Zombies! Filipino zombies!
Okay, so he’s Brazilian. “It’s symbolism!” [Photo source: Reuters]
By Joe America
What do we know at this point?
We know the Duterte Administration has skillfully applied the power of greed, ambition, and privilege to diminish Filipino democratic ideals, civility, and sovereignty. He is halfway to dictatorship and a new form of governance in which the ordering of privilege matters more than fairness or human rights.
We’ve discussed at length the inability of the knowledgeable elite to get their message across to the masses. They lack the ability to tap the masses’ desire for vengeance against the elite, or cut through the people’s’ blindness about the promises of democracy and punishments of dictatorship. The deceptions and lies spread by government and its paid trolls generate a magical adoration of near-worship, just like people believe in the White Lady who inhabits the trees or that a Pacquiao boxing win means the Philippines is First World. The Catholics trek off to mass, an act that to the cynic looks a lot like they are trying to hoodwink Jesus about their affair with Satan.
Well, kindly allow me a touch of cynicism, too. Even if those who oppose a Duterte dictatorship could concoct a strong message with a lot of hocus pocus mystery and magic, we would still not see a serious opposition because . . . because . . . wait for it . . . because the opposition is just like the masses . . . tribal. They live in their own worlds of privilege connected to whatever party or region or color or university or gaggle of friends or income strata they belong to. They don’t fully live according to principles of reason and fairness and democracy. They ‘belong’ somewhere else, just like the rest of the nation.
Senator Hontiveros is outspoken from her platform of left-leaning rhetoric. Senator Trillanes is outspoken from his rightward platform of military dignity. Senator De Lima is outspoken from her jail cell, a martyr’s moral podium. The churches do their thing, whatever that is; it seems largely irrelevant. Mayors and governors already behave as if they were federated princes, so maybe federalism isn’t such a big step after all. My good friends Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas seem to say very little at all. Vice President Robredo, a few justices, the Ombudswoman, and a lot of others just work at their jobs and stay out of the dangerous political fray.
There is no unity at all, no strong voice, as the tribes dance around their separate fires where the notables are big shots. Meanwhile, the whole of democracy is in flames.
Ahh, well, my typewriter sometimes gets excited, so I apologize for allowing it some passion.
There are a few individuals outside of government who are in fact engaged in promoting civility and democratic sense. Pulling from my various readings we have:
- Florin Hilbay, former Solicitor General
- John Nery, columnist for the Inquirer
- Maria Ressa, executive editor for the embattled Rappler
- Miguel Syjuco, novelist
There are others. This is only a sampling of the least politicized.
I only follow 133 people on Twitter and maybe a dozen on Facebook. So I’m already selective as to whom I read.
For me, the challenge has become very narrow: how to remain sane. It’s that simple. The information coming from government, mass media, and social media is totally detached from reason and facts. It’s getting worse as angers supplant dialogue. I calculate that about 80 percent of all Filipinos are legitimately lunatic, unable to discern truth from fiction or danger from security. The institutions of governance and communication are equally insane.
I intend to trim my follow list further, knocking out some of the rabid yellows and any Duterte backer who comes within clicking distance of my mouse.
I won’t read any local news except as referred to by the sane people I follow. The mainstream rags are not angry enough about the attack on Rappler so I figure they are a part of the lunatic crowd. I’ll peek at Pinoy Ako Blog now and then to understand what the trolls and lunatics she writes about are up to. I’ll get my real news from international media and watching legislative hearings. I’ll also police contributors here at the blog to identify when they seem to be deceitful or gameplaying and contributing to the misinformation that threatens to engulf us in a dark fog of delusion.
I’ve come to hate gameplaying in the arena of real life, where children suffer because adults are incapable of being sensible, earnest, and kind.
I’ll write sense, or the best my brain can come up with given that the zombies are at the door and all I have for protection is a couple of guns and a whole lot of baseball bats.
If you discern that I have become infected, please push delete.
Comments
171 Responses to “Zombies! Filipino zombies!”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[…] via Zombies! Filipino zombies! — The Society of Honor: the Philippines […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
It is depressing, but it is what it is. This post does not relieve that; in fact, adds to it, sorry. Please delete if not in keeping with the tenor of the current blog.
One view why the zombification has come about: the well-known playbook was utilized — strike fear (in the current case, through the war on drugs with its well-publicized associated deaths) as a mechanism or strategy to intimidate and make zombies of the populace, towards an ultimate scary or horrific goal.
It’s the perfect storm. Frustrations of people going nowhere. Little national patriotism among legislators and SC justices. Star-power delivery from Duterte. Those who would protest at age 20 will not at age 60. Social media discourse driving passions and fake knowledge. Tribal culture.
Indeed. A PH-generated or contrived perfect storm generously and massively serving the interest of at least one beneficiary — that country in the North, without that country firing a bullet; that is, the bullets were from and inflicted on the citizens of the PH.
Yes, China laughing.
Zombies in Pilipinas?!
Decades, and really, centuries ago, (well before Duterte’s gained political clout); fear, torture, prison, injuries, sickness and death was what pilipinos have endured for more than 350 years.Thinkers, activists, intelligentsia, artisans, mathematicians, scientists, philosophers, historians, have been chosen and wiped out, so as to reduce the available gene-pool, until.. today, zombies beget zombies. QED!
Unfortunately, most religious folks were not in the esteemed original gene-pool, and so now we have in Pilipinas, ‘christian-brainwashed (sheep) -forgiving’ zombies voting for political zombies..year-after-frigging decade after bloody century!
Nothing to do with Duterte per se.. he just happens to be President so far..he has a stupendous load of well-intrenched basura in high places and virtually impossible task of cleaning it out in 100 years, let alone another mere eight years left under maximum stress and srrain.
Makes sense. Still, I can’t help thinking that intelligent people should be able to find a cure.
IF they are compiled in MS Word and apply FIND, all articles and comments here in TSoH from the very beginning, my use of the word ZOMBIES seemed UNKIND, cynical, and ubiquitous adornment of my words. Prophetic may be, that’s now flesh out by events and carries some force as closer to the truth than being mere pejorative.
It remains for deep analysis, we can stretch mindful discourse to speculate how many really can be zombies in a A,B,C,D,E population of 110 million. Social mathematics in politics should provide the credible method. Zombies never die, they just fade away to be replaced by more descendant Zombies more skilled and cunning but with absence of conscience.
What I noticed with those fallen countries was, there were also many attempts by the opposition to defend their country but have failed because they were not strong enough…so doom and gloom came and stayed. As I see it, our country is very close to the pattern of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, except that they only have 30mil population. I hope someone can illustrate the similarities better because the way our country is running, we are getting there very fast that only divine intervention can handle…..Just passing by.
Hi JoeAm, Thanks for not giving up on us. God Bless!
As you well know..there is NO reality in ‘divine intervention.’ That statement belongs to the fantasyland of religion. A more realistic,if remote occurrence, may be the Chinese walking in one day, taking over without a life lost on either side, due to pilipinos having their eyes down, ears stuffed with music etc, heads bowed down to their god..the cell-phone!
Only those sent the message don’t recognize it. If calamities are the massage delivered by divine intervention, peoples have been experiencing the massage by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, floods, massacres and fire in some places in the Middle East, Japan, Srebnica, Polpot’s Cambodia, Tacloban, and more massages scattered in the timeline of earliest history. Nothing illustrative or conclusive in those events but . . . . the question WHY need be asked to confirm or confute that there is no reality in ‘divine intervention’ nor divine punishment. As Marshall McCluhan conjectured: “The massage is the message.
Hi, Vicky. I find what is going on fascinating, like being a part of the history I used to read. I am stunned at the meanness, stupidity, and ineffectually of the elites who seem to think a constitution can take care of itself with no citizen engagement.
Next please..
First of all, I beg for everybody’s understanding if I can create only a few sentences which may have some grammatical errors as I only have a very limited english words on my vocabulary bank, and why I have difficulty of expressing my thoughts. 🙂
Anyway, in my IMOO, the DDS and MDS are mostly the stupidiot zombies who cannot “see” the current situation in our country.They are really blinded by their over fanatism, and by the flood of fake news and propaganda being peddled by the trolls (paid or unpaid) before and after elections up to the present. And maybe majority of them are those who have limited access only to Facebook thru free data and can read only the Headlines that’s why they can not access the full contents of any news or articles. Or if they are capable of reading the contents, they just don’t care especially if it’s not favorable to the person they blindly adore.
Clear as can be. Yes, limited knowledge, or warped knowledge. And willing to substitute emotionalism for sense. Pity if the trolls have kids, too. Really bad parenting.
One of the things that I thought I discovered in my five year journey of the Philippines was …
Here was a culture so ancient yet advanced that kindness was taken to be the highest virtue.
It could be applied to anyone of any status and deeply felt.
Ah well.
Yes, and now we see ugly. But it is really a switch that clicks when people get power. Then the kindness turns to docile servitude among the people.
*******
1. ”We’ve discussed at length the inability of the knowledgeable elite to get their message across to the masses.”
