Kung Fu Films Bond Us Amid COVID-19 Lock-Up

It was reported in the Independent on March 17, 2020 that a White House official referred to COVID-19 pandemonium as “kung flu”. As a movie fan, I strongly believe that Kung Fu flicks occupy its well-deserved canto in the global entertainment scene. Such xenophobic slur is an admission that Chinese kung fu indeed has great cultural influence in the American society.

The present enhanced quarantine period imposed by the Philippine government made us glued to classic martial art motion pictures courtesy of Celestial Movies Pinoy, a 24/7 Tagalized movie channel which offers, among other presentations, classic and blockbuster kung fu movies.

Watching kung fu shows with my 15 year-old daughter Sophia in this lock-up seems an endless happy bonding moment between us, father and daughter.

While every father-daughter bond is inimitable, there are things that solidifies us especially in turbulent and anxious times like this in the middle of coronavirus. In me and my youngest child’s case, it is also something that originates from China (actually Hong Kong): Kung Fu movies. Allow me to share you one of our favorite films from this genre.

The King Boxer was released in 1972 and directed by Chang-Hwa Jeong. The movie has a historical significance since this is the first kung fu movie to receive wide distribution or showing in America. According to some movie historians, this movie perfected the formula of the Shaw Brothers that captured like virus the imagination of the moviegoers. The movie is a revenge drama, it’s a story about two competing martial arts schools, it’s a tournament film, and it’s also a patriotic film about heroic Chinese kung fu fighters resisting dishonorable and murderous Japanese karate experts. This Lo Lieh-starred film’s other title is Five Fingers of Death. It inspired the creator of Marvel’s comic book series Iron Fist and later became a Netflix series.

This and a couple of dozens more kung fu movies bonded us together during this lock-up but we are still looking forward for a movie she already seen without me by her side.

It is titled Come Drink with Me which is according to what I’ve read is not actually, in strict sense of the word, a kung fu movie but an epic wuxia (sword play) masterpiece directed by King Hu released 6 years before the King Boxer. Come Drink with Me is greatly considered by many as one of the greatest Hong Kong films ever made. Set during the Ming Dynasty, the movie stars Cheng Pei-pei and Yueh Hua as warriors. Celestial Movies Pinoy will surely play the movie again, hopefully towards the end of this period of quarantine or in one weekend in the future. She loved it because the lead actor there is a woman.

When all of these subside, when this pandemic is over, after a year or so, may this daughter and father tandem be able to visit Avenue of Stars along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Hong Kong. The world's showcase of kung fu artifacts and memorabilias.

Our fathers are our ultimate heroes. The ones who always guide us. Kung fu movies were part of my childhood and by introducing them to her, I gave her a portion of my existence as a human being. There is something special in a father-daughter relationship, whether we believe it or not.

For they will seek a part of us in every special man they will meet along the way in the future…  

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Photo: Kung Fu Kingdom. com

References: https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3052830/hong-kong-martial-arts-cinema-why-king-boxer-1972-aka-five

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-us-white-house-racism-reporter-latest-a9407141.html

Chess and Coping-Up with Corona

The local government units should stop sending health professionals to the checkpoints, the pharmacists, doctors, nurses and midwives.  The checkpoints should be manned by security people and the BHWs, the Barangay Health Emergency Response Team or BHERT or the so-called non-medical manpower. Those personnel in the checkpoints could easily facilitate or direct the people who have medical conditions or suspected to be having certain health issues. The health professionals will be outright exposed at the checkpoints and that is bad.

Like in the game of chess, the medical manpower are your key and powerful pieces. They have the power and moves that could well protect their co-equals (read: fellow health professionals in hospitals) and the King (read: patient; health measures) in the middle game or end game. When things come to worst, the immediate attendants of patients become patients themselves. That is a zugzwang, as what the chess players would call such situation.

True change in health care systems through the implementation of rights-based approaches to health must start with a reflection upon this present predicament the world is facing and must harness the existence and visibility of the health profession.

As every chess player knows, we cannot afford the virus to checkmate us or allow its pawns or thorns reached the last file and get promoted.

Sending the health professionals away from health facilities may exhaust them, and be tired enough to face and keep on the latter part of the war. Sending them to checkpoints discriminate them in a way.

At least as far as I am concerned as a fan of chess.

While in quarantine, my little chess player, Sophia, is polishing her games through the net. As what my good friend and her mentor Mr. Emmanuel Asi puts it, we must now adopt the chess master’s patience. Mr. Asi hopes that that those in the frontlines value patience in every stations they are deployed.

The great chess master Bent Larsen said: “Lack of patience is probably the most common reason for losing a game, or drawing games that should have been won.” This is the call of the time for our present-day heroes in the battlefields.

"COVID-19 cannot defeat chess,” said NCFP executive director Cliburn Orbe. “Our chess will continue despite the COVID crisis. We will show the world that chess is above all other sports because it can also be an e-sport played online," according to Philippine Star article last March 20, 2020.

Chess tactics, indeed, could also help us combat this pandemic.

But the chess players should also heed to precautionary measures from health experts: "Do not touch your face!" This habit of chess players is a no-no in this turbulent time of the pandemic.

"Of course we touch our faces. That much is clear,” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the No. 6-ranked classical chess player, said in French in an article published at the Wall Street Journal in April 22, 2020. “We have habits while playing that are impossible to break. Thinking with a hand on your chin or on your forehead is a reflex.”  Keep safe my chess playing friends!

