RIZAL X, HEALING OR PURGATIVE?

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

When dealing with the life of a super hero like Rizal, how should a play look like? Should it inspire the audience by highlighting his works, or should it comment on how irrelevant his ideas are now considering the people’s lives and how they have been shaped by socio-political events? Would it heal anxieties about life in this world or would it be a detoxifier of all its impurities?

I watched Rizal X at UP Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theatre and found a spectacular play that oozed with that highly energetic chutzpah but at times, anger of the youth which sad to say only briefly touched on the life of Rizal. Dulaang UP, a university theatre organization produced, while Derek Santos directed it, with financing coming from the cultural funds of the State University, among others.

The play was similar to an essay, skipping and hopping from one topic or issue to another. Its structure is reversible and convertible from any part, and its ending could be the beginning or vice-versa. It was also episodic, featuring scenes and slices of lives of gangters at Monumento circle, the plight of overseas Filipino workers – nurses, entertainers, construction workers – as well as teachers and students. It commented on the lack of values of the youth, and the discouraging state of love relationships turning into pragmatic liaisons among the OFWs.

Sad to say, Rizal’s life became footnotes or scene breakers, except for the Rikepedia which rattled off the events in his brief stay on earth.

Rizal X had a huge cast, twenty plus composed of students and some faculty members of the UP Speech and Drama providing technical support. The show was replete with action after action with singing, dancing, gyrating, screaming, hugging, kissing and oh, yes, killing but not so gruesome, all occurring in that small stage of the theatre which could be about 20 feet by 10 feet?

What is memorable was the lighting of the play which at one point had lasers streaking across the audience and reaching up to the wall at the back probably the latest lighting technologies in the country. These were truly appropriate to the hyper treatment of the play as the lights danced, circled around and about, moving from the ceiling to the background of the stage and on to the audience. Ohm David, a faculty member and the technical director must have used almost all of his skills to give that play the best exposure. By the way, the program reveals that Ohm was at one time the resident technical director, scenery and lighting designer for Altera Pars Theatre Company in Athens, Greece where he designed for numerous plays and also did the technical direction at a performance of the music group Arpiyes, as well as the 2006 Athens Video Art Festival. Truly he could be deemed that lighting icon of the country.

Well, a musical play needs good microphones. Sad to say, the mikes used here did not deliver clear words and dialogues making it difficult for the audience to understand the lyrics of the songs. I had to refer later to the program for these songs to understand what was being said. Moreover, it was disturbing to see plasters on the faces hiding supposedly the lapel mikes of the actors. I wonder they did not use headphones instead.

Some of the songs, especially the rapping of the life of Rizal were appealing to the taste of the young audience who were mainly high school students of a religious school the audience. Majority seemed mesmerized by the visual effects and all the acrobatic stances of the actors.

Costuming the characters was typical of the youth crowd nowadays. This was what I would call “ewan’ style – typical “patong dito, patong duon” corto, sando, jacket, and what have you.

Nonetheless, actors delivering the songs was a delight to hear as they could hit their notes well and sing in rhythm all throughout. For this, we should commend Janine Santos for musical direction and William Elvin Manzano for the music and lyrics as well as Happy Days Ahead for Musical Arrangement.

Sometimes though, some of the male actors had the tendency to shout their voices hoarse and could not pronounce their vowels well. I had to sit forward to hear what they were singing and get the message.

However, it was a surprise to find that the rock band accompanying the singers were merely up there playing along, too . Initially, I kept wondering where they were as the sounds had been coming from the stage. I could not believe that they could possibly be positioned in such a small stage nor even at the back of it. However, at the end of the show, suddenly they were visible – at the backstage, where a plank had been built up to carry the band. That was truly a skillful way of using the stage to the hilt.

Presenting the lives of heroes on stage is a tall order. Rizal x just skimmed through the life of our hero and concentrated more on the current problems of the country. Although that is laudable, in the end, the question is: will the young audience embrace Rizal as their hero after watching the show? It is difficult to answer in the affirmative because the show tended to focus on the writers, not Rizal per se whose life could have been a veritable source of many scenes in the play – his agricultural Laguna versus European backgrounds; his relationship with his sisters and mother versus the kinds of women he related with abroad, and his marrying Josephine Bracken, a British woman; and his relationship with the revolutionaries and his desire for a peaceful transition of the country from being a colony, among others.

