I cheered when a radio commentator, during the rescue operations for the victims of typhoon Ondoy, boomed: “Let’s set aside politics for the moment! Let’s forget about blame and just focus on how we can help. But, ah, when this is over, I already know the people I’m going to curse!” During the initial damage control assessment, the National Disaster Coordinating Agency, under the Department of National Defense, was forced to admit they had only 14 rubber boats nationwide. The prospects, if not the situation, improved when Greenpeace and the United States Navy stepped in to help.
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, naturally, was on top of the situation already – way ahead of the government – the de facto point man for emergencies. Gosh darn it, this man should be President!
That’s the first lesson from Ondoy – the Philippine government is not equipped for disaster management, not to mention search and rescue operations. I will not go into that but here’s something else I picked up from dzMM: the vice mayor of a Metro Manila city allegedly insisted on being rescued and riding on a rubber boat – even though the water was only up to his waist. Maybe he’s wearing super expensive pants.
The second lesson from Ondoy is the exact opposite – Filipinos can still show heroism in a crisis. The TV images of people wailing and gnashing their teeth eclipsed the steady heroisms of volunteers and donors. As of writing, Sagip Kapamilya, the relief arm of the ABS-CBN Foundation, has nearly reached the PhP100M mark from pledges and donatons. Volunteers, students in groups mostly, are streaming in. Celebrities hosted and manned the phones in their fund-raising telethon.
People, to quote Kris Aquino, “opened their hearts, wallets and bank accounts.” The stars shoned brightest during this dark hour. Richard Gutierrez stormed his way through Ondoy to rescue Christine Reyes and her family; Gerald Anderson defied the deep waters to help his neighbors – Happiness! Typhoon Ondoy wrought devastation to our country, but it also brought out the best in us, making us all living witnesses that, in the aftermath of the deluge, it is a proud thing to be a Filipino again.
Angel Locsin is at the peak of her showbiz career – she’s now one of the most celebrated actresses and celebrity endorsers of her generation. She once played Darna, the Pinoy version of a flying Wonder Woman created by the iconic Mars Ravelo. But what some don’t know – but they most emphatically should – is: Angel has initiated her own private rescue mission for victims of Ondoy. Her secret service was exposed when her studio, ABS-CBN, brought relief goods to where she was distributing her own, in Provident village in Marikina City That’s the thing about true stars – they shine brilliantly even away from the limelight.Video. Photo
Award-winning actress Judy Ann Santos and her husband, actor TV host Ryan Agoncillo, braved the onslaught of typhoon Ondoy to personally rescue Gladys Reyes, an equally highly acclaimed actress, who was trapped with her family on the roof of their house in Pasig City; her husband, actor Christopher Roxas, was abroad. This rescue was carried out without the knowledge of reporters nor the presence of cameras. But an even more amazing thing is that Juday and Ryan actually returned to the scene to lend aid to Gladys’ neighbors.
Judy Ann and Gladys rose to fame together as children in their early 90’s soap opera “Mara Clara.” Juday is the star of Ploning, an independent movie shortlisted for an Oscar Best Foreign Film, while Ryan is the host of “Pinoy Fear Factor.” In their current sitcom, “George & Cecil,” they play characters very close to their hearts – a newly wed couple. I’ve been hearing consistent reports that Gladys is a real beautiful soul in person though she’s typecasted as an evil punisher of martyr heroines. She’s an active member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo church, and she was the one who revealed to the media Judy Ann and Ryan’s secret – those beautiful, unforgettable acts of bravery, selflessness and heroism.
You get used to a lot of strange things when you live in the Philippines, like election frauds in showbiz awards. But nothing prepared anybody for typhoon Ondoy, a.k.a. Ketsana. On the morning of September 26, I woke up and found my room already half-submerged in muddy water; the whole dorm, the compound, even the street outside, were sinking. This was at the heart of the University Belt in Manila, mind you. I thought it would recede in a couple of hours – which is normal here. I was wrong. Meanwhile I had to go out and eat anyway, so I waded to the nearest restaurant, then went to Morayta to pass the time in an Internet café. But I couldn’t even cross Recto. Things got worse – quickly.
