Life is Motion

Super size America!

2006-09-26T01:28:00.000+08:00

Man, American servings are humongous! I gotta stay vigilant to keep off the calories....

I dont eat meat! This is my cousin's.

Only in the Philippines...

2006-09-20T14:14:00.000+08:00

When Filipinos become exasperated and fed up with a great number of things that happened in this country, we often begin or end our sentences with, "Only in the Philippines..." I think I even have a memory of a show from my childhood that had that title. I may be imagining it or have dreamt about it though.

Regardless of my flawed memory, the sentiment "Only in the Philippines" though possibly inaccurate, often sums up our feelings of disbelief and disatisfaction even when Filipinos have clearly been deeply desentisized through the years of endless turmoil, scandals, and corruption.

Our latest drama is the legitimacy question of this current Arroyo administration. Every political scandal currently being played out in the Philippine drama stage traces its roots from the alleged electoral fraud Arroyo during the last presidential election.

Going back to my "Only in the Philippines..." moment, journalists and civic organizations will stage a bar tour called "STOP THE KILLINGS" beginning tommorow until December. Yes, you read it right, there is actually a bar tour featuring our country's top bands and performers that was organized to jolt the detached and tired nation to stand up against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's brand of fascist democracy or fascism cloaked in democracy. Activists, leftists and journalists are being killed like flies every week, almost every day, and we read about it on the newspaper and see it on TV, but we are no longer shocked or disgusted. Our spirit and moral compass have been in coma, and there is no white knight to sweep us back to our feet-- only we can do that for ourselves.

The “Stop the Killings!” bar tour kicks off tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 21, at 70s Bistro, 46 Anonas St., Quezon City. Bands playing: The Dawn, The Jerks, Sandwich, Sugarfree, Brownman Revival and Radioactive Sago.

A concert tour as a call to end the rampant extra-judicial killings in a democratic country? Yes, only in the Philippines...

Grant Writing 101

2006-09-15T20:24:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I attended a seminar called "Winning Grant Proposal Writings" organized by
Tritium Knowledge Publishing, a group that conducts seminars on development issues. I guess it's obvious what the seminar was about.
It's supposed to enhance my grant proposal writing skills that I basically learned on my own when I was working in Russia. I was hoping that I'd get more technical information instead of the general outline of grant proposals that I already know about.

It bombed.

The lead resource person read everything that was given in our hand-outs. I could've just read the handout at home instead of listening to him drone on and on for 4 hours. I was expecting he'd cite pertinent examples for each guideline shown in the powerpoint presentation, but was sorely dissapointed.

The staff was also amateurish and did not know how to organize and run an event. One thing I learned working for a high-end Events and PR company is that an event has to run seamlessly and effortlessly. Even if crap is happening behind the scenes, the audience and participants should never know, and should not even have an inkling of what's going on. The staff should almost move shadowlike-- they're there, but you don't see them, and yet everything runs like clock work. With Tritium Knowledge, the staff were probably fresh graduates-- clumsy, loud, and did not even wear appropriate attires that the occassion called for. Heck, you have guess speakers from Friedrich Naumann Foundation, and the Pilipinas Shell Foundation, but your official photographer is wearing a sports shirt and jeans and looks as old as 15. Tacky!

On the plus side, I met like-minded people, and even managed to find the gumption to speak to the Resident Representative of Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Dr. Ronald Meinardus. It was a room of rich people that had nothing to do with money. The particpants came from all over the country, members of local NGOs and local government units, who are working hard to help the marginalized and poor majority of the country. I look around the room feeling a mix of awe, humility, and frustration. I am critical of this country's government, and even the attitude of most Filipinos that continue to contribute to this country's stagnation, but I didn't really acknowledged the real and existing people dedicated in helping this country. I feel small and invisibile amongst this group because as much as I can feel my need to contribute to my country's development, I also know the blood of capitalism and profit is strong and throbbing within me and I cannot sincerely say that I am willing to sacrifice living a good life(and yes, this is in connection with money) to work in the hinterlands and grassroots to serve the poor.
There is a way to serve and not to be a hypocrite, and I will learn how to do so as I go along.

"The Philippines is not a poor country; but it's a country that has a lot of poor people."

---Dr. Ronald Meinardus

Cold and wet Friday dinner

2006-09-11T21:37:00.000+08:00

Yeah, we looked effn happy last Friday, but before my sister and I managed to have dinner with our Japanese friends, we had to get through some teeny tiny obstacles.

First, I got stuck in traffic for more than an hour. I was staring at rear lights of cars for more than an hour because no one can move the damn truck blocking 2 lanes in the highway which resulted to a 500 meter long bumper to bumper traffic.

Second, it was raining so bad, and one of the Japanese girls brought her mother and sister to dinner. I didn't mind her family joining us, but I felt somehow responsible that they had to walk for an hour under the rain becaus the taxi queue was just so long. Ater Terumi and her family alighted from the Edsa Metro station, they couldn't wait for a taxi seeing that the line was snaking a block because of the rain. They thought that Capones Bistro was just a short walk from the station based on the map they bought, but I guess they thought wrong. I feel so embarrassed that the poor mom had to walk through the rain and for an hour!!!

Lastly, Capone Bistro was a HUGE let down. I don't know what the magazine editors who featured this restaurant were thinking, but I vote 2 out of 5 stars for this place. The ambiance was boring. The interior design was negligible; you would hardly think you're in any place special. The food was just as bad. And it wasn't only the taste, even the presentation of the food was unappetizing. My dog can serve better food, and he can't even cook! I recommend people to skip this Makati dig altogether.

Inspite of that, we did have a great time, and I was so glad to see my friend Tomoko again! Till next time peeps!

Not just pure flash

2006-09-07T22:09:00.000+08:00

I always wanted to share pictures of one of my favorite places in the Manila, so here goes:

Before the "boxing boom" arrived after local "celebrities" suddenly discovered this calorie burning sport, I was happily sweating out in my tiny corner of the world in Elorde boxing gym. It is owned and run by the family of Filipino boxing great, Gabriel "Flash" Elorde. But contrary to its namesakes, this gym is anything but flashy.

You come and you have to be prepared to whip your butt for a rigorous workout. No prissy, fluffy participants here or you'd look like a puss.

I love it.

Poster of Flash Elorde adorns the wall of the gym
Huffing boxer

Spell m-o-r-o-n

2006-09-06T23:17:00.000+08:00

And we're supposed to be a Democracy?

INjustice Secretary Raul Gonzalez gives his definition of "tolerance and educational freedom."

Gonzalez: UP breeds destabilizers, naked runners
By Armand Nocum
Published on page A5 of the August 27, 2006
issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THIS time Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has picked on the University of the Philippines school system, saying it mainly produces militant protesters and fraternity men and women who run around the campus naked.
“That school breeds the destabilizers that haunt the country year after year. They are acting as if they are the only ones who know how to run the country,” Gonzalez told the Inquirer yesterday.
He made it clear, however, that he was not assailing the entire university population because “there are many students there who are bright and good.”
Interviewed by phone while he was with President Macapagal-Arroyo in Guimaras, Gonzalez pointed to the Oblation run of the APO fraternity as another indication of the kind of students that came from UP.
“I doff my hat to them because they initiate the running of naked people... That’s also one kind of culture that they develop there,” he said, noting that women had begun to join the naked run as well which is held in December.
“Maybe we are going in that direction... there are now women running naked. I will not be surprised if they will go to school with only their books, nothing more,” he said.
Gonzalez made the statements while lamenting that UP was the site of numerous protest rallies and symposia calling for the resignation of President Arroyo.
“In every storm that takes place, UP students are in the forefront,” he said. “As a matter of fact, our history will show that since the martial law years, students from UP were the ones who went underground and fought the government. In fact, many of them went to China and never came back.”
Bomb-making in labs
Gonzalez said he came to see the militant activism of UP students first-hand during the First Quarter Storm of 1970 when then Sen. Genaro Magsaysay formed a panel to look into the violent protests there and he saw pillbox bombs being assembled in the school laboratories.
He said this was not the way the students should repay the government for giving them a world-class education.
“They should consider the fact that the state is the one paying for their schooling. Why fight the state? Why try to bring it down. I think some degree of gratitude should be there also,” he said.
He noted that UP had always been known as a “cradle of leadership” but he was worried that with the way some students there were acting, some serious questions would be raised about the “kind of leaders we will have in the future.”
But he said he was “not degrading UP per se,” but was only questioning the kind of students that came from it.
‘I am well-behaved’
He said the matter of the high “tolerance to education freedom” should be raised to UP officials and teachers during the annual budget hearing for the school.
Asked what school he graduated from, Gonzalez replied: “University of Sto. Tomas... that’s why I am well-behaved.”
Gonzalez is known for speaking his mind on most issues and creating controversy.
Earlier, when he was asked if he was going to arrest the widow of the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. for inciting to sedition when she spoke out against President Arroyo, he said she was too pretty to be arrested.
Another time when it was revealed that he was undergoing dialysis for kidney stones, he said that was not what made him launch verbal tirades against critics of Ms Arroyo.
“What does [having the] balls [to say things] got to do with that?” he said when he was asked if the painful passing of stones in his urine was the reason he was grouchy to critics and media people.

This makes me utterly furious with this moronic old bulldog of our Honorable President. But let me present a fellow UP student and former classmate to summarize what UP students and most of the country actually think of Gonzalez:

REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE
Payback
By Patricia Evangelista
Published on page A11 of the September 3, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

I HAVE recently learned that I owe a debt of gratitude to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. “Some degree of gratitude,” must be due to the fact that I spent my college life in the University of the Philippines. I apologize for my omission, and can think of no way more apt than to share what he calls the “world-class education” that I have acquired in the four years I spent in UP. I will attempt to do justice to the underpaid and overworked professors who teach with ancient blackboards where today’s lectures are superimposed over diagrams from three years before. If I cannot, perhaps the good secretary would be interested in taking the class I took in my freshman year—Philo 11: Introduction to Logic.
In a statement just this week, Gonzalez laments the decline in quality of UP graduates. “That school,” he thunders, “breeds the destabilizers that haunt the country every year.”
In the interest of clarity, let us define the word “destabilizer.” A destabilizer, or an obstructionist, is one who deliberately chooses to oppose current norms. They mistrust much of what is claimed, perpetually demand for answers and admit only truths that they believe have basis in fact, logic, theory, precedence or their own personal standards. In the academe, however, they are called neither destabilizers nor obstructionists. The common word for these vile creatures is “scholar.”'
The reason students are sent to school is not to learn how to parrot government memoranda, or memorize the capitals of provinces in alphabetical order. Students study to learn how to think—not just to acquire a sheet of printed parchment to post on the wall. The capacity for critical thought is what separates the man from the beast. A dog can be trained how to sit, a monkey can walk across a tightrope, but it is the man who can choose to stand up and speak.
Contrary to what Gonzalez believes, it is not opposition to the government that characterizes the UP scholar. It is the opposition to passive acceptance, and a compulsion for thought. Gonzalez claims that he is not against all UP students, God forbid, because there are some who are “bright and good.” I assume he means those of us who do not rally, who do not march, who do not choose to side with the Left. By “bright and good,” he means “bright and good to the government of GMA.”
“It is the people’s taxes that is keeping UP alive,” he claims. Agreed. “It is the State that is paying for their schooling.” Agreed. “I think some degree of gratitude should be there also.” Agreed.
There is a difference, however, between the State and Secretary Gonzalez. He is not the State, however much he tries to convince us. Neither is the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The State is the people, the debt is to the people, the gratitude is to those who paid their taxes in the hope that the country’s best and brightest will do some good in the future.
The academe, more than anywhere else, is the hotbed of debate, a place where multiple perspectives clash, and every sort of ideology, theory and philosophy has a place. Disagreement is a norm, and is seen as a manifestation of critical thought. That UP breeds destabilizers is not a bad thing—after all, if stability means the kind of government we have today, then I stand for destabilization, too.
All of us agree on our debt to the country—all of us want to pursue the national interest. But because we are scholars, because we are taught to think, the manner we pursue that national interest and the definition of that national interest vary from student to student. The red-shirted activist in Mendiola is no less aware of that debt than the political science student who plans to join government.
This need to check the government, Gonzalez claims, “is degrading the national interest.” Who defines national interest? To Gonzalez, certainly not the people, and certainly not those who have been shot, strangled and maimed because of the administration’ s relentless pursuit of national interest.
Democracy is not the absence of dissent; it is the tolerance of the freedom to dissent, and the awareness that dissent can check the State’s enormous power. And still Justice Secretary Gonzales, in all smugness, demands that this “high tolerance to educational freedom,” should be raised in the annual budget hearing. I cannot believe I live in a country where education is threatened because it is used.
This is not simply an issue of an old man trying to strut his machismo by aiming potshots at students. It may be hard to believe—as this is the man who, I have a sneaking suspicion, is the opposition’s hired gun, the man who “forgave” Susan Roces because she was “too pretty to put in jail,” the man who told former President Aquino to first take care of her controversial daughter Kris before she opposes GMA; and the same man who claimed that the only reason he didn’t absolve three suspects in the Subic Bay rape case was that he had to “appease the mob.” He is the man whose snappy comeback to the impromptu Oblation Run held a week ago was to ask the fraternity men to “take off your masks and run naked.”
But irrelevant of the man, his denouncement of UP is an attempt—no matter how moronic, and no matter how laughable—to justify actions that would otherwise be unjustifiable. It is one of the dozens of persistent suggestions that the government is always on the side of right, that to oppose it is treachery and that to question it is to go against all standards of morality, honesty and patriotism. And all this is dangerous, at a time when people are tired of marching in the streets, tired of throwing out one corrupt leader after another, tired of the perpetual struggle for the rights and freedoms that are inexplicably being curtailed.
The government thrusts us back into the Dark Ages, where leaders are omnipotent and “the people” do not exist. Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and probing into the nature of the “enemy” is assumed to be support for the enemy. Those who oppose policies are “destabilizers,” or “NPA sympathizers” or “oppositionists.” To report truth that will compromise government approval ratings is “inciting to sedition,” a crime of which Gonzalez once accused the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. “Why fight the State?” Gonzalez demands, “Why try to bring it down?”
Gonzalez claims that he is proud to say he is from the University of Sto. Tomas, and that it is the reason he is “well-behaved.” I offer my sympathies to UST, and since I am also aware that there is much that is “bright and good’” in that school, I believe Gonzalez must be a case where good education has failed in creating an educated man. ( I hear you! I came from that school as well, and Gonzalez is a discredit even if he is under dillusions of grandeur!)
If this man is the epitome of what it is to be well-behaved, I’m glad that that’s a compliment I’ve never been paid.

The world has lost the Crocodile Hunter

2006-09-06T19:37:00.000+08:00

I'm days late, but my internet connection was busted for the past 2 days.

A light has been extinguished. Call me whatever, but deaths such as Steve Irwin's make me mad more than sad. It makes me mad that such a beautiful and passionate life force is gone forever, and furious that a lot of evil people whose biggest contribution to the world would be their permanent dissaperance still remain alive and kicking.

Goodbye Steve! Continue to look after your animals and your family from wherever you are!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

2006-09-03T22:46:00.000+08:00

It’s easy to hate beautiful people. By no virtue of their own, with absolutely no effort, and by simply winning the genetic lotto, they're immediately given a head start in navigating the confusing cauldron called life. Perfect symmetrical faces and body draw people unconsciously to them. All things being equal, there is a higher probability that the boss will promote the more beautiful employee. With 2 equally superior product presentations, the more striking sales officer would more likely clinch the deal. Beauty is power…. and all that cliché.

So it’s nice to comfort ourselves when we see evidence that beautiful people utilize their advantage in lieu of other tools known to man—like the brain. When beautiful people say stupid things, we can breathe a sigh of relief, pat ourselves on the back, and take comfort that even though we don’t have perfect cheekbones, we can atleast construct coherent sentences.

When we see beautiful, stupid and spoiled people, we can actually take out the champagne and make a toast. All is not lost after all for most average Joes!

Philippine entertainment is a most pit of beautiful, mostly talentless, young airheads. I can’t really blame the quality (or lack of) of our celebrities to plain stupidity and vanity like –say—Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson. We live in the 3rd world, so a lot of beautiful people take the fastest way to wealth open to them, and in the Philippines, that’s show business.

Even though 80% of the population is poor, celebrities here can live the kind of life that is the antithesis of the poverty statistics. Most of the new breed of young celebrities went into the business to help the family, and to become the income generator for the parents and x number of siblings. They didn’t have a burning ambition to sing, or act, or dance since they were little like Justin or Britney, and they didn’t even consider the need to take lessons to hone their –er-- talents. Money is often the sole motivating factor. So what do you get when your selection pool is made up of mostly beautiful but passionless people whose main purpose is money? You get cut rate entertainers.

Is it obvious that this pisses me off? Millionaires at 18, and the best that they can do is not to fumble a line they monotonously deliver on screen. The young “celebrities” here make Hilary Duff look like Meryl Streep. No wonder the
Korean Wave is kicking the local celebrities’ asses.

One exception to my universal disgust is the amazingly beautiful young actress (and I use this term loosely) Angel Locsin. Any girl would hate her. She’s in her early 20s and already a millionaire several times over. She owns several properties, she has a zillion cash cow endorsements aside from being the favorite pet of her studio company, and she is amazingly beautiful (have I said that already)?

She’s also a bad actress-- mediocre at most.
She also can’t sing or dance to save her life.

But I don’t hate her. She could be stupid for all I know, but she rarely gives whorish interviews like most of her contemporaries for anyone to figure out her brain capacity. That in itself is admirable. Sure she’s a mediocre entertainer, but so are most of the young celebrities out there. Atleast she doesn’t pose in endless publicity stunts to get even more attention than she deserves, like what most of her contemporaries do. Yes she’s more beautiful and sexy than most people (and all natural), but you don’t see her hounding the covers of every fashion and men’s magazine published in this country. Minus her millions, she genuinely comes off as a refreshingly unaffected but very beautiful girl you can actually like.

I once heard a girl say enviously, “Do they really produce people like her?” while looking at Angel’s picture.
She does have a face of a sexy Angel--the uber deadly combination-- but the fact that she doesn’t come off as being singularly defined by this definition is the quality that truly makes her enviable.

West coast vs. East coast

2006-09-01T21:58:00.000+08:00

AM I A LOS ANGELES OR NEW YORK TYPE OF GAL?

Each major city has her merits, and I need to consider what place would make me feel most comfortable.

LOS ANGELES:

The city is so much like Manila. It's spread out, it's near the ocean, and the weather is the closest to the Philippines because it's in California.

Gorgeous beaches! Oooh, I like!
This I don't like...L.A. is also the land of starlets famous for being famous. I'm a girl who likes her headbands, but starlets make these funky, functional accessories horendous looking.

New York City: I don't need a car to get around the city. Public transportation pretty much gets you from point A to point B.
Colors are more subdued, like most of my clothes: Black, grey, olive, and purple. Look at what this girl is wearing.
Smart actresses live in New York. Natalie's also an Israeli, which makes her even more special to me. Scarlett Johannson, one of the few "real actress" of her generation, is also a certified New Yorker.
....I'm leaving on a jet plane

Odds and Chances

2006-08-29T22:39:00.000+08:00

Growing up, I didn't dream of the perfect wedding, the perfect groom, or the perfect wedding dress like the image of little girls they show on TV. Basically, I didn't think much of anything that might even lead to a wedding.

But before I shock any of my longtime friends who might be reading this, the point of this writing is about "odds and probability," and not marriage...goodness, NO!
Watching House M.D. and finding out that the couple I am rooting for, Dr. Cameron and Dr. Chase, are actually dating in real life, I've got myself thinking about chances. Sure, they're cute, but what I find more interesting is that they are the same age, born of the same year, but from different continents. Who would have thought that the baby boy born in Melbourne a few months earlier than the baby girl born in CHicago would ever meet, like each other, and date someday? Isn't it mind boggling?

Heck, of course in this day and age, overseas travel is almost taken forgranted, but the game of chance is a fairly tricky s.o.b. The probability of someday dating a person born of the same year from another part of the world, and meeting in a place neither of you have ever lived in before is really fascinating.

I mean, sure it's cute to watch childhood sweethearts meet again after a couple of years and fall in love and end up together--as it happens in movies. But I reserve that fairytale in movies. Truth is, when I meet couples who've crawled together since diapers, I often think, "why didn't you live a little and explore?" Anyway, like I said, I am more interested in the the game of chance and probability. Beating the odds is whats interesting in life, be it career, money, and love. Love stories that that beat the roll of the dice-- so to speak-- are much more interesting than "we were neighbors and we liked each other in braces."

On the other hand, what about the person in the this age of travel, a frequent single traveller (READ: You often travel alone), and has not met even ONE person among the other frequent sole travellers that she could fancy? What are the odds of that happening?

Smart TV

2006-08-26T23:24:00.000+08:00

FOX TV seems to be the channel for me. I love their shows Prison Break, and House M.D. Not as big a fan with CSI, but I like it as well.

I'm a fan, and this much I know...nothing beats smart shows!!!

Politics vs. Pop Culture = what's stronger?

2006-08-25T12:15:00.000+08:00

I met up with my Japanese friend Tomoko the other day. She's here in Manila for 3 weeks to do research for her thesis. After her graduation in January, she'll start work in April. It's wonderful to see her again, and we had a nice conversation over lunch. I ranted to her about our government, and she tried to comfort me by assuring me that they had their own problems in Japan.

Uh yeah. Japan = Philippines?

I'm not trying to trivialize Japan's issues and magnifying ours, but....(ok, words fail me here)

I guess the principle to apply in this kind of situation is that people live their reality. I'm sure if I were Japanese, their issues would be problematic to me as well. So they don't have starving people and their percentage of corrupt politicians is small compared to ours, but I forget that Japan was an island of bombed devastation more than half a century ago, so they do know the meaning of hardship.

Anyway, we moved on to less serious stuff to lighten the mood. We talked about Paris Hilton. I asked her why the heck are Japanese girls crazy over that woman, and she shamefully answered she had absolutely no idea. She dislikes Hilton herself. She said that she didn't have friends who liked Paris, and she probably wouldn't have the same interests with a person who likes her.
Good ol' Paris. After the talk of Japan's and the Philippine's great divide, Hilton managed to bridge the gap over a shared disgust and disbelief over her triviality and fame. Pop culture rules and makes the world smaller and smaller!

She who cheats, lives to cheat another day

2006-08-25T11:57:00.000+08:00

I've been busy meeting up with friends I haven't seen for a long time, and I know it is more interesting to hear personal stories instead of political tirade. But I live in a third world country with politicians who stink the place like nobody's business, so I can't help but to rant about the stench. Therefore, I must write in hopes of getting off some of the stink from my system after reading the newspaper again...

The second impeachment complaint against President Arroyo has been trashed by the majority of the House of Representatives, otherwise known as Congress, otherwise known as House of Arroyo's pork barrel brigade, yesterday. Once again, any investigation and hearing about the alleged cheating and illegal use of millions and millions of public funds has been quashed by Arroyo's supporters (a.k.a. bribe benefactors). Once again, we have showed the world that democracy through numbers will prevail as long as the numbers are fat and have lots of zeros in it. With a vote of 173-32, with one abstention, the House upheld the decision of the committee on justice last week to kill this year’s impeachment complaint against Arroyo for insufficiency in substance.

There you go. More government funds were used to pay off congressmen to block the impeachment complaint from reaching the senate, and the public is once again left niggling with doubt and suspicion, as well as cynicism that corruption is at work AS USUAL. Arroyo and her henchmen are crowing in victory once again.

Read the rest of the tragedy
here.

Fog ahead!!

2006-08-21T22:30:00.000+08:00

Life in the Philippines is very much like living in Russia (atleast from my personal experience). The absurd and ironic could actually define everyday living. While the Philippines has long fought to become Asia's bastion of democracy and freedom; Russia on the other hand, is, well, not exactly synonymous to anything close to a democracy, but both countries run on a socio-polical machine that is very similiar.

Our "Little Ms.Dictator/Suppressor of democracy", President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ironically declared August 21 as a special non-working holiday in commemoration of the death anniversary of one of the country's most famous freedom fighters in the dark days of Marcos Martial Law-- Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
Funny thing though, Sen. Aquino's wife, former President Cory Aquino, is one of the country's active voices in asking President Arroyo to step down from office for alleged (what a tame word) cheating during the Presidential elections.

Anyway.....

So since today is a holiday, my family decided to go to Tagaytay. Tagaytay is famous for having the world's smallest active volcano, located in the middle of a lake. That's pretty special and all, but I like going there for the cool temperature. Living in the tropics means living 364 days a year in a relatively warm and humid environment, so driving 600meters above sea level to Tagaytay City is the main attraction for urban folks. It's almost cool all year round in Tagaytay with average temperature at 22.7° C. That's pretty good if you live in Manila where the temperature ranges from 27° C (most of the year) to 33° C during summer.

