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The biggest irony in contemporary Philippine history: Manila has survived two successful (in as far as changing Heads of State, not really changing much else) People's Power (pseudo) revolutions where scores of people gathered with minimal organising to change the Presidency -- without any bloodshed, violence or deaths; yet, last Saturday, 74 people died (and around 500 brutally hurt) at a stampede that happened while people were lining up to see Wowowee, a local variety show on tv. Sheesh on a leash. What does that say about this country and its citizens? That we party and play nice when we're trying to achieve political change, but it's every man / woman / child for him/herself if the stake is PhP20,000 and / or a year's worth of groceries and other prizes? It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. People had begun lining up to get seats two days prior to the actual date of the show. They had camped out outside the stadium as early as 1 February. Why? Because there were promises of huge winnings for everyone in the audience. The rumours were varied. One rumour said that each audience member would automatically get PhP500 just for being there. Another said that the first 300 audience members would be awarded PhP20,000. In any case, people were lured with promises of huge winnings (that particular tv show is well known for pandering to the masses by handing out huge amounts of cash to its audience). All they had to do was show up -- that's why they were there in the first place. But when rumours started that there were not enough seats and that the gates were going to be closed, people panicked and climbed over each other to get to the gate and nearer to those prized seats. Most of the ones who died were old women and children -- perhaps because their bodies were not built to be human ladders and floormats. The investigation that the Philippine government is conducting on Saturday's event focuses purely on logistics. All the government wants to know is which one of the agencies involved in organising the Wowowee event is responsible. Was it the Philippine National Police? The security provided by the venue? ABS-CBN? All the government is concerning itself with is what went wrong with the preparations for the event. Who is to blame? Who didn't do their jobs right? It makes me think that as far as the government is concerned, accountability is simply about logistics and coordination. And I'm not entirely sure if it's fair to want the government to ask tougher questions that logistical ones. Logistics and coordination questions are easily answered after all, and perhaps these questions are the ones the government can regulate / control / make policies on. I'd like to believe that accountability is more than that. That accountability equals responsibility. That in answering the why's of last Saturday, the investigation will go beyond simply tracking how events unfolded and confront the reasons why those people were there in the first place. But I doubt that the government is prepared to deal with questions that will bring up issues like rampant poverty in the country, vile tv network wars, and the calculated way these tv networks are preying on poverty to win the war. So they tackle questions they can safely answer. If they don't address the real questions about who really is responsible, who should be accountable and who is behind all this, then so be it. When the person heading the investigation was asked who was responsible for the what happened last Saturday, he evaded the question. He cited protocol and proper procedure as reasons why he couldn't name names or point fingers. Methinks he was half afraid that if he uttered the six letters pointing to the network that concocted the Wowowee gimmick (ABS CBN), he would get a media bashing so hard the grandchildren of his great grandchildren would feel it. Tags: idiot box crap, pop culture
state of mind: snarky
background noise: tv in the background
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I recently discovered that turning on the tv first thing upon waking up is a good way for me to get ready as it is highly possible that someone on some tv show on some tv channel will say something that will totally piss me off, thereby providing the jumpstart I need for the rest of my day. That spark of pissed off / indignant / what-the-fuck?!? energy is just the swift kick my ass needs to get moving every morning (waking up is such a fuckawful thing for me -- 5 out of 7 days in a week, I wake up with a migraine from trying to convince myself to get up and join the living). So I woke up this morning and turned on the tv to help me wake up as I lit my first cig and drank my first cup. And on the Today Show, some silly people were talking about the 5 pairs of shoes that every woman MUST have: funky boots, loafers, funky sneakers, black stiletto pumps, and strappy / bling-y stiletto sandals. The woman who was talking about these shoes said with such authority that the female reporter who was interviewing her was lapping it up as if it were the solution to poverty in the Third World. Totally pissed me off. Not because I don't think shoes are important enough for ultra-expensive tv airtime. Not because the two people involved in the interview sounded like they inhaled a vat of helium with their morning cup of coffee. And definitely not because I don't like shoes. What pissed me off