I live my life like there’s no tomorrow
And all I’ve got, I had to steal.
- Van Halen, “Running With The Devil”
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Lyrics Translation: "Welcome to the Black Parade"
Did I mention I’m incredibly bored this long weekend?
Stuff You Should Get Me For Christmas
It’s that time of the year again where the thought counts more than the gift itself… or something like it, so I become the unwilling recipient of scented candles, mugs, and picture frames. See, it’s not that difficult to get me a gift. If the store sells alcohol and cigarettes, then you can find a perfectly good gift that you can give me for Christmas.
Yet no matter how much I emphasize the “you-can-make-me-happy-with-vice” motto, nobody gets me a ream of cigarettes or a bottle of whiskey for the holidays. All I ever really wanted for Christmas was something for me to smoke and something for me to drink, but some people insist on playing through my “mysteriousness” and “intellect.”
Last Christmas, I got copies of “The Purpose-Driven Life,” “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul,” two copies of “The Alchemist,” and a paperback version of “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” After talking to my givers who seemed to not have a problem with what I was going to do, I promptly re-gifted the gifts. Potlatched, so to speak, revolving round the Kula ring.
Ely Pamatong: A Spike to the Presidency
When it comes to lawyerly-ness, it’s hard to dispute the (self-proclaimed) credentials of Atty. Ely Pamatong. An “international laywer,” Ely Pamatong is, for all intents and purposes, better than notaries public who hold office in the corners of eateries, law students, paralegals, law professors, and average ordinary lawyers. Backed up by the Philippine-US Guerilla, this fine specimen of political will is poised to – once again – run for the highest office in the land.
Pamatong is not one to invoke survey ratings and motherhood statements, unlike his predecessors and competitors. Pamatong scored a 92% rating in the American Bar Exams, is a graduate of the University of the Philippines and Silliman University, and is an undefeated debater in his college years. He may not be a billionaire, but he has a brain.
Punyeta, wala ni isa sa inyo ang nakaisip nun. Wala kasi kayong mga utak!
Ladies and gentlemen, in the past months of pre-campaign campaigning, there was not a single presidentiable who has highlighted the importance of the brain – every lobe of it – in this exercise of democracy. It was all about the usual pipe dreams and canned phrases: platforms, the first 100 days, scandals, heart. Ely By-God Pamatong is driving a spike into this election season, and is running for the Presidency of the Philippines.
Pointing To Authority
A response to “Breakdown of authority” by Carmen Pedrosa.
John F. Kennedy once wrote that voters elect officials on the premise of trust and confidence: “They had confidence in our judgement and our ability to exercise that judgement from a position where we could determine what were their own best interest, as a part of the nation’s interest.”
Yet Miss Pedrosa does the exact opposite. To her, the Maguindanao Massacre is not the fault of the Arroyo administration. Surely, it wasn’t Gloria herself who ordered the massacre, and it wasn’t her who loaded up the guns, shot the victims, and buried them in a most undignified, most animalistic manner. It is wrong, she says, to blame the Arroyo administration for that brutal slaughter down south.
A breakdown of authority. The massacre happened under Gloria’s watch. It happened under her Administration, during her Presidency, when she is supposed to be our leader. Yet Miss Pedrosa insists that it is not the fault of GMA at all.
My quill is dull compared to that of Miss Pedrosa, and I have always admired her writing, but in this case, I think she’s wrong.
Impunity
We can only hope that impunity triumphed just for one day.
The massacre at Maguindanao was not only an outright insult to the Filipino people, but it was a brazen display of the victory of impunity. Unarmed civilians, in the exercise of their duties as citizens and as productive members of society, were brutally murdered, slaughtered, and mutilated by a squadron of armed assailants, presumably under the orders of a powerful political force in an already troubled region. The journalists – our vanguards of free expression – have already said their peace about their slain colleagues. The lawyers – our vanguards of justice – have already expressed their anger to the fate that befell their compañeros and compañeras. Political figures – our vanguards of peace – have already made resounding condemnations of how citizens were murdered to deny them of their rights.
Part of the tasks of the justice system is to determine guilt and innocence. It dispenses of the necessary punishment where it is lawful, just, and fair. Yet it is the task of society to ask and answer that question: “Why?” It must rationalize, it must provide an explanation, and it must find answers to that elusive question. Why did this happen? Why must a slaughter of such barbaric proportions take place in a free society? Why was this done, if at all, contemplated upon?
Was it power? The end did not justify the means. Was it greed? It took way too much effort to satisfy that greed. It was impunity, plain and simple. The license to murder. The license to rape, to rob, to steal. The license to exercise power indiscriminately, without regard to prudence and temperance. The license to slaughter.
With a Most Harrowing Feeling of Disgust
Words, to the ignorant and the savage, do not hurt. Words do not make sense, much less induce feeling, among the lowest of animals. Unfortunately, for most human beings capable of articulating their feelings and making them known, words are all they have. Indeed, words are no match for the indiscriminate use of guns, the privilege of gold, and the luxury of goons. Unfortunately, for many of us, that’s all we really have.
Words which – all too often in the case of this blog – are expressed in unleashed, unbridled, uncontrolled anger, rage, and indignation. For whatever they are worth, though, they must be said. They must be written. Not because they do anything, but because anger should always be released.
With a most harrowing feeling of disgust, I condemn the murderers and conspirators behind the massacre at Maguindanao.
You who held innocent citizens hostage, you who slayed them with impunity, you who murdered them, will have no use for these words. You who beheaded them, you who treated them like animals in the killing beds of a slaughterhouse, will not understand these words. Your words, your law, your ethics, and your sense of humanity are etched in the back of bullets. You will never understand dignity, respect, the value of life, and most certainly, you will not understand freedom.
What you understand is that most revolting act of holding 50 innocent Filipinos hostage, rob them, rape them, and riddle them with bullets.