I was gearing up to blog about my reactions to the recently concluded SONA when something happened that made me want to stand in the middle of EDSA and scream a la Edvard Munch painting.


CARLO J. CAPARAS??? A NATIONAL ARTIST?!?!?!

Granted, he gave us Panday and Bakekang.

But what about Tony Velasquez, "the father of Philippine komiks," who gave us Kenkoy? What about Mars Ravelo, arguably "the greatest Filipino komiks writer of all time," who gave us Darna, Kapten Barbell, Bondying, Dyesebel, and a host of other unforgettable characters and stories? What about Larry Alcala, lauded for "his lifetime dedication to the art of capturing humor in the character and everyday life in the Philippines?"

What about, especially, Francisco V. Coching, considered "the Philippines' greatest illustrator"? Coching who shaped the Filipino style of komiks illustration, who many, if not most, of the Philippines' great komiks creators credit with being a great influence and inspiration? Prolific Coching, of whose 61 komiks-novels, all but 10 were translated into film? Coching, who has already been twice nominated for the honor of becoming the first National Artist for Visual Arts for his role in pioneering and elevating the art of komiks illustration in the country, yet who was always turned down because the popular art of komiks illustration was not of the same gravity and importance as the "high arts" of painting and sculpture?

Upon receiving the news, komiks illustrator and industry advocate Gerry Alanguilan tweeted:

"This is the day that the National Artists Award lost all its credibility. As an artist, I am deeply saddened, offended, and disgusted.

I feel insulted and offended for Francisco V. Coching. This is absolutely shameful."


I agree with Mr. Alanguilan. That award should be Coching's by right, is his by right. For the true pioneers of an art form to be passed over in favor of someone who, even in the eyes of many of his peers, sucks, is unjust and insulting. Coching, Velasquez, Ravelo, Alcala and the rest, must be turning over in their graves.

The following are some of Coching's komiks-novels which he wrote and illustrated, from Gerry Alanguilan's Komiks museum:

With all that is happening around us nowadays, would you want to go to sleep and never wake up? Would these reasons listed below be sufficient to wake you up, or would you want to go on dreaming?

Original plurk post: Please wake me up.

Replies:

Wake up!

Nagresign na si GMA.

Martial law na ulet.

Binaril si Mike A.!
...nakailag si Mike A.
Ambush daw ng Abu Sayyaf.
Humiram daw ng anting-anting kay Revilla, siya lang buhay sa ambush.
Sumulat ng libro, best-seller *pakshet*
At dahil martial law, required reading ng mga bata.
Resulta: Binago lahat rules ng mga old school games (taguan, patintero, piko, tumbang preso) dahil lagi ng nandadaya ang mga bata
at ang ethics classes ginawang petiks classes
ang valedictorian ang pinakatuso sa exams
na abolish na ang GMRC classes sa elem
kailangan mong maglagay sa tindera ng karinderia para bentahan ka ng bananaque

sabay-sabay nabomba batasan at malacanang at patay na lahat ng pulitiko kaya kelangan mag-elect ng bago

(eh dream come true naman yan laya e. bangungot ang hinihirit namin ditoh

eloisa lalong di magigising yan kung binabangungot

true true... back to dream sequence)

nagtutulungan na mga tao. lahat umaayaw na sa lagay
may cure na ang lahat ng STDs, kaya back sa era of free love
at AIDS, specially AIDS
lahat ng tao, wala nang problema sa pera or sakit or overpopulation or lack of any type of resources

(teka... rapture na ata to eh)

lahat ng pamilyang Pilipino may katulong na taga HongKong or Korean
kami katulong namin Amerikano, driver Arabo
konti nalang gumagamit ng EDSA, lahat kasi connected na ng hi-tech na Train System, hangga Baguio
mga tanders lang yan, the rest teleports to jupiter and mars
pag-kakain sa fastfood, pede ng cellphone ang pang-save ng upuan habang umo-order
at walang nagnanakaw ng cellphone. pagkat nakakabit ito sa robotic arm

--------------------------

This originated from a plurk post by mari and participated in by quintessential, eloisa, gilbz, Alyas Torpe, and yours truly.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

And me an avid reader of Inquirer, too. Which is to say I buy the newspaper 8 times out of 10, except if I need classified ads (I go to the Bulletin for that). Online, I also go to the website a lot.

