benign0's blog

Poor Manuel Buencamino. The title of his latest article on ProPinoy.net alone already sufficiently describes the sort of attitude that apologists of Philippine President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III tend to take. In " A clear message. Period ", Buencamino makes his appeal to the public on how they should regard Noynoy's recently concluded State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered to joint sessions of Congress -- the message is clear, basta it is! End of conversation, right gramps?

Get Real Post is now online! This is the forum where issues will be discussed from well-considered perspectives . Check it out right here , or logon with the following URL: GetRealPhilippines.com/Blog

In the aftermath of the 11th March super-earthquake that devastated Japan and caused a health and environmental crisis after damaged nuclear reactors started releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere, the Philippines remains mired in a too-little-too-late soul searching along two key areas: (1) its capability to respond in the event of a similar-sized disaster hitting its main population centres, and (2) the future of its nuclear energy program.

I recently got a load of Google's list of most "influential" Filipinas (Filipino women) for 2010. The list is utterly dominated by performers along with a handful of notable exceptions: Senator Miriam Santiago (no. 10), Doris Dumlao (journalist, no. 12), Monique Lhullier (designer, no. 17), and Korina Sanchez (journalist, no. 19). These 20 ladies supposedly "grabbed the greatest online mindshare in 2010". So presumably, they reflect the substance of the Filipino collective mind.

Why subject yourself to an hour of unsustainable inconvenience (and maybe have to miss a favourite TV show while you are at it) when leading a life that quietly reduces your "carbon footprint" on an on-going basis without all the grandstanding involved in half-arsed spectacles like " Earth Hour " (to be observed 26 March of this year, 2011) is simple, easy, and sensible .

Valentines Day. This day always brings out the best and worst in people. It’s hard not to feel sorry for the rest of the population whether they be men or women, or boys or girls who feel left out on that day -- a day which in the cosmic scheme of things is really just another 24-hour segment in the Earth's journey through space and time as it orbits the sun.

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.

Blogger Paul Farol recently brought to my attention an initiative to develop a "brand" for the Philippines . The initiative is being championed by a certain EON Philippines which, according to its website , is a "stakholders relations firm". EON have written a whitepaper, " Branding the Philippines: Championing the Filipino " that consolidates ideas brainstormed in a recently held forum that included representatives from various business stakholders in the Philippines (chambers of commerce, business clubs, industry associations, etc.).

The Inquirer today crowned President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III " our Filipino of the Year ". This honour was bestowed on the incumbent Philippine president supposedly for being "the living Filipino who made the most positive impact in 2010". And, it seems, on the basis of a November 2010 Social Weather Station survey that showed "seven out of 10 Filipinos were satisfied with President Aquino’s administration" and on a Pulse Asia "trust rating" of 80 percent.

Of course, "entertainment" is a life necessity. But stop to think why Media conglomerates all over the world are pitching faster and faster access to the Net as some kind of human right. Simple. The more content that can be shoved down fibre optic cables, the more Media conglomerates make money. But also, consider that the cheaper they can produce this content, the bigger their profits. If you still cannot see what is wrong with this picture, let me spell it out: Content producers see their growth prospects in cutting content production costs, which results in crappier content, which is then sold to us in bigger quantities.

The 4th of February 2011 will mark the fifth anniversary of that monumental tragedy that happened in the PhilSports "ULTRA" Stadium in Pasig, Metro Manila where 78 people died in a stampede for tickets to see ABS-CBN's hit television show Wowowee . It ranks up there along with the same sort of mass-casualty disasters that happen onli in da Pinas , except that unlike tragedies involving killer Sulpicio Line ships, homicidal mud slides that bury entire towns in Leyte, and murderous floods caused by storm drains clogged by human refuse, the Wowowee massacre happened on a nice sunny day.

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 ...

Rate of growth in the take up of social networking among Filipinos is among the highest in the world. From just 160,000 in July 2008, the number of Facebook users in the Philippines grew by huge leaps to 2.7 million in 2009 and then 14.6 million in 2010. The rate at which Filipinos are infesting Facebook is astounding, indeed. And while our immense numbers go on to pad Mark Zuckerberg's score card, the question remains: Are we adding intellectual, social, or cultural capital to the community?

In a recent article on ProPinoy.net , blogger Cocoy Dayao laments the implementation of volume caps on internet usage in the Philippines by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Before we fly off the handle here, I believe we first need to step back a bit and ask this more fundamental question: How exactly does increased access to high-speed internet for the average Filipino consumer make her "more productive"?

Ten years ago, we thought that the biggest thing the Web was going to be was a high-tech mail order catalogue. Some of the most publicised tech stunts in the first Web boom of the late 1990's involved geeks voluntarily locking themselves indoors for weeks and subsisting on stuff that can be ordered via the Web -- all to highlight the foreseen downfall of businesses derided by first-generation Web heads and their Wall Street cheerleaders as "bricks-and-mortar" establishments. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com was rewarded for fitting that "vision" when he was made TIME Person of the Year in 1999 . We now know that the Web went on to prove that its biggest direct value to the average schmoe was as a forum for "social networking". Facebook.com enhanced real-world and real-person networking while a plethora of massively-multiplayer gaming platforms opened alternate realities for alternate-person networking. Ergo : 2010 TIME Person of the Year = Faceb...

War, famine, pestilence, poverty, and child-molesting priests. There are millions of things that the men-in-robes of the Philippine Catholic Church could be raising a stink about. Instead they focus today on Dolphy's comedy film Father Jejemon , where certain scenes allegedly "disrespect" certain holy rituals of the Catholic faith. King of comedy told to respect King of Kings reports the Inquirer.net , perhaps inadvertently highlighting how our esteemed clerics forget that their "King" is not necessarily all Filipinos' king.

A " study " conducted by Synergy Business Consultancy (SBC) revealed the most powerful celebrity endorsers in the Philippines, with Manny " Aprub Agad !" Pacquiao, Vicki " Charice's face is getting wider " Belo, and Venus " Major Major " Raj topping the list. These are people who will be paid millions by Big Corporate to stand behind their products flashing their winning smiles at their adoring fans.

Rather laughable is the high expectations that the Usual Suspects of petty Philippine politics harbour of what may be revealed by WikiLeaks about the Philippines. According to an Inquirer.net " report ", Filipino "militants" expect the information from Julian Assange's infamous site to "reveal detailed information exposing the extent of US involvement in the country's internal affairs" and another bozo crowed how "never before have the secret workings of US foreign policy been opened to such public scrutiny".

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.

Crows the Inquirer.net at its top headline: " Aquino's rating hits 79% "! It is indeed a celebration of the rise of a president who truly reflects the character of the people he leads. But what exactly does being popular among Filipinos prove? Let me count the ways. Being popular among Filipinos proves...