It is true that in the academic we must respect that freedom to let the imagination of the students run the way they want them to run, but still they need guidance on what is writing apropos and in-depth especially about the life of a national hero recognized not only here but internationally as well. We owe that much to the succeeding generations of students, to make them know what is true heroism, what is being a hero or heroine, and to understand, appreciate and respect heroes and heroines who had died for our country.

To paraphrase Seneca, "if people know not what harbor they seek, any wind is the right wind."

WHEN TRAVELLING BECOMES A BORE

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Taking the train from Espana to Bicutan, I passed by Sta. Mesa, Pandacan, Paco, PedroGil, VitoCruz, Buendia, Pasay Road, then Magallanes.The houses were sparse here but in general the places along the railroad were eeky -- shanties, kangkungan, pool of stagnant brackish water, plastic cups and foils scattered about. Then we reach Taguig, and Bicutan where along the way also, were shacks, tagpi-tagpi, men with bare chests drinking at 2 pm, people vending vegetables, newspapers, and all sorts of kakanin. The scenes are boring, to say the least.

What do you call poverty? Are these poor people, or are these scenes to be called places of poverty? What is an affluent site but -- paved roads, well-lit streets, 24-hour streetsweepers, etc. I took the train right after the elections and visited a friend in Ayala Alabang. The sites have not changed, still the same and the morose faces of the people probably waiting when things will make a big change in their surroundings, in their daily lives.

We need not feel depressed when travelling and contradictions in lifestyles appear here and there. Perhaps the Philippine National Railways can put up a contest among the barangays lining the railroad tracks as to which one can spruce up and make it worthwhile looking at their environment as the trains pass by. Reward of P150,000 per barangay would suffice to motivate the chairs to move their constituents to have that aesthetic eye at least to please the travellers with scenes of their barangay - like flowering plants, street paintings, and huts that are well constructed, no longer rusty roofs and flat panels of different sizes.

I don't really think the people there are poor. They have funds for appliances but not for making their homes look beautiful because they think their stay there is just temporary. Allowing them to nurture that kind of thinking is like pushing them to a wall -- "wala kayong maaasahan dito sa Kamaynilaan kundi kunsumisyon."

I do think that governance must be focused not only on economic but also aesthetic matters which should really begin at home.

LISTENING TO MUSIC FOR NON-MUSICIANS

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Is the Philippines capable of producing world class pianists apart from the present crop some of whom are in the United States? It is difficult to answer that given the circumstances we are in economically. All our attention seems to be on how to make both ends meet. But at the latest piano competition of the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines, Inc. or PTGP, over 36 students aged 8 to 18, of 21 piano teachers competed playing pieces of different musical styles of the 20th century. There we could see that we are not limited at all in terms of talents.

The PTGP was founded a few months after the declaration of martial law, on November 2, 1972. The president was Milagros de Ocampo together with Lucrecia Kasilag or Tita King as Honorary President, until her death on August 16, 2008. Tita King was truly a dedicated artist. She was also one of the founders of the Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers or Filscap which now runs after those establishments and institutions that play Philippine compositions to make them pay royalties for the composers.

Classical versus pop music
Now, what does it take to listen to classical piano music now when all around us are radios TV, and karaoke blaring pop music played by rock bands? It is really difficult to cultivate love for classical music under the circumstances we are in, especially when the favorite TV programs always play pop through song and dance. Luckily we still have DZFE a station that plays classical music, Euro-Amerocentric I must say, all the time.

But there are households where classical piano music is really the standard listening piece. These are where the parents themselves are appreciative of the music and the children imbibe their love for it. The home of former UP Prof. Carmencita Guanzon-Arambulo is one example. It is always buzzing with different kinds of piano music (and violin as her son, Ariel, is a violinist and teacher) because her school is located beside her home, the Children’s Talent Education Center which is geared towards cultivating musicians from toddlers’ age. At the competition, all 6 of her Suzuki method students won as finalists to the final competition to be held this month of September at the St. Scholastica’s College. They are Miguel Lorenzo Q. Panagsagan, Jannina Eliana G. Pena, Patrick Allen Q. Sy, and Warren Albert C. Garrido.