2. Previously, I was of the opinion that the greatest stumbling block to Filipino progress was judgmental disability. This disability stemmed from a host of factors including but not limited to: (a) cultural behaviors; (b) an affective approach; (c) a dearth of logic; and (d) non-critical thinking; and (e) impaired cognizance. In a word, ignorance.
2.1. And I was of the opinion that to overcome this stumbling block, we had to use (a) criteria to make good judgments, (b) principles to determine goodness, and (c) reasoning power to ensure the correctness of criteria and principles.
3. Before I proceed, let me posit that there are 3 types of Filipinos:
o Type 1 – Filipinos who are not woke
o Type 2 – Filipinos who are partially woke
o Type 3 – Filipinos who are more than partially woke
3.1. Caveat: There are tweeners between the types. Not only that, one person may straddle the three types.
4. There are several ways of sorting people into the different types. Let me describe three methods:
4.1. Method 1 – Voters only
o Type 1 – Filipinos who voted for Duterte
o Type 2 – Filipinos who voted for Poe, Binay, and Santiago-Defensor
o Type 3 – Filipinos who voted for Mar
4.2. Method 2
o Type 1 – Filipinos who support Duterte, EJKs, and Federalism
o Type 2 – Filipinos who do NOT support Duterte, EJKs, and Federalism
o Type 3 – Filipinos who appreciate/understand — to a high degree — democracy in its various forms, the rule of law, human rights, and the Constitution
4.3. Method 3
o Type 1 – Filipinos who do not read or just read comics
o Type 2 – Filipinos who read long books (fiction and/or nonfiction)
o Type 3 – Filipinos who read long books and write
5. For purposes of discussion, I will be using Method 2. Note that none of the methods are correlated with socioeconomic status. (This last sentence is related to NHerrera’s observation about Enrile who has a “smart” brain. Enrile may be a Type 3 under Method 3 but is a Type 1 in Method 2 and probably in Method 1 as well.)
6. From my perspective, and going back to JoeAm’s quoted statement in #1, the “knowledgeable elite” are Type 3. The “masses” are Types 1 and 2.
6.1. From my perspective:
o Type 1 is a zombie
o Type 2 is a hybrid – part zombie and part living human
o Type 3 is a living human
7. It is now my contention that the reason for the inability to communicate between Type 3 and Types 1/2 is the modality of reasoning.
o For Types 1/2, the predominant modality is magical thinking.
o For Type 3, the predominant modality is rational thinking.
7.1. Magical thinking is either:
o Superstition
o More heart dominant than head dominant
7.2. Rational thinking is either:
o Balanced heart and mind thinking
o More head dominant than heart dominant
7.3. Again on Enrile: one may think that, as a consummate lawyer, he is a rational thinker but really he’s not. He staged his own ambush. (I was going to say, “Given his age, he’s an actual zombie” — but that would be ageism, wouldn’t it?)
8. So – what type are you?
*****
What you say is of course true in so far as categorizing and/or classifying Filipinos is concerned. But zoom out a little higher, see the bigger picture, and ask the next question. What brought us into this sad state of affairs?
Why was there gulf in understanding and knowledge?
Why the ever widening economic divide?
Why, in other words, are there 3 very distinct, seemingly irreconcilable types of Filipinos?
Edgar and Micha — WOW, NICE. because classification is the first step in scientific method. then later you can ask WHY the characteristic of each kind in the typology. Culture is not solid but a dynamic mix of liguid and gaseous elements of each kind of character in the group. Thus Edgar’s typology can be re stated as strata dividing the (1) never die ugly undesirable Zombies, (2) the sleep walking indifferent and (2) the trying hard sissies. When culture cracks wide open after an explosion, there’s hope for a phoenix culture.
*******
Type 1, in your terms, are the natutulog sa pancitan.
*****
*******
The three types comprise a taxonomy of levels of consciousness.
I don’t know about the economic divide but I think the gulf in consciousness is a function of evolution and education. And collective and personal effort.
o Magical thinking enabled us to quell our existential fear. We explained nature by creating gods.
o Logical thinking (Aristotelian logic) only developed 2400 years ago.
o Scientific thinking arose just 800 years ago.
o In modern times, the notion of republicanism arose just 240 years ago.
o And human rights were enshrined in the UDHR in 1948, just 70 years ago… although the Malolos Constitution (1899) enumerated national and individual rights.
We are in this sad state of affairs because we are cultural recidivists. The promise of the commonwealth and independence were derailed (a) by 4 of the 7 presidents that have presided over the country in the last 53 years; (b) by organized religion; and (c) by ourselves through our inability to overcome traditional memes.
*****
1. Worsening economic divide is the root of our national degeneration. Afterall, would we really expect a poor kid living under Del Pan bridge to read the classics instead of the comics? We might cite some exception here and there but that is exactly what it is – an exception that goes into the lower end of probability in the context of a 50 million population spread.
2. Some are beginning to question Aristotle’s pursuit of happiness thesis as intellectual cover for the rise of aristocracy – both medieval and contemporary. Feudal lords found it convenient to employ serfs and slaves to satisfy their “pursuit of happiness”. Hedonism is a lure that replaced productive work.
3. We should own that period after the Marcos exile. There was opportunity then to right the course of our ship but we bungled it big time starting with Fidel Ramos’ sell out to the fundamentalist neo-liberals.
http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/out-of-whack/ – the gap was once not so wide, not long ago..
..Forbes Park was the first gated community in the Philippines, built in the late 1940s for the rich. Slums allegedly also started just after the Second World War, in the ruins of Manila. Around 1910, most Filipinos lived in bahay kubos, except for a few affluent people who lived in homes similar to Rizal’s home in Calamba. I have read that during that time, even most educated Filipinos ate with their hands. Traditional kamayan has its very own forms of etiquette..
There are studies that people always feel poor relative to others. Those who are considered poor in Europe have a standard of living most Filipino poor would envy. But the rich in the Philippines have a lifestyle at a par with progressive Western and Eastern (Tokyo, Singapore, etc.) counterparts, and the skyscrapers of Manila stand around slums that look very decrepit. Desperation among some and lack of opportunity for others may lead to drug users and pushers – while in societies with more legitimate diversions and opportunities, it may be more the weak and those too lazy or short-term in orientation who take part in that illegal sector of the economy. Drug use among the rich will probably be more among the young neglected by too materialistic or greedy parents. Anecdotes of drug use exist in middle class families that are broken apart by parts of the family being abroad to work as OFWs. A further strain on a formerly traditional, harmonious culture..
After magical thinking, there are two further informal schools of thought:
1) peasant common sense.. without any Aristotle, they knew when best to plant and harvest. They had their own semi-magical, semi-logical explanations and habits based on observing the skies, the soil, the harvests. They had the semi-formal wisdom of the older folks.
2) street smarts.. the semi-scientific logic of the working class in the cities. Burglaries are going up and there are new people in town whom one does not see working – is it them? Also based on observation and experience plus some wisdom – often the wisdom of vagrants. Different types of people including circus folks had their own dialects to communicate and survive, also dodge the hostile ruling classes – often coinciding with so-called “thieves cant”.
So the ordinary people are not completely wrong. In fact in some contexts they may in fact be “superior” to elites. Old rural folks will know, better than us city folks, what herbal remedies are good and which are not good – a lot of that got suppressed in Europe, was called “witchcraft”. Rogue tines (German word: Gaunerzinken) are lines used by “vagrants” to communicate about their “targets” – their secret code is now cracked and irrelevant as it is no longer used. Where to steal, where to beg, where to borrow, where there were big dogs, who had a gun..
Recently, the series “The Wire” – about the drug trade in Baltimore and more – showed how that subculture with its systems of storage, supply and communication theoretically works. There is exactly one young man who manages to get out – and another who dies trying to.
There are the rudely awakened Filipinos who I think are many.
“Lokohin mo ang lasing, huwag lang bagong gising” is a Tagalog saying.
Joke with drunk people but not with those who just got up.
They KNOW there is something wrong but can’t quite place WHAT.
Often, nobody has EXPLAINED it properly in a way THEY understand.
—————————-
They might be reading PAB now, a mix of comics and simple text about complex subjects.
They might have been readers of Mocha or TP, or even misled Duterte voters for all we know?
I was a silent occasional reader of GRP from 2012-2015, then I chanced upon this blog.
I thought Duterte had promise once, that he would graduate to better solutions as President.
I really thought Aquino had done NOTHING in so many years – only to discover the contrary.
My own commenting and writing was of course a way of ordering my thoughts, step by step..
—————————-
It might help if we give free breakfast and coffee to those just awakened, waiting for the MRT.
Why the different types of Filipinos?
1) early colonial period: the division into different “races”. Natives hardly left their barangay. Mestizos both Spanish and Chinese had their chance in the cities.
2) later colonial period: some natives got to work in the cities, got a more cosmopolitan view. Bonifacio was an example of this group. Some richer natives plus mestizos = ilustrados, the cosmopolitan, educated class.
3) American and Republican periods: the rich people, the functional elites (UP, Army, Church) and the poor replaced the old divisions. A bit of the color scheme still remained visible.
4) Martial Law and after: many from the functional elites and the poor migrated or worked abroad. The first group often migrated to English-speaking countries, the poor either worked at US bases (until the early 1990s) or went to Saudi, Italy, Spain, Singapore, HK etc. (OFWs).
