Goo Goo Ga-Go

“Wang-wang” is infantile baby talk. And no grown up – least of all a freshly minted President addressing his nation for the first time from the country’s highest office – should be caught dead saying it out loud.

You have to give the folksy put-on a rest. It was unavoidable during the campaign (though no less inexcusable) but that’s done now. You won. And your job is no longer to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Your job is to raise it.*

And for God’s sake, please try to honor your office with the dignity it deserves. You’re not a guest on one of your sister’s shows.

* With apologies to Aaron Sorkin

Get Over It

Such disappointment and disenchantment among the Pinoy Twitterati post election: lack of transparency, a better way to do this, an uninformed masa, a broken democracy, yadda yadda. To be fair, they all seem to be trying their best not to be too overtly bitter. But to anyone who can read between the lines, these guys are kinda embarrassing themselves. Mostly because they wouldn’t be whistling this tune if their candidate had won, now would they? No, they’d be proud Pinoys, ready to stand tall behind our flag, to shout from their twitter stream that Pinoys rule and our democracy rocks!

Here’s the sad part, guys, you were right the first time. There was a distressing lack of transparency. The political system is so broken and fixing it would lead to a better way of doing this. The masses still think it’s a popularity contest (Good God, Erap?! Again?!).  None of that equals a working democracy.

But in your frustration and disappointment you’re forgetting that this is so goddamned much better than what we had in the 60’s and 70’s with Marcos. So much safer and productive than what we have even now in Maguindanao — where resistance, where providing a choice, where even thinking of exercising a right to choose equals a shallow anonymous grave. You’re failing to appreciate that with martial law just a few short decades ago, and the Ampatuan massacre only half a year ago, the recent relatively uneventful elections (absolutely boring, actually) *is* something to flood your social networks about.

So get your heads out of your asses and accept defeat with the same grace and composure that most of your candidates did. We’re nowhere near the Hollywood/West Wing ending a Gibo win would have us celebrate, but this has got to be considered progress pa rin.

Unapologetic

While Manolo may have shown uncommon class by being willing to publish an apology, he really didn’t have to. And absolutely shouldn’t have. In fact, I think of him significantly less for having done so.

People didn’t get it. And all the crap they started throwing around was misplaced, uninformed and betrayed a nation-wide sense of shame at being associated with domestic help. This was borne of classism. Nanaman. His Facebook status ostensibly, partly called everyone out on that. And that was fantastic. And his apology dug us deeper into this intellectual, class-conscious entrenchment we should be dragging our asses out of. And that was terrible.

Apparently crab mentality is also at work on opinions which dare be better than the status quo. How tragic.

Mother Dear pointed out in an email discussion on this subject that there is no ‘satire’ in the Filipino language. Sure. But that doesn’t mean pinoys can’t appreciate this form of humor. What was Leo doing all those years as Atorni Manikmanaog? And countless others before him? Sure, a good chunk of the population probably just saw the antics, but there had to have been those who saw — and got — what he was doing.

Seriously. Honestly. Pinoys, so proud of their own being featured on the international stage — whether singing, dancing, beating the shit out of someone else, or just being very good at their jobs — so hungry for the attention, so yearning for recognition. But so unwilling to be made fun of? So delicate in sensibility that boycots and protests erupt at any joke at their expense? That they don’t even get?

The nation’s gotta grow up. And the blogging intellihencia can’t be kowtowing to popular opinion when it’s this ridiculously wrong. These people aren’t defending the disenfranchised or downtrodden DHs. They’re really just showing the world how ashamed they are of them and their association.

Unindignant

Cannot believe all this righteous indignation over the Tsao article. Or the absolute idiocy in the comments on posts that actually make sense on the subject.

This is as embarrassing as that time when the Daily Show made fun of Cory and the frickin’ nation demanded an apology. (That we actually got it only added to the embarrassment.)

If anyone overtly made fun of the Philippines and called us a Nation of Call Center Operators (which, really, is as DH as you can get in the IT industry) I can’t imagine everyone getting this upset over it. Hell, they’d probably make a ‘Go Philippines’ campaign out of it or something.

Never mind that he actually wasn’t making fun of us!

So why not maids? One of our top exports? So ingrained in popular culture that it’s talked about on Wisteria Lane? Why not show pinoys and pinays who serve in the international DH industry the same national pride and support showered on a thug whose only claim to fame is that he can beat the shit out of people in his weight class?

Oh, and those comparisons to Malu Fernandez? Oh-my-fucking-Gah! Those have got to stop. One, they’re elevating that absolute vacuum of talent and skill to the level of someone who has a decent grasp on the concept of satire, and, two, they’re proving her right all along in that we can’t appreciate this kind of humor in writing. Now those are much bigger crimes than anything Tsao committed with his piece.

So Young, Sold Out

Got caught up in stuartsantiago’s chagrin over the idea of Charice Pempengco singing “God Bless America”. Smoke got it right, wrong on so many levels was exactly what this was.

Unlike mother-dear, I’m actually a fan of this young girl’s talent (her cringe-worthy mic-tossing stage antics, not so much). But she was on an international stage, representing Pinoys and ‘Pinas — our talent, values, aspirations — by virtue of her nationality. And to have her stand there and sing, “… America, the land that I love… America, my home sweet home…” was just… disappointing.

It isn’t that only Americans should sing this song, it’s that non-Americans shouldn’t want to.

And if this was “just a song” and it was just about singing it amazingly well and not at all about its sentiment, then this artist betrays a disappointing shallowness. Her “soul” nothing more than a put on.

And if this was just about her personal agenda (be it green card or international singing career) and she had absolutely no interest in representing her country on any level, then more power to her (I guess). But, please, let’s not celebrate her. And let’s not call the likes of Rom a “crab” for calling her on it.

Nothing to see here…

… at least not yet.

Move along for now. I recommend:

• stuartsantiago
• RadicalChick
• Smoke
• Indolent Indio
  
• Manuel L. Quezon III
• and, sige na nga, Filipino Voices