It's such a strange coincidence that so many uprisings are going on elsewhere in the world, with the EDSA People Power Revolution's 25th anniversary so close at hand. It's been a quarter of a century since the world's first bloodless revolution was held here in my country, and now I watch the news with hope that the revolutions going on in other countries are successful, that the blood shed in the name of freedom will not be in vain.
We were ready to die for our liberties, and we honor those who are the same for theirs.
I wanted to get this writeup done in time for the EDSA anniversary, so please forgive me if it's not a very good read. It was just something I needed to get out.
A People Power Revolution may begin with the dethroning of a dictator, but it does not end there. Since the fall of Ferdinand Marcos we have had a number of presidents, a number of whom were of suspicious moral fiber, in spite of our best intentions and our persistent hope for a more progressive nation. Marcos himself may be gone, but the corrupt were still in power. And even now his cronies and scions are sinking their claws into the system and are holding on with the audacity of former royalty, imposing the traditional political values we so despised in their home territories and in the laws of our country. At the highest echelons, our system is still composed of people who allow this to happen, who believe this is the way things should be.
The fight against corruption is not an easy one. No one ever said that you could continue to band together and reform your country to an ideal within a decade, or even two decades, or three. Any free-thinking individual knows it's never so simple. Corruption is not the same as dictatorship: corruption is a debilitating disease that becomes more difficult to cure the longer it's allowed to grow - and in the case of the Philippines, though a dictator was deposed, the wreck of his 21 years in power has turned out to need more than just wishful thinking and romantic notions of a country united to fix. The things that weighed us down were not merely a "mind over matter" affair - they were real enough to threaten our lives, our livelihood and everything we held dear.
Post-EDSA, the lack of heroes was highlighted. One may claim that we Filipinos place too much faith in our leaders, but as it turns out, having a leader that everyone trusts is important for a developing nation - especially in such a diverse country as ours, where differences in traditions and opinion can be easily exploited to divide and conquer. It is not a sin to desire good leadership. Let us not forget that figureheads were necessary even for the EDSA Revolution to succeed.
We have not had a leader that we trusted wholly since Cory Aquino, and even then we only had her for six years - certainly too short a time. It was only enough time for people to malign her abilities and demoralize us, undermine our cohesiveness as a people. The depression caused by the lack of a guiding light was real enough to keep us from fighting back when we were victimized, because we felt that we had too much to risk and that no one had our backs. After we deposed another corrupt president, there was a notable sense of fatigue, the feeling of "Is this never going to end?"
But from a certain standpoint, we were able to hold another People Power Revolution recently by electing Noynoy Aquino into office against the threats of vote-buying, cheating at the polls and election violence - all machineries of corruption. And we arestill performing it now by rallying behind the good people who risk their very lives to blaze the trail to genuine reform - people like Leila de Lima, Heidi Mendoza, Lourdes Sereno. With these leaders in place, we put forth our demands for good governance, though this ongoing revolution is not entirely bloodless. Slowly and patiently, we continue to work toward a vision of a prosperous nation that we have control of.
The eloquent Sen. Bongbong Marcos even has the gall to say "We could have been like Singapore if my father had stayed in power." I wish to say to the good Senator, we do not wish to be another Singapore. We will progress on our own terms, with our own hands, and we will thank anyone who helps us and does not try to tell us what to do and how we should do it.
If the uprisings going on elsewhere in the world are any indication, dictatorships do not typically produce very wealthy or happy nations. How many "Singapores" do you see, even among longer-running dictatorships? Also, before Marcos' downfall, things were already going down the point of no return. I would appreciate it if the good Senator and his clan would stop trying to rewrite history because 1) it's crass and 2) not working. I long for the day when a Marcos - and also an Arroyo, now - miraculously develops the moral strength to come up and say "I'm sorry" on behalf of his or her erring parent, and wholeheartedly devote all his or her energies to helping everyone else create a more progressive Philippines.