COVID-19 for sure taught humanity, those into chess or otherwise, that we have bad habits to break for our own survival...

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(Photo: CTTO)

Si Titus Brandsma: Isang Pagninilay Panlipunan

Sa isang baliw na lipunan, ang mga tahimik na naghihirap na mamamayang nagnanais ng tinapay ay binigyan ng bato. Ang umaasam ng isda ay inaabutan ng ahas at ang mga munting bata na humihingi ng itlog ay binibigyan ng alakdan. Ganyan ang panahon natin ngayon at ganyan din noong panahon ni Titus Brandsma sa ilalim ng pamamahala ni Adolf Hitler at ng Nazi noong Ikalawang Digmaang Pandaigdig.

Si Titus Brandsma ay isang pari at martir na ang Feast Day ay ipinagdiriwang ng mga Katoliko ngayon, ika-27 ng Hulyo. Si Blessed Titus ay isinilang sa Bolsward (The Netherland) noong 1881, naging pari noong 1905 at ginawaran ng parusang kamatayan sa pamamagitan ng lethal injection noong Hulyo 26, 1942 sa isang piitan ng mga sundalong Aleman sa Dachau, Germany.

Noong panahon ng pamumuno ni Adolf Hitler, lahat ng sasabihin nito ay utos. Kapag sinabing ipasara ang ganitong establisemyento dahil sa hindi ito umaayon sa kanyang ninanais, kahit maraming mga nangangailangan ang tatamaan ay ipinapasara ito ng kanyang mga sunod-sunurang sundalong alipores. May parusang kamatayan noon, oo nga pala. 

Napabilang sa Order of Camelite ang batang pari at nang lumaon ay masidhing bumatikos sa idolohiya ng Nazi at naging maingay na kritiko nito. Tinuligsa niya ang pagmamalabis ng rehimen bago pa man magka-giyera ngunit kanya rin naman ipinanalangin ang mga tumurtyor sa kanya nang siya ay makulong sa concentration camp. Noong siya ay tanungin kung bakit nagagawa pa niya ito (ipagdasal sila), sinabi niya, “Matutuwa ang Diyos na kahit saglit at hindi buong isang araw ay maipapanalangin natin ang mga nagkasala ay nagmalabis sa atin.” Kagaya rin marahil ng panalanging iginagawad nina Father Flaviano Villanueva, Father Albert Alejo, Father Robert Reyes, Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, Bishop Teodoro Bacani Jr, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, at Bishop Socrates Villegas kay Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra at kay Lieutenant Colonel Arnold Thomas Ibay ng CIDG.

Kung si Blessed Titus ay Pilipinong Katolikong mabubuhay lamang sa bansa ngayon, tiyak akong muli ay gagawa din siya ng kabanalan. Kabanalang sa mata ng mga panatiko ay pang-gugulo, pamumulitika, pag-aalsa laban sa gobyerno. Malamang mapagbibintangan din siyang "Dilawan" o Komunista ng mga mala-kulto kung sumamba sa tao na mga Katolikong kagaya niya, nang mga kapatid niya mismo sa pananampalataya.

Si Blessed Titus ay isang propesyunal na mamamahayag. Noong panahon niya ay naglipana din ang fake news mula sa makinaryang pampropaganda ni Hitler. Kagaya ng mga nababasa natin ngayon na hindi mula sa mainstream media at hindi gawa ng mga totoong journalists ngunit mas higit pa sa mga mga talata sa Bibliya tungkol sa kung papaano manalangin, nila ito kung paniwalaan. Mas kapani-paniwala pa sa bisa ng dasal na “Ama Namin” kung ituring nila ang mga ito kung minsan.

Kahit ang mga Katolikong imprenta ay tinuligsa rin ni Blessed Titus dahil sa paglilimbag ng mga ito ng mga propaganda at fake news ng  Nazi. Hindi niya maunawaan kung bakit natatawag pa ng isang Katoliko na Katoliko ang kanyang sarili habang tuwang-tuwa, palakpak na palakpak ito sa mga pagpatay at pagsisinungaling na nagaganap sa tungki ng kanyang ilong.

Ang panahon ni Blessed Titus noon ay panahon din natin ngayon. Sa ating pagwawalang bahala para kalingain ang kapwa ay ginagamitan natin ng palusot. Kung may kaibigan tayong nasa gipit na kalalagayan,  humihingi ng tinapay, kung may kapatid tayong nangangailangan ng hustisya dahil pinatay na lang basta, sinasabi natin na wala tayong tulong na maibibigay kasi, “Sarado na ang ating pintuan at natutulog na ang ating mga anak.” Mga palusot na sa katunayan ay pag-iwas para tumulong dahil alam naman natin na alam ng taong nangangailangan na madali naman buksan ang pinto at ang mga bata ay mahimbing kung matulog. Papaano ka maituturing na kaibigan o kapanalig ng mga taong ganito?

Si Blessed Titus Brandsma ay isa sa mga banal na pwede nating gawing inspirasyon sa ating atubiling panahon ngayon. Batid niya kung ano ang kaibhan at layon ng mga bagay-bagay kaya hindi siya malilinlang. 