And then to have my eyes confronted with THIS. The worst part is that it doesn't seem to be satirical at all. Which brings me to the question: How the hell did this ever get published, and in INQUIRER for good measure?

(click pics to enlarge)



A friend of mine commented on the blog post. Twice. Her comments are still "awaiting moderation" (see below). She got peeved because her comments never got published in spite of the fact that incendiary comments were being published right and left and people were mudslinging like crazy down the center, which is how I got to know about the article. Oh, is it because the propriety of publishing the article was called into question?

And they say we bloggers are irresponsible journalists. Oh wait. The person who wrote that "blog post" is a blogger too, right? Which makes me ask, again, where the Inquirer gets off in publishing what he wrote. If I wrote like that I wouldn't even make it within a shadow of Youngblood.



Yeah, right. Editorial policy, prerogative to choose and all that. Legitimate opinion? A blog post that vulgar belongs in FHM. Or Playboy. Not in a national daily. I hope his mother, sisters and aunts read what he wrote. "Honesty" lording it over "hypocrisy", yet. Personally, I view it as the triumph of vulgarity over good breeding, if he had any in the first place.

I have already expressed my opinion of Hayden Kho and of the disproportionate response to the situation in previous posts, and go on record as commending Kat for her strength.

Sorry, Inquirer. My good opinion of you just slipped 25% lower.

Wow. I'd already been getting really peeved with the Facebook ads appearing on my profile and in my apps. Then I read this:

Change Your Facebook Settings Or Else
Posted using ShareThis

Imagine your husband is on his Facebook profile one day, and he spots this ad for "hot singles in your area."

Now imagine that the face in the ad is your face.

PHAIL.


Don't get me wrong, I love Facebook. Once you get the hang of it, it's really quite ingenious, and addicting. Except for those ads.

My original peeve was with those ads I keep seeing all the time, every time I use a Facebook app. They look like inboxes with notifications, saying "You have (5) unread messages." Or, worse, they would flash urgently saying "Inbox full! You have (7) unread messages." Then a little pop-up would say "5 of your friends in (my location) think you're cute."



Thinking it was a notification from an app that I had forgotten about, I initially clicked on it and was surprised when it took me off the site instead, to the registration page for what looked like the game Travian, although it was not in English.

Since I cannot appreciate Travian and have no time for prolonged online gaming now, I closed that tab.

The ad, though, kept showing up. And flashing. The next week it said "3 of your friends in (my location) are secretly in love with you!" I didn't bite.

Then it began to pile on the negativity.

"5 of your friends secretly think you're dumb!" "3 of your friends think you're stupid!" "2 of your friends think you're lazy!"

The effect was akin to having a troll live in my Facebook account and taunt me everytime I moved around the site.

So I e-mailed Facebook to ask them to remove it.

"To whom it may concern:

I am always seeing a certain Facebook ad whenever I use apps. At first it was saying "Two of your friends in (my location) think you are nice. Click here to find out!" I was curious so I clicked it, thinking it was a Facebook app of some kind. However, it led me to a certain site that was not in English, although it looked like that game Travian. I was not interested, so I closed the tab.

The ad, however, still kept on showing up, at the right side of the apps or games when I'm using them. The text changed to "(A number) of your friends in (my location) are secretly in love with you." Later, it became "(A number) of your friends in (my location) think you're stupid." Today, just before I wrote this email, I saw it and it said "(A number) of your friends in (my location) think you're dumb."

This ad is not only misleading, it is offensive. First of all, it links to something that is totally unrelated to what it says.Secondly, it seems to promote a stalker mentality and feeds on people's paranoias, in that it assumes there will be someone who is all too glad to know what negative things other people are saying about them. And thirdly, it is becoming insulting. Each time I see it, and the more I don't click on it, the more it seems to be taunting the person seeing it that they may be "stupid" or "dumb" if they don't click on it.

