(A disclaimer before I begin this rant: the folks writing for Filipino Voices are among the many writers and bloggers I’ve long been reading and have the utmost respect for. I’m not saying that I agree with them all the time, of course.)
(That said, I’m going to have to take the podium with a bit of diatribe against these respected colleagues… I hope that this rant, powered by a plate of thinly sliced crispy pork ears deep-fried in chili-garlic oil, some cucumber slices, and a couple of not-quite-cold bottles of Red Horse is accepted in the same spirit of boisterous camaraderie as it is offered. Think of me as your kabarkada who just wasn’t in a good mood.)
(Here we go. Editor Not Chief Nick, feel free to *bleep* my profanity as appropriate.)
***
Hey, Filipino Voices fellas, I got something to say to you.
SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THE FUCKING AMERICANS ALREADY.
Seriously. So fucking what about the US intramural match-up between Obama vs. McCain and the related sideshows? Granted that the Modern Roman Empire has her fingers deep into the Pinoy pan de sal dough, it doesn’t mean that we have to spend far too much time analyzing the events that will end up in yet another American becoming the president of the United States. Democrat or Republican, the Pinoy’s land of milk and honey will still look after American interests first… the Philippines is no more than a speck in their grand scheme of things. Let’s face it — we are nowhere near close to the center of their universe.
When Ding broke open the story on Ces Drilon kidnapping, I did not mind so much, even if it appeared to be that FV was becoming a news aggregator (not that mainstream media said much in the beginning; Ding deserves an award — I’d offer him to be knighted a Commander of the Order of the Dancing Banana, but I don’t own Plurk), even if others were disappointed with FV after MSM went public on the story. I was — and still am — glad that there was discussion on the MV Princess of the Stars. I was — and still am — glad to see that there was valuable discussion on the failed GRP-MILF MOA-AD.
I was rather pleased that Filipino Voices was serving as an alternative source of information and analysis over issues. It did warm my heart that there was this collective who spoke of matters centered on the Three Stars and the Sun.
However, the past days have been focused on the US elections that I have begun to wonder if Filipino Voices is becoming an extension of the International Herald Tribune. Far too much of FV’s cyberspace is focused on matters that do not have a direct relationship with the local and global Filipino.
Christ on a fucking surfboard, friends, there are so many things going on in locally with the populace and globally with the OFW community that deserve attention, despite their absence or near-ignorance in mainstream media!
For instance, where are the FV posts on who is Tara Santelices and why is her life worth speaking of? Is not the crime committed on her with dastardly impunity worth discussion?
Why has there been no mention about Edcel Lagman’s reproductive health bill and the Church’s opposition? Isn’t our country’s population management planning something worth a debate about?
Where are the techie and tech-savvy-legal posts on Loren Legarda’s being miffed over someone owning a website with her name on it? Isn’t the discussion on Philippine law and cyberspace worth exploring?
How about the possibility of a Bayani Fernando-Vilma Santos administration Prex/VP slate? Or, when do you think that this match will collapse?
How about writing about the Overseas Filipino Worker? Quite recently, Pinoy seamen have become victims of piracy on the high seas — shouldn’t we keep an eye out for them?
What about eyewitness accounts over the immigrant Muslims selling DVDs getting into fistfights with the local Kafagway populace over at Upper Session Road?
How about the coup that is rumored to happen within the next twelve months?
What about the boots in Mindanao mud, don’t they deserve to be written about?
Or, if all else fails, why not let’s discuss who doesn’t believe that Jen and ENC Nick are an online couple?
Tanginanamankasi mga kapatid, eh. There’s far too much that we can talk about leaving the issues of the local and global Pinoy and the Philippines behind. There’s far too much that we as the bloggers of Filipino Voices can share.
Why we’re part of this collective is because of a common belief that we can somehow start the shaping of things to come. Let’s not turn Filipino Voices into a misnomer.
***
But let’s sober up a little.
Ever since Filipino Voices was formed, I’ve been a strong believer in the potential of this collective to become an alternative sounding board that may even inspire others to create the their own. I’ve been a believer in the dream that one day FV just might be part of a positive sea change in Philippine society. Hell, folks know I’d spit on Benign0‘s shoes (him being one of my personal Jude Crosses), but I hope he knows that I’m glad that he’s on board FV — he keeps us on our toes (when we bother to exercise our minds, that is; it’s simple, really) or that I’m disappointed with those such as Rom and Cocoy having been not had much space to get their say out.