Today was even better. It was raining and there was fog everywhere. I might sound loony for getting excited by the fog, but you don't get 15° C with fog here in the Philippines very often.

hot coffee and tea are best during cold weather

wow fog!

and more fog!

The Accidental Russophile: If you are Russian ...

2006-08-21T19:07:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I read anythng about Russia that brought back a rush of memories. Damn this is funny because I can totally relate!

Enjoy!!!

The Accidental Russophile: If you are Russian ...

Great to be back

2006-08-19T00:30:00.000+08:00

The smell of sweat and the dense humidity of the gym hit me immediately when I entered Elorde Boxing Gym last night. It has been months since I last put on my boxing gloves for a grueling boxing workout in Elorde, and I was anxious that the familiar would feel unfamiliar.

It didn't.

I hadn't realized how much I missed boxing, and that it felt like I was returning home after a long absence when I came back to Elorde. The gym was home. I've never felt more comfortable with a group of sports people than I did with the boxers and trainers. I'm a sporty gal, and I've tried lots of physical challeneges from swimming, wall-climbing, swimming, diving, taekwondo, and boxing. I always loved taekwondo and boxing the best.
I get along so well with my trainers and teammates, and there is an istant camaraderie within our group. I didn't feel the same empathy with other sports, and swimming doesn't count because it's quite solitary.
I'm not a hot head or a slugger who wants to show off my fighting skills, but I do love the sheer physicality of taekwondo and boxing. When I practice my kicks and punches, more than any activity in my life, I feel focused and so concentrated, that I only hear my heart beating.

It's great to be back.

Shooting out of their asses

2006-08-16T12:08:00.000+08:00

You know what really pisses me off during traffic situations? You know what's really annoying? You know what makes me want to scream like a banshee or throw something hard enough to cause damage?

Macho posturing.

Every freaking day you see the evidence of the Filipino man's mentality of machismo and "dog marking his territory" behaviour. When you're on the road, some asshole cuts in, and you get pissed and honk your horn. He honks his horn right back, maybe even louder and longer, either to 1.) annoy you 2.) prove to you that he doesn't give a flying f*ck that what he did was totally assholic, cause you know, he's this strong macho male.

Yesterday, cars were lined up bumper to bumper and this guy totally blocked off an intersection because he moved his car forward even though the light was already red. So everyone turning left couldn't turn because his car was blocking the way. Fortunately, a traffic officer was there, and he knocked on the guys window and told him to move his damn car. Cars were honking, and everyone turning left was impatient for the ass to move his car. So what does the he do? He moves his car a teensy bit, enough to let the cars pass by the intersection, but not enough to make traffic move smoothly. As if that wasn't enough, when the traffic officer told him to move his ass further, the man got out of the car and mouthed off the traffic officer.
WHAT THE HELL? Everyone can see you're violating traffic, you do it infront of a traffic officer, and you have the gall to get out of your car, stand in front of everyone and argue with the traffic officer with one hand on your hip. Did he think the officer would cower because she's a woman? What twisted chauvinist hell do you come from?

Oh, lets not even go to public transportation drivers! Their macho mentality is probably one of the worse in the entire worldwide male population. There is no such thing as traffic rules for them as long as they don't get caught by someone in uniform. If you even waste time to argue with them if they cut you off, make a full stop in the middle of the road, turn when they shouldn't, or drive in a private-vehicle-only section of the road, you can expect verbal abuse or even physical intimidation. Yes, they're so strong, they can physically intimidate women half their size to prove that. It's true, it's happened to me. Their passengers can see them, if he admits he was wrong, it would make him look weak! Oh, and that would be a sin in the Filipino Macho Guy Bible, we can't have that! Every Filipino has to be macho!

One of my benchmarks of a decent guy here in the Philippines is his ability to handle a traffic situation. If he lets his macho meter dictate his behavior and cuss off or challenge another driver regularly (and when I mean regularly, it's because horrendous traffic is way of life here), then he's not boyfriend material. Who wants all that headache, and who wants a man who's so conscious about looking macho in trivial things? Men here don't even need to go through mandatory army service, and yet they act like fighting is a way of life. Filipino macho men want to show how strong and fierce they are, then they should join the
IDF! I'd love to see real fighters kick their smug macho asses.

Not again

2006-08-13T19:42:00.003+08:00

Because of the latest terror attempt in London's Heathrow Airport--simultaneous suicide bombings in different transatlantic flights to the U.S.-- security alert all over the world is once again in an all-time high.
I bet there are longer lines at U.S. Embassies everywhere leading to the the visa application counters.
I wouldn't be suprised if there is also an increase in rejected visa applicants everywhere.
Filipinos, with thousands of applicants everyday praying and braving the ardorous visa application process are probably seeing the slim chance of getting a visa vanish before their eyes.
Unfortunately, our country's name has the illustrous honor of once again being mentioned in the recent grand terror scheme of Islamic radicals.

The Airliner Plot

Stratfor's special reports on the foiled terror air plot tend towards the perception that while Al-Qaeda is still active, it is less of a threat than it was.

Today's first report sees four "takeaway lessons" from the incident, suggesting that 1) the organization is finding it harder to launch successful attacks outside the Middle East 2) given the arrest figures of 24 out of 50 operatives, it might be concluded that AQ's security has been severely compomised 3) while 9/11 changed the world and Madrid changed Spain's government, all that the London plot has done is to close down an airport temporarily 4) Shiite Iran and Hizballah are now the dominant force in Islamic world terrorism, while Sunni/Wahhabi Al-Qaeda "appears unable to do significantly more than issue snazzy videos."

The second report concentrates on the technical aspect of the airliner plot, and looks at precedents, in particular the 1994-95 "Operation Bojinka", a Philippines-based militant Islamic operation which involved a plan to simultaneously destroy 12 airliners en route to the United States from cities in Asia. In the initial trial experiment, the original nitrocellose-based device detonated, but did not succeed in bring down the Philippine Airlines flight on which it was placed, and so the operatives developed a liquid acetone peroxide explosive which was, however, lost in an apartment fire. Abdel Basit, the author of the conspiracy, fled to Pakistan, but was betrayed to the authorities by one of his accomplices. Bojinka was not a suicide operation - the plotters were supposed to conceal the devices and then jump off the planes.

The report speculates on why it appears to have taken the British authorities so long to arrest the August 10 plotters. Possible reasons may have included the size and complexity of the operation, the reticence and hesitation of one of the suicide plotters who finally got cold feet, or just a general breakdown in operational security. "These arrests," the report concludes,
demonstrate the threat remains very real. One of two other factors also is in play, however.

Either the British government's counterterrorism efforts are sufficiently robust as to allow them to penetrate al Qaeda operations in some instance at least, or, as we have discussed in the past, al Qaeda's operational security has been degraded. Either way, penetration is now more possible -- raising the possibility that, though al Qaeda remains a threat, it is not the strategic threat it once was.

http://halldor2.blogspot.com/

When logic erodes...

2006-08-12T14:51:00.000+08:00

How does a debate become, or is reduced to off-topic personal attacks?
It happens when either or both sides have failed to use logic, facts, and rationality in a discussion. When a debater can no longer defend his view, he either resorts to personal attacks or concede. Let me tell you of a story of one of those who resort to name-calling because he could not concede.

I was involved in another Israel-Hezbolla discussion in a local forum for artists, because an eager guy wanted to engage in a debate. Remember the "Boycott Israel" forwarded message I got? Sadly, he used his space to present his point by attacking me personally and failed to deliver facts to back up his anger. Yes, he was angry, and he couldn't explain lucidly why. He got even nastier when I challenged his ideas and he couldn't come up with his own data to back them up.

Count how many times he labeled me as "absurd," and "sad," and implied several times how ignorant I am. Like a cornered dog who has nowhere else to go, Mr. Red Constantino just barks at all directions even if he knows he's toast.

Next time Mr. Red Constantino, leave you cry baby tendencies at home if you want to talk with grown-ups. It's really embarrassing.

Here is our forum discussion:
Mr. Red Constantino's replies in bold.
Entries are posted from down (the earliest) to up (the latest).

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Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 01:44:11 +0800
From: "Michael Mirasol"
To: "Renato Redentor Constantino"
Subject: Re: [philiraqsolidarity] Re: [CINEMANILA] Palestinian Artists Call for a Cultural Boycott of Israel

Michael Mirasol wrote:
It's sarcastic retorts like this that make serious, level-headed discussion impossible on both sides of the debate. "Way to go" Mr. Constantino.

Yours Truly,
Michael Mirasol
The Flipcritichttp://www.flipcritic.net/

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On 8/11/06,
Renato Redentor Constantino <red_constantino@skydsl.com.ph> wrote:

Hello to Ken, first of all, and to Charisse. Work in India is preventing me from replying quickly.About the only thing so far that I find agreement with with Charisse isthat war this exchange ain't. War is when people die and the only thing that appears to have expired here is reason in Charisse's points.

I don't think I was being sarcastic when I wrote that Charisse was being absurd. I did mean it. I think the points Charisse made, and continue to make, are ridiculous. Regarding the latest reply, I confess it wasn'tjust sadness that it evoked but also giggling. Diversity of emotions is welcome.

Charisse: "If Hezbolla and their hero Nasrallah is so brave, why is Nasrallah hiding deep in their bunker networks and then barkingapocalyptic threats on TV?"And the brave Israeli pilots and artillery officers and tank drivers arebelly-dancing in their underwear openly on fields with the Red Cross insignia painted on their bellies.

Charrise: "Why are there still so many women and children in apartmentsand homes when IDF has already sent advance warnings that civiliansshould leave the area, working on the assumption, if you're not a Hezbolla fighter, you should not be there."
Brilliant Charisse.

Charisse: "Prior to the 1967 6-day war, Gaza was under Egypt and WestBack was under Jordan, the Golan and Sheeba under Syria. When the United Arab League (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia) amassed troops,mobilized, and cut off Israeli maritime rights in Tiran, and united forthe first time to attack ISrael, what in the world was Israel going to do?"
Right. And what in the world was Israel doing there in the first place?

Charisse: "If the Palestinians were dispossesed, they were dispossesedbecause their corrupt and megalomaniac government hated the Zionists more than they cared about the lives of their people."Oh man! That's right! The Palestinians -- you can never rely on them.They grabbed Palestine and yet they can't even be trusted to sustain the dispossession of their own people. Superb reasoning Charisse!

Charisse: "Could you blame Israel if they find that hard to believe andthey would not risk their tiny population after 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973,1982....etc."Of course not! "Etc"! That's right Charisse! We can't blame Israel for anything. I wish I had conversed with you years before. Now I understand.

Charisse: "Clean up your backyards; leave the players alone."
Ah, eh, that's what Israel's been doing -- cleaning up their backyard and the backyard of many others -- as in. And they've largely asked that they be left alone in their clean up duties.

Charisse: "extremist groups like Hamas and Hezbolla will never achievetheir purpose of getting Israel to "liberate" Palestinians with their own brand of "convincing."
Aba that's right! Only the Israeli brand can convince the Palestinians-- now why didn't I think of that?

Charisse: "The Lebanese government, who officially do not sanction the separatists Hezbolla in any of their action, now wants more than athousand prisoners in exchange for Israel's 2 kidnapped soldiers, theSheeba farm, and the map of the land mines."
Ikaw naman, why do you have to reveal naman that Israel has over a thousand Lebanese prisoners. Stop na. Baka you will also reveal how manychildren and women Palestinians are in Israeli jails huy. Wag na ha. Ialso promise never ever ever to ask you why Israel has so many of those prisoners. The Arabs kasi eh, they're so unfair eh. They have alreadybeen given prison lodgins for free tapos complain complain pa! The nerve!

Charisse: "Sure, they had 6 years since Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon to do just that, and look where they are now." And so for whatreason was Hezbollah created again? Ah ya! Sorry, I forgot, the foundingo rganizational constitution says "to eat our own children." Bad bad bad sila. Oo nga. I forgot, sorry.

Charisse: "I think the disproportinate response question is now quiteproportionate. What is not proportionate is the death toll."
Aba! Excellent logic! I am deeply impressed.

Charisse: "I find it disturbing that Nasralla is now seen as a hero tomost of the Arab world--regardless of bringing war to Lebanon."
See???

Everyone, listen to Charisse kasi. Hezbollah is making war on Lebanon. Israel is bringing peace to Lebanon. Please, please, everyone,pay attention huy!.

Charisse: "[W]hen I call a group extremist, its usually for groups whocan sacrifice their civilians and their enemy's civilians to carry out a belief and an ideology.... I 100% believe that they [Hezbollah] do andthey will sacrifice their women and children in the name of so-calledprotecting their women and children.... [D]oes Israel fall in [the]category [of extremism]? No."

This is sad Charisse. You are sad. Couldn't giggle on this one

(Goodness, This Mr. Red Constantino is a really nasty piece of bitter pill huh? He likes using my name all the time, as if it would make his point any smarter or coherent.)
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Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 21:34:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: ME
Subject: Re: [philiraqsolidarity] Re: [CINEMANILA] Palestinian Artists Call for a Cultural Boycott of Israel
To: "Renato Redentor Constantino"

Hello Red,

Thank you for you insight, and unfortunately, I am well and trully aware just how far this conflict has began, long before the actual July kidnappings of Israeli soldiers in Gaza and Southern Lebanon.

1.) You ask who started the conflict? Why, lets not even go back to the Palestinian dispossessions of 1948 and 1967. Let us start with something more recent, but much earlier than the July 12 date that you cite, regarding deliberate violations of sovereignty and kidnapping:
If we go through this debate, I truly doubt there would be any end because this comes down to the pre-1967 Palestinian territories that was occupied before the '67 six-day war. Then again, if we go far back on the Palestinian Mandate by the British, then there would even be more arguments because the Arabs and Jews each made their own violations.
There have been killings and retalions on both sides of the Lebanese border even after Israel withdrew from most of Southern Lebanon, the only difference from the usual engagement is that Israel responded with a significantly bigger retaliation this time, which Hezbollah did not anticipate. Nasrallah expected prisoner trade once again, like they usually did before this conflict began.

2.) True or false: Muslims of the Shia faith account for 40 percent of Lebanon's population? And what does Hizbollah mean -- Army of God or Party of God? Is it one among Lebanon's many political organizations, albeit a rooted, popular one, or is Hizbollah the name of the Lebanese Army?

Yes, and its also true that 40% of the population are Sunnis, and the rest are Christians, and Druze. Sunnis and Shi'ite Muslims have a long history of conflict. Hezbollah concentration is in the economically deprived South, populated mostly of Shi'ites. Does Hezbollah respresent the Sunnis, Christians, and Druze? When they brought their Southern conflict to the doorsteps of Beirut compose of a hetergenous ethnic and religious population, did they think they represented the people of Lebanon?

3.) You throw the word "unfair" in interesting ways. Tell us, which represents unfair: spreading the word about artists calling for a cultural boycott, or this interesting tally: Number of Lebanese slaughtered by Israel so far -- an absurdly low count of 509 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and 53 Hizbollah fighters. Number of Israeli soldiers killed -- 57; number of civilians killed, 36. Please, tell us, where exactly do you get your dictionaries? (I think fresh air to calm your nerves is more important than a dictionary right now)

Once again, the argument of proportionate response. UN is calling for a humanitarian war, and states Israel is violating International humanitarian law. Humanitarian war? Isn't that an oxymoron? Do you actually think Israel cannot just target the Hezbolla hideouts and carpet bomb the locations? But Hezbolla locations are civilian locations, thus ground forces had to be deployed, and yes, risking more Israeli deaths. It is done, and has to be done because the international community is crying "disproportionate response!" Honestly, if our insurgents attacked a neighboring country and they lived among us civilians, do you realistically believe that the other country will just send their ground troops to finish off the insurgents and can leave 100% the civilians untouched?

4.) When you echo Egeland's whine that Hizbollah is "cowardly blending" with a population that apparently they live with and belong to, I take you are suggesting instead that Hizbollah members should courageously stand on an open field, paint bright red bullseyes on their chests and wave wildly as Israeli war planes approach so they can take the American-made missiles right in the middle of their chests? They may just do so you know, if you can convince the brave Israeli pilots hiding inside their lofty war planes to do the same so that the Katyushas can be aimed without difficulty at their rib cages.

Israelis are at the ground. Even if you watch anti-Israeli BBC, it shows Israeli ground troops have swelled and engaged guerilla warfare with the Hezbollas. And where did you ever get the idea that the katyushas were directed at Israeli military targets? Even if IDF wore a shirt with the Star of David and laid themselves on the ground, the katyusha rockets will fly over them because the targets are civilians. Katyushas as indiscrimately aimed at any location In Northen Israel, civilian locations.

From your argument, it seems ok to blend with the civilians, hide in their homes, build networks and bunkers within public building and apartments, but Israelis are not allowed to target these locations by air because there are civilians with the Hezbollah? Hezbollah forces are allowed to use whatever tactics needed to win, but with Israel, because we presume that as western country and operating under western guidelines, can only respond based on the dictates of their enemies battle tactic? Hezbollah does ground war, so Israel has to do ground war exclusively. If Hezbollah starts firing bigger missiles, that's the only time Israel is allowed to fire their missiles? Basically, they'll be handcuffed to act on Hezbollah's war strategy.
I wonder once again, if any country at war would actually operate that way? Lets assume this was North Korea and SOuth Korea, would SOuth Korea restrain itself when they are more militarily capable than the North and would only engage the North in a battle that is dictated by the North. North fires katyushas and engage the troops in ground battle along the border, and the South will just send their ground troops even if they can target their enemies' stronghold from air? I honestly don't think that's a realistic expectation.

Lastly, I have nothing against your point of view, regardless of our differences, but your obvious anger is more disconcerting. We are not even a Lebanese and an Israeli, and already it seems automatic to attack instead of engaging in a dialogue without sarcasms and put downs. This makes me imagine just how difficult a peace process can be achieved with the actual people involved.
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Renato Redentor Constantino wrote:

Dear Charisse,

Please ask yourself a few questions:1. You throw the word "unfair" in interesting ways. Tell us, which represents unfair: spreading the word about artists calling for a cultural boycott, or this interesting tally: Number of Lebanese slaughtered by Israel so far -- an absurdly low count of 509 civilians, 29 Lebanese soldiers and 53 Hizbollah fighters. Number of Israeli soldiers killed -- 57; number of civilians killed, 36. Please, tell us, where exactly do you get your dictionaries?

2. When you echo Egeland's whine that Hizbollah is "cowardly blending" with a population that apparently they live with and belong to, I take you are suggesting instead that Hizbollah members should courageously stand on an open field, paint bright red bullseyes on their chests and wave wildly as Israeli war planes approach so they can take the American-made missiles right in the middle of their chests? They may just do so you know, if you can convince the brave Israeli pilots hiding inside their lofty war planes to do the same so that the Katyushas can be aimed without difficulty at their rib cages.

3. When soldiers of Israel go to their homes and neighborhoods, will they find their spouse and children and other members of their family there? If you answer yes, as any rational person would, can you also tell us if, by returning to their homes the Israeli soldiers are also "cowardly blending" into the population?

4. . True or false: Muslims of the Shia faith account for 40 percent of Lebanon's population? And what does Hizbollah mean -- Army of God or Party of God? Is it one among Lebanon's many political organizations, albeit a rooted, popular one, or is Hizbollah the name of the Lebanese Army?5. You ask who started the conflict? Why, lets not even go back to the Palestinian dispossessions of 1948 and 1967. Let us start with something more recent, but much earlier than the July 12 date that you cite, regarding deliberate violations of sovereignty and kidnapping:In southern Lebanon, on July 28, 1989 Sheikh Abdul Kareem Obeid was kidnapped by Israeli commandos. On May 12, 1994, Israel's agents kidnapped Mustafa Dirani. The two were held by Israel without trial for years, along with about 20 other Lebanese, as "negotiating chips." Sound familiar? Let us be more explicit. Let us use the Obeid kidnap -- as explained by the very website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- as an echo of the avowed motivation of the Hezbollah regarding its July 12 kidnap operation: "Israel had hoped to use the sheikh as a card to affect an exchange of prisoners and hostages in return for all Shiites held by it."Apparently, said Tel Aviv University professor Ze'ev Maoz, "that which is permissible to [Israel] is, of course, forbidden to Hezbollah."Did Hezbollah cross on July 12 a border recognized by the international community? Looks like it. Border violations are border violations. And since the time Israel was chased out of Lebanon in 2000, the Israeli air force has conducted daily surveillance sorties in Lebanese airspace.

I cited the instances above in an essay which came out in August 3 in in the Philippine paper, Business Mirror. It is a tiny, tiny piece of a gigantic picture that you are missing. Get more of those shards of truth Charisse, and just maybe you'll end up asking more folks to do more than just sign petitions such as these.

red

Guess where?

2006-08-10T18:10:00.000+08:00

Ok, I was out and about the other day in a big shopping area (not mall, this place has a large outdoor dry market area) and I took some pictures:

THESE PICTURES REMIND ME OF....

SIBERIA: Yup, street flower shops and flower stalls remind me of my time in Siberia. Siberia may seem like the end of the world and evokes palletes of neutral colors instead of these vivid ones you see with the flowers. Well, Siberia is a complicated place, and my Russian friends told me that it is precisely because you can barely see colors in the Siberian landscape why flowers are so popular. They import flowers from far-flung places and bring them to Siberia. Housewives love to buy flowers for their homes, husbands regularly buy flowers for their wives, a guy late for his date buys flowers as apology(yes, I actually saw a guy running like a track and fielder clutching a bunch of flowers)...Yes, Siberians love flowers.

Italy: Fruits and vegetables of all shapes and colors, you see them in Italian markets and street stalls. Of course they don't have our popular yellow mangoes, but we don't have their amazing olives.

Philippines: A country of contradictions, Asia's ailing man, Asia's drama queen. We don't live in a war zone, but yes, signs like these are normal.

A good read

2006-08-07T19:14:00.000+08:00

It's time to hear the silent majority, it's time for the moderates to be heared.

We Muslims have work to do
By SALIM MANSUR
Sat, June 10, 2006
The Toronto Sun

Muslim Canadians, as Muslims elsewhere in Western societies, have felt increasingly besieged for some time now, both from outside their community and from within.

This sense of isolation, of being misrepresented and misunderstood, will inevitably deepen as the full story unfolds of the arrests of 17 Toronto-area Muslims on terrorism charges.

But whose fault is this? Let us, Muslims, be brutally honest.

We have inherited a culture of denial, of too often refusing to acknowledge our own responsibility for the widespread malaise that has left most of the Arab-Muslim countries in economic, political and social disrepair. read more here
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And with that, my next entry will be back to regular life programming.

Relax, have fun!

2006-08-07T13:20:00.000+08:00

Yes, I have fun. I'm not always serious or morose or critical.

I miss my French classes. On our last day, we had a mini-costume party...wear a sports uniform.

We need to schedule a time to hang out again before everyone starts leaving the country by next month.

His mother's son.

2006-08-07T00:03:00.000+08:00

I am really really trying to manuever my blog towards its former lighter and more "normal" tone, but stories just keep popping up that I cannot resist but post or comment.

I promise that my next post will be musings on the daily life of a 20something urbanite. I'm gonna try my best to put some sort of a balance between the heavy and the light blog entries.

But first, here's another story that needs to be shared.

Israeli Military Service Unites Generations
Small Population and Frequent Wars Make for Shared Experience in Uniform

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, August 1, 2006;
Page A10

TALMEI MENASHE, Israel -- In the hours before he went to war, the family of Lt. Yair Cohen offered him time-tested advice around the breakfast table, some of it personal, some of it practical. Unlike the young soldier, they had been through this before.

"You're an officer now, so look after your soldiers, and always, always keep your eyes open," said his father, Yossi, who fought alongside two brothers in Israel's wars of 1967 and 1973 and was a 3-year-old child when his own father lost a leg to a land mine while fighting for the fledgling Jewish state in 1948.

"Oh, and you will get hot," he added, moments later. "Bring more water."
"That's not going to be what saves him," joked Yair's older brother, Eitan, who served in Lebanon eight years ago and had just been called up as a reservist in his brother's infantry unit. "Be safe," he said quietly. "Don't be a hero. I might see you up there soon."
Because of Israel's small population and frequent conflicts, war is an experience common to every generation, passed from fathers to sons in families such as the Cohens'.

