Category Archive for: kasaysayan

kultura

Victor Paz, archaeologist

It would be in the middle of El-Nido-Palawan-nowhere, in the archeological site of Ille Cave, as it would be under the scorching sun on the untouched beach of Calitang, that I would find myself sitting with Dr. Victor Paz, archeologist.

It was not a conventional meeting. I had nothing planned on a trip alone to El Nido, save for some quiet time and plenty of reading. But it was difficult to say no to visiting an archeological site few have gone to and even fewer have written about. That I stayed – a night and two days more than I thought I would in any camp – is really because of Sir Vic.

Which is not to say that he talked me into it, as he would at the end of each day say: “You’re staying for tomorrow ha, Katrina.” Not a question, not an order, but a statement of fact. You wouldn’t know to say no.

It isn’t because Sir Vic is not one to compromise. In the course of talking to him I found that this was a man who has lived enough to know compromise like the back of his hand. It was refreshing really, to find Sir Vic to be that rare breed of academic who knows his limitations as someone who works at the University of the Philippines, and as an archeologist in the context of a nation that might not know what that even means.

He says it at some point in the interview, as we were talking about community engagement in archeological sites like Ille: “We always go against the default thinking that is merely about looking for treasure.”

But that’s getting ahead of this story.

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komentaryo

Robbed #Halalan2022

A little over a week since the May 9 elections, and one understand why those on the side of democracy, Left, Liberal, and civil society, feel like we’ve been robbed.

In that sense, everyone’s performing like victims. Some are raising their fists against the irregularities on election day—dysfunctional vote counting machines, dysfunctional SD cards, long lines because of both, voters disenfranchised. Some have flexed their privilege: not going to help the poor anymore, not going to help nation anymore, bahala kayo sa buhay niyo. Some have shot back at actual people who they know voted for Marcos: magbayad kayo ng utang niyo! A day or two after elections, we heard of some small NGOs losing their funders—purportedly, people were not wanting to help the new government at all, and that is equated with not wanting to help the most vulnerable.

Many are spreading all sorts of disinformation about the president-elect, letting this permeate social media accounts in the way that rumors do. It is fueled, shared across platforms, thrown around Viber and messenger GCs for good measure. Never mind fact checking—it always feels good to have our perceptions proven right by any kind of information at all.

But I guess we want to forgive ourselves for these responses? Emotions are high. We thought we were going to win after all—especially if we believed surveys were unreliable. And now we are grasping at straws, picking the stories and narratives that serve our purpose, because it is the only way to keep the fire burning.

But at a time like this one, these responses, public as they are, do nothing but fuel this divide that already exists, a polarization that we now know is really about 14 million vs 31 million. And we need to understand that it doesn’t matter whether or not you think or believe polarization is happening—the fact is, it already is.

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kultura

Toni, Bongbong, history and #Halalan2022

Here’s the thing about Toni Gonzaga: she is a symptom as she is the condition itself, a very critical condition of lies, falsity, and disinformation at a time when murderers are condoned and the corrupt are shameless, when the plunder of resources has been normalized, as has the violation of basic rights, at a time when algorithms run our social media lives which, given this pandemic, is pretty much the life that we live.

Here’s the thing with Toni Gonzaga: this is ALL on her. She—as with other content creators, celebrities, influencers, you and me who do social media—is making decisions about what content to put out into the world, and SHE is solely responsible for those decisions. There is no one else she can blame for what is put on her accounts and her channels, there is no network to hide behind, no producer or manager to point a finger at.

At this point, we are seeing these personalities for who and what they are. And as Toni said: she’s got nothing to hide. And to some extent she’s never hidden that she is a Marcos loyalist—she’s just more shameless now, right on the month of Martial Law commemoration, in utter disregard for the thousands killed, the thousands more who live with its trauma, and the millions plundered by the Marcoses that all of us have suffered for.

Maybe this is the pandemic effect on her: I got nothing to hide, I got nothing to prove. Here, see me as a Marcos loyalist! I don’t give a flying f*ck. You only live once.

Here’s the thing with Toni Gonzaga: she knows, she has seen, how she will not be held accountable. (more…)