The whole city is flooded with poisoned liquid, which was actually raging like a malignant river. Hundreds are stranded; some, like me, refused to be. I was slogging happily, like Gene Kelly in Singin’ In The Rain, but without the umbrella, much less the dance moves. But that was peanuts to what happened, as I found out later, to the entire Metro Manila.
The LRT 1 closed operation, and I was glad they re-opened by late afternoon. I rode to Pedro Gil to get to a friend’s house in the Paco area, near Quirino Highway (Figueroa Street, actually), which was elevated. They were glad to see me and equally happy that I was kind enough to swim by the market first. I bought food while the flood level is caressing my nipples, if you can imagine. I spent that night dry and comfortable, fortified with food, listening to dzMM for a blow-by-blow account of the worst flood in nearly half a century, realizing that most of my country men are experiencing the exact opposite. There’s an element of guilt, but also a great measure of thanksgiving.
I returned to my room the next day, and saw that everything I owned were marinated, like chicken wings in soy sauce with calamansi lemons, the entire night. From the marks on the wall, the water level went just a couple of feet shy of the roof. Almost a thousand books and magazines and files – including the only copy of my first novel’s original manuscript – transformed into a mountainous yucky soggy decaying Jabba the Hut. I’m starting all over again, and I’m not the only one.
Thousands of my country men died and lost all they had, but as TV host Boy Abunda memorably said: We have different stories, but they all lead to a single refrain – “Thank God we’re still alive.”
United Nations – This is a tale of two maiden speeches at the General Assembly. If the leader of the United States “re-engaged the United Nations,” then the leader of Libya disengaged from reality. Moammar Ghadafi, with a mind-bending intro as the “Leader of the Revolution, the President of the African Union, the King of Kings in Africa,” took the podium and made even Ahmadinejad sound normal.
The Great Ghadafi Extravaganza ran for 90 minutes, just a wee past his allotted 15, and “took about 17 minutes to get to the main point of his speech, which was a demand for an African seat on the Security Council,” says the New York Times.
But that’s pedestrian. His other ideas are a lot more colorful:
Move the U.N. headquarters to Libya
Establish an autonomous emirate for the Taliban
Swine flue is a lab-cooked WMD
Re-open the assassination cases of JFK and Martin Luther King
Israel and the Palestinian territories should merge as a single state – “Isratine”
I think I saw an old movie where a young Patrick Swayze was shaving Rob Lowe’s pubic hair, but the first Swayze film I really really liked was Road House, where he plays a beer joint bouncer highly trained in the mystic martial arts of the Orient. I love Ghost – who can forget the death-defying love story of Sam and Molly – and I would always associate Unchained Melody with She’s Like The Wind. My favorite Swayze film, to get to the point, is Point Break, where his Zen surfer and thrill-seeking extreme gamer and bank robber is a superb foil to Keannu Reeve’s undercover FBI agent. I am confident this film will be re-discovered as an overlooked cinematic gem: an original, pulse-pounding edge-of-your-seat action movie – the perfect popcorn fare for thinking audiences.Trailer. Photo
The power of literature is such that it can change the course of history, like the novels Noli Me Tangere and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. There is an indefinable something in books that even their authors couldn’t have created. I learned this firsthand when I read Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs. It was spooky, sinister and thoroughly enjoyable at the same time.
The plot alone will perk all your senses: a young woman is tasked to obtain information about a serial killer from the most intelligent and brilliantly incisive sociopath that ever lived.
Here are the dramatis personae:
Clarice Starling is an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but she’s young and inexperienced. Buffalo Bill abducts women, and he kills them and takes their skins. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a psychiatrist with an intelligence that is immeasurable by any standards known to man, but he eats flesh – hence the media-dubbed “Hannibal the Cannibal” – and he’s confined in the maximum security prison for the criminally insane. Now their paths will cross, and nothing will ever be the same again.
It would be misleading to think of The Silence of the Lambs as your common garden-variety psychological thriller. You’ll get thrilled – but ponderous as well. It is so thought-provoking to the point of enabling the reader to see the situation from a deranged person’s point of view. It doesn’t mean you’ll go crazy, mind you. I wouldn’t call it The World According to Psycho, but it’s alarmingly near the area.
