Here’s a link to a video to explain the issue in less than five minutes.

Many books of most genres are greatly affected by this. And quoting my friend Alex who summed up it well,

Administrators should let this sink in – these books are making our students read again. Deprive them of that motivation and surely, we’ll find ourselves more illiterate as a society.

For the time being, we are making a lot of noise in twitter, using the #bookblockade hash tag, and spreading the word via other means. So far, there are already a couple of officials who heard our plea. But we still need more.

Please help spread the word.

For further reading please see: The Great Book Blockade of 2009: Timeline and Readings and We, the People: As Readers.

As I write this, Rodolfo Jun Lozada is delivering a speech at an ongoing interfaith rally in Makati City. Lozada is the star witness in the national broadband network scandal who claimed that Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and her political and business allies were behind the overpricing of the project that eventually went to China’s ZTE Corp.

Among those leading the rallyists are former president Joseph Estrada, Brother Eddie Villanueva, and Archbishop Oscar Cruz. Estrada’s spanking red sneakers are hot.

For updates, read the breaking news courtesy of Inq7.net.

Erap: Not guilty of Perjury. Acquitted.

Erap: Guilty of Plunder. Jinggoy: Not guilty of Plunder.

While everyone (myself included) is going gaga over the 28th Manila International Book Fair this August 29 to September 2, others (myself included) are muttering the same word -though you’d have to replace the last letter with an o- as the adjective with which they would describe MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando after his latest implemented rule.

No more U-turn slots along C-5.

Whether you’re coming from Greenmeadows Avenue or from Santolan, you’re going to have to go all the way to the corner of Ortigas Avenue, under the flyover, to arrive at your C-5 destination (Eastwood City for most) – that is, if the place happens to be on the other side of the road. The result of this, as I’ve observed during the several times I had to go to City Walk last week, can be severe symptoms of road rage – for motorists, public utility vehicle drivers, pedestrians, commuters, call center employees, and (allegedly) Fernando’s own wife. (If you click on the link to this ABS-CBN Interactive story, you’ll enjoy a bit of whimsy about the MMDA Chair noting aloud that the turn is “malayo pala.”)

I am reserving further comment – at least until this and next week. Anyway I’ll be joining the rest of the Manilenyos at the World Trade Center for the book fair, far away from the congestion at C-5. (By the way, the wonderful and groundbreaking digest, Philippine Genre Stories, will be making its third issue available at the Anvil Publishing Booth.)

Happy reading and see you there!

In order to help boost our rating, we will be sharing stories of the country’s infamous corruption and red tape throughout the week. Find out why Entrepeneurs have to pay 20 people… I mean process over 20 forms before they can even open a small internet shop or how motorists are flagged by MMDA daily but their records will never have one single ticket. Do you have any corruption stories to share? Just suggest the story here.

Sources:
ABS-CBN News – RP corruption to worsen under Arroyo, says watchdog
Bloomberg – Philippines More Corrupt Than Indonesia, Poll Says
Manila Times – HK group rates RP as most corrupt in region

Brace yourselves people. If we think the billboard clutter could not get any worse, well, it can. While the proliferation of campaign materials will build awareness for political aspirants, I hope the authorities remember not to overwhelm the city with so much paper.

I mean, one can handle only so many faces staring at him while driving down EDSA.

Soon our streets will be littered with posters, flyers, cards and other campaign materials. Prime time shows will have campaign ads in place of product advertisements. And there will be mall tours around the country ala concerts, as if big stars will be doing shows. Oh wait, there will be actors/ actresses/ people from the entertainment industry in the campaign shows. Either they will be the ones endorsing or actually running for office.

The Elections seem more of an entertainment event than a political one– but the politics is still there. Definitely. The army and police will be on high alert and there will be tension. The pressure will be with the registered voters. Even if they are unsure their votes will be taken into consideration.

To the voters, I post here something I learned this morning. The 10 Commandments for Responsible Voting from the Parish Pastoral Council. It may be already 3 years old already, but it still holds true — or should I say, needs to be complied with. Sure they look easy, but with the political tension in our country today… it’s harder realistically.

10 Commandments for Responsible Voting
from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting

1. Thou shalt vote according to the dictate of your conscience.

2. Thou shalt respect the decision of others in choosing their candidates.

3. Thou shalt seek to know the moral integrity, capabilities and other personal qualities of the candidates you will vote for.

4. Thou shalt strive to understand the issues, platform and programs of candidates and parties seeking your vote.

5. Thou shalt not sell your vote.

6. Thou shalt not vote for candidates using guns, goons and gold.

7. Thou shalt not vote for candidates with records of graft and corruption.

8. Thou shalt not vote for candidates just because of “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) , popularity, or pakikisama (camaraderie).

9. Thou shalt not vote for candidates living an immoral life.

10. Thou shalt put the welfare of the country above all else in choosing the candidate you will vote for.

The path has been shown. It is up to you to walk the path. Are you voting or not? If you’re voting, who will you vote?

The 10 Commandments are from here c/o PCIJ.org

this poster is actually a campaign poster of Albert Rivera who is now running as the president of catalan (i don’t know exactly where this is, it’s somewhere in spain). i guess they call their mayors, presidents. when translated, the words in the poster mean, “We don’t care where you were born. We don’t care which language you speak. We don’t care what kind of clothes you wear. We care about you”

he says that what he offers is the “naked truth”. then i started wondering, when would a filipino politician be as brave as albert rivera? brave enough to bare the naked truth. i’m sure posters like this wouldn’t be seen anywhere in the philippines but i just hope that we see a lot of new politicians this coming 2007 elections that would be offering their service to our country without putting their interests first.

retail is one of the economies in our country that we have to maximize. look at singapore, one of the main reasons that their economy is really rising is because of the money that the government generates from the retail industry. i think if our gov’t will be able to maximize the said industry, we would be able to increase tax collections (provided that there will be less corruptions). hehehe. plus the fact that we can market our country as a leisure destination with all the resorts that are scattered within our 7,107 islands (high-tide) hehehe. visit http://www.wowphilippines.com.ph/. if that happens, our gov’t will have lots of money. less corruption, please!

Wondering what’s up, I asked the concierge who the fuss was about. To his credit, he shrugged off the whole disturbance as nothing special, but I knew better.

That’s when I asked the leggy blonde (hey I told you to hide your women!) and whipped out the camera.

There in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, the hero to all shoe-fetish women worldwide with her quote “I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes, I had one thousand and sixty,” was none other than Ms. Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Looking a radiant 76, she tolerated my total tourist annoyance with much more grace and charm than I expected. She even had one of her security detail take this photo of us.

After the photo, as I excused myself, I looked down.

Nice shoes, Imelda!