Alam niya na ang ahas ay hindi isda at ang nakabalumbong alakdan kahit hugis itlog ay hindi itlog, na ang kasinungalingan ay hindi katotohanan, na ang una ay nakamamatay at ang pangalawa ay nagbibigay buhay…

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(Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Brandsma

Photo: Order of Carmelite)

Wikang Filipino sa Saliksik at Beauty Pageants

Kaalinsabay ng pagdiriwang ng Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa sa bawat paaralan sa bansa ay pumipili din ng Lakan at Lakambini ng Wika. Ang puntong layon sana ng buong buwan na pagdiriwang taun-taon ay upang mapaigting pa ang paggamit ng wikang Filipino para lubos na maipaunawa sa nakararami na wala nang mas hihigit pa sa sariling wika kung ito ay gagamitin sa matuwid at mabisang pagpapahayag o komunikasyon, lalo na sa saliksik, na siyang pokus ng tema ngayong 2018.

Subalit sa labis na pagka-humaling ng mga Pinoy sa mga patimpalak-pagandahan, sa pa-bonggahan ng mga kasuotan ng mga kalahok dahil sa magneto ng masmidya, lumalabnaw ang marka nito sa layon ng pagdiriwang na dapat ay hulmado sa ating kultura at wika. Sa palagay ko, mas marami pang adik sa beauty contest na mga kabataan kaysa sa droga. Bakit nga ba hindi, kahit sa observance ng Science Fair, Valentine’s Day, Nutrition Month ay may beauty pageant at kung saan-saan pa, simula Day Care hanggang sa kolehiyo.

Palibhasa nga parang naka-pagkit na sa kalendaryo ng Kagawaran ng Edukasyon (DepEd) ang mga patimpalak paggandahan (o pa-pogian), hindi gaanong nabibigyan ng timbang at wala ang interes ng maraming mag-aaral sa iba pang larangan o aktibidad pang-akademiko tulad ng Pagkukwento ng Likhang Pabula, Pagtatalumpati, Pagsasabuhay ng mga Karakter sa Maikling Kwento at Pagbuo ng Awit, at iba pa.

Sa kanilang Kapasyahan Blg. 18-24, pinagtibay ng Kalupunan ng mga Komisyoner ng KWF na ang tema ng Buwan ng Wika para sa ngayong  2018 ay "Filipino: Wika ng Saliksik." Sa pagitan ng beauty contest at research, walang dudang mas intresado ang maraming estudyante (at ilang guro) sa una kaysa sa huli. Kahit sabihin pa na sa pagpili ng Lakan at Binibini ng Wika ay sinasala sa mga pamatayang ganito: Pilipinong Anyo, Kaakmaan ng Kilos at Gawi, Tindig at Tikas, Pagdadala ng Kasuotan at Pagdadala ng Sarili.

Laksang mga batang babae (at may mga “pusong babae”) ang ginaganyak ng kanilang mga magulang na sumali sa mga patimpalak-pagandahan kaysa sa magsulat, manaliksik, sabihin na natin halimbawa, ng mga kuntil-butil ng kasaysayan ng kanyang pamayanan. Siyanga pala, kapuri-puri ang isinasagawang hakbangin na pinangungunahan ng lokal na historyador na si G. Rudy A. Candelario na muling bisitahin, rebisahin at isulat ang may 20 taon na niyang naipalimbag na Kasaysayan ng Kanlurang Mindoro at mga Bayan.

Sa palagay ko nga, darating ang panahon na wala nang mananaliksik na kabataan at mas kukupas pa ang mga letra sa pahina ng libro kaysa sa kolorete sa mukha ng lipunan. Sa lipunang ito na mas pinahahalagahan ang pagpapaganda kaysa sa pagbabasa (mas mabili ngayon ang mga beauty products kaysa mga aklat).   

Pansinin natin na ang patimpalak-pagandahan sa bansa ay tagos-tagusan sa lipunan. Wala itong kinikilalang uri. Kasama ang LGBTcommunities, mga senior citizen, mga estudyante mula Day Care hanggang Grade 12, at iba pa. Kahit ang mga OFW ay nagsasagawa ng kani-kanilang mga sariling patimpalak sa ibayong dagat. May mga buting layon din marahil ang pagsali sa mga beauty contest, dahil kung wala, hindi bababad ang kamalayang Pinoy larangang ito. May mga magandang bunga na walang duda ang mga komersiyalisadong beauty contests sa portamoneda ng masa pero lalo na sa kaha-de-yero ng kapitalista. Pero ang punto ko lang, sa layong diwa ng Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa, lalo na sa tema ngayong taon, mas dapat na higit nating palawakin ang ating pag-iisip at pagsusuri at paglapat ng interpretasyon sa mga kaisipan sa paggamit ng wika sa pagpapayaman ng kaisipan tungo sa pangkalahatang layon ng bawat saliksik.

Marapat na gawing salalayan ang wika sa pagpapalawak ng karanasan, pagkalap ng mahahalagang datos, pagbabasa, pag-galugad sa mga kaugnay na literatura. Kung ang saliksik ay naglilinang ng tiwala sa sarili ng mananaliksik, may mas katiwa-tiwala pa ba sa kanya at sa kanyang kinakapanayam kaysa sa kanilang sariling wika?

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(Photo: KWF)

Walang Kasarinlan sa Ilalim ng Pundilyo ng Iba

Sa lente ng siyensiyang pampulitika, hindi interchangeable ang salitang “kalayaan” at “kasarinlan”. Ang una ay literally means “freedom,” habang ang “kasarinlan” is a more appropriate translation for “independence.” Sa alinmang diksiyonaryo, ang katumbas ng salitang Ingles na “independence” ay  “kalayaan, kasarinlan, pagsasarili, independensiya.” Pero sabi ko nga, hindi ito ang saktong kahulugan kung political science ang pag-uusapan.

