Dagmay

Last April, I co-edited the Dagmay issues, a literary project sponsored by our local group, the Davao Writers Guild in coordination with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Sunstar Davao, a local daily newspaper in the city. The project encourages local writers to submit their works and have it published in the weekly one-page Sunday supplement.



I also did some of the illustrations.

perceived threat to China's materialistic communist regime

It is intriguing that unlike the other communist states in the West, Communist China had managed to survive the tides of change. I surmised the crucial factor that caused the crumbling down of Western Communism was generally due to its materialistic based ideology. Materialism may be a practical tool, but I believe that elevating it into an institution would be an error.

However, witnessing the atrocities committed by a materialistic government against the peaceful, noble people of Tibet only managed to expose its flaws. Tibetan history and culture, and its profoundly philosophical belief system spanning for centuries was firmed indomitable enough against threats implemented by an outside force and attempts at 'reimmersing' the Tibetan people. Like the Chinese culture, The Tibetan legacy withstood impressively for many centuries. The materialistc Chinese regime, which seemed to treat these noble souls of a noble country as if mere commodities and statistics for the communist machinery, only began in the early part of the 20th century.

Materialistic communism in China may have managed to hold on despite the collapse of its counterparts in the West, but I analyze that there is, after all, a challenge strong enough to crumble one of the last bastions of materialistic ideology, for even this regime perceived it as the threat to its pedestal.

The challenge shall be with Tibet. Tibet is a worthy catalyst for China to free itself from the bondage of a materialistic ideology and for China to once again achieve its greatness.

Tibet and Buddhism

With the events that recently occured in Tibet, these movies had somehow opened me up to the profound importance of that enchanting yet real place and the atrocities committed against them. The movies provide a glimpse of the profoundly high degree of philosophy that these noble people possess, transcending even beyond this secular world:

Kundun
Little Buddha
The Life of Buddha

One of those that impressed me in the films were the animal 'actors' (of course the large snake in "The Life of Buddha" was a prop, I meant those real animals) and how 'well' the creatures played their part.

(I discovered later that an Earthquake occured in China 12 May 2008)

Lost Horizon

The recent events occuring in Tibet made me recall the classic film "Lost Horizon."

Actually, this film by Burt Bacharach (he is a gift to humanity) was my childhood frustration in which I could still remember up to now. We also had a vinyl record of it and my insistent demands had kept it playing most of the time. I even drew sketches of the palace copied from the record case. It was the early 70's and I was very, very young then. I watched with great enthusiasm as the movie was shown on TV. Then...a brownout occured!! Aaarggh!!

Thanks to the youtube era I recently got a glimpse of this wonderful film, but only managed to get just that...glimpses (sigh).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlE0Lb46rVE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFGayvuO2Rw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp8vydLWGJk&feature=related

The recent outcry in Tibet manifests that the Human Spirit shall not be stifled in a box, not even by secular government.

Hey, they made a replay on Star Wars, why not Lost Horizon?

I want replay! I want replay!

what is your opinion?

Perhaps you may want to answer this question on Philippine education that I posted at answers.yahoo.com.

It seems that the state of education in this country, even among top schools was geared to teaching into making graduates as mere efficient commodities for the economic machinery, rather than teaching or encouraging students how to build this nation.The educational system seemed to disregard the value of Culture, Art, Literature in nation building so as to give it valuable 'soul '. That is why most Filipinos are not supportive of artworks or have no passion for reading, and are easily manipulated by crass commercialism or succumb to foreign interest. It seemed the educational system had failed on these.Do you agree or otherwise? What is your opinion?

You can post your answers by clicking here, or even at the comment section of this blog.

questions, answers, and stuffs they don't let you answer

Recently, one of yahoo's services got my interest at answers.yahoo.com. Cool, so I began sharing answers ranging from dream interpretation to seemingly non-sensical "do you think monkeys are funny?" (to which I replied, 'if you find humans funny, then they are').

Another dreamer had this 'nightmare' about witnessing a school shootout, hiding inside a closet with his girlfriend and them getting amorous, until he got shot eventually. I found the dream sequence shallow though and lacking in indepth symbols as the subconscious use as language, so I answered maybe he got too engrossed with violent films that profited much on his fears. He replied, excitedly, that he had always wanted to be a movie director! Strange though, the thread got deleted from my list.

Then there's this question, "Are there any intelligent Americans left?", which was a poster's ranting about Bush signing the waterboarding (no, it's not a surfer's lingo) torture against Guantanamo prisoners.

I posted this reply, and I believe my equally pis_ed-off American e-friends at a politics chatroom I frequented will agree with me regarding their decadent fellows:

I consider an American to be pathetically lacking in humane intellect if he/she:

- relies too much on puppet corporate media for information

- thinks Bush is the best president

- worships a money god as hypocrties do for their greed

- votes for politicians with the agenda for continuing the WAR economy

-thinks he/she is better than the rest of humanity just because he/she sucks better

-abhors organic food over chemical lazed junk foods.

-points to Asia in the map when asked where his/her country is located

- concludes that waterboarding is a surfer's lingo because he/she didn't bother to look at a search engine.

Weird, but that controversial thread also got erased from the list.

water for car fuel

This is the link of the Filipino who invented a device that uses water for car fuel. He was the one I referred to from my other blog 'dream car'. My inventor friend sent this link.

