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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

"Open Letter to Our Leaders" by S.C. Austero

Originally posted in his blog, Out of my mind.

Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There:

I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos. I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and the choices I and many others have made. In other words, your concept of democracy is limited to having your rights and your freedoms respected, at the expense of ours.

I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we chose not to heed your calls to go to EDSA or to Fort Bonifacio not because we do not love our country or our freedoms or our rights, but precisely because we love our country even more. Because quite frankly, we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward. You may think that is not correct, you can tell me all the dire warnings about the evils of authoritarian rule, but quite frankly all we see is your pathetic efforts to prop up your cause. You tell me that you are simply protecting my freedoms and my rights, but who told you to do that? I assure you that when I feel that my rights and my freedoms are at a peril, I will stand up and fight for them myself.

You tell us that GMA is not the right person to lead this country because she has done immoral acts. As someone who sees immorality being committed wantonly in many ways every day and by everyone (yes, including the ones you do), I may have become jaded. But you have not been able to offer me any viable alternative, while GMA has bent over backwards many times to accommodate you while continuing to work hard despite all the obstacles and the brickbats you have thrown her way. From where I sit, she is the one who has been working really hard to move this country forward while all of you have been so busy with one and only one thing: to make sure she does not succeed. So forgive me if I do not want to join you in your moral pissing contest. Forgive me if I have chosen to see things from another perspective. You say she is the problem. I say, we are the problem, more to the point, I think you are a bigger problem than she is. Taking her out may solve part of the problem, but that leaves us with a bigger problem: you. That is right, YOU!

While I felt outraged that she called a Comelec official during the elections and that she may have rigged the elections, I have since then taken the higher moral ground and forgiven her. Yes my dear bishops, I have done what you have told me to do since I was a child, which you say is the Christian and moral thing to do: forgive. Especially since she has asked for forgiveness and has tried to make amends for it. Erap certainly has not apologized and continues to be defiant, continuing to insult us everyday with his protestations. Cory has not apologized for her incompetence but we have forgiven her just the same because like GMA, she has worked hard after all.

I know you do not think that GMA's apology was not enough, or that she was insincere, or that that apology should not be the end of it, but please spare me the hypocrisy of telling me that you do so for the sake of protecting the moral fibre of society. The real reason is because you smell blood and wants to go for the kill.

Well, I have news for you. I do not like her too. I did not even vote for her. I voted for Raul Roco. But as much as I do not like her, I do not like you even more. I may not trust her, but guess what, I do not trust you even more.

You know why? Because all you do is whine and sabotage this country. You belittle every little progress we make, conveniently forgetting that it is not just GMA who has been working so hard to achieve them. Every single day, we keep the faith burning in our hearts that this country will finally pull itself out of the mess and we work so hard to do that. Every little progress is the result of our collective effort, we who toil hard everyday in our jobs. Yet, you persist in one and only thing: making GMA look bad in the eyes of the world and making sure that this country continues to suffer to prove your sorry point. In the process, you continue to destroy what we painstakinly try to built. So please do not be surprised that I do not share your cause. Do not be surprised that we have become contemptuous of your antics. You have moved heaven and earth to destroy her credibility, you have convened all kinds of fora and hearings and all you have done is test our patience to the core. For all your effort, you have only succeeded in dragging us further down. I say enough.

Don't get me wrong. I am not asking that we take immorality lying down, or that we let the President get away with anything illegal. But you have tried to prove your accusations all these time and you have not succeeded, so it is time to let things be. Besides, you are doing something immoral as well if not utterly unforgivable. The Magdalo soldiers are consorting with the communists - the same people who have been trying to kill democracy for years. Cory has been consorting with Erap and the Marcoses.

So please wake up and take a reality check. In the absence of true and genuine moral leadership, many of us have decided to cast our lot with the President, even if we do not like her. A flawed leader is better than scheming power hungry fools who can not even stand up for their convictions in the face of an impending arrest.

Your coup attempts and the denials that you have consequently made only underscore what we think is true: you are spineless and unreliable people whose only defense is to cry suppression when your ruse do not work. You are like bullies who taunt and provoke, but cry oppression when taken to task for your cruelty.

I would have respected you if you took the consequences of your actions like real heroes: calmly and responsibly instead of kicking and screaming and making lame excuses. You say you are willing to die for us, that you do all these things for the country and the Filipino, but you are not even willing to go to jail for us.

Come on, you really think we believe that you did not want to bring down the government when that is the one and only thing you have been trying to do in the last many months?

