Not being a film history expert, I was not so exposed to so much Italian films until late November (2007) when Emanuela Adesini of the Embassy of Italy once again brought her country's films to the UP Film Institute.
WHAT I LOVE in Italian films are the colors, the contrasts, the fearless dialogues.. the film language that carries the story forward in smoothest manner. Emotion guides comprehension. not manipulative like typical Hollywood. Felt, not imposed.
Some of the Italian films featured were RESPIRO (GRAZIA' S ISLAND), LAMERICA, MEDITERRANO (im not sure if i spell this right). I like all of them but liked Respiro the most, and thought that it was made by a woman, patient, not imposing. A male directed this film that's not preachy but tells the audience what understanding and humaneness really are.
The Italian Film Festival is a yearly event at the UP Film Institute... And beginning next year, one Italian film per month will have screenings at the Institute's Videotheque. Entrance is an affordable fee of 35pesos only.
13 December 2007
05 September 2007
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) is a television personality in Kazakhstan. His government sends him to the United States of America to learn culture and report about the "greatest country in the world."
With this assignment, Borat and his crew shoots a documentary of Borat as he learns the great American culture through interaction with different kinds of Americans.
However, Borat’s naive-stupid sexism and colonial mind bring him more trouble than cultural acceptance--his twists in fate usually depending on the norms and standards of the people he interacts with. Borat’s disinterest in pursuing their assignment as he diverts to finding and marrying Pamela Anderson provides the narrative impetus for the Borat adventure in the American subcultures.
Not like us?
Borat is a Saddam look-a-like, impoverished and chauvinist. He is a graphic example of a man trapped in his own world of phobias and biases while attempting to learn “civilization” from the “great nation of America.”
Poking on our phobias, the film allows the audience to experience learning together with Borat. It becomes a powerful tool to show how the great cultural empire and land of freedom is likewise enmeshed in its own prejudices and cultural –moral contradictions.
It allows us to look at ourselves through the Borat mirror and realize that we all have prejudices, that we all tend to ‘judge a book by its cover’ -- even if we claim to be civilized members of society who advocate equality and humaneness.
I admit that before seeing the movie, I feared if I had the persevering tolerance for whatever racist or sexist joke I will hear from Borat. Later on, I saw myself laughing at all the jokes that Borat throws at his audiences while realizing my own prejudices in the process.
Borat tours the subcultures of America
Here is Borat: A lower class male aspiring to be elite and civilized; comes from a poor, rural village in a poor country; and, talks openly about loving the great American culture, his boring sex with his wife, extramarital sex escapades and gratifications, prostitutes and sex with them, sex with black prostitute women and gay men, fear of Jews and suspicions towards Christians, and a plethora of other sensitive, not easily discussed topics.
Borat in New York: the big apple where different races thrive. As a man who has been used to greeting males with a kiss on both cheeks, Borat was strange and scary to male pedestrians. In a subway, passengers’ anger reached the peak when Borat’s suitcase breaks open and his petrified pet chicken disturbs everyone on board. Why would city- dwellers be repelled by a traumatized chicken and a village idiot? What’s in a chicken-induced commotion that will make urban dwellers angry enough to push a stranger out of the train?
Borat studies American humor. The filmmakers’ ingenuity shines as they lay the basis for Borat jokes. With Borat’s conversation with a white male American humor consultant, the admonition for audiences not to be too stiff and trapped in rules on what is a funny or not became clear. Over other meanings, this scene asked me not to be a bore and go along with the film’s nasty humor.
Borat appears on television station. This segment reveals the idiocy of media and the staff who allowed Borat to appear on camera and be interviewed about his culture and his admiration for America without checking who Borat really is. It seems that even if you are not credible or real, as long as you appear or act funny and can entertain, you can appear in a television station and become a celebrity.
Borat with the white female etiquette coach and the white people’s etiquette club. In this sequence, Borat asks his etiquette coach:
“Should you be polite to all?”
“Yes.”
“Should you be polite to prostitute?…”
“In America we don’t discuss that…”
This dialogue reveals the culture of who are privileged to receive politeness and who are not. People working in restaurants deserve tips, but prostitutes? Nah.
Borat’s consultation with his coach is interspersed with formal dinners with white upper class Americans who have mixed reactions towards Borat’s uncensored discussion of sex with prostitutes, his sister prostitute and boring sex with his wife.
Surprisingly, Borat’s dinner mates were able to take in all his “uncivilized” and ignorant ways, e.g., not knowing when to discuss sexual matters, how to use the American toilet bowl. What made them hit the boiling point and push Borat out of the mansion was when Borat’s date for the night-- a backstreet pot-bellied, bleach-haired, black woman named Luenell-- arrives. White upper class American prejudice is revealed in their disgust for lumpenic concerns and their blatant dislike for women in prostitution.
