September 11

THE BUTCHER RETIRES? Maj. General Jovito Palparan is scheduled to retire today. However, militant are no rejoicing yet. Palparan is set to take on a sit in the National Security Council.















TROOPERS. Five years after 9/11 the Philippines is still collaborating with US troops. This is supposed to be part of the "war on terror" American President Bush initiated.










RAGE! Members of the League of Filipino Students strongly condemns the killing of two of their member, Cris Hugo and Rei “Ambo” Guran. LFS is set to celebrate its 29th anniversary today.

Palakpakan

“There will be no pictures of you and Willie May pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run, or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance. NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32 or report from 29 districts. The revolution will not be televised.”

- sipi mula sa “The Revolution will not be Televised” ni Gil Scott-Heron


Tinaksil ng panahon ang mga anak ng Gutenberg. Kasabay ng labas ng unang libro ang pagkakalat ng kapangyarihan sa porma ng impormasyon. Karunungan. Kung gagamitin ang balangkas ng mga materyalista, ang panahon ng Gutenberg ang isa sa maraming ina ng burgesyang sumulpot sa Europa.

Nagtagumpay ang burgesya sa kanilang rebolusyon. Halimbawa na lamang ang rebolusyong Pranses. Sa pagkakataong ito, ang bagong uri, ang burgesya na ang may hawak ng kapangyarihan – politkal, ekonomiya, maging kultural.

Kung muling susundan ang balangkas ng mga materyalista, ang kasaysayan ay pinapagulong ng internal na kontradiksyon. Ang tanging mapagpasya salik ng mga kontradiksyon. Idagdag pa dito ang pahayag ni Mao. “Tao, hindi bala ang magpapanalo sa rebolusyon.” Kung ganito nga ang sitwasyon importante ang pormasyon ng ideya sa pagtatagumpay ng panglipunang pagbabago.

Natural lamang na pigilan ng burgesya ang rebolusyon. Tulad lang ng natural lamang sa mga api na magrebolusyon. Ito ay hubog ng kanilang kaganapan. Ang kaibhan lamang ay ang pagbubukas ng mga benyu para mapadaloy ang kapangyarihan.

Bagama’t hindi lubos o materyal na kalayaan. Sa pagkakataong ito malaki ang papel ng internet bilang ideological state apparatuses. Ano ang ipinapahiram na kapangyarihan ng internet, kahit ng blogging, sa mga nilalang na ang kapangyarihan lang ay tumunganga? Ibinukas nito ang ekonomiya ng kapangyarihan sa konteksto ng pag-aari ng mga ideya. Ani ni Rolando Fernandez, “democratized.”

Sa panahong ang mga boses ng mga gutom ay tinatapatan ng tingga, ang mga “maliliit” na subersyon ay lumalakas. Hanggang sa maipon ito, sinlakas ng isanlibong dagundong ng kulog.

Tangina mo! Ang daming nagugutom, fashionista ka pa rin!*

img%20src=" ? alt="Lourd" www.radioactivesago.com http:>

“…Nagwala sa piket line, kaya yun natanggal
Kaya kumuha na lamang siya ng
tarak-tarak na lata ng sardinas
At binutasan na lang kinabitan ng tansan
At dun ko nalaman ang ibig sabihin ng pagmamahal…”

Sa pagkakataong ito gusto kong pasalamatan ang mga tambay. Malaki ang importansya ng mga tambay sa paglikha ng mga malikhaing ideya. Ilang akda na din ang nabigyang buhay ng mga tambay. At masarap tumambay. Sabi nga “ang sarap maligaw sa mundong tulala.” Masarap tumulala. National past time.

Kung may major lang sana sa pagtunganga at may patutunguhang pagkakaperahan ang kursong ito, marahil ito na, at hindi mga DH at caregivers ang primaryang export ng Pilipinas. Sa pinapakitang importansya ng pagtunganga hindi ko lubos mapagtanto kung bakit hindi ito gawing kurso man lang. Kahit short course lang tulad ng sa TESDA.

