The Filipino reading public is not dumb indeed

Nora Aunor

Superstar Nora Aunor is again the talk of the town after posing in the October 2011 issue of YES! Magazine with a cigarette in her hand. Because of this, Aunor has been receiving criticisms from many people and personalities who support humanitarian advocacy. The Philippine Medical Association (PMA): an organization that supports a "Smoke-Free Philippines" as well as the running priest, Father Robert Reyes believes that Aunor's photo conveys a bad image of artists.

This prompted Reyes to tell Aunor, "The Filipino reading public is not dumb. If you want to be popular again, be wholesome. Gusto [mo] ba gayahin ka namin? Ang trabaho n'yo is to inspire us, not to scandalize us." He also added, "Nora, you are ill-advised. You think you are moving forward, it's a step backwards."

Meanwhile, YES! editor-in-chief Jo-ann Maglipon defends the superstar. "She speaks now, against perceived hurts, about her sexuality, about her children. She also smokes. This new openness is her chosen expression of whom she is today, and that is the reason I chose that photograph. It captures her," stated Maglipon. "In a perfect world, we will not have anyone smoking or drinking or gambling or lying. Not just in magazines, but out there in the real world, there is the very real concern with freedom of expression, which not even the most well-meaning advocate should trample on," she added. Maglipon later emphasized that the magazine supports the "Smoke-Free" campaign. [ABS-CBN News]

On the other side, Anne Curtis looks smoking hot on the cover of ROUGE Magazine. Curtis also holds a cigarette on the cover. ROUGE Magazine refused to comment about it, while Curtis is currently out of the country with her boyfriend Erwan Heussaff.

Anne Curtis

People are condemning Nora Aunor and Anne Curtis for posing in magazines with cigarettes in their hands, but they are not condemning the countless celebrities who pose sexy in magazines and billboards who wear almost nothing. They are not condemning the actors and actresses who hold guns, bombs, knives on nationwide TV for the masses to see. These craze are promoting promiscuity, aggression, and violence. I would rather be a smoker than be promiscuous, aggressive, and violent.

I earnestly pray that the common sense of these people will hit them on their heads so they'll have a clue that there are many bigger problems in this forsaken country that we should give careful attention and act upon. Open your eyes! Look around! They are EVERYWHERE. (0_0)

And yes, the Filipino reading public is not dumb. We know what's right and what's wrong; what’s bad and what's WORSE because WE ARE NOT DUMB. So don't you play dumb, father dear.

Angelicopter should be in showbiz

DJ Angelicopter

Armed with her towering figure, angelic face, and alabaster skin, matched with her witty remarks and charming personality, Angelika Schmeing-Cruz commonly known as Angelicopter or Chopper (she got a lot of names) is indeed the most gorgeous jock the Magic and the Philippine radio ever had. She can even venture out as a full-time celebrity given time and opportunity with her ethereal beauty.

If this pretty thing looks familiar to you, it's probably because you've seen her in commercials like Ponds and Johnson's, or in billboards like that one in Guadalupe. Furthermore, she's now a sportscater in IBC 13 for Sports5.

Below is her latest commercial for Downy. It's not her voice though and it's not airing here, it's airing in Thailand. If you want to hear her lovely voice, feel free to tune in to Magic 89.9's Good Times with Mo from Monday-Thursday, 6-9 am. She co-host with Mo Twister, Mojo Jojo, and Grace lee.

Photos of Angelika:

What's the smallest amount of money that you got into a fight for?

That's the question of Mo Twister one morning in his radio show. I heard amounts ranging from a couple of hundred bucks to the tiniest penny. My answer to this question though is 1 peso. Yeah, you read that right, 1 peso.

I got into several fights because of that small amount. The brawl always happens inside a bus or a jeepney whenever the driver or the bus conductor refuses to give me the proper change or doesn't give me change at all. It really ticks me off whenever they do that, especially whenever they back up their illegal action with the lamest excuse I'd ever heard in my life (aside from feign deafness): "Ay, sorry Miss! Akala ko kasi hindi estudyante!" Scumbag. Mahiya naman ho kayo sa puting-puti kong uniform at nagsusumigaw kong school I.D., aside from the fact that I never forget to utter my mantra: "NORMAL PO, ESTUDYANTE!!!"

The core of this issue is: It's not the money. It's the principle that I don't let anyone to get away with.