Borat with gay community. This seem to be the only community where kissing and hugging, just like what Borat does in his community, are accepted. There was no fear at all for Borat’s strange ways. In the midst of the queer and the feared “immoral” populace, he was accepted as he is. Of course, the filmmaker most likely intended to project the gay community’s friendly culture.
Borat with American rodeo. This is a truly scary portion of the film where Borat was able to elicit the opinions of American cowboys about homosexuals, reinstitution of slavery and the American war on terror. The cowboys openly support the idea that homosexuals should be given the capital punishment and be put to death. With the Brokeback Mountain movie still fresh in the film audience’s mind, the chauvinist and violent cowboy bias isn’t new but looks much scarier. After his chat with phobic-supremacist cowboys on the ringside, Borat, dressed in a cowboy suit with an American flag design, walks to the stadium’s center. Put in the program to sing the national anthem of his country to the tune of the American national anthem, he first begins with praises for the American president’s “war of terror.” The public, perhaps hearing the “of” as “on,” lets out a big applause. Borat proceeds with many other praises and almost spills over his satiric intent with a prayerful declaration that the American president will “drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq." There were less applause with this one, but, still, there was. For his weird utterances, Borat was booed and threatened to be mobbed by the rodeo audience only at the time he sang his country’s national anthem with lyrics declaring his country as the greatest of all while other nations, America included, are like “little girls.” The white American patriarchal supremacist pride of these redneck cowboys will really scare you off.
Borat with State of Georgia representative Bob Barr and frequent candidate Alan Keyes. The State of Georgia is known for its Christian conservatives and racist history where the African Americans suffered a great deal of slavery, inequality and discrimination. In real life, the Borat interviewee Bob Barr is a hardcore anti-abortion advocate while interviewee Alan Keyes is a black Republican and Christian conservative. Predictably, Borat’s immorality, homosexual tendencies and uncensored lumpen language baffles these two men.
Borat with the black male community and high class hotel. Desperate to fit in and be hip, Borat drops by a group of adolescent African American boys in a dimly lit suburb, consults them about how to be cool and asks how he, a foreigner who wants to be like American, can dress like these cool boys. Then, the sequence brings us to Borat entering an expensive hotel and asking for a room. Strangely dressed with his pants pulled down (to make it really low-waist) and speaking in a black accent and lingo, the hotel receptionist runs away from Borat. Lesson: If you want acceptance, dress “normal” and speak “normal.” Fair-skinned Borat dressed like black and speaking black is not “normal.”
Borat, Azamat and the long dildo chase in a white corporate gathering. This is the portion where much of the nudity, and most of the audience laughter comes out. Borat, seeing companion Azamat masturbating on Pamela Anderson’s magazine photo, beats up Azamat and chases him all around the hotel—the hallway, the elevator, and conference hall. Azamat, nude. Borat, nude and with a dildo in hand. Azamat was nude because he was masturbating. Borat was nude because he just came from the shower. The dildo, Borat accidentally picked to use as Azamat’s beating stick. Of course, the people witnessing the chase did not know that. They saw another kind of “reality” based on an uninformed assumption.
Borat with the Christian Pentecostals. Off all the film’s sequences, this is the ambiguous one. The scene opens with Borat joining a Pentecostal worship service where the Christian god is exalted, and proceeds to footages of Borat being absorbed into the cultic-hypnotic trance of the congregation. This cuts to a scene where Borat gets free ride nearer to where he thinks Pamela Anderson is. In this sequence, there was no sexist or vulgar Borat. The cross-cultural issue of chauvinism and vulgarity did not come out here. Perhaps, the filmmakers wanted to show the “religious” in everyone, including politicians and justices (a Mississippi congressman and justice of the state supreme court were among those present in the gathering). Western Christian religion is no different from the Islam who also has religious political leaders.
Borat with white fraternity men. Here, Borat receives some acceptance but in a different manner. He was accepted for his strangeness because he was sexist just like the frat men and was entertaining enough for the booze-induced male laughing trip.
Borat with veteran white Feminists. I placed this last because this was my favorite part. I see myself as a feminist and advocate of women’s human rights and equality, including liberation from male dominance that perpetuates sexual objectification of women’s bodies. If I were one of those feminists, Borat’s chauvinist talk will really turn me off. I might not just walk out, but might actually punch him the face. However, as an audience who saw the context of Borat’s existence and sexism, I was spurred to think about my own biases towards persons like Borat.
I like this scene because it shows the dominant trend of white female moralistic feminism in the United States from which a big part of feminist practice in many parts of the world is patterned after. White feminism, although a crucial catalyst for early women’s liberation movements, needs to examine its own flaws and prejudices, especially against women of color and women in prostitution or sex work.