Let’s get our minds back on the goal of the collective: this blog is the natural progression of the Filipino blogosphere towards focusing on the state of affairs of the Philippines, its social concerns, with the hope to contribute to progress by providing relevant views and opinions represented in articles on the current issues of the day.
Let’s talk about this in detail, if we can get together for beer after the September 21 awards night. Let’s be each other’s check and balance; let’s discuss, debate and dissent. I promise not to get as inebriated as I am now.
Then again, a discussion involving great minds makes good beer taste even better.
***
(I’m done for now, ENC Nick. Feel free to censure me. Heh heh. I’m sure you can tell that all I want is FV to get back on track an add to the Filipino presence in cyberspace, that the word Filipino and all that’s related to that become memes worth their inclusion in the brilliant discussions our colleagues have provided to us.)
Popularity: 1% [?]
Great rant! You never fail to disappoint me when you get going Jester in Exile… Hehe!
Aw c’mon Jester, lighten up! There’s over four million Filipinos in America, supplying over half what keeps this country afloat. The Palin story is certainly relevant to them, and to us frankly who care about such things as overpopulation, sex education and moral leadership. Many of the topics you suggest are great, so maybe you can write about them yourself. We’ll read it. But everybody keeps asking why Fil-Ams are not a greater political force in America. Maybe it’s because like many of us here in the archipelago, they actually have their heads up their arses when they aren’t slurping up the sleaze about the latest cheap squeeze in show biz.
jester, let me be the first to congratulate you on this great post. the closest thing to “a free market of ideas” is FV and similarly-oriented blogs. it provides a free forum for all those who have something to say, unlike the MSM that mostly cater to the views that “jibe” with its “editorial” agenda. case in point: how many times have my “letters to the editor” been rejected and ignored by the likes of pdi or philstar, apparently because they (my comments) were “pro-gloria”?
i agree with you, in particular, about the seeming obsession in this blog with the american presidential campaign. i have a feeling, if all the commenters here could vote, obama would be the winner, hands down. so it is in germany (lol).
Actually, i thought you and Jen were the online couple.
Jest, yes I do know. ;)
And I think this blog post of yours (hats off also to Rom’s similar blog entry in her own Smoke blog) was long overdue.
One of the best rants I’ve read, Jester. More please to keep all of us on our toes. Keep jesting, dude! :0
The 2008 US presidential elections is irrelevant to Filipino Voices?? Your title might look a lil different to you this morning after such a great rant last night Jester…aminin!
Seems I brought a bacon sandwich to a veggie convention. Sorry, please pass the mayo.
(“ang pikon talo.”)
you’re right, DJB, it does. :D
seriously, though, let’s try to bring in variety into our content. let’s bring in an additional element into our posts, perhaps by answering within the post “how is my post relevant to the average local and/or expat pinoy?”
i’ll buy you a beer to go with that bacon sandwich if you agree to split it with me heh heh
they aren’t? why not? 4M isn’t a number to sneeze at.
You, The Man, Jester! See you there later this month.
There are a lot of interesting topics on this blog so I rue the day when those who post here become self-conscious about “relevance”. Relevance is subjective. Some us us try to convince our readers that what we write about should concern them too but man we can’t go and impose our relevance on others. All we can do is write about what concerns us and hope others share our view.
“FilipinoVoices.com is a collaborative blog of Filipino bloggers. Focusing on politics and society, especially in areas of human rights and civil rights.”
One human and civil right is the right to write about anything we want to write about relevant to whatever or not.
There are issues and there are issues and ENC Nick leaves it to us to decide which is which. That’s what I like about FV. No one is holding scissors or a blue pencil over our heads.
I agree with MB. For example, if what fellow FV-blogger Bencard says about Obama being the antichrist turns out to be true, then the American Presidential elections will be especially relevant even to us.
And as i keep telling Benign0, what i don’t want to happen is to have FV turn into an elitist collective. ‘Filipino Voices’ would be truer to its name if it faithfully reflects the characteristics (and views) of the general Filipino population (from the most ‘intelligent’ to the most ‘stupid’) and from what i’ve seen so far, our ENC has been doing a good job in terms of member selection to achieve such a fair amount of likeness.
