DSWD spin fail: CCT is dole out--no more, no less

This refers to Ms. Ana Marie Daep's letter entitled "DSWD's CFW not CCT; it's investment not dole out" (Inquirer, 10/22/2011).

I was disturbed by the fact that DSWD seemed to be annoyed by how CCT is being branded as "dole-out". Ms Daep, OIC of the Social Marketing Service of DSWD, said, "..CCT is not a dole out but a form of investment in human capital...". Well to tell them frankly, the letter was a big sugar-coating fail because CCT is definitely not a "form of investment ek-ek". CCT is a dole out simply because you give the money directly to the beneficiaries, hoping that they will spend it by buying their basic needs all the while knowing that they won't do it anyway. 

The letter appeared as an effort to euphemize the bitter pill that they can't obviously take. Certainly, their definition of the CCT is failing them as their beneficiaries remain jobless and poverty-stricken. A few thousand pesos given monthly can hardly pass as "investment" considering the current state of our nation. Further, we hear news of ATM cards being pawned, the money being used in gambling, vices and not for their basic needs, etc. So where does the term "investment" apply in those situations?

DSWD should call a spade a spade and realize that CCT is a dole-out-- nothing more, nothing less. The DSWD is is just doing a stunt no different than what Wille Revillame does in his show. Funny how the DSWD tries to put a positive spin to it just because they themselves are under the illusion of CCT's grandeur. Again, CCT is a dole out because, as cliched as it is, it does not teach the poor how fishing is done: DSWD is just giving them the fish-- and the fish, still, is not sufficient enough. 

Learning About Manila's History with Carlos Celdran

Entrance to Fort Santiago

After the job interviews I had early last Tuesday (yes, I had figured out my messed up biological clock), Carlos Celdran opened up ten slots for barter trade for his Intramuros tour. Since he's okay for anything, I just brought him kakanin's from Marilao, Bulacan. You have to understand, I have to grab that opportunity  because given my current financial state, I could never afford  the tour. So there I was, 3PM, Tuesday, at the middle of a quite diverse group with two cute American guys beside me (who happened to be me Kalesa-mates), embarking on a journey within the walls of Intramuros.

One thing is evident, Carlos is not the same as any other tour guides. He is not the usual hey-look-at-that tour guide. He is very dynamic and theatrical as he uses the whole Intramuros as his stage. Armed with his rich inside knowledge on Philippine History, his witty sesnse of humor and a couple of santan flowers serving as confetti, we laughed the whole way while learning from the past.

The thing that moved me the most during the tour is about the post-war Manila part. We were in front of the ruins of San Ignacio Church beside what used to be Ateneo Municipal and he asked all of us to take a minute of silence for the 100 thousand lives lost during the Manila Massacre and the Manila Bombing. 100 thousand lives! I didn't have the idea about that! All I knew was Manila was devastated after the war but what I didn't know is that it was the second most destroyed city during the war-- after Warsaw-- and we lost 100 thousand civilians!

Realizing this, I reflected how my current knowledge about our history is actually deficient. I know something about our history but I realized that I do not know enough. Coming from a public high school whose only history came from the distant HS freshman past, we do not have enough time to tackle this part of the history. Extending this thought, there again is the infamous problem on our education system-- and I don't want to go into that.

The Overly Decorated Jeepney. Carlos describes how Filipinos
tends to overly decorate.

There is so much to learn on the two and a half hour-trip. We learned that our "unoriginal" culture makes us exquisitely unique. We also realized that our culture can be summarized by the idea of the jeepney: That we have the tendency to be excessively and superfluously dramatic. You can look at it either in the good and the bad way but the best thing Carlos did is that he let us realized both perspectives. The Filipino culture is such a mixture of all these influences, victimized by its colonizers but then again living the best of both the West and the Orient. Like the jeepney, Carlos showed us another microcosm of our culture: The Halo-halo-- and we ended our tour crushing ice atop of this all-time favorite.

The Halo-halo. Like Halo-halo, the Filipino culture is a mix of influences. 

Resorts World Manila presents The Sound of Music

I can't deny the fact that the reason why I am such a theater junkie is because of watching The Sound of Music when I was 6 yrs old. Yes, there is such a thing as infantile amnesia but the memory is still vivid: It was a typical weekend movie night, my Tita Lanie rented the videotape and Tita Liezl was making her own dip made of fresh mayonnaise and a party of mixed onion, garlic and chives (No one could replicate that!).Because of that, here I am right now, finding myself on the floor pretending to die while reenacting's Eponine's death to the tune of A Little Fall of Rain, dancing the choreography of You Can't Stop the Beat, and of course, watching the episodes of Glee again and again.

So it was a rather boring night and I was tweeting how much would I kill to find something that will salvage me from the excruciating boredom. Then the next thing I knew, MomBlogger sent me a DM telling me that she still has tickets for a special private viewing of Resort's World Manila's The Sound of Music. Now you can imagine how exhilarated I was. You see I was almost dying of boredom and there comes Ms Noemi saving my sanity for allowing me to watch SoM live for the first time. Yes, that was the first time I watched the classic musical for the first time.

You've got to love The Sound of Music @ Resorts World Manila. With its amazing cast (Cris Villonco as Maria, Audie Gemora as Captain Von Trapp) , the play brought me back to that exact night 13 years ago. The songs were reminiscent of my childhood and I found myself mouthing every songs. It's funny that I became teary at some point of the play. Maybe because I was seeing it for the first time or maybe because I remembered how Tita Lanie and I were cuddled the night 13 years ago, but one thing is sure: My heart was in great happiness.