Kahit hindi na bansa, kahit ang indibidwal na lider-pulitiko, kapag sa pundilyo lamang ng mas nakatataas sa kanya iniaamot at iniaasa ang sariling pamumuno, ang kanyang nasasakupan ay hindi magiging magiging malaya kailanman. Ang isang bansa (o lider) na susunod-sunod lang at bubuntot-buntot sa kanyang padrino at hindi makapag-isa ay lider na mas masahol pa sa salabay na walang gulugod!

Kasarinlan at hindi kalayaan ang nakamit natin noong Hunyo 12, 1898 bagama’t kahit kailan ay hindi pa naman tayo naging ganap na malaya at nagsasarili bilang bansa sapul noon. Ipalagay na, kahit na ang nakamit natin noong Hulyo 4, 1964 ay kasarinlan din at hindi kalayaan. Noong 1898, nagkaroon tayo ng kalayaang gumawa ng ating sariling batas at ihalal ang ating mga pinuno, ngunit naging tunay malaya na nga ba ang mga Pilipino matapos ang 120 taon? Hindi ba ang mga patakarang pampulitika at pang-ekonomiya na ipinatutupad sa atin ng ibang bansa ay kolonyal pa rin?

Nagkakaisa ang mga diksiyonaryo na ang katumbas ng salitang Ingles na independence ay “kalayaan, kasarinlan, pagsasarili, independensiya.” Maging sa mga poster at slogan ngayong KALAYAAN 2018 mula sa mga sangay ng pambansang pamahalaan ay iisa ang kahulugan nito, mas wasto na ating gamitin ang katangang “kasarinlan” na siyang layon natin upang makawala sa kolonyalismo at pailalim na panghihimasok ng ibang bansa. Mapa-US man yan o Japan, lalo na ang Tsina. Sa kasarinlan, kalayaan sa panghihimasok at pananakop ng ibang bansa ang ating pinag-uusapan.

Ang dokumentong Espanyol na binasa sa Cavite Viejo noong Hunyo 12, 1898, ay pinamagatang Acta de la Proclamación de la Independencia del Pueblo Filipino. Officially translated ito sa ating wika na may pamagat na “Katitikan ng Pagpapahayag ng Pagsasarili ng Bayang Filipino.” Sinasabi sa “Katitikan” na ang “mga naninirahan sa mga Islas Pilipinas” ay “malaya at nagsasarili [libres e independientes] at may karapatang maging malaya at nagsasarili.” At naniniwala naman tayo na tayo ay totoong nagsasarili na nagsimula daw kay Aguinaldo hanggang kay Duterte. Ang soberenya ay nananatiling nasa papel lang ‘ata.

Idinagdagdag pa ng “Katitikan” na “sila ay dapat lumaya sa pagsunod sa Korona ng Espanya; na ang lahat ng pampulitikang ugnay sa pagitan ng dalawa ay ganap na pinuputol at pinawawalang-bisa at dapat na maputol at mapawalang-bisa; at tulad ng alinmang malaya at nagsasariling Estado, mayroon silang ganap na kapangyarihan na magdeklara ng pakikidigma, makipagkasundo sa kapayapaan, magsagawa ng mga kasunduang pangkalakalan, pumasok sa mga alyansa, pangasiwaan ang kalakalan, at magpatupad ng lahat ng gawain at bagay na tungkuling ipatupad ng mga nagsasariling estado.”  Ganito sila sa Espanya noon, papaano naman tayo sa Tsina ngayon?

Sa isang usapin na lang tayo pumaling. Ang pambu-bully kamakailan ng mga Chinese Coast Guard sa ating mga mangingisda sa ating teritoryo sa Scarborough Shoal sa West Philippine. Maliban pa ito sa ka-traydurang pagtatayo nila ng mga pasilidad sa ating mga nasasakupang isla. Sa kabila nito, kani-kanina lang sa Kawit, sa pagdiriwang ng Araw ng Kasarinlan, mismong si Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana ang kaututang-dila ni Chinese Ambassador Zhao Jianhua. Hindi ba ito pinaka-nakaririmarim na tagpo sa makabuluhang araw na ito?

Hindi kaya sinadya ng mga nauna sa atin na i-interchange ang “kalayaan” at “kasarinlan” para iligaw tayo sa katotohanan na hindi pa tayo nagsasarili. At isa pa, dahil sa ang salitang “kalayaan” ay ‘sing lawak ng galaxy at  subject sa iba’t-ibang depinisyon, teorya, karanasan at pananaw na depende sa ating mga pinaniniwalaan, inihalili nila ito salitang “kasarinlan” na mas kongkreto at tuwirang tumutukoy sa pananakop at pakiki-alam ng isang bansa sa kapwa niya bansa. Bagay na gusto nilang i-tone down upang tayo marahil ay patuloy na mabuhay sa ilalim ng pundilyo ng ibang bansa hanggang sa wakas ng panahon. Well, produkto lamang ito ng aking kalayaan sa pag-iisip. 

Ang mamuno sa ilalim ng pundilyo ng ibang bansa (o tao man) ay pananatiling alingawngaw at anino na lamang ng iba. Tayo ay mananatiling pala-asa, walang angas, pala-suko at atubiling bansa.