Who, after all, is really insane? The people who are overpowered by their desires, or those in power who manipulate others like puppets in a string?
The psychological highlights are the encounters of Clarice and Hannibal deep inside the prison, giving you claustrophobia and reminding of dungeons where monsters reign.
Paradoxically, the reason why it’s so hard to catch psychotic criminals, according to Lecter, it’s that there are too many psychiatrists giving conflicting interpretations of behavior. A person’s every action and motivation have been labeled and compartmentalized that even the line between right and wrong has become just a matter of one’s perspective – or prejudice.
Is insanity a crime? That is one of the many questions the book asks by inference. Is an insane person absolutely evil and a threat to society? Let’s take Hannibal: he has committed murders – not to mention eating his victims -- but he was instrumental in the capture of the serial killer Buffalo Bill. Buffalo Bill, on the other hand, is not necessarily the devil incarnate because he loves his dog.
There is enough ambiguity in The Silence of the Lambs that even if you already know who the good guys are supposed to be, you find yourself hesitating to take sides unconditionally. There is, for example, the vengeful prison director who cares only for publicity, and the lady Senator who bent the rules and betrayed Lecter. Then again, you really can’t blame her because her daughter – the latest victim of Buffalo Bill – is in mortal danger.
The cast of characters in The Silence of the Lambs is a microcosm of human nature. There are heroes and villains but they are all flawed. Nothing is black and white. Everybody has a dark side, but everybody is also potentially good, even the criminally insane.
Today is the International Day of Peace. Allow me to share with you one of my few surviving essays from my teenage years. Shalom.
Peace, such a beautiful world. A thing of beauty, though unseen, felt, by innermost soul. An idea, abstract perhaps, but like the highest peak of a mountain, it is there. To be reached by the mind, to be grasped, like a shining prize, by the heart. Peace I have known, brief moments in time, they glimmer like fireflies on a moonlit night. But to man, starved for truth, a morsel, alas, is not enough. There is more to this world, in our lives, than mammon’s lot There are to be served higher purposes – justice, truth, beauty, love, charity, hope, peace.
Not the peace of the desert. There is solitude, but only wilderness. Not to commune with
nature but to grapple with temptation. The battle of good and evil, we are told, is ultimately won – and lost, in the hearts of men.
Not the peace of the graveyard. Hollowed ground, but surrounded by death. But death comes to all of us, The Dark Shrouded One to reap the harvest of souls. To slay, indiscriminately, whether a prince or a pauper, for, in the end, all of us are indeed, created equal.
There are of course, meditations to be heard when alone, surrounded by the tombs of the departed. To know death is to love life, for only can the value of something be known – when it has been lost. Our time on earth is but a spark in the blinding light of infinity. A man can live, to change the world perhaps, to conquer kingdoms, to rally a million men, or live like a leper, reviled unwanted, hated. For at the consummation of a life, a man may be deemed worthy to dwell in the isle of the Blest, or be unmourned, forgotten, to die like a dog.
And all shall cross the dark river of Styx, on Charon’s boat, to the other side. What is in there? Eternal twilight? Paradise, Purgatorio or Inferno? The Comedia of Dante – a comedy? For is not that was God perceived to be, among other things, a jester? Did He not made a deal between Satan for Job’s soul? God – as Faust? Insufferable torture Job was thus punished. For his faith? For his obedience? But Job, like Paul and Daniel, fought the good fight. Job’s faith was strong, unmovable like the rock of Gibraltar.
In the end, Job regained his place in the folds of so-called decent man. No longer was he defeated, but welcomed back to society, the same society that treated him in the past with utter revulsion. For, in God’s cruel joke, the people saw in Job their own worst fears for their own lives. And the wicked, no doubt, celebrated the fall of a just man.
To have peace, some say, is to prepare for war. For only in eternal vigilance can peace, like freedom, be defended. For peace to grow, like a lovely flower, the soil must be nourished by the blood of the martyrs. To the altar of peace, worthy offerings are the lives of the brave, the just and the righteous. The cries and lamentations of the widows and orphans shall pass, as all things pass, but a hero’s sacrifice shall remain forever.