Remember this: No one wishes to be chained. No one wishes to flourish as a nation under evil, though evil promises wealth and glory.
And remember that everyone wants a better life, and will work for it as long as he or she has hope. Without hope, there is nothing to look forward to, though hope is one of the hardest things to keep.
***
Some EDSA links that may be of interest:
EDSA I as told through Facebook - really fun read. some of the dialogue is in Tagalog, but I believe it's still a kickass introduction to the EDSA revolution for non-Tagalog speakers.
2. After the Storm: Stories on Ondoy is out in stores now. It is a compilation of essays and personal accounts from Typhoon Ketsana survivors. As with Ruin and Resolve, all proceeds go to charity.
The pieces in After the Storm were mostly written in the midst of and immediately after the typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in 2009. The writers share their experiences of the typhoon, their insights and reflections, their hopes and aspirations. Long after the news media has moved on to the next big headline, After the Storm hopes to stand as written record to remind everyone that this happened. We were there. We are still here.
I have a Tagalog essay there titled "Kung Paano Hindi Matangay."
"History will not judge a man by how he tries to undo his wrongs by kindnesses and acts of atonement, but by how at the height of power he proved himself to be corrupt and weak and damned for all time."
Delurking because I am sick of people linking to anti-Pinoy articles, blog posts and websites. Normally I'm tolerant of other people's bullshit and hope that other people are tolerant of mine as well... but in light of recent events, this has to be said.
Guys. Don't forget what HATE SITES are. Just because they profess to "tell it like it is" or claim to love being Pinoy in essence, the purpose of a HATE SITE is to bring together people of a like mind AGAINST something and give them power. Hate sites don't do anything to change things for the better - hell, they don't even give authoritative information. A lot of posts in Pinoy hate sites, you'll notice, are about things people heard or saw on the news, or what they HEARD happened to someone else they don't even know personally.
The way I see it, Pinoy hate sites are populated by a bunch of comfortable middle-class (mostly Filipino) Netizens who don't do much besides pay taxes. In fact, some of them don't even do that yet - some are just kids who regularly listen to their parents griping about the Philippines and then mindlessly inherit the angst, poor things.
I do believe Pinoys, just like other nationalities, have negative traits. These traits are not unique to the Filipino, though they may be hard to find in other, more comfortable nationalities. I believe, for example, that there is a certain annoying passive-aggressiveness in this very Pinoy trait of "pagpagparinig." That's why I have this tendency to write off people who habitually link to anti-Pinoy sites as passive-aggressive losers who can't even make "parinig" using their own words, they have to borrow others'.
Sorry sa matatamaan. But if you consider yourself free to generalize, you should allow others the same luxury. At kung makakapagparinig ka, makakapagparinig din ako.
I also subscribe to the belief that Pinoys tend to self-flagellate - like their being Filipino is something to apologize for. Like it's synonymous with words like "ignorant", "pathetic", and "desperate". Uh. No, people. No. Not everything bad that happens to us is because of some character flaw that is somehow tied up to our nationality.
Another term for "self-flagellation" in this case is "blaming the victim." Here's a tip: if you're victimized by something, don't blame yourself: it doesn't always make you stronger. In fact, what it more often does is make you feel more like you deserve to be trodden on. Notice the increasing number of Filipinos settling for inhuman treatment in other countries, for being raped or beaten or scammed by foreigners or by other Filipinos, and then thinking they deserved it. Because they weren't able to do anything to lift themselves from their situations, or even to defend themselves. Because they're Filipino and that's what they get for wanting more for themselves.
And linking to an anti-Pinoy writeup is just another way to tell the world "Hey, we're sorry we're such losers!" What the hell??
Think about the additional injustice you're submitting yourself and your fellow Filipinos to. You already hate the circumstances you have to exist in. Must you hate yourself too?