Thousands of soldiers have made their way to Israel's front lines in recent days, including young conscripts serving compulsory three-year tours and the more seasoned reservists called up last week for the conflict with the radical Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah. Government officials said Monday that they planned to intensify the ground campaign underway in a clutch of small Lebanese border towns...read more here

I salute not just the brave young men of Israel for their dedication in defending their country's existence, but also their amazingly strong and resilient mothers whose hearts are broken repeatedly whenever they have to say goodbye to their beloved sons.

When I compare pictures of well-cared and fiercely loved Israeli boys and then pre-teen Palestinian or Iranian boys holding a rifle or lined up in a Hezbollah training camp, I just can't find an ounce of space in my heart to understand the minds and ideolgy of people who so loosely use the teachings and interpretation of jihad to intentionally encourage their sons to become martyrs. Aren't parents, especially mothers, programmed to protect their children at all costs?

If the Holocaust survivors went into that line of thinking, I wonder how many Germans would have been blown up. Fortunately, the destitute Jews thought otherwise and went off to make themselves smarter, stronger, and richer after they experienced the most inhumane of circumstances. I wonder if these extremists will ever get to figure that out before more jihadis and civilians are blown up.

Another round of "Israel, spawn of satan" public relations campaign

2006-08-06T21:30:00.000+08:00

I recieved a forwarded message today in my mail. Isn't this bias song-and-dance getting too old already?
Although you gotta admit, when Israel's enemies beg for pity and sympathy, they have already proven to be experts.

Palestinian Filmmakers, Artists and Cultural Workers Call for a Cultural Boycott of Israel
August 1, 2006

Dear Filmmakers & Artists,

During the past few weeks we have borne witness to the escalation of Israeli aggression into open war on both Palestine and Lebanon.With Israel's invasion of Gaza on June 27th, 2006, ministries and educational institutions have been destroyed, as has the plant that supplies nearly 50 percent of Gaza's electricity (the letter never explained why Israel went inside Gaza). Bridges, roads, dozens of homes, and hundreds of dunams of agricultural land have also been destroyed. Sixty-four elected Palestinian legislators, cabinet ministers and officials have been detained without charge.

On July 12th, Israel brought its campaign of collective punishment and military violence to Lebanon, with "Operation Just Reward" (And if you're clueless about the middle east situation, you wouldn't know how this happened, the letter never explained why). A complete assault, via land, sea, and air, of the Lebanese population and infrastructure has led to total destruction. In just 3 weeks, almost 1 million Lebanese civilians have been displaced and the death toll has reached 900 Lebanese and 160 Palestinians, with a UN count saying one-third of the dead are children.Additionally, in violation of international law, Israel continues to occupy Gaza, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Syria's Golan Heights. In violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel continues to hold 9,600 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centers without due process, among them 130 Palestinian women and 388 children, many of them taken from their homes in the middle of the night.

We, the undersigned Palestinian filmmakers and artists, appeal to all artists and filmmakers of good conscience around the world to cancel all exhibitions and other cultural events that are scheduled to occur in Israel, to mobilize immediately and not allow the continuation of the Israeli offensive to breed complacency. Like the boycott of South African art institutions during apartheid, cultural workers must speak out against the current Israeli war crimes and atrocities.

We call upon the International community to join us in the boycott of Israeli film festivals, Israeli public venues, and Israeli institutions supported by the government, and to end all cooperation with these cultural and artistic institutions that to date have refused to take a stand against the Occupation, the root cause for this colonial conflict.We call upon you to take a stand in order to appeal to the Israeli people to give up their silence, to abandon their apathy, and to face up to their responsibility in the destruction and killing their elected government is wreaking. To the Lebanese and Palestinians terrorized by this Army's planes, bombs and missiles, this silence, apathy and lack of action from Israelis, are regarded as complicit in the ongoing war crimes, as for those Israeli artists, academics and intellectuals who continue to serve in the Israeli army they are directly implicated in these crimes.We call upon you to give way to action that would replace words spoken too often and forgotten too quickly. We call upon you to make your voices heard in calling for an end to this bloodshed and an end to this oppression that has lasted too long.To endorse or answer this call for a cultural boycott of Israel please send an email with your name, position and country to pal.filmmakers@gmail.com

Signatures (Alphabetical) 1. Adila Laidi, Lecturer 2. Anan Brakat, Filmmaker, Arab Cinema School 3. Annemarie Jacir, Filmmaker 4. Azza El-Hassan, Filmmaker 5. Bahia Munem, Filmmaker 6. Dahna Abourahme, Filmmaker 7. Dima Abu Ghoush, Filmmaker 8. Emily Jacir, Artist 9. Enas Muthaffar, Filmmaker 10. Faten Farhat, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center 11. Ghada Terawi, Filmmaker 12. Hanna Atallah, Filmmaker 13. Hanna Elias, Filmmaker 14. Hany Abu-Assad, Filmmaker 15. Haya Al-Jareedy, Filmmaker 16. Hayan Charara, Writer 17. Hazim Bitar, Filmmaker 18. Iman Aoun, Ishtar Theatre 19. Iman Hammouri, Popular Art Centre 20. John Halaka, Artist 21. Juliano Mer Khamis, Actor & Director 22. Kais Al-Zubaidi, Filmmaker 23. Kamal Boullata, Artist 24. Karma Abu-Sharif, Writer 25. Khadijeh.H.Abu-Ali, Filmmaker 26. Khaled Jubran, Musician 27. Larissa Sansour, Artist 28. Leila Sansour, Filmmaker 29. Liana Saleh, Filmmaker 30. Lina Bokhary, Artist 31. Mahmoud Massad, Filmmaker 32. Mai Masri, Filmmaker 33. Mazen Saade, Filmmaker & Writer 34. Michel Khleifi, Filmmaker 35. Miguel Littin, Filmmaker 36. Nabila Irshaid, Artist 37. Nahed Awwad, Filmmaker 38. Najwa Najjar, Filmmaker 39. Nizar Hassan, Filmmaker 40. Omar Barghouti, Dance choreographer 41. Omar Qattan, Filmmaker 42. Osama Al-Zain, Filmmaker 43. Rana Bishara, Artist 44. Rania Elias- Khoury, Yabous Productions 45. Rashid Masharawi, Filmmaker 46. Reem Fadda, Palestinian Association of Contemporary Art 47. Riyad Deis, Filmmaker 48. Rowan Al Faqih, Filmmaker 49. Saed Andoni, Filmmaker 50. Saleh Bakri, Actor 51. Salim Abu Jabal, Writer 52. Salwa Mikdadi, Curator 53. Samia A. Halaby, Artist 54. Sobhi al-Zobaidi, Filmmaker 55. Suleiman Mansour, Artist 56. Suzy Salamy, Filmmaker 57. Taghreed Mishael, Filmmaker 58. Ula Tabari, Filmmaker 59. Vera Tamari, Artist 60. Wafa Jamil, Filmmaker ------ End of Forwarded Message

What's next? Boycott Hollywood movies becasue Hollywood is ran by Jews?

The anatomy of a hit series

2006-08-06T12:00:00.000+08:00

(left to right) Dr. Webber, Dr. Bailey, Dr. Karev, Dr. Stevens, Dr. O'Malley, Dr. Yang, Dr. Burke, Meredith (too stupid for a surgical intern, can't call her doctor), and, alright, Dr. Sheperd.

My blog may be looking schizophrenic these days. I've been writing a lot about politics and current events when this blog was initially created as a sort of travelogue/personal diary. Prior to the Israeli conflict, I was only writing bits about Philippine politics, but mostly I touched on less serious rantings, like traffic and brain dead celebrities in this country.

But you can't hide your personality especially as a blog progresses and develops. So yeah, my brain is a clutter of mundane, and fluff, pragmatic, and serious. There you go, so not to confuse people anymore.

Today I'm inspired to write about a series I've been hooked on watching for the past two days. I've finished season 2 of the series "Grey's Anatomy." I haven't bought the season 1 series on dvd yet, but I suppose I'll be doing that soon.

Here's a short summary of Grey's Anatomy:

Grey's Anatomy is a dramatic story about a group of new surgical interns fighting it out and figuring it out in one of the country's most competitive residency programs. The group of five all battle the job, each other and life on a daily basis. Despite the cut-throat atmosphere and relentless stress the five manage to form friendships and grow with each other. They are all young, sexually charged and motivated. . .leading to a deep and passionate story.

Despite this thread of similarity, all five interns are unique. Meredith, a quietly ambitious doctor is the daughter of a famous surgeon. She hides the fact that her mother is ailing from Alzhimer's and it eats her up. Christina is the definition of 'motivated' and 'mean', constantly vying for the top spot amonst the group. Isobel a self-conscious girl from a small town grew up poor and put herself through med school with her modeling, which becomes a source of embarrasment. George is the goofy guy next door who desperately wants the attention of the girls but is hopelessly awkward in their presence. Alex, although handsome, is as arrogant as they come and gives new meaning to the phrase 'God Complex'.

The team of doctors who 'mentors' this group is just as diverse and troublesome. Dr. Derek Shepherd is the hospital's new super-star surgeon. He soon finds out that a one-night stand, Meredith, is one of the hospital's new interns. Despite the hospital's policy he decides to continue his relationship with Meredith. Shepherd's success threatens Dr. Preston Burke, who views the hotshot doctor as an obstacle in his climb to the top of the hospital. Burke is an amazing surgeon that seems to thrive on this conflict. He's ruthless with the new doctors but in the end wants to help them. The interns get a good dose of tough love from their daily drill-master, Dr. Miranda Bailey the senior resident, AKA "the Nazi." She has a love for junk food and for snapping at interns. All the doctors report to the chief of surgery, Dr. Richard Webber who has cautioned the interns that some won't make the cut in his program. At times, he has a hard time treating Meredith as 'another intern' considering he knew her as her mother's daughter, a world renowned surgeon.
source: http://www.greysanatomyonline.com/show.php

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My comments:

Favorite couple:
Christina Yang and Preston Burke: Just because Preston Burke is a dream partner and any bitch like Christina is lucky to have him.

Least Favorite couple: Derek Sheperd and Meredith Grey. Sheperd has no balls, a total wuss and a two-timing scum. Grey, the lead character of the show, is colorless, spineless, and clingy. They deserve each other though.

Favorite male character: Preston Burke. Smart, sexy, sweet, and knows how to cook.
Favorite female character: Dr. Bailey probably. She's a tough cookie, but not icey like Christina, or stupid like Meredith, or too emotional like Izzie.

Favorite guest character: Dr. Mark Sloan, aka, Dr. McSteamy. He's the man Addison (Sheperd's wife) had an affair with and was Sheperd's bestfriend before he caught McSteamy in bed with Addison. Super hot, and makes no balls about what he wants--Addison. He's taller, bigger, more chiseled, and more decisive than that wussy Dr. Sheperd. I'd leave Sheperd's ass for him any day.

Cultural exchange and understanding

2006-08-06T00:01:00.000+08:00

War in the Middle East is not the only thing in my mind. I think about what's happening here in my country a lot. Truthfully, just as fiercely as Israel protects her citizens, the Philippines is doing just the opposite--journalists, leftist, and activists are falling like flies since this current administration cheated its way into office. I wonder what western bleeding hearts will think about a government of a "democratic" country with such a high record of extra-judicial killings and only 2nd to Iraq for the highest number of murdered journalists. Would they condemn a country so brutally for protecting its own when faced with danger from different fronts, when there are countries who are supposedly members of the free world whose citizens are being murdered freely with no justice in sight.

Anyway, lets get back to having a normal life. I went out with old friends and new friends from Japan last night. We had dinner and desert and exchanged stories about our culture and gave each other mini-language lessons. Nice, fun, and peaceful. Two different cultures, forming new friendships. If only it always works this way.

Islamic extremists to the world: "Shut up or else..."

2006-08-05T16:24:00.000+08:00

"Do you know anything about what's happening in Israel and Lebanon right now?" I asked my good friend Nadia, the executive director of the American Chamber Foundation of the Philippines, the first Amcham Foundation in Asia.
Let me tell you, Nads is very smart, articulate, well-travelled, and political--well, political about local issues atleast. How can she not be, she's the executive director of a non-profit organization and a former MCP of AIESEC.
But her reply to my question was a shake of the head, "Nope."

I turn to Juvy, the head of Fundraising for AmCham, "What about you Juvy?"

She shakes her head as well,"Nope, but I do know Israel is a beautiful place to visit. My friends who work there say its amazing to be in the place where Jesus walked and lived."

Thus, the gist of what most Filipinos think of when you mention Israel. For majority of the population of the predominant Catholic nation, Israel = Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Jesus. For the small group that can afford to tour, Israel is a place for pilgrimage of the Christian faithful, a place everyone is afraid might be destroyed before they have the chance to visit Jesus' birthplace.
For me, the tiniest of the minority, Israel is not a destination for work or for pilgrimage, Israel is a place where men from different religion through the centuries and till the present, die and kill for.

This just came in:

Southeast Asian jihadis dispatched for global war on Israel
Natalie O'Brien and Stephen Fitzpatrick
August 04, 2006
The Australian

HUNDREDS of Southeast Asian suicide bombers have been dispatched around the world with a mission to attack Jewish interests in countries that support Israel such as Britain, the US and possibly Australia.
The radical Jakarta-based Asian Muslim Youth Movement gave The Australian details of the plot yesterday, claiming it was being funded in part with cash donations from two unnamed Australian-Indonesian businessmen.
The leader of the AMYM, Islamist author Suaib Bidu, warned that thousands more jihadis were preparing to join the resistance against Israel and die as"martyrs".
Mr Bidu said a "passing-out" ceremony for more than 3000 jihadis would be held tomorrow in the Indonesian city of Pontianak on the large northern island of Kalimantan.
But only about 200 would be sent immediately to targets aboard, with the remainder being active supporters...read more here

Now we have a possible theory as to why Europe either supports or remains silent on the issue of Islamic extremists all over the world. I suppose their plan is, as long as they don't provoke the martyrs and wanna-be martyrs, their corner of the world is safe from these jihadists. Israel is considered western, and western countries work on the presumption that Israel operates by western rules. Even if Europe and the UN condemn and criticize Israel, they are assured that Israel or the Jews will not send a suicide bomber to the UN office in Belgium or to a chic Parisian cafe in Champs Elysee, in retaliation to their support or tolerance to Islamic extremists.

As a footnote, fighting is once again intesifying in the Southern-most part of the Philippines between the military and the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf.

The war from OUR front

2006-08-03T11:20:00.000+08:00

As visitors here probably deduced, I am more pragmatic and even cynical when it comes to war--or issues that are close to home like poverty, Catholicism, and terrorism. I live in a country that either numbs you, makes you cynical, makes you indifferent, forces you to leave, or at the far and low end of the scale, keeps you hopeful. These issues are not just seen in our television or read in global headlines; these issues are in our local news, happening to our people, and not somewhere thousands of miles away. Welcome to the 3rd world.

Lets forget (as though its possible) the crisis in Israel and Lebanon right now and take a more up close and personal look on the crisis. How has this affected the Philippines, a country thousands of miles away, a predominantly Catholic country with a Muslim minority and barely any Jews (except probably those who work in the Israeli Embassy). Aside from economics (rising oil prices), what do Filipinos care about the war right?

Oh, we care a lot. Our main concern has no direct relation to the people involved in the war, but with our people who are in trapped or are fleeing Lebanon. Since our media does not have any political interest in creating a bias angle in delivering the news, Filipinos will read about the war in newspapers or watch it on TV without much of the drama that CNN, and especially BBC, like to show. The only thing close to emotional or fiery that I've seen so far in local TV is the debate between the Lebanese consul and Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines when they we guests in a news magazine show. Aside from that, the news are more focused on the overseas Filipino workers (OFW).

What stories do we hear from them? 1.) our incompetent government is at it again.
OWWA (Overseas Workers Welfare Administration) and the Philippine Ambassador to Lebanon are slinging accusations against each other because of their inability to assist and bring home the overseas workers who are trapped in Lebanon and Syria. Where are the funds? Everyone is asking where is the money that is needed to help the OFWs? Last year there was a reported 10billion peso budget from OWWA, but recently, the official report states that it's actually 8billion. What happened to the 2billion pesos after just 1 year? And if they have all that money, why are the OFWs still stuck and starving in Lebanon and Syria? Why is the Philippine Ambassador in Lebanon saying that they are running out of funds and OWWA has not sent him the repatriation funds?
I think the OWWA officials would not have such a hard time searching for the funds if they just look for it in their personal bank accounts.

2.) OFW horror stories. When you're from a third world country, enerygy and sympathy for international issues seem distant or very specific because we don't have the time or inclination to think about other people's problem when ours is big enough to last a lifetime. What we read in our local newspapers and watch in our local channels are stories of abuse, harrassment and neglect our OFWs have experienced in the hands of their Lebanese employees. Rarely do we hear stories from our countrymen that say they were treated well, or atleast,decently.
Yes, bleeding hearts from first worlds like Europe can cry, "Look at the poor civilians being bombed to heaven's gate by evil Israel," but for us in our little 3rd world corner, we hear personal stories from thousands of our people who served and lived with these Lebanese civilians as househelps. They tell us stories of abuse, of being locked in a room, not given food, unpaid wages, rape, sleeping with the family dog,
and death even before and during the conflict. When the families of these thousands of OFWs hear their stories and then see the news international media presents on TV, I wonder how many of these families find sympathy for the Hezbollah militants, sympathizers, and adult Lebanese civilians. But I guess that situation wouldn't be possible because poor families don't have cable channels and they watch their news in local tv, which has no obvious sympathy for anyone except for their ratings.
Before anyone gets his panties bunched, I am not saying because thousands of Filipinos were abused by Lebanese civillains, we automatically dislike the Lebanese or we automatically sympathize with the Israelis. My point is, if you're poor, you don't have the luxury of analyzing an international political issue nor do you have the resources to research it. You just want to have a decent life and your opinons are mostly shaped by personal experience. I'm sure there are OFWs who were fortunate to have good employers, but because media is more interested in provocative news, what we see often on TV are the horror stories and tales of abuse, much like what CNN and BBC would like to dish out to the rich western countries-- nations that have the luxury and the resources to form opinons and implement global policies.

Are these reality, the unmitigated truth? No, but since that's all we see, we eventually accept it as such.

So sick.

2006-07-31T12:30:00.000+08:00

source: http://www.drybonesblog.blogspot.com/

So sick.

I'm sick of the world crying out for the innocent civilian lives that Israel allegedly targets while Hezbollah is left relatively sweet smelling. Sure Hezbollah started this war, and sure Hezbollah uses civilians as cover, but since they didn't personally shoot the Lebanese civilians themselves, big bad Israel is to blame for every civilian casualty because they have bigger and smarter missiles.

Something is certainly wrong with this picture. Hezbollah brought war to Lebanon's doorstep, but Israel is held responsible for all Lebanese civilian deaths this war has wrought? I wonder if the world has fogotten about the kidnapped and murdered Israeli soldiers, and the people in Northern Israel being attacked by Hezbollah rockets. I guess now its Israel's misfortune that they protect and are capable of defending their civilians to the teeth and therefore experienced less casualties compared to Lebanon? Is the world waiting for hundreds of Israelis to be bombed and killed before they understand that Hezbollah will sacrifice Lebanese women, children and the elderly to win at all cost?

Bleeding hearts living in the comforts of their free world homes are exactly what Hezbollah wants and needs. To get more sympathy from them could mean more civilians will be sacrificed by Hezbollah.

The PR war in the Middle East

2006-07-30T19:37:00.000+08:00

The tone of my future entries may probably change a bit because I can no longer stay silent about the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. I support Israel. I always have. There, it has been said. I finally decided to write about the conflict because of an interview that I can only classify as harrasmment by CNN anchor person Shihab Rattansi to an IDF spokesman a few hours ago. Rattansi was unprofessional, emotional, and his tone was antagonistic to the IDF spokesman. Did Rattansi have illusions of grandeur thinking he was Larry King and he had his own talkshow where he had free reign to dish out personal opinons? Wake up Rattansi, you are an anchorman! You deliver news and not color your reporting with your oh-so-important personal thoughts and feelings. If I wanted emotional, I'd wait for my period so I can start PMSing!

In this recent conflict, Israel has been (as usual) losing the international public relations war. With ridiculously transparent anti-Israel reporting, BBC is redundant to watch unless you want to be spoonfed on why you should hate Israel. But that is nothing new, Israel has always been vilified and see as the bully, the former David who has now become a Goliath, and allegedly behaves as one. The recent conflict has the American government standing by Israel, and the EU and the UN (suprise!) on the other.

What are Israel andHezbollah fighting for?

Hezbollah wants Israel, a soverign country, to be exterminated, erased from the Middle East map.
Israel wants Hezbollah, and not the soverign state of Lebanon, defanged and completely disarmed to stop them from kidnapping Israeli soldiers and firing missiles to Northern Israel.

The big question:

Who started the recent Middle East crisis?

I think there is little doubt that Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, was the aggressor, not the mighty Israel. If it were the other way around, and Lebanon was the military and economic power whose land was crossed and whose soldiers were killed and kidnapped by a known terrorist organization in Israel, I doubt a powerful Lebanon will just negotiate with the terrorists that have already done the same thing even prior to this July 2006 kidnap and killing. What, Israel is just going to negotiate with Hezbollah everytime Hezbolla decides to kidnap Israeli soldiers or launch katyusha missiles to Nahariya? WHy don't Israel just put a sign on their soldiers that reads ---> "2 (soldiers) for the price of 1(Hamas or Hezbolla prisoner) to make it things even more convenient for these rogue organizations?"

Israel has not occupied SOuthern Lebanon since 2000, yet Hezbollah still claims that it is exists because it is defending Lebanon from Israeli occupation. How can you fight an invading army that is not there? You draw them in, that's what you do. You create a situation where they are forced to enter SOuthern Lebanon so that you can cry "Invader! And we, Hezbollah will protect you helpless Lebanese civillians from these Israeli invaders!"

So how exactly will Hezbollah defend the Lebanese civilians? They do so by hiding in their homes, launching missiles from their kitchens, blending with the civilians so that even if they are identified, their proximity to the civilians will inevitably make the civilians human shields and create a bigger collateral damage on civilians, which is precisely what Hezbollah wants the world to see. The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, has already accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel. But I bet you didn't catch that on BBC or CNN.

When I see the images of civilian casualties in SOuthern Lebanon, Beirut, and Tyre, I know that there are same images in Northern Israel, but you will not see much of that in BBC (aka Beirut Broadcasting COmpany). Israel's mantra is to be strong, and never again be seen as helpless and weak after the slaughter of the holocaust. That is probably why instead of seeing a wailing bloodied Israeli woman in the news, you will see ambulances and volunteers rushing to the scene, and whisking away victims of missile attacks to the nearest hospital. Instead of young men rushing to the streets with guns and crying for Holy War against the enemy, wanting to be martyrs for the cause of jihad, you will see young Israeli soldiers silently leaving for battle, but not forgetting to leave a message to their mothers if the camera pans to them. None of them wants to die so that they will be rewarded by God for fighting the enemy of Judaism; they fight so that Israel can live.

Whatever is said about Israel, they did not instigate the conflict, nor do they use women and children as human shields then invite CNN cameras so the world can see what big bad Israel has done to innocent people. Hezbollah may be heroes for the economically deprived Shi'ite Muslims, but I wonder what the rest of Lebanon's population composed of Sunnis, Christians, and Druze think of the Hezbollah?

The truth is, Lebanese civilian's blood is in Hezbollah's hands, not Israel.

A song to the brave

2006-07-30T14:10:00.000+08:00

source: reuters

source:www.arches.uga.edu/~alan21/

To the brave, valiant and loyal sons and daughters of Israel:

WALK ON
lyrics: U2

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring...
And love is not the easy thing...
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t steal it
No they can’t even feel it
Walk on, walk on...
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on
What you've got they can't deny it
Can’t sell it, can’t buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home... hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one
Home... I can’t say where it is but I know I'm going home
That's where the hurt is

I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you steal
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress up
All that you scheme...

be safe.

Friends and lovers

2006-07-28T13:09:00.000+08:00

It was just over a year ago when I was with my friends Katya and her very nice and very intelligent man Sergey in Novosibirsk. It was autumn when we all got together in Akademgorodok to enjoy a favorite Russian past time--nature tripping. The Russians do love their forests and lakes and they love camping and visiting their dachas over the weekends or during summer.
Even though I'm a true blue beach girl, I learned to appreciate the beauty of Siberian forests, mountains, and lakes.

A YEAR LATER:
My girl Katya and Sergey are still together, still having a great time. I'm happy for both of you, especially Katya who was afraid she'd only attract jerks. You found a keeper this time Katya!

The dacha lifestyle, making "shashlyk" or BBQ.

