Dalaw

1. SMS the "loved one"

Tinatamad ka bang bumisita sa iyong loved ones sa sementeryo? ..... Are you not up to visiting your loved ones at the cemetery? Text DALAW at i-send sa 2366 ..... Text DALAW and send to 2366 Sila mismo ang dadalaw sa yo ..... They will be the ones to come and visit you Choices are: 1) Nakasilip sa bintana ..... Peering through the window 2) Nakatingin sa yo habang natutulog ka ..... Looking at you while asleep 3) Nakatayo sa iyong paanan ..... Standing by your feet 4) Nakahiga sa tabi mo ...... Beside you in bed Ano pa inaantay mo? text na! ..... What are you waiting for? Text now!

. . .

This original text joke ca. 2011 can only have been thought of by a Filipino. I'm not sure, though, if the text message really came from Globe Telecoms which owns the "2366" gateway number. Otherwise, may the original sender of this brilliant SMS please stand up or shall I call upon the spirits of the universe to, please, make yourself known?

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2. e-Online mo

A couple of years back, a tarpaulin billboard appeared on the side of Legacy Building adjacent to the Quezon Avenue branch of Mercury Drugstore (across McDonald's and Crossings) in Quezon City.

On borrowed horse

Jessica Sanchez

Three days into the most crucial days ever for any reality TV contestant's dream towards achieving fame – no, it's not just any reality TV, it's American Idol for heavens – and the by-word on every TV junkie in this part of the word is "Jessica Sanchez."

Ask any fermale prime time broadcaster who's ever applauded on network news about Sanchez being on the Top 4 and you'll know why this has become even bigger than the Philippine Chief Justice on trial, the rising tension over at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, or the 5-thousand-plus people once called "residents" by pollsters or "voters" by politicians just before their community on reclaimed land burned down last Friday, now sit homeless and helpless, jampacked in a local Manila gym.

In view of the third, Sen. Tito Sotto had the gall to tell CNN that it lied in its series about the Philippines because, he said, we are a land of hope – just look at billionaire Senator Manny Villar, he said as an example, as poor then as any street-wandering Filipino today who has become an expert at preparing pagpag for daily subsistence and sustenance.

Villar has, in essence, risen above the odds and made a name for himself, Sotto said, therefore a prime example out of millions living below poverty line and who can therefore prove that (Villar's story) entitles us to cover up poverty with fancy graphics on tarpaulin. Did Malacañang cross its fingers wishing that the ADB delegates for whom the cover-up was intended mistook the tarpaulin for forward-looking "beautification?"

And yes, no doubt, it is some kind of news, Jessica Sanchez on American Idol. It's the kind which we so easily latch on to because it smells like a newly-opened balikbayan box filled with goodies from the latest clear-out sale in California that has landed right on our doorsteps tax-free.

Jessica Sanchez, no doubt, is a good performer, the best of anyone in her age category on TV today. She has the right phrasing, her musicality is sophisticated and her range is exceptional.

And I take it that she is, after all, "a Filipino," although until her slow rise to fame via American Idol Season 11, she was and is an All-American girl in a largely Filipino-dominated community in America. Still, her being in the Top 3 has made Philippine media treat it like that of an all-Filipino/Philippine contingent winning a gold in the Olympics.

I can understand Sanchez' maternal Bataeño relatives, descendants or witnesses perhaps to the largest surrender of American and Filipino WW II joint forces in Bataan, closely monitoring and rooting for her, and they have all the reason to. Besides them and her relatives from Mexico, from my point of view at least, Sanchez' rightful kababayans are those in Chula Vista, California who she share common aspirations and experiences with.

But by the way even the local entertainers and celebrities – count in the OPM officials and network executives – have been treating news about Sanchez, the fact is she is not panacea to the ailing Philippine music and entertainment industry or the answer to the much sought-after definition of "Filipino international superstardom" and everything else that's attached to it, especially since the Mexicans will pretty much claim her as "theirs" ahead of us, or as "Latina" as Jennifer Lopez.

To her credit, when prompted for reaction on camera, Sanchez is grateful for the support Filipinos from all over have given her. But all credit goes to her and how she has harnessed her God-given talent to the fullest.

At the end of the day, though, if and when she does come out victor on American Idol Season 11 and establish firsts on the show – first female since Jordin Sparks, first woman of mixed-heritage and of Filipino descent – what Jessica Sanchez will and always be is an "American" idol for she knows of no other experience to draw from but as that. If and when she wins, Jessica Sanchez' victory is the aspiration and success of every Fil-Am and Mexican-American in America.

