blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The latest news to hit the on-line blurbs is the hostage taking of 26 day care kids and their teachers who were to go to Tagaytay for a field trip. These kids come from a Parola, Tondo Day Care in one of the more poorer districts of Manila. The hostage taker actually runs the day care. Armando Ducat, Jr and an accomplice took the bus they were riding hostage. The two men were armed with an Uzi and grenades. Ducat according to the press has been involved in publicity stunts before. Now one wonders if Ducat was mad His demands about corruption in government and government's neglect of the poor's welfare seem decent enough. In fact I myself have the same demands. But I would never take a bus full of 5-6 yr olds hostage. Obviously an event like this would create international headlines. It was in Latin America where this piece of news really made the region's headlines. What stumped readers all over the world is the reaction of the Pinoy public. The public considers Ducat a s...

The Lithuanian parliament recently refused accreditation to Mr Liutauras Ulevicius who writes a blog about Lithuanian politics. Without accreditation, Mr Ulevicius won't be able to attend press conferences or be able to cover parliament's business. The Parliament says that bloggers don't meet the legal definition of journalists. Mr Ulevicius plans to contest this ruling in court since he believes his right to free expression has been curtailed. This is just one instance by which the law has failed to catch up with the information revolution. Blogs may beat the presses for the news. Blogs may give balanced and timely news and commentary. And anyone can be a blogger. One need not go to journalism school. And this is probably why the Lithuanian parliament won't accredit bloggers. Lithuania's Media Law says "The Media Law describes a journalist as a person who collects, disseminates and provides information to the media, based on a contract with the media, or who...

The news from home is not surprising but disturbing. Nineteen (19%) of the Philippine population is considered food insecure. Social scientists prefer to use the term food security in looking at hunger and malnutrition. The definition of food security differs from country to country but in general to be food secure means a person is able to obtain nutritious, adequate and safe food in socially acceptable ways. I really don't know why it takes a national election to bring this problem to the attention of the ruling elite. Despite President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's mantra that the economy is strong in its fundamentals, the latest 19% food insecure statistic blots whatever political, economic and social gains the Arroyo administration has made. In 2001, the food insecurity rate was just 15%. In the time that Arroyo has been President, there has been a 4% rise if the latest stats are to be believed. Of course one can say that even in the USA there is food insecurity. about 35 mill...

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco recently announced from the Governor's Mansion that she won't run again in this year's gubernatorial elections. Of course I would be long gone from this state when that happens but still I can follow the news through the internet. But why did Madame Blanco decide to quit the race? Another lady, quite nasty did in her political career. In 2005 Katrina the hurricane destroyed parts of this state especially hard hit was New Orleans. From the several books I've read on the event and conversations with locals, the state was simply overwhelmed. The Federal response was slow since in this kind of system of government, the state has to request the Federal government to assist, especially about Federalizing the National Guard, which is under the Governor. Of course the Federal government won't intrude into the functions and powers of the states. If the Louisiana National Guard was placed under Federal control, US law prevents...

Depending on the style of prose, history books are fun in the past two weeks, I borrowed books on the medieval age. From the library, I borrowed books on the Crusades. Christopher Tyerman's God's war : a new history of the Crusades is the latest opus (1023 pages) on the subject. The book has a new view on the significance of the crusades on the West, now that it has to face the challenge of Islamic militancy. The new interpretations shoot down the post-colonial view that the Crusades were Europe's first colonial enterprise. Post WWII Crusade historiography downplayed the religious impulse that drove this movement. Tyerman's book is a literal and academic heavy read. Robert Payne's "The Dream and the Tomb" is a more novel-like treatment of history. Payne's historical works include biographies of Stalin. Mussolini and Hitler as well as histories of Islam and the medieval Catholic Church . His Hitler biography is acclaimed. You may ask why Payne ...

The overseas Pinoy can get news from inang bayan (homeland) through various means. When my parents were studying or assigned overseas in the late 50s to the early 60s, news came in through the post, via letters. By then there was a thing called airmail and letters took a week or so to get there. But a mere 30 years back, my grandparents (who were then in a US college) got their mail from steamers. It took more than a month for letters to get there. Newspapers? Yes one could buy them on street corner news stands or news agents. But to get your news from home my dad once told me, one needed to go to one's country's embassy or consulate, which always had the papers from albeit a week or more late. This was during a time when terrorist threats were far off into the future and information was one of a diplomatic mission's function. These embassy reading rooms served coffee and served an important social function for expats. My dad has a photo of himself reading the Manila Times...

Next year's US Presidential election promises to be a historic event. The race is characterized by several firsts; Hillary Clinton as First Woman candidate and First First Lady to run (Not even Imelda Marcos had the chance to run for president although there were plans for her to assume the post from Ferdie!), Barack Obama as First Black, Rudy Giuliani as First Italian, John McCain as First Over 70 and Mitt Romney as First Mormon. Twenty years ago such diversity would have been unheard of. Thus even after JFK's tragic presidency, having a non- white or non -Protestant as president would be unlikely, even so a Mormon one. As recently as three years back, an American lady once told me that Americans would rather have an African-American than a woman as president. Now these don't matter. America is more diverse now than before. According to USA Today , just 1 in 10 wouldn't vote for a woman and 1 in 20 wouldn't vote for a black. Though these results show sign...