Borats in us
The film spurs a popular, worldwide cultural debate that crosses human-made boundaries of religion, nation, culture, societal norms and standards as well as bases of discrimination such as class, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, work and so on. It asks us to see ourselves. Realize and laugh at our prejudiced tendencies. Across cultures, we love to hate those we see as prejudiced against us but we refuse to see and hear our own prejudices.
At the film’s conclusion, Borat brought prostitute Luenelle to Kazakhstan as his wife. All his funny talk about prostitutes and sex in sexist tones did not really affect his perception of Luenelle as a full human being. Luenelle’s work was not a problem at all. This is where the filmmakers’ intent became very clear: Turn away from discrimination and really see all people as equal, including Borat, gays, blacks and prostitutes.
Changing this world necessitates that we all look at ourselves first and know our own phobias, biases and impositions on how fellow humans should look, act or speak. The film’s approach in exposing prejudice across cultures is brave and effective. Choosing the American subcultures as templates of cultural trappings in many parts of the world simply fits.
Every adult should see this film. Anyone too “Boratophobic” to do so should not expect that this phobic and conflict-ridden world will change within his/her lifetime.
With this assignment, Borat and his crew shoots a documentary of Borat as he learns the great American culture through interaction with different kinds of Americans.
However, Borat’s naive-stupid sexism and colonial mind bring him more trouble than cultural acceptance--his twists in fate usually depending on the norms and standards of the people he interacts with. Borat’s disinterest in pursuing their assignment as he diverts to finding and marrying Pamela Anderson provides the narrative impetus for the Borat adventure in the American subcultures.
Not like us?
Borat is a Saddam look-a-like, impoverished and chauvinist. He is a graphic example of a man trapped in his own world of phobias and biases while attempting to learn “civilization” from the “great nation of America.”
Poking on our phobias, the film allows the audience to experience learning together with Borat. It becomes a powerful tool to show how the great cultural empire and land of freedom is likewise enmeshed in its own prejudices and cultural –moral contradictions.
It allows us to look at ourselves through the Borat mirror and realize that we all have prejudices, that we all tend to ‘judge a book by its cover’ -- even if we claim to be civilized members of society who advocate equality and humaneness.
I admit that before seeing the movie, I feared if I had the persevering tolerance for whatever racist or sexist joke I will hear from Borat. Later on, I saw myself laughing at all the jokes that Borat throws at his audiences while realizing my own prejudices in the process.
Borat tours the subcultures of America
Here is Borat: A lower class male aspiring to be elite and civilized; comes from a poor, rural village in a poor country; and, talks openly about loving the great American culture, his boring sex with his wife, extramarital sex escapades and gratifications, prostitutes and sex with them, sex with black prostitute women and gay men, fear of Jews and suspicions towards Christians, and a plethora of other sensitive, not easily discussed topics.
Borat in New York: the big apple where different races thrive. As a man who has been used to greeting males with a kiss on both cheeks, Borat was strange and scary to male pedestrians. In a subway, passengers’ anger reached the peak when Borat’s suitcase breaks open and his petrified pet chicken disturbs everyone on board. Why would city- dwellers be repelled by a traumatized chicken and a village idiot? What’s in a chicken-induced commotion that will make urban dwellers angry enough to push a stranger out of the train?
Borat studies American humor. The filmmakers’ ingenuity shines as they lay the basis for Borat jokes. With Borat’s conversation with a white male American humor consultant, the admonition for audiences not to be too stiff and trapped in rules on what is a funny or not became clear. Over other meanings, this scene asked me not to be a bore and go along with the film’s nasty humor.
Borat appears on television station. This segment reveals the idiocy of media and the staff who allowed Borat to appear on camera and be interviewed about his culture and his admiration for America without checking who Borat really is. It seems that even if you are not credible or real, as long as you appear or act funny and can entertain, you can appear in a television station and become a celebrity.
Borat with the white female etiquette coach and the white people’s etiquette club. In this sequence, Borat asks his etiquette coach:
“Should you be polite to all?”
“Yes.”
“Should you be polite to prostitute?…”
“In America we don’t discuss that…”
This dialogue reveals the culture of who are privileged to receive politeness and who are not. People working in restaurants deserve tips, but prostitutes? Nah.
Borat’s consultation with his coach is interspersed with formal dinners with white upper class Americans who have mixed reactions towards Borat’s uncensored discussion of sex with prostitutes, his sister prostitute and boring sex with his wife.
Surprisingly, Borat’s dinner mates were able to take in all his “uncivilized” and ignorant ways, e.g., not knowing when to discuss sexual matters, how to use the American toilet bowl. What made them hit the boiling point and push Borat out of the mansion was when Borat’s date for the night-- a backstreet pot-bellied, bleach-haired, black woman named Luenell-- arrives. White upper class American prejudice is revealed in their disgust for lumpenic concerns and their blatant dislike for women in prostitution.