My viewing experience would be better though is we were seated nearer. It turned out that Ms Noemi has an awful eyes as mine so all of the faces were blurred (Ms Noemi advises audience to either seat near or bring binoculars). Funny because although they were are blurred to me, I can't help but to be distracted with Maria's wig. She was wearing something like a bleached-lola Dora the Explorer hair. However, you can let that and the pseudo-Scottish accent pass because the nun choir was so chilling and the LED backdrop (the biggest in Southeast Asia) was an astounder.

The Sound of Music opened October 15 and runs for the whole month of October. For ticket reservation call TicketWorld at 811-9999 or Resorts World Manila Tourist/Visitor Hotline at 836-63333, 908-8833. Indeed, SoM is a must watch and it is something one can't just let pass.

(photos courtesy of MomBlogger)

On Being Religiously Deviant

After 3 years of barely seeing each other, me and my high school classmates reunited a few days ago. There were a lot of food and of course, a lot of booze and the next thing I knew, some of us were too drunk to go home.  During the time, we're waiting for being sober and for the sun to rise, we spent the time catching up and  we ended up discussing Shamcey Supsup's amswer during the Miss Universe Pageant.

Class Hottie and the other straight guy said they don't care (What do we expect?) My gay best friend and the two other girls were fanatically satisfied with her answer. Ex-Seminarian said he was pleased with her answer considering she reflects a God-centered life. It was supposed to be a "pampalipas oras" conversation until I opened my mouth and relayed my thoughts on her answer.

As someone who's not a biggie in beauty pageant, I told them that I find her answer okay considering the context of the pageant itself. On the other hand, I also told them that I am not satisfied with the answer on a personal level and said that if I were to answer the question, I won't imply any religious bias because I believe that even love could transcend beyond religious boundaries (Yes I am a sucker for true love like that. Blame Dumbledore), After like a minute of silence-- I think they were still tipsy to masticate my choice of words-- Ex Seminarian, in what seemed to be in protest, told me he was shocked and asked me if whether or not God is important in my life.

Photo courtesy of Science and Philosophy

So there I was again, in the spotlight where my belief system was in question. I bluntly revealed to them that I think I am a Deist and explained to them that I think there is a Supreme Cosmological Being somewhere up there but I think he is apathetic on his creation, letting the Laws of Nature to carry its natural process. (There were a lot of time spent enlightening their confused faces on the meaning of "apathy" and discussing the Deism concept, but let's not go into that). They were shocked in confusion on my revelation and they think that I am someone turning evil. Well, they didin't explicitly said that but it was painted all over their faces. The worse thing is that I see Ex-Seminarian's face reeking judgment and for a second I thought he was about to exorcise me right there and then.

My belief system is something I deem personal-- it was something that I wouldn't want to talk about during social events. Firstly, most of my friends, especially in HS, are Theists or at least were raised as such. This whole Deism thing is relatively new for me and I am just exploring the possibility that I might be one. With all these RH Bill advocacy and fighting for gay rights, I am in a stage where I am questioning the belief system imposed upon me while growing up. So as far as my HS classmates are now concerned, I am religiously deviant.

Honestly speaking, with my active online participation, being active on these advocacy, paying occasional visits in the Filipino Freethinkers FB page and all these conversation I had and am having with my friends, I don't care if my HS classmates judge me for what I believe in-- or judge me, at least on my way of answering Shamcey's question. Call me deviant but I don't really care. After all, what is important is that I know that I have an open mind, that I try to use reason to understand things and most of all, I don't judge as quickly as them. After all, I believe that to each his own (Although I think that such is a double-edged sword).

Libera is coming to Manila

I love Canon in D. I can play it in the piano (at least the first few arrangements) after patiently watching a tutorial in YouTube. There's something in its arrangement that soothes me from within. Maybe its about the chord progression that is mathematically harmonic with respect to the arrangement of each note, but I wouldn't know that-- I am no music theory expert. I was also amazed when I found out that most of the song, if not all, of the musical Les Miserables is practically based on Canon in D's chord progression. Suffice it is to say that Canon in D is my favorite classical piece.

As I liked Canon in D very much, I searched the internet for variations and other arrangements. It never failed to make my heart flutter. I also searched for an acapella version of the song (I'm a sucker for choir performance) and my search brought me to the version of the boys group Libera. Entitled Sanctus, this song incorporates a famous movement of the piece to its melody and I am awed by their performance. Their voices were divine- far beyond the word "angelic" could describe. Their voices are so thin and subtle that the very air they exhale might seem to be morphing to the tune- it's spontaneous. The whole song is like the perfect infusion of air and melody. The next thing I knew was that I repeatedly molested, harassed, and abused the replay button of the embedded video.

So I am glad to hear that Libera is coming here in the Philippines to stage a Christmas concert at the PICC. It's great to have theme here in our country. Of course, I would not be able to watch them and listen to their angelic version of our favorite carols (but definitely I would kill for a chance to watch them for free) but I am content in knowing that they will be performing here in the country.

If any of you who's interested, here are the details:

Libera: A Christmas Concert
October 25, 8PM- PICC Plenary Hall
October 28, 8PM- Waterfront Hotel, Cebu City
For ticketing inquiries please call TicketWorld @ (632) 891-9999
or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph