INTERNET AND MORALITY

There is a point wherein a political act becomes a sabotage of the democratic spirit in America. When we speak of democracy, we apply reason to everyone, not a few. 

These hackings, leakings of emails reflect an anarchistic act which should not have any room in a democratic society. Unfrotunately, groups like Wikileaks have been created. No matter how atractive their data are, the chaos that they bring, the unfair judgment without trial on guilty people, make their act suspect -- an act of sabotaging democratic processes. 

Even if Wikileaks is based in Iceland, and its officers are of multinational character, still their acts are terrible. They produce fear through their internet terrorism.  Regardless of whether the hacked individual is guilty or not, still there must be some form of legal process to be followed. 

And when government officials are concerned, the date that are unearthed must be used by the hacker to press charges, not to display them as a sign of their great intellectual savvy to steal data. 

I think that we should not forget our moral reponsibility to the youth, who would feel intimidated, scared and even turn away from politics if we follow the trend of thought of these hackers. 

It is high time that decency and honesty be put up as primary principles in the use of the internet. 

HOW TO FIND PEACE

Sometime in the past I used to see a picture of the earth as a human face with a hand clutching the head, as if in pain. Today, the same illustration could be very relevant and useful as we see that in the Middle East today, in Syria, specifically, we are seeing a breakdown of negotiations and wars going on day in and day out.


What is war? War is simply a breakdown of communication. No longer do the parties want to sit down and talk. They just want to eliminate each other from the face of the earth. The biggest losers here are the women and children because of their vulnerable situation. 

Why is communication a failure in this part of the globe? Is it the differences in language? of religion? of political beliefs? But all these were slowly bridged when the United Nations was created in the 40's and there are a lot of advances already in making people understand each other. 

I really cannot imagine how the women and children could withstand hearing bombs being detonated, airstrikes being conducted and their having to run for their lives all the time in a war situation. And I pity most of all those who want to get out by all means, including braving the high seas without any assurance of landing in a country that will welcome them. 

In the women's movement, I think we first raised the flag bearing the principles of Equality, Development, and Peace in 1985 in Nairobi.  Yet, that was a very long time ago and our efforts seem to be going down the hill. No longer are men listening to cries for peace in the Middle East, and instead are just concerned with daytoday holding their guns and other kinds of ammunitions. 

I wonder what the superpowers are thinking when they go to sleep at night. Can they sleep at all knowing that many people are dying, or are so insecure of their lives and wish they could go somewhere else to be able to live humanely?

I think that what is happening in that part of the globe is a failure of the United Nations as an organization in disciplining its members. When I hear over the radio how the UN is asking for more donations for its efforts to help the victims, my thoughts always wander to -- shouldn't it be asking for the complete stoppage of the war? That is panacea when they ask for donations. That is not the real solution. And when I hear so many thousands are braving to reach Europe, I begin to think, what about their historical sites, their books, their artworks? No these are all gone; they are nothing to be worried about. It is their lives that matter most, no longer the finer things in life. 

I am not so thankful that the Philippines is spared from war, because down there in Mindanao, a group of bandits, the Abu Sayyaf are still kidnapping and beheading their victims if they do not come up with millions of dollars of ransoms. 

No, there must be a better way of solving conflicts, not always using the art of war. Men must renounce the use of killing weapons and work for higher goals of making everyone live peacefully.  

Should political problems always be resolved through war? This makes me wonder how we learn about political science in the academes. Maybe there should be a greater bunch of subjects in all levels and types of studies, from childhood to adulthood, on how to preserve and protect peace, more than learning how Napoleon Bonaparte, Hitler, Kublai Khan and other warriors won and lost their battles, shouldn't we have more courses on peace and conflict, and make every student learn how to use the lessons first in the home, then the community and then the larger society. The course could cover -- how to negotiate for peace without using force; how to use psychological tools to enhance negotiations instead of aiming all the time to overpower the other party, and so many more topics. 

The UNESCO can strengthen this move by requiring all countries, especially where wars could erupt and are going on to submit their plans on the matter.  

I think that if we are able to do this, all those cloak-and-dagger moves of people to achieve power would be eliminated. Instead, everyone will be living and working for open transactions and humane dialoguing to reach a consensus, a pacified situation without bloodletting, or even just simply a peaceful agreement on how to resolve differences. 

