When Nirvana is farfetched

How is capitalism strengthened as an economic system in our country? How do some people allow it to occur despite some of its negative consequences and its inability to make people think, act and feel properly? Let me tell you a story. 

I was about to leave a supermarket when I saw a delicious-looking ice cream stand. So I ordered for a cone which was really very cheap, only P5. Afterwards, I noticed there were several plastic box containers on the side of the stand. I asked the vendor if I could have one. She told me to ask permission from the gate checker of the supermarket. Hence I did but was denied. Why so? Two other officers of the supermarket, apart from the gatekeeper told me, the containers were to be checked out in the books to signify as the number of finished contents. "Why not get my name, my ID number, including my address so that you or anybody else can check with me if I had gotten one as proof of reduction of number of containers?" Did they listen? No. Secondly, I said but I would re-use that as sewing box. Therefore, I would be contributing to environmental protection. Did they budge?

Nope. 

Secondly, everytime I enter a certain supermarket, I always feel that as a customer I have to insure that the owner should make a killing out of my purchases. i cannot even ask for a box to contain all the supplies I have bought. On the other hand, in the other supermarket, I could always ask for a box, small or big, and that is given with a smile, a "Thank you, Ma'am." And you know what, my heart bleeds for them. The workers are short, showing that they did not get the proper nutrition when they were young so that they could grow tall. Oh, how they work hard -- because before six months come, they would change employers again as they are just contractuals. 

Aside from calculated wastage, that is another bane of capitalism. Contractualization. Many of our graduates are forced to  take up jobs that offer them no tenure because of the necessity to survive and to feed their families. 

Is it possible to attain Nirvana in this lifetime at the rate these phenomena are occurring? Some people just make it harder and harder. 

So what do I do? Inhale, exhale. 

ON BEING CREATIVE

I have been writing lyrics and melodies for more than a week now. Regularly, i face my electronic piano, ready my table, my music notebooks, pens, white opaque eraser, and my Elemi SOOTHING liniment, invented by chemist Joe Ingles, a member of the Filipino Inventors' Society. I use the latter when I feel overwhelmed by the lyrics I am writing or I get so tired of hearing melodies in my mind. 


But I would like to talk of the creative process now. I think that I am able to write melodies because Tita King, my mentor from the 80's up to the new millenium, had taught me to free myself. I brought her my melodies in cassette form then in the 80's. Later on she told me to write them down in terms of notes. Instead of notes, I had written down bubbles. Then through her patient corrections, wherein she put tails, rests, and bars on them, I have been able to imbibe the rudiments of composing melodies. Since then, I have gone beyond bubbles and instead have been writing notes -- whole, half, quarter, eighth,-- even rests, G-clef, F-clef, etcetera. 

Music is an entirely different language after all. It is totally  different from textual writing. Every note you write down has a corresponding sound. Unlike with words, every word you say could end on paper, or you could say it aloud and it still stays in an alphabetical form. A musical note, however, has two forms -- the written name, and the sound. 

Now that sound is really an intricate matter to deal with. I noticed that as I write melodies about the angst of the flood victims, I tend to veer towards a certain kind of melody that really expresses the chaos, the tears, the grief of everyone. The music just seem to flow out of my system after every melody. And I don't inhibit myself because of that. I just continue to write and write. I don't really care how others would listen to my music, except that I feel the melodies coming out of my system. I even sing it, even as one reaches high octaves. 

Actually, I am inspired by the music from the only classical station in the country. I listen to programs by d johnson, bill mcglaughlin of exploring music, harmonia, sing for joy, compact discs, and many more. I learn a lot from bill's program as he analyzes each piece as a musician -- giving historical accounts as well as analyses of the pieces at times. Today, I heard a lot about immigrant composers like stravinsky and shostakovich. but i get to listen to operas too in this classical station, as well as the history of music. now that is really uplifting as my knowledge of music history is quite short. 

