Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Those Were the Days of Black and White Protests


2010
10.25

Mga kababayan at kapuso(d),

>

This is one of the messages that I’ve forwarded that has generated some “piping-hot” (like some coffee) reactions.

>

from jun s., something like this: “ang labo! ba’t hindi na lang ipunin ang perang gagastusin dito at gamitin sa mas makabuluhang paraan?”

from lena c., something like this: “why starbucks, of all places? your protest action is so cono…”

from ogie b., something like this: “marketing director siguro to ng starbucks…”

from allan m., see end of my message.

from ate lea: “puede ba sa starbox?”

>

I forwarded the message because I thought some people would be interested in finding out one of the hundred ways of skinning a cat, or, in this case, ousting GMA from her stolen office.

>

Personally, I don’t like Starbucks. In the first place, I’d rather drink beer. Or, if we’re talking about something hot like coffee, I’d rather have tea, my dear. Pero puede rin naman coffee. Paminsan-minsan, pag me mga kaibigan akong gustong mag-Starbucks at outvoted ako, napapa-Starbucks din. (Eto, e pag may pera ako…)

>

A cup of starbucks coffee would probably get me 3 bottles of beer during happy hour in most bars… or two red horse grande… pero no, I’m not an alcoholic. (Stage 1: Denial… or is it, stage 2?).

>

My proposed mass action: Taho! Maglilibre ako ng taho (yung tiglilimang pisong cup lang, ha? That’s around 20 cups of taho for a cup of Starbucks coffee), tapos pag ubos na, we’ll all say “Gloria, all the way down!”

>

best regards,
ian

From: “Allan S. Manalo”
Subject: Re: Black Friday Bulletin #1 – Details of Flash Protest for March 3

I admire the organization of this and I really love the flash mob concept, but this particular task has got to me the lamest I’ve ever heard of. Are you sure that Starbucks is not up to this? I mean, really. You are actually instructing people to “buy a drink.” If you read up on flash mobs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob) no one goes to a place and spends money.

===

— “Vicente R. Romano III” <enteng@HealOurLand.ph>
wrote:

> To: <elagda-forum@yahoogroups.com>,
> <elagda-makati@yahoogroups.com>,
> <elagda-ortigas@yahoogroups.com>,
> <moral-majority@yahoogroups.com>,
> <Moral-Majority-Forum@yahoogroups.com>
> From: “Vicente R. Romano III”
> <enteng@HealOurLand.ph>
> Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2006 20:47:38 +0800
> Subject: [Moral-Majority] Fw: Black Friday Bulletin
> #1 – Details of Flash Protest for March 3
>
>
>
>
> Designated time and place of flash protest for March 3:
> Any Starbucks Cafe, 6 to 7 PM
>
> Plan of action:
> 1) Wear black
> 2) You and your friends proceed to any Starbucks Cafe near you anytime between 6 to 7 pm
> 3) Buy a drink. Each person should queue up at the counter, instead of just one ordering for the group.
> 4) After getting your drink, take a seat or just stand up outside the cafe and hang out for about 30 mins.
> 5) When your group decides it’s time to leave, someone should give the cue and everybody should do the “thumbs down” sign
> 6) Disperse as peacefully as you came in

>
> Suggested preparations:
> 1) Invite as many friends, or officemates, as you can
> 2) If you’re an employer or a manager, invite all your subordinates to join you. Offer to “treat” them, if you can afford it.
> 3) Agree to meet in a place (not Starbucks), or if you’re from the same office, arrange for carpooling
> 4) From the meeting place, proceed to Starbucks as a group. This will have more impact than just agreeing to meet at Starbucks individually

