Posti Interrupti: And Now, For Something Light

...Anyone want a shirt?


(From here.)

A Curious Cat Reminder

There’s a lot of heated talk over the controversial decision to award National Artist status to film director Carlo J. Caparas and theatre maven Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. After reading through some of the discussions, here are a few points I want to raise:

A. Don’t think of this issue as pop versus culture, high-brow as opposed to masa, rich against poor.

1. The quality of work (in the case of Caparas) or the effort put in (in case of Alvarez) is irrelevant. The worth of the art and the artist is not the issue here.
2. Granted representatives of the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Centre of the Philippines (CCP) select the nominees for National Artist. So for our purposes, let’s assume all things are equal (including the quality of the art) to put the nominees on equal footing.

B. Likewise, keep in mind that it’s not the National Artist title itself that is important but rather what the title itself symbolizes.

1. More to the point, the title represents the decision of the judges to award you and your work. That means that you abide by the judgment of these people picked to make the selections. As someone once pointed out, to me if you want to play the game, you've got to play by the rules of the game.
   
2. Without that judgment, the title itself is nothing.

C. Which brings us to the third point: the selection process is the issue here. There are set rules on how the National Artists are selected and these were circumvented.

1. Certain nominees (including Caparas and Alvarez) were included by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as National Artists OUTSIDE the selection process (presidential prerogative notwithstanding-- and this is not even defensible).
2. What’s more, the selection of Alvarez was wrong to begin with, given her position as NCCA chair. This is regardless of her achievements, status and efforts in her field. Awarding the head of the body that’s giving out the award? That is major FAIL.
3. My theory is that this is symptomatic of the Filipino’s sense of ako muna (“me first”) again. As an example, we would normally line up if the rules require us to do so. However, given a chance, we would jump the line if we can. It all boils down to who you know.

D. If these nominees were really deserving of being cited, then a title should be created or a separate existing award should be given to them instead of making a hash of the current award system.

1. You say they’re popular, that they’re loved by the masses? So create a popular artist status. That way, you won’t have to worry about being academic about it.

I’m probably mucking some stuff up here with my logic tree but that’s the way I see it. And I instinctively distrust anyone who says they deserve the award anyway.

Curious Cat Question

I don't understand why people-- when faced with a possible confrontation with someone they don't know, say in a raised voice-- "Hindi mo ba ako kilala?" (Translated: Don't you know who I am?) I thought at first that it's a Filipino thing but really, it encompasses race, nationality and gender.

It does make me wonder though: why am I supposed to know you? Are you on Facebook or something? (Not that I'm on it.) Did you send me a link that I completely forgot to say 'yes' to? And really, why should I even care who the fuck you are to begin with? Trust me, the world won't stop spinning if it doesn't know you exist.

In the end, I think it's a stupid question to ask. But maybe it's because I prefer to commit violence and illicit activities anonymously. After all, why tell everyone who you are before or after you've done something particularly stupid, right? That's why they're called witnesses.

Idiots.

The Day After Independence Day

Given all the concerns raised by the Con-Ass and the Cha-cha in local politics, I came upon this speech in Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling adventure novel Scaramouche which I thought was quite pertinent.

In the events leading up to the French Revolution, protagonist André-Louis Moreau addresses the crowd at the city of Nantes on the despicable actions of the nobility. The entire speech can be seen here:

"My name is Omnes Omnibus-- all for all. Let that suffice now. I am a herald, a mouth-piece, a voice; no more. I come to announce to you that since the privileged orders, assembled for the States of Britanny in Rennes, resisted your will-- our will-- despite the King's plain hint to them, His Majesty has disolved the States.

...Unfortunately, the nobles, in their insolent arrogance, have elected to ignore the royal dissolution, and in despite of it persist in sitting and in conducting matters as seems good to them.

So that these men who were already rebels against the people, rebels against justice and equity, rebels against humanity itself, are now also rebels against their King. Sooner than yield an inch of the unconscionable privileges by which too long already they have flourished, to the misery of a whole nation, they will make a mock of royal authority, hold up the King himself to contempt. They are determined to prove that there is no real sovereignty in France but the sovereignty of their own parasitic fainéantise.

This is no new thing. Always has it been the same. No minister in the last ten years, who seeing the needs and perils of the State, counseled the measures that we now demand as the only means arresting our motherland in its ever-quickening progress to the abyss, but found himself as a consequence cast out of office by the influence which Privilege brought to bear against him...