The state of OPM

I cringe at the thought that an organization like OPM, the Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang-aawit (OPM) whose officials and members have been all over town in support of Jessica Sanchez, will be short of handing her an award post-haste once Sanchez does win; did not the OPM just do the same to another American Idol finalist, David Archuleta, upon his agreeing to record, in record time at that – meaning both the award and the recording – Filipino songs in English last January? For whatever intent or purpose the OPM-Archuleta deal was made, I hope it wasn't because the OPM did it on a whim and overstepped Archuleta's accommodation for that's how it looked like: instead of the guest being accommodated, the host over-indulged.

With Jessica Sanchez being "hot" property in the Philippines, especially so with the help of Philippine media, and the prospect of being the first Latino-Asian-American to be "American Idol," I hope we can do a raincheck on ourselves and not be allowed to be taken by the tides of hope by hanging on to strands we might take as redemption from our own miserable but salvageable state.

Are we in shortage of citizens in our own backyards to look up to and hail as "heroes" that we need to shift our gaze beyond our shores, look into blood traces for relations before we can lift up someone over our shoulders?

With the American Idol season in the U.S. coming to an end (and possibly emerging winner among all reality TV shows in the U.S.), I suppose this time around, Philippine media and the entire entertainment industry would like to be "out there" as things unfold, if they haven't already bought tickets to the party.

How could they have missed all the frenzy 4 years ago with homegrowns Arnel Pineda and Charice Pempengco, and still not completely understand what the buzz around them was at the time? Was it because, as late technology adapters, they were clueless as to how these talents struggled their way into the mainstream American music industry as locals do in our very own entertainment industry?

Is it because, as beneficiaries of technology today, it's so much fun to be trending, albeit even for the most trivial of reasons as a "love team" in spite of the fleeting nature of internet trends bearing no significant long-term impact on society?

Or are we simply riding to fame on a borrowed horse and, in the process, have left the welfare, growth and much-deserved attention of our very own talents behind?

We have become too hopeful on formulas that happened but never saw coming: People Power, YouTube sensations, sudden Twitter trending and such, all the while forcing history to repeat itself on an unsuspecting public.

Media circumstances around this season's American Idol have forced even the highest authorities to issue a statement of support yet let go lightly of an official of government, Ronald Llamas, caught on camera patronizing pirated entertainment to the detriment of his fellowmen eking out a living in the local entertainment industry.

Too much action and inaction

However, the local entertainment industry is partly to blame for its own inaction about piracy. Had its members exerted the same effort they now do in rallying votes for Jessica Sanchez as when Llamas' action on camera could pose a direct contempt on their livelihood, the Philippine entertainment industry would have shown teeth and grit enough to assure its members that Pinoy entertainers can look forward to something brighter, not blighter.

All noise and rallying by (almost the entire) local entertainment industry heading up to the American Idol finals happening in American timezones is like sloganeering without full understanding, as shallow as a product or marketing tagline (see "It's More Fun in The Philippines") but without proper facilities in place to accommodate throngs of people (see "Philippine airports").

Instead, we – rather, those – who operate behind the entertainment, music industries and news media, should look at how they got our industries to the state where music and film piracy raids have become parody, Pacquiao's mother's birthday deserve media coverage and government officials think that the objective of closed-circuit TVs in airports is simply to monitor scuffles between celebrities.

They have made something as a Twitter "trend" the new economy believing this to drive up sales (music? views?) and perhaps the ultimate salvation of the media and entertainment industries. They, news and entertainment personalities, have made being "proudly Pinoy" mean a shot at fame by holding on to the hem of anything that resembles Lapu-lapu's blood in them when the very warm bodies they have have given birth to and attempted to nurture right on our very shores are in dire need of the very support they now pose elsewhere.

...

Bye, Bear

today will be the day we turn the last pages of the book on how we, mother and daughters, had, for quite some time, become the two-legged home minorities since the dog-families became part of our extended family with the cats.

in the days and years to follow, it will be quiet.

being the only survivor that had outlived her brood that first came into our lives more than 15 years ago, Bear has become "the one:" our mother's baby, our company and center of energies.

in a few more moments, she, like the spirit she and her brood had been to us, too, will simply become energy.

755am

by this time, it's all reactive.

"not with a bang but with a whimper," as if the whimper is that of the puppy dog she once was and has come to be.

despite knowing one day this will come but more so because there's nothing we can do to ease the pain of separation from body and earth, we are helpless. that pains us, too. going the "natural" way is not without suffering.