The freedom of expression afforded by the Internet is a wonderful thing. But there ARE lines to be drawn with hate sites. So this writeup is against those who post in hate sites as well. Honestly, don't you guys have anything better to do besides play at being armchair crusaders? Like, for example, see how stupid it is to see yourselves as saviors of anything while you point and laugh?
How condescending. Worse yet, how utterly useless.
I especially dislike how some people denounce being Pinoy every time something bad happens. What, you're only Pinoy while things are good? When Pacquiao wins or when one of our beauties makes the Miss Universe top 15? So you're a fair-weather Filipino? There's no such thing. You're Filipino, DEAL WITH IT. It's something you can choose to stop being, so while you're not doing that, STOP WHINING.
Why do you hate yourself? Moreover, why do you simply have to get the world to notice how much you hate yourself? Does it make you feel better? Does it make you feel superior? That you can see some things about yourself that others seem to be desperately turning a blind eye to?
News flash, pretty: you're not superior, at least not in my eyes. In fact, you're part of the problem. All the things you're pointing out are nothing new and nothing special. The only thing your affectations and lack of imagination do is ruin my day.
Help Marilao Central has amassed over P37,000 in donations from all over the world and rehabilitation of the school is complete! Some facilities, like the library and the canteen (cafeteria), have also been upgraded a bit, thanks to everyone's generous help. See this post for more details.
The Help Marilao Central's Flickr photostream also has some pcitures of the rehabilitated school. My personal favorite is the one of the cleaned-up multipurpose hall. There's a blown-up version here - don't miss it, if only for the naughty boy at the center and the two bibo kids at front and center!
3. edit @ 7:55 PM: at a brief ANC interview with DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral, the following was said:
a. the goods are being stockpiled for future disaster scenarios, where there would be "fewer volunteers."
b. the goods in stockpile are non-perishable. therefore no supplies are rotting inside the warehouse. the kept items will be dispensed when they are needed.
c. the items in the warehouse were recently purchased by DSWD/acquired from overseas, therefore they have not been given away yet.
4. this post by Manuel L. Quezon III puts together many relevant links and keeps us up to date.
I remember the 1986 EDSA Revolution vividly. Or at least, I remember watching it on the TV. I was in the provinces then with my family, safe from the noise and the trouble. All the radios and TV sets in the neighborhood were on, including ours.
My father was in front of the television. He called me over. "Watch this, child," he said. Then he said in English, "This is a piece of history."
I looked and on the screen was an aerial shot of a wide street I didn't recognize. It was packed with people who looked like little dots from so high above. There were tanks and helicopters and different voices were talking all at once.
Unfortunately, I was too clueless at the time. All I understood of the Revolution was that there was a bad guy (Marcos) and a good guy (Ninoy). The bad guy killed the good guy, so the good guy's wife (Cory) led the revolt against him.
Being the horrible older sister that I was, I taught my toddler sister to make the Marcos sign (fore and middle fingers up to make a "V") and shout "MAR-COS!", while I made the Ninoy sign (thumb and forefinger up to make an "L", which stands for "laban", fight) and shouted "CO-RY!", and we marched in circles around the living room chanting "MAR-COS! CO-RY! MAR-COS! CO-RY!".
I was the good guy, of course.
...Well, I thought it was clever.
I remember that in high school, fresh out of my innocent years in the Marcos regime, I was surrounded with stories about martial law. That was only when it became clear to me that I had lived my early childhood hidden away from the turmoil.
In the middle of lecture, my teachers would suddenly start talking about neighbors and beloved family members who would take up arms and sneak past the patrols in the middle of the night to join the rebels in the mountains ("namundok" was the term) because they were fed up with living in fear. Or who would disappear without a trace, taken from their homes or their workplaces without a word of warning.
