Underwater

Let me tell a funny story.

The Koreans had a problem. They had a whole load of highly toxic coal ash and nowhere to put it. The province of Cebu agreed to let them dump it here. What's a little toxic waste going to hurt anybody anyway? So the province purchased several hectares of land from the estate of Balili.

Here's the problem. Environmental groups were paying real close attention to this deal and after some scrutiny, they discovered that almost all of the lands purchased were submerged. What this means is that somehow the province just did not know. Somehow this deal passed through the provincial board and all other prerequisite committees without anyone actually having seen the lots with a small environmentalist group doing their job for them. No surveys, no nothing apparently. It looks like everyone was asleep on the job. Everyone. Sometimes I wonder how our officials manage to breathe.

What this looks like is that someone was trying to make a fast buck hoping nobody would notice. The cost of the lots were quite high at about 98.9 million pesos compared to about 25 million peso down payment the Koreans gave us. Not only does it look like someone was out to make money on overpriced lots but also that the toxic coal ash dump deal wasn't worth it.

Naturally our dear, sweet, do-no-wrong Governor is in a lot of hot swamp water for this scandal. She apologized but whatever. What's done is done. See, the submerged lots were titled. Before, the issue was brought up that the titles for underwater land should be reviewed by court for being, I don't know, stupid? Nobody raised the issue. Now, there's not much the province can do. For all intents and purposes, there was nothing wrong with the deal. If they go to court, good luck trying to prove fraud by the estate. Either way, the province would look extremely negligent and even stupider than they do now.

Naturally, the Governor's archenemy the Mayor has been hammering away at this issue non stop. Finally he has real ammo against the Governor. He's very happy. Usually, he's only this happy when criminals get shot on their way out of prison.

Speed Grapher

Speed grapher is an anime that my friend showed me. I thought I would write about it since I personally enjoy it for its unintentional hilarity, a review if you will.

Let's start with the premise. The main character is a freelance photographer named Saiga who gets a huge boner photographing death and human suffering.

Seriously. It's that kind of show.

Anyway, we soon realize its a crap sack world where corruption and decadence replace moral values. Our hero investigates mysterious murders and so on and then stumbles into something big. He stumbles into a secret underground fetish club complete with leather bondage slaves, pimps and whores where the richest celebrities and tycoons of Japan get their jollies, secretly of course. He stumbles some more into a ritual where an angelic "goddess" grants people superpowers only that these superpowers are based on fetishes. Fetishes give you superpowers. Saiga, in a moment of pure concentrated idiocy takes a fucking picture, exposing himself and ensuring his death until the goddess kisses him and unlocks his fetish powers. He can make things explode by taking their picture. Seriously. He escapes with the goddess and now the evil rich fetish club people are hunting him down.

The anime then follows the adventures of Saiga and Kagura, the goddess. Kagura as it turns out has a dual personality, one as Kagura and the other the goddess. Also, she was brainwashed, systematically psychologically tortured by her mother and has cancer. Shit. The big bad, Suitengu, a mysterious rich asshole, also has a super angsty back story (child soldier levels) and tries to be all magnificent bastard and stuff. The anime focuses on the charming relationship between Saiga and Kagura. The show also delves into philosophical questions such as "What is happiness? Does money equal happiness?" and so on. Saiga is also involved with a busty lusty female officer named Ginza who totally wants to bone him and eventually does so even if Saiga was out-fucking-cold. Can a man get a boner when he is unconscious? I must research this philosophical question.

That's all well and good except that this show is just too ridiculous to take seriously. All attempts to be all deep and stuff fall flat due to poor execution and the fact that the show is just demanding to much of my sympathy and belief. All the backstories and situations are too extreme that they are completely unbelievable and just cannot be related to anything. For example, one villain sent to track Saiga has a superpower where his nose is super sensitive to scents like a bloodhound. Its fine but the villain walks around with a freaking nose-patch on his face and nobody notices how ridiculous and stupid it looks. Nobody. You just have to see it.

