Category Archive for: sa kalye

radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA

In 2014, Angela and I were asked to write an essay each for the anthology Remembering / Rethinking EDSA (Anvil Publishing, 2015). We have since published those two essays as a zine for #BLTX, and to celebrate the EDSA Revolution of 1986 this year, we’re posting our essays in parts on our blogs, to commemorate the four days of EDSA, now on its 31st Anniversary. Her blog is at stuartsantiago.com. :) 

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When I was invited to write a piece for this anthology, my first reaction was: are you guys sure?

I was only half-kidding. On the one hand, what of an anthology that has both Angela and me in its pages, when we might represent the most anti-social of writers who consciously and consistently refuse the trappings of the literary and academic establishment. On the other, EDSA 1986 was always my mother’s thing, which is to say it is her life’s work, the kind of work that few would know like the back of their hands, and then like the lines on their palms. (more…)

komentaryo

Who will benefit from the jeepney phase out?

The jeepney strike that kicked-off this week drove home the point that needed to be made about the Department of Transportation’s (DOTr) proposed jeepney modernization program.

First, that in fact jeepneys are not the main cause of our traffic crisis, because despite the fact that there were barely any jeeps on the roads, traffic was still terrible.

Second, that in fact this proposed modernization program will not only disenfranchise jeepney drivers and operators, it will also ultimately affect the commuting public. On the day of the strike, commuters were stranded no matter the number of organizations that did not join the strike, and no matter the transport LGUs and government agencies provided.

Makes you wonder: if this shift to new jeeps happens, will there be no lull in operations? Does this mean that there is actually one huge business already making these jeeps, ready to receive its millions from government subsidies, bank loans, and jeepney operators who can afford the P7 million pesos required to get a new modern jeepney franchise?

Whose business is this, and how did it get such a great deal with the DOTr?

We’re talking 400,000 jeeps to be bought at the price of at least P1-million-pesos each.

Imagine earning that much out of one huge government deal. It boggles the mind. (more…)

komentaryo

No color, no politico, no party

It seems important to tell this story: I have been to enough rallies in my life, mostly as student in the State U, and then as a teacher in AdMU. I would join – as my politics would dictate – the rallies of the militant left throughout the Ramos, Erap, and GMA administrations, from State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs) to anti-Erap rallies, EDSA Dos to GMA’s Declaration of a State of National Emergency via Proclamation 1017.

During PNoy’s presidency, I went to organizational meetings for that huge anti-pork barrel rally at the Luneta. I went as an individual, representing no one but myself. At that point I was already an independent writer, maintaining this column and my blog, and there I was, with people who were only Facebook contacts, and whose politics would otherwise clash with mine. (more…)

kultura

on Rai Cruz’s Urban Modifications

NOTE: Urban Modifications is on exhibit at Vinyl on Vinyl at The Collective in Malugay.

Seize The Daze
Photography has always been embroiled in the question of impropriety: what is it that you seize, that you catch in a frozen frame, other than what is expected, if not what is obvious?

H

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komentaryo

#IAmNotMyShoes Redux #WomensMonth2015

shoes

I am in awe of this National Youth Commission campaign In Her Shoes because it is so wrong, so offensive, so sexist, and is being sold to us by the male commissioners, including actor Dingdong Dantes in bright red high heels.

Oh yes, at 1;27AM on March 12, I have the privilege of seeing him on 9News, in a replay of Pia Hontiveros’s News.Ph show. He and NYC commissioner Perci Cendaña have brought the heels they’ve been wearing for this campaign; Hontiveros has them put it on the table (lest we don’t believe these shoes to exist?), and even has the two guests put a shoe on. She then asks them: so how does it feel?

I’d like to give Hontiveros the benefit of the doubt and imagine that I heard some sarcasm in her voice. I could of course be mistaken.

This campaign though, this campaign that imagines that the valid symbol for woman power is a high-heeled shoe — this is absolutely a mistake. (more…)