LES MISERABLES: LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION

LES MISERABLES: LOVE IN THE TIME OF THE REVOLUTION

Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Did Victor Hugo change the idea of love in his book, Les Miserables? When you watch the film you will find various meanings of love, based on Christian tenets of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I watched the film more than four times, the first, only half of it. I had to repeat watching it because of its musicality. I could not feel the time passing while viewing scene by scene revolutionary singers, singing in tune and hearing their with meaningful lyrics. Yes, I would recommend the film as must-watch especially for Christians who are at a loss as to what Christian love means.

Mother’s love

Fantine (Anna Hathaway) exemplifies the adoring, devoted mother who sacrifices her life and honor just to be able to give sustenance to her daughter, Cosette taken care of by debauched innkeepers (played by Sacha Baron and Helena Bonham Carter). After being disemployed and thrown out of the factory of rosary beads owned by La Mere (played by Hugh Jackman), she enters prostitution, but after selling her daughter’s locket, her hair and then her teeth, for ten, twenty francs? So cheap at that time. She catches illness and just as she was getting worse, Mr. La Mere springs up to save her from the clutches of a brusque customer and the police, headed by Javert.

Fantine lyrics: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

- “Take my hand and lead me to salvation.”

Love of work

Javert, the police who hunts down Jean Valjean, the prisoner sent on parole and then who escapes, not reporting anymore as he has been ordered to do, is a prime example of the rightist – the individual who upholds the law no matter the costs. He likens those who flaunt the law like Lucifer who must descend to hell. For Javert, the law is like the commandments of God, and so he seeks God’s intercession so that he can catch Jean Valjean. Here we see that Victor Hugo has placed the idea of God as one who looks after the good and bad guys in the world, as Javert belongs to the latter in the story.

Javert’s lyrics: ‘Can this man’s sins be forgiven, Is he from heaven or hell?”

Romantic love

The love of Eponine, daughter of corrupted couple-innkeepers, for Marius is typically unrequited love She romantically hankers for him but his sights after all are for Cosette. And so Eponine sings, “On my own” with lyrics that say that “I love him but only on my own.” Eponine we might say belongs to the poor class while Marius, the bourgeoisie in French society. And so her love maybe characterized as slavish. When Marius requests her to seek the address of Cosette, Eponine agrees to do so. When Marius was about to be attacked by the soldiers, she brought herself between them and got killed in the process. Her song with Marius speaks only of his being with her and not loving her, whereas Marius offers words of love to make her live.

A child’s love of country

However, Javert has a redeeming grace. He is set free by Jean as he was about to executed by the rebels who had found him acting as an impostor-rebel but giving the wrong information about the time of attack of the King’s soldiers. It was the little child who exposes him as the head of the police. As the child himself dies in the film, upon seeing his corpse, Javert pins his own medal of honor on him.

Why did the child die? At that time when the people had deserted the rebels, knowing the heavy equipment that the State could use against them, the rebel leaders were wavering whether to continue or not. But a child’s love of country knows no bounds. It is just pure and simple love without any idea of death at all. And so he sang the rebels song, “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry (ones). It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again.” As the child sang that, the adult rebels take heart and sing with him. Unfortunately, a King’s soldier shoots him down.

Rebels’ love of country

The way the rebels taunted Marius for his romantic love for Cosette shows that this is really a universal phenomenon. The rebels told him that to be patriotic is a higher cause than falling in love with one person, and that Marius cannot possibly succumb to his vulnerable emotions but should rather use reason.

Thus in the song about red and black, lyrics go this way, contrapuntally:

MARIUS: Red the color of desire

Black the color of despair

REBELS: Red, the blood of angry men

Black: the night that leads to dawn

Red: the world about to dawbn

Black, the dark that ends at last.

During the seventies here in our country, this dilemma of whether to serve the aims of the revolution against Marcos or remain dedicated to domestic concerns was very much felt. Many people became afraid to confront the dictatorship, but not until the 80’s when Ninoy had died and Cory led the movement to restore democracy in our country.

Thus, I recommend that every NGO (non-government organization) member learn the lyrics and sing the song. It helps to know that in the time of the revolution, even personal desires could rankle anyone.

Love of a surrogate father

Jean Valjean takes over as the father and mother of Cosette. His love for her is fraught with danger as Javert hounds him at every corner. But his will to live, to be free cannot be broken. Towards the end, when he feels that his age is catching up with him, he stumbles upon Marius courting Cosette secretly. But Marius belongs to the rebel groups.

Jean Valjean’s love for Cosette makes him sacrifice himself – going to the ranks of the rebels just so he could find out who this Marius is and make him be with Cosette. Marius is hurt and lost consciousness during the massacre and confrontation between the rebels and the State police. Valjean carries him away from the scene so that he will live and be with Cosette.

Valjean’s lyrics: “I can die in peace for my life is blessed.

”

n  “Take this children Lord in thy embrace and give them grace.”

Cupid-style

Love at first sight sparked between Marius and Cosette, to the despair of Eponine. This might have been a compromise of Hugo to the general notion that Cupid could play tricks to anyone at anytime. The love between the two is blessed by Valjean who was feeling his age catching up on him. However, with regard to his true background as a prisoner-parole escapee, Valjean keeps from Cosette, for fear that she will be disgraced.

Valjean’s lyrics: “Truth is given by God in our time, in our term.”