That character alone is the perfect metaphor to describe this show, a face asking you to take it seriously despite having a leather cozy on its nose. Fetish superpowers? Gratuitous violence? Nudity and sex? it's all here folks and ramped up to eleven. It just feels like its trying too hard to be edgy. That sums it up perfectly, tries too hard. The animation quality also suffers later on. One villain who has a skin fetish with tattoos that come to life looks badly drawn. Also the music gets recycled a lot.

This show is bad. It is so bad that its good! I like it because its just so over the top that it just grows on you. Its hilarious and completely unintentional. The show keeps a straight face, plays everything straight even if its just so ridiculous and that just makes it even funnier. This anime can only be viewed in this manner or when high like the makers probably were.

Also, it has a kick ass opening song by Duran Duran! Girls on film...hmm...hmm..hmm

Possible Spoilers.

Commercials Non-Stop

When watching Philippine programs on TV, I notice that most of my time is spent watching commercials. A long time ago, commercials were just few in between. Now I think commercials make up most of the air time.

Blame it on big money. Ad revenue costs millions. Just to drive it home, there are mini-commercials that pop up under the show I'm watching! When did they start to do this? I don't remember commercials being this goddamn distracting. It's obnoxious, commercials for a shiny bottle of vinegar right under the show you are supposed to be watching! It's all commercials all the time now. Even the shows themselves are vehicles for product placement. Just another product in our materialist consumer culture.

CONSUME.

American View

While it is always fashionable to be anti-American, I actually admire American culture. To be specific, the culture or freedom, liberty and rugged individualism. America was born at a time when people were telling kings and tyrants to fuck off. It shouldn't be a surprise then to see Americans enjoying capitalism and democracy.

Speaking of capitalism, President Obama promised to reform the American health care system. He proposed a government health care plan to be available in the market. In addition, he promised that Americans who were satisfied with their health care plan could keep it.

Unfortunately...


Say what you want about it being a Republican video but it shows the concerns of Americans that the government option and the whole health care reform shebang is a Trojan horse for single-payer, government run health care. Americans don't like big government taking over their health care. Why? Because Americans traditionally believe in the free market and want less government. The specter of big government and the whisper of "socialism" drives the Americans crazy.

This got me thinking, in the Philippines, how do we view our government? Do we want less of it or more of it? On one hand, people feel that the government should take care of the poor, provide housing, give food, aid, etc. On the other hand, government is a lying, thieving son of a bitch. Believe it or not, there are communist assholes still holed up in the jungle, in the senate and in colleges. Personally, I hate anything to do with socialism and communism. The government is corrupt and inefficient. Is it sane to leave the economy, the means of production to a bunch of politicians? No. Government infects all it touches with patronage politics and corruption. The less of it in our lives, the better. We have problems but government should fix itself before it tries to fix anything else.

This health care issue in the United States has piqued my interest. I am a Political Science student after all. Will Americans allow government to interfere in the market? Will they stick to free market or allow government to squeeze in? What will be the consequences? Is it really socialism is disguise? Are Americans capable of waiting in lines? Is Obama just another liar politician? I want to see this.

Vacation

I have no classes for the next two days! On Thursday, its the charter day of the province. Wednesday is a day of mourning for the loss of Cory. Whatever, I think the malls will still be open. For Christ's sake, bury her already. The emotion, sentimentality and sad piano music is reaching critical mass.

Someone Dies

Cory Aquino just died and its all over the news. The outpouring of emotion is extreme and slightly disturbing, sad piano music everywhere, streets in Manila full of mourners in yellow and I can't relate at all. I was born after the People Power movement. A lot of people say she was a good person so I'll take their word for it.

On the day she died, I found out about it looking at the local channel. This popular jackass game show host looked all solemn and announced, on his show to the live and TV audience, that Cory died. Then they burst into tears to sad piano music. He sang a sad song and an hour later it was back to the stupid mind numbing game show shenanigans. Unfortunately, life goes on for the rest of the country.