blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Gays are accepted in the Philippines. Although gays may be discriminated, I believe that this is not like the discrimination practiced in other countries. Gays are discriminated in this country in that they are pigeonholed to careers society believe is ONLY suitable for gays, e.g. the beauty and hairstyling businesses etc. But gays have begun to be aware of their rights. Gays work with, stand for basic human values and go to school with non-gays. I am not inclined to use the word “Straight” for non-gays since that would imply gays are “crooked”. Gays are not crooked. It is more likely that there are gay crooks and non-gay crooks and being crooked has no relation to sexual orientation at all. Perhaps the most recent test of gay tolerance among the non-gay population (at least the movie watching kind) is to watch “Brokeback Mountain”. At the cinema, I noticed that there are few men or women watching the movie alone. Most men came with the wives or girlfriends and the women came with othe...

Muslim protests over the cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers may have lessons for us all, especially on the limits of freedom of expression, the press and religious practice and tolerance. These liberties have limits but if these offend sensibilities not of the majority but of a minority, where is the limit? We may have to really define limits of religious expression and press freedom with respect to religion. But in order to understand the Muslim sense of outrage over the cartoons, we have to first understand why Islam frowns upon depicting people as images. It is too simplistic to say that the Prophet may not be depicted in art. People and animals may not be depicted at all since Islamic tradition says this is an “invitation to idolatry”. The birth of Islam is in this context, the Prophet at first being rejected and persecuted by Meccans for preaching about the One unseen God and against the idolatry of the Meccans.   The West prides itself on se...

Ben’s EDSA 1986 The early and mid 1980s are signifcant for many of us, what fellow congener Jessica Zafra calls the Voltes V generation for these times coincided exactly with our entry to adulthood and political maturity (and of course the phenomenal rise of Japanese Anime). In 1983, we were junior high school students who were on a field trip for our mythology class. In this rather uneventful August 21st, we heard on the way back to Manila that Ninoy Aquino had been shot! Six years before, as grade three kids my Araling Panlipunan classroom teacher asked us if Ninoy Aquino was a bad man. The class responded “yes”. This was at the height of Martial Law. And our teacher said, “Oh my poor martial law babies”. But on that 21st of August, we knew who Ninoy Aquino was, but quite hazy on the freedom he was going to lay down his life for. And that was when the haze was lifted. Perhaps nothing in human history can jolt the conscience more than spilled human blood. We rage if blood is spilled i...