Okay supposing we are not musicians, and still we are interested in dealing with piano music, how should we start? First we must make our ears “acclimatize” to the keyboard which can play single notes, double notes, harmonized notes, and so forth and so on. We must be able to distinguish the music that the right and the left hands play. Then, we just allow our hearts to feel as we listen. Feelings? Are we capable of feeling while listening?

Feeling or non-feeling music?
Of course. A good musician is able to touch the heart and mind of the listener while playing. If not, then he or she is not a good musician. They could arouse feelings like being happy, sad, melancholy, angry, and blasé too, among others. Or they can instill moods like being serious, light, or comic, depending on the piece being played.

But at this competition, hardly could we distinguish the feelings or moods. Rather, the types of music exuded a rational and logical effect so that our attention was focused on the style of music, and the performance of the pianist. Twentieth century music is truly different from those of the romantic era like the compositions of Liszt and Chopin to which most of us are attuned I suppose. The kind of music of the last part of the century, and this millennium can hardly be called romantic, but rather avant-garde, (a term dropped to me by piano teacher Letty Sarte, thanks Letty), which is characterized by non-conformity to rules, unpredictability, and an expressiveness that is brought about by the composers’ feeling their way through every bar of the piece, meaning to say, they let their hearts lead the way to the end of the composition.

Beyond par performances
It is truly great that all of the participants, winners and non-winners were all able to perform their pieces credibly, as if they were speaking for the composers themselves. I guess that is another way of saying their interpreting the pieces of the composers. And so, what did we observe during their performances?

Fingers were caressing, pounding, slapping the keys. Their hands were either jumping or sliding on the notes, racing or sailing against each other. Sometimes the hands were running on top of each other. Another time, only the left hand’s forefinger and middle finger and the right hand’s thumb were playing seemingly without end. One pianist even made his fingers run from the lower to the higher notes as if ready to fly out of the piano itself.

Truly the contest pieces were very difficult to play but the young pianists imbibed the feeling of the composers, completely. They were able to interpret those non-melodious music which exhibit an overt desire to break its predictability. One piece sounded like revolutionary tones seething with anger, as if in a hurry to rise up for whatever cause. Another made me recall tinkling bells; and another time, sonorous gongs tolling for the burial of a corpse.

All the while, the performers played the 20th century music as if their own lives had been scored by the composers themselves. Why are these young people so attuned to this type of music? Is it possible that the games they play in the computer, if they are into such, have similar background music and so they could readily empathize with their piano pieces?

Also, I hope that their familiarity and ability to give life to these pieces do not make them forever too rational and logical, forgetting that emotions are important components of being human, also.

Good memory
Another thing that we have to credit the children is that no one forgot his or her piece. They were able to play from memory very easily. I found out that everyone prepared three pieces to play but at the venue, they were told to play only one. At this time where there are too many distractions for anyone to stay focused on anything, most of the pianists were able to hurdle all the barriers in order to deliver highly above average performances. We must credit all the teachers of these students for such great performance.

Objectivity to the hilt
Chairperson of the judges was Dean Erlinda Fule, of the University of Santo Tomas. She and her committee were inside an enclosed structure where they would not be able to see who was playing what piece. Then the competitors were called by numbers, not by their names in order to seal the objectivity of the contest. No favoritism, no nepotism, nothing at all, till the end. The winners were called by their numbers, not by their names. Not even the titles of the pieces were given in the souvenir program nor were they announced. Hence, the composers can forget being recognized at all save by those musicians who are fully in the know about the history of music. By the way, the pictures of the students in the program did not match their faces, as those were taken two years back.

Isn’t the PTGP taking the “objectivity standard” of the contest over seriously? Why couldn’t they name the winners, give the titles of the pieces, and then let every one hear them play their pieces again? In this manner, they would be educating the audience further and make them appreciate why these students deserved winning. Furthermore, the students who did not win could know why the winners won, their style of playing could be observed more closely and then they could pattern their performance, or make it better than these winners later on.