Gabayan nawa tayo ng kaluluwa ng ating mga bayaning nagpakamatay at pumatay para sa ating kasarinlan. Mabuhay ang totoong kasarinlan ng Pilipinas!

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Photo: DFA

Of St. Blaise and Fishbone

A fishbone was stuck deep in my throat two weeks ago and believe me when the wound is infected, it’s so excruciatingly painful. After accidentally swallowed a bone of a fish locally called bugaong, I paid no attention to it believing that it was already dislodged by mouthful of bananas and marshmallows I swallowed hours after without chewing. I presume, like in the past, the wound would naturally take care of itself without me even trying.

But after three days my condition worsened. I cannot tolerate the pain anymore and there’s already a tint of blood in my spittle so I have to cut short the Gender Sensitivity Training I am attending that time at the Grand Creek Resort in Sta. Cruz and rushed to San Jose to see my EENT.

Dr. Alexander M. Rivera, MD examined my throat, assured me that the fishbone already been dislodged but left an infected internal wound surrounded with abscess. He prescribed me heavy dosage of antibiotics to be taken for 7 days. On the sixth day, my medical condition worsens, so I went back to his clinic. He changed his previously prescribed medicine, added a pain reliever and an oral antiseptic for my extended medical treatment.

I was writhing with pain and discomfort one Friday night and my youngest child related to me about the homily shared by a visiting priest during a Eucharistic celebration at school. Sophia is a Grade 7 student of Divine Word College of San Jose. The mass was held February 3 (I swallowed the fishbone February 17), Feast Day of St. Blaise, once bishop of Sebaste in Armenia.

St. Blaise’s biography revealed that science and faith are not on opposite poles. He was a physician before consecrated bishop. By the 6^th century, St. Blaise’s intercession was invoked for diseases of the throat. He was a physician who treated by means of medical science but equally performing miraculous cures. While being imprisoned and tortured for his Christian faith, he phenomenally cured a little boy choking to death on a fishbone lodged in the kid’s throat.

My youngest daughter reminded me of Blaise and led me to start a prayer of intercession that very moment. Even I am away for work, she assured me that she will continue the novena before she goes to sleep. After three days or so, with the invincible combination of medication and meditation, I am back to my old self again!   

While we Catholics invoke Blaise for his protection against any physical ailment of the throat, we are reminded too that we should refrain from spreading the throat’s “spiritual sins” such as cursing, profanity, unkind remarks, detraction and gossip. While I cannot guarantee you me refraining from naughty remarks, take my word that the words coming from my mouth will always speak with comprehension and not intransigence, respect and not disparagement.

I am a believer so I trust that intercessory prayer can contribute to physical healing. But friends, I am in no way advising to say the same prayer to St. Blaise to those who do not believe that he is truly an intermediary to God. More so, I would not suggest to a wounded or ailing atheist to pray. Such a gesture or proposition is a further insult to his injury, much more his conviction!

I believe that the science of a present-day medical doctor and the act of faith in the memory of a martyr from the very distant past healed me.

This I believe deep to the bones…

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(Photo: www.baqgo.com)

Occidental Mindoro Campus Writers, Arise!

The Department of Education-Division of Occidental Mindoro is all set for the live out 2016 Division Schools Press Conference (DSPC) on Monday, November 14, 2016 at Occidental Mindoro National High School (OMNHS) in the capital town of Mamburao. This Conference is pursuant to the Campus Journalism Act of 1991.

The participating students coming from various elementary and secondary schools in the province would compete in categories with English and Filipino divisions such as editorial writing, news writing, sports news writing, feature writing, cartooning, copy reading and headline writing, radio broadcasting, and collaborative desktop publishing. Those who make it to the top ranks advance to the regionals and get to undergo further training for the national level tilt.

Here in the Philippines, training on journalism starts at the elementary and high school levels. Here in Occidental Mindoro, I have no slightest idea on how many of those once campus journalists, or those winners in such competition, sustained their first forays into the fourth state and became full pledge or practicing writers.

The most intriguing poem about writing I have encountered is “So, You Want to be a Writer” by Charles Bukowski, a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Here’s the full poem, anyway:

If it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.

Unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut, don't do it.

If you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words, don't do it.

If you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.

If you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.

If you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.

If it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.

If you're trying to write like somebody
else, forget about it.

If you have to wait for it to roar out of
you, then wait patiently.

If it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

If you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

Don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.

The libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep
over your kind.
Don't add to that.
Don't do it.

Unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.

Unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

When it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

There is no other way.

And there never was.

If you want to hear the poet’s own reading of his poem, though slightly edited, click the video link above. 

At first, one thinks this is a poem of discouragement or lack of ambition, but when you try to look at it deeper, it is actually a poem of encouragement to write. Many critics rightfully think that this literary piece is an attempt to address the challenges of the reader's creative process and imagination.

Having mentioned that, it is my wish that all the participating campus journalists be challenged, supported and uplifted by their respective coaches and schools, to be at their best in writing, now and then. They should focus on the poem’s challenging entirety and write for the rest of their lives.

Push pen, now and beyond, kids! …

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(Video: Youtube)

Of Miss Earth Bahamas 2016 and Cleopatra Jones

She was the crowd's favorite no doubt. Among the five 2016 Miss Earth candidates who visited Sablayan last October 21-23, 2016, Miss Bahamas was the most jolly and mingles with the locals with great gusto. From the motorcade at the town proper up to the Parola Park while she and the rest of the candidates are about to ride in the longest island-to-island zip line in the world, she was followed by children and teenagers chanting, “Ba-ha-mas! Ba-ha-mas!”

