Owner: (Mis)readings URL:http://karlomongaya.wordpress.com Join Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:48:28 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: a blog featuring counterobservations on events and texts from the vantage point of an eccentric, optically inconvenienced, and culturally dispossessed resident from the Southern Philippines. Site statistics:Click here
How to compile an inventory of books 2007-10-12 17:12:55 Let me dispel any notion that this post is about accounting, confined as it is to the sphere of debits and credits. Still, in a way this entry would have something to do with “bookkeeping.”
And by books, I suggest nothing else but hardbacks, novels, paperbacks, history books, nonfiction, thrillers, classics, and everything in between – [...]
Tags, Murakami, telephone buttons and haiku 2007-10-12 05:01:42 I’m not feeling well lately. (Again.)
So I’ve reset the sectioning system of Postcard Headlines to conform to WordPress’ new tags and categories interface. Now, now. Too bad I didn’t notice the category to tag converter in time, hahaha.
Also stumbled upon two interesting sites while taking a break from the reading of Haruki Murakami’s novel, [...]
Read more:telephone
Che Guevara’s last diary entry 2007-10-09 17:36:36 Yesterday, October 9, marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara
.
Guevara, an Argentine medic who joined Fidel Castro in fighting the US-backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba and later becoming a leader of the Cuban revolutionary government, was captured and executed while waging guerrilla war in Bolivia in 1967.
In a tribute, Fidel Castro [...]
Bloody Friday Mall Bombing Tragedy 2007-10-19 10:57:55 A mall in the country’s financial capital was bombed today.
It was 3 in the afternoon when I chanced upon the news headline on the computer’s screen. I didn’t recognize it at first, thinking it was about Pakistan and the bombing that marked Benazir Bhutto’s return.
I read the report again. “Mall bomb blast kills 8, hurts [...]
Read more:Friday
, Bombing
, Tragedy
Subversion 2007-10-18 18:53:32 The military has been deluding itself into thinking they’re the only real power which can save the nation. With the potentials for another coup brewing amidst another crisis in the national capital, let’s all hope our generals will not let this go to their heads.
Long perceived as an abusive institution bereft of respect for human [...]
GMA: Buried deeper 2007-10-17 17:24:39 There seems to be no end in sight for the troubles surrounding President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Crudely translated into English, the October 17 editorial* of Superbalita, the country’s no.1 Cebuano newspaper, says:
Editorial: Burieddeeper
In the effort to free itself from the National Broadband Network issue and the feared impeachment complaint, Malacanang found itself buried instead in [...]
8th Motorshow Cebu International: Day 1 2007-10-16 21:17:35 I have been stationed in the media center and lounge of the 8th Motorshow Cebu International
in the Cebu International Convention Center’s (CICC) room 101 since yesterday.
I will be here daily until the end of the event on Sunday, probably with nothing much to do since most reporters would expectedly be here during the opening [...]
Marching for Land: From Bukidnon to QC 2007-10-15 22:52:55 Twenty years ago, on the 22nd of January 1987, farmers of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and supporters marching to Mendiola were showered with automatic gunfire in one of the most violent display of force against demonstrators to this date.
The farmers came to pay the President a visit and talk about land reform – [...]
Missing the boat: the barangay and SK polls 2007-10-24 11:01:26 Investigators are now saying that the Glorietta explosion could have been just an accident after all. In an amusing satire piece whose conclusion I do not really agree with, the Inquirer’s Neal Cruz replies: Glorietta bombing was a mistake, not an accident.
And so all the wild speculations as to the real cause of the blast continues. But here’s an excerpt from a news report on “missing the boat,” as the cliché goes, that gave me the laughs the other day…
Candidate for village chief fills up wrong election form
By Chris Ligan,
Correspondent, Cebu Daily News
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
A barangay captain seeking a second term in office is running for the wrong position.
Mike Oceleasa, barangay captain of Day-As, Cebu City, has already started his campaign for his reelection bid. But election officials discovered yesterday that the certificate of candidacy (COC) he submitted last week was not for barangay captain, but for barangay councilor.
Marchel Sarno, election officer of Read more:Missing
Estrada pardon sets precedent for Arroyo 2007-10-23 17:48:52 In a complete reversal of his earlier fighting stance of not accepting a pardon, disgraced former President Joseph Estrada applied for “full, free and unconditional” pardon from President Arroyo.
From having his spokespersons demand an “all-encompassing” amnesty, Estrada now had his lawyers withdraw his motion for reconsideration with the Sandiganbayan for his September 12 guilty verdict on two counts of plunder.