As the PTGP is a closed association – meaning “magkakakilala” then such procedures could have been instituted in order not to ruffle the feelings of those teachers whose students did not meet the criteria of the judges. But then, the whole point of a competition is to inculcate the idea that there are better performers. We must learn the distinction between good, better and best performances from truly human faces, or fingers, and not just numbers. Now the teachers should not feel aggrieved if the winners are named and not their proteges. By watching the winners in person play their pieces, their students would be able to see other techniques in playing the piano.

Not so spacious venue
The cool venue, the long auditorium of the Lyric Piano company, was freely given for the event with a piano de cola near the stage. The piano was beside other covered pianos with only two to three feet distance. Perhaps next time, the venue could be made more spacious, the other pianos removed and only one for the event to be placed there. I like the venue because it is accessible from my home. I was wondering though why the UP Abelardo Hall music administrators did not offer it for free, considering that PTGP is a child-nurturing institution. The government should not always be making money and provide such venues for free especially to non-government organizations like the PTGP.

Although piano music suffers very much from competition in the larger society against other genres, mainly rock, pop and R and B, still the parents and their relatives came and eagerly waited till the end of the event. Such belief in the talents of their children is just amazing; a father dutifully recorded his son’s performance on video; the other parents photographed theirs for documentation purposes.

Simple listening
Listening to piano music for non-musicians need not be burdensome. In fact, anyone who tries it, could just sit down, no matter how unfamiliar the pieces are to our ears. We could just run parallel natural scenes in our minds – when the notes are rushing, we could imagine traffic in the city; when high notes predominate, we can imagine small bells tinkling, or when one note after another note are played, up and down the keyboard, we can still imagine a kangaroo jumping up and down.

Hence, listening to music is all a matter of using our imagination. Later on, if we ever get the time to study the rudiments and theories of music, then we can probably all become “geeks,” listening to music for music’s sake and having a deeper love for the music of composers from Bach to Beatles. Hey Becky Demetillo, when will you have your concert again?

911

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

When I think of the bombing of the World Trade Center, I still develop goosepimples; why because I saw the planes on tv ramming the towers which then got pulverized going down to the ground. I saw that while I was alone in my small condo unit over and over again. I texted all my relatives and friends there and they replied that they were also watching it.

How could that scene ever occur on this planet? What kind of mind could have planned it without feeling any pangs of guilt over killing thousands of innocent people? Apparently terrorists still think that no one is free to say no to their demands. Everyone must kowtow to how they want the world to be run.

To stop such terroristic ideas is to deal with the mind. I wonder how much of our schoolbooks from Grades 1 up to college, have yearly lessons on democratic procedures? What does it mean when we say we have to listen to other people's views before positing our own? What does it mean when we assert that the government has to take this initiative above all else?

Every corner of our society must have reminders about democracy, the voice of the people. Let us remove all those posters, tarpaulins that remind us all the time how we have to say thank you for building this or that road, lighting up the streets, etcetera. Such signs only make us squirm in terror that our money, the taxes that we paid are being used to glamourize the names of those people we had elected. The people's money is the people's money and must be used for the people's projects. History itself will be the one to thank those who have served, not those elected people forcing the public to thank them. We must only thank them for serving well, and not be reminded all the time --"Hey I am great, here I am doing this." That is their function today. Gratitude will come later at the end of his or her term.

Christian values teach us, "Don't do unto others what you want others to do unto you," but this does not seem to seep through the minds of everyone. We tend to ignore or skim over things that show some people putting one on top of us all the time even through such minute acts of putting up such reminders.

Let us stop being doormats. Let us have a consistent value of being Christian and being democratic. Are they reconcilable? That we must study well and apply. If we do, terrorists will not have a place on this earth at all.

SIM CARD WOES

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco
I bought a celfon Smart sim card on a monthly plan which registered well the first month. But on the second and third months, it started to act funny. It always registered as invalid and I could not text or call anymore. Now, the sim goes off and on when I am out of the house. The first time this happened I complained to Smart, the clerk was able to restore the sim to operate well. But now, it is completely kaput. I have gone to a repair technician four to five times already. Each time he would handle it, the sim gets back and then when I go home with it, the sim gets invalid. He gave me pointers earlier how to make it work and that worked for quite sometime. But now that trick won’t do anymore.