When in Russia, wear fur!

French connection

2006-07-27T15:23:00.000+08:00

Pretending to be good students. Classemates from Alliance, Gian (fab hairstyle), Isabel (Fab brainiac), Robin (your body is fab enough girl!), Ruthie (Fab...), and fab me.

Salut !
Je suis philippine et j'habite à Manille. Je suis étudiant "Alliance Francaise du Manille".

Ok, the truth is, after 2 months of studying basic French, I still suck at the language. I need more practice. The teenagers in class are just killing us "older" people. They're like sponges, and one particular girl vacationing from Germany is just Frenching all over the place. Isabel is just damn good.

Gian loves Ruthie!

Who art thou Filipina?

2006-07-24T17:02:00.000+08:00

Asians are generally believed to be conservative compared to their western counterparts. When I say Asians, I include the entire continent from east, west and south. It doesn't matter if you are Indian, Malay, Japanese, or Filipino, if you're Asian, you're generally more conservative and traditional than the Americans or Europeans and Aussies.

In Japan, different occassions may call for different types of speaking, the informal and formal way. This is the same in Korea. In the Philippines, we are also conscious of showing respect especially to elders so we add the "respectful" words "po" and "opo" when we address someone who is significantly older. Like the Koreans and Japanese, older men and women are given titles as signs of respect. Sex, specially pre-marital sex, is still a risque subject and not something that can be brought up casually with older people, definitely not among relatives, and never with parents.

But even amongst Asians, there are still cultures that are more conservative and traditional than others. My Japanese friends who interned in Asian Development Bank got used to the casual meetings that Filipinos practice where introductions are done by giving people's first names. When he had to make introductions with other Japanese, he had to program his brain to revert it back to formal speech because he got used to the Pinoy's relax and casual manner.

After 300 years in the convent and 50 years in Hollywood, the Filipino national identity can be easily described as confuse. Three centuries under Spanish rule and half a century of Americans will play on anybody's self-esteem, much more a country's sense of identity. So, we are probably not as conservative or as sure of our identity as Koreans, Chinese, Thais, or Japanese.

There is this myth about Filipina women where we are supposed to be living up to the image: "dalagang Filipina" a title implying many underlying facts and fiction. I assume this depiction of a Filipina was the ideal for good Catholic girls.

Dalagang Filipina fact:
1.) Majority of Filipina women still see themselves marrying one day. (I'm not even sure if they want to, but it's expected by society)
2.) Casual sex and even premarital sex are still generally frowned upon or openly dissaproved.

Dalagang Filipina fiction
1.) We only "give" our virginities to our future husband.
2.) We have to be courted for a long period, inclusive of family approval, before we allow ourselves to get into a relationship.
3.) We dont think and talk about sex often.
4.) Our men treat us like fragile flowers (bullshit! I'm a girl, but there are no gender demarcations in my home, and I do what my dad (mostly) demands from me. My female colleagues work full-time and still has to keep the house, kids, and husband happy.)
5.) We all want children someday or atleast think they're all adorable.

Of course, I am a born and bred a city girl and I cannot speak for the more conservative and traditional women from the countryside or "province" as Filipinos identify people not reared in highly urbanized areas. BUT even for those from the province, item #4 is applicable. Women from the countryside are sturdy and strong and they keep home, hearth and family together even under difficult conditions.

Often, Filipina women are brought up and taught to be "mahinhin" and "pino" or pure and delicate. These are the virtues that Filipino society accepts and men supposedly want. I find this utter bullshit at this day and age.

As a 3rd world country working to catch up to its Asian neighbors with emerging economies, women have no time to act pure and delicate. Women need to work alongside the men to augment the family income and send their 5.1 children to school.
Womanizing, two-faced sleazeballs are often forgiven and sometimes expected in the "macho" culture of the Philippines. This is another reason why we can't do the fluffy act because Filipinas need to be strong to either crush their macho husband's two-timing balls or steadfastly hold the family together for the sake of their 5.1 children while her husband's pecker wonders about and sleeps in another woman's bed. Whereas an American woman would divorce her husband's ass and demand half of his assets for cheating on her, Filipinas still often look the other way. Frankly, I choose kicking him out, but what does a urbanized single girl know about bringing up a family right? Am I too liberated or selfish to nurture a family? This much I know, my hypothetical children will lose their respect for their mother for playing the martyr and still hate their greaseball of a father when they find out. So, what's the use of maintaining a happy family act in that kind of situation?
Oh of course, we're Catholics (but that's another story).

No, it's not true, we aren't as mahinhin or pino as before(like 40 years ago). We can't afford to be, and maybe many of us DONT WANT TO BE.

So with that introduction, I give you the controversial clip of Korean actor Lee Dong wook's visit to a local tv show when he was here in Manila over the weekend. Most of his fans are up in arms because they feel that the show misrepresented the true essense of a Filipina who is sweet, pure, and refined. Uh huh, is our president in anyway "pure and refined?"

Controversial clip #1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJc13EuLvDQ

Frankly, I think that its universal for pretty girls who always got used to men falling for them to try their charms on a man they find attractive. What does that have to do with being a "dalagang Filipina"?There are different styles and ways, but women ALWAYS want to be noticed by attractive men--that's why species survive. The women in the show obviously think they're pretty and fun enough not to embarrass their guest and even make him laugh while keeping his fans charged with envious excitment.

So maybe Korean women or Indian or Taiwanese women would not be as bold when they want to be noticed by an attractive guy. SO what? Just because we are more expressive and less shy than some Asian girls, it doesn't make us cheap. I'm reacting to the hostilities of fans who are so afraid of ruining an image, as opposed to accepting reality.

e.g. comments from youtube:

ruinu (2 days ago)
shit!(sorry 4 d bad comment)...man those girlz are such flirts, im so embarassed 4 them, how janelle & mariel were acting in front of dong wook was...1 word "yuck!"...d both of them were definitely flirting w/ LDW....

dorjilee (1 day ago)
lee dong wook is sooo cute!!!ang landi talga nila mariel and janel!!! hindi cute ung mga pinaggagawa nila. (mariel and janel are such flirts. What they did wasn't cute at all)it's really so embarassing!!!yucks!!!we all know naman na koreans are conservative (...and then they even asked that luningning to dance like that!) tapos pinasayaw pa nila ng ganun c luningning!!!duh... pangbeerhouse ung sayaw nya, hindi pang noontime show!!!! (her dancing belongs in a beerhouse and not a noontime show)

Geostars (1 day ago)
Really stupid and embarassingly bad. The only thing that would improve it is if the squirming "hosts" got naked and sucked him off.

LDWaddict (1 day ago)
i hate mariel very much..napaka landi..feeling maganda.. lalo na si luningning, napaka pangit naman.. sana mamatay na silang dalawa, mga malandi.buti nalang si janel dadil hindi masyadong ma ladi...(i hate mariel very much, she is such a skank and she thinks she's so beautiful. That Luningning is so ugly, I hope they both die, skanks! Atleast Janel wasn't as bad)

If most Filipinas are really delicate and sweet, then I wouldn't think that bashing the tv hostesses is hypocritical. But come on, Filipinos are crafty and creative in circumveting procedures to get ahead, that applies to both men and women(just look at queues in this country--there aren't any because people just cut in line), so with this behavior, how do could we still propagate this belief of being sweet, shy, and refined? Another thing, the general masses idolize a tv hostess borne of wealth and power (our equivalent to America's Kennedys) who managed to drag her family's name down the mud with numerous affairs with married men and a media announcement of contracting STD from a married lover--she certainly does not fit the bill of a dalagang Filipina. But Filipinos love her irreverence.

Dalagang Filipina?

GIVE.ME.A.BREAK.

GMA speaks to the nation

2006-07-24T16:49:00.000+08:00

President Glorian Macapagal Arroyo delivers her 2006 "State of the Nation Address"(SONA) today.

Do you believe her?

The Middle East Crisis

2006-07-21T15:07:00.000+08:00

I admit that I have always been fascinated with the Israel story. I've read a good number of books and watched more news and shows about the Middle East situation than any of my contemporaries or people I know who do not work in embassies, and even I am sometimes perplexed where my interest is coming from.

Because of the volatility and sensitivity of the issue, I did not want to make any hard comments or write about the ongoing Middle east crisis. Unfortunately, I have decided to break that promise just this once because of the statement made by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah during an Al-Jazeerah interview:

"Only "indirect negotiation" will bring about the return of the two kidnapped soldiers, Nasrallah said.
"Even if the whole world comes down, they will not be able to return the two Israeli soldiers unless we have an indirect negotiation," he said.
After the soldiers' abduction, Hezbollah demanded Israel open negotiations on a prisoner exchange. Israel rejected the demand, saying it would encourage more kidnappings."

Does Hezbollah plan on regularly kidnapping Israeli soldiers inside Israeli territory until the Israeli government agrees to their demands of prisoner trade? Do they actually believe that they can blackmail a soverign government (although one they do not recognize) like Israel and the government will simply give in to their demands when they are viewed as terrorists?
Even if Israel did agree to a trade, their action will serve as precedent for future kidnappings where enemies of their government and people will take the example of Hezbollah and start abducting Israelis in wholesale to blackmail their government.

I know this may sound naive given the delicate history and relations of Israel and Palestine and Israel's Arab neighbors, but kidnap for trade of prisoners should never, in theory atleast, come to pass in any part of the world, in any circumstance.

Who's your country's Paris Hilton?

2006-07-20T15:58:00.000+08:00

At first she was just an anomaly. A spoiled daughter of a rich and well-known American family who wanted to become famous. She didn't finish highschool, loves to contribute to the world economy by spending her family's money, parties like a rocker, and has amazingly thick skin--thick enough to withstand any cold weather--evidence of her propensity for skanky clothes at any time of the year. Oh, and up until today, she has no known talent of the conventinal kind.

She's Paris Hilton, and she managed to build the Paris Inc. brand without needing to starve, work day jobs, or audition (skanking, stripping, and shagging are skills to get you in showbiz, but you need more than those to become a star). She doesn't need to know how to act, to sing, to dance, to write music, to design...she just needs to show up infront of the media and act outrageous.

And people lap it up because she's an heiress and a Hilton first before she's the cheap Barbie doll caricature that she has painted herself.

Many people who were brought up with a sense of entitlement are often compelled to act outrageous, thinking they can get away with anything (Hello Brandon Davis). And so America has gifted the world with another strange anomaly; when the powerful economic sector of teens and prepubescent girls(not to mention some gays) started to aspire to become Paris when they grow up, America has produced a pop icon only America has the capacity to create.

Yes, although Paris' best acting scene in her debut movie was the scene when she was finally butchered, her album may be heavy on accompaniment and thin on vocals, she may often flash her nips and sometimes scare us with her crotch exposure, she may be the biggest client of smugglers of rare species of animals, and she gets paid bazillion amount of dollars for showing up and waving to her public in "charity" events, Paris Hilton is still raking the bucks and the media milleage for doing what she loves to do--being the center of attention through whatever means possible.

Pinoy version

Her name is Heart Evangelista and she was thus named because she was born on February 14, the day of hearts for the sentimental pinoys (aaawwww). She also comes from a wealthy family that owns a chain of restuarants all over the country.
She's got a pretty face for sure, a face considered elite or sosyal in local term and, combined with her wealthy background, a rarity in local showbiz circle. Sure there are a lot of pretty mestiza faces in showbiz, but few look classy and fewer (if at all) actually belong to "polite society" like ms. Valentine's family over there.
Like Paris, Heart has made a career in marketing her brand identity. She's got no known talent to speak of, but her strenght is that her cutesy and sweet image can sell products from shampoo to ink refillers.

What's the big deal right? Filipino actors (atleast the new generation) are not exactly brimming with talent that can compete internatioanlly-- heck, not even regionally-- so what's the deal with Heart?

Well she's probably the biggest earner in terms of endorsements as well as being one of the least talented and braindead celebrities out there (which is saying A LOT).

Let me count the ways:

Well, she's worked as a VJ in a local music channel even though she doesn't know how to ad lib or even speak straight english. For a girl who hawks her image of being "manor born," the prerequisite of fluency in English has been lost to her. She cannot complete a thought or a sentence entirely in English or Tagalog. I remember the shameful episode of seeing her interview "The Black eyed Peas" and there would be consistent dead air once the guests have answered her prepared questions since spontenous follow-up questions from Heart would be long time coming.
She's calls herself an actress, but she might as well stand infront of class and read from a poem based on her line delivery. Damn, she always plays the preeny/needy girl you wanna smack in the head to see if gray matter actually comes out from her ears.
She can't sing, but she can bat her lashes; she can't host because her brain doesn't work fast enough for live television, but she was a regular host for a Sunday noontime show where teenagers can legally flaunt their wares without the parents being slapped with child labor.

Like Paris, I consider Heart a venomous influence to young girls. In a 3rd world country where instant celebrity means instant solution to poverty, a rich, pretty, but talentless and silly girl has become an icon of young girls. She has the hypocritical gal to become the endorser of college when at 21, she has not even pursued higher education. Where girls should be encouraged to go pursue an education, she likes to talk about her priviliged background, being brought up as "gastadora" (shopaholic).
Her lightweight talent is completely opposite to her passion in protecting her sweet image. Her handlers know that image alone brings her the millions, and without it, she has no skills to sustain her as backup. So inspite of years and years of being an "actress," her roles are basically the same--the sweet girl that any man wants to bring home to mom (gotta sustain the fantasy for her product consumers). As an actress, her biggest role this year is the damsel in distress of a local superhero who gets his power from a sword, a cut-rate reprisal of a classic Filipino fantasy film.

Inspite of the elite trappings, watch 3 minutes of her interview and it's easy to see that her reality is local showbiz where dreams are fleeting, fantasy makes money, and talents are few. One of her "Paris-like" comments was that she loves her new boyfriend because he's "pinoy na pinoy" and because of him, she is improving her Tagalog. She can't speak the local language even though she was born and raised here, though when she opens her mouth, she can't speak fluent english as well. Does that mean she has permanent verbal diarrhea?

Of course, who cares if you don't make sense and you don't have a real acting career when preening is much more lucrative? What difference does it make if you can't act even though you've been in showbusiness since your pre-teens ,when an acting award is not going to buy you the latest Louis Vuitton bag? Heart certainly has made her choice.

So, who's your country's Paris Hilton?

Edit:

It's a no brainer why I'm crushing on this man big time (even if he's vertically challenged)

"Talent survives and remains while beauty is diluted."
-Gael Bernal Garcia-

How can you not love him? He has both in equal amount and a large dose of intelligence as well, and he utilizes all of them! You either love him or hate him for being such a tamale caliente.

Hot child in the city

2006-07-17T21:45:00.000+08:00

So, my second date with my city took me farther from home. SM Mall of Asia is about 15km from my house, while Pasig City, where I met a longtime friend, is about 22km from my house. Why am I so conscious about the distance? Well, I live in the suburbs and driving to different parts of the city during weekends can sometimes feel like a chore because you're already happily snug in your quiet little corner away from the noise and traffic and then you have to brave the Manila obstacle course again.

Anyway, enough of whining about driving, lets get back to my date.

I met my friend for lunch in Podium Department store. It's a snazzy high end department store where people who just want to sit down over coffee and have a conversation can actually find a quiet enough place to stay. That's a rare commodity here in the city.

My friend has become a scrawny tall thing after a year of not seeing each other. She told me she's busy as ever and she's in the process of expanding her preschool business and would soon be opening some franchise branches in the country. It's no wonder why the girl looks like she's about to keel over. We caught up on our personal lives and she announced that she is now the proud aunt of a niece from her younger sister, and a nephew from her financial whiz younger brother.
"Everyone's getting hitched or getting pregnant," I observed.
"I know, so did you meet any hot man in Russia?" she asked excitedly.
"Nope."
"Whatabout Europe?"
"I saw a cute guy while riding the metro in Vienna," I replied.
"And..?"
"And I asked him what train I should take for this place I wanted to go."
"And...?" my friend didn't sound so excited by this time.
"And I smiled and he smiled, and he had the longest lashes in the world."
She grimaced. "In short, nothing happened." She rolled her eyes and attacked her turkey sandwich with renewed vigor.

We proceeded to talk about subjects we were more knowledgable about--career and travel--so we could ignore the current state of our romantic life.

A few hours later her younger sister called and asked to meet us. She had her 4 month baby with her. I'm not a baby person and I don't really know how to coo, but since the baby was my friend's niece, I decided to go along to meet the parents. The baby is a fat little piglet, and I say that with fondness.

After I left the family, I went in search for the vcd that has been elusive to me for the past weeks. I've been running around looking for a copy of Gael Garcia Bernal's movei, Amores Perros.

It was his debut film, a gritty, bloody, beautiful spectacle that brought him into Mexico's elite celebrity circle when he was just 21 years old. I failed to find a copy, but I won't give up and I'll try to bug people around for one.

After a futile search, I decided to check some accessories that my friends in the U.S. are telling me to bring and to sell to them and their friends. The prices here are pretty cheap, and these bracelets with semi-precious stones would be so much more expensive if you buy them in the U.S. I decided to model some accessories so that my friends can give their approval and opinions while I'm still here. What style is hot?

Leave your comments, I definitely want to read them.

After I left Podium, I drove back to the mall near my home to meet up with my cousin for drinks in the only wine bar in Alabang Town Center. ATC is pretty and reminds my American cousins of California with its laid back, open air charm and architecture. Even the people dress so California, wearing mostly tank tops, shorts, short skirts, and havianas for girls, while the guys wear whatever they want.

I finally ended my date with my city at 2am Sunday morning. It was an exhausting weekend, and Sunday was my sister's birthday.

So, did my back-to-back dates endear my city to me? Did I appreciate Manila more? Well, not really; we're like an old married couple trying to revive a flagging relationship but just can't get a break from our baggage. Well, atleast I had a good time trying--regardless of the result.

A date with a typhoon and Superman

2006-07-17T15:01:00.000+08:00

I don't know what you folks did over the weekend, but I had back to back dates with my city. I was chatting with my friend Gian a few days ago and we were talking about mobility in our respectives cities. He said he loves New York because you don't need a car to lose yourself in the city and to discover new digs. On the other hand, Manila is soooo spread out, you really need a car if you want to go somewhere interesting.

Manila is a nightmare for commuters, whether it's the rainy season, or during the summer. Public transportation seesaws between erratic to chaotic, and when you do have a car, driving defensively is a rule of thumb if you want yours and your car's shelf life to last a long time because almost everyone is driving like they are always late for something.

So I decided to watch "Superman Returns" for the second time in the 3D I-Max theater in SM Mall of Asia. It's suppose to be the 3rd largest mall in the world, next to Golden Resources Mall in China and West Edmonton Mall in Canada. Personally, I don't really care about the size and breadth of the mall, since I'm an outdoorsy person, but this mall was built on 19.5 hectares of reclaimed land in the Manila Bay area, where the the waters opening to the South China sea is just at the backyard of the mall. It reminds me of a more "down-to-earth" version of Hong Kong's Harbour City Mall.
We were having really stormy weather last week and the view of Manila Bay from SM Mall of Asia was a sight to behold. The sky was dark, the wind was gusty, and the waves from the bay was smashing against the sea walls--it was just fantastic and scary at the same time.

Superman flies to Manila

It confounds me why the U.S. audience is not embracing Superman Returns with as much passion as --well-- everyone expected, the movie is an amazing box office hit here in the Philippines. I have a theory on SR's appeal to the Filipinos: Remember there was a scene where you'd hear from the news on TV the different countries where Superman already "visited" because he was desperately needed there? Well, Manila was first to be mentioned. I think Filipinos live out their fantasies of a superhero saving them from the super corrupt government and political system that are super endemic in this country.

Just my super theory.

Then again, maybe Filipinas just want a superhunk to fly-in wearing a supertight body suit, and the men are just around to make sure the women don't throw themselves from a bridge to be saved by Superman.

Hisp-ASIANS?

2006-07-13T15:36:00.001+08:00

Images of Baclaran (none are taken by me, all pics were googled)

I'm leaving the country in August. My friends are supportive and encouraging. None of them have any concrete plans of leaving, but they do have this abstract dream of staking out to the unknown "someday." I don't think I want to go into the never-ending debate about the country's brain drain because this post will just become long-winding and boring as hell.

So, anyway, I was talking to my friend who is married to a Texan. She's fixing the necessary documents so that she can leave for America before November and finally be with her husband. She's excited and yet afraid to leave the Philippines because 1.) she's never been to America 2.) she doesn't know anyone in Texas 3.) she has to adjust to a whole new culture. I told her I have relatives in Austin, and when I'm in the States, I'll visit her in Austin and we can drive to Mexico! Hehehehe. We won't tell her husband that we'll be on the lookout for a Gael Garcia Bernal look-a-like (or Gael himself if we're lucky!).

Her Texan visited her last April and she took him to a famous area in Manila called Baclaran. Frankly, I don't know much about Baclaran aside from the fact that my mom and my aunts love to go there to buy cheap wholesale products of every kind, and that Filipinos love to go to Baclaran Church-- the church is so popular, every actor, politician, yuppie and vendor has boasted about going to the church. My parents probably took me to Baclaran church when I was little during one of our annual Holyweek pilgrimages, but I don't really remember.

Anyway, the place is always crowded with people and you have to be extra alert so you don't become a victim of pickpockets, thus I was suprised my friend would bring her Texan to Baclaran. Can her husband take the heat? (literally and metaphorically)

Actually, her hubby did a pretty good job. He not only enjoyed going around Baclaran, but he also gained a few fans with the vendors loitering around the Church because they were fascinated with his blue eyes. He commented that Baclaran reminded him of Mexico. The church, the vendor stalls lining around the church plaza, the brown skinned people, the occasional beggars, the busy dry market--they all gave a Mexican vibe to the place. Small wonder since Mexico was a Spanish colony as well.

Maybe I should visit Baclaran before I leave. I haven't been to the old Manila area where there are still traces of Spanish architecture left. This way, when I arrive in Texas and manage to kidnap my friend from her husband to take her to Mexico, we'll both look in wonder how close to home a place looks like, even being so far away.

Forza Italia!

2006-07-11T10:46:00.000+08:00

CONGRATULATIONS ITALIA FOR A GREAT WIN IN THE FIFA 2006 WORLD CUP!

Italy will always remain a special place in my life because it became a home base of sort after I left Russia. I stayed in Florence (Firenze) Italy as soon as I left Russia.
I rooted for Zinadine Zidane and France, but I still feel happy for the Italians.

PICTURES OF FIRENZE

the view outside the kitchen window of my sister's apartment

Morning stroll in Firenze

apartments in Firenze

took pics of the "wealthy" part of the city...the other half lives by the hills

...and this is why I really love Italy!

On top of the Duomo, looking down at Firenze.

Joga Bonito

2006-07-09T22:37:00.000+08:00

One will wonder why a country that has been colonized by Spain for 300 years behaves more American on the outside, although quite Latin on the inside. The Philippines was under Spain as long as Brazil was under Portugal, and yet, we do not speak Spanish and we did not learn to love joga bonito, or the "beautiful game" = futbol.

I only watched the World Cup because I am a fan of Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. They are heroes of Brazilians and anyone who even has a tiny appreciation for futbol. Through the weeks, I have learned to love the spirit of the game and how it brings people from different cultures and backgrounds together. I think Futbol brings out love and peace amongst nations more than any other sport in the world.

The Philippines is ailing and needs a hero. The closest we have are our athletes because the politicians and the highest office in the land are stricken with endemic corruption, one of the worst in this continent. But looking at how our lone sports hero Manny Pacquiao is shaping up, I see another traditional politician in the making and I am grossed out. So I thank Brasil first and teams of Joga Bonito second for making me see that real heroism is the spirit and beauty that the games bring to a global community, and not just the magnetic personality of a few men.

Thank You FIFA World Cup 2006
Muito Obrigado
Merci beaucoup
Dankë
Arigato gozaimashita
Spassibo
dank U wel kiitos
Mille Grazie
Kamsa hamaida
Muchas gracias
Dyakuyu
Tack så mycket

So it means I like being naked?

2006-07-08T22:49:00.000+08:00

Why We Travel: A Love Affair with the World
by Pico Iyer

Like falling in love, travel throws us into a state of delight, uncertainty and self-discovery. Like lovers, travelers both give and receive. Travelers, like lovers, go naked into the world.

We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again-to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.

The Latin connection

2006-07-06T09:30:00.000+08:00

It finally happened.

I am beginning to feel the slow but steady decline of my interest in Bi and anything Korean.

This situation is actually a complication I had anticipated a long time ago. It is not a straight-forward lost of interest--It's a cultural issue more than anything.