Borat with gay community. This seem to be the only community where kissing and hugging, just like what Borat does in his community, are accepted. There was no fear at all for Borat’s strange ways. In the midst of the queer and the feared “immoral” populace, he was accepted as he is. Of course, the filmmaker most likely intended to project the gay community’s friendly culture.
Borat with American rodeo. This is a truly scary portion of the film where Borat was able to elicit the opinions of American cowboys about homosexuals, reinstitution of slavery and the American war on terror. The cowboys openly support the idea that homosexuals should be given the capital punishment and be put to death. With the Brokeback Mountain movie still fresh in the film audience’s mind, the chauvinist and violent cowboy bias isn’t new but looks much scarier. After his chat with phobic-supremacist cowboys on the ringside, Borat, dressed in a cowboy suit with an American flag design, walks to the stadium’s center. Put in the program to sing the national anthem of his country to the tune of the American national anthem, he first begins with praises for the American president’s “war of terror.” The public, perhaps hearing the “of” as “on,” lets out a big applause. Borat proceeds with many other praises and almost spills over his satiric intent with a prayerful declaration that the American president will “drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq." There were less applause with this one, but, still, there was. For his weird utterances, Borat was booed and threatened to be mobbed by the rodeo audience only at the time he sang his country’s national anthem with lyrics declaring his country as the greatest of all while other nations, America included, are like “little girls.” The white American patriarchal supremacist pride of these redneck cowboys will really scare you off.
Borat with State of Georgia representative Bob Barr and frequent candidate Alan Keyes. The State of Georgia is known for its Christian conservatives and racist history where the African Americans suffered a great deal of slavery, inequality and discrimination. In real life, the Borat interviewee Bob Barr is a hardcore anti-abortion advocate while interviewee Alan Keyes is a black Republican and Christian conservative. Predictably, Borat’s immorality, homosexual tendencies and uncensored lumpen language baffles these two men.
Borat with the black male community and high class hotel. Desperate to fit in and be hip, Borat drops by a group of adolescent African American boys in a dimly lit suburb, consults them about how to be cool and asks how he, a foreigner who wants to be like American, can dress like these cool boys. Then, the sequence brings us to Borat entering an expensive hotel and asking for a room. Strangely dressed with his pants pulled down (to make it really low-waist) and speaking in a black accent and lingo, the hotel receptionist runs away from Borat. Lesson: If you want acceptance, dress “normal” and speak “normal.” Fair-skinned Borat dressed like black and speaking black is not “normal.”
Borat, Azamat and the long dildo chase in a white corporate gathering. This is the portion where much of the nudity, and most of the audience laughter comes out. Borat, seeing companion Azamat masturbating on Pamela Anderson’s magazine photo, beats up Azamat and chases him all around the hotel—the hallway, the elevator, and conference hall. Azamat, nude. Borat, nude and with a dildo in hand. Azamat was nude because he was masturbating. Borat was nude because he just came from the shower. The dildo, Borat accidentally picked to use as Azamat’s beating stick. Of course, the people witnessing the chase did not know that. They saw another kind of “reality” based on an uninformed assumption.
Borat with the Christian Pentecostals. Off all the film’s sequences, this is the ambiguous one. The scene opens with Borat joining a Pentecostal worship service where the Christian god is exalted, and proceeds to footages of Borat being absorbed into the cultic-hypnotic trance of the congregation. This cuts to a scene where Borat gets free ride nearer to where he thinks Pamela Anderson is. In this sequence, there was no sexist or vulgar Borat. The cross-cultural issue of chauvinism and vulgarity did not come out here. Perhaps, the filmmakers wanted to show the “religious” in everyone, including politicians and justices (a Mississippi congressman and justice of the state supreme court were among those present in the gathering). Western Christian religion is no different from the Islam who also has religious political leaders.
Borat with white fraternity men. Here, Borat receives some acceptance but in a different manner. He was accepted for his strangeness because he was sexist just like the frat men and was entertaining enough for the booze-induced male laughing trip.
Borat with veteran white Feminists. I placed this last because this was my favorite part. I see myself as a feminist and advocate of women’s human rights and equality, including liberation from male dominance that perpetuates sexual objectification of women’s bodies. If I were one of those feminists, Borat’s chauvinist talk will really turn me off. I might not just walk out, but might actually punch him the face. However, as an audience who saw the context of Borat’s existence and sexism, I was spurred to think about my own biases towards persons like Borat.
I like this scene because it shows the dominant trend of white female moralistic feminism in the United States from which a big part of feminist practice in many parts of the world is patterned after. White feminism, although a crucial catalyst for early women’s liberation movements, needs to examine its own flaws and prejudices, especially against women of color and women in prostitution or sex work.
Borats in us
The film spurs a popular, worldwide cultural debate that crosses human-made boundaries of religion, nation, culture, societal norms and standards as well as bases of discrimination such as class, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, work and so on. It asks us to see ourselves. Realize and laugh at our prejudiced tendencies. Across cultures, we love to hate those we see as prejudiced against us but we refuse to see and hear our own prejudices.