Debauched Love 

The love between the Thenardiers, the innkeepers is one of "You use me, I use you" type. The man uses the woman to run the inn and at the same time freely liaises with others he may fancy, while the woman, pretends to like a customer but steals money from him. One of her customers is that soldier who heads the group that attacks the rebels at the barricade. Actually the life at the inn is like hell -- where you have sex, violence, lying, stealing, child abuse, and all kinds of  Luciferic activities committed by people from all walks of life including the clergy. 

Love of life

Not only did Valjean save the lives of a worker pinned down by a pillar, Cosette, of and Marius, he also saves the life of Javert. In the process of executing Javert, the rebels meet Valjean who because of his alert reaction killed a traitorous pro-royalty standing atop one of the towers. In exchange for his valiant act, the rebels asked him what he wanted, and he asked for the life of Javert. However, instead of killing him, Jean Valjean sets him free. True to form, Javert did not consider it an act worthwhile for he warned Valjean that he would still hunt him down later on. Valjean gave him his address where he could be found.

In this instance, friends’ and enemies’ lives are both important to Valjean as he himself has been the recipient of the unconditional love of that priest in the convent who gave him shelter.

By the way, after his release from prison, Jean Valjean could not find work, was ostracized by society, which denied him a room at the inn. (Here Hugo seems to liken Valjean’s search for an inn to the travels of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, in search of a place to stay.) Finally he settles down in a space by a convent where the priest finds him and opens the doors of charity to him – food, shelter, a warm bed and peace of mind.

So that priest’s belief in his capacity to change, transformed Valjean himself into a new man and became a very rich businessman owning a rosary factory.

The priest’s Christian love – undiscriminating – became a model for Valjean to become a good citizen even to the point of setting free his nemesis, Javert.

French belief in Christianity

I am completely surprised by the very Christian outlook of Hugo here, and which was given justice by the filmmakers, maybe by director Tom Hooper or maybe as ideated by Cameron Mackintosh, the producer. In the dialogue, there is frequent mention of Jesus, of God. Fantine says: “if God knew me now, he would let me die instead.” Javert prays to God to be able to catch Valjean. Valjean prays to God to let him bring home Marius to Cosette. In that scene where Fantine is hallucinating over Cosette, she sees the image of her child approaching her through a gauzy curtain but with the cross to her right.

The cross

Actually the cross is very visible all throughout the film. From the factory where the rosary is being strung, the rosary which Jean Valjean gives to Javert who visits him in his office, the room of Jean Valjean at the end of the film where a cross hangs by the wall.

God as savior and friend

But God is not some kind of an entity that is too high and omnipotent to be reached. Valjean and the other characters speak, mention or even talk to God as a friend just standing by or sitting down with them everyday. Even the rebels reveal their theistic upbringing.

I think that the film is very good material for the youth of our country, supposedly the only Catholic country in Asia, so that they may understand the real meaning of having faith.

The film shows us that amid poverty and struggles for transformation, we do not lose our faith in God and in fact it inspires us to live and be humane to fellow human beings.

 As a last note, I scanned the pages of Les Miserables the book and found some scenes of which the filmmakers have taken liberty, meaning they had changed some of the actions. For example when Valjean gets Cosette, in the book, he stays overnight at the inn and gets her in the morning. But in the film, the deed is done right away, perhaps to show that urgency of the situation, whereby Javert could surface at any time and catch Valjean. 

In the book also, Fantine dies because she hits her head on something, but in the film she just loses consciousness. That scene is very moving and dramatic and perhaps there is reason to change the writings of Hugo. Then,  there is an extensive portrayal of Marius as the son of the nobility in the book whereas in the film, the treatment of him centers on being a suitor to Cosette and a hesitant comrade to the rebels. 

I think that the film should have been titled "The Miserables" with a caption, based on Hugo's book. When great liberties are taken of the contents of a book, then that film because an entity of its own, albeit adapted from the original. Most of all, the film is musical, which the book did not have, and hence the filmmakers -- director, composer, lyricist, scriptwriter, and everybody elses, have produced a semi-original film. By having a title of its own, then the people involved  credited  for  their visually and aurally satisfying portrayal of the plot in the book. 

May there be more of this film, historical, touching and musical. 

RAISON D’ETRE OF PUBLIC OFFICE

RAISON D’ETRE OF PUBLIC OFFICE

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

What is politics? When we engage in debates and discussions about a particular issue, we are acting politically. Politics is a means to change society, and debates and discussions are the tools to bring about change under a democratic atmosphere. However, it is not an assurance that the debaters are ethical – meaning morally upright just because they are debaters.

In the Philippine context, what is being morally upright? It is upholding the interests and welfare of the Filipino people, insuring that they deserve, get and receive the benefits they truly deserve in order to live humanely, with dignity and with the capability to exercise all our human rights. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in our country.

Just recently, although we welcome contrary opinions opposing each other in the House of Congress, both the Senate and the House of Representatives, yet we are wary of tacit wars that are occurring – the break between those whom we think represent the people, and those who represent vested interests. On the surface, we see members of the Congress as representing their so-called constituents and/or their political parties, but a deeper analysis would show that the divisions are actually a matter of economic and political interests of certain big political officials who are in power now or who want to gain or regain power. As this happens, we, the common tao are left to be spectators of a panorama of dramatic settings, one party being pitted against another, or one individual against a host of other individuals in political settings.

Yet, nonetheless, despite these seeming contradictions and brouhaha, we are still interested in what is going on because we care for our future, especially for the state of peace in our country. We cannot allow her to be in turmoil again, being a captive of one man or one political party which bribes its members to tow its line, no matter how corrupt and graft-ridden they are. We want her to remain a democratic state where everyone will be free to talk and discuss, and call a spade a spade in order to clear those questions that have long been lingering in our minds but which some of us are too tame to ask.