I always felt that being Filipino meant a whole gamut of national and cultural identity confusion or maybe even, a vacuum. Who am I, and what does it mean to be a Filipino? Unlike our Asian neighbors, the Filipinos have a weak sense of national identity. Our history is young, and most of what they teach us in school date back at the beginning of the Spanish period, in the early 1500s to the late 1800s. After that, it's more colonial history after colonial history. Yeah, most of us look Malay with mixes from different colonial periods, but we don't have much in common with our Malay neighbors.
The country's predominant religion is not shared with any of our Asian brothers who are either mostly Muslim or Buddhist. Filipinos easily forget and forgive foreign and domestic oppressors like the Marcos family, and thus, have no inclination to learn from past mistakes. We have remained stagnant in the face of our Asian neighbor's development.

So what does this have to do with Bi?

Well, basically, it is difficult for me to understand and emphathize with Bi because our commonality is merely superficial. Yes, we're Asians, we're young, and we've traveled, yet, his culture and background is so different from mine. Filipinos are fond of talking with foreigners, while Koreans keep to themselves. Koreans live for work, while unfortunately, Filipinos live too much to relax. Koreans value face and honor so much, and would sacrifice so not to bring shame to the family. Filipinos may be friendly people, but at the end of the day, the country is poor and many people have learned to live without shame to be able to survive(and those in the government survive because they have no shame).
I see the good and bad side of both cultures, and I respect what each of us have. It also means that I have to accept that Bi and I, our cultural background and national history make it difficult for me to emphatize with him and like him over someone whom I can find more connection with.

Because of the complicated post-colonial history and Spanish influence, I have come to really understand the issues of Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal. Filipinos are Asian Latinos, be that good or bad, superficial or accurate. When Gael talks about life and politics in Mexico, I understand him more than when Bi speaks the same old script of doing his best to please everyone, and not wanting to speak about normal guy stuff like parties and girls and beer. I'm sorry, but it's creepy when you don't see a young man wanting to talk about parties and chicks once in a while for fear of displeasing his public--that is just whack. Gael is more relax, more lupine, more fluid, and he still produces damn fine work that propelled him to international stardom without needing to go Hollywood.

Interview for the movie:Y Tu mama Tambien
I have to say, that scene where you are both masturbating on the diving board looked pretty real . . .
Bernal: That's a nice compliment, in a way.
Luna: Everything in the movie was acting.

Have you ever been in a threesome off-screen together?
Luna: I've been, but not with him. With another friend.
Bernal: When I was in a threesome, it was with two other girls.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the film were the narrator's observations and the director's tendency to drift off on tangents — it had a paternal quality, a sense of conscience. Did you think the film's political messages were appropriate?
Luna: Yes. The movie shows reality. We want the viewers to draw their own conclusions from the reality that we show. It's not a film forcing you to think in any way.
Bernal: I think the messages are very important, because this isn't just a teen movie. Besides, I don't think you can get away with making a film in Mexico without including political messages.

Diego, do you usually flap your arms when you get a blowjob?
Luna: That blowjob was different. It was a professional one.

Do you think you'll be getting more now?
Bernal: We don't think, we know. (laughs)
Luna: Yes. We've been receiving a lot more. That is why I love this movie. I don't care about the awards or the premiere or anything. I just care about the blowjobs.
---http://www.nerve.com/screeningroom/film/ytumama/

That was one of Gael's "funny" interviews, something Bi would probably never say or do because he is Korean and his conservative fan base--asians.

I kindda feel bad for Bi, actually. It would be difficult for him to explore his music and his acting because I have a feeling his choices are now based on what majority of his fans expect from him, and not what he wants to do for himself. It's sad, because he's only 24 and his hands seem to be tied.

I am not comparing Bi with Gael to shortchange Bi. I am defining my feelings for two personalities based on different factors taking root from my cultural, social, and traditional background.

So there you go. By accepting Gael, I've accepted the part of me that I kept trying to smother in hopes of feeling a certain oneness with my Asian neighbors, which in truth, isn't as strong as the land bridges that connected this continent thousands of years ago.

Single gals in the city

2006-07-04T16:26:00.000+08:00

My sister just informed me that her former roommate in Italy, a bubbly Korean girl named Jin, has arrived in Korea after a 5 year absence. I bet she's got some major adjusting to do after staying in Europe for the past 5 years. While Europe is socially and culturally liberated, Korea is very traditional and conservative. After coming back from Russia and Europe last November, I had a difficult time adjusting to a lot of common Filipino practices (e.g. traffic and non-queueing).

It seems the gals who rocked Venezia are all back in Asia (for now). I spent the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 holidays last year with my sister and Jin in Venezia. We had a fabulous time:

1.) We arrived at Stazione F.S. Venezia S. Lucia with Sakura, a Japanese friend. Her Venetian boyfriend was there to pick her up and she volunteered him to take us to our hotel. Venezia is a maze, and according to Sakura, her boyfriend is a whiz with directions. Well, turns out, her boyfriend is also a dunce, and as soon as he told us that "your hotel is just nearby, we can walk," he proceeded to walk off, expecting us to just follow him like lambs while we carried/dragged our suitcases with us. Did I mention that Asians are tiny compared to white people? Oh, did I tell you that Venezia is made up of dozens and dozens of bridges? We had to carry and drag our suitcases over those concrete stairs while the stupid Pinochio walked steadily infront carrying his girlfriend's tiny purse. I'm all for equal rights, but man and woman are not built equal, and nature designed that the men have the muscles, which this Pinochio used to carry Sakura's chihuahua-sized bag.

2.) Well, although Pinochio was an asshole, our hotel was cute and compact and located in a obscure little corner in the city. Best of all, the bathroom was modern! Sure, Venezia is hundreds of years old and is steadily sinking, but our bathroom was definitely 21st century.

3.) Food was fantastic! The only problem was, although we were 3 small-medium built girls, we all ate like truckers. So we ordered everything from pizza, to pasta, to risotto, and lots of red wine.

4.) We visited the usual places that people have probably read or googled thousands of times already, like the:
a. Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale): creepy and haunting and powerful after all these years. This palace served as the senate house, administrative center, hall of justice, public archive and prison up until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.

b. Grand Canal: We didn't ride the gondola because the Japanese tourists booked every single one. I'm kidding, but it was outrageously expensive, and we had no cute guys with us anyway, so we gave it a miss. Venice's main water thoroughfare, lined with great Renaissance palaces, is a colorful and busy spectacle of gondolas and vaporetti.
c. Saint Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco), Blending the architectural styles of East and West, Venice's magnificent basilica was consecrated in 832 AD as an ecclesiastical building to house the remains of St. Mark.

d. Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square): I have to admit, we still engaged in our favorite activity while visiting Piazza San Marco--we had mouth-watering gelato. Anyway, this is the most photographed and famous plaza in Europe, St. Mark's is in the heart of the city, surrounded by chic sidewalk cafes and boutiques

5.) We did the paparazzi thing: We pretended to be Hollywood starlets and took paparazzi photos of each other.

6.) We lost our hotel room: Yeah, we decided to stay another night, Unfortunately, our room was already booked for the following night. Our train for Florence already left when we decided to stay in Venezia, so we had no choice but to stay. It turned out, there was no hotel in the entire city that was not fully booked. We had no place to stay.
We decided to take the train to the closest town, Venezia-Mestre at the mainland, and try our luck there. We literally ran around town at 9pm to look for a free room. It was cold, we were starving, and we had to race against the other tourists who were desperate for a room. Fortune finally smiled on us and I got lucky and found one. Just seconds after I booked the room, a couple more people came in and asked for a room-- I got the last free room and there was nothing left for them.
Yes it was a close call, or else we would have slept at the train station!

7.) The clincher: The tourist information officer went berserk: She started yelling and throwing brochures inside the tourist counter because she was impatient of answering inquiries from the tourists.
Yup, she was tired of doing her job and went amok infront of dozens of people.

Muito quente, Senor Garcia

2006-07-02T20:33:00.000+08:00

Continuing on with the Latin beat of my recent musings....

Senor Gael Garcia Bernal ups the heat in Mexico, or whatever country he's in at the moment.

Sure I loved him in Amores Perros, Motorcycle Diaries, and Y tu mama tambien, and in El Crimen del Padre Amaro, but I also like him because he's lyrical. I can't think of another word to describe him, but he might come up with a better one. '

London has a very special colour,' he rhapsodises in his furry, fluent, Spanish-accented English, 'looking at it objectively. But through the interpretation I have of it, I hold it very close. Obviously the different mnemonics like smell or atmosphere - the swampiness of being in the Tube in the summer - bring back for me feelings of a place where I spent perhaps most of my post-inflicted adolescence.'

This is how Gael García Bernal talks, even at this pre-caffeinated hour of the morning. Intensely, with a dreamy flourish, with enthusiasm. His speech doesn't follow the rules of grammar, or of interview convention. I had to look up 'mnemonics'; I'm still not sure what a 'post-inflicted adolescence' is; when a word escapes him, he looks for the Latin root or says the Spanish word with an English accent (a 'flood' becomes an 'inundation').

His English is fantastic, but his thoughts sometimes go too fast for his mouth and his words fall over each other.Yet even when he doesn't make sense, you get his meaning. If an English-speaking actor came out with such pronouncements, he would be dismissed as pretentious and confused. (Hello, Keanu.) But with García Bernal, you fall for his soulfulness. And not just because he's hot'n'handsome, but possibly because of his lupine smile, dancing, brown-green eyes and thoroughly winning persona. And certainly because of the work he has done, and the career choices he has made. ---Talk of the Town, The Telegraph, London. April, 2005.

Porque Brasil?

2006-07-02T20:28:00.000+08:00

BRAZIL lost to FRANCE last night, 0:1.

They are the only reason why I am even watching the FIFA World Cup and football, and I had to watch them loose.

I could not banish the image of a bewildered Ronaldhino after France won the match.

Yes, I am very dissapointed.

Sex Mex

2006-06-29T23:08:00.000+08:00

He's shorter than my usual taste---wayyyy shorter, but I can't figure out why I always found him hot. His eyes are amazing. I would call his face slightly feminine, but the set of his jaws robs off the softness of his features and makes it undoubtedly a man.

One of the reasons why Latin America is hot!

Latin America Libre!

2006-06-29T22:37:00.000+08:00

REASONS WHY I HAVE TO SEE LATIN AMERICA:

Football
Street Tango
Tequila
Machu Pichu

Evita Peron
Cuban Cigar
The Beach of Ipanema
The Brasilian Carnaval

East meets West in Paris

2006-06-29T00:43:00.000+08:00

Trivia:

When you visit Paris, where do you usually go to see a lot of tourists taking a zillion pictures?

1.) Eiffel Tower
2.) Seine River
3.) The Louvre
4.) Notre Dame
5.) Arc de Triompe

Now, where do you go in Paris to see a lot of Asian tourists?

Answer: The LV Flagship situated on the Champs-Elysées at the corner of the chic Avenue George V--a five-minute stroll from the Arc de Triomphe.

I was walking pass this enormous mega store and I saw a whole bunch of Asians, mostly Japanese, Chinese and Koreans, clicking away and posing infront of the LV store. I was so astounded, I decided to take a few pictures myself.

The Asians were shopping LV items with such ferocity and singlemindedness, that LV implemented a policy that a person can only purchase a minimum amount of items in a day(worth a couple of thousand euros probably). I was approached by a Chinese woman and on another occassion, by a Japanese man to ask for a "favor." If it was possible, "could you please buy this LV wallet that I can't buy today because I have already reached the quota for one person."

Hello? Can't you wait till tomorrow? LV didn't land on a spaceship in the heart of Paris with a shitload of on-sale items only to return to its mother planet the next day, so there's no need to get everything you want in one day. Seriously, what's with Asians and their LV obssession? Bi goes to most of his functions looking like a walking advertisement for LV. If LV sold underwear, I bet Bi would be the first to flash them in his concerts.

All this drama

2006-06-27T18:21:00.000+08:00

You got to hand it to this 3rd world country; even though I've lived here all my life, there are still moments when I get jerked off my relative complacency.

The Philippine has one of the worst drivers and predestrians in the world. We simply do not care about anyone or anything. Drivers don't sweat about the traffic rules, they ignore traffic signs, and bribing the traffic police to get out of a violation is a norm. The pedestrians cross everywhere, at anytime, and they would even flash you an angry face if you honk on them for illegal crossing (like running across the middle of the highway). So yeah, my foreign friends are constantly repeating their uniform mantra that, "I can never drive in the Philippines" whenever I drive them around the city.

I was driving this afternoon and was quite in a rush. I was passing through the serivce road which meant the north and south lanes are single lanes. I was going north, and the lane going south was congested. Now, this litttle tricycle on the south lane was vainly trying to cut in line, and it was taking up 1/2 of the entire lane going north (aka, blocking my lane). I had to make a full stop and wait for the pesky tricycle to cut in the line, but I gave the driver a dirty look for blocking my way. Instead of being embarrassed, or atleast pretending not to see me, the arrogant driver had the fuckn gal to cuss at me. He looked through my driver's window and started shouting and cussing at me because I gave him a look he deserved for blatantly cutting in at traffic and in the process, blocking the opposite lane.

How does that make sense? You're wrong, you get reprimanded, and you have the audacity to act like you are the abused one? Heck, I only gave the ugly man a hard stare, and he starts cussing? Did I hurt his macho pride? He couldn't stomach a woman making him look like the fool that he is?

That's the problem with all these inane local soap operas where the poor are always portrayed as abused and yet heroic, and since the Philippine masses adore these trash tv shows, the poor often identify themselves as victims of anyone with money. The arrogant tricycle driver must be thinking, "Fuck you little girl in your airconditioned car and acting like an annoyed Princess...Eat my dust since you hardly know how it feels like to get dirty on the road everyday...(add more dramatic soap opera dialogue here)."

Just another day, just another drama in the land ruled by a midget pretending to be president, of macho mama's boys who think that sperminating the missus and contributing to the street children population is simply being a good Catholic, and where there exists a bunch of socialites calling themselves "The Gucci Group," even if fake Guccis are everywhere and sold at a dime a dozen.

J'aime Paris

2006-06-26T13:19:00.000+08:00

5 minutes from my hotel, Jardin de Luxembourg
Sorbonne (just a 10minute walk from my hotel)

I'm been gabbering on and on about girly-men, pseudo-conservative women, and Bi's imaginary sex life, that I neglected the reason why I'm writing a blog...to talk about travelling. My mind made a long excursion to the androgynous side of the galaxy, but now it's time to get back to business.

So, I just finished my first exam for my French class. It was easy, but I should have been more relaxed and I would've gotten a higher score. Anyway, I'd do better next time.

Why am I taking French when the Timeasia magazine nearest you is telling you to learn Mandarin because it is the business language of the future. http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060626/story.html

Well, I've only been to China once, and I was very young at that time to enjoy the trip, but I have been to France at just the right age and I love it there. I've been to Paris 2x and to Nice once, and I know that I will always return to France until I can no longer travel. I love the language and I love the gorgeous French people. Fortunately, inspite of the general belief that the Parisians are a snotty lot, I only had one bad experience with an asshole who smelled as bad as his manners, it didn't really matter if I never saw him again.

Anyway, back to my favorite city in the world.

The night before I left Florence for Rome, en route to my flight to Paris, I was nursing a slight fever. I'm kindda sickly, although it irks me to admit it, and it gets in the way of my travelling. I usually travel alone, so it's an inconvenience if your body doesn't cooperate with what your mind wants.

The train ride to Roma was fast and scary. The crazy driver was going faster than the morning trips and we were going to arrive in Roma on schedule even though we left Santa Maria Novella station 30 minutes late. When I arrived in Roma, it was midnight, and my flight to Paris was at 6am. I had 4 hours to kill before the bus to the airport will pick me up at the station and I needed a place to stay. Roma is one of the creepiest cities I've even seen at night, and there were lots of shady looking characters just outside the Main terminal who looked like they would make mincemeat out of your just to get a hand on a fake Rolex. I managed to find a tourist assistant who brought me to a nearby hotel where I waited out the night. By 4am, I was out, walking to the bus stop to ride the bus going to Ciampino airport. Let me tell you, that 5 minute walk through the dirty backstreet of Roma was the most heartpounding, and scariest moments of my life.

The flight to Paris was an hour and 30 minutes. It was uneventful except for the squealing kids 2 rows behind me. They were bawling their brains out almost the entire flight and I was suprised no one accidentally laced their milk with sleeping pills. Those kids gave me a splitting headache.

We touched down at Beauvais airport, a small airport (airstrip?) an hour away from Paris. When I saw unending fields of green, few houses, and some cows, I thought, did I ride the wrong plane? It seemed I was landing in a farm field. To get to Paris, we had to ride a bus that would drive us from the French countryside to the City of Lights.

The trip to Paris and my hotel

My hotel (Hotel St. Germain) was located at the Left Bank of Paris, in the Quartier Latin, Luxumbourg, St. Germain des Pres area. The bus will drop us off at La Defense station, and it was up to me how to get to my hotel. I had no intention of riding an expensive cab where the driver thinks he could take me to an impromptu city tour of Paris and swindle me some extra euros. I took the yellow Metro lane that would go all the way to Line 1, but I would get out from Chatelet station, and then transfer to the blue line going to Orly airport. I would alight from Luxumbourg station and walk 2 blocks to my hotel. No problem.

Well, there was a slight problem. My suitcase, although only half filled, was taking too much space and it was difficult to fit it through the revolving bars of the metro entrances and exits. Fortunately, I was the recipient of lovely French hospitality and on one occasion when the credits of my metro card ran out, the lady infront of me used her card to swipe me in--I didn't need to pay for more credits!!! Another time, I was heaving my not-really-heavy baggage over the baggage deposit, when a young man (very cute!) told me in english, "Let me do that for you." Cute and kind! WOW! Unfortunately, he was with his girlfriend! Dommage!

So I arrived at my hotel, sleepy, tired, and hungry, but still in good spirit. Like most budget hotels in Paris, it was cute, clean, and small, but I was in a very nice district so I had no complaints. Funny thing though, when I was inside my hotel room and switched on the TV to watch CNN while I was unpacking my stuff, I saw that there were ongoing riots in Paris where the marginalized urban youths were ransacking and causing chaos in the suburbs of the city.

Eh?

Scary. I just hoped CNN was on it's usual form of sensationalized reporting, and that I would soon find out that Paris is not really in a state of anarchy.

oh well, welcome to Paris!!! Bienvenue vers Paris !

Lots of peeps peepin', but no one's speaking

2006-06-25T21:08:00.000+08:00

I wonder when will I get a reader from Russia? I'm not really expecting it, but I'm still hopeful. Mother Russia and I shared a lot of fun times as well as crap. How can I forget her?

Ruskis, where are you? Gdyeh Ruskis?

24 years ago, nine months after Mr. and Mrs. Jung did the whoopee!

2006-06-25T17:09:00.000+08:00

It's time to partay!!!!!!!!!!!

ITS HIS BIRTHDAY AND HE'LL DO WHAT HE WANTS TO....

HaVE a BlaST on your 24th summer Ji HOON! Just remember to be safe...use a condom and assign a designated driver!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I'm out...moving on....

2006-06-24T15:59:00.000+08:00

Gackt from Japan

I'm sick of this ongoing debate about should Bi or shouldn't he go gender bender (aka androgynous).

If only he never claimed that his music is hiphop and R&B, I wouldn't be horrified of the possibility of him going androgynous. The two don't mix. The two styles do not mesh together. If you're hiphop, you go all the way, you don't wishywash and say, "well the Asians want something softer, so I gotta be a little more flowery."Here's a short history of old school hiphop:

The "Definition" of Hip-Hop and RapPart 1: The Status Quo
http://www.jam2dis.com/j2dhiphophistory1.htm

Believe it or not, rap has been around for over 23 years. In fact the first ever rap tune to be pressed on vinyl was "Rapper's Delight", by the Sugarhill Gang in the late 70s. Since then rap has evolved from a fad to a street party. Rap music is an element of a larger culture that encompasses rap, baggy clothing, break-dancing, graffiti, vocabulary and a general lifestyle. This popular culture is generally referred to as hip-hop. Rap made its way to our shores in the early 1980s, as early as 1983. DJ Blaze, one of the best known hip-hop DJs in South Africa, first got into it in 1983 when a movie called Beat Street was showing in his neighbourhood. "I began DJing in 1990," he states. "I liked the scratching and the mixing you know, the sound that DJs made when they were playing."

Hip hop is the culture from which rap emerged. Initially it consisted of four main elements; graffiti art, break dancing, dj (cuttin' and scratching) and emceeing (rapping). Hip hop is a lifestyle with its own language, style of dress, music and mind set that is continuously evolving. Nowadays because break dancing and graffiti aren't as prominent the words 'rap' and 'hip hop' have been used interchangeably. However it should be noted that all aspects of hip hop culture still exists. They've just evolved onto new levels.

Point blank, hip hop was a direct response to the watered down, Europeanized, disco music that permeated the airwaves.. FYI around the same time hip hop was birthed, House music was evolving among the brothers in Chicago, GoGo music was emerging among the brothers in Washington DC and Black folks in California were getting deep into the funk. If you ask me, it was all a repsonse to disco.

In the early days of hip hop, there were break dance crews who went around challenging each other. Many of these participants were former gang members who found a new activity.

Sources: daveyd.com

Hiphop began as rap in the tough streets of New York city. It was a way for the majority of the marginalized black youth to express themselves creatively, to have their voices heard, and to have music in their lives even if they cannot afford to pay for a night in a disco. It had a rough and tough beginning--in other words, the power and passion of hiphop lies on expressing from your gut. It is metaphorical blood coming out of your movements, your voice, and your art(thus the grafittis).

So...tell me, how the hell can Bi legitimize his claim on being a hiphop artist if he looks and dresses like the androgynous guy above? Does he think he can blast all those lyrics, and hit the dance floor looking like a half-girl? Hiphop is street, so when did street start wearing mascara and foundation and had the time to tiss and spraynet their hair?

Fake shows. It always does.

Excuse me, do you wear foundation?

2006-06-23T13:13:00.000+08:00

Junki
Kangta and his Vanness

THIS ARTICLE CREEPED ME OUT...

http://star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2006/6/23/tvnradio/14602132&sec=tvnradio
> News & Features

Friday June 23, 2006
Girly guise
By FOONG WOEI WAN
FROM Taiwanese model-actor Joe Cheng to South Korean actor Lee Joon Ki, star of the hit movie King And The Clown, androgynous celebrities are having their day in the sun. Sure, Asian showbusiness has never been short of beautiful boys (or bishonen, as they are known in Japan).
In the 1980s and the 1990s, the late Hong Kong actor-singer Leslie Cheung was a dazzling exemplar of the male diva, with all the splendid beauty and sexual ambiguity it implied.
He famously went ultra-feminine in the 1993 Cannes-winning drama Farewell My Concubine, starring as a female impersonator in the title role.
But he was just one man, not yet a movement. And traditionally macho types such as Chow Yun Fat and Tony Leung Chiu Wai were still the norm from which Cheung deviated.
You could say the tide began to turn in the late 1990s, thanks to Takuya Kimura.
The preening Japanese pretty boy with trademark long locks starred in serials like Long Vacation (1996) and swiftly found a following in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Without him, there would be no F4, the floppy-topped pop phenomenon from Taiwan who forced the bishonen floodgates wide open. Their 2001 TV show, Meteor Garden, is based on a Japanese manga, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Before Flowers).
And F4 – Jerry Yen, Vic Chou, Ken Chu and Vanness Wu – looked like they had stepped straight out of the manga universe populated by breathless girls and babelicious guys.
The rest is history: The serial shot the four unknowns to superstardom across East Asia in 2001. The show also travelled to South-East Asia in 2002 and with it, F4’s hairdos. A year later in the Philippines, one teenager reportedly killed another over – get this – whose hair was more like Chou’s.
Certainly, F4 cleared the way for a new genre, the ouxiangju or idol drama, and heralded a whole new generation of poutingly pretty boys – flippable, floppy hair is optional – to star in such serials.
Roy Chiu, Dylan Kuo and Mike Ho (who goes by a girly nickname, Xiaomei, meaning Little Beauty) are just a few of Taiwan’s rising stars since F4.

By 2002, female fans were more than ready for a romantic leading man like South Korean Bae Yong Joon. With his fair complexion and gentle, sweet smile, surely the 33-year-old is the sensitive beautiful boy all grown up.
Okay, he did peel off his specs and shirt to show off his pecs and abs in a 2004 coffee-table book. But the bulk of his female fans like him with his shirt and delicate smile on.
And what they want, they will get.
Because girl power is not just about women being in the limelight on their own terms – think Li Yuchun, the tomboyish girl wonder from China. It is also about men bending over backwards, or even gender-bending, to suit the tastes of female pop culture consumers.
When the ideal man these days is a metrosexual (read: more likely to star in a skincare ad), androgynous heartthrobs like Lee Joon Ki are not much of a departure from the norm.
They may in fact be the future.