My problem is that this technician will be off to Davao on a rendezvous and won’t be back till a month after. I have told him not to fall in love there but do it in November and he replied it is hard not to fall in love.

So I now have a celfone which has an invalid sim. Actually, I bought another sim, Sun, at this guy’s shop just to pay him back for fixing my Smart sim all the time. It registers well – valid but I don’t know if my messages are sent because they do not appear in the outbox at all. But when my friend in Dumaguete responds in Spanish, I know that it had gotten to him.Also, the technician told me I could make unlimited texts and call and when I did call, nothing. I was not able to do it. also the label of the sim said I could have internet but just to get registered, it takes ages. "Service not available. Please register later," it texts back. ,

My other fon with Globe sim is well because my voice calls get through. Sometimes though my friends with Smart sim tell me that they have not received my messages in which case I have to resend them. I know that there is an ongoing battle between Smart and Globe and so I understand the problem of delayed sending of my messages.

Unlike the PLDT service before which had an operator to tell you what number you want to call, and other tasks, there is no operator in the celfone business that can tell you the fon number of any person you want to reach. There is too much privacy. Hence, I have to scrounge for any directory, old or new just to be able to get the proper info.

What makes for a modern country? Communications isn’t it? Our state now is in so much better condition than before when PLDT monopolized the communication industry. I remember then, when I was outside, I would be running to a store and use a public phone there so as to get in touch with a partner. Or, rushing to a phonebooth and finding out I did not have enough coins to call a friend.

So the entry of the celfone into our country is really a welcome development. Each one now can afford to have a fone, and I can see, even construction workers have their own. Or even domestic helpers.

However, what are the things we wish would still happen to improve the celfone business?
1. Lower the fees.
2. If a company does nto deliver the services it says on the poster or on its package label, have a National Telecom hotline which we can call to report it, in case it is difficult to get in touch with the company itself.
3. Stop all selling of whatever on the celfone and ask the owners first if they want to receive them. Time and again, I receive offers to buy this and that; yet no matter if I text them STOP the texting still happens, which can be very irritating if I have no money to buy those items or to test any of their services.

4. If there are celfones which are not original and yet sold in the market, then the government must provide service centers for them to contact the makers or even to provide repair services. Those items came in throough the backdoor which means the government was remiss in its duties of taxing those imported items. Hence, it is the duty of the government to provide repair services for them. Or else, the government should stop their sale in the market altogether. I had a friend with an Alcatel which he dropped in a swimming pool. I helped him look for a repair center but could not find any until he had had to buy a new fone. I bought a Blackberry and had thought it was original, only to find out it was made in China. Now that it is conking out, no Blackberry service center would fix it as they do not have the program for it.

5. Every prepaid sim must have a number that we can call to find out the balance. The labels provide a number but it takes ages before one gets an answer, and sometimes never at all.

6. The Smart sim I bought provided a label with the numbers to call but I was never able to get an answer to my call. One time, I did get an answer and I poured out all my angst over the kind of sim card I get. After that, whenever I would call *888, it texts back, ”unable to connect,” al the time.

7. A card should still be able to accept calls for the company even if it does not have enough load, prepaid or postpaid, which I must say though I don't want to sound like a promo girl of the company, is just like Globe. Or maybe I have gotten used to its services that I also look for them in other companies. I think that any company owes its clients a favor of allowing calls to them, if only to allow them to steam off over their lousy services.

8. The National Telecommunications Commission or NTC should provide street corner stalls where we can report about lousy services of companies which are too desensitized to receive customer complaints or so that we can also complain against hackers like the police intelligence, who are too brazen to do it. Or we can also complain against the kind of music blared over the celfone while the operator makes us wait.

So here I am, still paying my monthly services, cheap, and waiting for that reward free phone to be given me after 6 months, if it should ever be given at all despite this article’s assertions. The smart sim is not working at all now and I am afraid of loading the Sun sim because iI might not be able to text again. Fortunately, my Globe is still working despite my delay in paying the monthly fees.

Thank God for alternatives in this country.