was that every sample of each type of shoe had an ultra-feminine, Paris Hilton vibe. Where were the funky red cowboy boots?!? Where were the knee-high rubber boots with tractor tread soles?!? Where were the flipflops?!? Where were the Mary Janes?!?! Why aren't those shoe genres on that goddamned list?!? What pissed me off is the idea that every woman should have these five types of shoes or suffer the wrath of the Fashion Gods. The idea of Fashion Musts, based on unarticulated but obvious notions of what women should dress and look like, never fail to push my buttons. After decades of women fighting for the right to make choices over their lives / bodies / politics / spaces / income / employment / culture / beliefs why are we now so desperate for some freaking "expert" to tell us what our fashion essentials are? If this universe were mine, there'd be a special place in hell for stupid experts and their MUST HAVE mentalities. ***** While I've calmed down from that shoe thingie and gotten on with the rest of my day, I was still a bit bothered by how much that shoe thingie pissed me off. But I set that aside and headed for a meeting with the Geek God to the Mac to work on that Open Source project. Enter Sanctimonious Activist. He came in while GGM and I were in the middle of a drool-fest over the new MacBook Pro. He came in scoffing at the idea of owning a Mac because it was too expensive and too elitist. Fair enough, I thought. Goodness knows I can't afford a Mac but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my Mac-envy, no? But Sanctimonious Activist, completely ignoring the fact that he was talking to two avid Open Source users who were in the middle of an Open Source project for NGOs, went on and on about Open Source and why it's god's gift to mankind. And why proprietary software users had no soul. And that no true-blue activist should be caught dead with windows on their machines or any other kind of burn-in-activist-hell proprietary software. But before I could get properly pissed off at this guy, right before my very (trippily kinda stoned) eyes, the image of the Shoe Chick on the Today Show overlayed itself on the Sanctimonious Activist, who was still too busy yapping away to see the giggle forming at the back of my throat from the image I could see: Shoe Chick and Sanctimonious Activist were one and the same! OK so maybe Shoe Chick had better clothes, skin and hair, and maybe they had completely different sexes, but I swear on the sheen and shine of my 20 pairs of shoes, they sounded exactly the same. They had the same vigour and passion for their topics of choice. They had similar notions of what people MUST HAVE and how people MUST BE, and they were equally expert-like and self-righteous about it. Funny, that. So to keep myself from having a giggle-fest right in front of Sanctimonious Activist and / or throwing my flipflops at him, I turn on my computer and blog. Tags: idiot box crap, pop culture
state of mind:  silly
background noise: sound of geeks in the background
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The number of Makeover Shows currently on tv is pretty surprising. Seemed to me that every other channel had at least two Makeover Shows for every timeslot. Or every other tv show on air these days has to do with changing people's lives by giving them a do-over. OK, I'm exaggerating a tad, but days spent flicking through tv channels has given me regular doses of the following programmes: Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy U.K Version, How Do I Look?, Life and Style, A Second Look, Ambush Makeover, and The Swan. This list does not include other talk / entertainment shows that have sporadic Makeover episodes where they take some drab-looking person, introduce him / her to a team of stylists, and within an hour or so, transform that person "from drab to fab". It's part of the classic Cinderella Syndrome that's regained it's popularity these days. Not that that syndrome of instant beauty / fabulousness = getting the prince and living happily ever after has ever been completely unpopular, but sometime a few years back, it was deemed trite, corny, shallow and stupid. Or at least I'd like to think the Feminist movement has had that kind of minimal impact on culture at some point in human evolution. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's simply a matter of me having had my head buried in the sand that has made me believe that there was a time when the Cinderella Syndrome was not all that popular anymore. Maybe I've been living in my own head for so long that I began to mistake what's in it as true for everyone else. But I digress. The point was that the illusion that all a person needs to change and gain happiness is a fairy godmother (in modern times known as a Stylist) who will wield her magic wand (or HUGE make-up kit and a few surgical instruments) to make you all pretty (highlights, make-up, a nose / boob / chin / cheek job, girly clothes) is still very much alive. And people continue to buy into that dream. I have no quarrel with beauty. And goodness knows that Vanity and I are pretty tight. I'm all for people taking the time out to express themselves through the way they look. I'm all for people investing in activities / products that would keep their skin / hair / bodies / hands / feet / teeth healthy and therefore beautiful. I'm all for emergency fixes for bad hair days and that time of the month when one is feeling