But what the privileged orders can no longer prevent, they are determined to stultify. Since it is now a settled thing that these States General are to meet, at least the nobles and the clergy will see to it-- unless we take measures to prevent them-- by packing the Third Estate with their own creatures, and denying it all effective representation, that they convert the States General into an instrument of their own will for the perpetuation of the abuses by which they live. To achieve this end they will stop at nothing. They have flouted the authority of the King, and they are silencing by assassination those who raise their voices to condemn. Yesterday in Rennes two young men who addressed the people as I am addressing you were done to death in the streets by assassins at the instigation of the nobility. Their blood cries out for vengeance.

Citizens of Nantes, the motherland is in peril. Let us march to her defense. Let us proclaim it to the world that we recognize that the measures to liberate the Third Estate form the slavery in which for centuries it has groaned find only obstacles in those orders whose phrenetic egotism sees in tears and suffering of the unfortunate an odious tribute which they would pass on to their generations still unborn. Realizing from the barbarity of the means employed by our enemies to perpetuate our oppression that we have everything to fear from the aristocracy they would set up as a constitutional principle for the governing of France, let us declare ourselves at once enfranchised from it.

The establishment of liberty and equality should be the aim of every citizen member of the Third Estate; and to this end we should stand indivisibly united, especially the young and vigorous, especially those who have had the good fortune to be born late enough to be able to gather for themselves the precious fruits of the philosophy of this eighteenth century.

Let us swear to raise up in the name of humanity and of liberty a rampart against our enemies, to oppose their bloodthirsty covetousness the calm perseverance of men whose cause is just. And let us protest here and in advance against any tyrannical decrees that should declare us seditious when we have none but pure and just intentions. Let us make oath upon the honor of our motherland that should any of us be seized by an unjust tribunal, intending against us one of those acts termed of political expediency-- which are, in effect, but acts of despotism, let us swear, i say, to give a full expression to the strength that is in us and do that in self-defense which nature, courage and despair dictate to us."

For more notes on the story's background, see: French Parlement and a chronology of The French Revolution vis-a-vis classic literature. And who says fiction doesn't have anything to say about reality, hmmm?

1. Picture taken from here.
2. Picture taken from here.
3. Picture taken from here.
4. Picture taken from here.

Busting Barricades, Beating Bullies

Art by Joel Chua from here

There's a lot going on with regard to the Great Book Blockade of 2009. I guess nerd rage is up for it, eh?

As Achtung Dog says, "What's with this retroactive shit? If there's one thing wrong with this government, it's fucking consistency. Where else can you find a bureaucratic agency signing a memo that covers up all the heavy-handed tax action holding book shipments for spurious payments a couple months before the memo even got passed? All the spin doctors in the world are probably spinning on their asses in their corner offices right now."

As of the moment, booklovers are rallying the banners and flocking to the barricades. You can check out the latest updates here at kyu's (with his kilometric-long comments), some analysis by charles and a reply by Robin Helmley, the word from PDI columnist Manuel Quezon III (as well as column space), and a whole lot more (like legal viewpoints from Bahay Talinhaga and Trojan Bore). Whether or not this blog-burning of the Internet will do any good is another question entirely, I suppose.

But you know what I like about this fooferah? It's the fact that for once in our booklovin'-lives, we're actually coming out and doing something to prove that and shout-out that, yes, We Like To Read.

That we're not freaks of nature because we like to read, that we like to carry books in our bags when we go on vacations, and that we can't wait for books to come out in local shops and we want to order them from abroad (and damn the costs!). Hell no! We also don't think we're elitist because of it. Unfortunately, just because we're different, and that we're passionate about our difference means that we get targeted-- whether by the big bullies in the playground or by the customs agents at the government office.

I mean, seriously: we may be ordinary people but I think we can make a difference-- that we can raise an issue in the air and it won't turn into the Internet-Event-0f-the-Week. Why? Because we're usually holding a book in our hand, and that means we know that we're not just concerned about living on a day-to-day basis and that our brain is still ticking.

On a concluding note, here's Achtung Dog again: "So you want to do some fucking affirmative support action against the Book Blockade? Sign up with the Facebook movement or join Rock Ed if they do plan to do something. Write to the pertinent people like government officials, lawmakers, the media, etc. Keep talking about it so that it won't just be swept under the rug. Create art protesting it, not just visual but also textual. But most of all... buy a book, people. At the local bookshops like Fully Booked, Powerbooks, and A Different Bookstore. And not fucking second-hand, okay? Support the bookshops in what they do while we strive for a better book-filled tomorrow."

Amen to that, brother. Amen.

Update: Well, looks like Gang Badoy and the Rock Ed crew are joining in: "We Ain't Taxin' Books Here: BOOKBIGAYAN 2009." Cool. Maybe I can throw in some of my finished books. And some people are coming up with a central library on the links for easier reference (which is now up here).