… stupid: Is it life imitating art? Or at least, Hollywood. A Filipino family leaves toddler behind at an airport in Vancouver. Of course, the baby was taken care of by airline officials, and one is tempted to say that all’s well that ends well. Well, it’s not all well. It’s stupid, it’s embarrassing, and it’s fucking criminal. The parents and grandparents should all be charged with negligence or something.

… cute: Hello, little miss sunshine. Triumph has recently announced its solar-charging bra. The photo-voltaic cells integrated into the underwear will store enough power to run a mobile phone for a few minutes. Maybe just enough time to explain why you have to hang up right away, but not enough time to explain where you are that you can unbutton your blouse and plug in to your breasts.

… pathetic: We need a re-write over here! Justice Secretary Gonzales calls the surfacing of a new witness in the NBN-ZTE affair part of a large script? Ya think? Of course it’s part of a bigger script: the script to oust the President before 2010. And so what if it is? Seriously. If anybody ever needed a new script, it’s Gonzales. He should prolly get Ploning’s scriptwriter too. That way, he’ll speak little and then only in zen.

… eh, that thing that hits fans: a noted blogger writes, among other things, about how much money can be made from shit. Literally.

… not about expectant mothers: Preginet is actually a broadband research and education network - a field that, apparently, is pregnant with opportunity.

There’s a line in a David Brin Uplift novel that goes something like: for me, the term ET has always carried the unfortunate implication that someone, somewhere is going to be eaten.

I remembered this quote when I came across this article about how the Vatican has accepted the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrials - ET - and how that possibility doesn’t contradict religion.

Well of course, it doesn’t. At least not unless you’re a Bible-thumping, hardcore fundamentalist and literal creationist. Another article on the same topic quotes the Vatican astronomer as saying that ruling out ET’s would mean “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom. One of Brin’s characters, Helena Alvarez - again from the Uplift Trilogy of David Brin - says much the same thing when she first sees alien lifeforms feeding off the sun’s electromagnetic fields. She says: “apparently, the Creator accepts very few limits to his imagination” … or something like that.

Enough quotes.

I totally agree with this latest pronouncement from the Vatican - despite the irony of it, this being the same religion that once almost burned Galileo. So I guess Carl Sagan’s “Contact” was right. Anyone who goes to meet aliens for the first time as a representative of humanity should believe in God. In fact, I kinda think that the idea of a Supreme Being or Deity might well turn out to be universal and that aliens will have their own gods too.

In the Philippine Star today, the official Malakanyang excuse for GMA’s visit to ZTE is the trite ole’ “So what?”

When will those people learn that protestations of innocence are pointless now that the atmosphere has been poisoned against the President?  Leaving aside the fact that the photos themselves are not particularly incriminating - well, except for those who are already convinced anyway and need no further proof of the President’s complicity - what matters here is that the photos raise the possibility of presidential complicity. And that is the only reason needed for the NBN-ZTE investigation’s awakening from the coma it has slipped into. But Bunye doesn’t get that; nor Ermita.

Instead, they run around convincing themselves and each other that the photos are harmless, and then try to sell that line to a disenchanted public. They must think Filipinos are morons.

I think the re-opening of the investigation is proper, if only to clarify whether at the time the pictures were taken, GMA knew that there was something fishy with the deal - although as I said before, if she didn’t then she’s incompetent at the very least.

~

One other thing that caught my attention with this story was the insinuation that the photos were released to
divert attention from Meralco. Because it’s Rolex Suplico that’s been running with this ball, the suspicion goes that he’s a Lopez flunky. Considering that Suplico comes from Lopez country, this possibility is not that remote.

And then there’s the rumor that the person who released the photo is actually a lawyer who is rather intimately connected with a rabidly anti-GMA senator. The plot, my friends, sickens.

Is it just me, or are natural disasters on the uptick?

It’s Kali Yuga, baby!

Rulers will become unreasonable: they will levy taxes unfairly. Rulers will no longer see it their duty to promote spirituality or to protect their subjects: they will become a danger to the world. People will start migrating seeking countries where wheat and barley form the staple food source.