In our country, the Philippines, the historical development of peace efforts started when we dismantled the martial law regime through people power in But right now, the daily killings in the streets and of drug lords, pushers and victims, are blurring our memory of that national movement of ours which was even replicated in many countries abroad, like Germany with the East and West reuniting, Poland in 1989, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The Soviet Union from 1990-91 was dissolved with the following countries declaringindependence, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyszstan, Latvia, Liithuania, Moldova, Tajkistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine ad Uzbekistan. 

Now that wars are occurring in Middle East, and even in Africa, should we not start talking again and find out how women can be involved in solving those wars? Actually, i do not hear much of women's voices when solving those conflicts is concerned. Even the pictures I see of people negotiating, I only see men and yet, women -- mothers, daughters, grandmothers, -- together with the children are the ones suffering a lot.  

Let us all pray that everyone will sit down and talk to stop the wars occurring all around the globe. Let us remove that image of the earth with a painful head. Instead, let us have a view of it, with people circling it around, like the children and going round and round their merry way happy to be living on this planet. 

***************************

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11606415/Syrian-war-Meet-the-woman-artist-who-paints-the-terror-and-torment.html

 Syrian artist Sara Shamma

HOW TO FIND PEACE

Sometime in the past I used to see a picture of the earth as a human face with a hand clutching the head, as if in pain. Today, the same illustration could be very relevant and useful as we see that in the Middle East today, in Syria, specifically, we are seeing a breakdown of negotiations and wars going on day in and day out.


What is war? War is simply a breakdown of communication. No longer do the parties want to sit down and talk. They just want to eliminate each other from the face of the earth. The biggest losers here are the women and children because of their vulnerable situation. 

Why is communication a failure in this part of the globe? Is it the differences in language? of religion? of political beliefs? But all these were slowly bridged when the United Nations was created in the 40's and there are a lot of advances already in making people understand each other. 

I really cannot imagine how the women and children could withstand hearing bombs being detonated, airstrikes being conducted and their having to run for their lives all the time in a war situation. And I pity most of all those who want to get out by all means, including braving the high seas without any assurance of landing in a country that will welcome them. 

In the women's movement, I think we first raised the flag bearing the principles of Equality, Development, and Peace in 1985 in Nairobi.  Yet, that was a very long time ago and our efforts seem to be going down the hill. No longer are men listening to cries for peace in the Middle East, and instead are just concerned with daytoday holding their guns and other kinds of ammunitions. 

I wonder what the superpowers are thinking when they go to sleep at night. Can they sleep at all knowing that many people are dying, or are so insecure of their lives and wish they could go somewhere else to be able to live humanely?

I think that what is happening in that part of the globe is a failure of the United Nations as an organization in disciplining its members. When I hear over the radio how the UN is asking for more donations for its efforts to help the victims, my thoughts always wander to -- shouldn't it be asking for the complete stoppage of the war? That is panacea when they ask for donations. That is not the real solution. And when I hear so many thousands are braving to reach Europe, I begin to think, what about their historical sites, their books, their artworks? No these are all gone; they are nothing to be worried about. It is their lives that matter most, no longer the finer things in life. 

I am not so thankful that the Philippines is spared from war, because down there in Mindanao, a group of bandits, the Abu Sayyaf are still kidnapping and beheading their victims if they do not come up with millions of dollars of ransoms. 

No, there must be a better way of solving conflicts, not always using the art of war. Men must renounce the use of killing weapons and work for higher goals of making everyone live peacefully.  

Should political problems always be resolved through war? This makes me wonder how we learn about political science in the academes. Maybe there should be a greater bunch of subjects on how to preserve and protect peace, more than learning how Napoleon Bonapart, Hitler, and other warriors won and lost their battles, shouldn't we have more courses on peace and conflict, and make every student learn how to use the lessons first in the home, then the community and then the larger society. The course could cover -- how to negotiate for peace without using force; how to use psychological tools to enhance negotiations instead of aiming all the time to overpower the other party, and so many more topics. 

The UNESCO can strengthen this move by requiring all countries, especially where wars could erupt and are going on to submit their plans on the matter.  