Some analytical quarters do not want to label the current opposing parties as a case of leftist and rightist opinions. I would add centrist too. Instead they marvel at the so-called smooth techniques of certain individuals to overcome any opposition to their rule and instead focus on the method, the technique of their maintaining public and perhaps mass media opinion on their side. But that is exactly the point: we can drown in the glamorous techniques of politicians yet fail to see beyond the mirage that they are creating in order not for us to see the veil of crass opportunism and urge for naked power that they represent.  I think that is the waterloo of democracy in our country or the beginning thereof, when we are made to see only the superficial and not the substance of debates.

When we look at debaters as “parang mga manok na nagsasabong,” then we are taking a stance of objectivity. We are not really taking an ethical stand, as it seems we do not want to hurt any party by taking sides. Viewing debaters alone and not forming ethical opinions afterwards is a case of being “manhid” or callous to the real needs of the people. By being so-called objective, we are actually siding with the rightists, those people who think and act that might is right, that being in power does not mean taking the sides of the people, but rather of the rule of law. “I was elected and given power and therefore I shall exercise it the way I see it.” No it does not matter to them  if that power emanated from the people who have specific and general needs to be met. “What is important is I am seated and I have the right to this seat of power.”

Actually, rightist thinking is akin to Machiavellian definition of power, a case of the end justifying the means, instead of the other way around. Rightists in our midst are the ghosts of martial law, of that era when freedoms of the people were set aside, stolen, and appropriated (or should it be expropriated?)  by an unelected few in order to rule this country. That was the time when the coffers of the country, and  our people – the so-called human resources according to managerial lingo – were made to think and act according to “their laws,”

Any official of the government who does not think that that era is a doomed setting for any group of people does not deserve any position at all. Instead, he/she should be made to vacate their posts and give way to those who have the proper ethical frame of mind to occupy them. Our youth should be able to define and analyze what is not a democratic state, why never should martial law come to our country or any other country for that matter. 

The problem in our country is that ethics is not really a popular word. It sounds “erudite” to be talking about ethics. Those who do are considered “nerdy,” too intellectual, too analytical, “matasa,” or even “makulit.” Yet ethics is in the heart of every human endeavor. Those who fail to view it as an important value to be imbibed by every individual is bound to be too compromising so that the real values to be upheld are no longer seen or felt.

Actually Congress has an ethics committee, a group that seeks to investigate cases of violation of ethical rules by representatives and senators. Yet the committee seems to be more of a fine and beautiful label rather than a living one that puts muscle and brawn to the tasks that it should perform. Has there been any member of Congress chastised for having violated ethical norms? I can only remember the young Singson but who was caught by the Hong Kong authorities carrying prohibited drugs and so that incident threw a black eye against Congress forcing it to declare his seat vacant. No other incident or case has been reported of any real decision on any member. Is it because the rest are covering up for them, or are guilty of similar offenses and so would rather clam up than be discovered to be one of the flock? We will never know. Senator Rene Saguisag during the time of President Erap vigorously pursued the investigation and came up with glaring conclusions about scams committed in the past administration. We know what happened to President Erap after that.

Coming from that angle, we want the same ethical push be created in Congress. We do not just want Congress to be peopled by those of various political parties, but rather of those who know and act so that ethical considerations are paramount in any and all aspects, spaces of Philippine life, and the world of course.

Ayaw na natin ng plastikan, o ng garapalan.  Ang gusto natin ay katotohanan, para kanino ka ba? Para kanino kayo? Sa taumbayan o kanino? Para saan at nasa puwesto kayo? Are you creating earthshaking policies or just so-so to show that you have done something while in office and receiving all the benefits and emoluments, plus commissions, and bonuses you can get? The time is ripe for cognition of the raison d’etre of genuine public service.  

RIGHT TO SUFFRAGE BESIEGED

	Jan 12 (5 days ago) 2013

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Life can be very cheap. You may lose it in the street or in your home.
Does it really matter if you are dead already? Your family, that is
most of the families, would feel sorrowful should you die. But to
some, death could be a way of reducing economic problems – less mouth
to feed, clothe and shelter. But if the dead is the breadwinner then
that makes a lot of difference.

The spate of killings in the country is very alarming – starting with
those caused by natural disasters (or misguided environmental and
development plans); and those that are politically motivated. Then
there are those also caused by mentally deranged individuals who are
given the chance to get hold of high-powered arms.

Death could be viewed as an entrance to another level of life, to some
people. But then that is only passable if the individuals have lived
fully on earth, meaning they have fully expressed their talents, they
have lived a successful life not only for themselves but also for
others. In other words, we qualify life that has meaning not only to
oneself but also to others.

Yet nowadays, we cannot even require that death be qualified. Some
people just die without their willing it. Others are collateral damage
in an encounter. As the election period is nearing, we are witnessing
this increase in killings in places that are far from the seat of
political power.

How come, it is so difficult to build up and strengthen democracy
without too much cost to lives? Why can’t people just go to the polls
and say, “Oh, I will vote at ten a.m. and my vote will be counted
after 3 p.m. Great. Elections will be over soon.”

The democratic exercise should be taken as one of the activities in
our lifetime. It should not be the be-all and end-all of a person’s
attention. Sure, we must be politically motivated to help our country
move forward but then, there are many ways to do that as well –
through business, through engagement in the arts, through education,
and many others.