Sometimes I listen to Jazz of crossover. But I don't really fancy the lyrics of many songs because they just talk of love -- sweet love, unrequited love, love from a distance, love on a two-way high street, etcetera. i find them too constricting of viewing life. 

So as I write my melodies, I get to remember Tita King, the words spoken in that station, especially some highly important Christian messages that speak about the role of Christ always -- though i wish they would talk about how Christianity could prevent violence in the campuses in America. 

In addition to writing music, I also went into animation. I enjoyed the workshop which ended last Sunday,  courtesy of the First Academy of Computer Arts headed by Margot, and ably assisted by Yna. I wonder why there are few takers when it is such a magical artform -- animation. While there, I conceptualized many short animation films using the features of Flash animation. We had a lesson on glow for example, taught by the way by our workshop training professor, Sir Franchie. I placed the map of the Philippines on the center of the stage (the screen) , then put glowing light around it. Another time, we had a lesson on blur, one image blurring and the other turning sharp. I had an image of Rizal on the left, and then it blurs as the picture image of youth in silhouettes jumping about. 

Composing music and animation are really engaging artistic activities. In fact, I don't notice the time passing by at all as I immerse myself in them. It seems as if the world could go hang and I wouldn't mind at all. Why because, the aim is to finish a product. 

How I wish I could have the luxury to engage in it full time. But I have to create many project proposals yet. 

Now, that's all Folks. I will upload some of my music and animation works in the future when I get the tools to do so. 

Meanwhile, get a hobby Folks. It could be the start of a new profession.  It's also one way of unburdening yourself of the dire news that do not seem to end at all. 

ON BEING CREATIVE IN LIFE

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco


Some people think that to be creative is only to be in the arts. Not exactly. Even a criminal could be creative. Did you see how Napoles creatively developed a system so that money from the government flowed freely into her account?


To be creative is to learn how to focus. If we want to be a good creative writer, we need to read and read, understand and analyze articles so that we would see how the ideas flow from one to another, how it begins, develops and ends. If we want to be a creative entrepreneur, we need to focus on how to start a business, who are the people to hire, how to improve the product, etcetera, etcetera.

Being creative is spreading our imagination to the nitty-gritty of details and every corner of the activity that we are going into.

Some people are creative by knowing how to give themselves incentives -- like a having a good dining at a restaurant after finishing a truly creative project.

I am going into this because I discovered something about composing music, Folks. Yes I do compose but not regularly. Right now, however, I am composing for a musical play that I have just finished and which I will submit soon. I have found out that by focusing, I could churn out several melodies right away. The tunes come best in the morning, or after I have come from another activity, highly unrelated to what I am composing for. Usually, early morning, around 4 a.m. is best for me to work. A quiet place, my piano to my right, and my small table to my left where my score sheets are.

For a week now, I have finished composing 17 songs -- lyrics and melodies and my friends whose names I will reveal later after I have submitted the play, render very nice performance for recording of their voices, and the background music. Suddenly I had felt, while N and D were singing that the songs were no longer mine. They owned the songs because of their beautiful rendition of the pieces.

But you see, Folks, for me to be able to do these activities, I have to be financially capable -- have food to eat at home, alkaline water to drink and lots of coffee sachets -- so that I need not go out and interrupt the flow of creative ideas.

Tita King, the National Artist for Music in the 90's, told me that she worked best at about 2 a.m. She was able to organize her family life, so that she had enough workers at home who could cook for her, clean up her home, a driver to bring her to the Cultural Center of the Philippines and other artistic institutions. But her ideas for her music came from her great educational background, whereby she was able to learn how to combine western and eastern melodies, styles in order to show her own influences.

Hence, our cultural institutions could possibly be more generous, less bureaucratic when dealing with creative people -- women, men, girls, boys, elderlies, indigenous groups, etc. --. -- so that our approach to life's problems could go beyond the legalism currently going on now. 