Sound familiar? According to the wikipedia, the Bhagavata gives this description - and several others - of Kali Yuga, basically the Hindu version of the Christian end of days. Myself, I learned of Kali Yuga from reading back issues of DC comics. LOL!

Also according to the wikipedia, the Mahabharata has this to say:

Avarice and wrath will be common, men will openly display animosity towards each other. Ignorance of Dharma will occur. Lust will be viewed as being socially acceptable. People will have thoughts of murder for no justification, and they will see nothing wrong with that mind-set.

Well, the part about avarice and wrath is pretty obvious. As is the part about lust. Just take a look at the proliferation of magazines that openly peddle sexual titillation. I’m not for censorship, mind you; just pointing out that in today’s world, most people have come to accept that lust is something that can be the topic of open conversation.

People will be inclined to follow false sciences.

Can you say “herbal?” One of the most disturbing trends nowadays is the number of snake-oil remedies that promise everything from controlling diabetes to greater sexual potency - and all with the oft ignored caveat: no approved therapeutic claims. Still, these things fly off the shelves because they offer quick and affordable substitutes to physicians and their drugs. Are these false sciences? To the extent that they claim to produce benefits without evidence or substantiation, you bet they are. For this we have to thank a loophole in the laws that allow herbal remedies to be marketed even without conclusive medical trials. BFAD controls aren’t as tight, and so all the shysters come a-trotting out their cures and remedies. If they’re lucky, they get people like Mike Enriquez, and Boy Abunda, and Korina Sanchez promoting the snake-oil.

Family murders will also occur. People will see those who are helpless as easy targets and remove everything from them.

For this, all you really have to do is read the papers. Carmela’s family wasn’t the first, and it sure as hell wasn’t the last.

Many other unwanted changes will occur. The right hand will deceive the left and the left the right. Men with false reputation of learning will teach the Truth and the old will betray the senselessness of the young, and the young will betray the dotage of the old. Cowards will have the reputation of bravery and the brave will be enervated cowards. People will not trust a single person in the world, not even their immediate family. Even husband and wife will find contempt in each other.

Sounds like the Philippine Congress. And reminds me of Brian Gorrell and his stories about ‘beards;’ married men who act all hetero and macho (hence the beard) but who actually lust after other men - sort of like the Filipino equivalent of living on the DL.

In the Kali Yuga even pre-teenage girls will get pregnant. The primary cause will be the social acceptance of sexual intercourse as being the central requirement of life.

Hello, Jamie Lynn Spears. Hello, that Revilla daughter, what’s-her-name?

It is believed that sin will increase exponentially, whilst virtue will fade and cease to flourish. People will take vows only to break them soonafter.

Alongside death and famine being everywhere, men will have lustful thoughts and so will women.People will without reason destroy trees and gardens.

People will become addicted to intoxicating drinks. Men will find their jobs stressful and will go to retreats to escape their work.

Yes, yes, and yes!

As the sin increases exponentially, so will the incidence of divine justice and wrath.

Burma, China, wildfires raging in America … Our brains are hardwired to see divine intervention in events so horrible and painful for one simple reason: it is easier for us to accept that the death and destruction proceeded from something we did or did not do. The causality is infinitely more comforting than the idea that so much death can be a random thing.

But when the disasters take place one after another in rapid succession, even the most determined refusal to buy into the divine intervention story can get shaken. By now, you’ve prolly read about all the conspiracy theories surrounding the earthquake in the Mainland. The way I see it, that’s how it starts. Soon enough, the earthquake will be spun as a message from the Celestial Emperor, telling Beijing that it has lost the Divine Mandate in the Tibetan question and that a re-evaluation is in order, or else … Heard they tried that spin on Mao Zedong at one time.

So much for the age of aquarius, eh?

Michael Stipe said it all: it’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.

UPDATE

I found this article. It talks about how misogynistic the response to Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been. Read it, please. But I’m quoting it anyway. Read the original too, coz it has some very interesting links.

As the Democratic nomination contest slouches toward a close, it’s time to take stock of what I will not miss.

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan “Bros before Hos.” The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker, a device in which a pantsuit-clad Clinton doll opens her legs to reveal stainless-steel thighs that, well, bust nuts. I won’t miss television and newspaper stories that make light of the novelty item.
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Watching the rising sun over Singapore is sight I never get tired of. Even seeing it through bleary eyes puts paid to all the shit you might have had to go through to get there.