 5) If you’re staying in a city where there is no Starbucks, any other “cafe” or restaurant will do.
>
> Forward this message to as many friends, relatives, colleagues, and egroups. I’ve also included below a brief description of the Black Friday Protest Movement, so those receiving your forwarded mail and hearing this for the first time will understand what we’re trying to accomplish.
>
> Let’s paint Starbucks BLACK on Friday.
>
> God bless,
>
> enteng
>
——————————————————————————–\
——————————-
> BLACK FRIDAY – A NEW FORM OF PROTEST
>
>
> The Black Friday Protest Movement was launched by eLagda on March 1 to give professionals, students, businessmen, and other sectors a venue to express their protest against the continuing and escalating acts of repression of the GMA administration as manifested in its series of proclamations – CPR, EO464, and PP 1017 – all designed to curtail basic rights and oppress the people.
>
>
> Patterned after the flash mob concept, the Black Friday Protest calls on people to gather at a designated time and place every Friday wearing a black attire as a symbol of protest. There will be no programs or speeches. Instead, people will be given specific instructions on what to do, and the whole exercise should last about 30 minutes at most. It’s safe, non-confrontational, and within the bounds of the law, even under a repressive one like PP 1017. The mere “flash” gathering of the people is the expression of protest.
>
>
>
> Where will people get instructions?
>
>
>
> Details of the Black Friday Protest action for the week will be published at its blogsite -> www.BlackFridayProtest.blogspot.com every Wednesday evening. Those who would like to receive instructions directly can also subscribe to the movement’s bulletin service by sending a blank email to BlackFridayProtest-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
>
>

On Deliberately Ignoring Something Because of the Hype


2009
08.15

I loved the Matrix and Moulin Rouge, despite their being hyped. On the other hand, I did watch Lord of the Rings 1 & 2, but stayed away from 3. Tried reading book 1, but just managed a few paragraphs, and then stopped… (Well, perhaps someday…)

Did “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” have that much hype? I love that novel, have read it twice, and think of it as the kind/type of novel I’d love to write if I ever get the chance of writing one. (Haven’t seen the film adaptation with Daniel Day-Lewis…)

As for “The Da Vinci Code,” if you find a copy lying around, it’s worth reading din naman. For one thing, I do subscribe to the recuperation/rehabilitation of the “sacred feminine.”

One other reason why I stayed away from Dan Brown’s novel is that I’ve read Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” and from what I had heard about “The Da Vinci Code,” it seemed to me to be a “Foucault’s Pendulum”-wanna-be.

I’m currently re-reading Eco’s novel. (I read it years ago, mistakenly thinking that it’d help me write a paper on Michel Foucault. Wala palang connect. Ibang Foucault ‘to… Or, meron din, if one looks at the obsession for power and techniques of power…)

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What Does It Matter! (On the Da Vinci Code, Foucault’s Pendulum & Other Matters)


2009
08.13

Read “The Da Vinci Code” in 2005, after deliberately ignoring it for quite some time because of the hype. And then saw the movie later.

Well, the wealth of information (esp. regarding symbols) is generally sound. But it doesn’t hold a candle to the erudition of Umberto Eco’s “Foucalt’s Pendulum.” (I have yet to understand the elaborate explanation of how Foucault’s Pendulum works…)

One thing I liked in the novel is the rather sympathetic portrayal of the head of the Opus Dei, Bishop Aringarosa. (Not so in the movie.) I’ve heard a lot of negative publicity regarding the Opus Dei and their founder Jose Ma. Escriva. (From the late Larry Henares, in his TV show and Philippine Daily Inquirer column, as well as from a Filipino priest who studied in a university run by the Opus Dei…) Bishop Aringarosa may be ultra-conservative in his theology but in the end, when the time came for his faith to be tested, his heart proved to be ultimately in the right place.

Also, it had a more hopeful, happy ending than “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which was darker and more poignant. Eco’s novel bewails the lack of understanding that so-called believers/enlightened ones have. Parang si Elsa sa Himala: “Walang himala! Ang himala ay nasa puso ng tao!”

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Ano nga ba ang Isang Tula (What is a Poem?) by Miguel Hernandez


2009
07.25

Ano nga ba ang isang tula?

Isang marikit na kasinungalingang binihisan. Isang katotohanang ipinararamdam lamang. Tanging sa pagpaparamdam lamang nito hindi nagiging kasinungalingan ang katotohanan. Isang katotohanang ‘singhalaga at ‘sintago ng miniminang yaman.

Sino nga ba ang nakakakita na, sa katotohanan, kulay-asin ang dagat?