Redefining political power
By making that political exercise as the steppingstone to social
power, to perhaps economic power, then all the other fields are being
reduced to secondary, or even tertiary roles. An artist has a lower
social rank than a senator in our present day. Not even a national
artist will be considered higher in stature. A musician would be a
lesser being than the president. And should the president be a
musician, then that would not be a most qualifying talent at all even
if the individual could compose and sing songs that talk of how this
country can be made equal to all the superpowers of the world. I
cannot imagine a Havel, the dramatist becoming president in an Eastern
European country, happening here at all.

By the way, this is why I am awed by a famous local mayor, who is
still engaging in filmmaking, despite his being busy as a political
official. You see filmmaking is a difficult field – very demanding.
The filmmaker has to open all his and her senses – hearing for sounds,
sight for visuals, emotions to make the characters have humanity,
etcetera. But come to think of it, did he sacrifice his film art
before he became an official --not engaging in it till he had reached
that highest post in local government?

Not political office alone
 Let me repeat what I said in the past. Our society has to 
create rewards and awards for all the fields,
make them really credible as worthwhile activities not for the
monetary component alone if there is any, but for that reason that one
is cut out for this and that field. (Oh please, delete boxing as a
talent. So gross.) And excelling in those fields is equal in
importance to holding a political office.

In other words, we can acquire power and fame, through our talents not
by necessarily becoming a politician, but more by engaging in what we
think is the best that we can do. Of course, it is important to love
our country, to participate in whatever manner. In fact, we can voice
out or express our political views through the arts, literature and
music which then should be considered as noble as sitting in office.

Of violence-inclined officials
When individuals, in office or not yet in office, start using violence
in order to stay or acquire power, that I think is already a sign that
they are not cut out to be leaders of our country. In fact, their use
of violence is bracketing the people’s minds into thinking that to be
politically powerful is to be armed.

Violent persons – covert and overt – should have no space in our
society. We must be very strict about that. We cannot allow ourselves
to be hoodwinked into thinking that the strong person is the armed,
and not a sewer, a handicraft maker, a domestic helper, or one holding
a paintbrush, a pen, or even a laptop. Every individual has his or her
strength in one or in many aspects. Strength does not mean being able
to hold a political office alone.

Refocused aspirations
Refocusing the minds of our people into the many other endeavors in
life could actually prolong their lives. Why because there is less
competition or the competition is manageable in those areas, whereas
in our political reality, competition is not only cut-throat but also
deadly. I guess the many non-government organizations engaged in
social movements, have to help in this endeavor. They must raise the
aspirations of the people, not just to become political in attitude
but also artistic, business-minded, etc.

Well, as elections are the best way for us to have good and committed
leaders, I would grant that we should accord this exercise great
attention also. At this time, we should already start campaigning:
“Walang bentahan ng boto.” We should mark those candidates who are
inclined to vote-buying as not worthy of being in office.

Vote-buying and vote-selling are actually the highest crimes, next to
killing in the election period. DELIBERATELY MIISCOUNTING AND TAMPERING WITH THE RESULTS SHOULD ALSO BE TREATED AS CRIMINAL ACTIVITES BECAUSE THE PERPETRATORS ARE STEALING THE VOTES OF THE PEOPLE. 

When people vote for a druglord or druglady because 
they had received “lagay” then we are building a gangster
land, no longer a democratic country. Vote-buying and vote-selling
make a mockery of our electoral powers. It is putting a price on our
vote which is not the fundamental reason why we have that right of
suffrage.

We must emphasize to the people that the right of suffrage is sacred,  ours to
use to select and elect leaders, men and women, who will devote their
body, mind and emotions into public service, who will be morally
upright all throughout their term who will lead, LEAD us into a more humane
and prosperous life.

Thus, we must have morally conscious voters. They must be able to
distinguish a true from a fake candidate for a political post.

Conscience voting is the most sacred thing we can do in our lifetime –
putting up individuals as officials who will serve selflessly all
throughout without expecting any monetary return. 

This should make sure that our right to vote will no longer be under siege .

Now how do we choose which candidate is worthy of our votes? Then, we
must have standards for voting a local and a national official. The
standards should be concrete, not abstract, say : this candidate has a
history of this and that activity. Is this good or bad? Is he or she
moral, meaning knowing and practicing good acts that redound to the
healthy development of the country?

Am I being an idealist? Not really. I am for preparing and the hearts
and minds of the people – voting is one aspect of our political life.
And we must do it conscientiously. At the same time, we need to
inculcate in the people the idea that  being in a political office is
just one avenue for a person to serve the people, the country and of
course, the earth

FORESIGHT AND GOVERNMENT

FORESIGHT AND GOVERNMENT 

One of the things that we used to be taught in our educational institutions is how to manage and control the environment—how to explore and exploit it so that we could benefit from it greatly. In fact, those who were able to do so –those classmates able to do so were admired for their acumen in profiting from such – like  Henry, not his real name, who was able to make a killing from selling sugar, and Ambo who profited a lot from putting up a fishpond in Laguna Lake.

However, nowadays, making business out of the environment has become a cautious about such endeavors. It is no longer profitable to plant just one crop like sugar over and over again over a piece of land because the nutrients of the soil are not replenished, thus making it barren after some time. Building fishponds in the lake has also been overdone. Fishes run out of oxygen and die; and are prone to be victims of flooding.