While insisting to bowing on the “wisdom of my lawyers” after realizing that “I don’t really stand a chance with the justice system that we have…,” Estrada also justifies his change of tack by saying that this would “start a healing process” for the “sharply divided nation” and that he can do something better for the country if he was free.
The long and short of it, he claims, is he was doing it with “the highest national interest” in mind.
(more…)
Read more:precedent
The First Quote of The Day 2007-10-22 09:19:31 Today is an important day for a reason I would rather keep to myself. A lot did happen but let’s just say that memory remains a funny thing for me and that recalling or writing them down would have to wait for another day. So without further ado, let me leave everyone with my quote for the day. It’s not related to whatever it is I have about today:
We need, the country needs, to get to the bottom of this act of abomination. We can do that if we keep our heads about us, resolve not to rush to judgment, become more vigilant—and reclaim the normal course of our lives. - Oct. 22, 2007 Editorial, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Read more:First
, Quote
Bombing not a diversion (updated!) 2007-10-21 06:40:01 It’s now two days after the ruthless bombing of Glorietta mall last Friday which killed 11 and hurt more than a hundred others. Still, the investigations have brought up nothing conclusive despite a terror group’s claiming responsibility for the atrocity.
But already, not a few people have expressed the opinion that the bombing was perpetrated by the Palace to divert the public’s attention from the controversies hounding it - particularly the NBN scandal, impeachment, and the bribing of congressmen and governors.
Some members of the political opposition, particularly Senator Trillanes, have also issued statements consciously spreading this line.
I do not agree with this assertion.
(more…)
Read more:Bombing
Missing JPEPA (or missing the boat part 2) 2007-10-28 17:59:40 The barangay poll takes place today. And playing with the old soviet slogan, blogger Mongster’s Nest proclaims “all power to the barangay.” So from the said article comes the quote for the day:
If Russia had soviets and China had communes and brigades (Antonio Gramsci proposed factory councils for Italy), I believe a newly conceptualized barangay system would have some role to play if ever the Philippines would embrace socialism in the future.
Last week I mentioned having a few laughs over the news of a reelectionist barangay captain signing the certificate of candidacy for barangay councilor instead. Well here’s a boat, so to speak, that some says we’re all better off missing. And this one’s no laughing matter.
But welcome or unwelcome, everyone, let’s get to know the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement or simply JPEPA.
Notwithstanding Solita Monsod’s counter-arguments in her recent columns (The other side of JPEPA and Under JPEPA, no export of hazardous w
Post-Edsa 2 (and post-pardon) Erap jokes 2007-10-28 04:28:06 Since the country’s back to where we started before 2001 (after deposing and convicting a plundering President and all that), I think it would also be appropriate to share something that’s all the rage back then - Erap jokes:
Top 5 Signs that Erap and GMA Have Indeed Become Friends
5: Mikey Arroyo and Jinggoy Estrada agreeing to star in the local version of Brokeback Mountain
4: Joseph Estrada and Mike Arroyo deciding to play golf together regularly
3: Gloria Arroyo and Loi Ejercito start calling each other “‘Mare”
2: Luli Arroyo and Jude Estrada start calling each other “Sis!”
1: Gloria Arroyo appointing Joseph Estrada as “Anti-Plunder Czar”
There’s more from the Professional Heckler. And while we’re at it, here’s something I stumbled over from the blog Futuresheet that everyone should find interesting. This one’s not a joke. Well, sort of:
(more…)
Do not expect too much of the end of the (Arroyo) regime 2007-10-27 10:59:52 I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that many are outraged by the pardon of the disgraced former president Estrada by President Arroyo.
For veterans and sympathizers of Edsa 2 – particularly those from the middle classes – the recent action of the present administration is an unpardonable act that followed a long chain of controversies that rocked it anew.
Interestingly, a huge chunk of this sector, Manuel Quezon III remarks in the blog entry A gathering storm, “was willing to tolerate many things about the administration, so long as it maintained the appearance of being marginally more virtuous than the Estrada administration.”
GMA’s pardon of Estrada jolted the sense of these sectors as the feeling of being had is suddenly sinking in. Questions as to the very rationale of GMA’s ascendancy to power in 2001 – the issue of corruption that led to his ouster – are now being asked.
(more…)
Read more:regime
, not expect
An Appetite for Books 2007-10-25 13:19:10 Not literally of course. With the first semester over and some sort of vacation (from the university but not from work) now in effect, it’s time for me to catch up on my readings. (Goodbye Sales text book, hahaha!)
On my present reading list is The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories (hmmm, you might want to read contemporary short stories, so here, click this link), Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, Haruki Murakami’s After the Quake and Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.