I will not be a pauper if I'll be one or two bucks poorer, and they will not be millionaires if they'll be one or two bucks richer. I'm sad to know that there are some people who are willing to trade their precious dignity for such a penny. And I, as a concerned citizen, will not condone such acts. I will not let them lose the priceless dignity, especially if that's the only thing they got.

Rhian Ramos raps with Moymoy Palaboy

I'm not a big fan of Moymoy Palaboy, and I think that their segment in Bubble Gang called IyoTube is a certified waste of air time. But their video with Rhian Ramos is the only exception. Rarely can we see such a beautiful young lady with a true sense of hilarity. Oh well, who says hot chicks can't be funny?

Manny Pacquio eyes vice presidency... Scary

Cong. Manny Pacquio

Manny Pacquio stated he wants to prove that there's a real democracy in this country that anybody can aspire for the second highest office.

I like Mannny Pacquio's idealism, and I sincerely think that he's an honest man. But running a country takes more than sheer love. Running a country takes dedication, experience, and intelligence. Running a country is not a piece of entertainment. It's not a boxing match.

That's why I conclude that Cong. Manny is still premature for the position. However, if he'll continue his plan on seeking the gubernatorial post in Sarangani in 2013 for the next midterm election, I'll definitely be one of his supporters. I think Pac really suits as a governor because being a governor is not as complicated as being a congressman, with all the laws that congressmen have to create, deliberate, scrutinize, pass and deny. Palpably, it's also not as complicated as being the vice president of the Philippines.

If Pacquio becomes a governor, he'll have more tangible access to the masses. He'll be more aware to the everyday problems of his people.

How about you? Do you agree?

We're not as dumb as you think we are, congressman

Cong. Hussein Pangandaman

Mohammed Hussein Pangandaman, a first term lawmaker from Lanao del Sur had allegedly mauled a security guard at the UP-Ayala Technohub at about 4:30 pm on Wednesday, August 31, 2011.

SG Ricardo Bonayog said a Porsche bearing the plate number "8" together with a back-up car entered the parking area. The drivers of the said vehicles refused to under go through the required security check, and the occupant of the Porsche approached him and punched him twice.

Pangandaman on the other hand has his own version of the story. In an interview, he said that he doesn't know the story could be fabricated and said the accusations are false. He said sometime last week, he went to Technohub for a meeting with his uncle and lawyer. He was accompanied by a staff. He said he was driving his Porsche. When he tried to enter the parking area, he said he asked nicely if there are vacant slots. He said the guard appeared not to hear anything. However, when the guard checked out his plate number, Pangandaman quoted the guard saying, "Pucha, ocho!". Pangandaman said he left it at that and went inside to park. After he parked, he saw the guard approach him. That's when he asked the guard what seems to be the problem. The guard did not reply. That's when he said the guard acted as if he was going to draw his service firearm. Pangandaman said he stopped him, grabbed his hand and tapped him with the piece of paper he was holding. [ABS-CBN News]

SG Ricardo Bonayog

Weighing the two stories, the former is more believable for me. Who, in his right state of mind would treat a politician armed with body guards in such a way? Acting arrogantly in front of somebody like Cong. Pangandaman is like digging your own grave. Sad I know, but that's the painful reality in our society. With all the reports about missing people, torture of activists and extrajudicial killings left and right, I can't blame if SG Bonayog decided to change his mind and won't pursue charges anymore out of fear for his own life.

Nonetheless, Bonayog said that it'll be good if the congressman will issue an apology for the incident. But instead of saying sorry and admitting that he was wrong, Pangandaman remained firm to his statement.

If I were the guard, I'll continue my complaint against the congressman, especially now that Senator Jinggoy and the House of Representatives are willing to do a further investigation about the claim—as it should be. Anyhow, if something bad happens to me, we all know who to blame.

Still, reporting a blotter and being in the news are already courageous acts for such a common individual. Those acts are enough for Cong. Pangandaman to have a stigma that won't be expunged in our memories.

Also in an earlier media interview, Rep. Pangandaman confirmed he owns a Porsche but said many other congressmen also own Porsche units. [ABS-CBN News]

What a massive a-hole. It's not only the stinking fact that he drives a luxury car with a splurging plate number that costs millions of pesos in a place where many families are starving to death that rubs me. It's his dumbass reasoning that really makes my teeth clench. Just because the other congressmen are doing it, you will also do it? Being a politician is not a license to squander, just like it's not a license to harm anyone.

