The Cellphone Katol

News that a Sri Lankan company has developed software for cellphones that when activated, emits a signal that drives away mosquitoes. The name of the company is Metropolitan, and the info courtesy of Manila Times's Bizz Fizz by Rene Martel. 

The info is not yet Google-verifiable, so let's not yet go skinny-dipping with impunity in swamp water. But the news, assuming its true, is a welcome development which could save thousands of lives. Dengue fever, particularly among mosquito-borne diseases, is contracted from mosquitoes that bite during the daytime, when its victims are unsheltered by mosquito nets or coils, and when mosquito lotions are smelly inconveniences. Cellphones with anti-mosquito signals would prove effective yet inconspicuous and hassle-free amulets against dengue. 

The other interesting aspect from this report is its validation of the relatively democratic nature of IT technology, which can emerge from anywhere in the world, and its resulting diversity. I'd like to see more Pinoy IT whizzes develop endemic innovations that just may have a fighting chance in the global market. On the negative side, we could also see cellphone technologies designed to ward away manananggals or duendes. And dirt-cheap cellphone commercials to be air before PBA games. 

Poet Robert Pinsky On Why He'll Vote Obama

Sen. Barack Obama is my choice 

for reasons that 

(I hope) 

reach further than 

the expectations of my demographic or tribe or herd. 

I admire Obama's quality of balance: 

between attention to details and grasp of ideas; 

or to put that somewhat differently, 

between politics and ideals. 

Beyond that quality of balance, 

he has demonstrated in action 

an impressive ability to keep his balance 

through two challenging, stressful campaigns, 

for nomination and election. 

Like many millions of Americans, I 

have gone from finding Barack Obama inspiring

—I might say "merely inspiring"—

to feeling that he is reliable. 

We need a trustworthy president.

Pinsky was the Poet Laureate of the United States and the current Poetry editor of Slate Magazine. His endorsement (in prose form really, in case you couldn't tell), as well as those of the other staff and contributors of Slate, are now online. My favorite is that of Bill Smee, Executive Producer of Slate V, also for Obama. His endorsement is in haiku form (genuinely):

McCain picked Palin.
Already 72.
Might die in office.

On Pinoys Caring About the U.S. Presidential Elections

Akomismo, a blog maintained by a Parañaque-based teacher at Pisay, was prominently featured today in a Washington Post story on the interest of bloggers worldwide in the 2008 U.S. Presidential elections.

Martin Perez lives in Parañaque, a suburb of Manila, an ocean and a few time zones from the United States. But when he gets up at 5 a.m. to get ready for work, the high school teacher goes online to read the latest news in the U.S. presidential race, study poll numbers, watch YouTube videos -- and blog about the McCain-Obama showdown..."It's official. This US Election matters to me more than it should," Perez wrote shortly after the first presidential debate.

(Note. The Post story carries the byline of Jose Antonio Vargas, who was born in Antipolo and who earlier this year, shared in a Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper's coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre.)

No doubt that the interest level among Filipinos in this year's White House derby is higher than normal. One indisputable factor is the historic nature of Mr. Obama's candidacy (or as indelicately headlined by the Philippine Daily Inquirer after the Iowa caucuses, "Black President in White House?") Another reason, as pointed out in the Post article, is the immediate availability of raw news and data direct from the States about those elections, primarily through the internet, but also through cable news outlets. I remember the days when I'd have to travel to the now-defunct Thomas Jefferson Cultural Center along Buendia to read three-week old copies of The New York Times in order to satiate my American news fix. A point well remembering as the looming global financial armageddon renders internet access unaffordable.

Understandably for most Pinoys, the interest level in the U.S. elections is pretty skin-deep. Much that has been written about the polls from the Philippines (myself included) dwells on the human interest stories or the gaffes. Fewer have delved into the implications of a McCain or Obama presidency for the Philippines. Would a more protectionist American economic policy halt the growth of outsourcing of labor to the Philippines? Would the possible diminution of scope of the so-called "War on Terror" under an Obama presidency compel the end of joint US-Filipino military activity in Mindanao? Would the potential further disengagement of the Philippines from the American geopolitical calculus drive our country to closer ties with China, or would the Philippines' presumptive membership in Mr. McCain's "League of Democracies" foster a new age in Filipino-American relations?