And since Christmas season is near (yippee!), here’s another addition to my book wishlist (all of which are easily accessible in any local bookstores – yes, I don’t wish for books with freight costs attached.):
Ma Jian’s The Noodle Maker
From Dannyreviews.com
A professional blood donor, thriving on the rewards for his labours, visits his friend the professional writer, who is unenthusiastically facing a commission to write a short novel on the theme of “Learning from Comrade Lei F Read more:Books
On the shrinking Philippine middle class 2007-11-01 16:23:10 Notwithstanding all the political noise now reverberating around President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Peso surged to 43.85/$1 last Tuesday. In the past two days, the momentum was sustained as the Peso closed at 43.675 to $1 on Wednesday.
According to news reports, this is the strongest level hit by the peso since reaching 43.59:$1 on July 5, 2000. (Inquirer) Incidentally, this should be another propaganda boost for the fledging Arroyo government.
The pardon may have bought her time to deflect offensives against her on account of the bribery and ZTE corruption issues and reorganize her ranks, but all is not smooth sailing for the rest of her term even after having driven former President Estrada away from attempts to destabilize her administration.
Citing a study entitled “Trends and Characteristics of the Middle-Income Class in the Philippine
s: Is it Expanding or Shrinking?” presented during the recent National Statistical Conference by statisticians which include the secretary-g Read more:middle
, class
Another EDSA? 2007-10-31 17:37:55 “…Edsa One and Two types of protests are already a thing of the past…”
We often read the phrase from news commentaries and hear it from political observers nowadays that it has little by little taken the appearance of a cliché.
The two EDSAs are reduced to a grand myth from some golden era where a spark (rogue soldiers who staged a botched mutiny against a dictator or senators refusing to open an envelope to shield a corrupt president) inspires the gathering of a large mass whose numbers multiply and ultimately topples the sitting ruler.
Having been consigned to the stuff of legend, it is easier to believe it has nothing to do with the present anymore thus allowing the varied factors, complex processes and essential experiences that culminated in the two EDSA mass actions are forgotten.
(more…)
Estrada Pardon Hangover 2007-10-29 20:19:30 I’ve pretty much expressed my opinion on the granting of executive clemency in Estrada pardon to set precedent for Arroyo, gathered the opinion and analysis from my favorite blogs to examine its implications in Do not expect too much of the end of the (Arroyo) regime, and reposted some fitting jokes in Post-Edsa 2 (and post pardon) Erap jokes.
But I still can’t get over the whole issue. So here are two more pieces on the pardon of the disgraced former President, now “plain citizen,” Joseph Estrada.
(more…)
Read more:Pardon
Cebu: Good News for a Change 2 2007-11-06 10:01:41 Tired of hearing about all the scandals surrounding the President and the accompanying wrangling amongst different opportunist partisan factions in the nation’s capital? Well, here’s something for everyone, especially for my fellows from the Southern Philippines – Visayas and Mindanao.
Philippines Without Borders writes about how Europeans are now looking at my home province Cebu as a major investment destination:
(more…)
Read more:Change
, Good News
Addressing the education-labor mismatch? 2007-11-05 14:13:57 Earlier this year, Romulo Neri, the Arroyo administration’s chief economic planner, has been appointed to temporarily head the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
But while Neri has been hogging the news over his role in the ZTE debacle, this matter of his CHED chairmanship has been put out of the limelight. After promising to make education Arroyo’s legacy, it has now again taken a back seat in the national agenda.
To recall, right after assuming his post, Neri’s initial statements centered on the need to “troubleshoot” the education-labor
mismatch, which is defined Former Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Andrew Gonzalez as the disparity between the manpower needs of the country and the output of higher education.
What has become of the “troubleshooting” of the education sector by addressing this “mismatch” – the reason floated by the administration for Neri’s sudden transfer to the said post?
(more…)
Read more:Addressing
Nothing is usual in the Philippines these days 2007-11-04 18:47:24 The entry’s title is taken from Time Magazine’s latest coverage of the country titled Crisis Again – for the Philippines
’ Arroyo. And indeed, what can be more unusual than the news that filled the front page of the country’s leading paper yesterday?
I’m talking about the defiling of a mural made by the Neo-Angono Artists Collective as commissioned by the National Press Club. That the NPC made changes with the painting without consulting the artists is an affront to the rights of authors/artists. That the NPC, supposedly an organization of media people and journalists who resorted to this violation is clearly ironic and not the least unusual.
