STATE OF THE NATION

STATE OF THE FILIPINO NATION, STATE OF THE MINDS OF THE ELECTORATES

Yes, there is something wrong in our country, Ricky Lee.

There will always be people sleeping on the streets, especially in Metro Manila. There will always be hunger stalking the poor--50 million subsisting on P50 each per day. Social inequality is everywhere despite those high-rise buildings in Manila and Makati including that structure in Bulacan which has been billed as the biggest in the world. And Boracay and Dakak may speak of achievements and more fun in the Philippines. But there will be more sad eyes and more empty stomachs.

And this Philippine curse will remain and stalks us for as long as the electorates chose corrupt politicians that include movie stars and mentally incompetent persons to run our government.   

Journalists as Protectors of DEMOCRACY

Ttruth is not a monopoly of  religion.

Truth is a concept that defies definition.

Truth, your truth, and the truth don't necessarily coincide.
Truth is a "pillar" of democracy, if not its essence.
The search for truth is the lot of jounalists.

Therefore, the journalist is duty-bound to protect democary

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Happier thoughts lead to essentially happier

 

biochemistry. A happier, healthy body. Negative thoughts and stress have been shown to seriously degrade the body and the functioning of the brain, because it's our thoughts and emotions that are continously re-assembling, re-organizing and re-creating our body."--Dr. John Hagelin

THE MYSTERY OF THE OKRA SEEDS

     The blogger put the discarded noodles cup containing  dark okra seeds in a corner of the abong-abong in the backyard. In the morning, he took the cup and saw that the seeds, no larger than rice grains, have sprouted. How can these small shoots, not larger than commas, grow into a bush of many fruits?

     The mystery of the okra seeds is the mystery of God that they say is an unseen spirit.

TYRANNICAL TERRORISM VS. THE FILIPINO PEOPLE

The blooger musing in Menifee:

     The three Philipine senators--Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Revilla, Jr.-- who have been arrested and jailed for plunder charges will have their day in court. If they are convicted, what they did--pocketing millions of pesos in kickbacks from the misuse of their pork barrel--was an abominable act, a kind of tyrannical terrorism against the Filipino people.

RENATA, HOLD THE WORLD TOGETHER*

1.
love is dead
(the wind blows lonely)
but there is a return
to moonlight on the beach
where her laughter keeps thundering
across the fragile brain.

the world laughs
the sun is a fiery disc in the sky
but there is a cold cold corner

at dawn

 

 

morning is the beginning
of a thousand deaths.

2. 

there is order in the world:
war, famine, thirst,
death, immorality, crime against
   property, all are
   parts indivisible
   even hallucinations.

and the poet asks:
will it end in fire or ice?
i say neither.

the world will end
when i no longer see myself
in your eyes.
when the chain
of love snaps
  in two, breaking
like brittle twig.

*included in the Ilokano-English anthology, "Umayka Manen, Ganggannaet/Come Again, Stranger" with critical introduction written by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa

THE BLOGGER MUSING IN MENIFEE

              We start growing old the moment
 we are born in the world
      and in time.

           How long can we last in time
    that appears to be "standing still,  unmoving"   
               yet eternal?

NOTES TO BEN CASTILLO, MY NATIONALIST BROTHER*

1.

The gods who walked
     on white feet
Are back in their barren country.

2.
Back in their islands
the barbarians who raped your sister
     are erecting towers
on borrowed blueprints.

3.

And the teachers of democracy,
tired of progress and surplus goods,
are mocking God in Vietnam.

4.

And we?
We who tore the G-string
from the brown body?

5.

Of course, we are snoring
     the sun
hot on our face.

6.

Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Let the holocaust come.
Sleep is a beautiful country
under the coconut tree.


Philippine Free Press, August 12, 1967

*One of the poems included in the expanded version of "Umayka Manen, Gangganaet/Come Again, Stranger," an anthology of Ilokano and English poems written by the blogger. With critical introduction by Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY ON THE SHORT STORY:

"You see I'm trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across--not to just depict life--or criticize it--but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing. You can't do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as the beautiful. Because if it is all beautiful you can't believe it. Things aren't that way. It is only by showing both sides--3 dimensions and if possible 4 that you can write the way I want to."--To his father, Clarence Hemingway.

      That's the way it is. Even in journalism. For example: If you write about public figures, especially politicians, and you quote him or her making snide remarks against a political rival, you have to get the side of the latter and incorporate  it in the news story. This is what we call balance in the genre.

"The Horse-breaker"

     "The Horse-breaker" is a short story written by Javier de Viena. It's about a man whose profession is a horse-breaker, a job that has something to do with "disciplining" horses so they can be managed and do their owners' bidding. A young woman named Blasa provides an anti-thesis to the unnamed hero. A simple story with a simple plot, it is effectively presented with a minimum of details and complications.
     The plot summary: Sabiniano, the principal character, arrives at a ranch somewhere in South America. He has been hired to break some wild horses, one of which is owned by the ranch owner's daughter Blasa. After a short exposition and introduction of other character, action begins.Sabiniano starts his job as a horse-breaker. A conflict develops between him and Blasa.
     When his job is done, Sabiniano bids goodbye to the ranch owner. But before he leaves, a dance is held but he does not join in the merrymaking. Blasa seeks him out and invites him to dance. He refuses and the girl flares up but she controls herself. She tells the man he could not leave because, as she says it, "Don't you know I love you, you wretch?"
     The humbled Blasa ends up kissing Sabiniano who then stays for good.
    By portraying Sabiniano as a tough guy in a tough environment, who has a code of honor and who "always do what he sets out to do," the author has drawn the  image of the ideal man who always wins despite the odds. But he cautions that to be able to master other men and circumstances, one must know how to master himself.
     The story makes a statement about how men in another culture treat women.
     In another culture, a woman is abandoned when she loses her value because she could not beget children. This is painfully captured in the fiction written by the Philippine author Amado Daguio in "Wedding Dance." In the story, the husband leaves his barren wife for a more fertile woman, a practice in the highlands with a different tribal culture.
  

POEM IN THE ANTHOLOGY, "COME AGAIN, STRANGER/UMAYKA MANEN, GANGGANNAET"

PANNAKARARIT

Impideg ti lalaki
ti de-pilid a tugaw
     iti puraw a diding
     ket inuraymi ti naituding
     nga oras.

Siak a mararit
     addaak met a situtugaw 
     iti trono ti naparmek.
Nagsasaruno nga immagibas
     dagiti dimmaga
     iti daan nga ili, iti daan
     nga urnos, uray daydi darepdep
     a nagkunaak a bayadak
     ti utang ti kasimpungalan.

Ama, mangaasika
O Apo, mangngaasika.

Ket nalang-abko
     ti nalabaga a rosas
     nga am-ammalan ti umis-isem
     a timman-aw manipud iti ayanna.

Inggalutda dagiti imak
     iti padeppa
     a nangipaiddaanda kaniak.

Ingatom ta sakam, kinuna
     ti siaabbong iti agongna
     ken nagkawes iti berde
     a kas kadagiti dadduma.

     Ngem agbibinegakon
     kadagiti adu a tudok ken sapsapo.

     Linuktandak iti asideg
     ti sellang ken ti lamiis
     ti kaippasngay a parbangon
     ti tarimbangon.

Dagiti lallaki a nagabito
     gineppasda dagiti pempen
     ken basbasolko.

Nalpasen, inyarasaas ti Bibig
     a ti inyesngawna
     isu ti sang-aw ti agturay
     a saan a makita.


Baguio general hospital
abril 9, 1997