One might question the usefulness in writing about those topics, since Filipino citizens won't really have an electoral say on those issues (not officially anyway, and what's the deal with Macedonia?). There is another aspect though about the US elections that ultimately could be of greater use for the Filipino electorate. I became interested in American politics out of reading materials purchased out of a modest student's allowance from BookSale which introduced me to the notion that politics can be based on ideological principles. Political warfare can be premised on the defense or advocacy of philosophical ideas that transcend their human vessels. Mainstream Philippine political campaigns are largely ideology-free, and the battle for votes waged through the Last Song Syndrome inevitability of campaign jingles. Even those candidacies lauded by the civil society types draw appeal from personal virtues (i.e., non-traditional politics) than from substantive content.

(I myself despise saintliness as the defining political virtue of a politician. Personal rectitude is supposed to be the bare minimum requirement for public office, see oath of office, and an electoral career propped up by GMRC alone is a loser for me. I'm simply more interested in the concrete policies to be enacted by candidates for office, points that are usually elusive or vague during political campaigns.)

Could this local interest in the American elections positively change our own political discourse? Maybe. Take universal health care as an example. That issue dominated the Democratic primaries, and remains integral during the general election campaign. The differences between the Democrats and the Republicans are stark, with Obama more or less favoring guaranteed health insurance for all Americans while McCain proposing a much more modest plan giving tax credits for families that purchase health insurance. In the Philippines, all citizens are compulsorily covered by health insurance, through the National Health Insurance Act passed during the Ramos administration. Yet as any Filipino who has been hospitalized can attest, the benefits provided by that law are woefully inadequate, especially in case of catastrophic health crises, leaving it up to the kindness of Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko and Rosa Rosal to fill in the gaps. Meanwhile, the raison d'etre of retirement savings of Filipino employees is mainly to pay off the health costs arising from the final illness.

Despite the sheer ubiquity of health care in our lives no matter our income level, there has never been any serious debate about health care policy in our elections -- certainly it has never been utilized as an issue to move voters. It is questionable whether our political candidates would be motivated to pick up on health care, especially if they operate on the standing premise that personalities, and not issues, win over Filipino voters. But perhaps if those who follow the U.S. elections become aware that health care is a political issue open to debate, and consequently realize that our own health care system is lacking, then just maybe it may form part of the political dialogue in the looming 2010 presidential elections.

One last thing. It must be refreshing (and depressing) for Pinoys following the U.S. elections to see the absence of any violent deaths resulting from their presidential campaign season. Filipino elections are unusually violent, especially on the local level, and there is no indication that bloody paradigm would shift soon. Though it is worth noting that campaigns in the U.S. were not always bloodshed-free.

Ang Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas -- The Graphic Novel

Macmillan has published The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation, written by Jonathan Hennessey and illustrated by Aaron McConnell. Listening to Hennessey plug the work at Rachel Maddow's radio show (via free podcast at the iTunes store) set me off thinking whether a similar venture could be pulled off using the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It would be an interesting challenge to set the Philippine Constitution in graphic form. The possible approaches would depend on the intended audience reach and sophistication level. Our Constitution is a quite unique document. Indubitably well-intentioned but verbose and declarative to excess, perhaps the only Constitution in the world to contain the word "love". Its provisions are very progressive on its face, yet they are cast in such a manner that leaves doubt whether the framers intended to set each and every provision as the source of an operative right or obligation. As a result, the courts have tended to construe the text quite conservatively, amenable too often to declare that particular high-minded provisions were actually inoperative unless Congress passed a complementary law. And how do you graphically adapt an empty promise?

It would probably be impossible to utilize the approach of Mr. Hennessey to the Philippine Constitution. He took advantage of the 221-year history of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the mythology that has grown out of that document and its authors, to frame a convenient chronological narrative for his adaptation. Our own Constitution is only 21 years old, and many of its framers are still alive and active in public life -- too little time has passed and too many memories remain fresh to deprive our Constitution and its authors of the sheen of mythology. Any graphic adaptation of the 1987 Constitution will have to be more down-to-earth.

If the goal were to digest the Constitution and its principles for mass consumption (ala Gospel Komiks for the Bible), a literal approach would be most convenient, where each provision is transliterated into a peppy graphic or two. This was actually done many years ago over several volumes of Mr. & Ms Magazine, as part of a public education effort during the campaign before the plebiscite that ratified the Constitution. I'll not quibble with that approach, but I do tire of the notion that in the Philippines, the only way to popularize high-minded ideals such as law and democracy is through komiks form, radio soap operas or street theater.