She refused an umbrella and preferred to beat the heat of the sun during the motorcade. When the pick-up she was riding passed near the gate of Saint Martin Hospital, she suddenly jumped out of the vehicle and had groupies with the nuns and school children among the near hysteric crowd. She left her escort at the back of the pick-up. She was escorted by Councilor Melchor Quiatchon and he was astonished when Candisha Rolle, Miss Earth Bahamas 2016, climbed back at the pick-up all by herself, capitalizing on her whole 5’ 11” height. Her story of interspersion did not end there. When the pick-up stopped at the Motor Pool, ever smiling and waving at the crowd, Candisha Rolle graciously walked towards the nearby Municipal Building where people are gathered and waiting to meet the visiting beauties with cheers.  

I was with the crowd of people sitting at the foot of the zip line tower when I, together with Mayor Eduardo B. Gadiano, noticed a group of young boys waving their hands at Miss Bahamas when the beauty queen from the former British colony appeared on the line. The Bahamas only became a Commonwealth realm in 1973. The folks were enchanted by her colored beauty and I remember when I was a young boy having a crush on African American fashion model turned actress named Tamara Dobson. I was in high school when I saw Dobson doing lead roles. They are both action films shown at Levi Rama: Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975). Cleopatra Jones is a lady James Bond sort of a character actually. Since then, I had liking for the so-called black beauties, albeit in films. I never had a close encounter with this kind all my life until the 2016 Miss Earth beauties visited Sablayan, my second home. Let us forget Cleopatra Jones and Tamara Dobson for they help me remember my age. Let us go back to Candisha Rolle to forget it. What I mean is my age.

Ms. Rolle was selected Miss Earth Bahamas 2016 on August 27 also this year. She succeeds Daronique Young for the tilt. That night, she also won Best in Evening Gown, Best Costume, Miss Amity and Miss Popularity sub-awards. Ms. Rolle, according to her Facebook account, studied Human Resource Management at Southern College in Nassau. In that same account she professed, “I truly enjoy dancing.....and I love comedy!!!!” Well, what else can I say but wish her luck in the coming pageant night on Saturday.

Before I shake my hands off the keyboard, allow me to share that Tamara Dobson ended her short movie stint via the 1976 film version of the play “Norman…Is That You?” If you ask the same question pertaining to the guy posing with Miss Bahamas in the picture shown above, the answer is a big “yes”….

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(Photo: Philip Saligumba)

The Hullabaloos of President Duterte

The left and right controversies involving President Rodrigo Duterte’s, during the campaigns and now, are intentional and therefore part of his strategy to win the presidency and later to sustain himself as a populist president at this early juncture of his administration. This is not spontaneous. This is orchestrated and planned. He is intelligent, they say, therefore all his actions and words are expected to be calculated.

The first 3 months of any sitting president rest on shaky ground due to criticisms he gets from international community on many issues and concerns foremost of which is his fight against drugs and criminality including his questionable diplomatic policies and his lieutenants’ paranoia over the imminent taking over of what his fanatical supporters refer to as “Yellowtards”. The traditional politicians inside PDP Laban too cannot be trusted. He and those around him who are not party members know that PDP Laban’s ultimate agenda is to gain party advantage and get the majority of the political seats come 2019 onward and put into effect its party line all over the land and pave the way for Koko Pimentel’s presidency after Duterte’s term. The president’s allegiance to his party, aside from the push for Federalism and issues rooted in socialism, is rickety too. Likewise his alliance with the Left which vows to continue their parliamentary struggle specifically those issues incorporated in the People’s Agenda for Change. It is not far-fetched to assume that in the future, these groups will ultimately clash over their opposing principles, issues and advocacies.

Since this administration rests on shaky ground, it needs a mass base that will continue to be attached or relate to, and believe in everything he will say or do. There is no need of ideology or political principles to unite them. Intrigues and rumors are sufficient to band together, say, the internet warriors, and gain grounds. The cyberspace as it was proven during the campaign period is the most bankable and they have to sustain it. The internet is still the best weapon for this connectivity as long the crisis they have projected since day one, which is drugs and criminality, is highlighted by way of controversial statements or any form of verbal stunts to get the attention of the public and the whole world no matter what would be the outcome. Bad publicity, as we say, is publicity still.

Constant media projection will keep you always on the limelight, hence, evading isolation and ultimately test the level of fanaticism of your followers. He needs a group of people who would rally behind him, fair or square, by hook or by crook, in sickness and in health, so to speak. This is a gamble for you might gain more enemies than friends, critics than followers. But that would be easy for an instant apology or rejoinder could patch them up later anyway. Or lambast the journalists for quoting you out of context and throw them all the faults to the fullest. The call of the day is to be consistent with sprinkling garbage juices and let the deodorizers do their things later. What are important at this early point is to coagulate their connectivity to the masses. So every time you face the camera and the scribes, be quotable, and do not think of the consequences. Just connect to the people who thirst for trash no matter what. Their day would not be complete without it, like the telenovela.

Majority of the Filipinos have penchants for tough and rough leaders because they are tough and rough citizens themselves. We are generally tough and rough as bullies in school and over the net, we are tough and rough as public servants involved in corrupt practices, we are tough and rough as religious leaders baptized with hypocrisy, we are tough and rough citizens who do not follow rules and order. Therefore, we want the toughest and the roughest to continue to lead and represent us!