There is peace in moments of serendipity: A beautiful sunset, a perfect shell on a beach, a kiss from a child. Beautiful moments I have found, and peace I have known and known well, not like my shadow, my constant companion perhaps, but rather like a bird in the window. To alight, to sing, to delight, but only for a moment – then flies away.
There is finally, divine peace, where God’s chosen are made to see His grace, visions of heavenly beauty. For, in the moment of death, a vision opens the eyes of the soul to all those things beyond understanding. Only then can a life can be crowned with glories no earthly kingdom can bestow. For it is to know heaven, to hear the angels’ chorus, to be welcomed by the saints.
Above all, it is to know God and say, ‘I have fought the good fight and I have come home!’
That, my friend, is real peace.
And Peace be with you
FrancisMagalona is one of the most significant figures in Philippine pop culture, and it is only fitting that his fans pay tribute to the Master Rapper. I am one of them, but as a professional writer and blogger, whose works have appeared here, abroad and online, it behooves me to craft an article that will forever remain timeless. This new special feature is that article of enduring value
What I Admire Most About FrancisMagalona
By Jonathan Aquino
I believe in freedom of expression and individual will. But at the same time, I have always believed that influence is a responsibility. It is right to use your influence for a higher purpose, and it is wrong to do the opposite – it is as simple as that, and the essence of simplicity is truth.
Francis Magalona, the Father of Philippine Rap – first, greatest, forever unequaled – was also one of the best songwriters in the history of local music. This is no exaggeration and it is patently obvious: most of his songs are already certified classics even during his lifetime.
I admire him deeply for wielding his fame to inspire a generation to appreciate and embrace our national identity, and to take pride in that heritage.
Rose to Stardom
Francis Durango Magalona was born on Oct. 4, 1964, the youngest son of film icons Pancho Magalona and Tita Duran. The artist in him emerged early: he was doing graphic designs for a magazine before he, as it was his genetic destiny, entered the glittering world of show business.
He rose to stardom in Bagets 2, the 1984 teeny-bopper blockbuster movie that also launched the careers of Ramon Christopher and the late Jon Hernandez. He went on to tackle comedies and dramas, even working the late National Artist For Film Lino Brocka.
Made His Mark
But it was rap music that he made his mark. My favorite Francis M. song in Filipino is Ito Ang Gusto Ko (This Is What I Like). The opening lines alone serve as a testament to the greatness of his spirit:
“Mabuhay nang maayos at lubos! Magbigay sa kapwa, magmahal ng taos! Gusto kong tikman ang sarap ng buhay! Hawakan ang bukas sa ’king mga kamay! (To live right and fully! To give to others, to love sincerely! I want to taste the sweetness of life! To hold tomorrow in the palm of my hands!)”
Greatest Hit
An equally significant songwriting masterpiece is his greatest hit, Mga Kababayan Ko (My Countrymen): “Dapat lang malaman n’yo: ako ay Pilipino; kung may itim o may puti, mayro’n naming kayumanggi; isipin mo na kaya mong abutin ang ’yong minimithi (You should know: I am Filipino; if there is black or there is white, there’s also brown skin; think that you can reach for what you’re wishing).”
I remember watching him perform this live at the Gary V. concert Major Impact at the supreme height of his phenomenal career. This was the start of the 1990s, and I was one of the millions of kids who found him really cool – and I always wear batik shirts back then.
Social Awareness
I learned to appreciate alternative Filipino rock music in the mid-90s, listening to the now-defunct radio station LA 105, digging the music of Joey Ayala, Lolita Carbon, Jess Santiago, Heber Bartolome – and the Master Rapper’s headbanging revival of his classic Tayo’y Mga Pinoy (We’re Filipinos).
His sense of social awareness is his trademark as a songwriter. He tells of a young girl named Pamela who went astray in Nilamon Ng Sistema (Swallowed By The System), and his BasuRAP became the unofficial anthem of the environmentalist vanguard EarthSavers Movement, to which he was a spokesman.