1015am
i couldn't find chinx, here with you and mama below, soon enough to see you go –  he'd be the only cat you could be friends with, though you know pooch came to your side to keep you warm the other night. for the first time that night, you did not mind her.

smv will understand but not without regret of being so immersed with commitments as to not get the chance to see you one last time.

she trusts that you, as with those who went before you, had all the best we could provide. you knew.

at your last breath, you went so quietly and made laying you to rest effortless for mama and i, as if you were aware of how the hours of separation was so privately heartbreaking enough as it was for us all.

thank you, Bear. sleep now, with Maki, Rebo, Socks, Bubbly, Jjay, Mouser, Aga, Ms. M and the four-legged friends – yours and ours – that all once enjoyed the sun in the the garden, the especially-prepared meals we'd be all too pre-occupied with; the special bring-home pasalubong* bags from smv, mj and all our human friends, the playful moments, our tender loving and care.

there'll be none of that for us after today but for you, perhaps the state of joyful pet days and eternal tranquility.

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*gifts

(krvilla.030612)

Photo taken in a Metro Manila public elementary school near where we used to live.

When my colleagues and I were at the school, I brought one to the back of it to show a mini-park. It still sits there, a quiet witness in the noon-day sun of how that part of the city has transformed.

Gone is the impressive ancestral home, west of the park, of the city's most influential family. Even before the family matriarch passed away some years ago, they built in its place a row of townhouses that bear extra-ordinary scale and proportions than most urban "townhouses."

Across is the compound owned by another family from which members have contributed invaluably to the social sciences and education, art and architecture. Some of the family's descendants were friends of mine back in high school.

The property gate facing the park used to welcome Manila's literary and artistic personages. Inside it was one of the pioneering and most unconventional private galleries to have ever been established in the country and I am proud to be part of its roster of exhibitors. Founders of present-day artist-run spaces acknowledge the gallery as a major influence. It is now hushed.

Nearby the park is the historic church but the solemnity of its facade has been removed by the looming presence of a new high-rise condominium in the background.

Otherwise, some pre-war houses are still along the park perimeter, as are the medium-height park trees that provide shade to the usual vagrants who retire on benches for siesta.

The photo above, however, has its own story. Read it on my first "real" story-entry which I posted on a new awesome site called Cowbird.com here.

Miss Representation

Miss Representation is a documentary written and directed by Stanford University graduate Jennifer Siebel Newsom about how women are portrayed by the media. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival under the Documentary competition on January 22, 2011 and was shown at the Athena Film Festival in New York City on February 12, 2011.

Its broadcast rights was bought by Oprah Winfrey's OWN to premiere on October 20 9/8c in the United States.

From its official website:

...the film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America. The film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.

An interesting documentary this is. We've had two female presidents in the Philippines, have voted for female senators, Congress representatives and provincial governors, appointed female judges and Ombudsman and such but media still plays a strong role in packaging women in molds that place them on pedestals or re-create stereotypes that make them "desirable" and unreal.

In other words, we do have our own mis[s]-representations of women's issues that aren't fully addressed or handled exhaustively despite more women significantly visible in media as media practitioners themselves. Having more women in this field does not mean more women (in general) have become fully aware of their rights as citizens or of their roles in nation-building. One only has to note young girls' role models (mostly female celebrities on covers of the glossies) or the rising incidents of violence against women and children.^[1]

More details on Missrepresentation.org

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^[1] "...From January through November, the (Philippine National Police) PNP reported 9,225 cases of domestic violence against women and their children, a 91 percent increase over the same period last year. This number likely underreported significantly the level of violence against women and children." / 2010 Human Rights Report: Philippines / Download the PDF

Inspire: Makeshift Magazine and Newspapers in Education

MAKESHIFT MAGAZINE
Launching on 30 September 2011 at the A Better World By Design conference is Makeshift Magazine, a Kickstarter.com-funded project. It is a

"...quarterly magazine and multimedia website about creativity in unlikely places, from the favelas of Rio to the alleys of Delhi. These are environments where resources may be scarce, but where ingenuity is used incessantly for survival, enterprise, and a self-expression. Makeshift is about people, the things they make, and the context they make them in."

Makeshift Magazine is co-founded by Making Do author Steve Daniels who also co-founded A Better World By Design. Wishing Makeshift Magazine the best. (Also watch Steve Daniels' TEDx-Brooklyn 2010 talk "ICT in Emerging Markets" here.)