Sa pagkakataong ito, gusto kong magpasalamat. Sa mga tanga. At lumpen. May silbi din tayo sa lipunan, ayon na rin kay Durkheim. May taong nananahimik. May taong bigla na lamang sumasabog. Tulad nung sa tren sa Spain. May mga nagsusuka sa daan. Mga nakarami ng inom. May holdaper. Sa lahat ng klase ng tao, ayoko sa mga holdaper. Lalo na ung mga small time. Ung tipong ice pick lang ang gamit. Ung kianakalawang pa. Marami sigurong holdaper sa Pilipinas. Ewan ko lang. Ilan na nga ba ang naholdap?

Pero isa lang ang sigurado. Maraming nagugutom sa Pilipinas. Kung si Dong ang tatanungin, maraming baboy. Ewan ko lang sa Makati. Sa Makati walang autoload at e-load. Ewan ko lang kung may karinderya. Puro prepaid cards at mini stop. Wala sigurong nagugutom sa Makati. Bawal magutom pag asa tabi ka ng mga buildings na magaganda. Pwedeng magtext. Ng kahit ano. Pero wala pa namang buhay na nasira sa pagtetext. Ewan ko lang. Wala pa naman akong nabalitaan. Siguro meron na nga. Pero hindi ko talaga nababalitaan.

Buti na lang di pa tayo pinababayaan ni Lourd.












*pasintabi sa Radioactive Sago Project

Missing the point

On July 3 ABS CBN News and Public Affairs decided to phase out Insider and replace it with the supposedly “groundbreaking innovation” Bandila.

The venture is a big risk, it being aired earlier (10:30 pm), simultaneously with entertainment programs of its main rival station. Of course, advertisers aim at programs with the most audience share. And news isn’t the televiewers’ priority.

Prior to ABS CBN’s brave attempt at Bandila, late-evening news programs have been airing at around midnight. In effect, news is sacrificed for entertainment. Beyond this attempt to prioritize informing the public not much has changed in ABS’s trivial approach to news.

Mainstream news is always geared to cover “big” events. Politicians, TV and movie stars and the occasional human drama stories. But the lenses of the TV camera have been missing points which do not include politicians, movie stars, even human drama. Most of the news do not fully reflect what is empirical, what is really happening. I have not heard of any station exposing the ongoing militarization in Central Luzon (care of Oplan Bantay Laya) nor the plight of displaced indigenous groups here in the Cordilleras.

Mianstream news program is already satisfied, even dwelling in the glory of these kind of development. Fundamental change has been absent from television news.

Prometheus unbound

I shall never exchange my fetters for slavish servility. Tis better to be chained to the rock than be bound to the services of Zeus.
Aeschylus, Promethues Bound

Mars shall glow tonight,
Artemis is out of sight.
Rust in the twilight sky
Colors a bloodshot eye,
Or shall I say that dust
Sunders the sleep of the just?

Hold fast to the gift of fire!
I am rage! I am wrath! I am ire!
The vulture sits on my rock,
Licks at the chains that mock
Emancipation’s breath,
Reeks of death, death, death.

Death shall not unclench me.
I am earth, wind and sea!
Kisses bestow on the brave
That defy the damp of the grave
And strike the chill hand of
Death with the flaming sword of love.

Orion sitrs. The vulture
Retreats from the hard, pure
Thrust of the spark that burns,
Unbounds, departs, returns
To pluck, out of death’s fist
A god who dared to resist.


This piece was published in Focus under the name of Ruben Cuevas (Jose Lacaba’s pen name then). The poem itself is an allegory of the events surrounding its publication.

It was the height of Martial Law, the dark age of the press. Any dissent is immediately silenced. The gist in Prometheus unbound isn’t in between the lines. Rather, the first letters of every line, when read vertically, says a lot of how Lacaba became Prometheus, the “god who dared to resist.” The regime eventually learned about the parody.

