1. In the movies, if a woman is alone and hears a noise, she will go and check it out in her most revealing underwear.
2. In the movies, the ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there and you can travel to any other part of the building undetected.
3. In the movies, the Chief of Police will almost always suspend his star detective---or give him 48 hours to finish the job.
4. In the movies, a man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
5. In the movies, the Eiffel tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
6. In the movies, all police investigations will find it necessary to visit a strip club at least once.
7. In the movies, if you are being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick's Day parade any time of the year.
8. In the movies, you are very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
9. In the movies, all grocery bags contain at least one stick of French Bread.
10. In the movies, all bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large readouts so you know exactly when they are going to go off.
11. In the movies, police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned to a partner who is their polar opposite.
Chloe and her signature greeting; westkatereviews photo
I am a movie buff,or fanatic, or whatever you call it. Naturally, I make it a point to watch the Oscars every year: dubbed "the greatest show on earth." It's such a once-in-a-year event for me that I am not beyond making excuses, regardless of whatever it is I'm doing, just to watch it, preferably the live telecast; in the Philippines, usually early Monday morning, Sunday night in the States. There was even a point in time when I reported for work butwas out the entire time at a friend's nearby house, on the pretext of an inter-office-related whatchamaccalit, just to watch the Oscars. (I was then working for a government legal office; government office, as it is, many employees would just punch in and never be heard of again for the rest of the day, so no guilt here. I was in fact the hardest-working in that office, but that's another story.)
Here again is one of my favorite funnygurl (that's guy and girl combined, outdated you) Youtubers, Chloe', and her views on the Oscars and film in general.
In the coming week, the commemoration of the EDSA/People Power Revolution (# 1, Feb. 22-25, '86; arguably the ONLY genuine one )will be upon us again. For sure there will be festivities, much more so because the Yellow Army, headed by the PNoy, are back in power.
Which power, ultimately residing in the people (Salus populi est suprema lex: The welfare of the people is the supreme law, ladeda, ladeda), was grabbed from us by the "Dear" Dictator during his dictatorial regime. We got our freedom, or at least a semblance of it, back, thanks to The People Power Revolution/EDSA One. We have had subsequent EDSAs, for which most of us do not particularly care for.
I have my own thoughts and memories about it, see link below, but I'm also taking cue what one of my go-to Youtubers, Chloe' thinks about freedom in general.
Bonus: his/her/whatever's version of the Preamble (of the US Constitution, that is.)
The Madam Miriam never disappoints. The only one exciting in the Impeachment trial, aside from the Conspiracy theories-slash-scripts that have surfaced recently.
Video grabs from the Impeachment trial
Santiago: Huwag na tayong magpa-epal dito
"Do not engage in a colloquy with me!"
Santiago: "It is my duty to submit it to this court" Duty my foot!
Santiago to Tupas: I give you a grade of 3, in UP, that means I pass you but I warn you 1/2
Santiago to Tupas: I give you a grade of 3, in UP, that means I pass you but I warn you 2/2
Winner, Davey O'Brien award as the nation's (USA) best college QB
Two-time winner, Maxwell award as the nation's (USA) top college football player
Winner, James Sullivan Award as the nation's (USA) most outstanding amateur athlete in any sport
Early years
Tebow was born in Makati City in the Philippines, to American parents who were serving as Baptistmissionaries
at the time. His mother, Pamela Elaine (née Pemberton), is the daughter
of a U.S. Army colonel, and his father, Robert Ramsey Tebow II, is a
pastor.While pregnant, his mother suffered a life-threatening infection with a pathogenic amoeba. Because of the drugs used to rouse her from a coma and to treat her dysentery, the fetus experienced a severe placental abruption. Doctors had expected a stillbirth and recommended an abortion, even though illegal in the Phillipines, to protect her life, but she decided not to have one.
