By Ed Lapiz Filipinos are brown. Their color is at the center of human racial strains. This point is not an attempt at racism, but just for many Filipinos to realize that our color should not be a source of or reason for an inferiority complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, white people are religiously tanning themselves, under the sun or artificial light, to approximate the Filipino complexion. Filipinos are a touching people. We have lots of love and are not afraid to show it. We almost inevitably create human chains with our perennial akbay (putting an arm around another's shoulder), hawak (hold), yakap (embrace), himas (caressing stroke), kalabit (touching with the tip of the finger), kalong (sitting on someone else's lap), etc. We are always reaching out, always seeking interconnection.
Noy's Speech Before the Makati Business Club this Week
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Here's Noy's speech at the Makati Business Club forum that was forwarded to me for friends and family who want to assess the Presidential candidates.
A PHILIPPINES THAT WORKS: ECONOMIC VISION AND PLATFORM Senator Benigno S. Aquino III
Officers and members of the Makati Business Club, Your Excellencies of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen, my friends and countrymen. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to address you. I trust your asking me first is not based on alphabetical order, or based on age, but perhaps, based on who you think will most likely win the coming election.
As managers, you recognize that one of the necessary skills of an effective manager is time management. Is it possible that you have invited me to determine if there is still a necessity to spend time with the others? Baka naman inuna niyo ako upang malaman kung sapat na ako at hindi na kailangang pansinin yung iba?
When I travel, people often ask me why I live in the Philippines ? Well here it is..... It is the only place on earth where......
1. Every street has a basketball court. 2. Even doctors, lawyers and engineers are unemployed. 3. Doctors study to become nurses for employment abroad. 4. Students pay more money than they will earn afterwards. 5. School is considered the second home and the mall considered the third. 6. Call-center employees earn more money than teachers and nurses. 7.. Everyone has his personal ghost story and superstition. 8.. Mountains like Makiling and Banahaw are considered holy places. 9. Everything can be forged. 10. All kinds of animals are edible. 11. Starbucks coffee is more expensive than gas. 12. Driving 4 kms can take as much as four hours. 13.. Flyovers bring you from the freeway to the side streets. 14. Crossing the street involves running for your dear life. 15. The personal computer is mainly used for games and Friendster. 16. Where colonial mentality is dishonestly denied! 17. Where 4 a.m. is not even considered bedtime yet. 18. People can pay to defy the law. 19. Everything and everyone is spoofed. 20. Where even the poverty-stricken get to wear Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger (peke)! 21. The honking of car horns is a way of life. 22. Being called a bum is never offensive. 23. Floodwaters take up more than 90 percent of the streets during the rainy season. 24. Where everyone has a relative abroad who keeps them alive. 25.. Where wearing your national colors make you baduy. 26. Where even the poverty-stricken have the latest cell phones.. (GSM-galing sa magnanakaw) 27. Where insurance does not work. 28. Where water can only be classified as tap and dirty. 29. Clean water is for sale (35 pesos per gallon). 30. Where the government makes the people pray for miracles. (Amen to that!) 31. Where University of the Philippines where all the weird people go.. 32. Ateneo is where all the nerds go. 33. La Salle is where all the Chinese go. 34.. College of Saint Benilde is where all the stupid Chinese go and; 35. University of Asia and the Pacific is where all the irrelevantly rich people go. 36. Fast food is a diet meal. 37. Traffic signs are merely suggestions, not regulations. 38. Where being mugged is normal and it happens to everyone. 39. Rodents are normal house pets. 40. The definition of traffic is the 'non-movement' of vehicles. 41. Where the fighter planes of the 1940s are used for military engagements and; 42. The new fighter planes are displayed in museums. 43. Where cigarettes and alcohol are a necessity, and where the lottery is a commodity. 44. Where soap operas tell the realities of life and where the news provides the drama. 45. Where actors make the rules and where politicians provide the entertainment.. 46. People can get away with stealing trillions of pesos but not a thousand. 47. Where being an hour late is still considered punctual (Grabe talaga 'to!) 48. Where the squatters have more to complain (even if they do not pay their tax) - than those employed and have their tax automatically deducted from their salaries. 49. And where everyone wants to leave the country!
Some of us are short of memory. Others were too young then. Perhaps the young ones weren’t born yet in and would not know the series of events leading to the imposition of martial rule on September 21, 1972 by the first despotic ruler of the country, Ferdinand Edralin Marcos. Of course, we hope no second one comes into being.
