TO BE JOLOG

Having been out of the country for quite sometime now, I have yet to learn a tremendous list of terms that are "in" these days....I must admit I am no jolog as far as the trendy words are concerned.

You see, I often send and receive txt messages from my friends in Pinas via that SMS thing....and I am oftentimes in awe at the number of words used that do not register in my memory bank. Let us see....

SWAK- as in the text: "Swak na swak ang dating!"

I texted back: "whats 'swak'?
The reply was instant: 'sakto or exactly/fit!
The term was used to describe the tees I sent them.

Shiver-me-timbers!

So if I have to describe the picture above, I should say:
"Swak-na-swak sa rhythm and galaw nila!"

Then one time, I read some more:
....carmi [for karma; jolina [for tuli na]; tsugi, and more!

Of course, I know what "bagets" mean, having heard those words used over and over again as we try to wiggle out of the long arm of my parents as they try to push us out of those 'dabarkads' who keep on calling.....

But there are more words used primarily by gays.....
these words they call "swardspeak" which I find daunting and not necessarily 'sosi'.

I remember reading some words to describe the extravagance of Imelda Marcos. It was described in some british papers as "imeldific!" The meaning is not lost to us: it means exhorbitantly extravagant, leaning on the superflous use of money for personal use..." or something of that sort.

I remember first hearing 'tsugi' used by that gay manicurist who do my Nanay's nails. I wondered what [s]he meant. I was thinking of that word and wondered who's "next"....because in Nippongo, tsugi means next. Apparently, in Pinas, teh word meant to be dead...or "dedo." I was aghast and confused at what the word meant, locally at least.

Language, being a living one, has the capacity to grow and before we know it, we are faced with a deluge of "new terms" by the end of the day. More people using them means they word is coined. When it remains used, thereby accepted by a majority numebr of speakers, then we add a new term in our vocabulary. This is the reason why all Languages, continue to add more in their long lists. While other terms become "dead" after a long while, their definitions have been entered and logged in a certain nation's history of Languages. This is true with major languages like English ...or even the minor ones like Nippongo which enters hundreds of new words every year.

Locally, the latest ones which caught my attention were these:

[*] na-gloria= meaning...naloko[mang-gloria=manloko!]
[*] ma-jonas= meaning 'mawala' or madukot ng militar.
[*] ma-palparan=meaning, ma-salvage, ma-torture, ma-kidnap, mawala sa listahan....
[*] mang-garci=meaning "mandaya sa anumang eleksyon.
[*] ma-honasan=meaning tumakas...as in takas-ng-takas....

There are more of these words....
I wish I could have them all here. But I only know a little from afar.


But knowing these words,makes life bearable among Pinoys who have to make
just tiis while waiting for justice to grind its wheel. Furthermore, Pinoys just bear it out with jokes to forget, even for a while...the looming distress that these "glorias" bring.

HIROSHIMA REMEMBERED

The time: 8:15 a.m. on Aug. 6, 1945-under the sweltering heat of summer:

....62 years ago the Americans dropped an untested bomb called "The Little Boy" from the B-29 bomber Enola Gay overhead at the center of Hiroshima. Three days later, another bomb, this time called "The Fat Man" was dropped at Nagasaki- and together instantaneously claimed 210,000 lives! Others died slowly suffering from the effects of radiation and the black rain.The death toll continues even today.....

Most Japanese at both ends of the political spectrum agree that those attacks were inexcusable. The American leaders of those times insist that the attacks were proper.

The scene here was taken four days after the bomb was dropped. Smoke can be seen still. The once-bustling city-port was flattened and reduced instantly to rubbles. The only thing that was left in this picture was a Buddhist Temple Torii (Gate) amidst devastation, ruin and the stench of burning dead bodies. Another monument to this tragedy is the dome that Hiroshima keeps to remind everyone that war and bombs do not care; they eradicate!!

Sixty-two years hence, the world is still the same, or is it worse?! The only thing that has changed is the news that the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Museum has an American at its helm. Yessiree! And that, is the ultimate irony.

The numbers keep growing. The hibakusha (atomic-bomb survivors) have been fading...with a good number of them slowly dying but most have taken the effort to tell their stories, some too horrifying to listen to.

The survivors are saying that they are not interested in revenge or retaliation. What they are doing is sublimating all of the urge for revenge and anger into this pursuit of a world without war and nuclear weapons.They have been pursuing a move to say to the world and I dare say as well:

NO MORE HIROSHIMAS!....

NO MORE NAGASAKIS!


I hope and pray the world listens........

NOTE:One can visit the 2 Museum =virtually= and 'feel' the place where those bombs were dropped. Visit them by finding the link on the sidebar. Thanks.