One of the stories that I recall to this day was the one about the military in Malolos rounding up elderly people for no good reason. They were made to march a very long distance to a place called Sapang Palay, where they were made to kneel in the ankle-deep muddy water of the rice paddies and sing "Lupang Hinirang" at gunpoint. Those who could not remember the lyrics (and there were some who didn't, being senile or scared) were made to sing over and over until they got it right. Some were so afraid that they cried themselves unconscious. Those who refused to sing were beaten up.
I've gathered quite a few stories from people who survived the Marcos administration. Those who entered the Cory administration with broken teeth, broken limbs, dead wives, dead children, but it is not my place to tell their stories right now.
During the Marcos administration, artists could only paint subjects and scenes that glorified the Philippines. Writers could only write love poems and stories; any hint of a subversive message could get them jailed. People starved or were shot to death in the provinces, while the cities were primped up for international dignitaries; billions upon billions were spent on drawing the attention away from the massacre.
When I heard those stories, I couldn't help but feel that it was a good thing the Marcos administration was gone. We may have been obviously poorer as a people in the Aquino administration, and constantly troubled because the political and extra-political dynasties that Marcos had meticulously brought into power together were (and still are) violently struggling to keep their seats. The economy plummeted. Brown-outs and black-outs were so commonplace that we came to be surprised whenever a whole day went by without a power outage. We were constantly in fear of a well-orchestrated coup d'etat that would bring a Marcos crony back into power.
And yet.
I came to acknowledge that this was the price we paid for freedom. This was - and still is - what we traded in for the mere chance to not live in fear anymore.
And we struggle on.
I'm just going to echo something that better writers have said: she was not a perfect president. Hers was not a perfect administration. But she was up to the end a good woman, and it is she we are mourning, not the mess that she had stepped up to inherit.
She was a symbol of hope, and it is because of her that we fought, and continue to fight, for justice and freedom.
We're mourning for her.
I can't help but pity people who don't get that.
I can't help but pity the people who harp on the fact that the Philippines has been going downhill in the eyes of global economic advisors since Marcos lost power. How much do you expect from a fragmented nation still coming to terms with its own independence? Are your criteria for progress all that narrow? Above all, What are you doing to help?
If democracy - or at least this hint of democracy - were not in place, we would not be as free right now to gripe as we want about how corrupt the current administration is. We would not even have the Internet, or at least we would have a strictly censored version of it. We would not be able to easily share information, or at the very least air out our discontent.
You wouldn't be able to read, much less write, the stories that you love so much, at least not so freely.
She made all this possible for us. She was there as our inspiration and our guide. She was not a strong leader if what you want is a Marcos or a Stalin - but her own brand of strength, the strength to step up when she was needed, this strength driven by love and not political motivation, is something that even future generations have to look up to.
We're still struggling. Thanks to her. I'm sorry that you forget. But the rest of us won't.
charmaine lim is a 4 year old girl suffering from 4th stage neuroblastoma. help her in her struggle against cancer by donating or simply spreading the word.
i realize now i do not fear death... i fear my daughter will not be free when i die
- From the Twitter of an Iranian medical student
"If it bothers you so much, then why don't you stop watching?" seems to be the question of the last few days from my friends and family who know how invested I have become in the cause of the Iranian people (as I have explained in great detail here) The answer is simple: one day of caring is not enough. We must be the voice for the people of Iran who would otherwise be silenced. They are without reliable news sources, they are without mobile phone calls, text messaging, facebook, twitter, youtube, AIM, Yahoo, Google, and pretty much every other useful outlet for information you can think of. Yet they persist on the streets and on the internet in any way they can. The least we can do, whether we are across continents, oceans, or time zones, is spread their words safely.
My death is irrelevant.Wht is important is that u do not forget my words.We want freedom.i will die 4that
- From the Twitter of a protester in Tehran
Right now, brave men and women in Iran, both young and old, are sacrificing their lives for their voices to be heard. They must fear not only the police, but also the Basij -a force of men loyal to the government who plant themselves among crowds in plain clothes in order to discretely attack protesters and incite chaos.The protesters are peaceful. They mass together in crowds that are reported to grow in size every day. At night they have very few, if any, safe places to stay. Houses with satelite dishes were attacked by the Basij tonight, and during the 50 minutes of Twitter's maintenance, another university was attacked.