I think that if we are able to do this, all those cloak-and-dagger moves of people to achieve power would be eliminated. Instead, everyone will be living and working for open transactions and humane dialoguing to reach a consensus, a pacified situation without bloodletting, or even just simply a peaceful agreement on how to resolve differences. 

In our country, the Philippines, the historical development of peace efforts started when we dismantled the martial law regime through people power in 1986. But right now, the daily killings in the streets and of drug lords, pushers and victims, are blurring our memory of that national movement of ours which was even replicated in many countries abroad, like Germany with the East and West reuniting, Poland in 1989, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The Soviet Union from 1990-91 was dissolved with the following countries declaringindependence, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyszstan, Latvia, Liithuania, Moldova, Tajkistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine ad Uzbekistan. 

Now that wars are occurring in the Middle East, and even in Africa, should we not start talking again and find out how women can be involved in solving those wars? Actually, i do not hear much of women's voices when and where solving those conflicts is concerned. Even the pictures I see of people negotiating, I only see men and yet, women -- mothers, daughters, grandmothers, -- together with the children are the ones suffering a lot.  

Let us all pray that everyone will sit down and talk to stop the wars occurring all around the globe. Let us remove that image of the earth with a painful head. Instead, let us have a view of it, with people circling it around, like the children and going round and round their merry way happy to be living on this planet. 

***************************

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11606415/Syrian-war-Meet-the-woman-artist-who-paints-the-terror-and-torment.html

 Syrian artist Sara Shamma

QUO VADIS?

Which country would be the

best to live in at the moment? The happenings in our country truly make us ponder on living in another place where we could have peace of mind. Peace. That is reaLly very hard to find nowadays. Opening the radio, we hear of killings inside and outside the homes of victims.Turning on the TV set, we see typhoon-ravaged homes and women and children evacuees still laughing, and half-smiling at their fate. Then we go out in the streets and we find families living in carts, an infant on the sidewalk sleeping soundly while lying on a piece of cardboard, covered with a piece of cloth and the mother, cooking with firewood by the side.

Thank God we could stilL listen to DZFE and hear different genres of music, ranging from hymns spiritual and religious, jazz, symphonies, operas and even ethnic music. So not much is really dire in our country if we just use our aural sense.

But frankly speaking which continent or country would be best to live in? I told my frienc, Vicky, I would like to go to Vietnam where I could learn how to speak French. Besides, it is only a few hours away from the Philippines so that I could still see my daughter, Dadai, and her son-in-law Than, my grandchildren, Lara, Eya and Kiko at anytime if I have the moolah. Nepal is also nice because it is atop the mountains where I could meditate day in and day out with the orange-clad Buddhist monks. What about Paris? Ah, Paris, lovely indeed but too scary nowadays because the terrorists there are everywhere in Europe. You do not really know if you could be sitting on the train with a suicide bomber. Terrorists are trained how to look innocent, dedma, in our lingo so that the authorities have a difficult time knowing them. I went there sometime in 1981 and drank a bottle of beer in front of the Bastille monument on July 14, their celebrated day. I felt headylooking at all the big buildings.

It seems as if in Europe, everything is big – the tall buildings, the huge streets that can accommodate 12 cars per and the plazas, my God, you cannot go around them in 25 minutes.

But you know, the Europeans, especially the English, love their country so much. One time I went to the Regent's Park with my friend Amina and when we got home at her flat, she showed John a bunch of roses. John asked her where she got them. And she said, “Oh we picked them at the Regent's Park.” (which was just a joke, really.) “Oh, no, that's the people's park,” John said. And for him the roses have to be seen and smelled by everyone. Picking is a no-no. Of course we had a hearty laugh at that. But deep inside, I realized what a socialist John was.

Then another time, a German went to London and invited me to join the Oberhausen Film Festival and show my films there. I said “I have not enough money to get there.” And he had said that the Festival organizers would reimburse me all my expenses including travel fares. I just had to write them. I did and reached Oberhausen. He was really very proud of the Oberhausen film Festival and his country.

Then I asked him, “How do you teach students about the role of Hitler in your history?” I forget the details of his answer but he said that they do skim over that period because many of the Germans then liked him because Hitler had given them jobs. I wondered what kind of jobs?

Anyway, that is how proud they are of their country. And the greatest thing they do is to preserve their buildings, their homes that are centuries old.