For the reasons mentioned above, please remove and BAN this ad. It is getting to be very irritating. Thank you."

I was instead directed to the on-site forms for reporting ads.

So I filled out a form.

After a week, I received a polite e-mail saying that the ad in question was in the applications I used.

"Thanks for reporting this ad. It sounds like the ad you're describing was served through a Facebook application, and not through Facebook itself. Because of this, Facebook isn't able to further investigate or take action on this particular ad. You can report concerns you have about the content or behavior of any Facebook application directly to the developer of that application by going to the application's About page and clicking "Report Application" at the bottom of the page, or by clicking "Report" at the bottom of any canvas page within the application.

You may also want to view or adjust your application privacy settings at http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?view=platform&tab=other. Unless an application has been authorized by you or your friends, Facebook allows it to access only the information that is available in your public search listing (your name, networks, profile picture, and friend list). To control how the above information is distributed to Applications, please visit the Search Privacy page at http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?view=search.

Please let us know if you have additional questions or concerns.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Ian
Online Sales Operations
Facebook"




Excuse me, guys, but isn't that akin to telling me I will now have to report every single Facebook app I use that carries the ad? Because I see it in almost all of them. I can just see every other user of that app getting mad at me for interrupting their gameplay.

And I really couldn't see the relevance of the second paragraph until I read Cheryl Smith's post. You know the feeling of suddenly having been whupped in the face with something that suddenly came out of nowhere?

It was like, holy guacamole... how many Facebook ads with my face in it have people probably been seeing?

Holy hell, people who don't even know me might be seeing my face in there and later come across my profile and somehow think that I was looking for something that I wasn't.

Facebook, I love you, but this sneaky, underhanded sort of advertising simply must stop, for the reasons already mentioned above. You are abusing the trust of your users by using their faces and personal information for your ads without their knowledge and consent. Even if you might cover your asses by pointing out that we could stop ourselves appearing in these ads by changing our Facebook settings, well, I didn't even know that I could be appearing in those ads, so I would not know of the need to change those settings.

Moreover, there's this little thing called truth in advertising, right? And you're putting words in people's mouths that many of them might not have said, had they been asked about it. Heck, you're even putting people in this ads who would not have consented had they known they were to be in them.

Those little irritating ads in the apps are also very misleading. They make us think they're other than what they seem. And they play on people's paranoia by somehow telling them that their friends are really dissing them behind their backs. I don't believe them because I know what they really are, but as I said, they're like trolls. And should therefore be banned.

They're misleading because they make people think they are notifications, but lead people to other sites instead. I didn't even know it was an ad for Travian until I found myself on the site. Another version of that I clicked even brought me to an online gambling site. Again, the operative word is MISLEADING. Truth in advertising, right?

Facebook, I'm talking to you.

Maging Sino Ka Man
(Rey Valera)

Ang pag-ibig ay sadyang ganyan
Tiwala sa isa't isa'y kailangan
Dati mong pag-ibig wala akong pakialam
Basta't mahal kita kailan pa man
'Wag kang mag-isip ng ano pa man
Mga paliwanag mo'y di na kailangan
At kahit ano pa ang iyong nakaraan
Mamahalin kita maging sino ka man
Mahal kita pagka't mahal kita
Iniisip nila ay hindi mahalaga
Mahal kita maging sino ka man



Mali man ang ikaw ay ibigin ko
Ako'y isang bulag na umiibig sa 'yo
At kahit ano pa ang iyong nakaraan
Mamahalin kita maging sino ka man
Mahal kita pagka't mahal kita
Iniisip nila ay hindi mahalaga
Mahal kita maging sino ka man

==============================

Whoever You Are
Translation by Laya

Love is just like that
Trust in each other is needed
I don't care about your former loves,
I just love you forever.
'Don't think about anything else
Your explanations are not needed
And whatever your past is,
I will love you, whoever you are.
I love you, and because I love you
What others think is not important
I love you, whoever you are.