140 characters is a novel when you're being shot at.
- From another Iranian Twitter
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
The most obvious thing to do is stay informed. Keep an eye on reliable sources on Twitter, refresh blogs and news sites that are covering the stories.
If you are on twitter, retweet information from reliable twitters, but REMOVE THE USERNAME if they are in Iran. People have died because of the lack of responsibility by fellow tweeters and the media in this front. They can be tracked down by the government of Iran.
Spread the information elsewhere. Repost this article or write your own on Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, or anywhere else you can think of. If you write your own, make sure you are concise and accurate. Link to your sources for people to learn more.
Change your location on Twitter to Tehran or Iran, and your time zone to GMT +3:30.
DO NOT auto-refresh and take down websites, even if you are asked. It slows down the internet for the rest of the people in Iran.
If you make a proxy DO NOT post it publically, otherwise it is useless. Send it in a direct message to a trusted source.
DO NOT spam the hash tag #IranElection with useless things to "confuse the government". This does not help at all.
first off, there's the free download of Ang Pamilyang Kumakain ng Lupa (The Family That Eats Soil) - an independent film by Khavn. it's subtitled in english. get it off torrent here.
second: i'm a little late to the party, but norman wilwayco's 2008 palanca grand prize award-winning novel Gerilya is available for free download here.
if you want a copy of the book, you can pre-order it on this page. however, we'll have to wait until the pre-order limit of 200 has been reached before the book goes into press.
i am still craving my own copy of mondomanila: kung paano ko inayos ang buhok ko pagkatapos ng mahaba-haba ring paglalakbay. if it's procurable in any manner, please poke me about it.
third: congratulations on topping the admission exams for the UP college of economics' graduate school, mia! :) :)
edit: FOURTH! filipino speakers may want to visit this blog for their daily laugh fix. it's a lot of fun.
Now, local authors, publishers and the reading public have more cause to celebrate.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has signed into law last 5 March 2009 the National Book Development Trust Fund Act after both Houses of the 14th Congress have approved R. A. 9521 - An ActCreating a National Book Development Trust Fund To Support Philippine Authorship. A milestone legislation in local book development authored by Iloilo City Rep. Raul T. Gonzalez Jr., Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and co-authored by several members of the House as well as Senators Edgardo Angara, Allan Peter Cayetano, and Jinggoy Estrada, this law will provide authors from all regions of the country a reasonable amount to complete their manuscripts for publication.
The NBDB Chairman, Dr. Dennis T. Gonzalez, says: “this will benefit veteran and promising authors working or researching on topics in which local books are either few or non-existent.” There are many subject areas in which local books are insufficient in number and variety, and most of the books in libraries and bookstores are foreign publications.
According to data gathered by the NBDB, the United Kingdom exported £2.23 million (around Php 155 million) worth of books to the Philippines in 2007. The United States exported US$18.89 million worth of books to this country in the same year. US book export to the Philippines in 2008 (US$19.20M) is bigger than its book exports to New Zealand (US$12M), Malaysia (US$9.95M), Thailand (US$10.10M), Taiwan (US$15.06M) and Hong Kong (US$18.88M).
With its enactment into law, the National Book Development Trust Fund of Php 150 million will be established within a period of one year, and the interest from the Fund will provide annually at least fifty (50) grants to authors in all regions in order to spur creativity and support the completion of local manuscripts or research works for publication.
The NBDB shall be the administrator of the Fund and shall appoint a government financial institution as portfolio manager, subject to guidelines and decision-making mechanisms promulgated by the NBDB.