At the film’s conclusion, Borat brought prostitute Luenelle to Kazakhstan as his wife. All his funny talk about prostitutes and sex in sexist tones did not really affect his perception of Luenelle as a full human being. Luenelle’s work was not a problem at all. This is where the filmmakers’ intent became very clear: Turn away from discrimination and really see all people as equal, including Borat, gays, blacks and prostitutes.
Changing this world necessitates that we all look at ourselves first and know our own phobias, biases and impositions on how fellow humans should look, act or speak. The film’s approach in exposing prejudice across cultures is brave and effective. Choosing the American subcultures as templates of cultural trappings in many parts of the world simply fits.
Every adult should see this film. Anyone too “Boratophobic” to do so should not expect that this phobic and conflict-ridden world will change within his/her lifetime.
27 August 2007
Ramon Zamora
Sino sa mga edad 30 pataas ang hindi lumaki sa mga pelikula ni Ramon Zamora? Naaalala ko pa noon, kapag Ramon Zamora ang palabas, lahat kaming magkakapatid 'glued' sa tv. Hindi namin kilala si Bruce Lee pero si Ramon Zamora, oo. Hindi pa uso noon ang mga mga harness para makapag-sirku ang action star, may Ramon Zamora na. Ngayong sumakabilang buhay na siya (he was 72 years old) , nakahihianayang at nakakasuya na walang masyadong balita o malaking pagpupugay man lang sa aktor na ito. Pero hindi bale, he will always be Ramon Zamora. Pilipinong aktor na magaling sa martial arts at mahusay magpatawa.
12 August 2007
Friday Film Bar
Okay. here again after a long blogging absence. very busy nowadays... taking charge of Friday Film Bar (FFB)... with so many artsy fartsy people these days, we need art with meaning and depth.
so UP Film Institute came up with Friday Film Bar. last Friday, August 10, was the launch night. we had Pinikpikan's Sammy Asuncion play the Hegalong/Kuglong, with Budeths playing the Debakan drum.
the films viewed for free were Badjao (1957) by National Artist Lamberto Avellana and Gabon (2006) by Emman dela Cruz. The Avellana family, with Direk Jose M Avellana was there.The cool New Zealand Ambassador Pine as well as Mindanao State University Chancellor, who acted in Emman's film, were there too.
FFB will not be possible without Cordillera Coffee and New Zealand Embassy, truly. Fuji provided the food and UP Cinema student org was co-organizer.
Next Friday, August 17, will have the Cinemalaya 2006 film In the Red Corner and UP student film Sakdal Laya. Pinikpikan provides the music.
Flowing coffee (Hot or cold) and native iced tea pa rin. super sarap iced tea ng Cordillera Coffee, promise.
so UP Film Institute came up with Friday Film Bar. last Friday, August 10, was the launch night. we had Pinikpikan's Sammy Asuncion play the Hegalong/Kuglong, with Budeths playing the Debakan drum.
the films viewed for free were Badjao (1957) by National Artist Lamberto Avellana and Gabon (2006) by Emman dela Cruz. The Avellana family, with Direk Jose M Avellana was there.The cool New Zealand Ambassador Pine as well as Mindanao State University Chancellor, who acted in Emman's film, were there too.
FFB will not be possible without Cordillera Coffee and New Zealand Embassy, truly. Fuji provided the food and UP Cinema student org was co-organizer.
Next Friday, August 17, will have the Cinemalaya 2006 film In the Red Corner and UP student film Sakdal Laya. Pinikpikan provides the music.
Flowing coffee (Hot or cold) and native iced tea pa rin. super sarap iced tea ng Cordillera Coffee, promise.
11 June 2007
independence day wish list...
simple lang naman. sa June 12, sana..
- matinik ng buto ng manok mga pulitikong nangdaya nung eleksyon
- mapa-upo sa thumbtacks mga titser na nagpagamit sa pandaraya
- mag-amoebiasis mga COMELEC officials na kasabwat
- maiflush sa toilet ng mga botanteng naglako ng boto ang perang binayad sa kanila
- mag-decide si tita Glo na hiwalayan si Mike
- mag-usap-usap mga peminista ng kaMaynilaan at aminin sa isa't isa na sila ay nag-i-isnaban
- tunay magka-ibigan ang isang military official at isang Gabriela officer at magpakasal sila agad agad
- tigilan na ni Joey de Leon panggagaya sa bakla para lang kumita, tutal mayaman na siya stick na lang siya kay tita Mel
- wag na galit sa lalaki ang ibang bianing na kaibigan ko
- wag na magalit sa bianing at bading mga heterosexual males na friends ko rin
- gumana ang mga natutulog na empleyado at ahensya ng gobyerno na sobrang dami lang.. po**h mahiya naman kayo!!!!!