Having such a mass base or a people’s movement, formal or informal, is necessary under this condition. If you are lucky, this will assure political stability in the process until such time that this wide mass movement gain credibility and power over another groups or individuals (specially the butterflies and the turncoats) around him that cannot be trusted until this movement get the needed power to lay compromises and to assert them. 

Controversy is significant than plain and simple reporting of your achievements if you want to be always connected with the people. If President Duterte would stop making controversial statements, what would he feed to his social media machine? How could his army of on-line warriors survive without such controversies? It is a waste of time to advise him to watch his language or keep quiet. No mortal could stop him now. Not even the roof of a car. Besides, the president is just speaking his mind, just being our president and being true to himself like what we are told.

Well, positively put, controversies are part of the process of knowing. Controversy can be a beneficial and commanding tool to promote learning. Needless to say, controversy is a double-edged sword. The attention we get from it may hurt us but apparently that is what the new breed of Filipinos want: to get hurt as a nation and to hurt each other as citizens…

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(Photo: Stripes. Com)

This War Is Kind (A PaRody of Stephen Crane’s Classic Poem War Is Kind, 1899)

Do not weep, maiden, for this war is kind,

Because your brother was a drug peddler to the sky

And he is not to be arrested but destined to death and not alone,

Do not weep.

This war is kind.

Hoarse, booming drums of the law enforcing regiment,

Great souls thirst for your blood yet you didn’t fight,

Men of your kind, they say, are not human hence must die.

The unexplained glory flies above the gory will in them.

Great is the butcher-god, great, and his abattoir (or was it his kingdom?) —

A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Do not weep, babe, for this war for change is kind.

Because your father was spared by the “yellow” trenches,

Raged at his breast, resisted thus died.

Do not weep.

This war is kind.

Swift blazing desire to feed his family, his ever-loved regiment

Eagle whose irreparable self is forever red for gold,

These men born to felony must straightaway die.

Bystanders were taught the virtue of slaughter,

Tutored or tortured on the excellence of killing

And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button

On the loosen packing tape that wrapped your son,

Do not weep.

This war is kind!

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Here is Stephen Crane’s original poem text:

War is Kind

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind,

Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky

And the affrighted steed ran on alone,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,

Little souls who thirst for fight,

These men were born to drill and die.

The unexplained glory flies above them.

Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom—

A field where a thousand corpses lie.

Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.

Because your father tumbles in the yellow trenches,

Raged at his breast, gulped and died,

Do not weep.

War is kind.

Swift blazing flag of the regiment,

Eagle with crest of red and gold,

These men were born to drill and die.

Point for them the virtue of slaughter,

Make plain to them the excellence of killing

And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

Mother whose heart hung humble as a button

On the bright splendid shroud of your son,

Do not weep.

War is kind!

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(Photo : Time Magazine)

Resembling The Lone Ranger and Tonto

I was barely ten when I had my first close encounter with the Mindoro indigenous peoples. I ate, slept and played with Mangyan children each time of a year. During our town’s fiesta celebration, Mangyan families from the boondocks of Mansalay, daring the two-day and one night foot travel via Insulman in Batasan, gather at my grandparents’ residence in Capt. Cooper St. to witness the festivities of lights and colours. My Mamang cooked food for them, prepared their beddings in a vacant store room near our family’s ancestral house. The Mangyan elders chewing nganga, with wide grin in their faces and smile in their red lips, simply nod every time my grandma reminds them not to spit on the cemented part of the pavement. She treated them as visitors and not as ordinary strangers seeking temporary refuge. Unlike the town’s wealthy matriarchs, she never drove them away.

Claro, her son, even risked his life for his friends in the upland in many occasions they say but not going into specifics. They said that their chief cowboy made them change their attitude towards lowlanders who are mostly arrogant and mean. Each time my uncle sits on his weapons carrier truck heading to the mountains, boxes of canned sardines, kilos of dried fish, candies, sacks of rice and bunch of dried tobacco leaves were neatly piled behind his WC51 for his friends’ consumption. The Buhids are treated by him not only as his workers in the ranch but trusted friends. Because my Mamang loves his son, she cared for them. It was her son who gave them the first taste of the modern world. At the very tender age, I’ve learned stories how the Buhids hunt wild animals and nurture the ranch owner’s thoroughbred horses. He even related to me how good my uncle was over the saddle, on catching a stray cow with a rope and firing his revolver. There are many untold stories about his cowboy years that I’ve heard from David Ighay, the Mangyan chieftain, the one who speaks fluent Tagalog. After his cowboy days, my uncle also excelled in other manly actions like motorcycle dirt riding, scuba diving, practical shooting, among others.

I remember the much younger David Ighay, the lead cattle worker, always accompanied by his “bodyguards” Danum Dauy and Ligduman Humbos. I remember my uncle, in full cowboy outfit, with spurs attached to his boots, hat and all, going out of the truck with David beside him in red poplin G-string and his long waist-length hair hooped by a strip of cloth with floral design, no footwear whatsoever.

As they appear at the wooden gate and walk together on the pavement, they looked like The Lone Ranger and Tonto to me.

Even when I grew up and finished my studies, had a family of my own and got a job, he keeps on going down the mountains though my grandparents are now long gone and the ancestral house no longer there. And the ranches all over are just things of the past and Mindoro’s cattle business ceases to be as lucrative as before. He also drops-by at the houses my uncles and aunties and their immediate family for more than four decades already since the day they first reached our Cooper home of yore.