Even if it would be wrong to love you
I am blind in my love for you
And whatever your past is,
I will love you, whoever you are.
I love you, and because I love you
What others think is not important
I love you, whoever you are.

When I was in high school, every Monday in the school year was always special. There was a program after the flag ceremony, hosted by a different class each week, revolving about different themes. The program mostly consisted of a solo by the class singer, a short play that we referred to as the playlet, a talk by the class adviser on the theme, a dance number and a couple of choral performances by the whole class.



In our second year, our class was assigned the theme "Love of God." Our class adviser was faced with the challenge of interpreting the theme when her class was made up of students from more than ten different churches, including Roman Catholics and Muslims. As a result, she taught us two songs, which have stayed with at least one of her students up to today, over fifteen years later. They were "One God," which I later found to be a Streisand song, and "Up With People."

One God

Millions of stars placed in the skies by one God
Millions of men lift up their hearts to one God
So many people calling to Him by many different names
One Father, loving each the same.

Many the ways all of us pray to one God
Many the paths winding their ways to one God,
Walk with me brother, there are no strangers
After His work is done
For your God and my God are one.

Yes, brother, for your God and my God are one.


Up With People

Up, up with people,
you meet them wherever you go.
Up, up with people
they're the best kind of folks we know.
If more people were for
people and people everywhere
There'd be a lot less people to worry about
and a lot more people who care...

It happened just this morning
I was walking down the street
a newsboy and a postman
and a policeman I did meet
There in every window and at every single door
I recognized people I'd never noticed before...

People from the southland
and people from the north
Like a mighty army I saw them coming forth
Twas a great reunion, be afitting of a king
Then I realized people are more important than things...

Inside everybody,
there's some bad and there's some good
but don't let anybody start attacking peoplehood
love them as they are and fight for them to be
the great men and great women that God wants them to be...

Looking back on it, I see what a good thing my teacher had done. With just two songs, she taught her students, adolescents growing up in a small town in Mindanao, the value of acceptance and tolerance. Our small public school had students from many indigenous groups and churches going to it... Roman Catholic, Muslim, Baptist, Iglesia ni Cristo, Seventh Day Adventist, Methodist, Aglipayan, UCCP, to name a few. Picking any religious song, any song on faith, from the hymnbooks of any of the big churches would have been sure to provoke mutiny on one side or another. She taught us, instead, that "so many people call to him by many different names," but He is "one father, loving each the same." She taught us to love people "as they are and fight for them to be the great men and great women that God wants them to be."

In such diverse groups, it is easy for people to take sides and call one another names just because others are "not our sort of people." It is easy to denigrate others for being "poor," "ignorant," "illiterate," and "uncivilized," just because they are not of our culture, easy to insult and curse others because we feel that we are better than they are, that we are more entitled than they are. Yet, I hope that on my home island, people are also beginning to realize that we are all brothers under the skin, although we are segregated by religion and tribe. In some areas, harmony is actually possible, as long as people practise tolerance and acceptance, and as long as others don't come in and remind them that they should be banding together against one another. In my home town, that harmony has been achieved, and I hope that not even the escalating violence in the rest of the island will not disturb that accord.

I hope, too, that the students of 2nd Year Anthurium 1992-1993 will never forget the two songs that our class adviser taught us.

I'm not very religious anymore... I discovered that in my case the belief that all men are brothers is mostly incompatible with a creed that requires evangelization of others. I had arguments with more than one friend over the issue; one of them who belongs to another church tried to persuade me to attend her bible study group. I refused, on the ground that I do not even attend my own church's bible study groups. The argument escalated to the point where she called me "ungodly" and a "sinner" because I do not study the bible as much as she does. At that time I had been reading Robert A. Heinlein's Revolt in 2100, and I pulled out my copy and quoted Zeb in If This Goes On--- "My religious faith is a private matter between me and my God... what my religious beliefs are you will have to judge by my actions for you are not invited to question me about them. I decline to explain or to justify them to you... nor to anyone. I believe that everyone... should be generous to the poor... I believe he should lay down his life for his brothers, should it be required of him. But I don't propose to prove any of these things, for they are beyond proof, nor do I demand that you believe as I do." The effect of that grand speech was that my friend, who also happened to be one of my roommates in the college dorm, ignored me for a whole semester. But at least I was free of someone preaching to me.