So what is happening now in Compostela Valley where mining is the main industry and hundreds have lost their lives due to landslides caused by too much rainwater poured by typhoon Pablo is a similar case of so-called “managing and controlling the environment.” The number of victims is increasing and the incident is sending us an alarming signal: we have failed to listen to Mother Nature. Extraction of minerals was done without foresight except that they would bring income and huge profits. The way hundreds of people had flocked to the Valley although there were already signs of  unsafe grounds shows the desperation of our lowly-educated people for any income that could tide over their families’ needs no matter the danger.

Although we could claim that mining per se is not bad but when profiteers rule the industry rather than those conscientious buyers of minerals, then we can say that we have truly mismanaged the environment. I think that running a mining business is not a matter of drawing income from the land but also having a holistic perspective – who will profit, what will happen to the land after extraction; how will the natural elements react to the change in the contour of the land; how will the people’s living conditions be affected by the extraction.

In other words, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Trade and Industry have a lot of rethinking to do regarding the use (misuse and abuse) of natural resources in order to generate livelihood. What is problematic here is that most of our bureaucrats are ensconced in their offices and generally do not have a hands-on experience of how the people live in those areas. Only when there are issues occurring like a typhoon sweeping the country are there conscious efforts to look into the people’s living conditions.

The Department of Social Work and Development also has to consider the cash transfer program for impoverished communities by industry. Should the staff who go around find unwieldy situations, then their discoveries have to be given greater weight. Social workers generally have a close-up view of the lives of our people and hence their testimonies are more reliable when the people’s conditions are evaluated.

Foresight is a very rare and expensive commodity in our society. Those who give warning signals are either ignored or labeled too idealistic, or worse off their rockers. Usually media critics are lumped together in the latter due to the over-sensitive reactions of certain government officials to the former’s write-ups.

It is high time to raise “foresight” as an important and valid criterion for placing people to their places in government. Candidates and current occupants of appointed and elective positions have to be subjected to this criterion to find out if they have the people’s lives in their hearts and minds. “Lives” means lifetimes, not just temporary or present ones.

In other words, we are looking for officials who know how to think, feel, critique and act on our past, present and future.

DANZA MAGNIFICO

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

The image of a grandmother in a Spanish play is that of a strong maternal and matriarchal character who makes all the major decisions in the home. The man or men usually bow down to them. Even serve them without question. In the Philippines, our grandmothers are no different. We love them even more than our own mothers sometimes because they dote on us, their grandchildren, lovingly while our mothers are busy with housework and eking out a living.

So when I watched Eduardo Guerrero dance the flamenco with the title, De Dolores,  last night, November 27, 2012 at the RCBC Plaza), I could see why he was so inspired to move, to flick his hands, to sway his hips, to clickety-clack his two-inch high boots, and to strut, fly and sweep the floor, as if it were natural for him to be like a butterfly, a praying mantis, and even a bull. He was highly inspired by that image of Dolores, (the title of his dance is De Dolores) his grandmother.

El recuerdo del ayer nos hace vivir hoy para triunfar en el manana…(The memories of yesterday make us live today to succeed tomorrow,) – Eduardo Guerrero, his  statements in the program.

What makes Guerrero’s piece remarkable is that he was accompanied by the singer Emilio Florido, and guitarist Javier Ibanez. Did he move according to the meaning of the lyrics of the songs, or the rhythm and melody coming from the guitar? The night was truly a great combination of many arts – music – song and guitar- dance, and theatre, a novel form that exploits the many talents and shall we say geniuses of the artists.

In the beginning, Guerrero was bare from the waist up and seated on a wooden chair without arms. Around him were two other chairs. Then he laid down on one his head reaching the floor, and his legs stretched out on the opposite side. It was as if, he was part of the furniture and he could not care less. It was like a moment of recall, of remembering the past; then slowly he moved, carrying the chairs one by one to their proper positions. On the right side of the stage stood a clothes rack. He approached it very slowly and then removed his pants, then put on one by one the pieces from the rack.

“…son recuerdos y en estos mas que el argumento es elsentimiento el que nos traslada hasta ellos. (a show without storyline because they are memories and in them, rather than the store, lies the feeling that moves us to them.) –E. Guerrero.

Guerrero has that sense of suspense in him as he made the audience draw their attention with bated breath as to what he would do next. After a few minutes, he was dressed up an ordinary man – in dark blue shirt with long sleeves, tight pants and a sash. Then, as the guitarist and the singer had sat on the two chairs, he began to move, his dance rising to a crescendo and after that it was like watching a bullfight with him as the bull, as the torero all rolled into one. The passion and intensity with which he moved to shape the characters on stage through flamenco were truly magnificent – he was a proud toreador, a romantic lover, a  shy young man, a tease, a virile man out to conquer a bull? A woman? The world? All rolled into one man were the various passions anyone can feel through this setting, as if the whole of Cadiz, of Espana was coming down to that stage to give us, not a glimpse but a panorama of how a man, a dancer can feel.

“Y mas inevitable es aun, recorder a la personal que me crio, que me introdujo n el arte, que me regalo mis primeras botas para bailar, que me acompano alla donde actue y que confio en mi.La suma de todos estos recuerdos es el recuerdo de mi abuela, es el recuerdo…De Dolores.  (And even more inevitable is to remember the person who raised me, who introduced me to this art, who gave me my first boots to dance, who came with me wherever I performed, the person who trusted in me…All these memories are the remembrance of my grandmother, the memory of…Dolores.) – E. Guerrero

Javier’s music and Emilio’s songs were truly penetrating of the heart, not just the ears. The amplifier gave just the right volume with a bit of echo sounding hrough the auditorium as Javier caressed and plucked  the guitar strings, while Emilio sang lilting tunes sometimes clapping as Guerrero clicked his heels, and at times, seemingly pining for something or someone lost?  Ay, if only we could understand Spanish pero nuestro 12 unidades en colegio no esta bastante para comprender los cantos total.