Dealing with the Napoles case, it is expected that our judicial departments, sectors, should already finish the case immediately. The extension and endless extensions of the case reveals only one thing -- the lack of creativity to end it in favor of the people whose coffers have been raided under the guise of "public service."

So what could be a creative way of handling the Napoles case?

I could think of one. When we make a papier mache of Napoles, let her mouth spew names and then paper bills.

When we focus on a senator involved in the case, we could have a papier mache of him followed by wild animals. Then the bodies of the animals are plastic transparent and inside are paper bills too.

We could make a papier mache of the chief of staff involved, wearing a sexy dress and sitting on a high chair, talking to Napoles while beside her is the senator, offering her a drink.

Lots of ideas we could think of really.

Or we could have two tables -- one a project like a gym that was built out of the funds of a Congress representative with a breakdown of expenses -- how much it really cost to make. Then one the other table is the graph of the COA detailing the disallowed expenses.

In this manner, we could be teaching the people on how to examine project funds.

Yes, to be creative is to make the viewers be more knowledgeable, be mentally free to examine ideas, and form appropriate, correct and relevant judgments. We then shall have a truly free people, with imagination, and who know how to be assertive in society.

Come to think of it, Folks, to be financially well-off, we need to be creative too. What do you think of my putting ads in my blog? I have kept this for more than 6 years already. Please send meyour comments at miravera2010@gmail.com.

Warm regards.

ON VALUING INDEPENDENCE DAY

Wilhelmina S. Orozco



Say, I am not guilty of stealing from the people's coffers. Say I am innocent. If interrogated, I would answer it this way:

"Why ask me if I had stolen money when that is not even in my vocabulary, that word steal. You presume too much, my dears, that I am capable of stealing. My mother taught me that stealing is a sin. My eldest sister told me it is a crime. Now why are you doing this to me?

It is difficult to decipher who is really guilty from the not guilty of a crime. However, the way they speak could reveal a lot of their background.

It is just like this teenager who I suspected of having stolen my cellphones last March 2013 at E. Rodriguez corner Araneta Avenue, Quezon City (and which the police officer 1, Ryan Aguila said he could not arrest because he was a minor, and to my insistence, PO1  replied: "Ma'am kung makuha natin ang sim cards okay na sa inyo?) The teenager replied to a question of the barangay chair whether he had stolen the cellphones or not: "Hindi ako ang kumuha noon. Tulog na ako noong Huwebes." How could he be suddenly so sure of what his activity had been then when it was already four days after the incident? He must have a fantastic mind to be able to switch to the details of the night then.

Well, Folks, I have decided to bring the case of theft of my cellphones to the National Police Commission because of the inaction of the office at Camp Karingal which has been sitting on it for nearly a year now. Where lies justice in our country? I hope that the Napolcom could really help this time. I found out by the way that the police investigator handling my case has been at the office for more than two decades. She looks so cool and collected as if no murder could jolt her. And she does not even have a gun on her body. "I opted not to because I am taking care of a child," she reasoned out.

Folks, do you know why those cellphones are very dear to me? My Nokia celphone has all the pictures which I had taken through the years since 2003. That's a lot of historical visual documents that I had taken. It also has the background music of the songs that we sing under the FACES (Faculty, Alumni Choir Ensemble Singers-- all from UP.) I need those background music so that I can rehearse the songs at home without looking at the scores.

Then I also have shots of the onset of Filipino women's wearing short shorts in the streets of MetroManila, revealing the blurring lines between the costumes of bar girls at night and non-bar girls in the daytime. Folks, would you believe that in the cold malls, just to be in fashion, there are lots of women who wear short shorts? And they enter cinemas which are much colder in such attires? What is happening to the minds of Filipino women? Do they need externals in order to emphasize their value?