Makeshift from Makeshift on Vimeo.
Video credits: Editing: Zach Caldwell / Footage: What Took You So Long and Steve Daniels
Voiceover: Jerri Chou /Music: "Generator ^ Second Floor" by the Freelance Whales

NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION
Also sharing something closer to personal experience which happens to also be an advocacy (my mother is a journalist; we grew up eating news for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so to speak, and her newspaper work sent us to school) is Newspapers in Education (NIE)'s video of a case study in Colombia.

It is a well-made video that speaks a lot of what I believe our education thrust should take inspiration from considering how television has taken over households as "news sources" but that televised news sources, especially on free channels, intersperse their broadcast with more showbiz gossip than necessary just to get viewers hooked.

While the fate of newspaper publishing in the Internet age is slowing being shut, the benefits of reading the news ON paper (and of reading in general) is irreplaceable. The video clearly features more advantages to reading than watching, particularly when educational institutions use such programs in the proper context.

The video is from the WAN-IFRA Newspapers in Education site.

Aug 2 2011

Typhoon "Kabayan"

To "enjoy" a full day of  downpour my brother-in-law calls "torrential rain" when he texted a greeting; classes were suspended and public and private workers were asked to take the rest of the afternoon off. My sister called.

Some Metro Manila main streets were flooded since this morning (a car was captured on lunchtime news floating in flood waters and Marikina River had overflowed to above street level by late afternoon).

Then a 3-way business-and-pleasure Skype session with a good friend from the old campus-theater days, now based in Penang.

And Nora Aunor arrived today. For real, finally.

Nora Aunor in "Himala"

Somebody posted an hour ago:

"Si Ate Guy?" RT "Overheard: Bakit kasi pinapayagang makapasok sa (why was [it] ever allowed to enter the) Philippine Area of Responsibility!" "panalo" ("Winner!")

Funny. This is Pinoy humor that's amusing even to a "Noranian" like myself. Say what? This is the first time I have ever written that: Noranian.

It's another August 2 day today that has generated other random thoughts:

• About the alleged Election fraud hearings, etc.: If it is proven that FPJ won in 2004, what would declaring him a winner do besides correct history books? Will it invalidate all decrees, laws, contracts, etc. signed by GMA? Will it invalidate the election processes that succeeded it, like who he may have chosen fielded instead? I feel inadequate not knowing the answers, knowing that those who opened the can of worms have no idea themselves what vermi types they are.
• Have the authorities learned from real climate change — and its effects — beyond just lip service?
• Do we really need another TV game show that caters to the masses, give out houses and lots and other money prizes because there's just too much of it in the pocket? And after the winners cry tears of joy on air, are they equipped to handle the responsibilities of being real homeowners and instant millionaires?
• Cultivating a culture of mendicancy. Everyone's on it.
• Encouraging a culture of gossip through trial by publicity, disinformation, abuse of social networks, irresponsible reporting and such. Wring it on!
• A bungling rescue effort in a historic location by The Bay is nearing its 1st anniversary. It's the one that caused an erosion in leadership confidence, unfortunately. "Heads will roll" said he in the headlines. One year hence, not one has.
• The elite Philippine football team has taken attention away from honest-to-goodness sports development program/s that should have benefitted other local sports and athletes. Seriously. And the local rugby team should have been called AZPEENS instead in honor of the brown boys.
• Oh, a fugitive elected official resurfaces, then makes a subtle public entrance by riding on, literally, the bandwagon. For reference, check a Cavite event the President attended this year.
• Ad nauseum.

Our Manila-Penang Skype afternoon session was a mix of stats and data, requirements, opinions, touching base with global and national issues and such — yes — and, like a pendulum, swung from good times past to harsh realizations of the present. Has anything changed?

Sometimes, days like these makes one vulnerable because the grey, swollen skies bring with it mementos of unpreparedness and fragility (just that, minus the mori, haha).

We may need an authentic Himala without the political color. So, make it neutral tone. Or brown — it's better. (Oh, did I mention how much I love that Bernal movie? And Mario O'hara's "Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos"?)

Or perhaps something as unexpected as Oprah Winfrey springing a Charice Pempengco surprise. Come to think of it, this little girl may well be the 21st century Nora Aunor of her generation though they fulfill two different entertainment values. (Then again, there's Eugene Domingo who may aptly be the new-gen Nora. I love them who goes against the grain of industry-prescribed "beauty.")

Yet there's a lot to be thankful for in the past 365 days, and in days coming. Like that 12 year old girl named Janelia Lelis from Albay who saved the flag, solid and upright in the middle of a raging flood last week during typhoon "Juaning."

Frank Lorzano via @cesarAPOLINARIO / http://twitpic.com/5zsoil/

Or hoping that the sun will come out tomorrow.

- 02082011