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(Mis)readings(Mis)readingsA blog featuring counterobservations on events and texts from the vantage point of an eccentric, optically inconvenienced, and culturally dispossessed resident from the Southern Philippines. Articles
A Book a Day?
2008-03-12 17:03:00 Once again, I broke my moratorium on the buying of books and am officially revoking it because of my inability to implement it. I just received my part of the profit for Binibining UP Pageant, our advertising class project, and bought myself The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov. The Hesperus Press edition with a foreword by ... More About: Book
The Invisible Hand?
2008-03-10 17:13:00 Does the present efforts to remove the President by agitating for another People Power uprising have the blessings of the United States ? Is it part of a greater strategy against China , the only country that has been officially identified as the only country with ?the greatest potential to compete with the United States?? The string of ... More About: News , Politics , World
Quote of the Day (6)
2008-03-10 00:20:00 Words of wisdom from a lengthy passage penned by the American Comedian George Carlin that I received via email: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have… more ... More About: Society , Quote Of The Day , Wisdom , Values
Miscellaneous
2008-03-08 17:01:00 Balut, mani, fish ball, turon, maize, etc. - Market Manila has a yummy post on the street food available during last week?s interfaith rally in Makati. Yesterday was International Women ?s Day. Protest actions were again held to condemn the present administration while commemorating the event. Still, I now see the waning momentum for a renewed thrust ... More About: News , Politics , Truth , Opinion
Happy World Book Day!
2008-03-06 15:01:00 I never knew that such a commemoration ever existed at all in the first place. But yes, today, March 6, 2008, is World Book Day. It was started in the United Kingdom and Ireland two decades ago to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. I hope book lovers here in the Philippines would also ... More About: News , Literature , Books
Happy World Book Day!
2008-03-06 15:01:00 I never knew that such a commemoration ever existed at all in the first place. But yes, today, March 6, 2008, is World Book Day. It was started in the United Kingdom and Ireland two decades ago to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. I hope book lovers here in the Philippines would also begin organizing parallel activities here in the country in line with the celebration. In the mean time, do check out the ten things you didn’t know about books from The Britannica blog. Just done reading Mikhail Lermontov’s only novel A Hero of Our Time and I must say that it is now in the list of my favorite books. Also, the first few parts of Beyond Good and Evil texts from Dailylit.com has finally arrived. Nietzsche riles against the futility of the philosopher’s search for truth and the pointlessness of the concept of the antitheses. Very convoluted writing, but the guy does have a knack for interesting soundbytes - and a fertile ground for varying interpretations. Last week, I ... More About: Happy
The Bane of the Anti-Arroyo Movement
2008-03-04 23:14:00 Last week, Will of the blog Writer’s Block asked me if the people in Cebu are pro-GMA 100%. I simply answered no. I said that many here believe that the president is guilty of corruption. Likewise, many actually believe Lozada’s claim of irregularities in the NBN deal. As to why not many are joining the ... More About: News , Politics , Bane , Left
Bitter Medicines and Harsh Truths
2008-03-02 11:36:00 This blog entry contains a jumble of remarks and notes written on my sickbed. It includes bits on blogging, last Friday?s interfaith rally, student power, as well as the success of our class project ? Papeles, among other things. ?People have been fed on sweets too long… Bitter medicines and harsh truths are needed now,? ... More About: News , Politics , Personal , Events , Books
No Time to Read?