Going back to the topic of theft, thievery in the government is really like a chronic disease. Once you sit on the chair and occupy a position, all sorts of temptations will come your way. A truly morally strong individual will have a Bible on the table, have the pictures of Jesus Christ, Mary, and many cards of prayers. Others are just simply callous, nothing on the table.

Way back in the 70's when I used to work at the Budget Commission, now the Department of Budget and Management, I used to see budget officers in Malacanang (at the height of Marcos rule, Folks), wearing big carat diamond rings. I could only sigh and shake my head at that flagrant display of "stolen wealth." It seemed normal then to sport such rings. And I was told then by my friends in Malacanang that every time an agency had its budget approved, to ge the SARO released, they have to give up the ten percent. WHAAAT?

Yes, there was already "kotong" at that time. And what did the erring employees do after they got their moolah? Well, some disappeared in the United States. Others set up their own business knowing already the ropes on how to corner government contracts.

At the Land Registration Administration branch somewhere in Rizal, I see the tables of employees always open. I wondered why one time until I learned that they were to simplify "procedures" of grease money being dropped easily inside.

The sick bureaucracy extends to the core. We cannot deny that. Corruption is bred from within. What we are seeing is only the skimmed part, latak. There are bigger slices of the pie from within. and we should not let up in watching and being alert at every turn of events.

But let us have more artistic symbolization of corruption, Folks. For a thieving government official, let us have him or her wear black glove on the right and white on the left. The left is supposed to show to the people their clean hand, clean inside. The black glove is hidden behind the back.
Another symbol is an official with two faces, a Gemini, one good and the other one questionable.

Then the pocket of the questionable one is stuffed with bills.
I am already sick and tired of having PNoy always the brunt of papier mache jokes. This type of hitting at the president dates back to ancient times. There are underlings who are as guilty and could be the guilty ones.

Another symbol I can think of is the dove flying with blood streaming down on roses and bread.

Still another, the Mother and Son statue at Luneta with the Mother crying over the bloodied son.

What about the monument at Monumento, which is truly a very beautiful classic depiction of the Philippine Revolution? We could start a tableau with the static images and then slowly make the figures move.

When we parade such images on the street, then we are able to make the people ask, "Ano ang ibig sabihin niyan?" So their minds think behind the artistic delineation of corruption, instead of being spoonfed with words like  Korap, Buwaya, Porky Pigs, etcetera.

By the way, I heard a series of songs that are anti-women by a band, whose name I did not get. This group parades itself as nationalistic and creatively free,  simply because they know how to sing and to use the Filipino language; but analyzing more deeply they are just male chauvinists whose little knowledge they had acquired they are now using to oppress women through words and music. How I wish that some music group could castigate them and prevent their being able to reproduce an album and disseminate them.

It is so much like the excessive freedom in the internet where those killers (before they killed their victims) were able to say all the murderous things they had wanted to say before going on the rampage. I do think that the series of killings especially at schools should make the authorities already clamp down or censor the internet more closely for criminal messages. prevent and eventually stop murders from happening right away.

When Independence Day leaves a lot of questions unanswered, we still need to value it because it is our way of presenting to the world our national identity as a people. However, all that we can do now, despite the lack of full import of independence in our midst, is to cry:

Happy Independence Day! And may we have more vibrant, colorful and meaningful celebrations of holidays throughout the year.

WHEN FAIRYTALES SPEAK

FAIRYTALES have always been exciting for me. In my childhood, I had devoured lots of illustrated comics, both foreign and local as they revealed to me the world of imagination, the world of fairies and ghouls and dwarfs, the world of spiritual forces and the weaknesses of human beings when they confront each other.