No To Drugs
The T-shirts he designed reflected his love of country. The name of his boutique, Three Stars And A Sun (G/F, Broadway Centrum) – taken from his monster single Man From Manila – says it all.
I salute him for his anti-drugs advocacy through his song Mga Praning (Paranoids). One by one, he reveals the systematic downfall of a half-dozen people from various social strata – a web of lives shattered by methamphetamines – then he shows the irony that all these could have been prevented just by saying No to drugs.
“To His Will”
I don’t get to watch TV that often, but I knew that Francis was part of Eat Bulaga!, the longest-running show in the history of Philippine TV, alongside the legendary trio of Tito, Vic & Joey. I also heard that he was supposed to appear at the now historic Eraserheads reunion concert at the Mall of Asia grounds last March 7; and I was one of those who – believing that his leukemia was in remission – was shocked to hear of his sudden death.
“Cancer isn’t about death. It’s about LIFE. And today I celebrate that life,” he posted on his A Free Mind blog on Sept. 25, 2008. His last entry was Jan. 14, 2009: “Your prayers, as always, have sustained me. And am sure the Lord will listen to all our prayers. To His will I submit myself.”
“God bless you, my friend.”
Military Honors
Francis Magalona died on March 6, 2006, after 4 chemotherapy sessions and 8 months of treatment – but before his doctor could begin the stem cell transplant operation that would finally cure him.
His ashes were interred at the LoyolaMemorial Park in Marikina; and as a member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps of the AFP, he was given military honors.
Francis Magalona has left a void in Philippine music with no heir apparent even in the distant horizon – and a musical legacy that celebrates our Filipino consciousness, our inherent potential for good, and our common humanity. “Every color, every hue,” he sings in Kaleidoscope World, “is represented by me and you…”
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the governing body of the Catholic Church in the country, does not, as a rule, officially endorse candidates for political office. It would so … secular. The entry of Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to the 2010 presidential elections might change that – unofficially of course. In interviews on the Church-run station Radio Veritas reported in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said Aquino should be measured by his “uprightness, competence and platform.” Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco said, “What's important for Senator Aquino is to get a good circle of advisers. His openness is necessary but firmness should be exercised.” Borongan (Samar) Bishop Crispian Varquez said, “He has integrity. He should be firm and make a difference.” Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Ambo David was less guarded – and thus more honest: “I feel we are seeing at work God's plan for our country which is greater than the personal plans of Noynoy and Mar Roxas for themselves.”Photo.
All of us know open secrets – things you know are true but can’t personally prove like, say, those abducted aliens at Roswell. Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, in a controversial and highly-publicized Senate privilege speech yesterday, eloquently and mercilessly lambasted his political mentor former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada. Ping said Erap was involved, in varying degrees of participation, in smuggling and illegal gambling – on top of which he was the alleged mastermind of the double murders of publicist Bubby Dacer and his driver Manny Corbito. These are open secrets in the Philippines, but they also includes Ping’s role as Erap’s right hand man, first as task force head and then chief of police. If Pings proves them, although he has yet to show proof, then he can go to jail for being an accessory … unless he enter the Witness Protection Program … which, by the way, is controlled by another party he has repeatedly exposed and slammed in the past – the Arroyo regime. Can you say “Strange bedfellows” with a straight face?Video. Photo.