2008-02-27 17:01:00 I just subscribed to Dailylit.com, a website that promises to remedy the “I’ve no time to read” syndrome. Says Graeme Allister of the Guardian Book Blog of Dailylit.com: ?the books come to you, as daily morsels in your inbox. Over 800 books have been divided into bite-size pieces to be emailed to you every day.? I?m ... More About: Personal , Books , Time , Tech , Read
Fidel Castro?s Legacy
2008-02-26 17:02:00 After Fidel Castro ’s retirement, Raul Castro was named as Cuba’s new president on Sunday as President Bush immediately called for further isolating the Cuban regime to stimulate ?a democratic transition.? Of course, we know this crap is all about the US ruling class’ desire to return Cuba to its previous semi-colonial status as a sugar plantation ... More About: Fidel Castro , Legacy
Learning from EDSA
2008-02-25 01:10:00 Pete Lacaba’s article “The Name Game” reprinted in his blog talks about names inspired by the first EDSA uprising, the First Quarter Storm and the Martial Law era. I’m mentioning this since today is the 22nd anniversary of the first EDSA and for the reason that my own name, along with the names some persons from my own generation who I know, also have roots from that era. So moving on to the main matter: What is to be done when our representatives fail? The answer to this question is the threat of another “People Power” uprising, Manuel Quezon III writes in his column. But there are those, as cited in Quezon’s blog, who are against this. Onomatopoeia, in particular, reproduced “A Call to Stop the Threat of People Power.” Simply put, it argues that the two EDSAs has not brought real change in the country but has only entrenched “more of the iron fist, more of the unexplained disappearances, more of the corruption, more of the hardcore nepotism, more of the illogic... More About: Learning , Edsa
Eating Kafka
2008-02-23 22:22:00 While the old The Economist article’s title is actually a play on Marie Antoinette’s famous saying “let them eat cake,” why can’t our own government here think of something like the following government literacy program in Chile? Let them eat Kafka The president enlists the literary critics ASK Chileans what they are reading and the answer will probably be Isabel Allende’s “La Suma de los Días”, a memoir by their country’s best-known living writer. If, that is, they read anything at all: in a recent survey, 45% said they never read books and 34% did so only occasionally. Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s president, wants to change that. To do so, she has come up with a scheme to give 400,000 of the poorest families a maletín literario or box of up to nine books each. After much pencil-chewing, a jury of literati this month selected a list of 49 works, from which officials will then choose those books they think appropriate for each fami... More About: Eating
Situations
2008-02-21 17:01:00 If included in Bergan’s Guardian Film Blog’s entry, this post would belong to the obscure category along with the film titles One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Written on the Wind, Some Came Running, etc. And rightly so, my cerebral wanderings are now hovering in an assortment of events and discourses from the week – particularly on campus politics, postmodernism, Arroyo, God and wealth. Campus Politics The student election in my college is now nearing its conclusion. The miting de avance was held yesterday and votes will be cast when classes resume on February 26. It would be mostly examinations and deadlines after that. I observed some of the campaign sorties by the party I once chaired – the Nagkahiusang Kusog sa Estudyante – during the week and here are a few crude pictures: What struck me was the chorus of objections by the other party against judging their platforms and performance as the majority in this year’s student council. How can we assure that thes...
Quote of the Day (5)
2008-02-20 17:01:00 Taking a cue from Manuel Quezon III’s blog entry on GMA’s Mandate of Heaven: Woe to the nation that does not raise its voice save in a funeral, that shows esteem only at the grave, that waits to rebel until its neck is under the edge of the sword. –Khalil Gibran, The Nine Woes Related Entries: The First Quote of the Day Quote of the Day (2) Quote of the Day (3) Quote of the Day (4) More About: Quote Of The Day
Castro?s Retirement, Bhutto?s Memoirs, Kosovo and an Erroneous Map
2008-02-19 17:02:00 Fidel Castro, the iconic leader of the Cuban revolution, has just announced his retirement as Cuba’s president. During the almost 50 years of his rule, Castro oversaw major economic and social changes which favored the poor, including the introduction of land reform and the improvement of education and health services. Also, I just learned that former ... More About: News , Politics , Books , History , Retirement
On Campus Politics and Other Notes
2008-02-17 17:39:00 It’s the last full week of my favorite month of the year and it’s Student Council election time in our college again. I see a major shakeup with the present party in the majority’s failure to voice out and serve the interests of the studentry. I am predicting that what has become this school year’s ... More About: News , Politics , Campus , Scandal , School
Praying for Truth and Justice
2008-02-16 03:43:00 I was passing by the college?s oblation square on my way out of school yesterday afternoon when I came across Dr. Rhodora Bucoy, the adviser of the UP Cebu College Student Council when I was its chairman, and Dr. Cherry Ballescas, my social sciences teacher during my first year in college. They were about to begin ... More About: News , Politics , Personal , Truth , Justice
Before the Storm: A Bevy of Fair (Wo)men