By the way, after our singing (many in the crowd sang) Lupang Hinirang, the music of Spain’s national anthem followed. I did not hear the lyrics at all from my seatmates whom I had heard talking in Spanish antes de programa. Maybe next time, the organizers could play the anthem with lyrics and make the expats sing with it.

Yet, twice already, after the playing of the Spanish anthem, last November 20, when Teresa Nieto’s company danced flamenco (where virility was championed over 4 women onstage), and last night, suddenly, the images of Rizal, the Luna brothers, and other heroes who went to Europe flashed in my mind. Why, they listened to that tune throughout their lifetime while in Europe and in the country. They must have hankered for our own anthem to be played as well.

Come to think of it, our anthem is a marching song borne during the times when our heroes and heroines were amid a period to assert the national sovereignty. On the other hand, the Spanish anthem is much slower sounding like an obeisance to some royalty, which could be the case as their society is aristocratic. 

Also, the program, started a bit late and the Instituto Cervantes director apologized for it before the start. While queueing though, he told us that they performers were still rehearsing. I responded, “Sir, no one is perfect. We are all human, please tell them. We have been standing here for quite a while.”

But the performance was truly perfect from beginning to end. The audience could sense the effort, the perseverance that had gone into making it truly memorable not only visually but emotionally as well.

We could probably empathize deeply with the performers onstage because of that common historical strain, of our having gone through the authorities of their forebears. Jane Orendain, a Filipina New Yorker, who was seated next to me, said that she has traces of Spanish blood in her – Catalan and many others. I, myself, an Orozco, is rooted to the Mexicans (remember Orozco the painter?) as Mexico was one of the colonies like the Philippines of Spain in the centuries past.

Danza is the title of the performance of Guerrero, Emilio and Javier, a truly impressive program which moved us strongly. The stage was minimally set – only the chairs on the left, the clothes rack on the right. Lighting consisted of spotlights coming from the ceiling and the sides. So there was a lot of shadows and darkness around, making us experience the sounds – the song and the clicking heels more intensely.  The synergy among the three of them was very strong and reverberated throughout sending the audience to give them a standing ovation in the end.

Jane asked me if this is the first time I had seen flamenco. I said I had seen it in the movies, and had watched a performance of students of flamenco but I did not experience that passion in their dance. This time I did – I felt the passion of the people of Cadiz, Seville and Andalucia. Perhaps even of the gypsies

Pride of their roots and their artistry were etched in every movement, every moment of song and guitar strumming.

We had to clap for so long because they deserved it. A lady brought in three garlands for each of them, and someone said, “Kiss!” but she had exited.  Cries of appreciation came one after the other and simultaneously too from different sections of the audience. In return, Emilio and Javier bowed while Guerrero, ah, Guerrero, he blew kisses to his right, to his left and to us, center.

We returned his kisses with “Bravo!”

“Magnifico!”

 

POLITICS IS NOT SO GENTLE

POLITICS IS NOT SO GENTLE

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Politics cannot wait for the weak, the helpless, the vulnerable who cannot fathom nor understand what is going on. Coupled with military might or war, it dismisses all kinds of ethical rules, religious beliefs, and cultural standards.

There are silent and loud wars. Those in politics are well-versed in this. Those who choose the first are biding their time, waiting for that opportune moment when they can express what they really think and feel should happen. Those who engage in the latter are not so gentle. They know how to manipulate situations to their interest, and most of the time, they cannot be so gentle.

One early morning last week, I heard over the radio that one country had bombed the territory of another and that military officials had been killed. The latter retaliated and so there is now an ongoing war in the Middle East. One man lost his sister-in-law and two other relatives after a bomb hit their house.

How could anyone live in a place, in a house where just a while ago, you have been speaking to the living and now they are dead? For the most irrational reasons?

I wrote in October 1991:

War makes widows of women It also leaves  many of them and children abandoned. (Didn’t one of the leaders of a democratic movement in an Asian country lose her husband while she was under house arrest? She refused to leave her country despite the dying moments of her husband at that time because she could not have been allowed to return again as she was under house arrest. On hindsight, wasn’t the image of her political father stronger in her than her husband’s? Actually, there are many ways of returning to a country through underground means. Alas, if one chooses that option, then he or she must be ready for the worst, and one of them is not being able to enjoy the accoutrements of modern living that a fugitive would always have a hard time acquiring.)

War thrives because some men cannot articulate their views well. They use those phallic symbols of power – guns, long arms to bring their message across.

War ( in the long term is aimed at decimation of the enemy). It kills lives. Women are against war because we know how difficult it is to bear life in our wombs for 9 months and then to rear them through adulthood.

(Until now) many war movies glorify machismo, thus making men feel and act superior towards men, (towards weak men).

Most violent movies are anti-women, anti-life.

There is a certain kind of pathological tendency among the machos engaged in violence which is played up in those movies. Violent movies present them as desensitized individuals whose preoccupation is to maim, to strangle, and to kill….

(I watched a Filipino TV drama program inside a bus sometime this year, unreeling how a mother and her daughter were conniving to kill another youthful woman. It was the end of the serial and the drama had made me cringe – why they now equate equality with men with that capacity to kill as well, with bold intentions and no sense of pity at all. Is it any wonder that we now have women involved in killing another woman? That incident in a downtown university where a group of female youths stabbed a girl from another university who had been visiting there and that other incident where a friend of a girl, a model, had allowed her boyfriend to reek havoc on her life, in the end killing her? Allegedly the victim had been gossiping about her as having children out of wedlock which could ruin her career in the media, especially the movies.