                           

This is why, I had to see two films: Maleficent and Frozen. I have watched the latter several times on video and still marvel until now “Let it Go” of Elsa (sang by Idina Menzel), one of two main characters, the other Anna – supposed to be her sister,-- singing in the middle of a mountain of snow. Then I rush to slide the mouse to the ending, where Anna (kumukurap-kurap) in a dilemma whether to embrace her loved one first, the poor iceman who could give her life, or go to protect her sister, the heiress-queen, from sure death from the man who was too ambitious to become king of their land. Over and over again, I listen to the song, showing how Elsa has to discard many of the conservative ways she had learned in the kingdom, and to assume responsibility for her awesome powers of being able to create ice and loads and loads of snow enveloping the whole kingdom and beyond.

Maleficent on the other hand turns the story of The Sleeping Beauty around. Maleficent is the witch queen who throws a curse on the baby of the king and the queen, that when she reaches her 16^th birthday she will prick her finger with a spindle and then fall into a deep sleep. Only true love will bring her back to life. No human can reverse the curse on her. Not even Maleficent herself. Why so?

Aurora, the baby who grows up into a beautiful smiling girl, taken care of by three Tinkerbell-like fairies who assume human forms in an isolated forest, wanders into the territory of Maleficent. Of course, what is a fairytale without a prince and a princess, and a witch and all those dwarfy beings and monsters peopling the forest? A prince wanders into the forest and meets Aurora. He is on his way to seek the king, the father of Aurora.

Meanwhile, the winning ways of Aurora, her innocence and happy disposition change the evil character of Maleficent who comes to love her as her daughter. However, the three pixies reveal to Aurora the curse Maleficent had posed on her. Very disappointed, Aurora leaves the forest and goes to the castle of her father. Maleficent works to reverse her curse on her but it could not be undone. She rides her horse to reach the castle in time to prevent Aurora from pricking herself, bringing with her the prince whom she had thrown into a deep sleep to follow whatever orders she has over him.

Aurora learns that the King had caused the loss of the wings of Maleficent in the past in order to win the contest of defeating her with the kingdom as the reward.

Terribly saddened she seeks to prick her finger a kind of death wish to remain asleep for the rest of her life. That act is contrary to the original story of the fairytale. Anyway, Maleficent arrives with the body of the prince whom she awakens to kiss Aurora.

Did Aurora wake up as the real fairytale states? Nope, she continued sleeping. One little fairy said, “You did not kiss her enough!” Instead, Maleficent kisses her forehead and Aurora awakens.

What has happened here? In Frozen, Anna recovers her human form after Elsa embraces her. She had frozen after protecting Elsa from being killed. On the other hand, Aurora awakens after Maleficent shows her maternal love for her.

Thus, the principle of sisterhood that many women's groups are espousing has been shown on screen as a theme that ought to be instilled in the audience. That sisterhood is as old as those paganic eras should be upheld in order to bring about truly humane societies.

The screenwriter and director of Frozen is Jennifer Lee while Angelina Jolie had strong influence on the direction of Maleficent which then show us that women's presence in those twin positions – that of writing the text and realizing the film are highly important in order to bring about truly feminist films.

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LISTENING TO ASIA

Sunday, June 1, 2014

ON THE MATTER OF ASIAN LEADERSHIP

World economic forums are initiatives supposed to address and solve through discussions inequalities and other problems all over the world. How much was achieved in the latest, the World Economic Forum held in Manila? 

Very big issues were discussed which put the Philippines in the world map again as officials from various Asian countries came  Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam, U Nyan Tun, Vice-President of Myanmar, and  Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, among others to interact with other Asian officials as well as our own President Benigno S. Aquino III. 

In reality, what can Asia contribute to the world apart from human resources -- whereby many countries have migrants coming from the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India, among others -- seeking greener pastures for their families? 

I think that Asia is a beautiful spot in this world and contains much land and sea resources some of which  are still in their virginal state.  Many countries possess those places which tourists and locals seek so that they can enjoy peace and quiet, commune with Mother Nature and possibly link spiritually with the Gods and Goddesses they worship. There is utterly nothing wrong with that at all, except that Asia also seems to not really enjoy much development.