(sidebar: in 1985, i was in grade 4, and our classroom had a corner shelf stacked with reading material. among such materials was a lengthy komiks about the birth-to-death of ninoy aquino which gripped with drama and dripped with gore. mind you, this was when mr. marcos was in power and where possession of that comic could have led to bartolina time. also, in grade 3 (1984), our teachers conned us into performing onstage before a school assembly plus parents an adaptation of some katipunan-era poem that climaxed with the shooting of the ninoy-figure and ended with our camisa-chino clad selves posed with fists raised and clenched as the strains of bayan ko accompanied the curtain drop. if mr. marcos ever found out, our 8-year old selves might have been shot on the spot.)

I'd be more interested in an adaptation that transcends a literal depiction of constitutional provisions and ties in constitutional principles with the human condition. (Think of Kieslowski's Dekalog and how it interacts with the Ten Commandments) In essence, the Constitution is a national mission statement that embodies what we aspire to be as a society. Many of the principles therein, particularly in the Bill of Rights, represent quantum leaps in human enlightenment when political systems evolved to accommodate human dignity and individual freedoms. The tension between high-minded constitutional democratic idealism and the more craven impulses of human nature remain a largely untapped wellspring for creativity, one which could very well be explored in the graphic novel format.

Python's Dead Parrot Sketch, As Reimagined by Nigerian Scammers

Backstory: You've all heard of those Nigerian e-mail scam artists. In revenge, one of them was induced by promises of scholarship cash from a fake video production company, in exchange for footage of amateur reenactments of famous movie and TV scenes, such as the Dead Parrot Sketch of Monty Python (if for some reason you've never seen the original sketch, click here). And so it goes.

As referenced in a recent episode of This American Life, perhaps the greatest radio program ever made. 

The Manila Massacre of 1820

From March 9 to 11, 1820, between ten to fifteen thousand Filipinos went on a murderous rampage throughout Manila, killing around 125 foreigners before the mob dissipated. This was not one of those incipient native revolts against the Spanish colonizers. In fact, it was the Spaniards themselves who had incited the Filipinos to riot.

Those facts I gathered from this book I recently bought for bathroom reading, The Pessimist's Guide to History. Don't go buy it -- it is an atrociously written book, featuring such vapidities as "[a]nother attempt by Mother Nature to wipe out the population of China". 

Still, the Manila Massacre surprised me as I had never heard of it before. Agoncillo does not record such an event, and the intimidating online archives of The London Times (from 1785!). Googling soon led me to this post by wesley at the past is the key to the future, and a July 2005 article by Ambeth Ocampo over at PDI. It appears that the massacre occurred during a cholera epidemic, and at a time when French scientists were collecting water samples from the Pasig River. The rumor spread that the French were actually poisoning the water supply and even when the French started ministering to the sick, the word came out (probably from the Spaniards) that they were actually trying to wipe out all the Tagalogs. This of course led up to your kill-the-beast moment, replete with "pikes, knives and bludgeons". 

Mr. Ocampo speculates that the massacre might have been a ploy to keep foreign businesses out of the Philippines, or it may have been designed to target specific people. Whatever the reason, what ensued was the systematic hacking to death of foreigners -- Caucasians and Chinese, though no Spaniards were apparently killed. There are some discrepancies between the PDI story and that from Pessimist's Guide. Mr. Ocampo gives the death toll at 39, the number of participants at 3,000, and the date of the massacre as October 9, 1820, which vastly differs from the figures cited above from Pessimist's Guide. Go with Ambeth on this one. 

I have a passing interest in urban epidemics. Manila was only one of many many major cities of the world periodically plagued with epidemics that would wipe out hundreds of thousands every few decades. Authorities were at a loss as to the causes and preventive measures of these outbreaks. Many wrongly assumed that "bad air" caused the disease, leading to remedies that often aggravated the problem (i.e., dumping raw sewage into the River Thames) The epidemics mostly stopped when it was figured out that germs, usually water-borne, caused cholera and other diseases and cities scrambled to improve their sanitation and sewage treatment facilities. Because of that, I often worry about the possibility of outbreaks even in this day over at urban poor communities, where sanitation facilities are not often reliable. 

Last Song Syndrome That Could Save Lives

"Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk/ Im a woman's man: no time to (INHALE)/ Music loud and women warm, Ive been kicked around/ Since I was (INHALE)." 

The Associated Press through CNN reports a study from the University of Illinois "that doctors and students maintained close to the ideal number of chest compressions doing CPR while listening to the catchy, sung-in-falsetto tune from the 1977 movie 'Saturday Night Fever.'", none other than The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive. The contrivance is mind-boggling. Life-saving CPR = staying alive. Get it? Beejeez. 