Years later, I had another argument with a friend who belongs to a church whose members consider themselves "chosen ones." A debate over being "chosen," which was the premise she made for inviting me to attend their church, led to her likening her church to the Israelites. I had asked why, if there was a chosen people, did God create the diverse peoples of the world. Was he not supposed to be a fair and just God? Why would he show favoritism? There was only one people that God would save, she argued. All others were doomed. That was the way of the world. In which case, I told her, I did not want any part of her God, for he was not good. And either way, I told her, if the Israelites were the chosen ones, she was not an Israelite but a Filipino, so she wouldn't be saved either. She didn't speak for me for half a year.

Right now, I steer shy of religion. I'm not knocking any churches... if others find comfort in their beliefs, then that is their concern. I just believe in live and let live.

In my pre-teen years, I came across a story in a book... it might have been Philippine Prose and Poetry, it might have been the Philippine Readers. (I'd say it was Camilo Osias' Philippine Readers because I distinctly remember the illustration of a boy in a camisa, trousers and chinelas that might have been by Amorsolo.) I don't remember the title, the author, or even the names of the characters, I just remember the story, as it was a huge influence on getting me all het up about voting.



The story begins with a boy waking up on the morning of his birthday. His mother greets him, and there is a reference to them being poor, as his father is already dead, and that she is sorry for not being able to give him a birthday present.

He tells his mother that it's okay because his country has given him a wonderful present for his birthday. It is his 18th birthday, and he is now able to vote. His mother asks what is so wonderful about it, and he explains that his country has now entrusted him with its future. By voting, he will help to decide what happens to his country.

After breakfast, they have a visitor, an old friend of his father who is a politician. The old friend now starts in being buddy buddy and banks on old friendships by asking for the boy's vote in the upcoming elections. The boy refuses, and his mother grows indignant. This is his father's old friend, he is embarrassing his mother by refusing. He now explains that his vote is not to be given away that lightly, that it is his duty to his country to vote for someone because he believes that person will govern wisely, not because that person is a family friend or someone he knows. He cannot make a promise he will not be able to fulfill.

"Someday, mother, you will understand," he tells his mother as the politician angrily leaves.

The boy's words in that story has stayed in my heart and mind over the years. Because of that short story, I was keen to register for the SK elections as soon as I was old enough. I registered as a voter for the regular elections at age 17, because I was turning 18 before Election Day. I dragged my sister to register at the first opportunity she had after her 18th birthday.

Yes, I know, this country has problems, especially during elections. Yes, I know the existence of the dagdag-bawas and all those other forms of cheating. So why do I still vote?

Because, as the boy in the story said, my country has entrusted me with its future. Others may disregard my vote as of no consequence. But if I do not vote, it will be the equivalent of standing aside and doing nothing. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Our indifference would, in time, kill what little democracy we still have.

Besides, in law, before you can bring suit for the redress of a wrong, you must first have the legal standing to do it. If there was damage to property, you must be the legal owner of that property. You cannot bring action for damage to your neighbor's property, or even to your sister's property. Same thing, you should not complain of cheating in the polls if you yourself have not voted. You don't have the right; you disenfranchised yourself. Vote first. And if you see your vote misused or disregarded, then speak up for it. No one else then would have better right than you.

That's why I vote. How about you?

Is this a social experiment of some sort?

First Manila Bulletin comes up with this article that of course got maximum online coverage by our beloved Twitterers and Plurkers. (Click screencaps to enlarge.)





Less than 24 hours later, here's the same article.



And here's a column from the Philippine Star on the same issue.



And of course, Malacanang said "What? Breast implants? No!"