The good thing about this video is that the inventor, Mr. Dingel was able to express his sentiment regarding the IMF-World Bank and the investors he encountered. Those phrases are something one can't hear from corporate media that featured him.

Water Car...Daniel Dingel

tall hotel

This giant 'hiding' behind the bushes is the city's tallest building. Although this hotel may seem midrise (18-storeys) compared to taller structures of major cities, it nevertheless stood up over most of them when it won the highest guest satifaction survey rating in all of its company's hotel chains in Asia.

Oops, I'm supposed to post it at my anywhere davao blogsite, but anyway will just link it up.

Davao & EAGA

My reaction (as username nvision) to discussions on Davao (including having to put up with a 'talangka' minded, or crab mentality forumer), and my perception about Davao and EAGA (East Asean Growth Area):

http://www.istorya.net/forums/index.php/topic,94254.msg3392951.html#msg3392951

new blog

I got a new blog :)

http://anywheredavao.blogspot.com

It blogs snapshots of Davao City's corners and byways using a camera phone, and bits of somethings about it.

dream car

This will be my dream car...a nice, compact, practical non-pollutant (whoopee!!) electric car that has no trace whatsoever of those egotistic, dumb sized obese, blasphemously ravenous fossil fuel guzzing SUV's.

Actually my dream car is a nice little spacedrive vehicle that will literally float in the air via magnetic propulsion. It utilizes the polarized ions in the air and virtually needs no gas that would surely threaten the greed oriented fossil fuel dependent kind of system this humanity is presently dragged into. I personally know my inventor friend somewhere in the European Union, but the minions of the dark side had been doing their means at keeping his inventions suppressed, even to the point of humiliating him.

Another concern with this alternative dream car of mine is that a Filipino invented it. Whether such situation is unfortunate or not remains to be seen. One thing is sure, another noble Filipino inventor before him also presented a device that makes a car run basically on water. He invented it many years ago and things had happened to him since then. The Philippine government (as what it usually does to local inventors) ignored his inventions and some institutions even ridiculed him, and he was even threatened to imprisonment. Fortunately the Japanese supported and protected him, so you need not be surprised how they were able to build a hybrid car that runs on water.

Perhaps the Japanese were just too dumb to support this guy to compare with those extremely smart Filipinos entrenched in their podiums, whom the inventor so pathetically failed to meet their standards (duh).

That's the problem with this country. Many talents abound in here, but so do envious jerks, and these detestable people make the lives of the former miserable. You can find these minions everywhere here, from the nosy stupid neighbor to a thick faced public official. It's an ugly trait known locally as 'utak talangka', which means 'crab mentality' referring to the usual habit of crabs dragging their fellows down with their pincers when these creatures are placed in a basket. There are many of them in this country, way too many.

If the inventor and his electric car would be dragged down similar to the way they treated the water fuel inventor, guess who the culprits behind it are.

greed = blessings

Some weeks ago I had an experience with someone on the real estate field in our city. I had a buyer looking for a good deal for a house & lot that would suit their budget. I did introduce her to a property from a developer company where she finally discovered what she had been looking for, courtesy of my information. However, it turned out that the buyer had also contacted other people from the same company and someone had already inked the buyer to sign the call slip, although she failed to convince the buyer due to limited listings on the available properties. By company rules, the first person to do the call slip receives the S.O.P. commission.

It would have been alright with me, despite the fact that it had cost me much time, effort and finances to convince the buyer to purchase the property. I respect the company rules so I decided to personally meet with the person concerned who got the bacon for my effort, perhaps heaving aside the cold rules of the office machinery, a human perspective might be found in seeking the justice for my effort. I could speak for this, recently I gave my fellow broker an amount equivalent to more than 2 month's work for her contribution to a successful deal, even if she merely referred me to someone who knew the right property. I believe in sharing for someone's effort and I find it a pleasure to see them react gratefully.

So I decided to meet personally with this person, perhaps she would consider at least a refund for the expenses I incurred (that culminated with her getting the commission)? I listened to her various excuses.

Then she recited some bible verses, even invoking "God's" name and the 'blessings' she had received in her life. That made me contemptuous and suspicious. Sure, everyone needs money in this world, otherwise how the heck would you be existing in this mortal place. But to use the name of 'God' at other people's expense will surely deserve the spiritual barf bag. I decided not to waste more time, obviously such minds have the reputation of a shut-tight clam shell no worldly wisdom could ever convince them to pry open for the truth against hypocritical crimes. The company rules have its merit in keeping things in order, but surely, the necessity to transcend beyond these trappings in seeking the sensitive need for justice would require the warmness of being human, and not a machine. I'm beginning to suspect this may not occur in this situation.

Anyway, still in a civilized manner, I decided to end the conversation still hoping that perhaps someday a more enlightened human within her would emerge from such brainwashed sheep mentality. Perhaps, she needs time to contemplate, and I need not flare up mimicking the shout "you brood of vipers! you hypocrites!" that echoed more than two thousand years ago.

After many weeks I met her again and inquired whether she had thought about it, and that it should be by her own personal decision, and not the company's, or her group's. Her reaction may be summed up this way: NOPE

It's intriguing how Evil has succeded at lurking deep in the crevices of this society. Now, the belief systems of its minions had mutated in odious slithery such that greed has now become synonymous with 'blessings'.