- magkaroon ng boksing match between news anchors ng GMA at ABS CBN, para maki-pusta ako
- kunin ni Lord mga nananagasa ng pusa at aso sa kalye
- mapunta sa impierno mga gahaman
- magkaron ng inflatulence mga smoke-belchers
- sana bumaba muli tuition fee sa UP
- sana masagana ang ani ng mga magsasaka.. syet nakakaiyak na talaga kalagayan nila.. in the long run, iiyak din tayo lahat dahil mas gusto pa natin laptop kaysa bigas
- sana tumaas na sweldo ng mga manggagawa, government protective mechanisms should protect its Filipino workers first. yan essence ng government!
- wag na muling mag-leading man ng kasingbata ni Piolo Pascual si lola Regine, ayaw ko siyang magmukhang pedophile
02 June 2007
Blurp: What do feminists (not) want?
According to Stevi Jackson and Jackie Jones, Thinking for Ourselves: an Introduction to Feminist Theorising. Uk: Edinbugh University Press, 1998; p. 1
"Feminists refuse to accept that inequalities between women and men are natural and inevitable and insist that they should be questioned.... Thinking as a feminist involves much of what has counted as 'knowledge.' Because we have historically lived in male-dominated societies, women have more often been the objects of knowledge rather than producers of it."
Inequality and subordination-objectification are key concepts and realities challenged by feminism. however, inequality exists not only between the male and female (biological sex), but also between old and young (age), white and colored (race), heterosexual and homosexual/bisexual/transgender/intersex/pansexual/queer (sexuality/sexual orientation), lowlander and highlander/urbanite and ruralite/indigenuous (ethnicity), rich and poor (class), able and disabled (disability), high caste and low caste (descent), white collar and white collar (work), etc.
Feminism is not for women only. Feminism works against all forms of discrimination and inequalities. However, feminism is not one "ism." There are many strands of it--liberal, popular, postmodern, socialist, marxist, eco, radical and so on. Sometimes on an issue, one feminism collides with another strand of feminism.
"Feminists refuse to accept that inequalities between women and men are natural and inevitable and insist that they should be questioned.... Thinking as a feminist involves much of what has counted as 'knowledge.' Because we have historically lived in male-dominated societies, women have more often been the objects of knowledge rather than producers of it."
Inequality and subordination-objectification are key concepts and realities challenged by feminism. however, inequality exists not only between the male and female (biological sex), but also between old and young (age), white and colored (race), heterosexual and homosexual/bisexual/transgender/intersex/pansexual/queer (sexuality/sexual orientation), lowlander and highlander/urbanite and ruralite/indigenuous (ethnicity), rich and poor (class), able and disabled (disability), high caste and low caste (descent), white collar and white collar (work), etc.
Feminism is not for women only. Feminism works against all forms of discrimination and inequalities. However, feminism is not one "ism." There are many strands of it--liberal, popular, postmodern, socialist, marxist, eco, radical and so on. Sometimes on an issue, one feminism collides with another strand of feminism.
26 May 2007
quote for the day
A friend read to me...
"She who fights and runs away lives to fight another day."--Bob Marley.
So, to my predators. I would like to officially inform you that I am running away from you to do music. So let me run away, and you just come back someday.
"She who fights and runs away lives to fight another day."--Bob Marley.
So, to my predators. I would like to officially inform you that I am running away from you to do music. So let me run away, and you just come back someday.
24 May 2007
save and print
i saw myself on Probe (ABS CBN) last night. wow, grabe, haggard. there is no glam in politics... but then, music lives forever (oh, di ba connect thoughts ko ngayon). the modern mangkukulam/babaylan say that whenever we feel stressed and depressed, we should take a flower or two with us. place it on our desk or somewhere near so that nice flower vibes can repel the negative vibes surrounding us... so look at the flower and smile!
20 May 2007
animal planet tips
heard something like this at animal planet.. survival tips for a wild earth:
1. expose your predators!
2. stay in a group
3. use your size ( or your group size if you are small)
4. run as fast as you can
5. act as a collective (wag mag-solo flight)
in pix is my dog, Fabi, in our farm one and a half hours trek away from my house. she is small, she is tough. she is "baog" like me. i miss her na.
18 May 2007
failure of democracy in daguioman
My Personal AccountTragic would be the day when most of the people in Daguioman have no longer identified with their own cultural identity because someone from the lowland have imposed their own greed as law. Diminishing culture and identity forces others to leave Daguioman and re-settle in other places. Those who remain either allow themselves to be used or suffer the persecution of not being bought. Physical and emotional displacement is cultural displacement. If indigenous dignity has been marred, who would dance the romantic Tadek or collective Changa-i then? Who would deliver a heart-felt Oggayam or teach the young ones with Ading? Some would still, but with money in their hearts and guns in their mouths.
