benign0's blog

Do we really experience reality? Think about it. Where does our personal concept of reality really exist? We think that we are in touch with our surroundings through our senses. That is of course true -- up to a point . Without minds that have been honed by years of experience turning nerve and neural signals (generated by our thought processes and our five senses whenever these capture external stimuli; i.e., light, vibration, texture, etc.) into mental constructs, there would be no experience as we, well, experience it now. Indeed, our minds piece together mental models of the world based on how it interprets data , and we "experience" those models as proxies of the real world.

A noted blog commentator once made an assertion that the Philippines will never be a great nation unless Filipinos learn to live by the principle of the "rule of law". Indeed, some people even insist that none of the calls by certain sectors of Philippine society for a system change like a shift from a Presidential to a Parliamentary system or even constitutional amendments will work to uplift the status of the nation because Filipinos simply cannot follow the "rule of law."

The forces of modernism are in the midst of a fight for the progression of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. That powerful bastion of Filipino-style primitivism, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has in recent months brought to bear its vast fear mongering communication channel -- the "Holy" Catholic Mass -- to disseminate its threats of fire and brimstone to those in its flock who dare harbour impure thoughts on contraception. Among those who had so far succumbed to this might is no less than Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III who earlier withdrew from a commitment to prioritise reproductive health in his list of legislation to push.

The Philippine Congress mirrors not only its constituents. It mirrors its constituents' favourite form of entertainment -- low-brow noon time variety shows like Wowowee . Not much comes out of Congressional "inquiries" and "hearings" other than an opportunity for our honourable politicians to rack up media exposure mileage. But while shows like Wowowee turn the desperation of its impoverished contestants into mass-audience entertainment, the entertainment value of Congress is more akin to a bullfight -- where a bloodthirsty audience cheers on a flamboyant matador's graceful ritual killing of a maddened beast.

We, mere observers , who do not know former defense secretary and chief of staff retired General Angelo Reyes at a personal level only have the Law to frame our regard for him. Granted, Reyes was a primary suspect in the on-going probe of massive corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). But in the eyes of the Law, he remains innocent for now as the Law presumes a person innocent until proven guilty.

Oh the horrors! People caught making out and having sex on the beaches of Boracay! ABS-CBN News for the first time beat the Catholic Bishops in the game of huffing and puffing about sin and scandal in its "exclusive" report on Boracay beach debauchery caught on video . Star of 1996 sexploitation film Ang pinakamagandang hayop sa balat ng lupa Ruffa Gutierrez also chimed in ...

It is now quite generally established that the administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III is being held up by the Philippine Media as one that is "trusted" by the people. The question is: Does the Noynoy administration deserve the trust of the Filipino?

If there was anything that the final "resolution" of the Vizconde Massacre -- the "crime of the decade" -- achieved, it was casting the spotlight, yet again, on the astounding incompetence of the state's law enforcement, intelligence, and investigation services. Missing witnesses, tampered evidence, lack of control over crime scenes, and spineless management of the Media characterised the case then just as these characterised much of the more recent spectacles of the Philippines' keystonian police operations.

Just saw the photo below making the rounds on Facebook. The album from which it was lifted was posted by the Animal Welfare Coalition (see also AnimalWelfare.com.ph ). The caption of the album indicated that the photos were "proudly posted" by a certain Bigleng Arcilla on "November 8" and whose friends include "Jeff Pecson, Jannella Cruz, Ar Tubaces Jr., Arian Canlas, Jhenypher Sison, Aljon Masiclat, Jerome Cabuso, Aldwin Arcilla, Darwin Delos Reyes, Emanuel Dane Sevilla, Al Mungcal, Aw Arcilla".

Life's not all black-and-white, Mr inflame *. You can do both "fighting for your ideas/beliefs" AND "join the rat race". Nothing's stopping you from doing both. That is why there is a free market that is tempered by regulation. Elements in the private sector compete in that free market and the state applies regulation to create a fair and just environment for said competition. Is that difficult to comprehend?

If the Roman Catholic Church "excommunicates" President Noynoy Aquino on the basis of the position he takes in favour of artificial contraception, then they may as well excommunicate the entire Filipino nation. President Aquino is the President of the Philippines and was elected by Filipinos . According to Nonoy himself, the Filipino people are his "boss". So on the principle of command responsibility , the Church should extend their grievances over artificial contraception to the Filipino people.

According to Inquirer.net columnist Conrado de Quiros it is Filipino first, world second ; referring to his disagreement with President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's decision to provide the IIRC report on the Mendoza hostage tragedy to the Chinese government before it is released to Filipinos.

An end in itself . This is how Radio Mindanao Network anchor Jake Maderazo described the reporter's "job" of, well, "reporting". Apparently this "job" comes first in any situation, even situations that endanger human lives. Pressed by Filipino-Chinese community representative Teresita Ang-See with the rhetorical statement "No profession should ever be more important than (saving) human lives and more important than showing what was happening inside (the bus)" to highlight the fatal role the Media played in the botched handling of the Mendoza hostage crisis, Maderazo only had this to say...

You come to a country expecting to have a nice time. And then you end up dead. What is the name of this country you took a chance on that cost you your life? The Philippines . The above script of an internal conversation is the sorry outcome of my own personal failure to even begin to imagine what it might be like to be the father of one of the eight people killed in last night's hostage drama . It pretty much sums up the gray light shining upon the Pearl of the Orient from a global perspective .

In the debate on the issue of the legalisation of divorce for which a bill was filed by the women's issues advocate party Gabriela, the Philippine Catholic Church, as expected has its say. EurasiaReview.com reports that Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, chairman of the Public Affairs Committee of the Church had this to say on the matter...

Behold the tragedy that is Philippine society. People wonder how a relatively educated country (by Third World standards) with a high literacy rate (by most standards!) can be, at the same time, such a wretchedly backward society. It comes down to how our society allows undebatable dogmatic concepts to infest the secular debate. What use is modern education (that best serves a modern secular discourse) when conversation-enders coming from primitivist dogmatic concepts are allowed to foul up the elegance of enlightened discussion?

Yet again, a beholdenness to religious edict -- specifically the stand of the Medievally powerful Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines -- is at the centre of a heated debate between the forces of progress and the Forces of Primitivism. What is in effect a "total ban" on all forms of abortion in the Philippines is resulting in a nightmarish world of death, suffering, and despair for many poor Filipinos -- the very people whose welfare the Catholic Church presumes itself to be the guardian of.

What is wrong with this picture? Since 2004, the Philippine Government has effected a ban on travel to war-torn Iraq that is applicable to all its citizens. Despite that, we now know that there are at least 15,000 Filipinos who had been working there despite this ban. We know this because that is the number now on their way home. But here's the thing. They are being repatriated only because the United States Armed Forces has started a crack down on such workers ...

Word about Charice Pempengco's cosmetic "treatment" goes viral over the Web. Even celebrity blogger Perez Hilton weighs in giving this piece of advise presumably to Ms Pempengco: "Get some help, bb - or you're not gonna last very long". ABS CBN News called the whole episode The commercialization of Charice .

Cosmetic surgeon to the stars "Doctor" Vicki Belo went on record with her rationale behind the "thermage procedure" she performed on up-and-coming Filipino singer and actor Charice Pempengco...