A foreign movie I partially viewed again inside a bus showed two women, one had a gun fighting the men. My traditional notion of women was touched aggressively. )

War has killed many articulate people who spoke well and could convince people to their side. They were killed because some men, unable to face them and argue with them verbally, wanted to win all the time, no matter how high-handedly.

….

I wrote that piece at that time a war was going on in the Middle East and the United States had joined the fray.

I remember while typing my column at the office of the Manila Times newspaper I watched a TV news report where Iraq was being invaded by US President George Bush warplanes. A UN official, on the throes of death, told the people around him, “Tell them not to abandon Iraq.” Not only were innocent lives destroyed then but that cultural artifacts which could never be restored and dating back before the time of Christ were bombed out. Thus today the people of Iraq could only have a memory of their past. And what happens when we don’t have any memory of our history? Our identity is lost forever.  We become robots. We become desensitized and selfish. Our idea of living is to accumulate whatever can be accumulated. 

Today, under the Obama second term administration, what could be its world policy towards the use of military might? Abangan.

But you see Folks, no matter how human a person can be, Obama would still be seen as weak-willed if he should show any sign of soft-heartedness when war issues and policies are discussed.

Thus, some diplomats have learned to use double talk when dealing with war hotheads. They use diplomatic language all the time, forgetting that every minute, every second counts for those caught in the crossfires. 

Sometime in the early years of this millennium, I met a rabbi who showed a friend and me a scroll which had come from the Dead Sea. As I was petite and dark while my friend was very tall and of Caucasian background, the rabbi looked at us rather lasciviously, perhaps imagining things and acts in a bedroom. Then he committed a very grievous act which I need not mention here anymore. Without having any pang of guilt and smiling mischievously all the time, he continued showing and explaining to us the importance of the scroll. Perhaps to him, all women are the same – toys to be manipulated in all aspects.

Since then, I have lost all feelings of being respectful toward him. And worse, he made me feel inhospitable towards his countryfolks here. But then the image of Mr. Meyouhas, that gentle soul who worked as an educator-consultant for the UN thrives in me. Mr. Meyouhas was my counterpart at the National Manpower and Youth Council where I had worked as an audio-visual specialist in the 70’s. By the way, the chairman of the UP Philosophy Department, Mr. Bonifacio, recommended me to be appointed by his friend heading the office, Mr. Rony Diaz. I was already a master’s student in communication at the Ateneo de Manila University then.  (Mr. Bonifacio thank you very much.) My husband then had just been incarcerated for ‘subversive” activities and I needed a job to tide over the needs of our family.

Mr. Meyouhas shared with me a lot of things on how to deal with the youth especially how to attract them to get education. Unfortunately, he suffered a stroke due to the heat as it was summertime then. Coming from the outside, he entered the office which was very cold due to the high airconditioning. He lost consciousness and then regained it while lying down on the sofa. I held his hand and he smiled at me. Then some people had thought of bringing him right away to the hospital, where on the way, he succumbed to death. I watched the ambulance roll away down that FTI road thinking that I should have gone with him, at least to give him moral strength to hold on.

When his wife got his body for transport with her on the airplane, a UN official, an Israeli also, told her: “You have two baggages, one your luggage and the other the casket.” Mr. Meyouhas had lost his respectable position in the world and had become a mere object to be brought home.

Folks, war is not only gentle, but it corrupts AND DEHUMANIZES even the so-called religious and highly-placed political officials.

NOW THIS IS MY PLEA TO ALL OFFICIALS ESPECIALLY THE HEAD OF THE UNITED NATIONS: Sirs and Mesdames, kindly stop the war in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine for a moment. And then, evacuate with all your might all women and children from those areas because they are the most vulnerable victims. If we cannot stop the warhawks, at least we could still save innocent lives.

We can only have one lifetime. Christians think we either go to heaven or hell. The Buddhists think we could be reborn, depending on our actions in this lifetime. We could be reborn a snake, an insect, or any other animal, if we did not earn merits in this lifetime. Those who die innocently in wars are reborn again to continue their lives. Now how do we earn merits? Folks ask Buddhist Shi Fu. The list is very long.  

Anyway, I won’t argue as to which religion is worthwhile having. That is an individual decision. But I would argue to death, that no one should tamper with one’s life, and with other people’s lives. Let everyone enjoy the bounty of the earth, breathing and breathing life into all of Mother Nature’s and God’s creations.  

RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES

RUNNING AFTER THE MUSES
by Wilhelmina S. Orozco 

Folks, I am the chair of the Ethics Committee of the UP Cooperative and it is such a very enlightening experience having to study the cooperative movement its principles and values, and its historical background. I maintain now that the saving grace of the Philippines would be a strong cooperative movement. 

In the first place, a cooperative is collectively formed and run by a group of people with like-minded objectives -- that is to uplift                  themselves from poverty -- whether of resources, or access to resources. Its earnings are supposed to redound to the betterment of the members and not of a few. The members can run as officers of the cooperative, unlike in a capitalist enterprise, where the owners, or those who own the bigger stocks are the only ones who can. 

Many more differences there are between a coop and a corporation. With the proliferation of non-government organizations here in our country, we could readily introduce the idea of cooperativism, educate the people on why it is a viable vehicle for answering economic problems, foremost of which having one that will insure that we get cheap fuel and oil. 