Still, this is one news story that will stick to me for the rest of my life, and it should yours too. The next time I administer CPR (which would also be the first time), ah (pump) ha (pump) ha (pump) ha (pump) stayinalive (pump) stayinalive (pump). 

John McCain's New Friend

Meet Joe the Plumber. He needs to fix my sink, pronto.

Is Something Afoot With The Daily Show/Colbert Report on MAXXX?

This week so far, episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report that have aired on Philippine cable TV via MAXXX have been reruns from last week, instead of the usual 12-hour delayed fresh episodes. Reruns here are a normal occurrence if both shows are also on break and airing reruns in the States. (In fact, the episodes that are rerun in the U.S. are the same ones also rerun here later in the day.) Yet this time around, both TDS and TCR have churned out new episodes for this week (guests include Nobelist Joseph Stieglitz), yet these were not aired in the Philippines by MAXXX. What gives?

Let us hope that the cause is something as innocuous as a faulty satellite feed, and that the regular broadcasts resume soon. A more sinister possibility -- though there is absolutely no basis to assume this at the moment -- is censorship, since the local government TV censors, the MTRCB, usually requires Filipino TV networks such as MAXXX to screen prospective television episodes for the Board before they are allowed for screening. One might make the argument that there is no legal basis for the censorship/regulation of the content of cable TV (as opposed to broadcast TV), but let's explore another time.

The good news is that anybody with a dependable internet service could watch full episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report without violating any intellectual property law. The people behind both shows have a relatively enlightened policy for sharing their work for the whole world to see (unlike NBC's Hulu.com, which is restricted to U.S. residents only). Both shows are a joy to watch because of their willingness to call out the bullshit of the politicians, the ideologues, and the media institutions. Maybe both shows will find eventually find their share of Pinoy mimics this side of Jojo Alejar, but unless their local counterparts have the wits to realize who's playing who, the cojones to speak truth to political or industrial power, and the obliviousness to live with the threat of assassination that confronts many good people in this country, then the effort would be for naught.

In the meantime, here's the infamous lightsaber duel between Stephen Colbert and George Lucas.

George Bush and Tony Blair Bonded Over Gaylord Focker

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown's new site, The Daily Beast, features an excerpt from the forthcoming memoir of Cherie Blair, the wife of former British PM Tony Blair, about the relationship between the spouses Blair and the spouses Bush. It's an interesting, if ultimately trivial read, but one surprising detail pops out:

That first night with the Bushes, we had an early dinner. The meal over, the President said, “Why don’t we all watch a movie?” So we did. He got all the new releases on DVD, he explained, and that night we watched Meet the Parents with Robert De Niro. There were armchairs ranged around, and I sat next to George, who was soon laughing away. It was a perfectly friendly evening, very low key.

Interestingly, Mrs. Blair omits mention whether she or her husband were also laughing away. 

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio Wins Nobel Literature Prize

French novelist, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 68, is the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature. His seminal work, Desert, was published in 1980. According to Wikipedia, 13% of readers of the French magazine Lire voted him the greatest living French language writer as of 1994. Of course, I've never read him, nor do I recall encountering him in the eclectic reading list I dealt with during undergrad studies.

The Americans are presumably ranting, especially after the permanent secretary of the Nobel committee for literature Horace Engdahl recently criticized American literature as "too isolated, too insular," and American writers as "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture." Check out this incredible rebuke of that dense remark, and advocacy for non-Nobelist Philip Roth by Adam Kirsch over at Slate.

Meanwhile, somewhere along Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila, an old man is pouting. Again.

Lilet's Coke Commercial

No, not that one. The other one. The one I do not remember at all. Anyway, shout out if you are among the hundreds of children featured in this ad:

Philippine Supreme Court Decisions -- The Wordle Digests

How different my law school recitations may have been had Wordle existed then. Below are six famous Supreme Court decisions as wordled. All illustrations below created by wordle.net and published under a Creative Commons 3.0 license. Click on the respective case titles to see a higher-resolution version of the wordle.

First up is the notorious 1919 case of Rubi v. Provincial Board, where the Court through Justice Malcolm ruled that it was ok for the government to discriminate against "non-Christian tribes" (i.e., the Mangyans), they being an inferior civilization.

Next up is 1936's Angara v. Electoral Commission, where the Supreme Court, through Justice (later President) Laurel asserted the Court's power of judicial review, resulting in severe eye strain to generations of law students.