“if”, cvj.
i think ENC will bear this out — him having encouraged me to put this post out there for discussion — i doubt there’s any chance of FV becoming an elitist collective if we be each other’s chack and balance. as to mb’s take on relevance vis-a-vis interest, i’m okay with it, but i do think it important to ask ourselves what our purpose for writing an FV post is. is it to persuade? to shape opinion? to call to action?
i would not want, say, to read an FV post that will tell me about voting habits in a european slum, unless we can tie it to voting habits in the manila slums, and perhaps bounce off ideas on how to respond to our own paradigms.
all that said, my rant was all about the talk of the us elections, as if we had not much else to talk about. i am very glad that djb, marocharim, and jon have proven me wrong, and i look forward to continuing to witness FV supplying the public with a greater degree of variety of ideas to be put forth for discussion.
jester,
i got to be on the dissenting opinion for a bit here.
as for the vilma thing interested in the top 2 or top spot— i think the same discussion is going on with other contenders to the throne. they wouldn’t be politicians if they weren’t ambitious. there are serious discussions going on. If you can blog about things you are privy to, why not right?
see the way i figure it… if people really are passionate about things you mentioned like Tara Santelices, they would have blogged about it faster than a speeding bullet.
as for lagman’s bill, jon and dean jorge have been blogging about it for awhile now. i forget when was the last time i saw ‘em blog on it. but they have at their respective sites and i think jon mentioned it several times on twitter.
as for the coup i think it was patricio who blogged about it— but not in FV, a couple of days/weeks ago. i forget.
i mean, it isn’t like anybody is hogging the mic here at fv. or nick saying you can not post this or that.
we choose to blog about the things we’re interested in, feel passionate about and confident we know. if i remember correctly, it was Janette Toral who wrote a few months back on twitter i think, that (i paraphrase heavily) we can’t bullshit our readers because they’ll know, they read and discern if what we’re talking about is crap.
the way i figure it… FV is like a basketball team and when the ball is in our hands, we can either take the shot or pass it along. if you’re all clear, don’t pass. why not take the shot? you know?
You guys are awesome and it is a pleasure to read all your work even when I totally disagree.
That said, Rom asked the question and i guess you and a couple people here are also asking it to a degree. “whose voice?” The diversity of the voices here is what make this site awesome. imho, if you got it, why wait for other people? Post. that is Our Voice, is it not?
oh, one more thing. nick and jen sitting under a tree? :D
valid points, cocoy. will chew on those.
(nick and jen — i know right? wahaha)
When FV was still starting, I wrote a couple of posts about Japan and Myanmar, respectively. In fact, as far as I can remeber I even told Nick when he invited me to join FV that I’d prefer to write international issues on FV. Because I believe global issues are relevant.
The thing with RP media is that there’s little coverage of global affairs. Bandila and 24 Oras even reports wrong information sometimes (like Japan’s Fukuda resigned because of high inflation for instance). What’s bad about this is that the average Pinoy is left with little information to analyze events outside the Philippines.
Now why do Pinoys need to analyze situations outside the Philippines? Because we can learn from them lessons that could be applied here at home. Aside from the fact that we are in the era globalization blah blah blah.
The US elections is relevant because the US is the world’s superpower and whatever it does affects virtually all nations around the world. Talking about it is certainly not bad for FV to do. Even if only for the sake of talking.
Come one, jester. Don’t limit what topics the FV should talk about. It wouldn’t hurt if we Pinoys think global and act local.
Besides, we can still talk about local issues while we talk about international issues, cant we?
oh, don’t think i want to limit topics, J. let’s just keep our content fresh, i think.
both you and cocoy have raised valuable insights on what we post about and why; rest assured i’m chewing on them.
Now jester is chewing pleasantly at his own jest.
Thanks for the laughs! And the effvees for being good sport.
cvj, i didn’t say obama is the “antichrist” i think it was philman who made reference to biblical “666″ when i said there’s something preternatural going on that i could not put my finger on. but then again, who knows? btw, it is you who is using the term, not me.
Bencard, i had in mind your previous comment over at Manolo’s.
cvj, still, where’s the direct application of the term to obama? i was talking about nostradamus’ prophecy and what seems to be happening now as being “uncanny”, that’s all.
and so we’re back to obama (and by implication, the race) hahaha!
Well, Jester, I salute you!
These “Obama” posts are helpful in some aspects since it would impact on Philippine politics if he wins the presidency. However, yes, there are a lot of things to discuss about other than these issues.
Like, what I commented before in one of the posts about hybrid cars, i thought of FV as a site where we write not for the purpose of writing, but for the higher goal of stirring a sleeping nation into action. FV serves the Filipino People, not to satiate our thirst for intellectual ek-ek. Bloggers have social responsibilities and one of them is to rouse the people into collective action.
Bencard (at 1:12am), the application of the term to Obama is clear from your comment over at this thread in reference to Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention.
we tend to be too insular. we lack commentary and analysis on what’s going on overseas.
spot on, mlq3. exactly what i thought.