But because of the cold seasons I dare not live there, unless I would have enough funds to let me live through autumn and winter where I would have need for thick coats, leggings, boots and gloves as well as heater at night. I remember one time that I would change clothes in front of my small heater inside a Victorian room with about 20 feet high ceiling and about 20 square feet of flooring. The house was located in Hampstead, a rather posh place and Jonathan, an Irish filmmaker had invited me there to live for free. Of course he was a very nice gentleman and never harassed me. Besides he had a girlfriend who dropped by his place now and then. Anyway can you imagine that that place could not be heated? That is because the house is so antiquated that the floors are no longer completely covered with wood; so much so that they have to be carpeted in order to stop the cold from entering from below. By the way, I passed by there in 1994 when the British Council here gave me a scholarship to attend the History International Conference at Portmouth University, and I saw that there was already a new building there. The Victorian house had been demolished – it was too dangerous to live there. I felt nostalgive and sat down in front of it by a fruitstand and reminisced about the days I had spent there.

I cannot live in any other place in Europe except UK or Ireland because I do not speak the other languages. I could speak a bit of French and German but not enough to conduct a conversation. Spanish si, pero no lenguaje otra.

Now I have read that New Zealand is a good place to live in, of the best places in the world. Maybe I could explore that.

Why am I thinking of other lands? During martial law, I always liked going back to our country, after reaching other countries and seeing our folks there, aside from the fact that my children live here. I had really felt that great fervor over the plight of our kababayan and how helpless they seem but somehow, I knew that the battleground to restore democracy was in our homeland. But nowadays, it seems I am inured. And as I reach the twilight years of my life, I still want to cover as much soil as I can. That was my philosophy when I left the country in 1981. Quo vadis? 

BAD HABITS NEVER DIE

Does the internet business have any ethics? I wonder if the National Telecommunications Commission has even thought of the topic.

Everytime I approach an internet shop I ask myself if the privacy of my communications would be respected at all. I think twice, three times and even ten times if I should go to this internet shop along Espana boulevard, or to those with cheap printing internet kiosks at the area near the Polytechnic Unviersity of the Philippines, or even at UP Diliman, Quezon City. I approach these places with great trepidation especially if I will write my blog which is political, cultural and social in nature.

Why do I say these? What has been my single most common experience at blogging is that these kiosks have a tendency to tamper with my writings. In a shop with many branches all over MetroManila, no matter how I try to perfect my writing and save it in a USB, as soon as I have the article printed, it is going to have one or two mistakes which I had already edited before I came into the shop. In another shop near PUP, the technician had tampered with my articles, removing those clip art drawings which I had saved in my USB and which I had reviewed in my laptop prior to going there. Then in another shop, I rue the way the technician, before pritning would tamper with the kind of fonts I am using. For example, at UP, I had the flyer, “Gospel Mass” printed there on bond paper, with each letter of the title in a different color and the font all in Arial. The technician, destroyed it by using another font for the word, “Mass.” As I was in a hurry to tack the flyeris all over UP, I did not notice it until after I had gone home already.

I could imagine the technicians sniggering, laughing behind my back over the devilish acts they have committed on my works.

But really, it gets my goat. I am at the mercy of these kiosks because I could not find even an ounce of respect of my writings at home. My laptop, as soon as I open it, is already being viewed by people with laptops surrounding my room and surrounding our house. Yes, there are secret agents with malware operating nearby and I cannot even report it to the barangay which lacks the know-how and the facilites to check which houses have high-powered devices.

One time, an OFW friend to whom I voiced my misgivings sometime in 1998-99 checked where the hacker was coming from, with a gadget he used to manipulate when he was employeid as an electronics expert somewhere in Europr. He discovered that it came from only a few meters away, about 50 meters, somewhere near the or at the barangay office.

In fact, even my celfone is tapped. There are times when I have to send a text three times in order to insure that they get to their destinations. If sent only once, the texts would not be accurately or surely received my friends who more often than not tell me they had had not received any.

So you see Folks, how dedma I am whenever I hear about this and that new phone arriving, or how the technology is getting better and better? Our country is in a very primitive mode – matira and matibay. Kakainin ka kung gusto, at kapag nagreklamo ka, lalo kang bibirahin.