Philanthropic work
Tebow envisioned a foundation to give back to others during his college career, and he, along with other University of Florida students, created First and 15. Through this organization, Tebow raised funds for Uncle Dick's Orphanage in the Philippines,
founded by his father’s nonprofit association, the Bob Tebow
Evangelistic Association. He also raised monies for Shands Hospital
pediatric cancer center in Gainesville and a Disney trip for disadvantaged children. Upon graduation from University of Florida, Tebow launched the Tim Tebow Foundation in January 2010.
The Foundation hopes to use the platform Tebow has to bring faith, hope
and love to those who need it. Currently, The Foundation is outreaching
to four projects: the WI5H Program, partnering with CURE to construct a hospital in the Phillipines, Timmy's Playrooms and financial support for Uncle Dick's Orphanage. The WI5H Program is part of the Jacksonville-based wish-granting organization, Dreams Come True. The program aims to bring the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses to life by meeting Tim Tebow. CURE
aims to bring healing throughout the developing world, targeting
children who suffer from physical disabilities. The Tebow Foundation
will partner with CURE to build a hospital in the Phillipines to continue their mission. Timmy's Playroom, an extension of the First and 15 program at University of Florida,
will create playrooms in children's hospital throughout the world.
Uncle Dick's Orphanage will continue to be supported by the Foundation,
as a place where hundreds of children are left homeless or abandoned
every year.
Evangelism
In the Philippines, Tim Tebow preached the Christian Gospel
in front of schoolchildren and entire villages and assisted in medical
care. Moreover, Tebow supports more than 40 national evangelists working
in that nation. In the United States, he has shared his Christian faith in prisons and schools, to church and youth groups, and at meetings and conferences.
Tebow CURE Hospital
Tebow Cure Hospital in Davao City, Mindanao
CURE and the Tebow Foundation announced plans to build a children's hospital in the fall of 2011 in the Philippines, the country where Tebow was born. The Tebow CURE Hospital in Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, will hold 30 beds and will specialize on orthopedics.
Construction begins in January 2012 and is expected to open in
mid-2013. CURE's 12th hospital worldwide, they hope to heal deformities
such as clubfoot, untreated burns, hydrocephalus and other conditions correctable with surgery. The cost of the project, $3 million, will come from donors from CURE
and the Tebow Foundation. The hospital will include a Timmy's Playroom,
which will bring faith, hope and love to the young patients.
for illustration purposes only, not to be ogled at
I like my tongue: it's white and brown and hard.
It's not anything sexual, horndog you, I'm multilingual, like many Filipinos. Yes, I am proficient in English, Tagalog and Bisaya/Cebuano. But I would like to also make it yellow; I'm trying to learn Chinese. In fact, I'm trying to learn Chinese for quite a few years now but my katamaran slacking and slothing are hindering me from having additional yabang on how smart I really am substantial progress.
I think my desire to learn a new foreign language started way back in college. I had this schoolmate who kept mouthing Chinese words every chance she got. It's quite mukhang baliw odd but impressive at the same time. It can definitely amp up one's talino/pogi/ganda points. Knowledge of a foreign language can come in handy at times: like if you want to badmouth or antagonize an buwisit obtrusive person, you can do so right in front of the idiot person without fear of retaliation---hey, it he doesn't fully comprehend what you're talking about; as a starting off point for conversation, "Ni, chi fan le, mai you (Knee chir fawn la, may yo) --- Have you eaten?", the next person asks what you just said and you're both off to a good conversation start; and for practical uses.
It's this latter purpose that made me decide to try to learn Chinese more than any other language, say Spanish or French. Chinese is more practical, I believe, than Spanish or French; especially here in the Philippines and even anywhere else given the ascendancy of China in the world stage.
That made me eschew learning any other foreign language despite the fact that I had a close friend in law school who was quite fluent in French, she had taken lessons at Alliance Francaise , and an uncle whose a frog (that's what French are pejoratively called in Europe) Francophile because of his French education (Masters and Ph.D from the Universite du Paris).
So Chinese it is.
It's not an easy language. So many conjugations and phonetic sounds. And so many freaking variations! The standard Chinese is Potunghua (like our Filipino); then there's Mandarin (the equivalent of our Tagalog), Cantonese, Fookien, etc., like the Philippines' various dialects.