I am not a religious person, but I make it a point to lead a true Christian’s life as much as I can. I may be cynical about a lot of things, but I still believe that life is a miracle in itself. And in this world of contradictions, I think this is a good place to start. I was googling Madonna’s I’ll Remember, one of my favorite songs and the theme from the Brendan Fraser movie With Honors – then I came across this beautiful video. Have you seen a sperm actually penetrate an egg cell? Have you witnessed the glory of birth? You will love this video, not to mention the song.VIDEO
Today is the day after International Literacy Day. Yeah, I know, I should have posted this yesterday, but I was down with the flu after being submerged in freaking floodwater in Caloocan City, so please, give me a break.Let us stop and think for a moment. Have you ever thought – really, deeply contemplated – just how lucky you are because you can, of all things, read? Some books and magazine articles have become indelible part of our lives, stamped in our hearts and woven into our souls. Just like songs in Bread’s The Guitar Man, “You find yourself some message and some words to call your own and take them home…” Folks who can’t read nor write – like Robert De Niro’s character in Stanley & Iris – are trapped in the dark, and while the journey may not be as easy as ABC, the first step to the light is our understanding, and a helping hand, in our own way, one word at a time.TRAILER OF “STANLEY & IRIS”
If there’s one public official in Philippine politics today who wouldn’t dare tarnish his name, it’s Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III – the only son and firstborn child of Ninoy and Cory. Noynoy is now a symbol that there’s still hope for the country. Some say he’s not experienced, not in sex because he’s bachelor, but in politics. That’s exactly what they said about his mom – but the late great President Cory Aquino became the one of the revered world leaders in history. Why? To begin with, she was invulnerable to greed, which cannot be said under the present administration, which he rightfully slammed. If elections are held today, Noynoy would win, unless Malacañang rig the votes (Video.Photo. Link)
A ten year study by Dell Computer Corp. found that fear of technology was the 'in' thing in the 90s. According to an MCI-Gallup survey, nearly half of the white-collar respondents were “cyberphobic.”
But that's copping out. If you want to study computers, no one's stopping you. Uncomfortable? You're uncomfortable around giant spiders too so that shouldn’t be a big deal. Remember the rubber shoes ad and forget grammar: “Impossible Is Nothing!”
Ask for help. If you can admit you don't know everything, it means you're emotionally secure. It's a sign of wisdom. And getting answers to your questions makes you smarted than you were a minute ago. You may or may not know (or care) that my corny know-how is a combination of tips, trial, error and bugging shop crews (“Miss, I want to attach – photos I mean!”).
Sometimes, the best person to learn from may not be the most knowledgeable,” says Kris Jamsa, author of Welcome To Personal Computers. Once, I was in an Internet shop in U-Belt. The girl beside looked like Bea Alonzo. She asked the attendant how to type 'ñ' – then, when she already knew how, I asked her (press ALT while typing 164; for Ñ, 165).
Take it one step at a time. Printing a letter, sending an e-mail and surfing the Web – believe it or not, these three fundamentals actually make you more tech-savvy than most people, according to Jamsa.
It's like riding a bike for the first time. Your focus should be on achieving balance and mobility. Once you get the
hang of it, you're now ready to be on your own. Or like being a carpenter, “you're first project wouldn't be to build a house. You'd start with something simple, like a bench or a birdhouse,” advises computer expert Robin Williams. “It's the same with the computer. You'd learn as you were faced with new tasks.”
Cruising the information superhighway is a walk in the park – easy as pie and a piece of cake. It's actually more complicated to cook pochero or to write an honest resume.
Avoid techno babble. Jamsa advises that you list your needs and goals when buying a PC. A good salesman should be able to use plain language during his pitch. If he becomes condescending, he doesn't deserve the commission.
In Internet shops, don't be intimidated by customers who act sophisticated – that's just smoke. They want to impress everybody because their egos are full of termites. They're not even thinking of you so why think about them? Day after day, you must face a world of strangers where you don't belong – you must be strong to be what Paolo Coelho calls a Warrior of the Light.
Just do it. If you're uncomfortable with computers but want to learn, just do it. You don't have to make a production out of it. You don't have to call a press conference. Develop confidence by immersing yourself in Internet cafes. You can even have coffee if they have it. Go in and tell them what you want and ask them to set it up. If you get stumped, ask discreetly. And it wouldn't hurt if you dazzle the entire room with your million-dollar smile.
Just master the basics – there's plenty of time for hacking later. “Don't get bogged down in a hefty computer manual,” points out Joe Kraynak, in The Complete Idiot's Guide to PCs. “Go ahead and flip the switch, and move the mouse.”
Go on, you're supposed to make mistakes. You're only human. It's the only way to learn and the only things you can call your own. Oftentimes, the greatest adventures begin off the beaten track. You might meet a grizzly bear – or a magic unicorn.
