Now What? (Or, It’s culture, stupid.)
Rigodon, an art installation by Leo Abaya showing the presidents of the Philippines as players on a chessboard.
The people have spoken. Democracy has won. Why, then, have you fallen into this deep funk?
It is not simply that your candidates lost. In truth you were not that attached to them, but the options were limited. Over one hundred million Filipinos, and that is the prime selection. But that’s a topic for another time.
You can easily get over your candidates losing. It’s harder to deal with the fact that many of your assumptions about your country, your colleagues, even your friends, are wrong. (By “friends” we mean the family you choose for yourself, and not the millions you interact with in the social media.) You thought you agreed on basic principles—human rights, women’s rights, etc. It turns out that these may be set aside “for the greater good”. Are you so disconnected from your people that you do not understand this clamoring? Do you not understand your country?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
May 19th, 2016 at 14:53
The amount of smart shaming in the Interaksyon comments section (huwag ka daw Ingles nang Ingles) just proves the very point of your article.
May 20th, 2016 at 12:53
@avignon
Shhhh… Taga-Oxford daw sya. Although I would expect going to Oxford should have taught him structured paragraphing.
:D
May 21st, 2016 at 18:22
@Mr.Postman
“I am being unfairly treated there (I cannot make a comment to defend myself)”
Awww…Your inability to create/register a WordPress account and your comments under the purview of the blog owner is “unfair” in your world? Well BOO!!HOO!! to you.
Yet you do not seem to have a problem in registering an FB/DISQUS/yomodel/badoo account. Why? WordPress too old-school for you? MySpace is of the same age and even Friendster’s a year older, when was the first time you use the internet?
Anyway, I understand, it is not advisable to open your personal email(to create/register an account) on one of those Piso-Net machines or any other public PCs. What if your BDO, PSN, iTunes or God forbids your Etsy account got hacked!! WAAAH!! Such horror. *trembles*
“Thanks for pointing out this comment section actually lets you write in paragraphs”
Why, you’re Welcome! :D
You can also do italics , BOLD FACES , superscripts , subscripts ,
Strikethroughs, etc. HTML tags are such joy isn’t it? :D“”structured paragraph” is a bit redundant, don’t you think?”
Not at all, [participle adjective + noun], perfectly normal. Other compound nouns also have that similar [adjective]+[noun] form; Eg: hardboard, redhead, greenhouse, etc. In my case, “structured paragraphing” [participle adjective + gerund], it’s the same principle, “unstructured” paragraphs/paragraphing do exist you know.
“Baka well-structured paragraph ibig mong sabihin?”
If you really like compound adjectives, then sure. But I wouldn’t even dream of demanding a balanced-substantially-researched-perfectly-written-error-free-well-structured paragraph from someone from Oxford such as you. That would be very presumptuous of me. :D
“Kasi noong una kong try everytime that I click “enter” it just posts the unfinished comment.”
“para naman ma-impress ang mga pakunwaring inglishero sa Pilipinas”
No need to explain yourself nor impress anyone really. AS IN REALLY!! Think about it. You’re not gonna be graded, punished or anything by anyone. But hey, if writing is your outlet and it brings you comfort, then type away. Also Notepad/WordPad on Windows and TextEdit on Mac OS are your best friends. :D
“pakunwaring inglishero” Do you mean coming across as pretentious? ‘Coz as far as I can tell this is “real” English that I am using not some “Asian Ingrish” or some English gobbledygook. If that is the case then that is on you, that is your perception, that is your problem. Anybody can use whatever manner/medium they wish to use to communicate online. Sometimes people just really do think, speak and write the way they do. The unique consequence of their unique upbringing and training.
As for me, you can blame Disney’s Saturday Morning cartoons, Sesame Street, Edith Hamilton’s Greek Mythology, Tina Monzon-Palma and the late Angelo Castro, Jr., during my formative years and excellent English teachers during my school years, for my proficiency and command of the English language. As for my prowess in Tagalog you can check it out here:
http://www.jessicarulestheuniverse.com/2013/06/02/litwit-challenge-a-translation-of-ice-and-fire/
… I’m entry #2. :D
“literary ventriloquism”
More like “loud and crazy person on the train”-ism, lol, :D
“You should be impressed. I mean this requires talent.”
Here’s a golf clap just for you: *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*
Anyway that is the extent of my online altruism for today. This lowly pisant[sic] is thankful and humbled by your paragraphs.
Enjoy your echo chamber.
–This pisant[sic]
May 22nd, 2016 at 12:07
Ros: Don’t go there. You have important things to do.
Should you feel the urge to write an essay, send it to me so I can have it published as an article and not as a comment on a public space. This offer is extended to all of you.
We should all have a coffee sometime and talk about stuff we actually love and not things we hate.