Thanks to @ninaterol for sending this my way.

A fascinating 3D walkthrough of the Spoliarium by Juan Luna. The work was accomplished by ‘karlgustav’ (according to the Vimeo page) of UST.

Nicely done.

The thing I find most funny about a lot of these Philippine faux-militants is all they really want is to be taken care of and to be held by their government. They want more government interventions, more state subsidies, more coddling.

It’s not that they want a different form of government, or different economic policies vis-a-vis foreign ownership, direct/captured investments, inclusive growth, or a different fundamental basis from which government policies are formed and enacted.

Nuh uh.

They just want Noynoy (or whoever is in office) to be their patriarch and take care of them. Hell in practically the same breath they’ll go from insulting PNoy and the government for not increasing subsidies, or removing VAT, or intervening with regards to oil prices, to bitching about the vast powers politicians have, and how politicos use their positions and influence to leverage votes.

Come on, be coherent. Subsidized programs need funding, else we get into massive deficit spending, which will in turn require increased borrowing on the side of the Philippine government, and in turn require a greater portion of the government’s budget shifting towards debt servicing, which will result in less funding available for social services.

And of course there is the ever present issue of corruption, which only further cuts into the already shrinking pie of government revenues available for social services and infrastructure development. Yet, PNoy is doing nothing for the country by going after corruption in the government. Although, somehow the administration is able to reduce government borrowing and debt servicing, increasing revenues, and expanding government social services and infrastructure development (seriously, has anyone actually seen the infrastructure projects programmed for this year?). All the while, the government (via the BSP) is maintaining steady low inflation and an increasingly positive investor sentiment.

Yes, but by all means, let’s focus on the short term issues, ignore the medium to long term concerns, and bitch and moan about that. Funnily enough other countries are even studying our oil subsidy programs that target those in need. And don’t give me this shit about targeted oil subsidies are anti-equality. The well-heeled can buck up. I thought we lived in a society that favored massive wealth distribution (CCT, agrarian reform, PhilHealth, free healthcare, RH, free primary/secondary education, with overly subsidized tertiary education etc). Don’t back off wealth distribution now.

Most of the arguments I’ve seen against PNoy are basically because he isn’t doing exactly what certain elements of society demand of him. No RH yet? Lazy president. VAT on oil? Lazy president. 

Laziest dictator ever, don’t you know.

They ignore most of the other missteps he’s making in favor of cutesy little soundbites. Guess that stuff sells.

lopeziana:

Postscript to La Pepa and A Painting by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes: La Junta de Filipinas

“In 1815, Goya was commissioned to commemorate a meeting of the junta of the Royal Company of the Philippines, then a Spanish colony. The result was one of the most subtly devastating comments ever made by an artist on officialdom, on the pompous gathering of authorities to determine the fate of others. In the dead center of the canvas, whose vast dimensions (more than thirteen feet wide) and sweeping one-point perspective suggest virtual extension of the spectator’s space into the council room, we see Ferdinand VII himself, a tiny figure seated haughtily against a round-back chair a trifle larger than those that fan out around him. But this foreboding image of power is so remote that it becomes a phantom of judicial authority. Moreover, the simple box space, evocative of the most stable and rational order, is invaded by engulfing shadows that contrast strangely with the disintegrating glare of sunlight from what seems an alien world outside. Inside, all is darkness and inertia. The figures on the two sides have barely the energy left to shift their legs as they squirm with boredom, and those on the dais look as if they may soon be absorbed into their chairs.”

Quote from 19th-Century Art by Robert Rosenblum and H.W. Janson

To know more about the painting

Fantastic painting.

March 16, 1521

Ferdinand Magellan, after what can only be charitably termed an arduous journey filled with betrayal, murder, disaster, and derring do on the high seas, arrived at his ultimate destination: He arrived at Las Islas Filipinas, more specifically the expedition first spotted land on this date. Of course back then he named us, or at least the islands of Samar and others, Islas de San Lazaro. The name Las Islas Filipinas would come later, given by Ruy de Villalobos.

While the Magellan expedition is popularly thought to have been the first encounter between the inhabitants of the archipelago and Europeans, this actually wasn’t the case. There are encounters that predated his arrival, most likely by Portuguese who plied the southern trade routes. Which, naturally, brings up the interesting observation that the natives were not naive and innocent, there to be taken advantage of by the rapacious Spaniards and Europeans. But, that is a point for another discussion.

Magellan’s arrival and subsequent stay, up to that point, was the most document engagement between the West and East in the archipelago. And in effect, it was the moment that began the process of bringing our world closer together. East meets West. With Magellan bridging the gap, and later Urdaneta mapping a stable route, globalization began. We became, in many ways, one of the most important entrepôt in the world, at that time, and subsequently in human history. 

Forgotten yes, but fascinating nonetheless.

I don’t hate the West. As a matter of fact I like the West. I pretty much spent my entire educational career in a Western context, so I understand where a lot of this shit is coming from. The sentiments are in the right place, it’s the methodology that is flawed, and more than a little dangerous.

