being a servant, we are not working for oneself, we are "working" to "serve" the needs of the company. Is their any racial slur with that?

Few years ago back in the Philippines some folks protested for being called as "squatters"..., rather they want to be called "informal settlers". Hell, what difference would that make to their lives anyway? Why would they protest for silly names when they should be protesting better housing programs from our dear government.

Spratlys

"as a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

If the government was dead serious on claiming those islands...then we should start thanking our "brilliant law makers", the once senator who became president Joseph Estrada along with Tanada as they were the brain child of abolishing two US bases, Clark and Subic. When US forces left from the said bases our grasp with those islands went downhill. Does Taiwan, South Korea, Japan (Asian countries with US bases) encountered any problem with border disputes? NO. Did our brilliant Estrada realized that we rely mostly on the prowess of US military to guard our boundaries? Heck, I couldn't even hear from our country that we have at least a single decent naval warship to guard our territory. How can you "flex" your muscle against a country 50 times the size of our economy, military and population? Our country can't even handle Sulu!

Somewhat Mr. Lourd on the video above is right, "umunlad ba ang Pilipinas pagkatapos magapologize si Chip Tsao?"

Endgame

Grabbed one. Not bad. 4.5/5. Dave still got an engine to give. Sure it isn't "Rust in Peace" but the Dave Mustaine somehow managed to reminisce his trash roots and blended it with "some" of "his modern commercialized style" seen on his recent albums (System Has Failed, United Abominations). Guitar merchant/wingman Chris Broderick filled what Dave couldn't do alone, let "Dialectic Chaos" speak for itself, unleashed gnarling shreds on "Headcrusher" and yes not to forget the catchy "44 Minutes".

Everywhere we hear Dave taking us back to "Eye of Tornado", "Kick the Chair" etc.. (with new and improved snarl) nothing but plain furious shreds and guitar exchange and finally giving off what rattleheads expected from the band. Honestly I expected things to be formulaic probably considering the aging Dave but no... he still has fuel on his tanks to spark a decent album right on track. Also James, Shawn did their unaging task well.

Lars and the rest of Metallica should be shaking their heads by now and I saw some hilarious fanboys hiding their copy of Death Magnetic (pussy) out of shame. Well done Davey, well done. 4.5/5

Fired

Recently, someone got fired in the office I'm working in. If I'll describe the way she work (or any work related stuff) she wasn't doing bad at all, in fact she does her job well from the rest, but there was something in her that our boss didn't like: she took so many leave/absences despite the fact that she was still in provision stage. The reason she stated on taking those "personal leave" is "she's about to get married".

I was on the kitchen when she said her goodbye. Despite having a hard time on speaking a decent English (she is a Chinese) she managed to ungrudgingly spoke a simple farewell phrase. More surprising is, she doesn't even know the reason why she was laid off.

Anyway, sometimes out of love for someone, it ain't bad to compromise something... and most of the time...any decision siding with your heart...no matter how worst the situation it may seem..in the end you wont regret it! I've seen this scene so many times on others life and it always ends up the right way. Well as Ecclesiastes 1:3-11 teaches us

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Shenzhen City Central Business District

The most viewed photo I have is a shot from the Shenzhen central business district. I remember a digital photography mentor Vic Bautista used my photo as a sample on one of his lecture (no, its not a lecture about "the worst photograph ever" lol), it was a lecture on how to improve your photos. He mentioned something about having more blue tones for this photo to make it more trivial.