I have experienced that at UP. I complained about certain guys whom I had pinpointed as the culprits in tapping my laptop whenever I go online. No one has interviewed me or not a move has been done at all to address the problem. This time, it is the guard who comes around with the gadget that could paralyze the operations of my laptop – like draining its battery or slowing it down, or making the screen scroll up and down, without my holding a mouse or even touching that square below the keyboard wherein you could just tap it to move the cursor.

Hallelujiah, we are at the mercy of hackers!. Freedom of expression is kaput.! Long live the right to communicate on paper only.

TRAIN TO BUSAN: INDICTMENT OF KOREAN SOCIETY?

TRAIN TO BUSAN

It startS in a quiet office which is dissolving all of its stocks in the market. Then it segues to the father and his family, his daughter being cared for by his mom, as he is separated from his wife, geographically. As it is her birthday, the daughter wants to visit her mom in Busan. Torn between the demands of his office and his paternal duties, he accedes to her request and then advises her to always finish what ever she has started. This was after he had seen an uploaded video of her singing at school a song but stopping in the middle as she had recalled her father.

While taking the train to Busan, suddenly a writhing girl rushes as the last passenger. She has bloody clothes while  vagrant hides inside a washroom and keeps repeating, “All dead,” several times.

All passengers are happy to be riding the train -  a group of baseball players and cheering squad are in one coach. Two elderly sisters, a man with a pregnant wife, and the father with her daughter, Su-an.

Suddenly the writing girl gets up and bites a victim on the neck, vampire-like. The victim rises and becomes a vampire too. In a coach, they infect everyone who then turn to be collective vampires. The only way they could be contained is by enclosing all of them in one coach.

As the scene progresses, the characters – the couple – husband and wife, the father and daughter look for ways to escape. The plot to escape is highly thought of. The father and the husband deduce that the vampires are affected by darkness and sounds. Immediately the father with two celfone gadgets on hand is able to make the coach pitchblack. Then he slides one celfone on the floor. Later on, he rings it which then makes all the vampires crowd around it. So the unbitten passengers are able to escape.

The script is able to concoct scenes that are extraordinary. The unbitten ones are thrown into dilemmas that are difficult to resolve. A baseball player holds his bat ready to pounce on the vampires but he could not strike at his co-player who has been infected. The husband labels the work of the father, a fund manager, a bloodsuckers. In the end, he pleads to him to take care of his wife as he could not longer be strong enough to keep the door closed with the strong band of the vampires trying to get in. A manager decides not to allow to enter the other passengers trying to escape from the vampires because they could be infected with the virus. Then he even rouses everyone to shoo them away as they are able to get in. In the end, he himself gets infected and dies.

The film is full of suspense as the scenes unfold fast-paced from the time the train leaves the station. The entry of the last passenger, the writhing woman, signals a not so quiet trip for everyone.

There are other exciting and heart-pumping scenes as when the train meets a burning depot and everyone has to unload. Another is when the father, the daughter, the pregnant woman and the vagrant have to run after another train while hordes of vampires try to reach them.

What is the meaning of all these? I could see that the filmmaker is trying to comment on a society built on trading of material goods, a society that sees love as a very easy thing to ignite between two consenting people, a society that is built on order without room for humane interaction or even the survival of people, a society that is killing itself, its own people for no reason at all save a desire for murder.

It could be a blunt comment on the kind of society that Korea had built – very wealthy but personally, people are not really connecting with each other in a humane way. It is literally, in the film, a dog-eat-dog society built on superficial relationships, even only physical, without emotional nor intellectual attachments. The pursuit is gain, not really a life that fulfills one's potentials, talents and humanity.

Yet, the filmmaker is able to create a very interesting film given very few settings, which take place mainly inside the train coaches, interior and exterior. The acting is superb, everyone, young and old alike, men and women, are able to focus on their roles without appearing conscious at all of the camera. The characterization of the vampire is unique and really disgusting, nothing imitative of any exorcist or horror film that I have seen. Funny, but their gyrations remind me of Michael Jackson's dancing – shaking, and trembling except that the heads are nearly falling off.The way the camera focused on the mouths of the vampires, ready to devour a victim is really gblood-curdling. I was really screaming from my seat!”