I think a lot of these armchair activists who jump on the advocacy du jour train need to spend a lot more time reading up and studying the underlying cultural and socio-economic contexts of other countries before offering solutions and being all “Imma gonna save the children.” It’s old, it’s tired, and frankly it’s just a rejiggering of the old white man’s burden schtick that has been oh so destructive in the past.

Being all academic for a second, Margaret MacMillan said that “If you do not know the history of another people, you will not understand their values, their fears and hopes or how they are likely to react to something you do. There is another way of getting things wrong and that is to assume that other people are just like you.”

Basically, learn about other cultures and their historical context. Understand why their country is the way it is and what it actually is like right now. Listen to them. Don’t try and relate, don’t be all “I feel your pain.” That’s just demeaning. But try and learn from them, be open to their experiences. Respect where they are coming from.

All you have to do is look at the history of Western interventionism to understand how profoundly misreadings of a people’s culture and history can fuck them up for decades. I live in a country that was the victim of that.

Most in the developing world do. That should give everyone enough to pause whenever military interventions are declared as necessary and immediate. Work with the people to come up with solutions, that’s key and that is the critical ingredient that is often forgotten. We know our countries, we don’t need saving and we don’t need rescuing. What we do need is help on our own terms.

I have encountered that a lot, people coming to the Philippines and immediately telling us what is wrong with our country and how to fix it; all the while making sad eyes and telling us they ‘understand our pain.’ Really? You do? How wonderful for you. Want a cookie?

In other words, listen, study, and learn about other cultures and countries. It’s a novel idea.

There are a number of traits inherent in Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s worldview that I object to; among them her denouncing of any belief contrary to hers and her proclivity for hate-mongering and insult-laden ranting. The impeachment trial has brought her many faults into sharp-focus, at least for those who look past the inherent entertainment value of her screeds and weigh the value of the content.

If anything Senator Santiago has fully embraced her role as the loose canon of the Senate, and the Impeachment Court; playing and pandering to the less introspective elements of society, obscuring whatever intelligent and incisive commentary she has amid a cascade of blithering, blathering, and bombastic pronouncements. She has, in fact, become a court jester, a sad figure who relies on the volume and cadence of her voice to attract attention, rather than the probity of her opinions. Sad, because she offers a valuable viewpoint to the proceedings and public discourse at large.

One of my favorite 20th century thinkers was Tony Judt, a man who lamented the deplorable levels to which public discourse has fallen in the West. Unfortunately, we in the East (and especially the Philippines) too often adopt the less admirable qualities of Western democratic discourse. We have a discursive problem, one that Judt described as, “Our discursive disability: we simply do not know how to talk about things anymore.” While he was referring to our proclivity to reduce any discussion into economic components, the guiding idea remains the same: We are no longer capable of discussing. Our culture has become one where we are talking on differing levels, with different foundations for opinions, and with conceits that inform the idea that “I am right and everyone else is wrong.” The sense of self-righteous superiority that fills the air can become oppressive. People talk at length, but say little. We are not longer strangers passing in the night, we are strangers shouting to the side, failing to listen, learn, or explore (even respect) alternate world-views.

Judt continued to discuss the breakdown in social imagination: “A closed circle of opinion or ideas into which discontent or opposition is never allowed - or allowed only within circumscribed and stylized limits - loses its capacity to respond energetically or imaginatively to new challenges.” The side-effect of an elected representative of the people haranguing and denouncing any opinion contrary to hers is in fact creating an atmosphere of circuitous thinking, it denies the validity of any contrary opinion. The reducing of public discourse to snide commentary, insults, and ‘cute’ names is a disservice. When a Senator, one of the highest elected officials in the land, contributes on a daily basis to that reduction it is a travesty.

Quite frankly, I care little for the reaction of Attorney Aguirre to Santiago’s rants. He broke court decorum, he essentially kicked mud in the eye of the Senate Impeachment Court. But, between a Senator referring to other elected officials and representatives of the Filipino people as gago (in essence, attacking other members of Congress and deriding the Filipino people whom they serve) she was creating a situation where-by someone was going too react to her ‘trolling’ and provocations. Let’s not pretend that there wasn’t good reason for him to act the way he did, there was. And the fact that there has been little blow back on the bully is disheartening. More to the point, the fact that the stance of the Senate has been to refuse to reel her in and attempt to add some decorum to the proceedings gives insight into how the Senate views this exercise. Or even how the Senators view the position that they hold. Between Sotto cracking jokes, Drilon playing the role of lead prosecutor, Joker Arroyo blithering on about half-baked conspiracy theories, and Santiago basically mocking the entire proceedings with her actions we have a very good idea how they view their position and responsibilities. This holds true too for the failures of the prosecution and the tactics deployed by the defense and their client throughout these proceedings. By the way, Judt commented on conspiracy theorists who go off half-cocked with nonsensical storytelling: “Those who assert the system is at fault, or who see mysterious maneuverings behind every political misstep, have little to teach us.”