like a hag. I'm all for guys who have funky clothes and smell good. I do have a problem with attaching so much value on Makeovers. Makeovers are fun and there's nothing like a good facial or haircut or new outfit to make someone feel a little more special than usual for a little while. But that's all it is. A temporary fix. Makeovers are not life-changing. Having a trim or a facial will not turn you into someone else. Neither will having a cosmetic surgery. You'll still be you, but perhaps with better hair / skin / nose / boobs / body. Let's not pin all our hopes and dreams and entire identities / histories / personalities on Makeovers. I absolutely can't stand the illusion that a Makeover gives confidence, empowerment, enlightenment, major changes and a new outlook on life (perhaps on top of a hot date with someone you've been eyeing for quite some time now?). Please. Women's movements have been trying for confidence and empowerment for women for more than a century now, and it would be tragic if all along, instead of fighting for women's rights to vote or to have jobs or to be protected against violence, Feminists should have just invested in beauty salons. What I also have a problem with is that there seems to be a common notion of what is beautiful. What I have a problem with are Stylists and Beauty Gurus who impose their own standards of beauty on hapless, helpless saps who are so insecure about themselves that they would let others tell them how they should look. I also have a problem with trying to pattern people into popular celebrities in order to get the "In" Look. Because if we allow other people to dictate what is beautiful, we're all going to look alike. And that's just UGLY. (But perhaps my biggest pet peeve about these Makeover Shows is that the first thing they do when the client / victim / experiment is a guy with a beard is to shave off the beard. I like beards. I like goatees. I think stubles are hot. If I were a guy and my hair-making genes were not so latent, I'd grow a freaking beard! Why oh why can't they just leave facial hair on men alone?!?!) ***** Hmm. I think I need to get out a bit tomorrow. Tags: idiot box crap, pop culture
state of mind: trying to get sleepy
background noise: the drone of the electric fan and the sound of fingers tapping on my keyboard
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I've been glued to CNN every evening here. No Internet access, finished the books I brought with me, so thank goodness this hotel is "proudly a CNN-partner hotel" (which means that CNN is the only English news channel available), so I have something to put me to sleep. It's interesting that they've recycled the same news items for like the nth time (bombing in Jordan, riots in France, terrorist arrests in Australia, Bush vs the democrats, Bush en route to East Asia, Mauresma winning some tennis match in the US, Agassi forfeiting a game because of his bad ankle), but there has not been one mention of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) happening in Tunis at the moment, where governments, corporations and organisations are drafting plans that will set the direction for the future of information and communication technologies. Where, also, the Tunisian government has been reported to have beaten up reporters attending the conference. I'm not saying that the WSIS is more important than those news items, but instead of recycling the same news over and over again (without really divulging anything new throughout the day), they could have done a report on WSIS and the events in Tunis. Makes me think that we live in a parallel universe that the rest of the world has no idea about. Which makes me think that this is how governments, corporations and organisations get away with seemingly-little things that eventually shape the world. Sadly, in a time where mass media plays a crucial role in shaping social priorities and agendas, where media mileage has taken perverse mutations (ergo, reality shows), the answer to the age old question, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did the tree fall at all?", seems to be: No. So if the WSIS is not getting mainstream media coverage, for those who are not "clued in" and are not in the conference itself, then this event is not happening at all. Then the rest of the world remains unaware of the decisions being made, or the issues organisations are raising on such decisions. By the time the mainstream media covers these "little things", they've become big things that no one can really do anything about. It's sad how much falls between the cracks of "big news", mainstream mass media political agendas and sensationalism. Makes one wonder about just how much one knows, or thinks she knows, about the world. Tags: idiot box crap
state of mind:  awake
background noise: CNN in the background
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Moved most of the stuff in my bedroom to the new flat this weekend, so from today until I have to leave for Thailand tomorrow, I'm working from the dining table, where I get to eavesdrop as Cirio goes about his post-work de-stressing activity: watching tv. Actually, that's not completely true. I kind of banished myself back to my bedroom because I have a really annoying habit of opinionating in the middle of a tv show (I think I got on my brothers nerves tonight. I was really irritating, I think). So, note to self: The Idiot Box will not talk back, so stop talking to it!
