panorama

I love getting postcards and photos from friends in faraway places- it's like living life many times. Recently, Jerick sent nine panoramic pictures he took of Egypt- they show beauties of a world, but more importantly they reveal the eye and mind of the photographer. This is a mind that, for all the countries it has seen, remains characteristic of the Filipino: it seeks to capture and represent a whole experience, rather than an atomized part of it. It's the same aesthetic that informs the graphic art on our ubiquitous jeepneys.

Raggy - Egypt Nights 2009 ( House )

Here then are nine shots of fabled Egypt, the land of Tutankhamun and Cleopatra, from the viewpoint of a 21st century Filipino:

editor-at-large

I got a preview of the inspiring plans for Book Development Month of NBDB, led by executive director Andrea Pasion-Flores (seen in the picture with her lawyer-husband Javi). She is multi-talented, having both a law degree and a master's degree in creative writing, but what I see as her greatest trait is her integrity as a public servant. Like J. Mendoza and Sen. Salonga, she raises the standards followed by people around her- she did it as an editor in Collegian and she's doing it as Editor-of-the-Country in NBDB.

With other former Kule colleagues led by Bos Alecks, I got to visit her place again last Friday- it seemed the same as when I last visited it many months ago, with the exception of Javi's burgeoning contemporary art collection and exquisite bonsai forest that he himself tends. I thought of how Kule, despite being an "activist" paper involved in social issues, was like a greenhouse that protected us from a system that we could only understand theoretically.

The good thing about this is that the institution protected our ideals and allowed us to develop a layer in our respective identities that would always be radical, scholarly, and activist. The best model I can think of is Chief Justice Puno, a former Kule Editor who, after reaching the pinnacle of the legal profession, now allows this layer to shine through- the Supreme Court is now engaged in outreach activities that traditionally have been done by NGOs.

Anyway, back to Book Development Month, the proposed theme is "Galing Pinoy, basahin!" and has the following interesting line-up of activities:

• Lectures and book club sessions on poetry, fiction, and non-fiction by young writers
• National Book Awards at Ayala Museum, with brass-on-kamagong trophies to be created by sculptor Michael Cacnio
• Focus on Nick Joaquin: a film screening of "Tatarin" and multi-disciplinary lectures on this National Artist for Literature
• Global Filipino Literature panel discussion with the winner and finalists of the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Premio Feronia
• Performance reading of Jose Rizal's El Filibusterismo
• Novel Writing Contest- possible genres are Pinoy romance, chick lit, and horror fiction
• Books, Food and Art Festival- the activity I most look forward to, this was inspired by Irish writer James Joyce's Araby and is a three-day literary, food, and art festival in the heart of Makati City
• Overnight adventure along the Viaje del Sol- touring local art galleries, native restaurants, and pottery centers in South Luzon and participating in a travel writing workshop.

Good luck NBDB!

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The poem "Tren (Train)" by Jose Corazon de Jesus from Tulaan sa Tren is posted here under the fair use principle- thanks to NBDB and voice actor Romnick Sarmenta.

flux

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, English novelist (1812-1870)

"A time of flux," was how one lawyer friend described the pattern of events unfolding in the country.

"A paradigm-shift," described another.

And I thought I was the only one who was feeling the cool wave of change washing over our institutions and collective psyche.

At the center of the political vortex is an ambitious plan to overhaul a creaky and antiquated election system by replacing humans with machines in counting votes and transmitting results to a central computer.

Admittedly, this would probably not solve the following old-school ways of cheating in elections:

• registration of non-qualified voters
• disenfranchisement of qualified voters
• simple vote-buying
  
• waylaying of voters through fraud, stealth, or intimidation
• ballots filled up by only one person or group of persons
• voting by persons other than by registered voters.

However, the most cost-efficient ways of cheating are minimized or eliminated by poll computerization. Among the problems that poll automation would minimize or eliminate are:

• vote-buying with chain-balloting or identification marks
  
• stuffing of ballot boxes with fake ballots
• misreading of ballots
• ballot/ ballot box snatching, destruction or substitution when a candidate is losing in a precinct
• falsification or tampering of election returns
• falsification of statements of votes or certificates of canvass in the municipal or city board of canvassers (adding/ subtracting thousands or even hundreds of thousands of votes)
  
• falsification of statements of votes or certificates of canvass in the provincial board of canvassers (up to a million votes changed per province).

We are coming closer to the democratic ideal of one person-one vote, away from the current one-candidate-thousands of votes. And some feudal lords are not happy with this development at all.

Already, some of those who had reaped benefits from the old school and whose baronies are threatened by the new school have sought to sow chaos and confusion in Cotabato and other places in the South. It's the classic conflict between regional affiliations and national interests, the rule of lords and the rule of law.

These are the interests that we and our next batch of leaders must balance in the months leading to May 10, 2010. What an exciting time.

Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo - Various