Eventually someone has to stand up to a bully, and Santiago has always been a bully. She relies on the sanctity of her elected position to bolster her opinions and shield her actions from criticism. Yet, by acting the way she has, she is inevitably (and consistently) debasing the august position that she holds. In no shape or form should it be acceptable for a Senator of the Republic of the Philippines to continually go off half-cocked hurling insults, ridiculing the intelligence and education of Filipinos who hold contrary opinions (as she has the last few days), and treating the position she holds as license to bully and deride.

Miriam Defensor-Santiago is not the cause of our discursive issues in the Philippines. But she is a consequence, one that continues to sow the seeds for reductive and ill-formed discourse in the Philippines. Judt’s book from which I quoted is called Ill Fares the Land. I cannot think of a better description for the state of discourse in the Philippine sphere than that.

The power of well-written and researched history, by professional historians aware of their vast responsibilities, is that it provides the tools needed craft a better future for all. In Margaret MacMillan’s conclusion in The Uses and Abuses of History she wrote “…a citizenry that cannot begin to put the present into context, that has so little knowledge of the past, can too easily be fed stories by those who claim to speak with the knowledge of history and its lessons.”  That is the situation extant in the country today. It is a situation that fuels many of the social, cultural, and political problems that we still face. One of the things that history teaches is to challenge dogmatic and sweeping generalizations, especially those that purport to have all the answers, to be the one true interpretation of the past.  History provides us with the tools necessary to question and question some more, while bad history (and its application) does little more than mislead and obscure; usually for purely political or selfish interests.

A little self-serving is allowed now and then right? Please click through to read my little essay on bad history and how it is affecting our understanding of EDSA 1.

“Look at those toy soldiers playing at war. For years they had nothing better to do than to march in loyalty parades and bang the heads of civilians who could not fight back. Now they ask these same civilians to keep their asses from being blown off.”

- Anding Roces, February 24, 1986

Fr. George J. Williams, S.J., had celebrated an early morning mass that morning. After mass, at 0700, he and his barracks mates lined up for the daily roll call. As he was moving to the lineup area on “shaky legs,” he turned and saw some planes coming across the lake from the north. He paid little attention because “planes had been a common sight in recent days. Only the previous afternoon the Japanese battery two miles west had been savagely strafed.” But as the planes came abreast of the camp, he noted objects dropping out of them and immediately deduced that the Americans were dropping leaflets to give them some encouragement. But then he and his friends saw the small objects blossom into parachutes. “They’re paratroopers,” they yelled and headed for their barracks as the firing around the perimeter started.

February 23, 1945

- Lt. Gen. E. M. Flanagan, The Los Banos Raid.

I was talking with some of the survivors of the Battle for Manila last weekend and their stories are the stuff of nightmares and horror films. It is sobering when you realize that they lived through the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan; maybe even worse since this was their homes that were being burned and razed to the ground, their city being decimated.

Aside from purely self-serving revisionist memoirs (like Carmen Guerrero-Nakpils’) almost to a man all are thankful that the Americans arrived. They hold no rancor towards them for shelling the city; in fact, they point out that the Japanese, by hunkering down amidst the civilian population and essentially using them as a hundred thousand human shields, left them little choice.

They speak about the American soldiers who tried to rescue them, who offered them shelter, and for the first time in days (weeks in some cases), a warm place to sleep and hot food.

And yes, they try to speak of the atrocities they witnessed, even as they stumble over the descriptions. There are stories of a man who survived a botched beheading, of listening to sisters and mothers being raped then gutted, of babies being bayoneted, of lovers and husbands and wives disappearing right in front of them.

February is a fascinating month in Philippine history: It saw the most bloody fighting in the Philippine Revolution, the outbreak of the Philippine-American War, the end of the Japanese Occupation, the toppling of a dictator.

The spirit of the Filipino, the love of his nation, and the blood shed in her defense, are writ large in February.

(Source: ellobofilipino)

A soldier reads a copy of Malaya during the 1986 People Power Revolution. (Photo by Joe Galvez)

Later in the afternoon of Feb. 22, Joe received a call (he said it was from Louie Beltran of the Philippine Daily Inquirer), who asked if he had heard about a report that the forces of Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Fabian Ver had orders to arrest dozens of opposition leaders, as well as journalists in the Mosquito or Alternative Press, and haul them off to some detention facility on an island. The two friends counseled each other to take precautions and stay in touch.

-Lourdes Molina-Fernandez

‘EDSA is not just four days in February’: A first-person account

Context is always forgotten when it comes to our yearly EDSA celebrations. It has been reduced to an old irrelevant man who at the time was desperate to be saved by the people reenacting his ‘jump’ and the assassination of Ninoy Aquino (which happened in 1983).

Where are the stories of the people dragged into the streets, some never to be seen again?

Where are the stories of the journalists jailed, harassed, and even murdered for trying to speak the truth?

Where are the stories of bravery in the face of intimidation, defiance in the face of totalitarianism?

Where are the stories of the Filipino?

(via ellobofilipino)