GOOD NIGHT,.... and GOOD LUCK !

SEVERAL nights ago, I saw one of the bestest movie I've seen in years. Not because it speaks of sci-fi and all that, which I abhor, actually...no, not that. It speaks of basic human drama that has penetrated the lives of men and women of a generation past.


THE setting was the early 50s (1953, to be exact) and what I am talking about is the McCarthy era in the 50s America. The title of the movie is ...you're right! "Good Night, and Good Luck!"

IT deals with how a group of people working for CBS meet before each show and brainstorm on the latest happening. They then pick a certain topic and deal with it.



THE show went on as usual, but the news about then junior Senator MacCarthy was the truning point. The issue was becoming persistent.The time came when the CBS group can no longer tolerate McCarthy's hurling accusations everywhere that they felt they must speak out. Of course, people reacted both positively and those presumed guilty raised a howl. Even McCarthy responded by accusing Ed Murrow connections with the communists!


McCarthysm, a word coined to mean that anyone who is against the policies of government was deemed a communist. The news rattled several people which sometimes led to their dismissal from office by mere association with known or branded "communists."


BEAUTIFUL lines were delivered: "We cannot defend freedom abroad, if we do not defend it here." ....."I choose my conscience!"....and lots more.


MURROW, the anchorman was even accused by McCarthy himself as having associated with 'communists' in his early days as a reporter. Accusations were hurled, presumably to threaten Ed Murrow and the entire staff. But they didn't give in. He (Murrow) countered that he, indeed had some friends that were supposed-to-be communists, but that doesn't justify that he, too was one.


THE anchorman's persistence and bravery was rewarded when McCarthy was later investigated and the people affected from his barrage and accusations were restored to their former positions in government. He opted to pursue with such diligence the trying order of the day. He persisted and earned the respect and admiration of people not only in the industry where he works, but the entire nation.

IT was a film that could be a reminded to the next generation that the television or media in general, is a powerful medium to delver the Common Tao's cries and woes.

WATCHING the movie made me think and wonder: The very same thing is happening in Pilipinas for the past five-or so-years. People in media were sued with libel...and although the case have been withdrawn, due to 'humanitarian reasons'.....the situation is reminiscent of America in the early 50s.

FREEDOM of speech is a basic human right of each and every citizen in a supposed democratic nation. Basically, no one is supposed to question a person's right to speak for or against the very institution that is mandated to protect its citizen.
Although there are a few journalists who continue to fight the corrupt system we have today, they are dimishing in numbers. Some have been 'bought' or 'swayed' by the powers-that-be.

THIS movie is a must-see, if only to remind people that being wary and losing one's guard makes way for the corrupt and the misfits to survive. Go and see it, if you haven't yet. It's in black-and white that stars, among others George Clooney who plays Fred Friendly,the director of that CBS TV show.

WELL then, GOOD NIGHT,.... and GOOD LUCK !

DREAMS~and~CICADAS

I woke up from my reverie with a chorus I find at times distracting but today, I do not know whether to call it a blessing in disguise..... You see, I had a dream which I have not experienced in a long time and the chorus I was referring to were the cicadas chirping.


It is indeed summer and cicadas are everywhere.
Bugs and beetles, too! But what I do not like with the hot summer days are the pesky mosquitoes which swarm me when I go to the small patch I call garden to weed out those unwanted ones. Rains have been few and far-between recently, which probably shooed the frogs away, hence their absence in our midst. Maybe I just 'miss' the croaking, to say the least.

And, oh! Those dreams....I guess I have to write them as soon as...lest I forget
them again! It happens, y'know. Dreams are easily reverted back into the recesses of a person's mind and thus, forgotten in a jiffy....until we go through a flashback when a 'continuity' of sorts happen. Have experienced that, a couple or so- times! Heh-heh!

OK...now about that dream: I dreamt I went boating with ....whom, or where? I don't remember. What stuck into my mind was that >suddenly, I found I was under water and when I looked up, I saw clearly our small boats up the surface. It was blue all over and my companions were trying to hold hands so we don't get separated.

I was beginning to gasp for air when we found ourselves "landing" on a surface where I was able to breathe. I was glad to "arrive" on that area, because of the air. We were then ushered into a place very similar to our own, yet different.

People there never thought of going back to the surface :that is,
our own world. They were contented to be there. All of a sudden I felt the urge to contact some relatives ( as I am wont to do on impulse) and tried to grope for my celfone inside my bag, which, surprisingly was still with me. (=I always use body bags when not working!=) My phone was out! Can't connect.....