Here are samples of the said alterations:
(more…)
Read more:Nothing
Blogging and the Future of Media 2007-11-03 13:23:12 The illiterate of the 21st century
will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. - Alvin Toffler
If previously, I reproduced an article by Regis Debray which looked into the history of media and its role in the transmission and growth of ideologies; the spirited discussion that I mentioned in my post yesterday prodded me to look for some illumination into the subject-matter of blogging and the future media.
It was thus that I found just what I needed from the Future
Exploration Network - much thanks to Ross Dawson’s Trends in the Living Networks:
(more…)
Read more:Blogging
A Little Announcement 2007-11-03 07:39:40
This Blog is the winner for the Pinoy Blog of the Month this October. Postcard Headlines ranked 1st and received a total score of 92.20%. It garnered an average of 52.8% from the judges and 40% from the votes. The scoring was based on the number of votes which takes up 40% of the overall score and the review of the panel of judges which takes up 60%.
The contest was organized by PinoyBlogero.com and sponsored by Ratified.org and ReynaElena.com. To everyone who helped in this endeavor by voting for my blog, I extend my most profound gratitude. Thank you very much.
Read the rest of this entry »
Read more:Announcement
The Other Side of Blogging and the Internet? (updated) 2007-11-02 16:04:26 This past month I came across an article in the blog Kapirasong Kritika which calls on progressives to oppose the promotion of blogging among the youth.
I’m providing rough translations from the tagalog dialect of some of the article’s points I wanted quoted (particularly from the 5th, 7th, and last paragraphs) to make them intelligible to non-Filipino readers who may stumble upon this entry.
(Forgive me for any grammatical inaccuracies in the translation, I’m bisaya and don’t speak much tagalog. Corrections are encouraged and highly appreciated.)
(more…)
Read more:Blogging
, Internet
An unacceptable trade-off 2007-11-10 15:39:38 A commentary I read from a national broadsheet paper a few days ago observed that a significant portion of the middle class frustrated with the lack of legitimate venues for pursuing meaningful reforms under Arroyo administration are willing to support exercises in military adventurism like coups as a result of the negligible prospect for the mounting of another peaceful EDSA-type uprising that can topple the present president which is now seen as the same, or even worse than her deposed predecessor.
On the other hand, there are those willing to turn a blind eye on all the scandals and the creeping martial law happening under the present dispensation and are even willing to support the stimulation of calculated events to justify the imposition of unconcealed martial law or a state of emergency on the pretext of preserving whatever economic gains pulled together by GMA.
Both are unacceptable
for me.
(more…)
Bloggers react to 12-year-old child’s suicide 2007-11-09 17:14:22 It will be so much the worse for us
If we don’t believe that life can be changed. *
Reading the depressing tale of 12-year-old Mariannet Amper’s suicide and lamentation for her family’s poverty in a diary earlier this week made me sad, knowing how it has come to illustrate the degree of desperation of our people and the general sense of hopelessness now pervading the archipelago.
Many of our Church leaders have expressed concern over the story with one Bishop Eliezer Pascua of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines asking, “We have called them ‘poor’ and ‘eyesores’ but what do you call a society which made them like this?”
The militant Left immediately saw this as another issue against the government. At the same time, opinion columns and news commentaries were busy linking the child
’s family’s poverty to the continuing brouhaha over the source of the Palace cash bribes.
Not much differs in the blogosphere where an increasing number of bloggers have s Read more:react
What are we in power for? 2007-11-07 14:39:00 The cat’s finally out of the bag, or so it seems. “Kampi admits cash gifts,” declared yesterday’s Inquirer banner story. But GMA was not involved in the distribution, according to rep. Villarosa, a disappointing old female leader from the administration who calls herself the first woman Deputy Speaker.
“There’s no malice in our effort to help,” she said in Filipino (Inquirer). And I’m sure her conscience is very clear too. They do it all the time, she admits in the next line. Plus a very reassuring parting shot: “We will do it. We will continue the way we are. That’s the reason parties are.”
But really now, why admit only now - a month after the bribery scandal first erupted? On the other hand, why did some administration stalwarts in Congress awkwardly deny receving the said christmas gifts before this revelation? AWBHoldings.com asks more questions in a good liar keeps up with his lies.
But really, we shouldn’t be surprised by now. As the editorial from the sa Read more:power
Quote of the Day (2) 2007-11-16 12:01:54 A quote just fit for the interesting times we’re all in these days:
“We are never completely contemporaneous with our present. History advances in disguise; it appears on stage wearing the mask of the preceding scene, and we tend to lose the meaning of the play. Each time the curtain rises, continuity has to be reestablished. The blame, of course is not history’s, but lies in our vision, encumbered with memory and images learned in the past. We see the past superimposed on the present…” – Regis Debray
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