I am really amazed at the film; in fact I did not think of the production crew at all while the suspenseful scenes were unfolding. Usually, kasi, when I watch a fearful film, I just imagine the crew shooting with all the cameras, cables and boom mikes all around, to deaden myself whenever a scary scene emerges. But in this one, I found myself, shouting, “Idiot, get out of there!” or “Hurry, hurry, run, idiot!” I really immersed myself in the plot of the film, and enjoyed it.

Then I stayed on to listen to the last two orchestral pieces which are simple yet memorable in their melodic phrases. They were just fantastic. I wonder if our Filipino movies are now employing orchestras to play their themes.  

I must say that this Korean film directed by Yeon Sang-ho  deserves whatever prize it should get from any award-giving bodies.

Read plot from here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/synopsis

ON REVIVING BODABIL

by Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Music Museum is a small theatre with food service during shows. Presenting Boobsie, a celebratory production for the birthday of Boobsie, a stage singer and actress, it became a private venue for her friends, relatives and politician customers who crowded the theatre in droves.

Actually, the presentation can be lumped into a few segments: 1. singing and dancing; 2. dancing only; 3. singing, exchanging jokes, with a bit of dancing, and 4. small skits. 

The presentation was spiced with audience participation, inviting one or two to go up, then asked with questions which usually bordered on the personal, like, “Are you gay?”

Some audience members were game, while others were not so much. And I have reservations about surprising people with questions that are highly sensitive like “Do you have a boyfriend?” And if the audience participant responds, “Wala pa,” this then is followed up with “Bakit wala pa?” Such question and answer are inappropriate as they should be asked in private and not in front of strangers.

But then, our stage presentations are boundless. We have not yet created a set of ethical standards for live acting on stage. For example, one young man was kissed on the lips without his wanting to. But because his budding career hinges on his being “game” in every situation, he could not help but remain cool and collected, despite his “having lost”  perhaps, his virginity. 

Yet I must say, that all the veteran actors and actresses onstage were real troubadours, who know how to sing, in tune and in tempo, despite their age. Allan K was there and sang only one song. Ate Guy, also sang and kept moving about with flailing arms all the time. Boobsie herself is good actress – as she can make her voice sound that of a five-year old kid, yet she is half-a-century old already.

Some of the costumes looked funny – negligees with matching boots. They looked like a take-off from Madonna's shows. But then Madonna is shapely and negligees are originally worn by western-looking women, not Filipino obese singers. The latter sang very well, and seriously which then did not match their costumes which  I had thought would be used  for comedy scenes. But I was rebuffed as there was nothing funny at all in their number.

Over-all, the presentation was  a type of vaudeville or “bodabil” in Pilipino, which is a mixture of singing, dancing, skits and the like. That variety type was popular in the sixties and were presented daily at the Clover Theatre and the Opera House, now long gone, with the latter turned into a hotel-cum-restaurant. Aruray, Chichay, Patsy and Lopito, Oscar Obligacion, Pugo and Togo, Sylvia La Torre,  and Eddie San Jose, (Sylvia used to prolong her 'ha-ha-ha-ha' bear the ending of the song Sa Kabukiran until the audience would clap heartily over her stamina) Kuya Germs, Dolphy and other famous comedians started their careers on the stages of those theatres, and successfully too. They migrated to TV  and the movies later on when the theatres closed down.

I must say that the actors and actresses then were real professional performers who knew when to drop a joke and make the audience laugh, or who knew how to squeeze tears in the eyes of the audience with a story. My mother was a regular habitue with me, my sisters Dina and Vangie, and brothers Eduardo and Antonio in tow, of those “palabas.” We used to sit in the orchestra, eating peanuts, grapes, etc. and we would laugh to our hearts' content at the repartees of the theatre artists. Even the music was live, not canned, unlike today where the singers sing to a minus-one CD.

Actually, the movies of the sixties pulled out sex themes which then drew the audience to watch them and took away a great number of the audience of the live presentations. In reaction, the theatres tried to compete by injecting sexy display of women in bikini who would walk down the ramp attracting some of the male audience to not only ogle but even attempt to touch or grab their legs. That lascivious act I think, brought on the final demise of the live theatre as a daily presentation. One of our extra curricular activites of our history of drama class, in the sixties, under UP Prof.  Rosete now Lerias, was to watch a “bodabil” and my classmates and I did, together with her, where we saw that scene I have just described.