The mayoral problem
The mayoral couple had been in power in Daguioman municipality for 12 years. The husband for two terms and the wife for another two. “Winning” this year’s elections gives the wife another term in office. Before the couple’s ascendancy to power, the wife’s father was mayor for two or three terms before he died. Some people say they were not abusive during their first term in office. But because absolute power corrupts absolutely, the Daguioman tragedy, thus, began,
Daguioman’s story is really no different from what we often hear in the news: a family ruling for so many years, executive power transfers from father to mother to son or daughter. Power derived through cheating and vote-buying.
But Daguioman’s case is special in my eyes for an obvious reason. The ruling family are primarily low lander Chinese-Ilokano while the ruled are the Tingguians, a Cordilleran indigenous minority. This is why it hurts so much whenever any of the mayoral family goes about threatening, coercing and hurting residents who refuse to bow to their biddings. Or whenever I hear of anyone there who cannot claim their pawned land back because the couple refuses to accept payment or imposes 100% percent interest. The mayoral couple uses money, threats and guns, and pawned land as their leverage to make the people of Daguioman vote for them. Those who refuse to be bought or coerced, land the same faith as myself—receiving death threats and harassment.
I have so many Chinese friends whom I love so much. The couple I talk about here is of a different breed.
Satellite rule
There is no doctor. No medicines in the municipal clinic. The mayor and her family live in Bangued and rarely visit their constituents. Daguiomane is 60 kilometers of mostly-rough-roads away from Bangued. Daytime office hours at the Daguioman municipal hall, you will see employees either chatting or watching television. Most of the current municipal employees are casual, not permanent, another leverage to ensure votes.
You will not see employees overseeing an important municipal project, ever. Most of the roads and municipal building were built at the time of the wife’s father. If there are road works, they are just one or two here and there. On several occasions, residents allege that national and non-government projects such as reforestation and road works did not push through simply because the mayoral couple refuses anyone who would not transfer project funds into their hands.
Awakening
I turned a blind eye to all these until I fell victim to mayoral corruption and abuse. It was after the July 2004 typhoon Igme that I planned to bring a medical mission to Daguioman. Typhoon Igme washed out a third of all the rice fields and destroyed roads leading to Bangued. The mayor did not visit her constituents right after the typhoon. She visited weeks after, once via helicopter and that’s it. Seeing this, I decided to organize a medical mission to Daguioman. I raised funds through a concert in Manila and used the proceeds to fund the transportation of doctors and students of the medicine school of Saint Louie University in Baguio City. I wrote the mayor and her councilors about this medical mission. The councilors were verbally appreciative while the mayor and her husband forbade me from pushing through with bringing doctors, medicines and rice supply to Daguioman. The mayoral couple gave the condition that I should dispose the funds and medicines into their hands and cancel the mission. After several attempts of explaining to them that Daguioman needs a medical mission, and finding that the couple are really hard on dissuading me, I decided to push through as planned. Even after prohibition, I still indicated the protocol “thanks to Mayor…” note in my medical missions streamers. 16-18 October 2004 were medical mission days, the mayor prohibited people from participating and having themselves medically checked by the mission doctors. But, still, many people came. We spent half-day missions in the four barangays of Daguioman and exhausted all the medicines for the people. The mission did not cure all ailments, but it did help cure the hopelessness. I did a rice distribution mission after that, in December of the same year.
During and after the missions, I had been branded a communist, pointing to my being University of the Philippines student as “proof.” I once cried in a town plaza meeting while explaining to the accusers that I am not communist or an NPA, I am just a concerned citizen willing to bring help. I have told that several times to the town police but I am not sure if they hear me right or they refuse to hear me at all.
Inevitable witness
Come election time May 2007, I did what ordinary citizens would do. I campaigned for the candidates I believe would really help Daguioman. My husband joined the ticket as councilor-candidate with Lyndon Basingan, a respected elder in Daguioman, as mayoral candidate.
And there went the Cokue family again, they did what they did and did. For the past elections, vote buying and coercion have been their game. The people themselves alleged that the couple buys out key people in the Board of Election Inspectors (BEI), the municipal COMELEC officer, and most of the local police. In the May 2004 elections, I was a mere voter. May 2007, I was a wife of a candidate and, more importantly, a poll watcher.
Being a poll watcher pushed me to video document and capture just some of the anomalies. Daguioman municipality has only a thousand plus voters. Here, you see, monitoring who votes whom in what polling precinct is quite easy. Coercive business negotiations provide the template for this. Elections have become a risky but overcompensating business. You have the right amount of investment--money, guns and goons-- you secure a business empire that steadily rakes profit from the municipal Internal Revenue Allocation.
Similar to their tactic for the May 2004 elections, the husband and wife mayoral couple both filed candidacy. Right before the elections, the husband withdrew.