I think that we are in the doldrums economically, although Moody's has raised the investment capability of the country, is because the government is only fixing its sights on traditional areas of exploration. It does not look into the human resource assets -- the people -- who have such great creativity, resiliency, and strong family connections, among other things. 

Let me cite here that our cultural institutions are not working as much to lift the people from a traditional and feudal culture at all. The granting of project proposals still rests on who you know, and not what you know. For examples: 1. I submitted a puppet theatrical project to create productions for Noli and Fili for high school and elementary schools. It was rejected by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts under the Theater committee headed by Lutgardo Labad. 2. I  submitted an animation storyboard, script on how an agricultural land has been transformed into a golf course. The NCCA again rejected it. The film committee evaluator said that it is more like "a film." I really do not understand that kind of assessment and until now, Mr. Felipe de Leon Jr, a good friend has not answered my queries why my film proposal has been rejected. Jun has the terrible tendency to throw to his staff replies to queries. And so we get toothless replies -- bureaucratic responses leading nowhere but flat rejection. 3. I submitted a film project to Cinemalaya about Tondo women who worked in Japan and got exploited sexually. It was rejected without reason by the staff, under Laurice Guillen and Mr. Robbie Tan. 
4. I submitted a cultural project, Celebrating Our Asianness , a musical-drama concert held at Paco Park. It was rejected for funding by the NCCA, because according to Frances, it was submitted late, although I had informed her earlier about it. Gusto niya, one month in advance. 

I can only cite one time when I got funding from NCCA, when Malou Jacob was still Executive Director. Now she has resigned over the pressures for her to kowtow to the powers that be. 


By the way, I also get published in the Ani Journal almost yearly. That is print medium, Folks. Audio-visual, theatre and film heads marginalize me. 

So how do we make out how we will work under this set -up? 

Thus, i would like very much to have the Freedom of Information Act because I want to know who gets the cultural funds, for what projects, and for how many times have they have been recipients. Let us bring out the facts and find out, who are the elite artists who can corner the funds for themselves all the time. 

It really seems that the powers-that-be do not want culture to get enlightened, and so they are using the funds only for a coterie of individuals who can bow down to them all the time. 

Come on now, it is 2012 and the tactics for managing cultural funds is still very backward. 

In UK, cooperatives of artists exist and all funding agencies give them equal chances to the kitty. They have film coops that showcase independent films, artists coops, film production cooperatives, textile coops that make their own designs on cloth, and many more. The UK cultural sector is well taken care of and run very democratically. 

How many millenia do we need in order to rise up from the murky waters of palakasan and bulung-bulungan style of management in the cultural scene? 

 (Minerva among the muses, painting http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_van_Balen_der_%C3%84ltere)

BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE NOT FREE

In the Philippines, the best things in life are not free and very expensive: electricity that could power your laptop, put lights in the house, help you vacuum or iron your clothes, run your washing machine, etcetera. Moreover, electricity is used as a power tool to make you bow to the powers that be. Sick, very sick indeed.

The best product for our feet, the bakya has been obliterated. Now the most sought after are those havaianas slippers, birkenstock, and the Japanese-designed slippers. 

Instead of developing the product, we have copped out. 

Our best sunset at Manila Bay has been covered by that huge Ocean Park. Now the people just make do with a very small view of the sunset, and cannot even afford to enter that Park as the ticket is very expensive. 

Our calesa is a nice ride around Luneta. But the trip is expensive, only foreign tourists can afford it. I cannot blame the caretela or calesa drivers. Food is expensive in MetroManila, for horses and humans alike. 

The padyak bicycle with passenger seat is being pushed to the sides by tricycles. Yet it so much nicer to ride -- no noise, no pollution. The driver just pushes the pedal to move it. We should do something about that. 

Our veggies are truly nutritious, but they are not being given proper and broader distribution channels. It is a good thing, our market vendors take the trouble of carrying them -- like camote tops and yellow ginger or luyang dilaw. These are really very nutritious. 

More to come... 

CONSUMER ENERGY COMPLAINT

THE SECRETARY
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
and

THE SECRETARY
THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SIRS:

THIS IS AN S.O.S. For more than a month now, we have not had any electricity. The typhoon brought down the electric post and we had had to make it stand again. Also because of the typhoon, the meter got busted which made Meralco charge us by estimating the mean from the last three months of bills that we have been paying for.

As it is, the technical details that Meralco is making us comply with are miniscule compared to the sufferings that we undergo due to lack of electricity. Why can't they be available to coach someone thoroughly as to what is to be done? Their technicians come and go, except for Mr. Abel Lobo who is a truly great employee who has given us a lot of leeways so that the meter could be connected right away, leaving us day by day to attend to the horrendous requirements they make.

In the face of inadequate service from Meralco, can't the Department of Energy have an alternative electric service that will help us go through the difficulties, especially at night?

This burden is too much already, coupled with the noise and havoc that the Maynilad workers are wreaking on our nerves day in and day out. For the past month we have been subjected to the NOISE coming from jackhammer, backhoes, etcetera. We have gotten agitated so much that sleeping peacefully has become a luxury. Added to that the noise of the next door neighbor who has a tarpaulin business conducting carpentry work fropm 9pm to 7 am the following day.

This is already too much. How much noise can a people tolerate in an hour, a day, or even a week and a month? I hope that the DENR can come up with an action program to stop this assault on our nerves right away instead of turning down our requests for help and bouncing them to the barangay which hardly makes any act to curb the excesses of noise-producing companies.

HELP! S.O.S.!!!!!

WILHELMINA S. OROZCO