A famous writer of short stories concurred with the idea of the writer being granted with supernatural powers. The writer is god. Who else, but a literary genius like Lacaba, could find a way to steal fire and give it to the people. Who else could leave the late strongman puzzled but a literary god like Lacaba. Dissent demands energy and power only the god could confer.

But the writer is not god. He is only Prometheus, a potential giver of light and life. He is also, in more than one way, bounded by the gods. It is not the likes of Prometheus that the gods fear the most. It is man, the reader, the recipient of light.

Prometheus stole fire and bore the wrath of Zeus’s vultures. So must we, spread light and endure burning.

Fence sitting

The day after the Hacienda Luisita picket dispersal attempt (November 16, 2004) the Philippine Star carried the picture of a worker in the act of throwing something towards the dispersal units. On that same fateful day a baby, a year and three months old was suffocated to death by the thick chloroacetophenone from the tear gases thrown by the Northern Luzon Command and local police forces. As far as I know, no paper published that photo. No picture of that baby’s father being riddled with bullets as he runs towards his child’s murderers with just a bolo in his hand ever saw print.

Many may have already forgotten about the then famous picket. Then, media giants hounded the formerly unnoticed sugar land. And after much media hype, with the daughter of a former president even riding on the issue, the worker’s endeavors just disappeared from the pages. Of course, the occasional assassinations of picketers have earned some attention but that was it.

And like a murder of crows that had just finished feasting on its latest prospect, the media left.

But not all outfits acted like scavengers, hungry for a scoop or two. Some have already exposed the issue before hand. Some followed-up on the killings. Some never gave up on the issue, occasionally feeding us with updates on the case.

Is Philippine journalism all about sensationalism? Will it limit itself to just conservatively report the tragedies of a contradiction-ridden society?

Most people say that objectivity is something that a journalist should have. Fair and balanced reportage. What next? Objectivity is presenting accurate facts. Objectivity ends here. What’s next is up to the writer. The angle, the data presented is the subjectivity of the writer. This shows which side of the fence the so-called “objective” writer is in.

There are no fence sitters.

Introduksyon (sa mga posibilidad)

Nitong June 20, ay dalawa na namang mamamahayag ang pinaslang ng dalawang naka-motorsiklong lalaki. Bukod dito ay wala na akong maalala pang ibang detalye ng balita. Tila “normal” na ang ganitong pangyayari. Mahina ang isang mababalitang insidente sa isang linggo.
Hindi lang naman mga mamamahayag ang pinatatahimik. Daan-daan na din ang mga lider masa, taong simbahan at estudyanteng pinatay. Kung dito sa Kordilyera, si Markus Bangit, kilalang pangat ng Kalinga. Mga taong bokal na nagpapahayag ng pagbalikwas.
Ano nga ba ang kabayaran ng demokrasya? Ng kalayaang makapagpahayag ng opinyon? P 1,000,000.00?
Kung inaakala ng sinuman na sa ganitong paraan ay mapapatahimik ang pangangarug ng tiyan, ngayon pa lang ay nagkakamali na sila. Mukha mang walang kapangyarihan ay libo-libo pa rin ang posibilidad ng pagalagwa. At hindi ang mga nakamotorsiklong death squad ang magpapasya sa hinaharap. Sila ay simpleng footnote lamang.
Batay na rin sa kasaysayan ng 1896, tanging kolektibong pagkilos lamang ang makapagpapagalaw sa gulong ng kasaysayan.
Sabi nga ng introduksyon sa 24/7 walang panahon “Sa harap ng mapanlinlang na panahon, walang panahon para tumagibang. Walang panahon para sa pananahimik. Walang panahon para magpaumanhin. Sapagkat ang 24/7, lagi’t lagi, ay panahon ng pagpapasya.”
At ito ang aking napagpasyahan.
* para sa mga inagawan ng pagkakataong makapagpaalam