RELIVING DIANA, IMAGE, SELF-IDENTITY, AND HUMANITY

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

The riots in London brought to memory the image of Diana whose death 14 years ago had shocked and created grief all over the world. Even now, in Britain, a survey ranks her first among the most well-loved members of the royalty, the current wife of Prince Charles landing in the bottom of it all. This just goes to show that the hearts and minds of the British people who answered the survey are in the right places.

Why do I reminisce about Prince Di? Well, she was not exactly the typical royalty who was served hand and foot by slaves or those in lower rank. Rather she was and became more strongly a critical royalty who looked into her inner life and the workings of the world. First she denounced through a divorce, her marriage to Prince Charles after she had discovered that her marriage was too “crowded,” a term she had used herself. Secondly, she became critical of the issues in her society – and the world, the most significant act of her was to be photographed with a landmine. That photo was later on used to denounce the rebels who use landmines to advance their causes, because it kills even innocent people. So where is the sanity and rationality of a political cause if it pushes for a total disregard of human lives, whosoever they could be found?

In my article, published in my book, Serimbar, Feminist Reflections and which originally came out in the Chronicle in 1997, right after her “accidental” death, I wrote: “Diana was an uncommon princess in many ways and words, performing her maternal functions while serving as political ambassador of goodwill internationally. She epitomized the woman who was conscious of her royal identity, and yet knew how to use that to make this world a humane place to live in.”

Diana’s life is also relevant to our country now. Her divorcing Prince Charles despite the prospect of actually losing her title (which the people still bestowed on her as she had rather be called, “princess of hearts”) was a very big step for her to take and worthwhile emulating for many Filipino women. She could have been the queen of England, had Charles ascended the throne. Yet, living with a man who has lost love for one she must have found rather masochistic and depriving her of a fuller life that she could possibly still have in this world. After all, God has given talents to everyone regardless of status in life. It all depends not only on society but also on the individual to cultivate those talents. Hence, Diana was a great model of a strong, courageous woman from the upper classes, worthy of being idolized by every woman.

Now, the bills on divorce and the reproductive health are proofs of a dysfunctional society we have and the non-governmental organizations pushing for them, must start researching on current models that can provide a positive push for the bill. In our midst, there could be women of Diana qualities who would not be afraid to stand for these issues. (How about Sharon Cuneta who had her daughter by Gabby Concepcion yet sought a separation from him? Or Miriam Quiambao, the former beauty queen?)

What was apparent in Diana’s divorcing Prince Charles was her adherence to that time-honored principle: monogamy. Yet, she refused that possibility in exchange for leading an authentic life. “For her, it was a non-negotiable issue which many a women with low self-esteem could easily junk in exchange for the glory attending royal status…

“Diana had many qualities putting her on equal terms with Charles. She was also of royal lineage; as well as had her own inheritance from her clan large enough to make her live an independent life. More than all these, she grew up in society that has produced a long line of thinking women as Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Cecily Hamilton – Marriage as a Trade ;; and Sheila Rowbotham – Woman’s Consciousness:Man’s World.”

Besides many women’s groups exist in Britain raising the consciousness of women and making them act on their lives – through workshops, exhibition of their talents, demonstrating for causes like that campaign against nuclear disarmament, lobbying for bills favorable to women that they want to be enacted. There was no way at all that Diana would stay in a stale marriage especially as it was being reported almost daily that Charles was secretly meeting or phoning his mistress.

Hence, after 14 years of her passing away, royalty as a fixture in society is still being discussed. What is the basis of royalty? “By making royalty a permanent fixture, Britain, in effect is creating elitist images in the minds of rulers in Third World countries such as the Philippines. The havoc that image could create is for the latter to aspire for similar ruling in perpetuity, thereby suppressing the rights of other people, women and men, to share in political administration.” (At the time of writing this article, a hot issue in our country was the Charter Change.)

Until now, certain questions persist whether Diana died because of the accident or that accident was pre-planned by certain sectors who refused to have the British royalty “tainted” by the blood of a non-British, the lover of Diana.

No matter the results of the investigations, one thing is sure – Diana has truly lived in the hearts of the people and her life will be long remembered as exemplary of genuine commitments to her own personal values and to international peace.