Now that I am in a change of decade (I just turned 40 on March 9), let me blog about some new findings in the exciting world of education about being young. New studies that link health, aging and education have suggested that people who go back to school in their late 30s to early 40s get healthier and seem to slow down the passage of the years. The educational researchers and the medical researchers aren't saying to postpone college until when you are in your forties, what they are saying is that even enrolling in non-formal courses or short term certificate courses may give a health advantage. Today some US colleges make a heap of money conducting "college for a day" courses (Some do give academic credit). They cater to people who still want to learn. It is probable that learning decreases stress of the rat race. Most people build their careers and fortune in their mid 20s to mid 30s. In some careers the pressure is intense that some people do get heart attacks in thei...

I'm not a health professional but I have been closely following the tale of the thousands of board passers of the June 2006 Philippine nursing licensure exams. Since the results came out alleged leakages of test questions were made by some nursing professionals. It seems that there is enough evidence of cheating to warrant the filing of charges against certain individuals. The Professional Regulatory Commission delayed the nurses' oath taking but eventually given them licenses. Since many of the nurses would want to work in the USA, they would have to pass through American professional regulation requirements as well as immigration requirements. The US Federal Government contracts the CGFNS to screen applicants before immigration goes over their applications. This is the VisaScreen certificate that organization gives to qualified nurses. Because of the cheating allegations CGFNS believes it cannot give VisaScreens to Filipino nurses who passed the June exams. The CGFNS believe...

Discovery Channel broadcast last night the world premiere of the James Cameron directed documentary "Lost Tomb of Jesus". The program obviously would generate controversy since it appears to challenge the most basic of Christian beliefs that Jesus was crucified, died and was buried and on the third day rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Discovery channel got more than 10K comments on their website forum within 2 hours. The title is a misnomer. Jesus tomb isn't lost. It's in Jerusalem and Christian tradition says its where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is now. What we don't know is what ever happened to the people closest to Jesus, like Mary Magdalene, Joseph, Mary etc. The producers claim that they have found members of Jesus' family. The ossuaries apparently have the names of Jesus, Mary, Jeshua, Joseph and Mariamne. Scholars may debate on whether these names are common or not in 32 AD Israel but it sure does raise some questions. A DNA forensi...

I am in the midst of a lively email exchange with Professor Flor Lacanilao of UP, former Chancellor of the UP in the Visayas and chief of SEAFDEC in Tigbauan in the late 1980s. Prof Laca as students call him, is frank about his assessment of science in the country. He essentially says that even with a lot of good intentions and support, science has barely advanced in the country.This apparently has ruffled some feathers. The Philippines has long recognised the importance of science in national development. We have seen an increasing level of support from government, international agencies and from the private sector. These organisations have been supporting scholarships, laboratory upgrading and improving science teaching in our colleges and universities. But if the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Commission of Higher Education (CHEd) has spent millions of pesos, why does Prof Laca say that our science is basically back where we started? Scientific advancement is...

The Baton Rouge blurb "The Advocate" carried an op ed piece on librarians being held in jail in Fidel Castro's Cuba. Librarians in jail? Surely we have heard about journalists in jail, political prisoners, academics, artists, scientists, writers etc in jail. They have been for the most part jailed due to their opposition to a tyrannical regime. They express what they think is the truth about the situation in their countries and for that, they are imprisoned. They are truly "prisoners of conscience". But librarians are given custody of the books that these "prisoners of conscience" wrote. A librarian may or may not subscribe to the writer's ideology. In fact a librarian cannot be expected to read all the books in his/her library! So why are librarians jailed in Cuba? It seems that the these librarians refused to implement government orders to have "subversive books" in their libraries burned. Generations of literate people have likened ...

Americans recognize that their Supreme Court (SC) has great influence in their daily lives. Although most would not be able to name a Supreme Court decision that affects daily life, people know that these decisions define the limits and scope of their liberties and that of the Federal and state governments. Americans call the SC justices "supremes". They are members of the only branch of government that is not elected and have no term limits. The Chief Justice can serve for life. I bought a book entitled "Supremes Greatest Hits" by Michael Trachtman which is not about Diana Ross and cabal but the 34 SC decisions that have changed American society. Since the Philippines Supreme Court borrows from US jurisprudence, some of these decisions affect Philippine society too. Filipinos look to their SC as the court of final appeal and guardian of the constitution. The Marbury vs. Madison (1803) decision established that the SC is really supreme in the sense that it has the r...

