Category Archive for: aktibismo

komentaryo

Pinoy social and online media 2013 (Part 1)

For three years I put together year-enders on arts and culture and found that there is plenty to be thankful for. There is after all a great amount of productivity, the kind that is independent and persistent. There is also a lot of private money that fuels the arts and culture scene —which is of course to point out how government only comes in when it gets embroiled in questions of censorship and freedom of expression.

The latter is a cause we hold dear, even more so given the Internet and social media, and how we have so engaged with each other and the issues of the day in blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It seems important to do now a year ender that is about precisely this balance that we are forced to strike—or fail to strike—between absolute free speech that the Internet affords us, and the issue of responsibility. Too often in the past year our world was defined by what was happening online; sometimes we got carried away, it seemed like we were changing the world. But were we? (more…)

komentaryo

si Andres Bonifacio

a fantastic reminder for this time when we are allowed to imagine that the only way to go is to have America save us.

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freeze

If there’s anything that fascinates about PDAF or pork barrel, and now the Development Acceleration Program (DAP) fund, it’s how much money this country actually has. No, correction: it’s how much money government has.

I’ve said this before, and I say it again: it is fantastic that we are talking about the National Budget, that we are being forced to scrutinize these numbers, that we are looking at the state of nation vis a vis the amount of money that’s unaccounted for by government and our politicians. (more…)

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faith

The task, to me at least, seems simple enough. We want to continue the fight against pork barrel. We find it in our hearts to come together, no matter our politics, our religious beliefs, our social class.

The latter of course, as it turns out, is the worst division there is, mostly because it is not something we like—or know— to talk about. Anyone who even had her eyes wide open at the August 26 rally would know that the class distinction of that gathering was about as stark as the white that the middle and upper classes decided to wear. And it was fantastic of course, to see this social class come out of their homes and spend a holiday in a park all the way in Manila with family and friends. (more…)

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dear Harvey Keh

This is in response to Mr. Harvey Keh, who asked “Why blame President Noynoy Aquino?” An essay which begins by praising the Million People March of August 26 for having “a good turnout” and disses “several groups that are planning to hold another protest rally this coming September 11.”

Mr. Keh says he received “some messages” about this rally, which he is obviously critical of, especially since according to him “many of those who went to Luneta now have second thoughts of going since there are now rumors circulating that the planned rally in EDSA may suddenly be turned into an Anti-President Noynoy Aquino rally.”

Were Mr. Keh at the EDSA Tayo Facebook pages, he would find that there are about five individuals who are organizers of the event instead of “several groups,” just as there is no plan to “form a human chain.” He would also find that it has since revised its call (from protesting the rampant graft and corruption in the use of the pork barrel) to the abolition of all pork barrel, including PNoy’s, which is not unlike the call of the August 26 Million People March. (more…)