5) recent years: some of the poor managed to move up to middle class via OFW money and studying, add BPO money to that. Doesn’t mean that they are more woke. A migrant of poor origins in Germany is more likely to spend the same amount of money on a Louis Vuitton handbag than on a discounted weekend trip to the Louvre. Strangely, that poor-origin migrant will call the UP or Ateneo graduate migrant or scholar “elitist” for going to Paris for a weekend.
Social media brings the different milieus together – and shows their differences more strongly.
People who know about Bourdieau (not a kind of cheese) bump into those who say “Ugok!”. Bit like the first shock poor-origin and functional-elite groups had meeting n Europe early 80s..
Okey, you’re seeing the arrow of history and that is important in understanding that the coming into the fore of Dutertism is not an aberration but a predictable outcome (inevitable) of all this, our national tragi-comedy – a failure of the Filipino elite to guide the direction of that arrow.
Not necessarily inevitable. It could also have been Jejomar Binay, or Grace Poe.
Of course the Filipino (functional and academic) elite failed, most remarkably in two things:
1) creating EARNEST leaders instead of “UP crooks” (c) MRP (pardon the expression)
2) providing mass education instead of just elite creation (K-12 might change that if.. IF..)
Third is fostering critical thinking instead of mental subservience in the educational system.
I was talking about the movement (populism) not the person. If you have a long neglected, long suffering mass of people, populism is bound to rise via a charismatic demagogue. Publicly uttering “putang inang Pope yan” was widely cheered by Duterte voters.
Public discourse had deteriorated but what the heck, it’s the revenge of the hoi polloi.
https://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/193277-disaster-untold-story-sanofi-janette-garin-deal – not only the hoi polloi felt ignored…this is by Walden Bello..
Garin had worked her way into the PNoy barkada that included presidential buddies like the Abad power couple, Executive Secretary (ES) Paquito Ochoa, and Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras, and she had PNoy’s ear, unlike Ona. “I could never get the President to sit down with me to seriously discuss universal health care, not once during the 4-and-a-half years I served him,” Ona told me.
(This predicament of Ona’s is one I could relate to since I had encountered the same difficulty when I tried to raise my concerns with the president about likely corruption on the part of then budget secretary Butch Abad’s handling of the Disbursement Acceleration Program [DAP]. In a remarkable hour-long meeting, Aquino jumped like a boy on a pogo stick from one topic to another, except the one I wanted to talk to him about.)
now if this had been written by Tiglao I could have ignored it.. but I tend to believe Bello.
seems that Aquino with his beatific smile at times believed he had an angelic halo around his “anointed” head… his not listening to people outside his group confirms this, sad to say.
His own father had warned us already that it will take at least a generation to undo the institutional damage inflicted by Marcos.
Instead of taking it as a challenge to be overcome, it had become a sort of convenient excuse to just perpetuate the same-old same-old I’ll-grab-my-own-piece-of-the-pie-and-to-heck-with-the-others. To heck with building a republic, to heck with building a nation.
Now the masses have returned the favor, gives Duterte 80% approval rating, and sticks a middle finger at the enclaved elite oblivious that this is not going anywhere but towards the precipice of national suicide.
*******
Irineo, fantastic!
From a Type 1/2 tweener zombie, you have zoomed to Type 3 in a matter of 3 (?) years.
But I think you are in a unique position. You are:
o Stationed in civilized Europe
o Exposed to different cultures
o Have developed a fine taste in the arts and humanities
o A polyglot
o A historian
o A blogger
o A computer man
I agree about writing. It crystallizes thinking.
You have lifted yourself by your own bootstraps, an autodidact. You are a model of excellence and an example of what is possible.
So zombies of the world, wake up!. You have nothing to lose but your terrible makeup and deathly pallor!
*****
Thanks – but what I think also helped is that NONE of the commonplace explanations made complete sense to me, and if a conclusion doesn’t make sense it has two major reasons:
1) insufficient evidence and witness accounts (c) MRP
2) gaps in the logical process used to arrive at the conclusion
Sometimes there ARE sufficient facts but Filipinos often lack the capacity to communicate them properly – especially the Dutertians. Some yellows lack listening/attentional skills..
The masses often lack the capacity to properly verbalize and describe their plight, while elites sometimes lack the empathic skills to get what they are being told, sometimes choosing to be “above the fray” or choosing to ignore, or “innocently” asking “ANO IYOOON?” to deflect..
Permission requested to copypaste this on Facebook and Twitter.
Permission granted.
*******
By all means.
*****
Type 3 degenerating into a 2.
I’m starting to like Senator Binay. She said that, rather than do federalism, how about actually employing the Local Government Code.
This dialogue among you, Irineo, and Micha, with a little Popoy for spice, is fantastic. Irineo evolved because Irineo listens, and he also admits when his own knowledge is incomplete. Finally, he speaks wise and straight.
Joe,
I’m Type 1 leveling up to Type 2. As for edgar’s typology, reminded me of this oft quoted quote:
(which probably means, I’m a small mind leveling up to an average mind, hehehe…). But seriously though,
whether you’re Type 1; Type 2 ; or Type 3 (Magical, Emotional or Rational thinking), in the end it’s really how you use these 3 (hint: doesn’t quite matter what type you are, or how you think; whether for good or for bad) ,
“If you discern that I have become infected, please push delete.” 😉
addendum,
Some good reading here, https://scholarlyrepository.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=classics_articles
Thanks LCpl, for this seemingly encyclical post which I have not encountered in college as I did try to nibble SPA (soc, plat, ares) guys who were mind trouble-makers 399-400 before Christ; this blog of yours LCpl , may be for writers , bloggers and trolls, a kind of know thyself thing. For me to know I am not a river for the times I challenge and go against the flow to join the ripple so I can think in this way:
Money is aphrodisiac
for the corrupt
Blogging is orgasm
for sensuous minds.
No thank you , Popoy! As a fellow mind-farter, I’m happy that you noticed the good , the bad and the ugly. My only point of contention is that thinking in metaphors can be learned,
Praises are bouncing balls
but thank you sticks and
should be welcomed.
Of small, average and great mind farts, I prefer to keep it simple. Don’t you forget.
LOL! that’s funny, karl! I love that movie!
The beauty of TSOH is that every so often we get a thread that is fascinating. This is one of them. I put them aside mentally for a re-read. I’m a bit slow on the right side of my brain.
Thanks to all. I see some great contributions from Micha, thanks.
Totally agree.
Chemrock, I was trawling internet sea shores for causes of brain cancer when I encountered this study on brain use. A Democrat uses intensively the Amygdala part of the cortex, while the Republicans use regularly the Insula part of the cortex.
Some studies seemed to dispute certainty of heredity and environment as determinants of granite political affiliation. Born, raised, grown in a Democrat family and State does not mean the voter will not vote Republican. Neurologists should study the brains of Democrat/Liberals who voted for Trump in traditionally die-hard blue states.
Why? So we can know the eche bucheche of politics afflicting, infesting the brains if any of Filipino politicians and voters. So? what then is the politik metaphor Mr LCpl ? :
the Filipino is not an American
as politician and voter
“Neurologists should study the brains of Democrat/Liberals who voted for Trump in traditionally die-hard blue states.”
That’s me.
But no such studies will be applicable in the Philippines, Popoy, because the calculus is purely civics. Between Hillary & Trump, it was Trump (for me, and others like me), between Bernie & Trump it’s Bernie. Trump and Bernie to put bluntly was our Obama ’08 (Change), I voted for Obama twice.
The calculus will not apply in the Philippines, ie. If Trump wins only two possible outcomes,
that he is indeed a stable genius or he’s not. Whether he is or he’s not, the country is better for it. After 1 year , it’s safe to say he’s not, how’s the nation better?
Executive branch is taken down a notch or two, and states rights increase (ie. 7Eleven raids in CA, off-shore drilling, planned ICE raid for sanctuary cities, now postponed due to gov’t shutdown, etc. etc.). More public participation in democracy (fear tends to elicit that response amongst Americans, while karl’s “if you’re being rape, enjoy it” is the Filipino response)
No state rights, check & balances, not even civics/participation in the Philippines, Popoy. No comparison.
“So? what then is the politik metaphor Mr LCpl ?”
“Build the wall! , “Rocket-man!” , “… people from shithole countries” , etc. etc. all those are metaphors, Popoy, direct, clear and true. During the election they called it branding, but in essence you could say Trump’s been reading Aristotle 😉 .
Lesson: be direct, clear & true (when it comes to issues affecting the body politik)
(what you do in your personal life, people won’t care, so long as it’s consistent with your public image.)
[Edited to remove sexually aggressive language toward a specific person. JA]
Here is LCX’s response to me, itself edited to remove the name and reference to the person mentioned in his original comment.
______
IMHO, Joe (if I may, speaking as Chief Troll).
Your editing choice kinda reinforces Aristotle’s metaphors, in that you’re creating bigger meaning where I never intended one. I simply stated that the woman in question re Trump WH affair would be **** ***** ******, since her name would be ironic and metaphoric.