So there we were, all in one place, a generation lost in space, with no time left to start again.

Yu-Ching - also known as Astrid - is Hong Kong people. A friend of mine from a while back. She arrived at our meeting place swinging one of her up-to-season purses, and refusing to set it down next to my 2006 clutch. LOL! Raymond came a little late. He’s Taiwanese, born and raised in Taipei. I - the first one there - am, of course, from the Philippines. And so there we were, forming our own 3-China conference.

Not that we set out to do that. The thing just sort of came up when we realized that we were all of Chinese descent, and all of us living outside the Mainland; kinda representative of everything that our mainland cousins were not, and too opinionated for our own good.

The thing that started us talking along these lines - after about an hour of catching up and what not - was the question of unification.  More specifically, the unification of Raymond’s little island with the  Big Red across the strait.

Raymond sez: I used to be for it, and then I came into contact with some mainlanders. I realized that we may both be Chinese, but we are not one people. Their culture is very different.

I sez: Obviously. You grew up in a democratic society, and they’re now just experiencing the freedoms that you take for granted. But that shouldn’t be a problem. Look at Astrid.

Astrid sez: Yes, look at me.

Raymond sez: HongKongeese -

Astrid sez: HongKong people

Raymond sez: HongKongese are different. All they really care about is business. As long as the mainland let’s them stay capitalistic, they’re happy. Why do you think pro-democracy movements are so stunted here? A lot of HongKongese just feel that if they rock the boat too much, they’ll be threatening their businesses.

Astrid sez: That’s kinda true. But there are alot of democracy minded people in HongKong, y’know.

Raymond sez: Sure. But not as many as in Taiwan. In Taiwan, people are very interested in the political future. I’ve got nothing against HongKongese. We’re just different. Just like we’re different from mainlanders and from you, Rom.

I sez: Gotta admit, Taiwan’s problems aren’t that talked about in the Philippines. We have our own problems. And anyway I think we have a lot more in common with Hong Kong people than with you guys Ray.

Raymond sez: Exactly.

Astrid sez: Quick, we can still get those Jimmy Choos I saw before the mall closes …

So much for our 3-China conference. But it did give me something to chew on. Raymond’s concern was that Taiwanese were too culturally different from mainlanders. If that were to be considered a valid reason for staying separate, then what does that say about the Muslim separatists back home?

What makes a country a nation?

It’s depressing, really, that there’s a little bit of the Philippines even in those foreign countries that we kinda idolize. I mean, when you’re stuck in the Philippines and neck deep in stories about government scandals and corruption and what-not, it’s so easy to believe that things in other countries are much better. It’s so easy to say that OFWs can take a little consolation in the fact that they live in places where the traffic isn’t so bad, and where government officials are trustworthy, and where the streets overflow with milk and honey.

Yeah, well, I’ve come to realize that that’s because those other countries really don’t air their dirty laundry in public quite as much - or quite as gleefully - as we do. But there’s a little bit of the Philippines in them alright. The predatory cab drivers are here; the petty corruption is here; the grumpy government employee too busy getting a pedicure to really care about serving the public - yup, she’s here too. The main difference, I guess, is that the problem isn’t as widespread as it is in the Philippines. Or is it?

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That’s 22,500 dead in Myanmar.

Why are we never ready?

Help.

How are people who live in Hong Kong called? I’ve heard some people say “Kongers.” I’m thinking “Hong Kongites.” Or, as one friend of mine described herself - “Hong Kong people.” Well, whatever. I’m getting some great pictures. I hope to be able to photoshop a series I took into a panoramic scene. I’m an ok photographer with a real basic camera, but, it’s a great day and i’m feeling mighty optimistic. When I get to where I’m going, I’ll post some of the pictures and we’ll see if I have reason to be optimistic, eh?

Anyway, did you hear the one about this girl who was buying a digital camera? Well, she asked the salesperson: “What are the features of this camera?” Without batting an eyelash, the salesperson answers: “Oh, they can be 3R or 4R if you want. Matte or glossy.” Haha. Uhrm. Maybe it loses something in the telling. Moving on ….