Third on the list is from 1956, Ichong v. Hernandez, where the Supreme Court validated a law restricting to Filipino citizens the retail trade business, thereby excluding aliens (mostly Chinese) from engaging in such business. That law was repealed only a few years ago.


Fourth is that much feared but quite useless case of Javellana v. Executive Secretary (1973), until recently the longest of all Supreme Court decisions, the ruling which essentially validated the martial law regime of Mr. Marcos.


Fifth is that internationally popular and heart-warming ruling from 1991, Oposa v. Factoran, which waxed poetic about the right of generations yet unborn to a healthful ecology.

Finally, just from earlier this year, Neri v. Senate which is self-explanatory as seen below.

Rakista's 'Eraserheads' Episode Tonight, 7pm, TV5.

The past several Thursday nights have been enlivened by Rakista, a terminally inzane comedy created by Quark Henares and Diego Castillo which airs on TV5, Thursday nights at 7 (with a rerun on Sundays at 1pm). The most comprehensive write-up of Rakista so far has been that by Philbert Ortiz Dy for ClickTheCity.com, and it is worth a read. No show this knowingly anarchic has been presented on Philippine network TV thus far, and it is a pleasant surprise that the network suits at TV5 have been willing to cede the airwaves to so novel (and commercially risky) a program. The time slot has been less than ideal -- running smack into the rush hour commute -- but there's the hope of a DVD release, or maybe even an official release for the BitTorrent set. 

Tonight's episode has been promised as the "Eraserheads special". I have no idea what to expect, but I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised and I hope y'all would be too. 

Citizen's Arrests in the Philippines

I saw this lady punch her pre-school age son in the head, screaming at him, somewhat incongruously, "Put*ng Ina Mo!" ("Your mother's a whore!"). This happened in the mall, in plain view of everyone, and she chose to clench her fists as she hit her son. I have no idea who that lady was (again, somewhat incongruously, she looked like a chubby Tina Fey). But the striking was striking enough, and I thought for a moment to place the lady under citizen's arrest. 

A private citizen is allowed under the Rules of Court to place another person under arrest, subject to several qualifications. The private individual can only undertake a warrantless arrest, meaning mostly that the criminal must be committing, has just committed, or is attempting to commit a crime. The arresting citizen must inform the person she/he is about to arrest of the intention to arrest as well as the cause thereof, unless the person flees the scene or otherwise tries to forcibly resist your attempt to arrest him/her. 

If I decided to arrest that lady, it might have gone down something like this:

ME: (Tapping lady on shoulder) Madam, I intend to place you under arrest pursuant to Section 9, Rule 113 of the 2000 Rules of Criminal Procedure. 

MM: Huh?! Sino ka ba?! Parak ka ba?!

ME: No ma'am...

MM: Eh bakit mo ako inaaresto? Sino ka ba, si God?!

ME: No madam, I am a private citizen placing you under arrest pursuant to Section 9 in relation to Section 5, Rule 113 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure.

MM: Ilaslas mo dila mo! Anong kasalanan ko?

ME: I saw you committing the crime of child abuse by punching your son in the head... 

MM: Shet! Pak you!! Pak you!!

ME: ...no need to curse madam...thereby violating Republic Act 7610, otherwise known as the Child Abuse Law...

MM: (voice discernibly deepening) Hindi mo ba ako nakikilala? Ako si Gagambala, ang Reyna ng mga Gagamba. Hahaha!!!

ME: I really don't care, even if you were Sarah Palin...

(Gagambala hisses and spits out a web that bounds my arms and torso)

ME: (Slicing away the web) I take it you intend to forcibly resist arrest, in which case, I can place you under arrest without having to advise of such fact beforehand...

GG: Magsubukan tayo! Gagawin kitang sinangag na sisig para sa libo-libo kong mga anak! Hahaha!!!

(Followed by 15 minutes of death match and cameo appearances by Pinoy superheroes who have decided at that moment to reveal their existence to the world)

In the end, I did nothing. Not to be defensive, but here were the reasons. One, I was by myself and citizen's arrests are probably more efficiently handled if there were more than one citizen. Second, I have never heard of a citizen's arrest ever having taken place in the Philippines where lynching was not involved, and I'm rather too shy to want to be the first of anything. Third, general cowardice. Finally, it so happened that within seconds after, the lady grabbed her bawling child and hugged him, perhaps in the habit of batterers and their dependents. Nobody likes to arrest a mother as she is embracing her crying child. Life is somewhat complicated that way.