Heil Hillary!

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit the Philippines "to show solidarity" this week to the storm-battered country. The main purpose, for sure, is to reaffirm diplomatic ties and discuss shared issues, such as the Mindanao peace process, disaster management and the Visiting Forces Agreement.

Sounds good and innocent but beyond closed doors are the almost-forgotten, globalizing policies such as the CEDAW agenda and its local precedents i.e. the loud and funded Reproductive Health Bill campaign, which the current President is (thankfully) openly against but may change her mind given American political rhetoric.

So we're trying to trim down the homo sapiens race and at the same time satisfy hormonal urge for what, for what? Ostensible economic growth, material welfare and preservation of swell individualism which are all temporal and temporary rationales that can't anymore be justified after two generations upon seeing a problematic demography with an aging citizenry and a crippled labor force. That's when they'll say, "Bring in some fertility benefits!" when it's already too late.

Without seeking to judge the (mainly good) intentions of individuals pushing for the policy to be formally enacted -- since in this beloved land of ours, the signing into law is not the definitive start of implementation, believe it or not -- the overpopulation scare and all the cacophony about the need for less people are in their very core a form of under-the-table imperialism veiled as goodwill.

Don't believe me? C'mon:

Because America’s population will still be growing when that of most other developed countries is shrinking, America will be the only developed country that still matters geopolitically.

~survey on global ageing by The Economist

If we don't stop being unreasonable, it might be World = America. I mean I love McDonald's and all, but I would always still be going back to Jollibee.

See you soon, Hillary. #

Related posts: http://mimimayhem.blogspot.com/2008/09/kill-bill.html

Photo credit: http://gooseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/hillary-clinton-10.jpg

I'm saving Post Its, so.

To do list before going on 2-week hiatus:

1. Print and submit activity forms, 4.65 years in the making.

2. Print and submit plans, so I can sleep sound at night.

3. Meet with project people, don't doze off, flash a smile, coffee binge a mugful.

4. Refill house printer ink - an excuse to walk 2 blocks away from the office in an attempt to be healthier, yo.

5. Write 10 text messages to Mom, time their delivery for twice a day - after breakfast and before bedtime daily - so she won't feel I'm not checking my phone.

6. Buy laundry powder and a week's worth of midmorning cookies to be a healthy kid.

7. Delegate printing press tasks to someone who's out and about in the world on Wednesday.

8. "Say what you need to say," John Mayer said.

9. Find out why sales people hand out business cards using both their hands.

10. If not recovered, write second copy of a wishlist provoking Santa's generosity ... and love. #

Of all the slaves of social media

and marketing and self-marketing,

I might be the only one not on Twitter.

And I'm not planning on signing up any time soon.

After all, I write awful pseudo-poems

that are more than 140 characters,

'cause that's the least I can do.

Thank you. #

Another of those Polanski posts

I thought maybe I should just comment on the ongoing debate about Roman Polanski's exodus to the land of Lady Liberty to flee from the Home of the Brave and his decades-after, sweet, careless mistake of flying to the Swiss Confederation to accept a lifetime achievement award in film, where the biggest surprise of his life would be an arrest off a previously unknown extradition treaty between the US and the native country of the Zurich Festival, nailing him down. For Finally.

Do we sigh with relief or do we decry the move in the name of art?

Of course above is just thinning out the real issue, which many have put under the label "Artistry over Offense" -- something which I think is a bastard attempt to preserve the name of one of the hallmarks of film history. Like we should just thank Polanski, make him an exception, as his films were exceptional. After all, Hollywood has forgotten, the Academy has honored, and the world has given a standing ovation. And it has been over 30 years since he skipped out on the sentence after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape ... What!? But The Pianist was genius and moral to the top!

Now he even has "apologists," making him an institution of sorts. Many have trouble separating the art from the artist, and in the process validating that the umpteen vilifications and self-imposed exile were enough punishment for the crime. The art suffered, too, they say, and the girl has forgiven him, so let's just call it quits, shall we?

But the issue here, people, is NOT about the art, NOT about the world's mercy, and definitely NOT about the filmmaker in ipso.

It. Is. About. Justice. Dear Citizens. Justice!

Call me Kantian, but here's the point. Would you make this an exception every time, for every person? If we say, "Why not?" then it's also acknowledging Nuremberg should never have happened, which is ironically what World War II films like The Pianist promote as just.