The Swan. This reality tv show is about turning fat and ugly women into supermodels through major cosmetic surgery, psychiatric advice, a new health regimen. If you ask me, the psychiatric advice should have dealt with the low self-esteem these women seem to have instead of being used to "prepare" them for the major changes their lives will take once all that fat has been sucked out of their systems and their facial features are re-aligned into something that refuses to move... Anyway, tonight's episode was about two sisters who undergo The Swan Programme with one sister not knowing that her sister was in it. That was the major "twist" in tonight's episode: "Ohmyfuckinggod, I'm not going to be the prettier sister after all!"... So I was keeping mum, answering my emails in peace, until the time came when the team who helped transform one of the sisters were asked what the biggest change (aside from the 100+ fat pounds suctioned off) was for the girl. One of the "advisors" said that the most positive change was that the girl used to be the kind of person who cared for everyone too much, and that now that she had undergone The Swan Programme, the girl had learned to take care of herself first. So from my mouth came the words: "Caring about other people is a good thing, you ninny! Empathy, concern, lack of self-involvement. These are good things! She gave all that up for a freaking nose job?"
Cirio, bless his heart, laughed it off and flipped the channel before I could get up on my soapbox and unto a diatribe on how completely sexist, inane, idiotic, shallow, just plain wrong that whole show was. Thankfully, the next channel had this ultra-hilarious stand-up comedienne, so my brother and I had fun for a bit. She was a hoot. She eventually went on to say that she was lesbian and was met with uncomfortable laughter from the audience, which she confronted head on with: "Aha! So five minutes ago, you were all laughing with me, and now that I've said the 'L' word, you're probably all thinking 'Hmm. She's a lesbian, and I find her funny. Does that make me gay?' Well let me assure all of you that the answer is (dramatic pause): yes!" Then she went on about how her traditional, Eastern European parents dealt with her lesbianism -- in a completely hilarious way. So after that, Cirio once more flips the channel. This time to a local television series which is pretty much a Lord of the Rings knock-off -- without the dishy Legolas, dammit. Just like most local tv series, this one's got the most popular stereotypes: the virginal, innocent, hapless and reluctant heroine; the cunning villainness decked in black and red with ultra-heavy make-up; the romantic lead who's brave and beautiful... and so on and so forth. Fine, I could live with that. What had me bursting out loud with laughter was when they showed this tribe made up of the members of a 1980's boy dance group. So out came: "Well that's just cheesy. Are the producers thinking they could get to the yuppie crowd by giving such has-beens spots on this tv show?"So Cirio flipped the channel again to one with news and current events. I think my brother knows me well enough to know that news and current events always get me yapping, so he quickly flipped the channel to something more inane: MTV I understand that my brother only wants to rest his braincells after a hard day's work by watching tv, and that my running commentary probably does not help create a relaxing ambience for him. I love my brother for not saying anything (my mother and my sister used to tell me outright to get out of the room whenever they were watching tv), so I banished myself to my bedroom for both our sakes. He gets reprieve from his hectic day and his opinionated sister. And I get reprieve from the tv. Everybody happy. (Except my butt and back hurt from having to work from the floor. Haha.) Tags: idiot box crap
state of mind: 1000 things to do before Take Off
background noise: some hip hop song blasting from my window
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