James Soriano's Column and My Opinion

 

Language, learning, identity, privilege

Ithink

By JAMES SORIANO

August 24, 2011, 4:06am

MANILA, Philippines — English is the language of learning. I’ve known this since before I could go to school. As a toddler, my first study materials were a set of flash cards that my mother used to teach me the English alphabet.

My mother made home conducive to learning English: all my storybooks and coloring books were in English, and so were the cartoons I watched and the music I listened to. She required me to speak English at home. She even hired tutors to help me learn to read and write in English.

In school I learned to think in English. We used English to learn about numbers, equations and variables. With it we learned about observation and inference, the moon and the stars, monsoons and photosynthesis. With it we learned about shapes and colors, about meter and rhythm. I learned about God in English, and I prayed to Him in English.

Filipino, on the other hand, was always the ‘other’ subject — almost a special subject like PE or Home Economics, except that it was graded the same way as Science, Math, Religion, and English. My classmates and I used to complain about Filipino all the time. Filipino was a chore, like washing the dishes; it was not the language of learning. It was the language we used to speak to the people who washed our dishes.

We used to think learning Filipino was important because it was practical: Filipino was the language of the world outside the classroom. It was the language of the streets: it was how you spoke to the tindera when you went to the tindahan, what you used to tell your katulong that you had an utos, and how you texted manong when you needed “sundo na.”

These skills were required to survive in the outside world, because we are forced to relate with the tinderas and the manongs and the katulongs of this world. If we wanted to communicate to these people — or otherwise avoid being mugged on the jeepney — we needed to learn Filipino.

That being said though, I was proud of my proficiency with the language. Filipino was the language I used to speak with my cousins and uncles and grandparents in the province, so I never had much trouble reciting.

It was the reading and writing that was tedious and difficult. I spoke Filipino, but only when I was in a different world like the streets or the province; it did not come naturally to me. English was more natural; I read, wrote and thought in English. And so, in much of the same way that I learned German later on, I learned Filipino in terms of English. In this way I survived Filipino in high school, albeit with too many sentences that had the preposition ‘ay.’

It was really only in university that I began to grasp Filipino in terms of language and not just dialect. Filipino was not merely a peculiar variety of language, derived and continuously borrowing from the English and Spanish alphabets; it was its own system, with its own grammar, semantics, sounds, even symbols.

But more significantly, it was its own way of reading, writing, and thinking. There are ideas and concepts unique to Filipino that can never be translated into another. Try translating bayanihan, tagay, kilig or diskarte.

Only recently have I begun to grasp Filipino as the language of identity: the language of emotion, experience, and even of learning. And with this comes the realization that I do, in fact, smell worse than a malansang isda. My own language is foreign to me: I speak, think, read and write primarily in English. To borrow the terminology of Fr. Bulatao, I am a split-level Filipino.

But perhaps this is not so bad in a society of rotten beef and stinking fish. For while Filipino may be the language of identity, it is the language of the streets. It might have the capacity to be the language of learning, but it is not the language of the learned.

It is neither the language of the classroom and the laboratory, nor the language of the boardroom, the court room, or the operating room. It is not the language of privilege. I may be disconnected from my being Filipino, but with a tongue of privilege I will always have my connections.

So I have my education to thank for making English my mother language.

My Opinion:

I agree that English is the language of privilege. I wowed people several times because of it. I aced my university admission interview because of English, I passed my majorship because of English, I landed my first ever job because of English. I owe it all to English. Without English, I'm next to no thanks.

But of course I don't neglect my mother tongue which is Filipino. To tell you honestly, I read a good number of books written by Filipino authors, from Lualhati Bautista, Ambeth Ocampo, Carlos Quirino, to Bob Ong. I watch news and all these documentaries (in Filipino), and most importantly, I speak Filipino with a mark of fluency.

That being said, my take on this issue is: It's not the language. It's the "usage" of the language that is stupid. Don't let me start with all these jejemons and bekimons who never cease to bastardize our already painfully, heartlessly maimed tongues. Fine, I'll stop here.

If we will only use our language properly and intelligently like any language of the learned should be, then I'll be more than proud to say that I am a Filipino and Filipino is my mother language.