By redacting said comment, now you’ll have readers now wondering which “specific person” was mentioned, and why the “sexually aggressive language” towards her (thus creating more innuendos , when the last sentence was simply about Trump’s possible WH affair, connected to the preceding sentence, nothing aggressive about it really). It’s a bad call IMHO, Joe.
Other comment deletions I really care not for, but this one in particular seems the editor is the one causing the salaciousness.
“If you discern that I have become infected, please push delete.”
_________
I long ago stopped serious reading of LCX’s posts because his is the kind of twisted discussion that takes me, and I suspect others, into a surreal realm of damaging discourse. But, as long as he is being civil and minimizes his personal aspersions, he is within bounds and gets published.
But this one raises the issue head on. So I’d like to elaborate on my thinking.
He calls me censor, I call myself editor. I call him troll, he refers to himself as Aristotle.
For two people to agree on a complex issue, they must first define their terms, and the standards upon which they base their values. If the main value is “win the debate” for either party . . . versus discovery, the ‘teaching and learning’ I often recite . . . there is a very small chance of agreement. We get the endless go-rounds that LCX manages to produce, and they invariably get far from the point and into personal aspersions, either in the lines or between them.
In the blog article, I introduce new standards. They are subjective, and mine alone, as editor of a blog that aspires to genuine, respectful, dialogue on Philippine affairs. People who don’t like them are free not to read or comment.
I will try to determine when a comment is unduly ‘distortional’ or damaging to earnest discussion, and flag it or send it to trash. The original comment from LCX is distortional and damaging, in my judgment. It is distortional for trying to legitimize President Trump’s bad behavior as ‘metaphorical’, and it is damaging by providing a real-life abusive comment toward a real person, and then justifying it as some kind of high-minded literary meaning. No, it is low-minded. It is abusive of and diminishing to the person he wishes to name.
This is the kind of dialogue that I don’t want to prosper on the blog that I publish.
Senator Bam Aquino made an excellent point the other day. Essentially, he said we can’t amend the Constitution if we can’t trust the motives of the people doing the amendments. That’s my view about the blog. Why should I give anyone space in the discussion if they cannot be trusted to take care of the blog in the manner requested by the editor?
Respectful. Teach. Learn.
Thanks for publishing my response to your edit/redact, Joe. I just wanted to point that out, but all in all I do think your editing is fair.
(I feel like that zombie in the article photo 😉 )
karl’s “if you’re being rape, enjoy it” is the Filipino response)
Ninotchka Rosca’s novel “State of War” starts exactly that way.. now Ninotchka is a NY-based Filipina feminist author, but her perceptions are highly realistic..
Synopsis: a Filipina is bathing in the river. Young Spanish priest feels and urge and does not resist it anymore, what the hell. “She knew the best legs of both chicken and women were reserved for the priests, so she did not resist” or similar was the next sentence.
Flash to several years later, Mayang is the priest’s mistress and has several kids with him.
A saga going from somewhere late 18th century to the early 1970s anti-Marcos groups paints itself spectacularly via several generations of women. Not passive, more on clever.
“Not passive, more on clever.”
You have a point there, Ireneo. Whether you resist or not, same outcome really. That’s assuming escape , prevention, were unavoidable. So in essence the choice is in mitigating injuries, and (to your point) leveraging outcomes better. I agree it’s a strategy, many prostitutes over there do get raped and/or not paid (so long as goods aren’t damaged for the next go’round, that’s the main calculus).
I thought that the average Filipinos love of game shows like Eat Bulaga and others is one factor why they become zombies. One just go along with the laughs that slapstick comedian and presenters dish out everyday. They line up outside television studio to get into these shows. Some of course go there because they get a life ( which is no life) and escape the heat and filth of the areas they come from. It is just doing the motion and even if they watch it at home, it is something to look forward to in the humdrum of everyday lives. They could have gone to the quiet of the library and read books and ultimately cure the zombie epidemic they are in.
The title or phrase EAT BULAGA is a symbol. It is more (worse?) than nonsense or oxymoron, it betrays and demonstrate brain scatter or looseness of its molecules. Singly, each word has unpairable meanings for logical pairing. But it has EARNED lots of money; billions of bucks over the years. Its evolution is genius like the American rap and some products of Hollywood. So what is the hypothesis? the metaphor?
The Filipino is an American
in the entertainment racket.
Incidentally, the song writer and singer of the song Zombie just died so I am posting the lyrics.
LYRICS
Another head hangs lowly
Child is slowly taken
And the violence, caused such silence
Who are we mistaken?
But you see, it’s not me
It’s not my family
In your head, in your head, they are fighting
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head they are crying
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What’s in your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie, oh
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
Du, du, du, du
Another mother’s breaking
Heart is taking over
When the violence causes silence
We must be mistaken
It’s the same old theme
Since nineteen-sixteen
In your head, in your head, they’re still fighting
With their tanks, and their bombs
And their bombs, and their guns
In your head, in your head, they are dying
In your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
What’s in your head, in your head
Zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie
Songwriters: Dolores Mary O’riordan
Zombie lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc
She will come back as an….Zombie?
The Mindanao style of governing is now all over the Philippines..
No respect for constitutional law.
Big ego’s
Foul language.
Do and say what ever to get the loot, (Joining all the PDP Laban)
Lying.
Using trolls. (How did Davao became the safest city using numbeo.com)
Give China all the space. (SasaWharf in Davao)
Killing people. (drugwar)
Still 80% like this president?
Zombies for sure….
Feralism, not Federalism?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feral
1: of, relating to, or suggestive of a wild beast feral teeth – feral instincts
2a: not domesticated or cultivated : wild – feral animals
2b : having escaped from domestication and become wild – feral cats
http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/book-review-hari-kunzru-memory-palace/ or this:
And of course ideas are a poor substitute for true power. True power lives in the bone. It courses through the blood. Even you should be able to see that. We are men. We were meant to be warriors. We were meant to exist in a wild world.
If Alvarez bypasses the senate, then he is the feral one.
What discouraged me about the survry results was what Wil told us when he talked to a survey expert, that the surveys are accurate.
Great pick for info, Karl. If Sombies are dead meat, when alive the lyrics sang by Zombies-to-be are sickening nonsense, soothing hard-ons only to the gullibles. But I will say a prayer for her.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3168
* This was inspired by the IRA bombing in Warrington, Cheshire, England on March 20, 1993. Two children, Jonathan Ball and Tim Parry, were killed. The IRA (Irish Republican Army) is a militant group that was determined to remove British troops from Northern Ireland.
* Lead singer Dolores O’Riordan claimed that “Zombie” speaks about “the Irish fight for independence that seems to last forever.” The lyrics even say, “It’s the same old theme since 1916.” Like the responsive works of Yeats, Heaney and U2, the Cranberries claim they wrote “Zombie” to be a “song for peace, peace among England and Ireland.” >>
* This song takes the unassailable position that killing young children is tragic, but in venturing into the political fray, it created a great deal of controversy. This didn’t surprise O’Riordan. “I knew that would be the angle of the song, because it was controversial,” she told Songfacts. “But, I suppose I was kind of taken aback with the success of the song. I didn’t know it was going to be that successful.”
* The video was shot by Samuel Bayer, who flew to Belfast shortly before the ceasefire to get footage of the area – those are real British soldiers and local children. Bayer intercut these scenes with striking images of Dolores O’Riordan, standing by a cross and covered in gold paint, as similarly gilded children look on. Bayer, who began as a painter, was wildly creative in his videos when given free rein. His best-known work is Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Getting painted for the video was O’Riordan’s idea. Explaining the symbolism, she told us, “It was to make it magnificent in a way, at the cross. It was metaphoric for all the pain that was being caused, and it was slightly religious as well.”
* On August 31, 1994, just a few weeks after this song was released, the IRA declared a ceasefire after 25 years of conflict, leading some critics of The Cranberries to wonder if the IRA was willing to call a truce to make sure the group didn’t release any more songs about them.
* The first Cranberries album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, Why Can’t We?, was written and recorded in Ireland over a span of a few years. After that album was released in 1993, they went on a lengthy tour and began writing songs for their second album, No Need To Argue. “Zombie” was written while they were touring England that year. The lead single from the album, it marked a stark departure in both sound and meaning, taking an aggressive political turn away from songs like “Linger” and “Dreams.” In a Songfacts interview with Dolores O’Riordan, she said, “On the road, writing things became more alive. I think that’s why ‘Zombie’ emerged. The first album was more tame and more reserved, and then we started to rock out a bit more. So, we started to write more rock and roll songs.”
* The Cranberries performed this at Woodstock ’94 a month before the single was released.
* In America, the song wasn’t released as a single, a tactic designed to sell more albums. Promotional copies were issued to radio stations and MTV gave the video plenty of spins, so the song got lots of exposure, helping No Need To Argue sell over 7 million copies in the US. Since it wasn’t sold as a single, “Zombie” was ineligible for the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it did make #22 on the Airplay chart.