We love this country and we want peace and progress. Many among us do not give a f*&k who sits at Malacanang because we will work hard and do our share to make things work. If you only do your jobs, the ones that we elected you to do, things would be a lot simpler and easier for every one.

The events during the weekend only proved one thing. You are more dangerous and a serious threat to this country than GMA is. We have seen what you are capable of doing - you are ready to burn this country and reduce everything to ashes just to prove your point. If there is something that we need protection from, it is protection from you.

Originally posted by S.C. Austero in his blog, Out of my mind.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The Simpsons, Live!





a live action version of the famous Simpsons opening

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Moneypenny Monday: Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon



Six Degrees of James Bond



Today is a special day for the movie world, so this Moneypenny Monday will be a double feature. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon were announced as the winners for Best Actor and Best Actress respectively in this morning's Academy Awards for excellently portraying two famous American personalities.

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman starred in Patch Adams opposite Robin Williams, who played the title role that movie.
2. Williams starred with John Lithgow in the film adaptation of John Irving's The World According to Garp.
3. Lithgow was in Footloose with Kevin Bacon.
4. Bacon starred in Apollo 13 opposite Tom Hanks.
5. Hanks was with Meg Ryan in two films: Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.
6. Sir Sean Connery was with Ryan in The Presidio.
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1. Reese Witherspoon starred in Legally Blonde, which also featured Luke Wilson.
2. Cameron Diaz was with Wilson in Charlie's Angels.
3. Leonardo di Caprio starred opposite Diaz in Gangs of New York.
4. Tom Hanks chased Di Caprio in Catch Me If You Can.
5. Hanks played Sally Field's son in Forrest Gump.
6. Field was with Pierce Brosnan in Mrs. Doubtfire.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Last Call for the 4th Annual Oscar Predicter Contest!











The last day of registration is March 4, Manila Time (March 4, 12nn EST/10am CST).

To those who have registered, the ballots are due on the same date.

Register and vote now!

A Fish Called Cleo

I have a pet fish named Cleo. Named after Geppetto's pet goldfish from the 1940 Disney classic Pinocchio and not the famous queen of ancient Egypt, Cleo is a female swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii) which I bought at the UP Shopping Center pet fish store for 10 pesos as a gift to myself. She actually costs as much as her food since a packet (a sachet, if you will) of her flakes cost 10 bucks as well. In fact, if I had opted for the fish pellets which cost 20 pesos, she'd actually cost half her food.

Anyway, I take care of Cleo more or less religiously. I feed her two tiny flakes a day. I placed her tiny bowl in a saucer with water because I once saw ants crawl into her bowl (which killed them because, duh, the bowl's filled with water). I change her water as often as possible. These exercises have led me to many observations, the first of which is that she has suicidal tendencies.

You know Blubber? Amelie Poulain's pet fish? Yep, Cleo's like that. When we change her water (I usually ask for help), she jumps whenever we try to catch her. Sometimes, she jumps so high, she actually lands on the dry kitchen tiles, literally brushing herself with death. It's peculiar. Perhaps she doesn't fully realize that it's all for her own good. She is probably unaware that changing her water is necessary for her own survival, though traumatic procedures such as being scooped out of her liquid surroundings must be taken.

I have also observed that Cleo is anorexic. Whenever I drop her flakes into the water, she doesn't eat them right away like my previous pet fishes. She doesn't even sniff, poke or taste them. Nothing. Nadda. Zilch. During the first few weeks, I'd leave her like that and come back a few minutes later to see that the flakes have disappeared, leading me to assume that she had already eaten them and that she prefers to eat in private, like a human being. But the alarming thing is that, lately, I would come back and find the flakes soaked and left untouched by Cleo.

The weird thing is, not only is she anorexic but she is also bulimic! I watched her eat once and noticed that she would "sample" the flake, then eat it whole (the flake, half her size, would literally disappear in an instant into her mouth), then spit it back out!

My mother says I've placed Cleo in an oppressive environment, given that her bowl is so small, it carries only a cup of water. She says this may have caused her to go berserk. She also hypothesizes that these psychological illnesses may only mask the rebellion that she has against me, the one who has enslaved her.

Well, she is a tiny fish. With a bowl that small and fish that size, I figured I may have hit upon the perfect apartment-friendly pet.

Maybe Cleo wants the pellets. She may even be Epicurean after all and tolerates only the finest food! That being the pellets for fishes. Maybe I'll buy the pellets...