The Asian Development Bank came out with statistics that "in 2011, about 20 per cent of the population of Asia and the Pacific, or 743 million people were living in extreme poverty. However, a number of people are living just above the extreme poverty line, in near poverty, who cannot manage a decent daily livelihood...In 2012, about two thirds of the world's undernourished population lived in Asia and the Pacific. From 2010 to 2012, 13 percent of A and P experienced severe forms of hunger and malnutrition."

Moreover, "Despite economic growth in the Asian and Pacific region, the economic empowerment of

women lags behind. In 2012, there were only 62 employed females in the region for every

100 employed males, and the work they did was more likely to be in the sectors that are

vulnerable, poorly paid and less secure. For instance, in the Asian and Pacific region, 42 per

cent of employed females are in agricultural employment, compared with 36 per cent of

employed males."

In other words, development in A and P is not trickling down to the masses at all and food insecurity has become acute especially in our country. Many migrants from the provinces which were besieged by battles between the New People's Army and the military, between the Moro National Liberation Front in Mindanao and the government, have been driven away. Mindanaoans have come to MetroManila to seek peace and we see a lot of them establishing businesses here, as their original place not only experiences lack of peace but also intermittent electricity that hamper the continuous operation of their businesses

Also, everywhere in MetroManila, we see family vagrants, not individuals, living in carts or makeshift shacks just so they could have shelter in whatever form. Children learn to beg, as young as five or even 4, driven by their own parents to a life of ignominy.  They learn to ask for food from diners at restaurants, hanging their heads, or laying them down on the counters just to show their desperate hankering for food. 

So what can Asia contribute to the world, when despite the lush resources here  yet hundreds of millions are suffering from extreme poverty? When there is poverty, there is sleeplessness. When there is poverty, there are crimes lurking everywhere -- by people driven by hopelessness over the situation where everyday, they see other people wearing good clothes, having the best gadgets in town, and being able to afford to go to school. 

Yet despite all that, we don't have the likes of Syria wars, and that one over at Kiev, Ukraine. We are not prone to holding bullets and bombs or maybe not all the time as some hotheads in our environment are prone to do. 

Maybe in this manner, we can say that Asians are a reflective lot -- we like to think what we can do during extreme situations, instead of heading off to any suicidal act. After all in Asia we can find a lot of religions and spiritual practices that induce us to live harmoniously with Nature and other people. Maybe this can also be a reason for the abuse of our people -- our tendency to maintain peace at all costs. That is one Asian contribution worthwhile looking into.  

Another thing that I think we need do is mull over how we can contribute the kind of leadership that should be shaped in this world. What qualities of a leader can we offer the world that will bring about peace and development for all, especially the women who bear in their wombs the lives of the people of the world in the future?

There are some things that are worthwhile learning from the western books about leadership (I just read one by John Maxwell, a pastor), but we cannot readily be idealistic and say that all the ideas coming from there, based on material conditions are worthwhile acquiring. Rather, our leadership qualities stem from historical colonial conditions that our country, the Philippines has undergone -- which made us look inward and outward. That is the same with Indonesia, colonized by the Dutch, Bangladesh by Britain, and Vietnam by the France and America. China was also conquered by the different countries but one influence it has imbibed hook line and sinker are  the materialistic doctrines of Marx, Lenin, and Mao Ze Dong. It is difficult to say that she is still Asian at this time as in its present expansionist moves, it seems to decry that the world resources are for everyone, not just herself.  

The leadership qualities that we can offer therefore are those based on our deep historical, painful past that sought the reversal of our original roots which our heroes and heroines presented and pointed to us as worthwhile overcoming in order for us to be liberated and acquire genuine identity as a people. 

Asian leadership is worthwhile studying -- and learning from -- in order that our region and the world eventually will maintain peace. Let us seek to study it deeply and find out how we can trade ideas with other peoples of the world and stop altogether bloodletting and traumas from increasing. 

May everyone listen.