Nowadays, we only have one time or may be two or three-times, not a daily presentation on theatre. In contrast, the sale of such shows goes for two to three months before they are presented, whereas before, the bodabil could depend on the daily takes at the tills to pay the artists. I am not into the real score, however, if the artists were happy with their salaries or wages then.

Theatre is an important part of any society which elicits spontaneous reactions of the audience, unlike the manipulated responses on TV. Also, it is a good place for breeding real actors as they have to hone their talents and face a discriminating audience that can spell their continuance or abrupt dismissal once they do not click with them. In fact, no amount of praise releases or manipulation of the talent manager can raise a theatre person from being a ham to being a truly worthy acting awardee.

By the way, we also saw in those theatres some of the audience throwing in roses and even money to their favorite actors and comedians. I cannot remember an instance though of anyone throwing a tomato to a rotten presenter. But I recall now, catcalls and boos also proliferated then, as when the curtain would not open on time or when a favorite singer would not give an encore. Usually though, Diomedes Maturan who was famous for singing The Rose Tattoo and others would pacify them by singing another number.

Given proper government budgetary support, good for a year, I am sure we could, (and we really should) revive this theatre form without censorship. Other patrons could follow the step and truly make our country, the Asian capital of live theatre.

We need to strengthen the Music Museum and all other theatres that offer live presentations like the Meralco Theatre, Phil-Am theatre, Onstage theatre, and even university theatres. We could revive the good old days of the “bodabil” and encourage serious singers, dancers and actors who would show their extraordinary talents and elicit genuine applause for their being real troopers without descending into sex themes.

Then we shall be able to hone also theatrical talents like scriptwriters, costume and wardrobe artists, make-up artists, directors, and stage assistants, among others.

Spontaneity is what theatre offers, not manipulated acting. There is more vigor, vitality and energy in theatre built up by the pressures of a limited time of presentation and the presence of a discriminating audience. Also, with the challenge brought in by technology, theatre could employ now many techniques to attract the audience. For example, Ohm, of UP Theatre works for other countries' theatres where he could employ his knowledge of highly-technical electric and electronic lighting beautifully used in the comedic and tragic plays of UP director Alex Cortez.

Thus, as we encourage theatre watching, we would also be raising the people's standards for judging whether an actor/actress is worthy of being admired, applauded and appreciated – not only for the looks but for real acting talent. They would also be wary of appreciating a TV program if the only thing it only urges them to be materialistic instead of challenging them to think higher ideas.

Folks, let us remember:

It is a lazy public which promotes a slothful and irresponsible theater.

EDWARD ALBEE, "Which Theater Is the Absurd One?", 1962

Tidbits about Bodabil in the Philippines from 

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Bodabil

Bodabil is genre of variety entertainment is composed of song and dance numbers, slapstick comedy routines, magic acts, and chorus girls -- an indigenized version of the American vaudeville. It was prevalent in the Philippines from the 1910s until the mid-1960s, though it reached the height of its popularity during the Japanese occupation. It has spawned onstage performers who would be icons of Philippine Cinema, such as Dolphy, Nora Aunor, Leopoldo Salcedo, and Rogelio de la Rosa.

The American tradition entered the Philippine scene through the educational system that they introduced in 1901. The fresh new inputs that they brought in merged with the transforming tradition of the Philippine theater. The songs and dances of thebodabil used to fill in the gaps between short Zarzuela or between the acts of long ones. In some provinces, these intermissions were called "jamboree", the term used for opening musical performances of stage shows. During the Japanese occupation, they were called "stage shows". The current form of bodabil are said to be the variety shows that are so popular on television.

Bodabil was staged in the Manila Grand Opera House and the Savoy, which was later called Clover. It also appeared on political stages, but after a few decades, it deteriorated into cheap shows shown in low class theaters around American bases.

During its peak, there were different performers that emerged in different fields. One of these was Borromeo Lou who played Jazz music. There were also dancers such as Benny Mack and Bayani Casimiro (known as the "Filipino Fred Astaire"), and comic magicians like Canuplin. There were also singers such as Katy de la Cruz, Diana Toy and Miami Salvador; the "Filipino Elvis Presley", Eddie Mesa; the local Perry Como, Diomedes Maturan; and Pinay Timi Yuro, who is known now as Nora Aunor.