Veronica Tries To Write

Best view ba ang hanap mo? First class seats sa pagsasamantala lang naman mula sa kinatatayuan ko. Barikada nga pala dito sa reclamation area. Sa likod ko itatayo ang solar city. Magbibigay daw ng hanapbuhay sa marami. At sa harap ko naman nagrarally ang mga mangingisdang tutol sa reklamasyon. Kesyo mapapaalis daw sila sa mga bahay nila at mawawalan ng hanapbuhay dahil kaunti na lang ang mahuhuling isda. Sabi naman ng iba, atake daw sa kultura. Mawawala ang sunset view oras na mapatayo ang solar city at marami pang iba. At sa kalikasan? Dahil sa pagtambak ng lupa, maraming marine life ang mawawala. At noong isang araw may narinig pa ako ah ano nga ulit yun ah hanggat hindi tinitigilan ang reklamasyon, ang baha, storm surge at lindol lalong sasahol. Kaya habang nandito ako sa itaas at nagmamasid, di rin mapigilan mag-isip. Sana sa susunod ay hindi na ako kasangkapan sa pananamantala at panggigipit.     

For the longest time, we were only made to know in vague terms up to what extent did the Marcos family looted from the Filipino people – that it is many. But Aquino’s book writes about how much and in detail how Marcos’ plunder unraveled consisting of facts and documents serving as her primary resource. Aquino started the book by unmasking Marcos. She said that it is not only corruption that he committed but also plunder. The Marcos regime have made thousands of dummy accounts to hide the huge amount of wealth they have amassed from the people. In her words, Aquino described it as a kleptocracy. The next chapter then expounded on the meaning of corruption – how it is viewed and given meaning differently all over the world. It is interesting to note as well that she discussed how the Philippines as a Third World country has been culturally embedded with corruption. This partly explains not just its existence but also its prevalence. And as more and more pages are being turned over...

What does “dating” mean? For a scientist, it means determining the age of an artifact. For most people, it is a stage in a romantic relationship. The reality of research containing jargon and specialized language is not new. As researchers, we need to use words that best describe the process so that we can explain them as precise as possible. Unfortunately, our general audience – the very purpose of our research, does not understand our results due to the wide vocabulary and hard to define words. Some researchers succumb to the sin of jargon because it can signal to the audience, especially those who are writing for an in-group audience, that they are not a member of that group or have not mastered the group's terminology.  But we need to realize that as researchers, in whatever field, we write to communicate. If we cannot maintain clarity and relay our results to our audience, why did we even conduct one in the first place? --------------------------------------------- REFE...

Does it Mattel?  Political Economy & Sociology of Toys Barbie, Boomco, Disney Cars and Hot Wheels are just some brands and toys manufactured by the multinational company, Mattel. Mattel is the world's largest toy maker in terms of revenue (Carnevale, 2013). In 1959, it introduced the Barbie doll making it one of the company’s best-selling toys up until now. It is presented as an aspirational doll to the child with variants in different skin colors and nationalities. This in turn gravely affected how girls at a young age have projected themselves. With permanent vital statistics of 39-18-33, more and more strive to be as thin as she is. But just like any company, Mattel also faced difficulties when sales began to fall in 1980s but was able to bounce back through what Spigel (1992 quoted in Cook, 2009) calls “intertextuality”. Through intertextuality, Barbie was extended beyond a single medium or genre. They began to advertise toys on television especially on shows targeted...

Fashionalism, a portmanteau of FASHION and NATIONALISM seems to have established its place in the Philippine fashion industry. The term from Rhett Eala who created a collection of collared shirts and polos for the brand Collezione C2 using the Philippine archipelago for its main design.  From polo shirts that bear the map of the Philippines to the more formal terno or Filipiniana, the trend of fashionalism has been on the rise. The “Pinoy Pride” sensation became an effective way of pronouncing one's nationalism - identifying oneself through these commodities. Regionalism or tribalism is the consciousness or in group loyalty through possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity. This best explains its success to the Filipino consumers. With its claim to fame by peaking our Filipino identity and consciousness, those who support fashionalism often argue that through it, we are making history and nationalism more viable and marketable to the youth. Those who were not familiar w...

            The 1988 horror-comedy film titled Kumander Bawang tells the story of Tikboy, an awkward and frail teenage boy who suddenly becomes a superhero to save Matambato from Conde Regalado and his army of aswangs raging from vampires to self-segmenting viscera suckers by transforming to Kumander Bawang and using garlics to ward off the villains. The film opens when Tikboy’s grandfather laments that the Moro-Moro, a stage play depicting battles of Christians and Moros during the Spanish colonial period, is being less popular due to celebrities being invited during fiestas. Even in recent times, with the rise of popular culture and our fascination of Hollywood, this proves to be true. A reflection of the on-going struggle of cultural workers such as Lolo Ambo, countless days of practice, memorization and exaggerated movements with no room for mistakes, makes theatre a nurturing art form that unfortunately only rewards th...