Monday, January 09, 2023

Not just mere Christianity, or the discovery that USians have a very different vision of religion

Why is it that so-called followers of Jesus Christ in the United States are so driven by personal gain?

I mean, look at this: 


Going to Mass in the Philippines, where I am from, priests and laypeople who take turns on the pulpit do not even remove their masks in order to minimise contamination.

But in the USA, everyone on the pulpit insists on removing their masks. Do they not understand that this coronavirus/COVID-19 is spread through droplets lingering in the air?

There's also that whole "prosperity gospel" that seems to go right against the Golden Rule of doing unto others what you want done back to you.

Ang gulo lang ha.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Kailangan nating magtanda: Isang pahayag

Napapaisip ako nang madalas tungkol sa mga balimbing na (bumalik sa) pangangampanya para sa mga mismong kinatawan na kanilang siniraan mula noong 2015 hanggang 2021: PNoy, Mar, Leni and Kiko. Dahil sa ginampanan nila upang magkaganito ang pamamahala ng ating bansa, hindi ko sila maituturing na kakampink. 

Walang pinag-iba ang pulpolitikong tulad nina FVRamos, Dick Gordon, Bayani Fernando, Grace Poe, Chiz Escudero, at ang mga tagapaghatid ng balita gaya nina Ted Failon, Arnold Claudio, atbp kina Enrile, Macapagal-Arroyo at Marcos. Lalong hindi ko rin maatim ang lahat ng kasapi ng Makabayan bloc, ang mga National Democrats na siyang unang kumampi kay Duterte at hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa rin natutong humingi ng tawad at magtrabaho upang itama ang kanilang pagkakamali na siyang nagdulot ng kaguluhang ito. 

Pinaglaruan nilang lahat ang buhay at niyurakan nila ang pagkatao hindi lang ng napakaraming ipinakulong at ipinapatay dahil sa huwad na "War on Drugs" ng administrasyong Rodrigo Duterte, kundi maging ang kanilang mga kamag-anak/angkan. Magalit po na ang magalit, pero ang aking mga binibitiwang salita ay buhat ng pinagdaanan nang aming pamilya nitong 6 na taon.

Ayaw kong ibahagi ang mapait na pagkulong ng aking kapatid; lingid lang po sa inyong kaalaman pero wala akong nakukuhang kasayahan o clout/prestihiyo kada pagkukumahog kong isulat o isalarawan ang kanyang nakakapanlumong pinagdaanan. Ngayon lang po ako nagsasalita, na may halong kaba at luha, dahil gusto kong matuto ang sambayanan mula sa aming karanasan. Nang-ibang bansa nga po ako upang makapagsimula muli, dahil sino nga ba ang gusto makipagtrabaho sa isang marketing communications professional (kahit na hindi naman ako napakagaling sa trabahong ito) na sirang-sira ang mabuting pangalan dahil sa paninirang ginawa ng pamahalaang ito? Hanggang sa kasalukuyan at hindi na ako makapagsulat at makapaglikha bilang libangan, dahil nabubuhay ako araw-araw nang hindi ko makakalimutan kung paano ako nabigong maipagtanggol ang aking kapatid gamit ang wika at ang mga salitang dati-rati ko nang sandata. 

Kaya, habang lalaban ako nang buong puso para kina Leni Robredo, Kiko Pangilinan, Team Tropa at sa kapakanan ng sambayanang Pilipino maski hindi sila kakampink, hindi ako makikipagkasundo sa mga balimbing na binanggit ko at sa kanilang mga tagasunod. Naniniwala ako sa pagmamana ng sumpa at kamalasan, kaya hanggang sa ang mga taksil ay magpakita nang tunay na pananagutan tungo sa paghahamig at paghihilom, hindi ko sila kayang pakisamahan at hindi ko kayang panagutan ang pakikisama sa mga nanghihikayat na tanggapin ang pakikipagsanib-pwersa sa kanila. Kailangan na talaga nating magtanda at matuto sa ating mga pagkakamali. Kung patuloy kayo sa pagboto sa mga taksil at/o sa pagsasawalang-bahala sa mga naranasan namin nitong mala-impyernong administrasyon, salamat na lang po sa lahat. 


Pagsasalin sa Ingles sa ilalim nitong cut / English translation after the cut. 

Friday, January 21, 2022

Rebuilding and Recreating

Re-creation - noun.

  1. The act of making something anew
  2. A thing being formed anew
  3. The state of being remade
I haven't really been creating a lot of new material these past few years out of leisure or for the simple sake of creating. 

I went abroad because I wanted to start over, to begin again. 

Who knew it would be so difficult?

Sunday, February 07, 2021

Bad dreams or bad vision?

I write this at 5:30 am Central Time on Sunday, 7th February, in the middle of a snowy winter night. I let Mahal keep sleeping because he has been up for most of the night (I slept early) and his loud snores are helping to ground me. But I still cannot shake off the lingering cold feeling of night terror.

You see, I dreamed I was driving myself to my childhood weekend/summer home in a dark-coloured car, accompanied by friends who I have long since lost touch. This house is located in a subdivision hidden from the main road by a factory which was said to have produced fireworks once but may have long since been closed, and also a farm with a modest amount of chickens. 

I remember showing off that bungalow in its pristine state, with its terrace balcony intact and its gate gleaming white, before the sewing factory that rented it in the early-aughts of the 2000s made unauthorized additions that my long-departed great-grandfather, the architect who designed it, would never approve of. But when I demanded entry, presenting my house keys and a copy of the deed to the house that I inherited from my parents (which I also currently keep a digitised version of), the guard outside told me that it was being renovated and turned into a bedspace for lease to expatriates from a Northeast Asian country.