Lee Joon Ki
GIRLS want him. Guys want to look like him, reportedly going under the knife to get his soft facial features.
The 24-year-old shot to stardom in South Korea playing an effeminate clown and the apple of a despot’s eye in last year’s King And The Clown, the most-watched movie in Korean history.
He is also big in China. Hundreds of fans were waiting to welcome him at the Shanghai airport two months ago, never mind that his film has not been shown on the mainland.
Chinese fans, who have seen him in the 2005 TV serial My Girl, are already comparing him to Leslie Cheung, the Hong Kong star who was just as at ease with his girly side.
Time will tell if his fame will last as long as Cheung’s.

Joe Cheng
THE 24-year-old has been Taiwan’s “It” Boy (or Girly Boy) after making a daring acting debut in the 2003 idol drama The Rose.
With shoulder-length hair, slender build and a sashaying gait, he played Kui, a sulking youth infatuated with both his half-brother (Jerry Huang) and half-sister (Ella Chen of the girl group S.H.E).
With fame, there came tabloid talk that Cheng is gay and that he is niang (Mandarin for girly).
He has laughed it all off, however.
And the model-actor – who, like supermodel-host Chiling Lin, is managed by agency Catwalk – is no one-hit wonder.
His drama, It Started With A Kiss, was so popular in Taiwan last year, a sequel has been planned.

Kangta & Vanness
ARE Chinese American singer Vanness Wu, 27, and his South Korean counterpart Kangta, 26, going Brokeback?
Wu found fame with the group F4 and Kangta, with H.O.T. Both had little luck as solo acts, however. But they have attracted more buzz since regrouping as the androgynous pop pair, Kangta & Vanness.
At the Golden Melody Awards this month, female fans shrieked as Wu and Kangta showcased their slinky moves on the red carpet and on stage, like two pretty peas in a pod. – The Straits Times Singapore / Asia News Network

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
No.

I'm sorry, it's a simple as that. My cavewoman gene is crying out an indignant NO. I want a man who looks like a man. All things being equal, you don't find guys saying they would choose a woman with a body of a triathlete (no hips, tightly muscled, small breasts) and with a slightly masculine face over say, someone who looks like Jessica Alba. Try finding one, and all I can say is goodluck.

So, whats up with this androgynous, girly-guy movement some women are crazy about? Why would I want a man who might look like a celebrity actess, a girl friend of mine, my sister, my aunt, or my mom? And why is this so prevalent here in Asia? Frankly, I don't know.

People might point out that Beckham is the West's icon of the androgynous look, but I have to argue that Beckham revolutionized "metrosexual," and he would never in a million years be mistaken for a girly guy, or even gay. He's just undoubtedly a man who looks rich and stylish. He's one of the world's top athlete in the world's most popular sport to begin with! If that's not masculine enough, then I don't know what is.

Now lets go back to the article, and this east asian phenomenon of "androgynous men." WHY? I ask why is this happening? Lets start with Leslie Cheung. I don't know him and just how popular he was because this was before my time, but I've seen the films of Chow Yun fat and Bruce Lee, and I was in love with them since I was a little girl. At the first cursory examination, a woman will have the impression that: They were strong, they were well-built, they hardly smiled, and yet they were so attractive.

Evolution and science explain the rules of attraction: from livescience, MSNBC.com

Face it

The structure of a person's face also gives insight to fertility.
Estrogen caps bone growth in a woman's
lower face and chin, making them relatively small and short,
as well as the brow, allowing for her eyes to appear prominent, said evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill of the University of New Mexico.
Men's faces are shaped by testosterone, which helps develop a larger lower face and jaw and a prominent brow.
Men and women possessing these traits are seen as attractive, Thornhill said, because they advertise reproductive health.
Thornhill also points to the booming nip-'n'-tuck business — which is very much about improving a person's symmetry — as evidence that people find the quality attractive.
Another recent study revealed that symmetrical dancers are seen as more attractive. And research reported last month found women both smell and look more attractive to men at certain times of the month.

Even in the animal kingdom, the dominant male or the alpha male is usually the biggest and the fastest, and women flock to them. Why do you think the Lion king has an entire harem? It is no different with humans. First impression is important, and if you look like a man that can be beaten to a pulp, the first thought is that you are not an attractive candidate as a partner and physical protector against another male. Of course, the cliche is "not judge a book by it's cover..." but in the real world, you go to a bookstore, and you only become interested to leaf through a book if the cover is catchy.

This is the mystery of Lee Junki. He shot to fame in Korea and China because he played a clown who looked so much like a woman, he was often pimped as a prostitute to rich lords, and even made a king fall in love with him. He played the feminine clown so convincingly, even I wanted to protect him....protect him, but not take him as a lover, never as a lover. So why did he become his country's hearthrob after portraying an ultra-feminine role and looking like one of Korea's candidate for Ms. Universe? The answer escapes me.

Kangta and Vanness: They look like they overdosed on estrogen. With small chins, delicate jaws, and fair complexions, they look like their sweat smells like vanilla. I'm sorry, when I watch them, I have visions of prison showers...you get what I mean.

Then again, maybe I should not even try to understand this phenomenon. This is happening in Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea--countries tthat long produced and embraced girly looking celebrities. I am culturally and psychologically coming from a different place.

Different strokes for different folks as the saying goes. I just thought that certain physical features are universally accepted as attractive even if tastes vary from culture to culture.

Someone needs a tranquilizer

2006-06-22T21:57:00.000+08:00

Our house is behind a neighbor who has teenage kids. With hormones bouncing off the wall, habitually burning their parents' money, and thinking getting smashed is hot, teenagers are real beasts. My neighnor's college kid would bang on his drums every night between 19.00-21.00 and would invite his noisy friends to his parents' house most weekends. He probably wants to show off his mad drum set and how spacious his house is compared to his friends that's why they pollute the air almost every weekend.

I remember 2 occassions when I was in a party that got so noisy the neighbors called the security guards.

One was in Singapore where my colleagues/housemates gave a farewell party to me (aka, an excuse to drown on Johnny Walker) before I flew back to Manila. One of my friend had a shouting match with our neighbor through the phone, while another got so pissed ass drank, he slipped, fell on the floor, and promptly fell asleep without realizing he twisted his ankle. It was the size of a baseball the next day.

Another one was a welcome party in Moscow. New trainees from Brasil and England arrived and the girls recieved a Russian welcome--lots of vodka, beer, and music. I woke up the next day dehydrated and quickly searched for water in the refrigerator. Turned out, there was no ref because the food was left in a cabinetoutside by the covered terrace where the Russian weather was cold enough to seep through the wooden panels and chill the food. No need for a ref.
Suffice to say, the neighbors weren't very happy with the 15 noisy people in that flat.

These days, dinner, wine, and conversation are enough nocturnal stimuli for me.

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the purest of them all?

2006-06-20T18:07:00.000+08:00

Im not sure I want to visit Korea anymore, atleast not any time soon. When I was deep into the Hallyu entertainment craze (movies and Bi), I was determined to go to Korea. I even ignored the niggling voice in my head that was mocking me...it kept saying, "you hypocrite! you know you always dreamed of visiting Japan since you were in short pants, and now you want to visit Korea before Japan? Faker!"

After befriending and travelling with Korean girls in Europe, their stories about their traditions and cultural beliefs slowly planted doubts in my head about being able to appreciate their way of life. I respect our differences and marvel in our distinction, but some of the stories they shared were still unnerving for me.

Examples:

1. Men-Women relationships: Arranged marriage, dating services, and asset evaluation are normal and even expected. Maybe this is more applicable to wealthy or atleast, economically well-off Koreans, but these practices are still relevant today. My Korean friend said that because the people are so busy and so competitive to get ahead of the career rat race, romance has to fit in perfectly to their hectic schedule as well. Parents can do the match making, but its also popular to enroll yourself in a dating service where your "qualifications and requirements" are matched with potential partners and the company sets up the monthly dates for you in advance. This way, you can schedule dating, courtship, relationship, and possibly, marriage.

2. What men want: Pure women. Heck, the word itself is inducing stomach spasms inside me. Even in this modern age, men still want to be the first...first love, first kiss, first make-out partner, first shag. They've learned to adjust--we needed years to teach them but they managed--and yet, archaic beliefs remain. In Asia, this is even more a problem. In Korea, its kindda twisted how this concept of purity works.
The woman has to look pure: fair skinned, elegantly dressed and well covered (watch the K-movies and the women have a signature style), soft spoken, demure, and even act cute. She has to be protected and cared for by the macho, military-trained Korean male. My friend said even if you have a healthy sex life, you should not look it. You should not be proud of your sexuality. I mean, look, SHG was vacationing with her ex-LBH around the world and I can't see them playing korean cards in their hotel suite, so she obviously had a nice time with LBH. But until today, she continues to present herself as a conservative and polite Korean woman who's crap on kissing scenes because she would rather stop breathing and close her lips throughout the scene because she's conservative.
Lee Hyori is an exeption because, according to my friend, "She is not talented, but she's very beautiful without needing surgery and acts natural" (meaning she doesn't shrink like a violet just because her tight belly is exposed).
All right then.

But even if you look the perfect picture of purity, if you don't have the ideal family and educational background, your market value is not high either. This is the reason why women like Song Hye gyo, but Korean men are crazy over Kim Tae hee. KTH hails from a good community called Ulsan in Seoul, she graduated from a top high school and graduated from Korea's top university(even if she's active in showbiz) as well. She appears to also have a close family and would often visit her brother in his movie shoots.

Song Hye gyo on the other hand has divorced parents and didn't finish high school.

Guess who's gonna be the one reaping thousands of marriage proposals?

I personally don't like either of them, but I'm guilty of preferring KTH over SHG because she seems to have the brains behind the stereotype "pure" face. SHG is the better actress, but in terms of personal income through endorsements, it's a close call because KTH is very marketable because she's considered the complete package.

Amongst all Korean actresses, SONG HYE GYO irritates the crap out of me.

She says she's sick of all her roles because they're all the same: She's a damsel in distress and always cries her brains out because she either dies, or someone dies on her.
So what does she do in her debut movie role after a billion years as tv actress? She cries and she dies.
Nice. Smart.

Look girl, next time, don't even dream about ranting again about crappy roles because I might stuff your mouth with a fistfull of kimchi.

Hello Moscow part 2

2006-06-19T16:24:00.000+08:00

We are family...I have all my sisters with me!
A Brasilian, me, a Brit, and a Russian, out and about in Moscow.

GUM Department Store - elegant turn-of-the century shopping mall, combining elements of Russian medieval ecclesiastical architecture and an elegant steel framework and glass roof, and today filled with elegant boutiques and designer stores aimed at Moscow's nouveau riches.

Ok, the first time I went inside GUM, I felt I should be carrying a dozen magic plastics and a couple of hundred euros so I would fit in. Damn the place smelled of new money--lots of it! Viva capitalism in the former heart of Communism!

Lenin's tomb
St. Basil's Cathedral- built in the 16th century on Red Square by Ivan the Terrible to commemorate his successful military campaign against the Tartar Mongols in the besieged city of Kazan, its mass of brightly painted onion domes and turrets is now one of Moscow's best-known landmarks. -Moscow-taxi.com
The Kremlin...
knock, knock..."Are you in, President Putin?"

State Historical Musuem built in the 1870s and inagurated by Tsar Alexander III

Hello Moscow!!!

2006-06-19T16:12:00.000+08:00

Welcome to the Red Square!
Sonia Rykiel...yup, Moscow is pretty ritzy and wealthy!
my hotel

Sept 23, 2005
Room 517, Hotel Pekin
1/5 Bolshaya Sadovaya ul., Moscow, 103001
20:30

Im writing a day late. Anyway, I arrived here in Moscow 3 days ago, on a Tuesday. It seems time flew so fast and I am already checking out of the hotel tomorrow. I haven’t even had a real rest ever since I arrived here.

The following day right after I arrived, I had to go to bank Intensa in kitaj gorod to pay for my visa processing fee. I had to navigate the Moscow metro for the first time. It was no joke since I had the worst stomach problem that day when I woke up. It was so bad I had to stay in bed until 12pm and take two tablets of Diatabs. I was so dehydrated. Anyway, I seem to have a natural talent in navigating metro systems in any country in the world and even the elaborate and tomb-like network of the Moscow subway was a quick study for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still carry my metro map with me all the time, but with everything stops listed together and not grouped into a specific metro station, and everything written in Cyrillic alphabet, it would be a challenge to any newcomer, much more, a foreigner who doesn’t speak Russian, not to get lost in the Moscow metro .

The metro network is interesting because it reminds me of an apartment of tombs with different levels. One subway line is built under another, and since there are around 11 lines, this means that the metro has to be dug so deep underground to create a network of 11 subway lines on top of one another. I have to admit, the first time I went down the Mayakovskaya metro station near my hotel, I had a few minutes of panic, feeling as if I was being buried alive. I was staring at the faces of the people and was fascinated that they looked so normal when they all just emerged from a tunnel so deep, it felt like being in a subterranean city. The Washington DC metro is the closest thing I can liken to the Moscow Metro in terms of how deep it goes. Anyway, I am now the queen of worldwide metro systems. I don’t think I ever really got lost in any metro system that I’ve ever been in. I’ve ridden Bangkok, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, Novosibirsk(oh my gosh, they only have 2 lines anyway) in the past 5 years, and now I have conquered Moscow. What could be more complicated than that?

Seeing the Red Square and Kremlin for the first time

Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life. There have been a lot of really bad days since I arrived here in Russia, but yesterday could even be classified as worse than the day I was assaulted by a bunch of hooligans in the Novosibirsk Richnoi Vakzal metro.

Yesterday I applied for my Italian tourist visa. First of all, the lady at the counter could not speak English and she was obviously resentful of me for putting the inadequacy into light. Initially, she already wanted to deny me the chance to apply. Because of the language barrier, it seemed that I was going home straight from Russia, but after someone who spoke English was called, I was back to eligibility again. But even this woman who spoke English was very sarcastic and mean, obviously going into a power trip. I couldn’t even get mad at them because one of my most important documents did not have the signature of my sister. My sister, it seems, got too used of the European slacker lifestyle that even her invitation to me was half done. I came as prepared as I could be, but it seemed I was still not prepared enough. So I was at the embassy at 9am, I left running at 10 and made calls to Italy and to Novosibirsk to send the rest of the documents here in Moscow. By 1pm, without eating lunch, I had almost everything ready except for a glitch in the document emailed by LBL Siberia. By 14.00 I was back at the embassy with all the documents. This time, they wanted me to Xerox copy all the documents before they could finally process them. So I run out of the embassy again, and searched for a copying center. I found one 10 minutes from the embassy and paid my last 100 roubles in my wallet for the Xerox service. By this time, I was running on empty since I’ve been awake since 7.30am and I haven’t eaten lunch or stopped running since I arrived at the embassy at 9am. When the woman finally accepted my documents, she tells me that I am applying for student’s visa. I couldn’t understand what made her think so when I already explained that my sister is the student and I wanted to visit her in Italy before flying back to Manila. Since my application paper says “Tourist Visa,” I didn’t argue with her anymore since she couldn’t understand my English and I don’t speak Russian. I leave the proper processing to the one who reads the document. Anyway, she seemed to want to have nothing to do with me as soon as possible, so we finished our business finally at 15.00. I have to say, by this time I was hungry, tired and thirsty. I also did not even have enough money for a metro fare. Thankfully, there was a bank beside the embassy and I was able to withdraw 200roubles, enough for food and a metro fare back home.

Since it was early, I decided to go the Red Square instead of straight to the hotel. I had lunch at the Kremlin.

Let me tell you about the Kremlin and Red Square.

The first time I saw both, I was speechless and felt goosebumps on my arms. I mean, I only saw these structures on TV or books or magazines, and I always associated these buildings to the former Soviet Union, a communist country that democratic countries like the Philippines would only look from afar with both fascination and anxiety. And now I was in the middle of the Red Square. It felt so surreal, like I was the first Filipino to ever come here. I know I am not, but I was thousands of miles from home, in a country so alien, in a culture so different, in a language so guttural, and I was alone. I had only myself to really rely on since I arrived here in Russia. And I was in the heart of the former Soviet Union—the standing symbol of her power before the fall. Nothing can ever duplicate the feeling. I didn’t have my digital camera yesterday and I was able to just walk around, savoring the sights and smell and the feeling of being in the Red Square and the Kremlin for the first time.

When I got home, the nightmare continued. I realized I left my Xerox copy of the documents somewhere. I am quite sure I left it in the embassy when I went to the first floor and sat on the benches for a few minutes to rest after such a taxing day. I know I took my documents to check, but I probably forgot to put them back because I was out of my sane mind by that time.

It began the most awful day of my stay here in Moscow. How can I ever be at peace knowing somewhere out there, my personal documents is in the hands of some Russian, in a country known for its mob business, and in the center of the mob business no less!

Not your typical fan

2006-06-17T12:30:00.000+08:00

Gawd, get him away from his stylist. Japanese men can be stylish, not necessarily looking like they channeled the shoulder-padded 80's. So why the heck does Bi look like an oriental michael jackson during the days when mj was still black?

I hate Bi's fan meets. I have such intense dislike for them.
Ok, maybe his Korean fan meetings are tolerable, but the ones in Japan just suck.

Fan's Account: Birthday Party cum Fan-Meeting

Pt 3by 雨在故我在@ Biwithrain// jinlees@soompi

Ch to Eng: Rayndrop

I was in Japan tooYesterday's meeting was just fantastic...everybody got a momento with Jihoon's signature (although the signature was printed on, of course)I'll try to add in what I can remember. I can't remember some too clearly...please forgive me if there's any errors.

Q&A PortionThere was a qustion "Why do you think you're so popular in Asia?"

Jihoon actually said "Eyes", and the camera did a close-up on his eyes (Faint)

He also said "honto ni oishii desu" (Very delicious/ yummy)Super cute...

Asked if he has some spare time, how would he like to spend it?

He answered1. Spend it with his family

2. Go camping with his fans....at a hot spring... (yeah right, and Jennifer Aniston doesn't have big nose! i bet you'd ditch the fans for the hottest girl in the springs... and you shouldn't feel ashamed to admit it.)

OMG...everybody at the stadium said they wanted to go very much...camping at the hot springJust imagine that scenario...oh nosebleed...

[ ]The other portion of questions...more like requests I guess

1. Jihoon to wink at the camera. I was almost killed instantly at the stadium...Jihoon was wearing his little white cap.

He did his signature action and said "aishiteru" (I love you) with a wink

After he was done, he covered his face shyly...super cute...

2.Jihoon to do a most handsome or weirdest facial expression

So this kid...faced the camera and did a face which he explained as his expression when he is shocked. After he did it, he felt embarrassed and said sorry to everybody

3. Do a dance for everybody. Did a small portion of Break Down at the front of the stage(like a wind-up doll)

The birthday celebration portion...everybody sang the happy bithday song and did the wave for Jihoon

After the wave, Jihoon said, "Everybody can dance better than me"...what a cute kid(fuck, stop pretending to be kawaii! You are not kawaii--you used to live and breathe hiphop, damnit!)

A staff member pushed out a cake that is in the shape of a cloud

Jihoon looked very excited...he seemed like he really wanted to eat the cake

After blowing out the candle, he appeared to have seriously made his birthday wish

After that, he used his finger to dip and ate the cake...really looked very happy

He kept eating the strawberry that was used on the cake to form letters

Told everybody to "Hold on" (Because he wanted to eat)And pretended to feed everybody by dipping into the cake with his finger [Rayndrop: I don't mind eating off his finger...]

The host asked if he like eating sweet stuff...he said yes, very much And he asked if he liked crepes...he said he really really really liked them (talked like a little kid...so cute)Then we viewed the taped made by his Japanese fans for himThere was a kid dancing "It's Raining" crazily...and Jihoon laughed so much he couldn't stop

The composer of "Free Way" and AI also left a message for him

During his after-thought speech, he thanked the Asian fans...Such as China (there were some places in between...I forgot...was it Hong Kong?) Taiwan, Indonesia...When I heard Taiwan, I really wanted to scream...but I was alone(Not that I think he has a special liking for Taiwan, it's just that hearing my country being mentioned when I'm overseas...it touches me a little)

Asked about Jihoon's dreams, he said there are two...One is to begin his Asia Concert Tour this yearAnother is his development in the US (I personally feel that this is really means a lot to him) After that, he read his letter to fans...At first I thought I'll cry But when he began reading...Japanese is really a tough languageThe camera shifted to his letter...it was all written in hangeul...everybody started laughingBut he was really serious about reading the letterI'm sorry I can't really remember the content, but he did look very adorable trying to read the letter.

I can only remember the last part"Just like everybody has become a source of strength for him, he would like to be a source of strength for everybody too. Will continue to strive to become a Rain who will not disappoint everyone"(you're not perfect Bi. the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will stop pressuring yourself with unrealistic expectaions. You can go as far as you want, but you can never be perfect and not dissapoint people. You will, and that's all right.)

First of all, Jihoon is an entertainer, not a clown. He is not a wind-up doll that jumps when you clap, a tamagochi that says, "feed me" when a signal is triggered, or a paid jester in The King and the Clown.

I hate fan meets because I still see Bi performing on demand by hungry fans who want pieces of him that goes beyond the boundaries of his job. He is an entertainer who entertains through his music and movies, and we are recipients of his works. We buy the entertainment, but we do not pay for his personal life and personal time.

I feel that fan meets are moments that are taken away from his family and friends. Sure, in Asia, I think fan-idol dynamics are different from the West where the fans get their voyeuristic fixes from pappararizzis. I suppose its still better to conduct an official fan meet and dish out parts of your personal life than having to be tracked like a hunted animal so that people can gobble up parts of your private life.

I personally think that interviews should be enough. Signing autographs when he's out and about are enough. Annual fan meets are just lame. I only enjoyed his Korean fan meet because Bi was at his most natural and he was in home territory. When I see Bi enjoying and being comfortable, then atleast I don't feel he's being forced to do something beyond the call of duty. But the Budokan fan meet felt fake.

I hope Bi doesn't sink too much into faking a happy face just to impress the fans and the media wherein he won't be able to distinguish what his true feelings are as opposed to manufactured ones.

Damnit, you wanna go to America Bi? Start thinking about the American market. This freakn cute-sy act just turns my stomach.

The Ruskis are coming to town

2006-06-15T11:59:00.000+08:00

The Ruskis are coming to town!

The Russian Cultural Festival, which will be held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from June 14 to June 18, is the brainchildof Valentina Nebogatov in her capacity as the energetic First VicePresident of the Philippines-Russian Friendship Society.

The Society was established to promote cooperation in all fields between the Philippines and Russia, and particularly to promote closer cultural relations and friendship between the peoples of the Philippines and Russia.The Federal Agency for Culture of the Russian Federation on behalf ofthe Russian Government is the main partner of the festival on theRussian side.

Stars from the famed Bolshoi Theater Ballet, together withdistinguished Russian conductor Felix Korobov and Moscow pianist DenisMatsuev who won the International Tchaikovsky Competition, will befeatured in the festival. Matsuev has become a fast-rising star on the international concert stage after his triumphant victory at the 11thInternational Tchaikovsky Competition, appearing in hundreds ofrecitals at prestigious concert halls throughout the world.

Wow, this certainly brings back memories of my stay in St. Petersburg. It took mega-planning and coordination, but I managed to arrange for a 9-day stay in Piter with free accommodations because I established very good contacts in the city months before arriving.

I managed to see the famed Russian Ballet. It was my goal to watch ballet while I was in Russia even though I am not a fan of ballet.

How do I describe the cultural environment in Russia? Different. Colorful. Exciting. Alive.

So very different from the Philippines where culture = high brow, or a socialite activity. We can't even attest this mentality from being a poor country whose immediate concern is definitely not the arts. Russia is not rich, and most of the rest of the country is still neglected, but the arts and literature is very much alive. Red is the color of Mother Russia because the blood throbs vigourously within her land.

Anyway, back to ballet. I watched Swan lake, and I paid 60pesos or 30rubles for the nose bleed section. Fortunately, even if I was high up the opera theater, the view was still superb, and worth so much more than the cheap price I paid.

The performance and the costume were equally breathtaking. I never expected to be so moved by ballet, but during curtain call, I had to give the entire production a standing ovation. It was magnificent, and one of the best experience I had in Piter. The foreigners I met during my stay in Russia would tell me they had a love-hate relationship with Russia, and I would agree. Even with all the difficulties I experienced in Russia, there were moments of intense wonder, and the wealth of their arts, culture, and literature are reasons why one can't help but be in awe of such a schizophrenic giant of a country and her people.