We (I don't even know who it was with me!) walked and tried to look
for a telephone booth, so we walked around. Luckily, we found one. I tried to get some coins and put them inside the telephone machine, but still, the telephone didn't register a dial tone. Looking at the backside, I retrieved the unattached cords.
It was then I realized no one can make contact with the 'outside world'.

So we walked and looked at the place. Later, a middle-aged woman volunteered to go and swim back. With the help of some of the "residents" there, we were shown the best way out.

As the woman swam her way, we went back and a small place which appeared to be something like a common agora. We walked around and was taken by some accessories which I even tried. I thought: 'What nice pasalubongs these would make!'

I was thinking: 'What the hell am I thinking?
Here I am away from family and friends, and I was still thinking of pasalubongs!?'

It was at this moment that I heard the cicadas....

Shall I thank the cicadas who wakened we up from my reveries?

I do not have the knack to interpret dreams, but I sure hope that
it means good and that I need not worry.

Lolo says it's the time when local folks talk of ghosts and souls coming back for the O-BON.....and that, perhaps, triggered my dreams. Or I may have been seeing a lot of those TV dramas about ghosts that I entertain such ideas in my mind. Fact is, I seldom watch those 'horror genres!' Whatever it is, I pray and praise that nothing bad was meant by one's productive extension of this mind.

DEAL~or~NO DEAL?

For the last 21 years, the government, through the PCGG,
has been known to work to recover the fabled "Asian Trasures"
...more specifically, the Philippine Treasures...
looted by the dictator and his lady.

The last days of marcos saw them looking grim and full of grief
as they boarded the helicopter to Hawaii. They had with him
his most loyal crony onboard.


A decade or so- hence, we see imelda and her children
return to the country. The same can be said of the cronies....
who made good their presence and the people 'accepted' them,
no matter what!

WE also saw marcos' frozen body flown and kept in a freezer
in his hometown.Through all these, the country saw the
re-emergence of the marcos children
in politics and the return of the imeldific ways of
imelda, the con artist.

ALL can be said in line with the forgiving hearts
of the Filipino but something is wrong somewhere....
I can smell the stink from where I am.
Some instinct says that something wrong is going on somewhere....

LATELY, we see in print the interview on Jose Almonte
and how the PCGG, under Jovito Salonga...
and how Sedfrey Ordonez was supposed to have left the
Swiss capital before the hand-over of several marcos' loot.
Why he did that is unknown to many, and no explanation
was given, either. Jovito Salonga was said to have
issued the order. Now, Salonga is rewarded as a hero of sorts.

A small portion of marcos' loot was later transferred
and held in escrow at PNB. The rest of the loot remain
unrecovered....or were they? I wonder......


ALSO, news about imelda's first-born, imee claiming a
good percentage of GMA-7's ownership which she claimed
were all held in trust by the dictator to Duavit,
who, GMA executives say is the real owner.

NOT to be outdone, here comes bongbong, marcos' only son
claiming that Lucio Tan's holdings aren't really Tan's
but his father's.

WHAT's intriguing is the news that bongbong and even
imeldific herself, will testify against Lucio Tan
as government witness!

DO they have a deal....or NO deal?

I wonder.....


With the crooks and the hooks, and everything in between,
I am inclined to believe that there is something going on.
Imagine the amount in question
....and having been there "sleeping" with interests,
the money marcos stole may reach into so many zeros,
I wouldn't know how to read them!

MAKING a pact with the devil is the lowliest deal of all!

Why in the world couldn't people in government...
these judges find the looters of this country
guilty and send them to rot in jail?
Just send some and you'll find that a
deterrent for future looters.
By allowing these crooks to reenter society
sends signal to would-be-looters and
now-looting scumbags that they,
too can get away with looting the country's coffers!
Holy Cow!

WHAT can I say? Only this:
Along witht he numerous citizens of this country,
I feel dismayed....NO! disgusted about the whole thing!
I thought government people were supposed to be the protectors
of the People's interests?
Not so with the crap of crocodiles that have sprouted
in our midst! Goodness!
How I wish lightning strike them all many times over!

I say NO DEAL!
But that, my dear is what Malacanang's illegal occupant says!
But knowing how tricky, this little Tricky does...
I am bound to believe that
there is something going on....


and you better believe it!

IMPASIBOL SA PINAS!

Here's one news I find queer at the same time impossible to happen.......

............> that is, in the Inang Bayan!

No one...and I say no one among the Crocodiles and the Snakes ....will ever admit that that they dipped their fingers and palms inside the cookie jar!

Queer, I say...because primarily, those crooks in government do what they can to be elected......with one prime purpose: to leech and seep what they can from the country's coffers.

