Damn it, Goku is Asian!

YouTube sensation KevJumba hit it right with his latest video on the Hollywood version of all-time Asian anime favorite Dragon Ball:

He could not have said it better.

And mind you, this is not the first time Hollywood made an Asian hero white. In the original book called Starship Troopers, the hero, John Rico, is Filipino. But in the Hollywood movie adaptation, he became an Argentine white man.  

How to get a student visa in The Philippines.

Want to study here in The Philippines? Need a student’s visa? Here’s how to get one: 

Step 1: Get a medical check-up with obnoxious sons of a bitch at the Bureau of Quarantine in Manila’s Port area. The office opens at around nine. But be sure you don’t arrive on time, else they’ll make you wait outside.

Step 2: Go back to that Bureau and get your results a day after.

Step 3: Go to the Bureau of Immigration main building’s third floor in Intramuros and ask where to get a NICA clearance. Be prepared to be yelled at. 

Step 4: Go inside the office and wait for the old man to finish watching a portion of Eat Bulaga and find where his scissor is (and this takes around three minutes) before he gives you the application form.

Step 5: After two weeks, go back to Bureau of Immigration and be yelled at again by another obnoxious bitch who looks a bit like Malol Fernandez and get the NICA clearance. 

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What’s wrong with being horny?

 The Catholic lobby in the Philippines is urging the government to ban condom advertisements because they say these ads send a message that it’s okay to have sex.

Well, yeah. With the exception of that Trust commercial featuring Winnie Cordero, these condom TV ads indeed give their audience the idea that it’s okay to have sex.

So? What’s wrong with that?

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Defying the pope, perverting democracy.

Today’s Inquirer headline tells of a Vatican leadership critical of Cardinal Sin’s pivotal role in the 2001 power grab against Joseph Estrada. 

According to the story, the Holy See ordered Cardinal Sin to stop Church participation in EDSA II.

Cardinal Sin defied the order. And indeed he could defy it, for he was popular enough to override the pope when he was alive. Sin was seen as a figurehead of the Third World Catholic clergy and his influence extended beyond these islands.

Powerful as he was, however, the late cardinal, the Inquirer story proves, was nothing more than a carbon copy of Cardinal Richelieu who would disregard his vow of obedience in favor of his wanton desire to play the role of kingmaker in this country.

Although late cardinal was able get away with defying the Vatican order, Rome retaliated by splitting the Manila See into several dioceses. The break-up was crucial, for it broke Sin’s access to scores of Metro Manila parishes and schools, which he ordered in 2001 to produce at least fifty people each, mobilizing hundreds of thousands that formed the backbone of the EDSA II uprising.

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EDSA II: What it really was.

It is very amusing that there still are people who remain in a state of denial about the reality of that putsch that ousted Erap seven years ago. People still celebrate it as a “triumph for democracy and the rule of law.”

I hope the video above and the excerpts from Nick Joaquin’s interview with Mike Arroyo below would wake these people up and make them realize that EDSA II was never a spontaneous show of people power but rather a sinister scheme to grab power from a popular president by sectors who have nothing but contempt for the constitution and the rule of law. The beneficiaries of this power grab have since looted the coffers of government, screwed the country and fucked the people up.

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The Philippines’ demotion from Freedom House list: why am I not surprised?

This blog entry is dedicated to King Juan Carlos of Spain. 

The Philippine Star reported this morning that the Philippines has been relegated by New York-based Freedom House from the list of "totally free" countries to "partly free".

The said private democracy watchdog organization cited extra-judicial killings as among the reasons behind the downgrading.

That makes three. The first was the United Nations through Human Rights Rapporteur Alston, followed by the European Union through six members of its parliament who visited the country very recently. Not to mention the fact that the Swedish government even closed down its embassy here in apparent protest of the deteriorating condition of human rights under the Arroyo regime.

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Weird encounter at Le Cafe

Le Cafe is a fine-dining restaurant inside the Lyceum campus run by students of the University’s College of International Hospitality Management.

My friend and co-debater Ryan and I went to eat there yesterday. It was surprising to find out how cheap it was. For just sixty pesos, you can experience lunch a la Manila Pen. Without the Magdalo, that is. And enjoy the experience Ryan and I did. We had a transparent soup with floating dumplings, boiled egg and chicken, a hearty fish fillet with tomato sauce served with some veggies and "Western" rice, a dessert that looked like a model clay but tasted really good, and lime soda with fresh cherry for drinks. They have terms for these food, but I don’t speak French. What’s written on the menu didn’t make sense to me.

So what’s the weird encounter?

The waitress asked if I’d like to have extra rice.

I know it doesn’t sound weird to most, but the thing is she didn’t ask anybody else. Not even Ryan, who was sitting right in front of me. What was she trying to imply then? That I’m the only one there who looked like someone in dire need of extra rice? That I’m a patay-gutom?

Why? Am I really that fat now?!

What an insult!

Shame!

But you know what, I did have the extra rice anyway.

Arriving in the Philippines

I`m finally back in the Philippines.

I arrived here in Manila two weeks ago for the second semestral enrollment. But before that I had to go through countless hassles.

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Case closed: ABC apologizes for sit-com`s racist slur against Filipino medical professionals

It`s either the scriptwriter was racist or he just lacked prudence.

I`m referring to the infuriating dialogue in Desperate Housewives` pilot episode which used Philippine medical education in its lame punchline. In the scene, actress Teri Tatcher`s character, Susan, was having her medical check-up with a gynecologist.

"Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word `menopause’" has negative connotations. You hear `aging,’ `brittle bones,’ `loss of sexual desire,’" the gynecologist told her.

"OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren’t, like, from some med school in the Philippines?" Susan fired back.

The one-liner drew angry calls from almost 30,000 viewers, an online demand for apology led by New York-based Filipino-American college lecturer Kevin Nadal and protests from Philippine Health and Chief Cabinet secretaries Francisco Duque and Eduardo Ermita.
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Stuck in the flood

Today`s Inquirer headline says Gloria Macapagal Arroyo got stuck in one of the floods brought about by the heavy rains in Manila these past few days.

What the fuck? Almost every single Filipino has been for six long years stuck in a big pile of shit brought about by herself and her minions.