The Trust Fund will assist authors to produce books especially on science and technology, local history, indigenous children’s stories, and translations of classic works into local languages, among others. “This will motivate and inspire veteran and budding authors to produce new titles or complete their manuscripts,” adds Dr. Gonzalez, who is also Associate Dean of the Ateneo School of Government.
The first National Book Development Trust Fund bills were filed by then Deputy Speaker and now Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez and Senator Loren Legarda at the 12th Congress in 2003.
The NBDB Chairman thanks Her Excellency for her competent and active appointees to the NBDB, viz. Executive Director Atty. Andrea Pasion Flores, Dep. Exec. Dir. Frances Jean Sarmiento, and Governing Board members DTI Usec. Elmer Hernandez, NCCA Chair Vilma Labrador, DOST Asec. Malou Orijola, CHED Commissioner Nona Ricafort, UP Vice Pres. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Ateneo Prof. Queena Lee Chua, and publishers Alegria Limjoco, Alfredo Ramos, and Roland Robles.
The NBDB hopes that the next President in 2010 will also appoint competent and responsible members of the Governing Board who shall be the ones who shall award the initial grants from the interest of the Trust Fund for Philippine Authors.
I don't usually promote my own fiction here, but I'd like to make an exception in this case.
A while back, I learned from Kenneth Yu that Argentinian writer Sergio Gaut vel Hartman was looking for flash fiction pieces by writers from the Philippines to post on his blogs. I wrote him to send my pieces and he wrote back saying he had sent them off to his translator.
That's how my very short piece, "Something New Comes to Stay," came to be on his website, Breves no tan breves. I'm very grateful to Sergio and María for this Spanish translation!
Zen In Darkness sent me a message saying that Sergio Gaut Vel Hartman from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is interested in meeting and publishing writers from the Philippines. He wants to publish flash fiction (up to 750 words) online, on several blogs.
Sergio Gaut vel Hartman was born in Buenos Aires in 1947. He is a very prolific writer, having published numerous stories in magazines around the world. He is the author of the collection of stories “Cuerpos descartables”, Minotauro (1985). He was creator and director of the magazine Sinergia and later director of the magazine Parsec.
Writers can send stories in English, which will then be translated into Spanish. Zen In Darkness says that they aren't looking for any particular kind of story, which must mean that subject matter is open. From what I understand from the Facebook profile of De Antología, Sergio's project, the selected stories will be of various themes.
"The poor have few opportunities to speak out. When they speak, no one listens; when someone does listen, the reply is that nothing can be done; when they are told something can be done, nothing is ever done."
A friend recommended Joseph Stiglitz to me a while back, when I was looking for books that talk about raising the quality of life in developing nations. Having only read works by Hernando de Soto, Muhammad Yunus* and Thomas Friedman, I desperately needed recs. Stiglitz' words are eye-opening and quite inspiring (and, as my friend had warned, against Friedman's advocacies). I'm still very much a newb when it comes to global economics, but it's always fun to learn new things.
I bought Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia at around the same time I bought this book, and I read it first, but I find myself enjoying this title a lot more. I think I should reread Asian Godfathers, though. There are many interesting concepts in there, among which is this pattern inherent in dynastic succession: what the first generation sets up, the fourth generation breaks down.
I need to look into how true this is...
* I'm such a newb that I first became aware of wide-scale microfinancing efforts in rural areas when Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. I've since been informed that several microfinancing outfits have been operating in the Philippines for some time, though many are still in the experimental phase.
Somewhat related, I came across this article in the Inquirer earlier this week. Should be a good illustration of how education is necessary for poverty alleviation:
as some of you may already know, for my internship/research I'll be working with small educational technology devices at an underserved site in the Philippines. Focus is math and literacy for grade 1/grade 2 level. There are already existing applications but since the devices were piloted in the US, most of the materials are in English. Basically, I'm looking for people who are willing to write short stories in Filipino or illustrate.
I hope you guys can forward this to people you know who may be interested in this worthwhile project. This really means a lot to me. Thanks.