When shall you be truly free?

2006-06-12T11:10:00.000+08:00

It is with heavy heart and burdened spirit that I reflect on today's celebration of the Philippines' independence day. On this day where we rejoice on our freedom, I find my country is anything but free.

On this day where we celebrate the freedom from bondage of more than 300 years of Spanish oppression, we Filipinos find ourselves still chained by the corrupt power of our own countrymen, the few who hold the wealth and power in this land.

On this day where we celebrate the courage of the brave men from our history who have fought for our freedom, we Filipinos find ourselves careless, jaded, tired, or merely afraid to speak out and take action against the atrocities subjected to the few who are still brave enough to speak the truth.

Can you smell the scent of freedom, Islas las Filipinas?

Opinion column from The Philippine Daily Inquirer
As I See It : "GMA’s creative solutions to nation’s problems"
By Neal H. Cruz
Inquirer Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the June 12, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

WHEN THE VALUE OF THE PESO WAS APPRECIATING, Malacañang crowed: It was due to President Macapagal-Arroyo’s “sound economic policies.” Now that the peso value is dropping, Malacañang is so quiet, and government agencies have taken to long, convoluted, song-and-dance explanations conveniently called “global imbalance.”
If for nothing else, you have to credit the Arroyo administration for being creative in solving problems.

It miraculously reduced the unemployment rate not by creating more jobs but by changing the definition of “work.” Before, if you have no means of livelihood, you simply are jobless, out of work. Now, if you have given up looking for a job—because after so many months and years of trying, you still haven’t found one and have run out of money for transportation—you are not considered jobless.

GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) was also creative in solving the perennial lack of classrooms. With a wave of her sharp tongue, she miraculously ended the classroom shortage not by building more classrooms but by doubling the student population per classroom. So if the ideal ratio of 45 students to a classroom in public schools will mean a shortage of classrooms, then double it to 100 students to a classroom. And presto, we’ll have enough classrooms, said the President. If doubling the ratio still doesn’t do it, triple it to l50 to 1 by having three sessions per day!
So journalists are being assassinated like flies? Give them guns to protect themselves. Every man for himself.(yeah, here you don't get sued, you get gunned down)

I suppose GMA has similar simplistic solutions to our nation’s other problems. So the nation is being corrupted by the spread of illegal gambling like jueteng? Well then, legalize it. So the poor can no longer eat three square meals a day? Make them eat only once or twice a day. Many of them are doing that now—actually have been forced to do so—anyway. The population is growing too fast? Tell the military and police to kill them faster.

It’s the same with the exchange rate. After boasting that the increase in the peso value was due to GMA’s economic policies, the administration explained: Nothing wrong with GMA or her policies, “(the drop) was due to global imbalance.”

What does that mean? Never mind, you’re not supposed to understand that anyway. Just understand that it was not the fault of GMA or her policies. In the first place, she has no policies at all—except to lie, cheat, steal, bribe, suppress the truth, suppress dissent and kill anybody who threatens to unseat her from Malacañang. It is the fault of the whole world that it is “imbalanced.” It is the fault of other countries that they have stronger currencies than ours.

Locked Down

2006-06-11T17:19:00.000+08:00

the most intense gaze in television

While Bi is busy running the hamster wheel, I was busy looking at another hot namja.

Introducing...Wentworth Miller!

I don't really go for white guys, but there are always exceptions like Brad Pitt and this smart sexy dude with a name from an English novel.

He's the lead star of the hit TV series, Prison Break and he is as brainy as he is easy on the eyes. Hard to believe? He's a Princeton grad and really articulate. Impossible?

Well, lots of women have grown cynical these days and they can't believe that a beautiful, brainy, talented, and now, a famous guy like Wentworth is still SINGLE and NOT GAY. Yeah, it seems you have to prove you're a greaseball so that you won't be suspected as gay nowadays. Since Wentworth doesn't stink with even the slightest smell of "loser" with his grammaticaly precise English and low-profile ways, as opposed to a strutting Hollywood male ho' that women have come to expect, Wentworth is now suspected to be gay.

We live in strange times.

Whatever. I still can't wait to watch Prison Break season 2.

Dude needs some shut eyes

2006-06-11T16:38:00.000+08:00

What's wrong Bi? If your face got any longer, your chin would hit the floor.

Obviously, our Bibi is not a very happy dude right now. Might be because of the crazy schedule? Who'd be happy anyway if you were shooting in Pusan in the morning, flying to Vietnam at noon, rehearsing for a show in the afternoon, performing at night, and then flying back to Korea as soon as the show's over. All of these in less than 24 hours.

Nope, I don't think anyone would sing a happy tune with this schedule. Someone better get their priorities straight, or else the quality of the work will seriously slide.

Bi, get some R and R....and FAST!

If you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for your fans. We got used to seeing topnotch performance from you, and if your brain is fried and your body's limp, how do you suppose you could deliver that?

Seriously, give it a rest.

I didn't expect that!

2006-06-08T21:25:00.000+08:00

I think bathrooms are one of the scariest things to prepare for when you travel. Different countries, different customs, different standards of living, and if you're a guest, you have to deal with it.

And I have.

I have dealt with some really hairy toilet episodes in my travels, but that's reserved for later. I'm thinking of sharing the amusing and interesting tales instead of the "it-never-happened" stuff.

So here are some anecdotes that flashed back to me for some strange reason:

KUALA LUMPUR

Ok, I went to LAKE GARDENS (TAMAN TASIK PERDANA) one weekend. I was assigned on a 2 month project in KL, and basically had nothing to do on weekends because there was no work. Kuala Lumpur Lake Gardens (Taman Tasik Perdana) is the greenbelt of KL, the city's most popular and scenic park, and a green sanctuary nestled deep in the city center with a host of attractions, many of them unique to the region.

One of the gardens within the 230 acre land is The Butterfly Park that houses some 6,000 butterflies of over 120 species. The park is an imitation of the butterfly's natural habitat. It includes more than 15,000 plants from 100 species that have been used to recreate a Malaysian rainforest atmosphere.

So, ok, enough of that. I was walking alone, and the place was amazing. The vegetation was colorful and beautiful and it was a sanctuary within the city. I saw a lot of butterflies which normally do not interest me, but because of their sheer number and diversity, I was impressed. As I walked over the bridges, through the stone pathways, and under the giant trees, I couldn't help but notice I was the only single person in the place. There were families enjoying the weekend together, but most of the visitors were couples! There were local couples, foreign couples, young couples, old couples, people on the verge of becoming a couple-- there were just too many couples! Holding hands, whispering, gazing into each others eyes, it wasn't a picnic for me. I don't have any problems of being single, but if you're the only single person in a place, it feels like crashing into a private party.

Which begs the question: "Are butteflies the newest aphrodisiacs?"

Masjid Negara (National Mosque): I arrived in Masjid Negara an hour early so I decided to come back a little later. The worshippers were still inside so I couldn't get in. Visitors can only go inside at designated times of a day, and they should wear the appropriate garments to cover any bare body part. It was the first time in my life I wore a burka that covered me from head to feet. I thought a hijab (long scarf that covers the head when modesty is required) was enough, but women visitors were given burkas at the door. It was so hot! I was sweating like a girl hiding her boyfriend in her room closet, and I couldn't help but lift the hem of my burka. I was wearing normal walking shorts, but I guess the site of bare skin inside the premises was still shocking even to other foreigners! The group of Japanese tourists were staring at me as though I grew 2 heads. I was almost afraid they'd start taking pictures or pose beside me with their V signs.

to be continued...

Manila commuters can ride anything!

2006-06-08T15:04:00.000+08:00

The crazy Orchard Road shopping loafing crowd. Where the heck do they all live in spore-sized Singapore?

One of my favorite activities when I travel is commuting by metro or underground (subway). Being part of the mass of humanity in a city gives you a feeling of being less "the foreginer"and being one of the locals.
I seem to have a knack in commuting by public transportation, most especially by metro, and I almost never get lost after studying the metro map of any country (even in Russia! Thank goodness I can read cyrillic alphabet). It has become a pride thing for me not to check on the
subway map after I've studied it before leaving a hotel or a friend's place.

So it's great that one my travel contributors sent an account of her trip to Singapore with a public transportation story. I will only include excerpts that I want to comment on, while you can read the rest in her blog link:

http://thoughtcradle.blog-city.com/traveling_via_singapores_public_transport_systems.htm

Traveling Singapore via its Public Transport Systems:

The most interesting ride was the SMRT (or train) though. The second time I rode it, my brother and I were alone, so even though we had instructions and all, we still had to somewhat play it by ear. I thought their MRT was similar to ours, so at the station I went straight to the counter guy, gave my cash and asked for two tickets to City Hall. What he did was exchange my $10 for two 5’s and told me to get the tickets at the ticket machine. I learned later that the guys at the counter were mainly there for information, or to fix of faulty ticket readings, etc. The ticket machine was pretty straightforward so we didn’t have any problems with that. That time, I kept my eyes peeled for any sign that said we were in City Hall already. Apart from the announcements and the signs at each station, they also had this screen in the train that made known the next stop, so again we were able to get off without a hitch. I read that our cards can be refunded, so I did just that. The next couple of times I was more self-assured so it afforded me to alternate between blanking out one station and observing the scene the next. Their trains seemed to be roomier and cooler, or maybe that was because there seemed to be fewer people too, even during rush hour. Somehow, this made commuting less harried. Like the crowd here, the commuters were a hodgepodge of personalities: trendy teenagers, students in uniform, business professionals, homemakers. There were a lot of Indians too. (In fact, they even had a Little India station.) I considered this fact for a bit and then remembered that had a population of 1 billion. I know too that has a population of more than a billion. So if the world’s population is more than 6 billion (as of October 1999), that means 1 out of every 6 people you meet are either of Chinese or Indian descent. I admit to straining my ears also for utterances of my native tongue, wondering where the Filipinos were. But then we were there, so I guess that meant that the 3rd most ubiquitous nationality was well represented.

People may have their individual take on Singapore, but what most can agree on is that efficiency can be the country's synonym.

Coming from chaotic Manila, the stark contrast of Singapore's transportation system from our own hodge podge of fuel consuming metal contraptions is so refreshing. I abhor commuting here in Manila, but when I'm abroad--aside from the fact I cannot afford to take cabs often-- I like hopping in the metro or a bus. I feel independent and street smart when I can zip around the city alone, relying on my wit, language skills, and rapport with the locals if things get a bit shady.
Anyway, the last time I was in Singapore, I stayed with a friend up North in the Woodlands area--where the vast unpopulated forest area made me wonder where the large Orchard Road shopping crowd found land to live in such a spore sized country-- I had no problems commuting. I could take a bus, or the 30 minute metro trip with no help from my friend. I pretty much like to be able to roam around a new place alone for a day or two before having anyone tag along, so it was a convenient arrangement.

One of the things I miss when I commute in Manila is observing with wonderment the diverse mix of a commuter crowd. In a country like Singapore that has a population composed of different racial ethnicities, languages and culture, the Philippines seem a tad boring. People speak the same language, unless of course they converse in a provincial dialect.

The only drawback from the Singapore transportation convenience comes more from a personal philosophy. Because things are too easy, you do not feel pushed or challenge; and somehow, I feel like I'm missing out on something. I guess I always equate a challenging experience to a nice story I can take back home to share to my family and friends--until the next time I travel.

Announcement!

2006-06-04T21:55:00.000+08:00

OK PEOPLE, I NEED A FAVOR....

I need to ask for contributions from anyone who is interested to share about his/her travel adventures that is related to mine. This concept got me interested after reading a blog of a fabulously vulgar gay blogger who is positively in love with Russia, or atleast, with Moscow.

This made me contemplate my own experience in Russia. It was one of the most interesting, difficult, and amazing experience I've ever had, but it was far from glamorous. So, I'm interested to see comparisons, parallelism, and contrasts of experiences from people who've been to where I had.

So, if any of you have been to:

1.) Russia
2.) Bangkok, and Phuket
3.) Hong Kong
4.) Singapore
5.) Paris

Submit pix and an account of your experience to cvvillamar@yahoo.com

I haven't written about the other places I've been to, so just submit those listed above.

The cure for writer's block

2006-06-04T14:10:00.000+08:00

Ok, circumstances are not ideal that Bi and I would meet...so the closest thing of us being side by side is posting any body part of mine beside his hot self. From now on, I will post pictures of both me and Bi sharing one space, even if it's only cyber.
Who knows, it may be room space in the future....mwahahahaha.

I might get bitch slapped for posting these pics...sorry gals, won't happen again! It's the hormones.

I've been procrastinating--since forever-- on writing about anything. I am going through a see-saw phase in my moods, so it was difficult for me to write. The annoying thing is that I've had so many things I want to put down on paper and just look at the ideas in black and white, but no strenght was emitted from my fingers to type them down.

So today I try.

The easiest subject to talk about, whom I feel passionate about without needing to unscrew my head and pick out my brain is Bi, my Jihoon.

So I wanna write about the person who makes me happy and hot and envious all at the same time:

Happy: Well, he's so inspiring. I get goosebumps thinking of all the successes he had. I mean, hell yeah, its been rehash so many times how amazing his achievements are, but I think people have come to a point where they take it forgrantted that Bi will always succeed or will always shine in whatever he does. He has reached the level where expectations are not just high, they are already benchmarked, and he cannot go even slightly lower. It's damn scary, but it seems to me, he is confident that he can achieve each milestone of his dreams.

Hot: Have you guys seen some pictures from his photobook? I like to call them a teaser, or an equivalent of a movie trailer because once you've seen some parts of it, you want to watch the entire thing. He's fucking hot, and he's one of the few asian men who are just so comfortable (as opposed to smug dickheads) in their skin (literaly!).
In Asia, we don't breed attitude because we are traditional and heirarchal and we respect the wisdom of age and experience. Bi is both respectful and differential to those who are enriched with experience because of their seniority, and yet he has the smoldering and undeniable confidence of one who knows he has something special and who has the persistence to see his goals to the end.
I've met a lot of arrogant assholes who think that by virtue of graduating from Ateneo, and growing fat behind the desk as company executives, they act as though they are kings of their mini-worlds. Smug little weiners should leave the Philippines and get an education in living alone abroad without their maids and mothers so that they will understand that an Ivy League diploma does not make a man's penis any bigger.

Envious:
barely 24 years old.
talented
rich
influential
famous
determined
healthy
sexy
tall

...and he's only just began.

How can I not?

Visual yoga

2006-05-24T23:06:00.000+08:00

Men who can handle the wheels confidently are always sexy

Bad ass, I like....

If you can look hot even if you have a serene expression, then that's 2x hotter

Yeah, I like men with attitude

I've been too tired to post anything.
Anyway, instead of writing about travelling (or not writing as I have been doing lately), I just want to make myself feel de-stressed with good ol' fashion visual stimulation. Everytime I will look back at this entry, I would feel good because my senses are having a swell time with the pictures.

Da Vinci Code and Paris

2006-05-22T00:43:00.000+08:00

The Louvre

River Seine

I just got back home after watching The Da Vinci Code.

I am curious how the book and the movie are viewed by non-Catholics or non-Christians. For a born and raised Catholic like me who grew up in the only predominant Catholic country in Asia, the book and film have a more profound meaning because I was brought up under the Church's teachings and doctrines. My faith was shaped by these beliefs, and the Da Vinci Code was written so convincingly that it has even become a significant enough threat that the Vatican has even issued official statement about the book being a work of fiction, and that the Catholic faithful should not believe in it.

I am not even a strict practicing Catholic. I did not have a reaction against the book and I really really found The Da Vinci Code a fascinating read inspite of the critics. But the film is a different matter. It sucked. One critic called in "servicable" and I think he was being generous with the comment. If the book managed to draw people into the history of the Catholic Faith and even question its teachings, then the movie managed to do the opposite for me personally.

The movie was so unconvincing, and so uninspiring, you would have no second thoughts that the theories presented in the film are pure fiction. If the Catholic Church thought that the movie will even raise more questions and doubts about the history of Christianity, I think they can rest their worries because the film may have even done the opposite effect.

The only thing that affected me in the film was the locations. It was set in Europe and I miss Europe so much. Most of the location was in Paris and I was there last autumn. Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world. I miss the culture, the history, the geography, and the people. I miss Europe and I want to go back soon.

My friends in Singapore

2006-05-07T23:32:00.000+08:00

Gawd, I'm freakn blow fish. I need to sign up to Fitness First's Nike Rockstar Hip Hop class asap! Oh, anyway, the pic was taken infront of the display window of Takashimaya's LV store. Me and the gals are pretending Bi is the model instead of Gisele Bundchen.
Sweet Mate. She's in love, but it's a long distance relationship. She's in Singapore and he's in her hometown back in the Philippines. Good luck kiddies!

Election in SIngapore

2006-05-06T23:15:00.000+08:00

Well, it's voting time again in Singapore and frankly, I don't understand the process. Singapore is a parliamentary government, the model that evil little girl GMA is railroading back in the Philippines. What I do know is that Singapore lives under the giant shadow of Lee Kwan Yu. He's a scary guy, quite the dictator. Although he's no Marcos, and he did turn Singapore from a 3rd world to a 1st world country, dictators still leave a bad taste in my mouth (if I could spit GMA, I would).

Anyway, here's to another year of re-election to Lee Kwan Yu's party.

So sick

2006-05-05T13:38:00.000+08:00

I am sick in Singapore.

I can't believe I'm in bed right now in my friend SHikin's apartment here in Woodlands and I can't even summon the energy to eat. What kind of holiday is this? I'm nursing a slight fever when I haven't been sick for a long time! And the gloomy SIngapore weather is not helping either.

I guess it's goodbye to Zouk and hip hop tonight.

Gomenasai, Mianhe, I'm Sorry.....I have to leave again

2006-04-25T22:19:00.000+08:00

On paper, I finally landed a dream job. I work as a communications specialist for a development agency. I get to write about things that actually mean something in the greater scheme of things, meet a bunch of people all the time, work with the media but not within the media sector, and despite the NGO nature of my company, I still work in a service oriented organization (which is totally ideal for do-gooder but still capitalist-at-heart like me).

But silly ol' me is still getting cold feet. I still want to leave the country.

I feel like Julia Roberts in "Runaway Bride." No matter how great a deal falls on my lap, I easily get ansy and restless and feel so wired that I could flee any minute. What's wrong with me?

So what do I do? I leave.
No, I don't leave my job. I just started.
It's not my job, it's where I am.

I will leave the country for a few days. I need to de-pressurize myself from Manila, from the Philippines, from the politics, and all other social pains that are crowding my world here. I'm like that-- an addict. Everytime I start a new job, I will leave the country for a few days before immersing myself wholly in my job. I feel that my last days of freedom are those days outside the country, all by myself and just my thoughts, and anonymity (well, sort of).

I need to leave the Philippines soon, and not come back for a long time. Call it existential issues, wanderlust, burn-out, over-saturation of a culture and socio-political structure that have been increasily difficult to relate to as I grow older and more worldly....I need to leave home for a while.
It may be the only recourse to take for me to want to stay here once again.
Someday.

Angelina's version of Bono's song, "One"

2006-04-22T21:41:00.000+08:00

Angelina Jolie Takes Out Ad for Darfur Aid

Crusading actress Angelina Jolie plans to take out a large advertisement in USA Today next week, urging an end to the violence in Darfur, Sudan.The Tomb Raider star and United Nations Goodwill ambassador is preparing for the upcoming birth of her baby with Brad Pitt, but felt compelled to draw attention to the plight of people in Darfur.

Jolie tells People magazine, "I chose to take out this ad because when Congress returns from recess, they have the chance to fully fund peacekeepers in Darfur. "The situation in Darfur has been going on far too long. It's only getting worse. "Reports are pouring in about mass atrocities including children getting raped and killed. "If people are aware of the facts, I believe many will be driven to action."

The Mr. and Mrs. Smith star, who noted in the ad, "I'm an actress, and certainly no foreign policy expert," has visited the region twice--once in October 2004 and again in June 2005.
source: Hollywood.com

I like Angelina Jolie. I really do.

She’s beautiful, sexy, rich, and yet far from perfect. She tries to do good and has sincere intentions. She’s also, in my opinion, a bit koo koo. But that’s why women like Jennifer Maniston hate her. Angelina didn’t need surgery to get that face and she doesn’t need to breathe yoga and eat gym to maintain her body. How can any self-respecting L.A. girl who has her plastic surgeon in her speed dial not hate Angelina?

My one beef with the earth goddess Jolie is her way of trying to save the world—it just doesn’t convince me as efficient or intelligent. She’s an amazing woman, but doesn’t seem very smart.

When Angelina Jolie spoke in the UN Economic Conference in Switzerland a few months ago, she sounded simple, or simple in the category of a highschool debater compared to a masteral student defending his thesis. This extraordinarily beautiful woman looked ordinary because her words and the information she was sharing didn't strike me as critical information that would deserved space in a UN forum. She began to look simple to me. Her glaring American accent in a room of multi-lingual people did not help either. Even Bill Gates spoke another language (programming). I know a British accent doesn’t increase you I.Q. by 50% just because you can speak English from the dictionary, but listening to colloquial American accent (specifically L.A.) really affects one’s opnion on a person's analytical skills (thanks to Hollywood starlets for forever branding Los Angelinos). Average American English uses so many slangs and word mutation (Brilliant vs. cool; like vs. therefore) that it sounds inarticulate. But regardless of her accent, she just did not share useful information that is not quickly accessible through google. If she’s serious about being a credible voice in foreign policy agenda, then she should quit movies for a while and concentrate on educating herself more.

If you didn’t know she was Angelina, you wouldn’t understand why she was invited in the forum in the first place. I can read what she spoke about just by clicking on CNN.com.

I like Angie, but I think she shouldn’t be talking too much about foreign policy and simply just concentrate on letting her action speak for itself.

She’s no Bono. Bono is a damn intelligent person regardless of being a rock icon with all the preconceptions that goes along with the title. He’s well read, well informed, and analytical enough to impress even Bill Gates who doesn’t seem to have the inclination to associate with people who don’t fall within any of the ff category: his income bracket, visionary predisposition, or I.Q. level.

Yeah, I love Bono! He’s talented and intelligent and a strategist—what’s not to love?

Angie, you’re a good person, but don’t try to hard. It looks painful.

supermodel..work...sashay, shante'

2006-04-20T20:06:00.000+08:00

look at the lights, not at my sister
designers and models take a bow
moi trying to work it?

I was thinking, should I write about something exotic? Something most people-- well, atleast most middle class asian people, have never experienced before? Should I write about my trip to the Altai mountains and the infamous Russian banya(sauna)?

That would be different, and so exotic you'd get rashes just thinking about it....

But, I was cleaning my room and found some great pictures of one of my trips to Hong Kong and I decided to shelve the Altai trip for next time.

These were taken during the Hong Kong Fashion week in January 2004. We were lucky enough to know the PR man (imagine an asian Samantha Jones--chic, sophisticated, sexy, and gay!) who handled the event. He gave me and my sister front row tickets for most of the fashion shows during the one week event. My sister is a major fashionista who can channel Nicole Ritchie, Kate Moss and Stella McCartney on any given mood or day. So it was a big deal to her, and it was a chance for me to pretend I can be vogue for a day!

We pretended to be young Anna Wintour wanna-bes when we assumed our VIP seats. Personally, I'm not much of a clothes horse(I cant do a Hollywood starlet lifestyle since I dont travel with an entourage), but it was a nice ride pretending to be VIPs in an international fashion event. After our 4th show, we joined Hong Kong and international fashionistas, magazine editors, buyers and designers for a nice champagne and hors'douvres cocktail. I felt so P. Diddy with the free flowing champagne.

The event was held in the city landmark, Hong Kong Convention Center in Wanchai.

Trust me, whenever I think of Hong Kong, I would so miss the smell of commerce and business. Even mega-Moscow didn't have that strong capitalist vibe like World City Hong Kong.

Russian Story

2006-04-18T21:48:00.001+08:00

my pretty colleague, Katya Grebenshchnikova
planes and tanks of the Great Patriotic War (world war 2 as we know it) . This park is just a 3-minute walk from my apartment.

Novorsibirski Geroi (Novosibirsk heroes)

“It’s a story during the time of USSR,” Katya explained to me (as if it wasn’t obvious), as we queued towards the exit. “Do you know anything about Russian history?” she asked.
Shamefaced, I shook my head. I did not know a lot about Russian history except from the movies I saw, and the news that I watched on TV while growing up. I have never even finished reading War and Peace or opened the book Anna Karenina. “Russian people are required to read all the classics,” she told me.