* The Cranberries performed this on Saturday Night Live on February 25, 1995. >>
* The metal band Bad Wolves released a cover of this song on January 19, 2018. The band claimed that Dolores O’Riordan was scheduled to record vocals on the track the day she died four days earlier. This version changes a few lyrics, mentioning drones among the devices for killing, and altering the line, “It’s the same old theme since 1916” to “It’s the same old theme in 2018.” ”She was really excited about that because the nations may have changed but we’re still fighting the same battles today,” lead singer Tommy Vext said. “Humanity is still fighting to assert itself despite all the conflicts.”
this post should be right after the lyrics of the song:
Great pick for info, Karl. If Sombies are dead meat, when alive the lyrics sang by Zombies-to-be are sickening nonsense, soothing hard-ons only to the gullibles. But I will say a prayer for her.
Every country has its birth pangs even religion back in the days of the Crusades and Caliphates. They were ran by despots, dictators, demagogues, Pol Pots, Stalins, Idi Amins and Marcos. What the religious all over the world have not heard of are the conquests by Crusaders and Muslims bloody aftermath. Not even dogs, cats and rats were spared. Children’s carcasses were skewered and hanged over the tip of the spears to sow dread and fear to nearby castles.
That is how the world became Catholics, Christians and Muslims. To this day they are still in denial. The Media all over the world don’t make news analysis out of it because they, too, are either Catholics and Muslims the result of centuries of atrocities. The religious people are complicit of mass killings for being religious and covering up the stories why they became religious. The stories can only be found in YouTube not someone like me … but by forensic historians.
There will be good outcomes out of Duterte’s evil. Marcos produced the Aquinos that introduced Philippines to Judicial processes. These days the two-tiered tired justice system is rickety and creaks and groans. Lawyers are inept. Investigators are incompetent. The Filipino people are dying one-by-one because nobody took care of the drug issue. Once accused they are guilty in a way of saying because they die in prison while waiting for justice. The victims forego the justice system they mete out their own justice…ALONG CAME DUTERTE…he answered their concerns in a very bad bad way but very good for people who have given up on Justice.
Duterte got a rave review. High ratings to this day is still analyzed if it is really true or false, here:
https://thediplomat.com/2016/10/the-truth-about-dutertes-popularity-in-the-philippines/ Mobbed when he is out in public. His fans out to touch him when he is not a saint yet. The Presidential Security are just overwhelmed. They backed off. They know Duterte fans protect Duterte from anti-Duterte.
EVIL DUTERTE will create somebody who can do Duterte’s accomplishment in a civil … in 2022.
Here is the rub, INTELLIGENT CANDIDATES ARE BORING MONOCHROMATIC COLORLESS PEOPLE. They should be intelligent enough to stand on their head and “rape nuns” to connect to the non-reading non-blogging TV&Radio-only Zombies.
CONSTITUTIONAL DRAMA
I did a quick reading on Philippine Constitution how it evolved. I found these:
Tejeros Convention 1897
Malolos Congress 1899
1934 Constitution Convention
MARCOS
1973 Constitutional Convention known at that time as CON-CON. This was the period Imelda Marcos had envelopes slipped into the hands of congressmen and senators. It passed. PAYOLA became part of Filipino vocabulary.
CORY AQUINO
1987 Constitutional Commission CON-COM. This was after Marcos went into exile.
FIDEL RAMOS
A shift to Parliamentary System PARLI-SYS
ESTRADA ADMINISTRATION
Similar attempt to change 1987 constitution. Known as CONCORD or Constitutional Correction for Development
GLORIA ARROYO
A shift to Unicameral Parliamentary form. House Speaker de Venecia push for Constituent Assembly known then as CON-ASS. And, Constituent Assembly under Nograles-Pimentel with naughty insinuations that Gloria Arroyo was going for CHA-CHA or Charter Change
BENIGNO AQUINO
He was not sure about constitutional reform but several proposals were put forth by different members of Congress to convert to a FEDERAL REPUBLIC called FED-REP
RODRIGO DUTERTE
He stated in May 2016 plebiscite on the proposed replacement of the unitary state with Federal one would be held in two years. This is his second term. He wanted his promise become a reality. IT IS NOW CURRENT EVENT.
This is nothing new. Philippine Media is blowing this up. If only they check their archives. Every administration wanted DESIGNER CONSTITUTION. Nothing to worry about.
The only successful constitution change in Philippine modern days were Marcos Constitution of 1973 and Cory Aquino Constitution of 1987.
If anyone bothers to check who got involved in CON-CON, CHA-CHA, CONCORD, FED-REP AND PARLI-SYS are now against and those against were now in favor. This experiments are evolving so are their allegiances.
DON’T WORRY. BE HAPPY. BUT BE VERY VERY VIGILANT. BECAUSE THE PHILIPPINE MEDIA ARE THERE FOR POGI POINTS, BOTTOM LINE AND PIT FILIPINOS AGAINST FILIPINOS.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_reform_in_the_Philippines
But you got some serious insights wrong.
Cory succeeded in her designer consititution because poeple power was behind her.
Marcos succeeded in his designer dictatorial constitution because he killed democratic institutions and filled his ship with sychophants and killers.
Duterte — copying Marcos’ template. Will he succeed?
If you discern that I have become infected, please push delete. – JoeAm
DO NOT SEE DELETE BUTTON 😦
😂😂😂👊
Joe, keep the beacon light a burning bright…
Surprisingly, many fail to connect (or refuse to see) the prominent dots from Malacanang to SEC. Some even contend that Rappler deserves what it gets, that a free-wheeling and “irresponsible” press is disruptive (or even destructive). But a silenced press is more ominous. Because oppression, in the end, leads to dehumanization.
“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”
Albert Camus
I ain’t no pretext to be Albert Camus. In peace times in a country of the free, Press Freedom has “Great Balls of Fire”. But once a country got shackled by the ferocity of Zombies, great balls become tails to hide and FIGHT beneath underbellies. Press freedom is like ice that melt under the heat of dictatorship. Where is the metaphor if any?
Press Freedom is Man’s great balls of fire
in times of peace and disharmony.
“I won’t read any local news except as referred to by the sane people I follow. The mainstream rags are not angry enough about the attack on Rappler so I figure they are a part of the lunatic crowd.” – JOEAM
I do not read Rappler. Rappler staff(?) contributors(?) don’t know reporting. They do not know how to write articles that is reader-friendly. They need to know how to parse information. The readers are inundated with too many information-lets and fact-lets. (Yes, like bomb-lets of cluster bombs.) They should deliver the big bomb not bomblets.
They need to know how to communicate to reach the lunatics out there.
Irony of ironies. One aspect:
– A President who — against screaming Church sentiments (recall pro-death, pro-life poster outside of a church) and the hypocritical Sotto — advocated for the health of the mother, health of a child already born, eventual health and sanity of the country, an anti-zombification measure, with the additional goal, equally important, of lessening poverty — thought to the cause of much of the country’s ills, is less loved, now reviled (?) versus
– A President — no matter the cover-up — who inspired whether intentionally or not 13,000 deaths of the poor drug addicts, not the drug lords, contributing to the zombification we are talking about, being more loved (?)
Please stop the world, I want to get off.
Don’t. Just appreciate that you get to travel through a dark patch of history, and keep your wits so as to come out the other side sane and wiser.
Nick Bryant, a BBC News Correspondent based in New York, writes an interesting article about his own experience — over a span of 30 years — of America, its people and the shift in American and Political Life from the Reagan years to the current Trump season. You may care to read the article if you have the time.
Bryant writes:
In the space of just three decades, then, the United States had gone from “It’s morning in America again” to something much darker: “American Carnage”, the most memorable phrase from Trump’s inaugural address.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41826022
The PH journey through the same 30-year period has some parallelism. A sympathetic vibration of sorts?
Somebody (Joe?) ought to write a piece on how American politics has gone down to the level of the Philippines’. (my opinion). I guess that was what Paul Manafort was advising Trump- after all he worked here before- the US was ripe for a Third World type of politics because its economic problems were becoming severe.
From ideology based with high integrity to a personality/celebrity based one with no regard for ethics or integrity. A strong indication of poverty?
But Americans are still lucky because its institutions are holding strong, unlike here where it never really solidified at all.
I have plenty of ideas/comments on these but I think an American point of view should be the starting point. How about it, anyone?
I think it is less about poverty than stagnation or lack of a ‘dream’. In that way it is similar. Social media also frame minds. I’ll take a whack at it. Thanks for the suggestion.
This is my conjecture on America. Its got a history of darkness of sweat, blood and tears from toil that led to its greatness. It has a recent history of love, success, wealth, and unfettered entertainment leading to soul decay. OVERDOSE is the word for fruits of success. Overdose (of pleasure drugs) even is the cause of deaths for the few attaining greatness. BUT America is not there yet AND NEVER WILL BE for it is bound to repeat itself.
I read and don’t believe that America is already Third World years before Trump but America will never ever be Philippines, where harmony, cooperation and tolerance and SMILES thrive in the permanence of struggle against poverty.
Where and while decreasing opulence and slow slide to poverty can trigger inter tribal disunity, strife and hatred among Americans, America can NEVER EVER will be the Philippines. Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia are the Philippine models for a happy country even in poverty. Alongside with the natives, it will be the unique dregs of educated, N-Ach, highly motivated immigrants who will hold and stay America in even keel.
