Midnight Express

History repeats itself.

A Filipina convicted of drug smuggling was executed in China today. I suppose there's shock and outrage over this but that would be meaningless. She broke the law so she was executed. End of story.

The Vice-President tried to fly to China to grab the headlines negotiate on her behalf but was denied. I doubt grovelling to the Chinese ever solves anything especially when we're in no position to bargain in the first place. The President himself wrote a letter to China asking them to commute her death sentence into life imprisonment. On what grounds, I wonder? Did the President honestly believe the Chinese, who execute people faster than you can say "Tiananmen", wouldn't execute this ONE woman simply because he asked them not to? It's kind of insulting when you think about it; telling the President of another country to commute a sentence and instead keep her imprisoned (at their expense I bet) for life just because.

You see, it's because we ought to feel sorry for the poor woman. It's not her fault! It's the poverty and desperation. She was just trying to provide for her family! Nope. Sorry. That's not the way it works.

The phrase "rule of law" gets tossed around too much these days usually by supposedly smart people. Not many people have seen the "rule of law". Many doubt such a thing exists. It's like a unicorn; a mythical creature of legends. I've seen it a few times, twice or thrice, I think. We're told it exists. It's kind of like faith, you know? You can't see air but you can breath it in, right?

China seems to follow the rule of law. The Filipina broke the law and faced the penalty. Perhaps the outrage is because, having so little experience of it, it's just such a difficult concept to grasp for us Filipinos. But don't worry, I'm here to help. The rule of law simply means nobody is above the law. You do the crime, you do the time. No special treatment. It's truly a shame a communist cesspool like China does it better than THE FIRST DEMOCRACY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, THE ONLY CHRISTIAN NATION IN ASIA! PINOYPRIDE!!111

Rule of law? Explain that to Erap...

Learning Tagalog

I don't know Tagalog. I Never used it so I never learned it but I need to learn it in order to pass my shitty Filipino subject. As I wrote in the previous article about the awesomeness of Sponghabob Quadradopantalon, I'm trying to learn the language by a popularly suggested method which is watching Tagalog shows.

First of, I tried to watch Filipino movies. The only thing I learned however was that the movie industry in the Philippines is a lot like our political system, It's the same damn faces all over again. Seriously, is seems every Filipino movie stars Erap or Fernando Poe Jr. Even the modern films suffer from this in that the movies are just tired retreads with the same popular actors. Just how many fucking "Shake Rattle & Roll" have been made? (It's 10 I CHECKED) Maybe I'm being too harsh but there has to be more untapped talent out there than seeing the same people over again. Filipino movies only provide minimal educational value. The most you will learn is how to yell "You're finished." or "You killed my wife." in Tagalog, that cars flip over easily and explode, and that every Filipino movie has a minimum of one midget and/or gay guy.

Next I tried watching TV soap operas. Most are not even Filipino made, it's just Korean and Spanish (or Mexican? I'm not sure) surplus dubbed over. Some of it does not translate very well I tell you. The stories themselves are just syrupy love-love mush that makes watching it physically painful. The Korean series are typically targeted to women with all their pretty boys and true love cliches. The Spanish ones I can deal with since the women have nice boobs. By the way, locally made TV shows can be unintentionally hilarious, lulzy and awesome. A Filipino Zorro? Why the hell not!? Filipinos who can turn into wolves? "Throw it in there son!" The learning value? Pretty good and practical since it's more on conversation although the stories themselves sometimes make me vomit.

Lastly, there's basic programs like news shows, talk shows and so forth. Poor Educational value. VERY POOR. I swear, whenever some celebrity is interviewed, he/she speaks in Taglish. Taglish is the bastard child of Tagalog and English and is something that does not help anyone. He/she talks Tagalog for five seconds then spouts off some English phrase you would typically hear in a cheesy Hollywood movie. Halimbawa, "Sinabi sa aking Boyfriend nga "It's not you, it's me." Kase, I feel your pain. Sobra na ang Emotional damage." You know, I think deep down, every Filipino just wishes we would declare English our official language and be done with it. Poor educational value. Poor.

In conclusion, I learned that forcing yourself to watch Tagalog and Tagalog dubbed television series is the best way to learn. If I feel myself turning gay from the adolescent pretty boy Korean romances, the Spanish show with the curvy lady should fix things.

Laziness

When I was sitting on my porcelain throne this Sunday morning, I had some interesting thoughts. I read the papers, I watch TV, I go to college and all I hear is that Filipinos are lazy. "You students are lazy." "People in this country are lazy." "Don't give money to the blind beggar with no arms. He's just lazy." That's just observation and the stereotype is that Filipinos are regular "Juan Tamads" but I'm going to go the extra mile and try to explain why people are this way. After thinking long and hard about it, I thought of three reasons why people are lazy. I know a thing or two about laziness so here you go.

The first reason is that people are too damn cheerful and content. If the Social Studies books and Magazines are to be believed, Filipinos are one of the most nauseatingly happy people on earth. So happy in fact that Filipinos just smile through all the hardships, injustices and bullshit they have to deal with on a daily basis. Yes, it seems people here are content to just sit around convincing themselves that, "It's not so bad." Well, It is that bad. Why can't we be more like those fat Yankee Americans who complain and bitch to their government when it isn't doing it's job right? Now, that kind of attitude would spur a little progress instead of laying back and taking it, eh? Even admitting there's a problem is a step forward. We really should stop smiling, get angry and use that anger energy to improve our situation like demand our own incompetent government to shape up or show some initiative and fix the problem on our own.

The second reason is simply selfishness. Filipinos and people in general naturally tend toward things that offer the greatest good for the least effort. Pretty simple, nothing wrong with this per se, but it is important to define what one means by "good" and the whole "least effort" thing. For who's good exactly? Mine? Yours? If you do things for your own self-interest, you will inevitably lean towards laziness. "I won't help my neighbors fix their roof because it's their problem not mine." "I don't want to help, I'd rather watch TV." Oh, I know about this. I'm not some self-righteous douche, I'm as guilty of this as everyone else and screw you if you think you're innocent.It's important to have long-term goals to work for other than immediate gratification. Being community oriented and doing good for society first is a kind of proactive medicine for laziness. Where is that Bayanihan spirit? Well, bring it back morons! We need to drop the "least effort" part, nothing worthwhile in life is easy. Man, that was deep.

Lastly, is that there is little incentive i being industrious. Unlike the previous two which you could fix in yourself this one is a cancer of society. Let's face it, Philippine society frowns on overachievers. Good old crab mentality at work. I have seen people work their asses off yet corrupt pricks who cheat the system get more money than they will ever make. People work hard for years for that promotion but the boss man picks a useless , boot lick, suck up, crony yes-man over you instead. Some people study hard very hard yet more people just cheat and get away with it. You do your homework but people end up copying it off you in the morning. Culture is hard to reverse and this is probably the reason why so many good men leave for greener pastures abroad. They are unappreciated. What we should do, is punish the corrupt and reward hard work and honesty. I could not type that last part with a straight face. I don't know if this is ever going to happen. People are too content with the status quo and frankly, people like to cheat because it requires little effort compared to the hard way.