“You mean you’ve read War and Peace, The Brother Karamazov, Onegin?” I asked incredulously. I was imagining the thick volumes of required reading Russian kids had to finish.

Katya nodded, “Of course.”

“And how was it?” I remember that Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo were discussed and quizzed back in high school, but now I only have a vague memory of the books that are considered classic Filipino works and the depiction of our history.

“I like it, almost all of it,” Katya replied sincerely.

“You really liked it? Even if your teacher didn’t ask you to read it?” I had to be clear about this because from where I come from, reading the classics is not one of the to-do-list of young people.

“Yes, I read some of it more than once,” she replied casually, as if we were talking about Harry Potter instead of Russian literature.

I was left gaping.

“Russians like to read, and Russians read Russian.” Katya said proudly.

And so it seems that Katya was part of the majority and not an exemption. I’ve spoken to many young Russians during my stay and all the time they left me amazed, impressed, and also ashamed that they take their history, and Russian classics as a part of their identity and not merely relics of their past. They told me their heroes were the brave men from history who fought in wars to defend Mother Russia. The bronzed statues of hometown heroes are part of the itinerary when they show the tourists around the city because they are sincerely proud of these brave men long gone.

I remember walking down the main avenue of Krasny Prospekt one afternoon with my friend Andre and a Brasilian friend and all I wanted was to arrive to the bus stop so we could sit inside a martshrutka taxi (Russian version of the Philippine FX service vehicle) after walking 2 kms. But Andre was enthusiastic to play the local guide and kept showing the sights and explaining their history. When we were just 10 minutes from the Richnoi Vakzal bus stop, we passed by a statue located in the middle of Krasny Prospekt, placed in the center of an island. Andre slowed our pace and pointed to the statue. “Do you know who he is?” he asked.

The longer I was in Russia, the more stupid I felt for not reading and memorizing Russian History (a.k.a. “Before Putin was President”)
“No, I don’t know him,” I replied.
“Ahhhh, he’s the first Russian ace who downed a German fighter palne during the Great Patriotic War (that’s how they call WWII), and he’s also a son of Novosibirsk,” Andre explained.
A son of Novosibirsk. When have I ever heard someone call Jose Rizal a son of Calamba Laguna with so much pride?

Upon reflection, which I don’t do a lot lately, I know Russia is far from being described as a happy or even immigrant friendly country, and the vast land can really be harsh to less resilient people. But even with those factors and more, I can say that the Russians really know their history, have a strong sense of identity and pride in being Russians, and they love their language. There is no confusing hybrid of Renglish or Russian-English for these people. They probably produce the cheapest and biggest volumes of books I have seen in a developing country—all written in Russian, with people actually reading them beyond the classroom.

Back in the USSR

2006-04-18T21:06:00.001+08:00

I worked in a media company in Russia and shared the room with the public relations and marketing department. I was fortunate that the PR ladies, Ina and Marina were one of the most sought-after teams in the city and they invited me to join some of their PR activities.

One event that I won’t forget was a musical that we attended for free because the girls were friends with one of the actors. I was excited to watch my first Russian musical even though I already saw a small college production 2 weeks after I arrived in the city. This was a major deal and it was a big budget production.
The musical was very popular and it was difficult to score tickets, and since we were attending the finale for the year, the audience attendance was up to the rafters. My colleague, a slim, brown-haired, doe-eyed girl named Katya was kind enough to act as my translator, or to at least try to translate the script and the lyrics for me.

We left the office at 17.00 and trooped inside Ina’s brand new left hand drive Toyota. Ina was just getting used to driving left hand so most of the 10 minute drive to the theater was hairy. We arrived at the theater a few minutes before curtain call. Once inside, it took us several minutes to find our seats because there were just too many people, and even with the crisp weather of late spring, we actually needed airconditioning because the theater was stuffy.

Presently, I could not recall the details of the musical, but the theme was unsurprisingly about the peasant revolt during the time of communism. It was surreal listening to an all Russian musical, and watching the colorful costumes, and the amazing set display that portrayed Russia before the fall of communism. I could distinctly remember the tanks, the ax and sickle, the peasant costumes, the soldier uniforms, the loud marching beats, the grand chorus, and the blazing red flag of the former Soviet Union. It was a pity that I could not understand the words because I felt dislocated whenever the audience laughed from the dialogues, or when I saw my colleague discreetly wiping away a tear during one of the songs, or when every one stood up to a rousing applause after the finale. The production was grand and they did not spare on the sound system and the orchestra, so every beat and me

SK Telecom

2006-04-15T19:14:00.000+08:00

It's pathetic.

One of the most exciting memories of travelling to Russia is the stopover in Incehon Airport, Seoul, South Korea. How sad is that? I was going to a land that may as well be Mars to most Filipinos, but what I was itching to see was Incheon International Airport.

I was air sick almost the entire flight from Manila to Korea and I hadn't even noticed the cute Korean guy sitting beside me. You only see in movies or read in books that a woman actually gets to sit beside a cute guy in an airplane, and it happened to me when I was green with airsicknes. Well, I was such in a bad shape that I didn't care if the man thought I looked wretched because I felt like hell.

I arrived in Incehon at 5.30am. My legs felt like jelly, my head was swimming, and my stomach was still somewhere over Taiwan when I disembarked from the tarmac. I thought that nothing was going to make me feel the slightest bit better as I walked miserably towards the transfer desk. Russia? Siberia? What the hell was I getting myself into? I couldn't even survive a flight to Seoul, and its been my goal to go to South Korea since falling like a headless chicken for Bi.

And then I saw him. or saw it.

There on my left, dominating the the middle section of a twenty feet high wall, was a lighted billboard of Bi smiling down on passengers while holding an SK telecom cellphone. I swear, my headache vanished and I stupidly felt like smiling back at him.

From Russia, with no love

2006-04-14T20:42:00.000+08:00

Lets get the bad part over with.

Before I can really share my Russian experience, I have to get over one major obstacle. It was an incident that forever changed my perception of travel and precaution: no matter how experienced you are and well prepared, at the end of the day, you are still a stranger in a strange land.

It was Saturday and I wanted to go to the city center. I lived 30km from the city, in a district called Cafe Ogonyok. Going to my apartment, you have to travel south from the city where there are more trees than houses, apartments, and people. It felt like living in a forest with just a cluster of buildings in the center.
ANyway, one Saturday just a month since arriving in Novosibirsk, I decided to go to the city. My Russian was sufficient enough to communicate for commute-- "Skolka?" (How much? "Spasiba" (Thank you), "etta" (here).

I alighted in Richnoi Vakzal(River Port) Metro Station to take the train going to Ploshad Lenina, the main stop in the city. Just after dropping my token on the machine, it took less than a minute when I suddenly felt a kick behind my left thigh. I turned around and saw 3 youths (age guess is between 17-21), 2 girls and a guy, and they were shouting at me. At first I thought it was a case of mistaken identity, but before I could do more than shout the instinctive, "What!" one girl punched me on the face. I didn't fall down, and when I saw their faces, I saw all three were laughing. Since I didn't know how to say, "Help, some fuckers are going to beat the shit out of me," I ran to the nearest Metro personnel I saw. I mimicked a punch on my face to explain to her why I was anxious and I pointed to the 3 youths who were still hanging around and looking at my reaction.

The lady official didn't speak english, but probably understood enough, so she she stood up and started walking towards the hooligans. When the group saw this, they turned and ran. We ran to catch them and we did. When the lady official started speaking to them, I knew without speaking Russian that they were vehemently denying everything. When the lady official turned to ask for assistance from the other guards, the 3 bolted and ran to the exit. I ran after them, and when I was close enough to grab one of the girls, the guy with them grabbed my shoulder and pushed me several times. In the end, the stupid guards weren't able to catch the three hooligans.

They brought me to the metro security station for "questioning." No one spoke a word of english, and my Russian was just on the baby gibberish level. The station was small, with one sad looking ceiling fan desperately trying to pretend it could ventilate the stuffy interior. There was one desk, and a stern looking and shaved-head militsya (police) seated behind it and was trying to ask me questions in Russian. I saw that there was cell just across me to the left--to hold whatever culprit they would be lucky enough to catch, or someone stupid enough to be caught by an inept militsya. There was a small bulletin board hanging on the wall near the entrance with some official looking documents written in unreadable (at that time) cyrillic characters.

It was the first time in all my travels, which began when I was 8 years old and my parents brought me to America for my first vacation abroad, that I felt scared and alone being so far away from home. It was that moment that I knew I was going to cry for the first time because I was afraid to be in another country. I realized the cocoon of safety developed through experience and smarts that a seasoned traveller convinces himself to have is actually just a flimsy rationalization of the mind. I was in Siberia, I have not seen any foreigner aside from myself, no spoke a language I could communicate with, and I was alone in a Russian jail because I was attacked out of a sick whim by the locals. I was a city girl, cautious of city crimes like pickpockets, holdaps, kidnaps, stealing....but I was not expecting nor prepapred to experience a race crime.

In the end, the guy from the company who picked me up from the station advised me it was useless to file charges because 1.) the police wouldn't be able to catch the hoologans anyway, the security cameras in the metro station dont work, so there was no way to identify them, 2.) even if the 3 were caught by some miracle, they only need to pay 200rubles each to bribe the police and they walk.

Scent and Sensibility

2006-04-14T00:04:00.000+08:00

I'm squeezed in between a girl who stands 5'11 and another one at 5'8

Applying for a Russian visa is pretty much the primer for any tourist, worker, or expat, of his future in Russia. Application is long, tedious, chaotic, and sometimes, even shaddy. I had to wait for 2 months to get my visa, and during those two months, my co-applicants became my comrades. We all experienced the same shit and insanities of application, so inevitably, we shared some personal stories about each other. I met a lady who said she was going to work in a Moscow Citibank branch, and a met I couple of seamen who were going to be stationed somewhere north in the eastern region of Russia.

Most of the applicants were not first timers, and they shared their personal experiences to me-- the novice, the virgin, the first timer. The men told me Russian women were beautiful and tall, but smelled funky. I already heard some stories about Russians and their propensity for the musky dizzying type of oflactory stimulation, so I wasn't suprised. I figured, the cold climate probably turned them off from bathing. I promised myself that as long as humanly possible without killing myself, I will continue to be hygenic even in Siberia (read: I will take a bath once a day).

So I arrived in Siberia, and indeed, I saw women that could be trees and some who could give Angelina Jolie a run for her money. I'm Asian, so I'm considered slim in Western countries like Europe and America, but in Siberia, I was just average. A big letdown on my smugness.

But what about the smell? The infamous funky smell?

Well, I arrived early spring, so it was still very cold. I suppose making a daily excursion to the shower and hand washing your clothes with freezing fingers did not appeal to Russians. I was so paranoid that I would start smelling like the general population that I overdid washing my laundry (My first apartment had a washing machine) and of course, bathing was never a question. It was so surreal when I decided to eat my Kimchi noodles inside the office, and my not-so-fresh-smelling colleague in the next cubicle kept giving me the evil eye. I asked him if my noodles smelled bad, and he replied sarcastically, "Well, its not the best smell in the world." My eyes almost bulged out from their sockets. He had the gall to tell me this when I dont even have to see him to know that he has entered the room because I can already smell him a few meters away!

So, inspite of looking like Slavic goodesses who lost their way from the catwalk and ended up in the streets with normal people, I always knew that I smelled better than my Russian counterparts. (ok, bitch alert)

Then again, maybe they thought I had a weird smell because I smelled of soap?

Phi Phi and Bi

2006-04-13T01:56:00.000+08:00

I've been to Phuket.

It may not be as exotic as Russia or Siberia, but it is a big deal to me.
Did I go crazy becuase of the beaches? The night life? The resort?
No.No.No.

All three were great, but we have all those in the Philippines.

The real big deal was because of 2 reasons:
1.) I encountered those horrid sea lice that made snack on my skin and left me with more spots than a leopard.
2.) Bi went to Phuket as well.

Russians can teach the French a thing or two

2006-04-11T23:26:00.000+08:00

Time Magazine Online
The New Land of Opportunity
By PETER GUMBEL
(my comments in brown font)

Posted Sunday, Apr. 09, 2006

I have a modest suggestion for how to end France's impasse over youth job contracts: the French government should pay for a group of student leaders to spend a couple of weeks in Yekaterinburg. It wouldn't cost much, since there's now a cheap direct flight to and from Paris operated by Ural Airlines (slogan: your dreams. our wings.)

Yekaterinburg is Russia's fifth largest city, about the size of Marseilles and Lyons combined. Assuming the French students have an open mind, they should be astonished, unsettled and perhaps a little ashamed of what they find there. The under-25s in Yekaterinburg dress much the same way and listen to some of the same music as those in Lyons and Marseilles, but they live in a world that couldn't be more different. In today's Russia, nothing is easy but everything is possible; in France, by contrast, everything is easy but nothing is possible.

(I was in Russia when the bird flu first entered the country. The entry point was Novosibirsk where I lived. Coincidentally, I was also in Paris during the height of the riots. Two very tense events, but very different reactions from the French and the Russians. I totally agree that European and Russian youths may look the same, but they have little in common. The Russians handled the entry of the asian virus in their territory with pragmatism and none of the hysterics that I saw when I was in Europe. Barely anyone spoke about chickens or sickness in Novosibirsk even when the health department officially acknowledge that the Avian virus has entered Russia. It's hard to shock these sturdy Russians).

There is zero job security in Yekaterinburg. France has a plethora of long-term, short-term, temporary and limited work contracts that are at the heart of the current dispute. Russia in theory has a civil code that lays down workers' rights, but in practice you get hired the same way you get fired, at the snap of a finger. Précarité, the word that brings millions of young French people out into the streets, is the norm there. Forget about a pension big enough to retire on—you have 40 years to figure that out. Health care is more problematic, since getting sick puts you on the fast track to poverty. If you're unlucky, your employer runs out of money to pay you. If you're really unlucky, you get caught in the middle of an extortion racket. But if it all works out—as it increasingly does—you get to shape your own future in a way French kids would envy.
(the joke between us foreigners in Russia was that you could hardly recognize a millionaire in Russia except in Moscow. Many Millionaires were blue collar workers during the Soviet Union who made strategic, if shady, connections and started buying companies at dirt cheap prices through these connections during perestroika).

First of all, there's plenty of work. Youth unemployment is about 23% in France, and almost 1 in 10 school leavers does not have a permanent job five years after taking the baccalaureate. In Yekaterinburg, being out of work is a luxury few can afford. The demand for energetic young people is so high that ads for the best jobs scroll along the bottom of prime-time programs on local TV. A free newspaper with job openings, the Urals Work Weekly, would be as thick as the yellow pages if such a phone book existed. Russia hasn't yet discovered equal opportunity laws, so most jobs stipulate that only those under 30 or 35 need apply. Then there's the range of opportunity. Want to become a sushi chef, a marketing consultant or a bank manager? No problem. No previous experience required. Nobody else in the country knows how to do those jobs either. Or why not set up your own business? There's no shortage of people willing to lend you money. (But watch out for those extortionists.)

Tatiana Bildyug, to take but one example, is in her early 20s and switched from accountant at a uranium-processing factory to development director of a shopping mall. The pay's not much better, but the job is a lot more dynamic and fun, she says. That sort of career move is typical of this generation, the first truly post-Soviet Russians. They are the best customers at Pavel V. Kukarskikh's string of restaurants in town, and the only people he will consider hiring. "The young want to live well," he says. "They have a taste for life. In 15 to 20 years they'll be running the country, and that's good." (Here's another interesting feature in the Russian workforce. Since capitalism is young, few people have the educational foundation which prepare them to work in a post-communist Russia. I met people who worked in international trade but didnt have the educational qualifications for the demanding position. They got the jobs because they could speak a language aside from Russian, thus, capable of communicating with foreigners).

It could all go wrong, of course. Even if it does, Yekaterinburg's youngsters are unlikely to copy the French and stage rallies demanding that the government provide long-term job security. Russians have already been there and done that. It was called communism, and after 74 years of failing to make it work, they dumped it. Once French student leaders have soaked up this atmosphere, I would expect them to be asking themselves some difficult questions. Viewed from Yekaterinburg, French kids are far better off than they realize. You don't go hungry if you're unemployed. Everyone has access to a wealth of social and health benefits that Russians can only dream of. If anything, the French are too well off. A 2005 poll shows that 76% of French 15- to 30-year-olds aspire to civil-service jobs from which it's virtually impossible to be fired. But if you don't take risks when you're young, when will you? Russia's total precariousness is scary. But France's total absence of it is almost as bad. It's a recipe for stagnation. In 15 to 20 years, some of those millions of French students who are taking to the streets today will be running France. Only a foolhardy gambler would bet that they'll do a better job than their Russian contemporaries. (too bad I did not have the chance to go to Yekaterinburg. It's 2 days by train from Novosibirsk, and circumstances back then were too crazy for me to make a short stop in the Urals before heading to Moscow)

taken from: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1181588,00.html

No escaping the Rain

2006-04-11T00:35:00.000+08:00

I work as a freelance writer for a couple of magazines. One of them is a music magazine. So being that I am crazy over a certain singer, how can I not squeeze him in as the subject of one of my articles?

SO I did.

It was pretty straighforward reporting, but it was hell for me to be objective and not salivate over my words.

But I managed to do it! Fighting!

RUSSIA 101

2006-04-10T20:58:00.000+08:00

What does a person need to know about Russia that I failed to prepare for when I left? Let me enumerate:

1.) Expect a lot of bribery: This should be a breeze to the average Filipino because this country’s government and bureucracy practically patented a brand for bribery. Philippine politicians and police should feel right at home in Russia.
--Bribe the guards of the Russian embassy so you can submit your visa application before your 50th birthday, or before GMA resigns—whichever comes first
--Bribed the guards so you can receive your visa before you turn 50 or before GMA resigns.
--Bribe the guards…..ok, I think you get the idea.

2.) Bring your passport, visa, and resident permit all the time when you’re in RUssia. The Russian police (militsya) are everywhere and they can randomly choose anyone they see and ask for all three documents. If you can’t produce them, be ready to bribe the policeman 100-200rubles (200-400pesos) or be detained in jail where you have to pay a bigger fine. Sounds close to home?

3.) Learn Russian if you are going to Russia alone. Majority (around 98%) of RUssians, even the newly moneyed Moscovites, do not speak or understand English. If you want to survive and be able to buy products for yourself, you need to learn RUssian and be able to read their Cyrillic alphabet. I practically lived as a mute in my first 2 months there because I could barely speak to anybody.

4.) Be vigilant, don’t be stupid: Even if the Russian Government PR (public relations) machine claim until Siberia stops having -40C winters that news about racism and race-related harassments in Russia are exaggerated, do not easily believe these spin doctors. I personally experienced being physically assaulted by a group of Russian teenagers for absolutely no reason. These youth gangs are notorious in harassing, hurting, and sometimes killing foreigners, especially those who are non-whites—the darker skin your skin, the more dangerous for you.

5.) Washing machines are a luxury. Even in a country notorious for its freezing winters, it is mind boggling how RUssians often wash their clothes using their hands under negative temperature. I keep imagining frostbitten hands trying to wash a bunch of shirts. Washing machines are so sought-after amongst our group of foreigners. I could pull the hair of any of my friends who were lucky enough to get a flat with a washing machine. Sometimes, we would be so overwhelmed to see a revered washing machine, our eyes would practically tear up in awe.

6.) They do have summers. Yes, the temperature can rise high enough between late July to early August for you to wear shorts. During these short months, be ready to see a lot of skin on display in Russia—I mean A LOT. The summer is Siberia was very hot, but the air is dry, so the heavy feeling you experience in ASia due to the humidity is not a problem in Russia.

7.) Men will introduce themselves to you anywhere except the women’s bathroom. DO not immediately scream “harassment” when guys suddenly talk to you in the streets, ask for your number, walk alongside with you, or have a car with a bunch of men follow you while they ask for an introduction. I was so freaked out the first month when this happened, I would accent my “foreigness” (Ya nee gavaroo pa-Ruski: I do not speak Russian) as my excuse to ignore them.

Gdyeh doma? Where's my home?

2006-04-10T20:31:00.000+08:00

My apartment building, in Ulitsa Titova (Titova Street). I live on the top floor.
see the laundry hanging? I handwash (no washing machine)no matter how tired I am or how cold it is.
my flat in Novosibirsk

I work so I can travel and meet a lot of people.
I’ve had a brief insane period where I tried to pretend I could be a researcher, and it was a disaster. I stayed at the office everyday, surfing the net and reading magazines as research materials for the book I was drafting for my then-employer. Suffice to say, the claustrophobia of staying within the walls of my cubicle proved to be too much for me.

So I left to work in Russia. I went to Siberia, the hinterlands of the giant Russian Federation and just up the northern borders of Kazakhstan and Mongolia’s mountainous region. How did a media and communications person like me end up in what seems to be the middle of nowhere of planet earth? It was probably rebellion from the suffocating confines of my yuppie Manila life, and the exhaustion from the nauseating corrupt politics deeply embedded in Philippine society. I was disillusioned, tired, and cynical—I needed to get out.

And indeed I left the Philippines for the last place on earth any twenty-something city girl (even if the city is in a 3rd world country) would choose to relocate—The capital of SIberia in the former Soviet Union: Novosibirsk.

He's a whole lotta spice! (Hotter than Kimchi)

2006-04-10T19:32:00.000+08:00

During my entire stay in Russia, my gonads were in hybernation. Not one Russian guy whom I've met could shake them off their lethargy. Suffice to say, I was in need of serious stimulation in Russia.

Maybe I'm just not attracted to white guys. I am not being racist, its just like saying I am not attracted to pretty boys (read: prettier than a girl) or loud boneheads.

Then again, maybe because of this certain sexual animal called Bi. He's Korean.

This is not meant to be a dirty little diary of sexual fantasies about Bi, but he's a man that certainly elicits fantasies ranging from a schoolgirl's innocent crush, to a mature woman's leading man in classier version of a Paris Hilton sex tape.
Bi has the gift of illusion. In him, women see the promise of hot mind boggling sex. And where else aside from Cosmo magazine do you find that?

I can imagine most older women were fantasizing when they saw Uma Thurman's movie "Prime" where 37 year old Uma carried a hot and heavy affair with a 23 year old guy . The idea of having a firm, strong, young and energetic flesh at your beck and call is fabulous in itself, but imagine that young man--with all the vibrance that youth brings-- is not only hot, but doesn't have the gaucheness and insecurity of a novice.

A dream lover, no doubt.
He's fresh and young, but not too enexperienced that you have to do most of the work; he is youthful, yet mature, playful yet focused.

It's the perfect man. And Bi gives the illusion of being all that and more.

He is unabashedly sexual when he performs and his moves promise any woman in the audience that in private, he can do even more because no one else is watching and his focus is solely on you. He walks around comfortably in his uniform wifebeater even when you think he should put more clothes on when he's out in public. Yet, his body language tellingly says, "I dont give a shit"---and that is so hot.Yet, he will contradict his potent careless sex appeal by giving shy little smiles and polite replies to questions when he's around adoring fans or when being stalked by the public and the media.

Whatever he is, the women who are not close friends and family have already painted a graphic picture of him in their minds that only becomes raunchier as Bi grows more into a man.

What women think(not even my words):

--we all know that every Biers in here wants to atleast DO him once!!but u know if we get the chance to have a night with Bi im sure its not just ONCE but as many times he can DO!!!

--Yup. Just give me the sex.

--That clean just-out-of-shower look makes me want to dirty him...

Every woman deserves to experience those grinding hips atleast once in her life. In case I haven't been explicit, let me say it plainly -- this man is HOT.

Welcome to Siberia

2006-04-10T19:05:00.000+08:00

The City Center and where I worked. I have never seen so many old cars in one place before.
A Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of the main avenue Krasny Prospekt
Ploshad Lenina (Lenin Square) is just a 10 mins walk from my office

As a primer, here are some of the pictures of Novosibirsk Siberia, Russia, where I spent half a year in 2005.

Why bother?

2006-04-09T03:08:00.000+08:00

Why do I bother to write when there are millions other blogs out there?

Well, like the next person, I want others to know I exist.

Why would you be interested to know I exist?

I've travelled a lot, and some of those places, I bet most of the people out there have never been before. Out of curiousity or sheer boredom, I know some of you would like to know about it. And for those who are more inquisitive, yes I will tell you--I plan to travel a whole lot more. It's my thing.

What else will I write about?

The hottest man in the planet for me right now.
He's Korean,
he's a shade over six feet,
and he moves his body like nobody's business.

He's so hot, he gives me fever.

What else?

bitching, most likely.