Philippines the ONLY strategic war outpost in Asia, is much more than worthy to become an American State or Canada’s Province as positive appendage to greatness. Excluding wealthy corrupt politicians, the domestic helpers, airport cleaners, the caregivers, the nannies, teachers, the blue collars, the managers, computer nerds and hackers, artist and journalists, nurses and doctors, and wisdomed elderlies, etc. CONSTITUTE the preconditions to a HAPPY PLACE.
Ayan, eh lalo akong hindi maiintidihan ng masa o mga tulog, naghihilik sa pancitan.
“Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia are the Philippine models for a happy country even in poverty.”
Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet and Mongolia share the same Buddhist strain, Popoy, where does the Philippines draw it’s “happiness” from? and is it the same kind of “happiness”?
Lance,
Before the Arabs and the Spaniards, PH inhabitants were mostly Buddhists.
But we got the smiling Buddha from China.
Interesting.
Though, I always thought that was only Filipino-Chinese/Chinese expats, and not the whole of Philippines (Filipino mestizos maybe also).
I’d like Ireneo’s anthropology perspective on this. But I do know pre-Islam and pre-Christian, Hinduism would’ve been the preferred choice of much of the islands as a whole (or maybe just the coastal areas), animism/shamanism for the rest of the Philippines.
But Buddhism I’m sure would’ve been Chinese specific, karl (and not the Tibetan kind, but the money/luck type of Buddhism prevalent in China).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_in_the_Philippines
The archeological evidence has only been recently discovered about Pre-colonial Buddhism.
Thanks, karl! So the same Buddhist/Hindu mix (before these two religions separated in India eventually) found in Bali, Indonesia still, would be the Buddhist strain in the Philippines , this is all very cool!!!
Your curiosity led to my curiosity, and google and wikipedia made us richer again.
But to Popoy’s point, karl.
Is there still Buddhism in the Philippines, which we can pin the type of “happiness” to? I do know that Filipinos like to use the world “karma” a lot , I’m wondering now if it is a carry over from Indian Buddhism, from sanskrit or something from when the Americans were there (ie. around the same time Americans started using “karma” near the turn of the century last).
I think it’s an American carry over since most Filipinos who use the word “karma” tend to be from the cities or big towns (or have spent time in cities, or are educated). It’s not a provincial word is my point. I could be wrong.
If you got boondocks from us maybe you got karma too.
karma is still from buddhism. btw 2 percent of our population are Buddhists.
But 20% looks like Buddha……To much Jollibee andMc Do…. hahahaha
🙂
No, not the Chinese Buddhists (I know some Chinese over there, are also Taoist), but the Buddhism from India, karl. Chinese Buddhists from what I understand are completely different from Tibetan/Tantric Buddhists (as that photo implies).
As to American English getting “karma” from the Philippines (like “boondocks”), possibly. But I think more probable is that the English (from England) first started using it via straight from India (their colony), then its use trickled to America (am Googling when Americans started using “karma”, no cigar, karl sorry), in the 1800s (before we went to the Philippines).
That is plausible.
From an era of veneer thin civility back to “Make America white again” in the US. Here from an emerging democracy back to “Trapo’s of all regions unite”.
For many loosing power is more painful than an outsider can imagine. Their methods to play the most basic feelings of identity loss and frustration are historically proven to be successful. Resistance is seldom efficient, economic collapse the most likely source of change.
America was never majority White, unlike the UK, W. Europe and Australia , so “Make America white again” is in essence a misunderstanding of American history. That’s not to say America is not racist, or that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” yearns for the 50s and 60s (post WWII victory).
My point America was never White , there was a constant tug and pull with other races from the git-go. It’s essence is constant re-definition. Now Hispanics (Mexico & South America) are ascendant, and why Democrats feel the need to shutdown the gov’t (for illegal immigration).
The only other similar case is Canada, and their immigration rules on par is far stricter than the US (though their issue is more focused on populating Canada, it’s too cold).
Randy David tried and he focused on the populism angle.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/102168/duterte-trump-populism
I am glad Joe will take a whack at it.
Allow me to take a whack at David, Karl. Duterte never intend to be populist. Duterte is ACCIDENTAL POPULIST without meaning to. Duterte knew the problem and he thrtow it at them. “THIS IS THE PROBLEM….” which he enumerated. Duterte to this day is perplexed why he is accused of being populist. His agenda became populist after the fact that resonates among the “lunatics” because the yellows which are now irrelevant talk to people only the intelligentsia understand that is the reason the Lunatics who can afford to buy Philippine Newspapers skip the business section and OPED. They go straight what is news about Maricar Reyes and Richard Poon if they are having a baby. What Poon think of Maricar of her past scandal with Hayden Kho. Because this is what they can understand.
The yellows are theoretical the lunatics cannot understand. My “suki” fish vendor explained to me the fish are expensive because of little catch because of the weather. I told my fish vendor, “aaah, it is expensive because of law of supply-&-demand caused by global warming”. She looked at me with a two-front-teeth missing, “what? watchatalkinbout, bro?
See? If Pol Pots (Political Potentates) talk to the masses like that they cannot connect. They are not lunatics it is the people delivering their messages are. They stop listening. The lunatics wouldl tell me, “what is this lunatic talking about? Global Warming. Supply-&-Demand? What are those?”
If OPED mentions Michaevilli they will correct them, “Michaevilli? Or Gino Vanelli?”
The yellows should talk to them like I am talking to my fans. Simple. Un-theoretical. Down-to-earth with feet flat on the ground.
This reminds of my favorite suki 5-6 Indian. Amiable. Courteous. He sells anything for several installments including loaning out money. I go to him when my bank has a glitch with my Dad’s remittance. I borrow. I pay a little with huge interest. He then turn around and loan it out to others who in turn pay a little with huge interest … , “hey, dude, that is Ponzi”. “Ponzi, what?” There I stopped because we are not communicating at all.
What about those real estate developers mumbling about high fallutin pretentious pompous phrase like vertical and horizontal development …. omg !!!
I guess the question is, is ignorance lunacy? You are correct, it is not at the level of the individual. It is lunatic at the level of government, however, that widespread education has managed to produce such ignorance about democratic values and processes. That’s the sense I was using. It is lunatic for a democracy to fail to educate the people making core electoral decisions. And, yes, yellows excel at failing to teach.
TY SB for taking a whack.
We are headed to zombieland because of this broken-record topic.(from my phonographic mind) @Irineo, that is phonographic, not pornographic.
Military pensions,
Admin just incrreasef salaries of police..Military will follow.
The Judges want Sereno impeached for not getting their pensions
If it will temain in the GAA, the symptoms will persist forever.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/taking-over-military-pension-very-prohibitive/
What a week, and in a single week a twisted government just sent people scared while chauvinists of all stripes have come out of the woods saying the government is doing right.
Today, the old man had the entire MIASCOR chopped out of airport services because of a few thieves and miscreants. What’s next, getting a contractor from China?
Hum the theme song from The Godfather. That might help keep things in perspective.
A few weeks ago a MIASCOR guard at Clark was telling me how proud he was at ”papa digong”….
Hope you find another job…….good luck… 🙂
“There is no unity at all, no strong voice, as the tribes dance around their separate fires where the notables are big shots. Meanwhile, the whole of democracy is in flames.”
I am worried that this move towards federalism will just heighten this disunity, this propensity of my people to think of themselves as Ilokanos, Bisayas, Cebuanos, Moros etc.
I am worried that this country was, maybe, never really a country at all; but just a 200-year old dream of Jose Rizal and all those Ilustrados.
I am worried that my Moro brothers and sisters feel more propinquity with their Muslim comrades than with me, who belong in the same archipelago with them.
I am worried that the lack of outrage from a lot of my people at SEC’s shutting down of Rappler means that we are not really a democracy (because democracy IS the freedom to speak and the freedom to dissent), but we just pretended to be one – just because we wanted to be like America so much.
I am worried that the powers in the palace, in their admiration of China, will emulate the Chinese state; like when that state shut up the Tiannamen Square protesters to the grave.
I am worried that a lot of OFWs that I talk to are not worried. Why are they not concerned that the country that they will want to go back to (or so I think) is backsliding? Is it because they/we can become refugees in our adopted countries and so will not physically suffer the consequences of a shithole Philippines?
I am worried that we will be like Yugoslavia. Which doesn’t exist anymore 😦
People in democratic states usually get what they deserve, I think. If people are suffering, it does not help to boost those who punish rather than raise people up. The Philippines has a long way to go before people feel they are raised up, and there seem to be few people with the skill to lift.
I hope this is just an addendum thought manangbok. From the outside as OFW and as UN volunteer I internalized positive that we are VERY TRIBAL, not inter-tribal. Tribals could be rivals, competitors, and even enemies but as Filipinos they can share the same foxhole (not the shitholes accentuated by assholes media). Yes not only in our case because that’s the way of the Lord in all the countries of His creation. Tribes thrive and survive. We ain’t in Heaven yet, FIGHT if we must, for our tribe to thrive and survive.