I turned around to find my cousins' house across ours, hoping to find relief and a return to normalcy by checking that they were still our neighbours. Upon closer inspection, their bungalow (a matched pair to our own) also bore scaffolding; even their home, which they have lived in all their lives, was being repurposed for the same outcome. The next thing I know, my mum and her driver drove by, warning me to leave because of some militarised presence that had taken over both properties. I still don't understand why they both left me on my own seeing as: (1) I was all pale and shaken, and (2) Mum and I share many traumatic experiences related to the Philippine military and the Philippine National Police.

I remember sitting shotgun with another friend who said she could alternate driving with me; it seemed like she owned the vehicle anyway. What followed next was a bit of a wild goose chase: we were trying to drive out of the winding roads behind the fireworks factory that hid the compound where my family once lived in, but we kept getting stuck in traffic jams. It was getting dark and the road was so dimly lit that even switching our headlights on would not stop us from bumping into the walls leading out of the subdivision. 

Suddenly my perspective switched to me sitting at the back seat of the same car, with the friend who was driving as well as my other companions ditching me. My blood ran cold and my body froze in horror as the gates of another cousin's house opened to reveal a series of men in white barong. One of them rushed into the driveway and introduced himself as Antonio Parlade Jr., an Army general whose very recent claim to fame was tagging Filipino celebrities and citizens alike who either disagree with or protest against the Duterte administration as "Communist rebels," a process known as red-tagging that gives the already disproportionately powerful Philippine military and national police further ammunition to literally shoot down all forms of dissent

I would be laughing, because now that I've reviewed photo and video footage of him in reality, I realise his features and voice do not match the Parlade in my dreams, who resembles a character from a strange live-action shoot-em-up arcade game that my spouse and I were watching a let's play video of minutes before I went to bed at midnight; said character was a Spaghetti Western's caricature of a Native American and they gave him the name "Shooting Beaver."  But the last time I was attacked this way in real life (nearly ten years ago now, wouldn't you know it?), I screamed in frozen terror. 

I last remember just forcing myself to calm my shallow breaths deeply, and asking in the lowest voice I could muster, "Magandang gabi po, ano pong nangyayari?" He replied, "Mawalang-galang na po, ako po si Antonio Parlade, sumama po kayo sa akin sa presinto upang magpaliwanag." He was using language distinctly recognisable to any citizen who knows how the police work in the Philippines, which is alternately ridiculous and terrifying at the same time. 

What did he want me to explain — why I was trying to re-enter my childhood home? why I was trying to run away from the one force that has wreaked chaos and terror into my family in the last ten years? What was there to explain? Surely he of all people would know. After all, he, like current PNP chief Debold Sinas, were there to apprehend me, right?

I blinked my way awake, my body still frozen and my blood still cold. I was trying to gnash my teeth, but I soon realised I am still wearing my retainers, a holdover from my TMJ oral surgery in 2019. I was very relieved to hear my husband snoring beside me, his silhouette and physicality bringing me back to the present. I am safe, I am with him. 

I think I will minimise my dissenting presence for now, as it might put my family in danger. 



Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Self-awareness syndrome | new news

If there is one thing that is both boon and bane of my existence, it is that I am incredibly, stupendously self-aware but also incredibly, stupendously impotent to fix it, and not for lack of trying mind you.

And honestly, real talk: everyone who says "all it takes to fix it is discipline" can go fuck themselves over. If it were that easy to create and maintain that discipline, I would have already fixed it. If life didn't always like screwing even the most disciplined of people, then I would have already fixed it.


~~~~~~~~

In other news, my new steady job as a writer/editor for an online travel magazine -- completely at the other side of the communications fence -- is the most fun I have had working in a long time.

I just wish I could work from home instead of going to an office, but hey, at least someone is doing my accounting and computing my tax returns because I still don't get how this godforsaken Philippine government does it (they make sure you as the payer gets screwed over).

If you're looking for me, I'm Jocelyn on www.traveldailymedia.com. Please watch out for uncut/uncensored/alternate versions of my Travel Daily articles on this blog. ^.~v

Saturday, December 02, 2017

I regress while life pushes forward.

Hello everyone.

Life has been, well, life.  I admit, I feel a lot like being a punching bag for circumstances or even fate. I have began hating the career I once loved. The interests I used to have have changed considerably; many of them I have done away with altogether. My parents have gone older and greyer almost overnight, and I made enemies out of many friends. And there are at least 3 months I would do anything to remove from the timeline of my life.

My perspectives about social justice has changed ever since things happened last year. I can now uniquely say that I have reached the unenviable position of being in both sides of the Philippine criminal justice system. The event continues to affect us. I hope we achieve what we need, but to be honest I am not holding my breath given my experience.

It is now my dream to die young, so that I am not stubborn, set in my ways, and cursed to outlive this forsaken planet.

I would like to say it's the depression talking (I was finally diagnosed early this year), but it's really, truly not. 

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Parasocial Relationships: A Psychological Study of Fandom

If in case it isn't obvious yet, I am a very serious person who is also serious about fandom. This is an impressive discourse by an academician, specifically a psychologist, about the relationships and idiosyncrasies inherent to communities built around both popular and obscure contemporary culture. I wish I could recall who sent me the link though...!

http://pop-music-research.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/parasocial-relationships-interview-with.html

Also, I may be more active in the prettiness of Tumblr lately. Whoops.=_=0