Unlike in May 2004 where the bought voters had their own codes, e.g. “batman,” “papaitan ni josie” written on the ballots to indicate that they fulfilled their part of the contract, the bought voters for May 2007 were asked to allow the couple’s poll watchers as well as some of the bought BEIs see what they wrote in their ballots, before depositing it in the ballot box. Such scheme was obvious when on May 14, in precincts 3a and 7a, the secrecy folders were laid down such that poll watchers would indeed see what voters write. In precincts 1a and 2a where secrecy folders were up, the voting booths and watchers were placed in a way that watchers would still see what voters write.
About the bought voters, BEIs and COMELEC officer, it seems that the pattern of persuasion, especially for the last two, is be bought or be dead. Who would not accept money given by force? Refusal is like a sentence of possible death.
The rise of the vote contractors
What bothers me more is how some natural community leaders aid in propagating the political business empire. They have become contractors and subcontractors in buying votes. A community leader is made to promise a specific amount of votes in exchange for a specific amount of money.
More than the vote-coercion, vote –buying and systemic cheating, the core trouble in Daguioman is the grabbing of land. Without paid work, a doctor to consult and medicines to use, many farmers in Daguioman are forced to pawn their lands to the mayor’s family. Once pawned, farmers are not able to redeem their land even if appropriate payment is being given simply because the mayor and her husband refuse to accept the payment. Some farmers fear that their land had already been titled to the mayor’s children. The indigenous customary law, including the elder system, has been abolished. The traditional law of pawning of land has been trashed by the mayoral couple. I hate to see the day when indigenous farmers are left with no land to till because the land they and their ancestors own are in the hands of the lowland Chinese Ilokano, who have traces of Tingguian blood. I am not invoking fundamentalism but fearing its inevitable rise because racism and ethnicism are just too blatant.
Cultural loss
Tragic would be the day when most of the people in Daguioman have no longer identified with their own cultural identity because someone from the lowland have imposed their own greed as law. Diminishing culture and identity forces others to leave Daguioman and re-settle in other places. Those who remain either allow themselves to be used or suffer the persecution of not being bought. Physical and emotional displacement is cultural displacement. If indigenous dignity has been marred, who would dance the romantic Tadek or collective Changa-i then? Who would deliver a heart-felt Oggayam or teach the young ones with Ading? Some would still, but with money in their hearts and guns in their mouths.
Footage
The videos I took were simply to aid in the big story of what is really happening in Daguioman. Flaws in election process, illegal disqualification of a watcher, omissions in ballot numbers, verbal and physical harassment of people who refuse to be bought, assault and death threats to a poll watcher--these are merely snippets of what I and so many other people in Daguioman experience and witness.
Some of the footage have already been aired at the 6:30 p.m. TV Patrol World channel 2 and 10:00 p.m.World Tonight at ANC, yesterday, May 17. Articles about my plight were also posted at Inquirer and ABSCBN Interactive. Please note one error in the Inquirer article, it was the son of the mayor, not the husband, who publicly issued a death threat at me. But please note that the husband is the mastermind of all these schemes. A genius of tricks. I just hope I could surpass that with my will to expose such tricks.
02 May 2007
I am back!!!
after months of hibernation from blogging. i am back, to this one. what inspired me to go back to blogging about feminist angst and the like is the fact that we always encounter men who fear strong and outspoken women. my friend called this phenomenon in males the "castration anxiety". you usually encounter them in offices, including the NGO enviroment, where all people claim to promote people's welfare, whether male or female. The fact is there are so many guys in the NGO world who are fu***ng sexist! They hide beneath their formal attires and mannerisms! But the truth-- they are totally scared of women who can read them and will not bow down to their small dicks!
bORACAY
i just returned from a gig with my beloved bandmates in Pinikpikan for a bikini contest featuring male and female contestants. boracay is a beautiful island with a beautiful sun but it is getting crowded with bars that keep on playing the deafening artificial music. boracay now seems to a microcosm of the earth.. a small island with too many people, less trees, less space for flora and fauna. ...i would like to share this pix i took from there. it is still a beautiful place. you can find more photos from the Pinikpikan gigs in Boracay and Bacolod at the Pinikpikan blog later in the night. it might take some time to get all the photos uploaded.
bORACAY
i just returned from a gig with my beloved bandmates in Pinikpikan for a bikini contest featuring male and female contestants. boracay is a beautiful island with a beautiful sun but it is getting crowded with bars that keep on playing the deafening artificial music. boracay now seems to a microcosm of the earth.. a small island with too many people, less trees, less space for flora and fauna. ...i would like to share this pix i took from there. it is still a beautiful place. you can find more photos from the Pinikpikan gigs in Boracay and Bacolod at the Pinikpikan blog later in the night. it might take some time to get all the photos uploaded.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)