We just have a history of being tolerant. Come into any Filipino’s home and you will see calm and direction. The mother cooks, the father perorates, usually about keeping safe, let them kill each other, don’t look out the window sort of thing. The family is a cultural jewel, and conveyor of national doom. Just lock the doors and we’ll be all right. Everyone is here, count the children, turn off the lights, go to sleep. That’s it. But everyone knows political weather patterns. Just one mistake, just one abominable wrongdoing, and the cap is off. Too early for a Duterte exit, demise, resignation, overthrow? Tell it to the Filipinos. They are connected by a prehistoric short message service which tells them to go out now, it’s safe to protest, stop the bad guys, together we stand, don’t forget the sandwiches. It’s happened before. Cyclical.
My crystal ball tells me Duterte will outlast Donald Trump. The anti-Duterte has to find something that resonates to his core supporters that comprise 75% of the Filipinos.
ERAP had the popular vote. He abdicated. Not because he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar because he was soooo stupid to get caught signing off check obviously was fake. THAT WAS NOT SMART AT ALL. My suki fishvendor can do better than that …
… AND DUTERTE IS MUCH SMARTER.
Who the F—k said that if you are being raped just enjoy it?
I know it is not Harry Roque, but he is like saying that every time he acts as spokesperson.
That is wrong in more ways than one.
That statement Karl is cruel and heartless even if addressed to prostitutes. I have trolled a lot in this thread. I must stop now.
Neph, I know who said it and I’m so not proud of him!!
Yet I must be as the Publican of Scripture and strike my own breast not his.
It is said that “one’s position determines his perspective.” ” This is certainly true in the case of the physical world of viewing architectural images. And figuratively true in assessing a situation other than such physical images.
With regards to the Administration’s BBB or Build Build Build Program, its perspective results from its position involving these elements:
– Build, Build, Build Program
– With the twin objective of economic growth and eventual poverty reduction
– Requiring massive initial funding supported by the China loan, among others, which then
– Requires local funds, hence the TRAIN tax reform
– etc.
There are concerns on inflation in the immediate term, but an article in the Nikkei Asian Review has this to say:
His [Duterte’s] administration expects the program to slash the nation’s poverty rate from 21.6% to 14% over that time.
“… looking at the big picture, the tax reform [TRAIN] is part and parcel of efforts to make the Philippines an attractive destination,” said Dante Tinga, head of research for BDO Nomura Securities.
Fitch Ratings upgraded the Philippines’ sovereign debt rating by a notch … due to steady, robust economic growth and the country’s fiscal policies, including the tax reform proposals.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Philippine-tax-reform-fills-Duterte-s-infrastructure-war-chest?page=1
(I note that the optimistic statement in the middle paragraph I excerpted from the article comes from the research head of BDO Nomura Securities — BDO being part of Sy’s SM group of companies. SM is a component of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index.)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Stock Exchange has reminded stock market investors of the 20 percent increase in stock transaction tax under the ratified tax reform package of the Duterte administration.
The Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law increased the stock transaction tax to one half of one percent to 6/10 of one percent.
In a circular, the PSE said the 20 percent hike in stock transaction tax would take effect tomorrow Jan. 1, 2018.
The increase in stock transaction tax caught the PSE by surprise as it was supposed to be included in Package 4 of TRAIN and not in Package 1.
The PSE expects volume to be negatively affected with the doubling of the stock transaction tax.
http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/12/31/1773116/train-likely-dampen-stock-trading-says-pse
Ah, interesting. Thanks.
The ‘build’ effort is significant, and is needed. Where the Duterte Administration inserts mistrust is in coddling up to China and being willing to borrow at undisclosed rates and terms (Chinese workers instead of Filipino?). If the Admin were forthright, it would be possible to get excited about the ‘build’ program.
Some projects make me think……
A train to Clark? (Dennis Uy, Duterte friend, did buy halve Clark last year)
http://business.inquirer.net/238927/dennis-uy-takes-clark-logistics-hub
I rather see an elevated road in Manila bay like the Hong Kong /Macau project , it would lessen the traffic much more in my opinion….
I’ve not seen that discussed. It also seems to be an alternative to a subway. Makes a lot of sense.
http://www.philstar.com/business/95611/cavite-bataan-underwater-tunnel-proposed
Payumo did dream of a suspendion bridge, then a bridge with tunnel,so now it would only be a tunnel.
https://www.google.com.ph/amp/newsinfo.inquirer.net/826671/bridge-plan-across-manila-bay-to-link-cavite-bataan/amp
The elevated bridge from Valenzuela to Cavite (with at strategic points MOA, port etc roads leading to Manila)…So all traffic back and forth can go there, not only a few Bataenos….
Pwede.
Like a second EDSA, maybe it should connect to Coastal Road and EDSA MOA and Monumento..
The Bataan-Cavite bridge is to move people more quickly from Clark and Subic to Calabarzon without clogging Manila in the process.. it could help decentralize..
Please don’t build a tunnel – imagine what happens if that tunnel floods 😮
Or dare to build a mixture of the Dutch Delta project and the Afsluitdisk.
Close most of Manila Bay in the process and make it a freshwater lake, and reclaim large areas – but remember to leave or even dredge a deep channel for the water from rivers.
Afsluitdijk.. Lake Ijselmeer, formerly the Zuidersee.
A big reclamation project for flood control. It may take 100 years to be realized.
I AGREE, KARL. 100 years to realize a big reclamation project in the Philippines BUT TOOK CHINESE a 2nd pass to CREATE an island with military airstrip in the middle of a vast ocean.
I suggest, Karl, to have the Chinese do the reclamation project. They can do it before the 2nd Satellite pass happens.
Get Dutch help. ‘Fucking EU’..
@Irineo,
You proposed a BRT for c6, they plane a 3 lane x 2 skyway, making it to narrow if we add a BRT, meaning the planners never had it in theirplans to discourage cars in the future.
http://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/PPP/projs/MME
@SB,
Dubai World who practically runs Manila South Harbor is also a known reclaimer( reclamador😜), they can help too.
The Chinese are still in denial that there are military structures in WPS, so that means they can only reclaim in secret.We can’t have a secret reclamation project that big.
@Irineo,
Your wish is their command.
https://business.mb.com.ph/2018/01/22/ph-dutch-sign-mou-on-cooperation-for-rehabilitation-of-manila-bay-area/
Did you call them Irineo? 🙂
PHL, Netherlands to create master plan for Manila Bay development
Published January 22, 2018 1:13pm
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/640548/phl-netherlands-to-create-master-plan-for-manila-bay-development/story/
”Also, the master plan would guide future decisions on programs/projects such as coastal protection works, solid waste and water resources management, transport, and reclamation activities to be undertaken within the bay area.”
http://business.inquirer.net/244611/dutch-help-manila-bay-rehab
What has Estrada got to say in view of their grand One Belt One Road smart city on reclaimed land in the bay?
They will use the reclaimed land for his tomb? We are still talking about Zombies? 🙂
The program did start under Aquino…..Don’t get fooled by the Duterte trolls …
In 2015, the Philippines requested the Netherlands to dispatch a group of Dutch experts in disaster risk reduction to Manila for identifying and assessing the Manila Bay situation.
“After the mission, the Dutch experts confirmed the urgent need for a framework for the development and management of the Bay area,” NEDA said.
“These findings prompted the Philippine government to appropriate P250 million under the FY2017 NEDA budget for the formulation of the master plan,” it said.
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/640548/phl-netherlands-to-create-master-plan-for-manila-bay-development/story/
Most of the projects in the build program was submitted to NEDA for aproval way before Duterte’s time.
The Aquino government discouraged unsolicited proposals, and many hated that.
Yes, I like the unsolicited projects because the companies are ready to move. And they are anchored by Filipino companies. It removes the contentious bickering of competing projects. I assume NEDA and others are doing a professional scoping of the projects for cost/benefit and feasibility.
I composed my reply to sup before reading your comment Joe, that is the afvantage of unsolicited proposals because NEDA is under staffed and have to outsource from the academe, the same people who does research for the senate, congress and others.
Appreciate the viewpoint.
Thanks!
We can get burned in thiese unsolicited proposals. I have talked to one such wirh many foreign contacts if he ever met any of them and he just said online.
That time, a German wanted to invest in our coconut oil and wanted to find Filipino contacts in Southern Luzon and my dad was approached.
The main Filipino contact later got in trouble in the senate for illegal rice importation from India, I forgot his name,but I recalled he got detained in the senate for clamming up.I was told that he was an Enrile fall guy.
I asked my dad to be careful with these smooth operators.
Even ond close to my dad had wild dreams and got nothing, he wanted to propose a cargo rail system, he just said that some will fund it, and he even wants it approved right away,but Secretary Abaya just would not touch it because of the no unsolicited proposal policy.
Not content with an 80 percent Zombieland, Alvarez wants to rush it so the entire land is populated with zombies. It is good that Nene Pimentel — from Mindanao, former Senate President and father of the current Senate President — speaks as he does and perhaps embolden some of the other Senators to speak in similar tone.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/962148/nene-pimentel-do-not-rush-cha-cha-do-not-threaten
*******
With his recent empty threats, Alvarez is looking foolish and exposed.