It's simply that: He has been a criminal at large. No matter how awesome Rosemary's Baby or Chinatown or Frantic is. He's now behind bars. And rightly so. #

Image from rd.com

She's so lucky

Like you know the Britney song that wraps the chorus with these lines: If there's nothing missing in her life, then why do these tears come at night?

It doesn't feel nice sitting here in our air-conditioned office and ergonomic desk chair sipping a hot drink and thinking of aesthetics and campaigns while the rest of Manila tries to sweep off mud and murk from their roads and homes or panic buys off Ministop shelves to prepare for another storm hitting tonight.

My officemates and I have been talking of volunteering, knowing quite well it's just wishful thinking. We've targets to hit, deadlines to beat, investments to return. Sounds all right in normal circumstances, but in times like this is just somewhat cruel.

For the past few days, I've entered the office checking if the familiar faces I encounter daily are back by their desks safe and sound. One of our designers has returned today, we sighed when he said nothing happened to him and his family. My friends and I also lived in an island-like respite last Saturday with food and generated electricity and calm while watching the water rise outside the complex. Our families, too, are more or less untouched by what Time calls the "worst floods in 50 years." How can we all be so lucky?

We didn't have to be. The storm was unforeseen and it shouldn't have been. Sure, it's too late to pour all the blame now, but there's no perfect moment to do that especially with the proof smacked right on our face. The world has now turned its eyes to our supposedly esteemed capital, now a perfect picture of the congested third world and covered in mud.

At the very least, it's a lesson. Trifles like drainage and sewage systems, for one, should not be overlooked. These are the basics of infrastructure, not those pink and blue tin cans of footbridges.

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle. ~Michelangelo

#

Photo from: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1926646,00.html

It's the nineties, man.

First, a disclaimer. This is NOT a sponsored post. I'm doing this out of free will and all-out charity.

Like the raging water and mud we must have been high so for tough times and tragedies, I recommend Yahoo! Launchcast, an online radio with minimal advertisement-nuisance and music genre freedom, like there are over a hundred radio stations to suit every taste and generation. This is definitely my third Y! love, after the RSS indexer My Yahoo and grandfather service Yahoo Mail.

There's also this "Play a mix" bar where listeners can key in their favorite artist and everything played from then on are songs by that act or those in the same genre or generation. So I plugged into Boyzone radio with this feature and check out the coolest evuh lineup of songs generated in random -- a precious chest of rare, sought-after treasures only those with discriminating taste and high level of culture can appreciate:

Boyzone - Must Have Been High

All Saints - Bootie Call

Aaron Carter - Oh Aaron

5ive -Rock the Party

Boyzone - A Different Beat

Spice Girls - Mama

N*Sync - I Want You Back

Mandy Moore - Walk Me Home

Li'l Kim - Lady Marmalade

Britney Spears - Everytime

Boyzone - So They Told Me

B*Witched - Blame It On the Weatherman

East 17 - Each Time

Backstreet Boys - Shape of My Heart (Soul Solution Radio Edit)

N*Sync - Pop

B*Witched - Rollercoaster

Christina Aguilera - Come On Over

Boyzone - That's How Love Goes

... On and on and on.

It's the nineties man, sure I was born a fan.

Daria meets a dachshund

A philosopher friend of mine is celebrating her 40th birthday on the 28th. Inspired by Daria and this inconsequential sketch of a dachshund by Picasso and my newest masthead above, I vector-drew an outline of her most distinguishing and enduring features: her bangs and her glasses. Plus, she lives off medieval studies and an enlightened mind. So I carefully Googled some Latin phrases to mark the middle ages and chose an astoundingly apt subtitle - a fortiori, "with yet stronger reason."

This is the half-end product of my pseudo-artistic contemplation -- a ticket to her parteyyyyy!

Yep. #

Ganito kasi

Inspired ako sa Tagalog.

Kaya sa Tagalog din ako mag-isip.

Nakaka-relaks pala.

#

Del Potro lines up for US Open finals

Bye, Nadal. See you next time when your knee gets better. For now, my Argentinian player advances.

I wish every morning were like this. A battle conquered. #

Oddest sentence ever

The chicken reports the scattering stair throughout our composite. #