-- I'll be deploying the teachermate to an underserved site in Pinas. (I'm still in the process of finalizing the exact details with the partner site.) The teachermate is basically an educational mobile device. It is currently targeted towards teaching math and improving literacy at the grade 1/grade 2 level.
There are existing applications that will be deployed to the site in the Philippines. However, a big concern is the literacy part. Since the teachermate was initially created for US children, the e-books are in English. My target is to come up with at least 20 stories in Filipino for the Philippine audience. Unfortunately, this is out of my expertise. I was hoping you could help me find:
* people who are willing to write short stories in Filipino. It doesn't have to be that long -- a minimum of 100 words is OK since these are grade 1/grade 2 level children * people who are willing to do some illustrations based on the stories. The initial deployment is at the 3rd week of March. Not all of the stories are targeted to be digitized by then. Again, since the stories are short, this would require around 4 or 5 illustrations per story
(Note: It doesn't have to be the same person writing and illustrating.)
Unfortunately, we will not be able to pay anything other than warm fuzzy feelings for contributing. However, volunteers will be recognized for their efforts. Any stories or illustrations they create will be attributed to them.
Thanks! If you find someone who's interested, please have them contact me directly via my school e-mail address (msogono(at)stanford(dot)edu).
-- Mela Sogono MA Learning, Design, & Technology Stanford University, Class of 2009
===========================
This is due around February, and she's targeting around 20 stories. This should be a good post-NaNo exercise.
Thanks guys! Oh, and if you have similar announcements that you'd want to share with the group, just send me an email about it, so I can email/spam the group. ^^;
While the "Alabang Boys" case has been dredging up a lot of the things wrong about our judicial system, it has also been putting good public servants through rough times. First, there was Major Ferdinand Marcelino, who is vindicated in this news feature by ABS-CBN:
Next, there is prosecutor Phillip Kimpo, Sr., who is among the lawyers currently facing accusations of being involved in the P50-M DOJ bribery attempt. His son Phillip Jr. has published a letter to the Philippine Star in his father's defense. Read it here.
GMA-7 has aired an interview of the Kimpo family. Phillip Jr. writes about it in a more recent post.
As I have said in a comment in Mia's blog, we deperately need more unsolicited media coverage of the lives and deeds of good people in government. It is unfortunate, however, that their names must be dragged through the mud in high-profile criminal cases, before they can get the attention they deserve.
Kristel Autencio of Read or Die has started a blog for crime fiction: So Fedorable. To mark the launch of the blog, she has also written a column on the kinds of crime fiction, which appeared in the online version of the Manila Bulletin yesterday.
An excerpt:
What interested me with the genre is the element of the unknown. From years of being an avid fan, however, I have come to find nuances to the stories that have kept me interested even after the first thrill of the plot twists have subsided. Sympathetic protagonists who always fight for justice in the face of crime and corruption, a grim portrayal of the reality that exists in the streets. Those are the kind of topics I want to write about, a way to articulate my own jumbled thoughts and provide insight to an audience at the same time.
We are throwing down the gauntlet, this is a challenge to not forget the lessons of the years gone by, a challenge to not forget the issues that have yet to be resolved. This is the writing project that will ensure the new year of accountability and the realization that we have a duty as Filipinos to keep the fire of burning, because if this is our only tool to bring a voice to the issues that have died down, to the issues and incidents that have been forgotten, then so be it.
Cris A. Mendez has not found justice, activists are still missing, murders have not been solved, politicians both local and national still rule with impunity, Sulpicio’s victims still cry out for justice, a proper impeachment complaint has not been heard, Joc Joc still can deny everything, and farmers all over are still uncertain about their fate.
The question is not if we can face these challenges, the question is if we have the stamina to endure a fight for the ages, and a memory strong enough to remember the issues that once held our undivided attention.
Let this New Year, and let this Writing Project be our chance to say, that we remember, that we can endure as long as injustice is still there.
