Archive for November, 2009
Maguindanao and the castration of Philippine Media power
During the 1968 anti-Vietnam War protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the protesters, faced with guns pointed at them and police goons ready to beat them to a pulp (many were, in fact, beaten) would point to the cameras and yell “THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING! THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING!” Implicit in [...]
Is the Philippines a “nation state”?
Maguindanao Massacre reveals the lie behind the Philippine “nation-state” The Maguindanao Massacre forces Filipinos to question the very basic premise of the Philippines as a “nation-state.” To apply that term to the Philippines, as it currently exists and operates, is to a disservice to the term as it is understood by and applied to other [...]
Filipino GAPI mentality and Efren Penaflorida
Almost like clockwork, the moment Efren Penaflorida was declared CNN’s Hero of the Year, fellow filipinos scrambled to try and topple him from the peak of Filipino media acclaim. Critics focused on the fact that the online voting was somehow skewed because of the perceived rampant vote mobilization in the Philippines. Others attributed his success [...]
Who is the real hero? Efren Penaflorida or Manny Pacquiao
Efren Penaflorida recently won CNN’s “Hero of the Year” award for his work with street children. We deeply admire and respect his efforts at bringing education and assistance to street children. Manny Pacquiao is often derided as not being a real hero because he “fights for money.” Depending on how you define “hero”, both these [...]
The Enduring Popularity of Wowowee
Wowowee is a noon-time television show airing in the Philippines on local television channel ABS-CBN, and it is also aired internationally through the network’s The Filipino Channel.