1,790 of China's communist party officials admit to corruption
China's Communist Party says 1,790 of its senior members have admitted to corruption under a program that gives officials relatively light punishment if they voluntarily report their wrongdoing within 30 days.

A spokesman for the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Gan Yisheng, said on Thursday that the amount of embezzlements and profits illegally made by the officials totaled 78 million yuan, or more than 10 million US dollars.

Mr Gan said the party will take severe measures against corrupt officials who do not voluntarily report their wrongdoing.

He referred to the recent case of former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu, who was expelled from the party for corruption charges.

Mr Gan said the case has been handed over to prosecutors and that the former secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Commission is not above being sent to prison. Source:NHK World

BLOGGING ~and ~ A CUP OF COFFEE

BLOGGING makes my day. It's like my first cup of coffee in the morning. I need Coffee to perk me up and make me alive. The same can be said of my blogging.


SINCE I got hold of my laptop, I've been bewildered by the iNet. I wander from News to Tools and in-between them. I love to read. Makes me think....but found out later that not all are worth reading, dude!

THERE are sites where news are a-plenty! Lots of know-how are posted and I just couldn't have enough of 'em! I wish I can remember them all, but alas! Anyway, I just
book-marked them all, for future reference.

NOT to be outdone, Blogs have mushroomed, too! Most are free blogs, (of which, mine belongs!) And when I read them, I am welcomed to a variety of genres as many as the stars in heaven. Some blogs are worth mentioning; some are not. Some are political, where others sway to the diary-like entries and then we are allowed a glimpse of the private and the emotions. Some entries are funny and tickle the readers.

READING made me think...and think better, I suppose. Not all we read are true, of course! I adhere to that line of thinking. Some blogs made me laugh and some made me wonder. Others made me stay away, especially those black humors and weird entries.

SINCE blogging has become "normal"....or shall we say, regular, most surfers were allowed to leave comments. Others need to be members and that led me to start my own. I'm glad I did! It made me feel better, since my blog became my punching bag, whenever i find something amiss. This blog became my friend, when I needed someone to talk to....even in the dead of the night. I need not bother to call my relatives or firends. I have someone right here.

I DON'T care if people read my entries. It just makes me feel happy and great to see some "creations" I made. I have had many things in my mind that I want to put in print. I have lots of stories stored in my PC that has not seen print. These stories as told by my Parents on what led them to be together and all those. My feelings and views on how people acted and reacted at one point in my life....

THERE are so many things to say...so many things to write....IF only I can find the patience to sit and write them all! Some may not see print here (privacy issues) but I hope I can leave something for my family to read when the time is ripe.




I'VE been posting comments here and there, that is, when time and opportunity permits. Loaded with work and maintaining a house with a ward to look after, I must say I find wandering in the iNet a wonder and a respite in　my hard day's work.


WHILE surfing the net the other day, I found some posters at MLQ3's blog who were outrageous in their comments.

I read the whole exchanges and found some familiar names. I thought I'd post a reply but the better side of me made me stop and rest a-while.

SOME poster/visitor in MLQ3's place were saying some unsavory remarks against another blog. It appears that these posters were banned from Ellen Tordesillas' blog. And they were venting their anger in Manolo's.

IMO, I find Ellen Tordesillas' blog quite different from Manolo's in the sense that Ellen posts her articles in them. Manolo reads different blogs and from there, he blogs. His articles which appears in various papers are just mentioned in passing. He normally mentions blogs worth reading, thus making some sort aof free "ADs" for them.
Mine was mentioned a couple[?] of times before, and I must admit I was tickled pink!

ELLEN's blog is hard-hitting and direct to the point: a style which made me take second a look and post some comments. Lately, it has boomed and readership hits have gone high that I find it difficult to access the blog. Regulars claim that the 'arroyo brigade' have been working to regulate, even bar others from making comments.

MANOLO's blog may sway and play, not that hard-hitting as Conrado de Quiros'....but analyzes and makes his point with all those references and back-up data to boot. Sometimes, he uses words and terms that is totally alien to me (pardon my ignorance, but am still learning the way of the dragon, Man!)...which behooves me to consult Mr. Webster first. Over all, his is the wisdom one aspire for.

IN my mind and in my heart, I like to read both, but lately, accessing Ellen's have been quite difficult for me. I must confess I am an impatient lot, and if I can't access one site in one, two, even three hits, I usually cease and go on the next. MLQ3's blog at times have access problems, but is soon remedied at the second hit.

NO two things are exactly the same. Some qualities are found in one that is sorely lacking in the other. But just the same, I can't let the day pass without even taking a peek in almost all blogs listed in my dreams.