Given the difficulty and complexity (or as Robin Williams say "It's as hard as Chinese algebra!") of the language, add to that my intermittent studying, progress is quite as slow as the brain functions of my former students pace of DPWH construction projects.
But I have been learning a few phrases and sentences here and there. There's the commonly uttered "Ni Hao. (Knee How) --- Good day / Hello / How are you, " "
Xie-xie ni. (Syeah-syeah nee) --- Thank you," and "Wo. ---I, me. "
My favorites:"Zǎo chén /xià wǔ /wǎn shàng hǎo---Good morning / afternoon / evening! ; "Wo bu dong. (Waw boo-doong) --- I don’t understand; Qing bang-zhu wo. (Ching baang-joo waw) --- Please help me. " It's easy to see why, wink wink, nudge, nudge.
I want to study more intensively and be more fluent before the Chinese arrive at Spratlys or before they buy the entire world, whichever comes first.
“Calvin: Do you believe in the devil?
You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation,
corruption, and destruction of man?
Hobbes: I'm not sure that man
needs the help.”
It was probably one of the biggest corruption scandals in our province
in the mid-nineties; I was then in high school. It took a more personal
touch because the personalities involved are all too familiar: I
practically grew up with them, my father working in the (then government
but subsequently privatized) corporation embroiled in the scandal. I
saw them during company outings, events, and parties. And my mother was
with the COA team that investigated the anomaly which borne out the
findings that eventually led to the filing of the cases against the
respondents involved. Some of the respondents have fled abroad while one was
found guilty, the guilt affirmed by the Supreme Court.
Said recent promulgation of the Supreme Court of the decision in the
case (see case/jurisprudence below) involving one respondent refreshed my memories; and I have gleaned insights at those events and other cases of corruption which are all
too familiar to me.
Familiarity eases out suspicion, not that I would know the workings of
government at the time, being in my teens then. But you'll
never know who are corrupt or corruptible, yet those who you're familiar
with are oftentimes above suspicion, at least from one's perspective. Nevertheless, it's still
surprising, nay, shocking if those who are involved are six degrees of separation
or less, so to speak, from whom you know. That is, these can be people
you are privy about: familiar, friendly, cheery faces or countenance,
acquaintances or friends of family members, or people whom the community
look up to.
The same thing, more or less, happened many years later. This one involved a balikbayan who
ran (and eventually won) for Congressman in our district. Implicated
was a lady-lawyer whose family was quite familiar to me, and who even
served as Guest Speaker on my fourth year high school Honors Day. The
former was honored by my high school as, if I'm not mistaken, an
outstanding alumnus; the latter graduated from the same high school and
college/university I graduated from and who is/ whose relatives are
friend/s of/with family or friends of friends. All in all, being in a
province where almost everyone knows everybody else, the degrees of separation are not at all that distant.
I won't dwell too much into this second graft/corruption case but I
have read all the pertinent papers, documents and court pleadings (some
of which I drafted for my mother's COA friends) including the COA
reports of the anomaly/discrepancy involving the donated money of a
chamber of commerce for construction projects in the province. The
Congressman (who touts himself as pro-service and financially
well-endowed that he doesn't need to be corrupt---all of which are pure
helium of hot air as toxic as the farts of a thousand
politicians) siphoned as much as P18 Million---yes, that's one-eight followed by six zeroes. The lady-lawyer co-signed
his corrupt boss by acting as the attorney-in-fact, i.e., agent or
representative.
At the rate people gets corrupted or are being corrupt,
this disease is not going anywhere anytime soon. And it's so
malevolent that it strikes anybody: foe, friend, and friends of friends
alike. Beneath the cheery countenance of a common chum may lurk a
contemptible corrupt core.
“ For the lessons of life there is no better teacher
Than the look in the eyes of a child. . . ”
---lyrics from the song The Eyes Of A Child
The
year EDSA 1 happened, I was but eight years old---a Grade Two student.