He brings native wallet, panuhugin (bracelet), kadyos (black legume), a knife or a broom for a present every time he visits us especially on important occasions such as fiesta and Christmas. Rice, used clothes, salt, coffee, sugar, medicines and a little cash were given to him in return. He had been close with all our clan members and treated him as a distant relative. David Ighay, upon learning that the cowboy already passed away, wept. And over cups of coffee that night many years ago, the aging Mangyan, who was already a teenager when the war broke out, told me wonderful stories how my uncle, generous and caring as he was, won the hearts of the average tribesmen, women and children alike, and gained the respect of prominent Buhid leaders in the highlands of southern Mindoro in the early 70s’.

Bapa David Ighay, tribal leader from Banaynayan in Panaytayan of Mansalay town, Oriental Mindoro gave in to senility and peacefully died on his sleep on the night of August 19, 2016. The following morning, following the Buhid burial custom, his remains were wrapped in a banig, placed in a big basket locally called buyog and immediately carried to their sacred ground atop the hill with the splendid Caguray River angrily rolling below. A Daniw was performed for the eternal repose of the chieftain’s soul.

Their stories at least to me in this particular moment, like that of The Lone Ranger and Tonto, cannot be told separately. ..

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(Photo: From the movie “The Lone Ranger” (2013)

Confirmation Bias and the Philippine Anti-Drug Campaign

When the president you have elected or his closest political rival or his critics and their publicists go with your opinion, you think you cannot go wrong. How could you err if you share the same sentiments or them confirming your existing beliefs? You tend to look for or interpret information in such a way it confirms your biases that lead to disregarding or ignoring other information or evidences contrary to your preconceived ideas or prejudices.

In many points of my life, I have also been a prey to confirmation bias. This is due to the difficulty that, human as I am, I cannot easily see it coming. According to Shahram Heshmat Ph.D. in his column Science of Choice which appeared in Psychology Today dated 23 April 2015, “Confirmation bias occurs from the direct influence of desire on beliefs. When people would like a certain idea/concept to be true, they end up believing it to be true. They are motivated by wishful thinking. This error leads the individual to stop gathering information when the evidence gathered so far confirms the views (prejudices) one would like to be true”. Regardless of the things that divide us, for instance our social standing and religious or political beliefs, humans deceive themselves in many occasions. For example, when a junkie or drug pusher is advised by his parents to stop his vice, he has this tendency to be confident that he can still be a good family member - a good loving father or a husband, a good neighbour and a good citizen despite of the fact s/he is hooked on drugs or peddling it. He can still feel morally upright as long as he does not harm other people. As long as he constantly prays to God and ask for his forgiveness each day and pray for the Lord's blessings. As long as he does not hurt, do injustice, kill, rape or rob people. So if the junkie or pusher gets busted, killed or in the process commits crime to satisfy his cravings for drugs, his false optimism brought about by his self-deception paid an important part in his sad fate.

Having mentioned this, self-deception is as deadly as shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) or any prohibited drugs littering the slums or during parties for it deadens our perception of reality. Confirmation bias as self-deception is a thing that blinds us to weigh things by gathering evidence and participate in some intellectual quests that is required in every thinking species in the face of the earth. Confirmation bias as a form of self-deception makes us act like those hooked into shabu.  Robert Pagliarini, writing for I Have Net in an article titled Five Tips to Avoid Confirmation Bias, aptly puts it, “The problem with confirmation bias is that you selectively filter what information you choose to pay attention to and value. So, not only will you actively look for evidence and seek out experts that confirm your existing beliefs, but even more perniciously, you'll hide from or discredit any information that contradicts your viewpoint.” If drug addicts do the most heinous of crimes because their minds are poisoned by meth and other substance, he is at par with those who are drifted into confirmation bias for they both do not see things objectively. They only do and believe those things that confirm their prejudices, as I have said. If those who are fallen into confirmation bias ignore and reject all that cast doubts on their beliefs, the drug addict (and sometimes the political publicists in our midst and including of course their patrons) defy moral compasses, ethical standards and legal dictums and instruments just to serve their own cravings and agenda. They are incarcerated in their own assumptions.

Scrutinizing the exchanges of those who favour and those who oppose the bloody anti-drug campaign happening in the Philippines today, especially the posts, comments and memes over the social networking sites concerning the rift between President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Leila M. de Lima, it’s easy to point out  how one sector of the publicists deceive their readers. They deceive people by hiding or distorting the truth (or evidences not favouring their line of thinking) and like nincompoops, the readers believe them. To those who deceive people, theirs is the advantage for they know what they have imparted are lies. It isn’t the case in self-deception.

As Ken Taylor, co-creator of the site Philosophy Talk, have noted, “But in the case of self-deception the deceiving party and the deceived party are one and the same.  That’s what makes it so puzzling.” In this particular case of the word war between the hard core supporters of de Lima and Duterte, in this case of self-deception, are same banana. Taylor is right in concluding that philosophically speaking, self-deception borders on the paradoxical.

Of course, you may likewise argue that this little reflection is laced with confirmation bias, or to some point, self-deception…

References:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias

 http://www.ihavenet.com/Entrepreneur-Five-Tips-to-Avoid-Confirmation-Bias-RP.html

http://philosophytalk.org/community/blog/ken-taylor/2015/04/self-deception