Here’s a cheerfully confusing Father’s Day headline from the Inquirer: “Girl survives massacre but finds a father and a name.”
But what, Inquirer?
But carabaos?
Call me a stickler for words meaning what they do but doesn’t it suggest that ‘yeah, the girl survived the massacre and then more shit happened’?
“We have already spoken of the more or less latent predisposition
which exists in the Philippines toward indolence, and which must
exist everywhere, in the whole world, in all men, because we all
hate work more or less, as it may be more or less hard, more or less
unproductive.”–Dr. Jose Rizal
Sometimes it doesn’t pay to believe without seeing:
GMANews.tv reports “a ‘fake priest’ has been excommunicated after serving a Catholic diocese in Metro Manila for more than a year.”
“Being excommunicated, De Borja is banned from participating in Mass, Communion or other religious ceremonies even as a participant,” says the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Te aa no areois (The Seed of the Areoi), 1892
A member of Scottish parliament is lying low after his remarks about a woman at a parliamentary committee meeting were leaked to the press:
“She’s got that Filipino look, you know the kind you would see in a Gauguin painting. There’s a wee bit of culture.â€
Everyone’s a critic.
Journalism bad ass (and professor) Luis Teodoro is about to rain on your parade, Philippine electorate:
“Indeed what the voting millions accomplished in the last elections can be summed up in one phrase: they renewed the strength of the political dynasties by electing them in record numbers.”
Too soon?
Well, all right. The actual headline on ABS-CBN news was “Army sergeant dies in freak accident in Taguig,” but there was nothing really freaky about what happened.
A guy has an argument with his wife, walks out, and is run over by a black van. It was surprising, but not freaky by any standard. If the guy had been run over by a Jaguar…driving a Tamaraw FX, then that would have been freaky.
In fact, what’s most striking about the story is this statement from Staff Sgt. Ronnie Natividad, the victim’s buddy and fellow soldier:
Nasa loob kami tapos may narining kaming lumagabog. Sumisigaw iyong bakla, sabi niya may nasagasaan daw. Paglabas namin nakabulagta na siya dyan. (We were inside when we heard a thud. The gay man was screaming that someone had been run over. When we went outside, he was already sprawled there.)
Who was this ‘bakla’ and how does he figure in the story? Why did S/Sgt Natividad have to specify that the witness was gay? Was the witness the one they found sprawled on the ground? Was it the victim?
This is hard work, this work that we do.
Indolent Indio has always tried to use our dwindling wit and condescending commentary to raise awareness of society’s ills and the quirks of Filipino culture. And it has been a great ride so far.
But sometimes, we have to ask ourselves: how much influence do we really have over these idle islands?
Remember all those street urchins and various poor people you see on the streets begging and selling sampaguitas?
We are not such snobs as to turn our noses up at the prospect of showbiz gossip talk show host Boy Abunda joining the second Aquino Administration. As one of our commenters has pointed out, writing off someone just because he’s from show business is just about as intelligent as believing someone is great just because he is.
Members of the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Prospero Nograles–loser in the Davao City mayoral elections–are meeting with representatives of the Commission on Elections and IT provider Smartmatic today to discuss allegations of ‘hacking’ in the May 10 polls.