Walang sinuman. Gayunpaman, nagpaparanas ito, wumawagayway, ipinapakita at sinasalamin ng mga binuo nitong bula ang kulay ng gasuklay na buwan. Nasa kanyang hiwaga ang higit niyang kagandahan.

Hindi maaaring tumambad sa atin ang tula nang hubad. Mga buto ng tula lamang ang taglay ng mga tulang hubad. At ano nga ba’ng mas papangit pa sa mga pawang kalansay lamang?

Ingatan, mga manunula, ang diwa ng tula: isang espinghe. Hayaan n’yong matuto silang bakbakin ito tulad ng balat ng kahoy… Ay, tulad ng dalandan! kaylinamnam ng itinatago nito sa loob ng kanyang mala-planetang kabilugan!

Ingatan ang inyong sarili, mga manunula, laban sa mga bungang walang-balat, mga dagat na walang-alat.

Kailangang umubra ang tula gaya ng sa banal na misa.

Kailan kaya darating ang manunula na hawak sa kanyang mga daliri ang tula gaya ng paring tangan-tangan ang ostiya at nagsasabing: “Ito ang Diyos!” at maniniwala tayo?

- Miguel Hernandez, spanish poet, 1910-1942 (Tagalog translation by Ron Capinding)

Vipassana for Nietzscheans?


2009
07.13

“He remembered his sadness well, but he could no longer remember what had made him so sad. It was that way with everything: even sadness passed, even pain and despair, as well as the joys. Everything passed, faded, lost its depth, its value, and finally there came a time when one could no longer remember what had pained one so. Pains, too, wilted and faded… Yes, doubtless this pain, this bitter need would also grow old and tired. It too would be forgotten. Nothing had permanence, and he regretted that, too.”

- Herman Hesse, “Narcissus and Goldmund”

Am continuing my reflections on the possibility of a “Nietzschean Buddhism”…

Would like to sit again…

I’ve found something valuable in my practice. Hey, I may have not changed much but I detect a glimmer of hope… the possibility of overcoming deeply-ingrained bad habits of old. I’m no superman but like him, “I’m just out to find a better part of me.”

I came to Vipassana as a pantheist with Nietzschean leanings. I had strayed away from the Catholic Christian Church in the mid-1990′s. It was meeting Nietzsche (through his books, of course) that brought about my “conversion.” I found quite a number of my very deepest feelings and thoughts verbalized by this “madman.”

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The Resurrection of the Body Too: The Misunderstanding of Christianity


2009
06.05

Some people say that Christianity has been misunderstood. It looks to me more like it is Christianity which has misunderstood! The world, perhaps even Christ!

I’m not associating Christ with Christianity. When Nietzsche wrote “Der Anti-Christ” (usually translated as “The Anti-Christ”), his polemics was directed more to Paul and Christendom/Christianity, (a note in the translation says that it is probably more fitting to translate it as “The Anti-Christian.”) The same with Kierkegaard, his beef was with Christendom (the bureaucracy of Christianity). Christianity, as we know it today, is according to biblical scholarship, largely the work of Paul the Apostle.

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Personalism vis-a-vis Parochialism (A Reaction to a Piece on Personalism by Verdman)


2009
05.01

Personalism vis-a-vis Parochialism

(A Reaction to a Piece on Personalism by Verdman)

(an old piece written in June 2004)

“Walang personalan. Trabaho lang.”

- a line from a movie about a cop (played by Rudy Fernandez) who summarily executes a criminal (“Markang Bungo” yata… not sure though…)

“i think (i could be wrong, most of the time i am), that the root of our problem is our personalistic approach to life. we easily sacrifice objectivity in order to accomodate our personal affiliations, thus negating our chance to cultivate values that are necessary to achieve real progress. personalism is in every fabric of pinoylife. from the moment of birth (kung sino ang magiging ninong), up to the time of death (kung sinong asawa ang may karapatan sa bangkay). whether business, sports, politics, gov’t, etc…. personalism always plays a part. nothing wrong with cultivating personal ties per se, we are a social animal afterall, it’s when personalism is accomodated at the expense of objectivity, this is where corruption starts, first morally, then leading up to plunder.”

- Verdman (a nom de plume), On Personalism

What’s the problem with personalism?