My beinga campus leader from Mapua Institute of Technology (MIT)and sincemy sophomore year, elected to various positions in the central student council and a writerfor the school paper, Ang Panday, was my baptism of fire in the long and protracted struggle essential to address the ills confronting Filipino society.
Mapua, located at the University Belt in Manila, then was a hotbed of student unrests due to what we believed was commercialized education. Tuition fees kept coming up and was hard for most of the students and their parents.
Meron akong gustong ibahagi para sa ating lahat na mga PILIPINO. Simple pero parang mahirap gawin ng karamihan sa atin. Hindi ito makukuha sa puro daldalan lang or walang kabuluhang pagtatalo, kumilos tayo ngayon na.
Sa ibang bansa: Pag nagkasala ang Pinoy, pinarusahan siya ayon sa batas.
Sa PINAS: Pag nagkasala ang Pinoy, ayaw niyang maparusahan kasi sabi niya mali raw ang batas.
Sa ibang bansa: Pinag-aaralan muna ng Pinoy ang mga batas bago siya pumunta roon, kasi takot siyang magkamali.
Sa PINAS: Pag nagkamali ang Pinoy, sorry kasi hindi raw niya alam na labag sa batas iyon.
Adik talaga ako sa pelikulang Pilipino. As in. Sa kakapanood ko , naisip ko, ano ang common factor sa lahat ng pelikulang Pilipino ( bukod sa syempre Pilipino ang salita ha)?
Maiiba ang tema, maiiba ang bida, pero yung alalay, laging yon ang stereotype. Yung nagpapatawa, yung gumagawa ng paraan para maligtas ang bida.Kadalasan , siya din ang namamatay.
Nagkakatuluyan ang bida at ang leading lady, tapos yung sidekick, andon sa tabi. Pa cheer cheer, pa sayaw sayaw.
Syempre, hindi sila bida material, kaya pang supporting lang sila.
Pero pag naisip natin, bakit nga ba laging may sidekick? Laging may alalay? Siguro kasi, pano na kaya kung solo ang bida? Malamang, naloka na yon sa kakaemote. Or namatay na yon kasi walang magliligtas sa kanya.
Governor Padaca's speech at the 2009 PMAAAI Convention Wednesday, 1 April, 2009
GOOD MORNING, EVERYONE. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE HONOR OF SPEAKING BEFORE YOU TODAY.
I KNOW HOW SPECIAL PMAers ARE. WHEN I WAS STILL A RADIO BROADCASTER, INTERVIEWED A LOT OF YOU, FROM THE AFP, THE PNP, THE AIR FORCE – FROM LIEUTENANTS TO GENERALS, FROM SCOUT RANGERS TO REBEL SOLDIERS. I COVERED THE VISITS TO THE 5TH ID IN CAMP UPI , GAMU, ISABELA OF MANY CHIEFS OF STAFF AND ARMY CHIEFS.
I CONCEPTUALIZED AND HOSTED A PROGRAM CALLED HINDI TRABAHO ITO, PERSONALAN LANG, THAT FEATURED THE OTHER SIDE OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, MILITARY AND CIVILIAN, PARA MALAMAN DIN NG MGA LISTENERS NAMIN ANG PERSONAL SIDE NG MGA OPISYAL, SO THAT THEIR MORE HUMANE AND SOFT SIDE ARE DISCOVERED.
By Nikko Dizon Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 14:22:00 03/22/2009
MANILA, Philippines – They have yet to find a name for themselves but a group of private organizations and individuals, including activist priest Father Robert Reyes, launched on Sunday, a movement to urge Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio and Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca to run for the two highest elective posts in the 2010 elections.
Reyes said in a press conference that he and his companions were being "imaginative" with the Panlilio-Padaca tandem.
"We are dreaming with our eyes open," Reyes said, noting that the tandem will have to overcome the traditional politics that have been ruling the Philippine political landscape.
"We know the odds that we are up against," added lawyer Eirene Aguila, a member of the Kaya Natin! Movement (We Can! Movement)
Aguila has started to send an open letter via email inviting people to join the movement.
Aguila said the movement still had to decide as of Sunday who between Panlilio and Padaca could run for President and Vice President but both governors have been said to be open to the idea of running in the May 2010 national elections.