I have lugged and shipped balikbayan boxes from three different places in the world. In Bermuda, I sent one by sea to the Philippines. My Aussie balibayan boxes had an orange kangaroo on the sides and was shipped via Qantas freight and the one I shipped from Japan had my name in Romaji and Katakana. Looks like I have to start packing one from the USA and fill it with books that the Delaware Museum gave me for free. Nonetheless, I really have a lot of books now and I have to find ways to ship it by mid-March. If you have a utilitarian philosophy, the boxes are mere objects with a function and that is to contain stuff to be sent home. But the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines have imbued the boxes with another meaning. Whereas before balikbayan boxes contained goodies from friends and relatives that can't be had in the import substituted Philippine economy, the Catholic bishops have now made it an icon of survival. Why the change in attributes? In the globalized world economy anyt...

Let the good times roll! I just came from New Orleans with the LSU biochem lab to watch the climax of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday. In medieval Europe especially in France, fasting began on Ash Wednesday. The day before is the last time people could feast, eat meat especially pork and hence the day is known as Fat Tuesday or in French "Mardi Gras". In England and the Commonwealth, the day is known Shrove Tuesday. In Pre-Reformation England, the English used to "shrive" or go to confession on that day and eat pancakes. Another name for this day is Pancake Tuesday. In the Philippines, we don't have a celebration on this day. Our Mardi Gras are really celebrated for the feast of the Holy Child, so we have Sinulog, Dinagyang and their variants. Iberian Catholicism frowned on excess and emphasized penance unlike its Gallic counterpart. But according to historian Ambeth Ocampo, Manila had a carnival on Mardi Gras and this was controversial at times since some of the activi...

Professor Randy David's latest piece in the Philippine Daily Inquirer looks at the murders of leftist student activists in the Philippines and the apparent lack of response or even at the least indignation among students. Whereas if these killings had happened in the late 1960s or early 1980s, Prof David says that this would have incited a nationwide student revolt. Having come into adulthood in the mid 1980s I can give some observations why there is very little militant response. My generation came to adulthood at the time when Marxist-Leninism had obviously become discredited. At the end of the Cold War we saw in quick succession the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then in 1989 the Tiananmen student revolt's was crushed by the Chinese army that was supposed to ensure the nation's liberation. Two images come into mind, the lone man who stopped the tank and the socialist-realist "Goddess of Democracy"sculpture What Professor David fa...

Pinoys complain about corruption or "kuarkot" in Filipino; in government and due to desperation some believe that in other countries there is no "kurakot". As a Pinoy who has traveled and lived overseas, I hate to say this but there is kurakot everywhere. The latest National Geographic Magazine (NGM) has a feature on Nigeria's oil and the political unrest it has spawned. This hits home to all Pinoys overseas and homebodies since not a few of our professionals working in that country had been kidnapped. The abductors are part of the insurgency movement that the NGM features. In Nigeria, 50 years of oil revenue has not a bit improved the lives of Nigerians in the oil producing regions. The end result is environmental damage and political unrest. The oil gobbling world would rather look another way. Nigerian light is the world's best. (Shades of beer?) Corruption is also a big issue in Louisiana. Many Americans believe that this US state is the most corrupt in...

In http://www.baratillo.net there is a link to an interesting feature predicting the loss if libraries and books go the way of the dinosaurs. Since many of us are so dependent on the internet for information, we might think libraries and the books that are found in them will be obsolete. The feature writer lists 33 reasons why the library will remain. The 33 reasons appeal to practicality and barely to pleasure. But as early as 1946, Nobel Literature laureate John Steinbeck bravely predicted that the book would prevail. In his essay "Some Random and Randy Thought about Books", Steinbeck lists down the pleasurable reasons why we like books. The erotic analogy was obvious, for the writer actually bares him/herself in his book and the reader has to uncover the writer who exists in the pages through the characters. Perhaps that is why the aphorism "books are alive" is apt. And this is the reason why when someone burns a book, it is like killing a person. Book burn...

While some members of the Pinoy elite lament the decline of English competency among Filipinos, I recently read a feature article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on-line about Asians graduating from Australian universities with bad English! The article does not place Filipinos among the Asians who graduate with poor English skills. Top on the list are South Koreans, followed by the Thais, Nepalese, Taiwanese and Chinese. Japanese students are midway on the list and suprisingly, citizens of former British colonies like India and Singapore (who have aggressive government sponsored promotion of the English language) are also on the list. I suppose Australia's regulators of educational institutions (such as the Vice Chancellors Committee) were rocked by the report. The Education Minister Julia Bishop was very concerned. I did my degree in Australia and I know it for a fact that a month or two before the semester starts, overseas students are required to take English courses. Dependi...

It is no secret that there are a lot of Filipinos working or studying in academe overseas. Many decided to do their graduate or postgraduate degrees in the USA, European Union, Canada, Australia and even in more technologically advanced Asian countries like Japan or Singapore and more recently, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The reasons for attending colleges and universities in these countries is as varied as the students themselves. Some won scholarships, either government sponsored or private scholarships. Some also won assistanceships or tutorships which provide fee waivers and an allowance although that does not allow a luxurious lifestyle. Those who come from affluent families were able to support their studies through dad or mom's "scholarship". I know of a few people who took out loans to do an MBA in the US or Australia. As this was a loan, they have to pay it back. The only way to do so is to find a job overseas. The investment in studying abroad is so b...