Truth
to tell, I had no clear grasp of Philippine politics and the transformations
then taking place. But this did not prevent me from taking part in the zeitgeist (of EDSA 1).
Even
though a minor, something within me---perhaps my soul or my conscience or
whatever it was--- was stirred by the events leading to the People Power
Revolution and on the occasion of the Revolution itself.
Cory
Aquino became the symbol of peace, hope, of positive changes, and of what is
good. Every time I saw her on T.V., she was always in a ubiquitous yellow: be
it her dress or her accessories. The people around her were also in yellow. On
the other hand, the Marcos loyalists were in red.
Though
without a full comprehension what all these meant, I just found myself
empathizing with the “people in yellow.” I took on to wearing yellow, too. I
even pleaded my Mom to buy me yellow clothes and anything yellow, which my
Mom obliged. So there was always something yellow on me wherever I went: to
school, outside our house, in the playground, to church, etc. There were even
times I wore yellow headband and wristband.
Because
of this quirky obsession with everything yellow, my “reputation” in our
neighborhood grew. I became known, facetiously, as the “illegitimate child” of
the Aquinos. But whenever I pass by some of the houses in our neighborhood,
several of my neighbors who were Marcos loyalists would call out “Marcos pa rin” just to annoy me. The
more antagonistic of them would come to me and in all sarcasm, reverse psychology style, would blurt (in
Visayan): “Ciguro gusto kaayo nimo si
Marcos kay cige man ka og yellow” (Probably you really like Marcos because
you keep on wearing yellow.”), Of course, all these were for the purpose of
eliciting my most violent reactions which delighted those adults to no end.
And they're never disappointed!
I
would glare, shout and make faces (as twisted and gruesome as possible) at
them. The adults/Marcos loyalists would shriek in delight.
Looking
back, I would dismiss the experience as a childish albeit hysterical one.
The
lessons I learned though are quite revealing. It does not take much maturity to
know right from wrong. An eight-year-old minor (as I was then) who, legally
speaking, is categorized as one without discernment, could just listen to his
soul or follow his heart to be able to know whom to side with (that is, whether
with the “good” or the “bad”).
This
brings me to mind what one philosopher said that “man is inherently good.” I
believe it. My childhood experience reaffirmed it. It is just that somewhere
along the way, many have forgotten to listen to their hearts and to commune
with their soul.
Whether
an innocent child or a mature adult, which side you were during EDSA 1 tells a
lot about who you are and which path you were willing and perhaps, is
continuing, to take---the path to nationalism or the path to self-interest.
(This was written a few years back as I was reminiscing EDSA One during an EDSA Celebration. Some of the sentiments have changed, though, especially with Noynoy Aquino's hyperpresidentialism and assault on the Judiciary in the wake of the Corona Impeachment trial.)
Hi Sir, I Googled this pic of you; please ratify my use of this
Two degrees of separation: My professor in Property Law, Evidence and Remedial Review I and II at the Far Eastern University-Institute of Law.
Soft-spoken, very patient, excellent teacher; very knowledgeable lawyer, and, it should be said, certified crush ng Law school. ; )
Tranquil Salvador III . . . with the Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De
los Angeles law office ; President of the University of Sto. Tomas Student
Council (College of Arts and Letters) and subsequently of the Ateneo
Law Student Council (ALSC). He was an Associate Editor of the Ateneo
Law Journal in 1989. He was the first Chairman of the Association of
Law Students of the Philippines for the National Capital Region in
1990. As president of the ALSC, he was given the Evelio B. Javier
Leadership Award.
He is presently the Dean of the Law School of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng
Pasay (PLP); reviewer and professor of law in Ateneo de Manila
University, School of Law (ADMU), the Law School of Pamantasan ng
Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), Far Eastern University (FEU), FEU-La Salle and
San Sebastian College (SSC), University of the East (UE), Juris Law
Center, University Belt Consortium and adviser to the Far Eastern
University Law Review, PLM Law Student Council and PLM-Alternative
Lawyering Center.