*****
YES. And he has lots of comrades similarly foolish. The behavior is probably intentional — it makes the Boss sound better in comparison. But is he bright enough to do that?
While we are discussing zombies — and I am not talking only of the Filipino kind — here is great news. It is only the start, but science again may be of help in determining who have damaged brain paths to the prefrontal cortex that impairs cognition. Hurry up scientists/ techies!.
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/news/science/video-scientists-captured-a-single-thought-traveling-across-a-human-brain-from-start-to-finish/ar-AAuWjDv?li=AAb2fpp&ocid=spartandhp
Philippine Daily Inquirer Editorial: Feeling the pinch
http://opinion.inquirer.net/110430/feeling-the-pinch#ixzz54nSC6AgB
I too think TRAIn due to its coal tax will raise prices of many things, but Habito explains why not.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/109138/whos-afraid-coal-tax/amp
“A comment I saw in the social media sums it up: “Higher coal tax would mean higher electricity rates, higher production costs, higher prices, higher inflation rate….” Yes, and no. Any tax increase would of course raise certain costs. There is, after all, no such thing as a free lunch. The key question, though, is by how much? The fact is, it would hardly hurt to raise the coal tax up to P600 per ton, which would bring it to the level of carbon taxes already paid in other countries, while aligning it with our taxes on petroleum fuels.”
Habito on inflation.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/108602/how-bad-is-inflation
Thanks for the links, karl. The first suggests that tax on coal be aligned with those of the other fuels. But it seems that with the TRAIN vat increase all these other fuels will have increases too.
I note that the second link on inflation was written November 10, 2017 before the effect of TRAIN. Habito is credible to me. I would be glad of his assessment on inflation, especially as it hits the poor, say, 6 months or a year from now.
I don’t know if it was Habito or one of the other opinion writers of Inquirer, who wrote of the dire effect of the very poor nutrition of the poor on the mental ability of many Filipinos in the future. So if TRAIN brings inflation in its wake, there has to be mitigating measures for the poor.
He wrote one about under-nutrition.
https://www.google.com.ph/amp/opinion.inquirer.net/97099/silent-crisis-midst/amp
And updated it a year later.
https://www.google.com.ph/amp/opinion.inquirer.net/106889/demographic-time-bomb/amp
Stunted growth means our PBA centers will be 6 foot two.
Say goodbye to basketball.
Thanks again for the links.
Mareng Winnie also a former NEDA chief labeled Train as anti-poor.
Here is one response.
http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=a-response-to-winnie-monsod&id=146919
Ok, so there is still TRAIN Part 2 and, hopefully, that may include corrective or mitigating items to TRAIN Part 1.
Hopefully.
Is TRAIN anti-poor pro-rich? Is it pro-poor anti-rich pro-corporate? Aha! Ha! Ha! That is why I hate politics. They can say anything they want. In the end nobody knows the result. If it succeeds, if it fails those that are pro and against would be scrambling to write their scholarly epilogue in defense or thump their chest. I was wrong because … I was right because …
They can fool the zombies and lunatics but they cannot fool me BECAUSE I ONLY WAIT FOR THE RESULTS before I make a comment.
Consumer Price Index and what goods and services cost must be monitored for different income groups over the years. Karl might know where such vital statistics 36-24-36 exist.
Curvy is the new sexy.
karl, I hope Joe lets this through. If I recall my younger days, the rule seems to be 34-24-34, a 10 point difference, but Irineo and you know your curves with Irineo posting 36-24-36 — curvy statistics indeed. But back to chemrock’s blog topic.
I like the middle one! 😉
More on that hour glass figure. It has something to do with fertlity.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10927-the-hourglass-figure-is-truly-timeless/
The fertlity part explained.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4953-barbie-shaped-women-more-fertile/
“In some African cultures, being fat is a symbol of good life and wealth. In parts of Mauritania and Nigeria, girls and soon-to-be-brides are force-fed to make them plump and attractive. Increasingly, there is pressure on women and young girls to look as thin as fashion models, even if their men say they prefer… “
http://www.marieclaire.com/politics/news/a3513/forcefeeding-in-mauritania/
Almost like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras , karl. Have you ever had this dish? It’s in the news here lately, as animal abuse, and all the fine dining establishments are fighting back, LOL!
If ever I ate one, I never bothered where it came from. or how they died. Btw, thanks again for the food for thought.
Axiom: women with hour-glass-figures cannot be zombies. Hahaha.
Hahaha : You are always good with Axioms.
Not sure why the following comment is not posting after three or four tries, whether the content is objectionable or something in the text is tagging it as troll spam.
It may appear that Filipinos as a whole can be characterized as zombies unable to discern the looming catastrophe about to envelop them. Perhaps it may be more accurate to say it is the lack of caring for much anything except for their own self-interest or survival that explains the zombielike or lemming-like behavior as they careen towards the precipice. I think it would be a mistake to ascribe this behavior to financial desperation as the global recovery lifts the Philippine and others into an economic boom. Neither is it a class war between the elites and the masses as the credible surveys continue to show the rich, powerful, the masses and the poor widely support and trust the Duterte regime as reprehensible as it’s respect for the law, democracy and human rights has been. I think it is a mistake to ascribe the behavior as a failure of the independent press to inform or convince the masses that this popular support and trust is misplaced. There is a deep and unclear malaise that grips Filipinos as a whole that led to Duterte’s rise to power and a willingness to follow him into a draconian dictatorship. Obviously, the messages and messaging from Rappler and the remaining independent news and opinion media will not take root with an unreceptive public. Here in the US, there is much hope since the same malaise is not as deep-rooted or widespread. Public support for Trump and his policies or lack of it are steadily eroding. In comparing the US and Philippine situations, the difference is that between approaching dawn and deepening dusk as Filipinos as a whole appear ready to accept a constitutional change that will perpetuate a legal dictatorship.If something must be done to detail or delay this catastrophe, it must start by stopping the shuttering of a strong, free, and independent press to present uncompromised news and views, even to an unreceptive public.
“Lack of caring for much anything except for their own self-interest or survival”.. Yes.
Add to that a lack of foresight, as what does not concern me today – may hit me tomorrow.
A real Enlightenment, getting out of the Middle Ages, never truly took place over there.
Someone whose mindset is Dark Ages – (c) Mar Roxas about Duterte – fits the mindset.
Short spates of Enlightenment late 19th century, also in Quezon’s 1930s, then neglect.
Men in their 70s like sonny, Edgar, NHerrera caught more parts of the enlightened mindset.
Millenials and the post-86 generation see something out there but often grope in the dark.
IT IS PHILIPPINE PRESS FAULT !
Duterte’s supporters requires reverse psychology. If the Philippine Press do not publish Duterte EJKs, Duterte supporters would think Duterte chickened out to support RULE-OF-LAW that will endanger their lives from Drug Addicts who are freed to roam to commit crimes against humanity.
The so-called intelligentsia think the more Philippine Press publish Duterte’s kills the more his supporters get riled up. NO! NO! NO! The opposite happens. THE MORE ZOMBIES SUPPORT HIM!!!
KILL? OR NO-KILL? PUBLISH OR NOT? THAT IS A HUGE HEADACHE.
The so-called intelligentsia should quicken their prosecution to give it an appearance of JUSTICE. Hire plenty of typists to write stories in Affidavit form.
ANYWAYS, AFFIDAVIT IS AKIN TO EJK !!! The intelligentsia just do not know it because they are not really intelligent. They are just part of the problem.
MY ADVICE TO IRRESPONSIBLE INUTILE PHILIPPINE PRESS …
… so Filipino zombies and lunatics may know the Philippine Press should assign journalists to cover sentencing in Philippine courtrooms … instead of covering celebrities … THE FILIPINOS REALLY DO NOT KNOW IF JUSTICE WAS METED OUT … that is why they prefer Duterte killings because it is in the front pages BIG BLACK AND BOLD letters.
That also go out to you RAPPLER !!!
yes. people need to see that crime is punished. For example I read in the Munich press recently that the Darknet arms dealer who sold a 9 mm Glock to a teen who went on a shooting spree in a McDonald in July 2016 just got 7 years for abetting a crime.
If people don’t trust the system to protect them anymore, fear makes them think crazy. Yellow ignored the drug/safety issue during campaign instead of confronting it head-on. Could be a lot of people felt ignored or bullshitted and gave their votes in anger, maybe?
http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2018/01/21/duterte-sara-fail-to-declare-p100m-investments-documents-show/ – this seems to be major stuff… in any case I hope all back home are prepared.
Anything is possible now including a quick crackdown to put the lid on uncomfortable truths – unless of course there is such confidence in the 80% that trolls will be given overtime pay.
Bong Go and the navy deal to be investigated in the Senate also can heat up matters.
Reversing a worldwide phenomenon or trend — however the scale — toward zombification [In North Korea, it is 101 percent]
Rationality plus realpolitik may yet prevail in your adopted country, Irineo.
German political deadlock ends as SPD votes for coalition talks with Merkel — By Judith Vonberg, CNN (Updated 1821 GMT January 21, 2018)
http://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/21/europe/german-political-deadlock-ends-intl/index.html
(I note in this regard that many a philosopher comes from that part of the world — Germany/ Prussia)