2008-02-14 01:00:00 Plots within plots are being hatched in the Philippine capital. Both the Arroyo administration and the broad opposition are putting in place wheels within wheels in the perilous game that is Philippine politics. The Arroyo clique is pushing for Charter Change again to (1) deflect the public’s attention from the Lozada fiasco and (2) further its ... More About: Personal , Women , Valentines Day , School , Storm
The Rise of Free Online Books
2008-02-12 22:48:00 Paulo Coelho gives us an innovative example on how to get rich as an author. He’s been “pirating his own work for years, spreading electronic versions of his novels over the BitTorrent filesharing network for potential readers to download.” He even established the blog The Pirate Coelho for this purpose, the Guardian News paper Book ... More About: Books , Tech , Blogging , Free
Free Radiohead In Rainbows Download
2008-02-10 22:01:00 Last December, I pointed out where we can download the bonus disc for Radiohead?s new In Rainbows album. Now I found one of those places in the Internet where Radiohead’s latest album can be freely downloaded. One only needs to sign up an account with Multiply to start downloading it here. Cheers! In history, Simon Montefiore’s ... More About: Meme , Music , Entertainment , Downloads
Blogging in the Time of Living Dangerously
2008-02-08 18:05:00 Things are heating up in the country’s Capital again in the wake of Lozada’s damning testimony in the Senate regarding the ZTE-NBN deal and his alleged abduction earlier in the week. One unmistakeable sign of the tension is the circulation of text rumors warning of a bombing today. Once more, the people in Malacaang are ... More About: News , Politics , Elections , Living , Time
How Famous Writers Killed Themselves
2008-02-07 17:01:00 In the newly published book, The Dedalus Book of Literary Suicides: Dead Letters (February 7, 2008), Gary Lachman writes about ten famous literary figures who have taken their own lives. Anne Sexton gassed herself in her car, Ernest Hemmingway shot his own head with a pistol, Thomas Chatterton took arsenic, Heinrich von Kleist shot his cancer-ridden lover before putting the gun’s barrel in his own mouth, Gerard de Nerval hanged himself, and Jack London died of a morphine overdose. The following were extracted by Times Online from the book (which I’m adding to my book wishlist). Of the ten literary suicides, I find these two the most heartwrenching: (more…) More About: Famous , Writers , Killed
Politics ? Traditional, Revolutionary and New
2008-02-05 22:01:00 ?City air makes people free,? a popular medieval saying goes. This, of course, refers to the release from serfdom afforded by the towns of the feudal era. But this same migratory phenomena now happening in our own country, as described by University of the Philippines professor Randy David in ?The tragedy of the rural poor,? gives ... More About: Politics , Poverty , Left , Revolutionary
On De Venecia?s Ouster
2008-02-05 03:00:00 As a veteran, ousted House Speaker Jose De Venecia shielded Arroyo in every crisis that hounded her administration. Alas, the erstwhile speaker should have known that his and the President’s was a doomed affair from the start. For as Conrado De Quiros writes, there is no honor among thieves. I didn’t follow yesterday’s long affair, ... More About: News , Politics , Congress , China , World
The 100 Best Works of Fiction (Updated)
2008-02-04 02:00:00 Halfway through Cervantes? Don Quixote - at last done with its voluminous first part - I’m now putting the book down to read the equally voluminous second part for a later time. I’ve began reading Dostoevsky?s Crime and Punishment again, starting where I left it unfinished two years ago. And I also plan to try ... More About: Fiction , Works
First big battle of the 2010 elections
2008-02-03 06:25:00 The novelty of the New Year has faded. The first month of 2008 has paved the way for the second. And the wistful state associated with the holidays has now been replaced with frenzied political bickering. This can only grow more turbulent from month to month until 2010. The plot to oust Speaker Jose de Venecia ... More About: News , Politics , Elections , Battle , Crisis
A World Without Books?
2008-01-31 23:31:00 A world without books is a world I just can?t live in. Hence, the discussion in the blog Torned and Frayed in Manila about the ?Twilight of Books ? makes me sad. It is in this context that the following must-see YouTube videos from The Penguin blog try to answer the questions, is there a better ... More About: Personal , Literature , Reading , World
The Hunting Party
2008-01-30 14:45:00 I just saw the DVD copy of the film The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard. It was a satisfactory film, with all the trappings of a lighthearted satire on the hypocrisy of the industrialized countries and the international media. But sometimes the funny side and the serious side of the film fail to ... More About: News , Politics , Movies , Media , Entertainment
The Lure of Power
2008-01-28 23:54:00 We are plagued by a corrupt polity which promotes unlawful and/or immoral behavior. Public interest has no practical significance in everyday behavior among the ruling factions. The real problems of our world are no being confronted by those in power. In the guise of public service, they use whatever comes to hand for personal gain. ... More About: News , Politics , Power , Iraq , World
Remembering EDSA II
More articles from this author:2008-01-27 13:47:00 I have nothing much to remember. I was a first year high school student in Don Bosco Technological College Cebu, a school run by Catholic priests, when the massive protests that toppled Joseph Estrada from power came about. During the peak of the mass actions in the middle of January 2001, we were all bused to ... More About: Politics , Personal , History , Opinion , Debate 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