The way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with personalism per se. In fact, it is precisely this personalism that makes Noypis so lovable, and as Ninoy put it, “worth dying for.”

It is when personalism clashes with “objectivity” that the problem arises. It thus degenerates to parochialism. Parochialism, i.e., my interests over your interests, my family over your family, my clan over your clan, my my hey hey!… Parochialism, narrow-mindedness, “subjectivism,” bigotry…

The Philippines is relatively a young country. We’ve only started to think of ourselves as one nation during the 19th century, the credit mainly to the ilustrados (which include Rizal). (See Leon Ma. Guerrero’s “The First Filipino.”) Probably no small wonder that we’re still trying to find our bearings… still trying to get our act together.

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The Heart of the Vegetarian Matter


2009
04.09

The Heart of the Vegetarian Matter
(In Honor of the Flesh We Eat)
by Michael Ian Lomongo

On the 10th day of our Vipassana course in 2003, some of my meditation friends were discussing the idea of non-killing (even of insects), whether we’d continue the practice after the course. I said I’d probably do, but I’d try to keep in mind to always say to the insect/s “I’m sorry but I have to kill you.” (And then, someone pointed out that some American Indian tribes used to have this practice of “talking” to the animal they’re killing for food.)

Circa 1997, I used to regularly attend these monthly Full-Moon celebrations with SUFI-ISIS at either Samat Rd. or Biak-na-Bato (basta somewhere near Quezon Blvd.). They’d have someone who’d give a talk/lecture (on spirituality, various paths and techniques), afterwards there’d be meditation, and then meals!!! Woohoo! (They’ve got it all covered… food for the mind, soul, body!)

And one of the things that really struck me during one of the talks was this anecdote that the speaker shared. A group of monks was billeted in a hotel and they made sure that everything was taken care of (their accomodation, their special needs, like the purely vegetarian meal that they must have, etc.). Came mealtime, and imagine the monks’ chagrin when they found themselves being served meat! Agitated, they called for the hotel-manager and started really scolding and berating the incompetence of the hotel staff.

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Para Mama! (Para Nga!!!)


2009
01.10

Para Mama, Para Nga!!!
(isang monologo para sa bagong taon)

alay sa mga bwakanang files ko na nabura noong bisperas ng bwakanang bagong taon…

ni Body Dancer

Sampung taon na ang nakararaan ng una akong mag-odisyon para maging scholar ng Tanghalang Pilipino Actors’ Company. Mula sa mahigit limampung ininterbyu bago mag-odisyon, naiwan kaming kulang-kulang 20. Tatlong araw yung odisyon. Bawa’t araw, nababawasan kami. Matira matibay. Survival of the fittest. Darwinian natural selection. Selecta. Choose your own adventure.

Umabot ako sa pangatlong araw.

But ultimately failed to make the grade.

Almost made it. But didn’t.

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Post-Election Blues


2008
07.11

posted in autografitti, Monday, May 10, 2004 10:53 pm… also reprinted in Gai Olivares’s column at Daily Tribune…

________________________________________________________________________________

Post-Election Blues (For Jojo and Other Kindred Spirits)
By Michael Ian Lomongo

I voted for Eddie Villanueva.

Nope, I’m not a JIL member. Nope, I’m not a born-again Christian. I see myself more as a “renaissance” man (which incidentally also means “born again”), but I doubt if die-hard born-again Christians would see that as a sign of kinship.

Actually, I’m a pantheistic Nietzschean-Buddhist-Christian. In other words, “colorum.” Registered voter, unregistered religion.

Why then did I vote for Bro. Eddie?

Both in Ayala (April 29) and Luneta (May 6), as the yellow-clad people around me would start chanting, I’d hear strains of Radiohead’s classic song in my head: “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here…”

In the first place, my spirituality is not of the evangelical-charismatic type. I prefer Taize-like celebrations, or Tibetan eerie, monastic chantings, or Cynthia Alexander‘s Indian-inspired rock hymns.

But I did join them in the prayer for our country. I may not be wearing yellow but my heart was bathed in a golden-yellow light. With shades of green. I truly felt that even if our convictions were not the same, we were… are, united in desiring change, radical change, in our country’s state of affairs.

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