The color of the season
Am reading Christopher Paolini’s ‘Eragon.’
Yes, yes, am making sure I finish it before the film version begins showing. I want to be able to compare and contrast. I’m also looking forward to watching Jeremy Irons.
Eragon’s plot is interesting - bloodier than Harry Potter, violent like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I like the way the dragon Saphira (and dragons in general) has a personality, a character which makes her much more than just a large, flying lizard that can spew fire.
I cannot say that I like the language though. It is somewhat…wooden and contrived, and there’s awkwardness in some of the descriptions. I have to continually remind myself that it was written by a 15 year old; or at least Paolini started writing it when he was 15.
(But for a 15-year old writer, he’s not bad. I also have the sequel ‘Eldest.’ I wonder if he’s a better writer the second time around).
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The other night I went with Kim to Shangri-la. We took the MRT from Cubao. Apparently, women and men are segregated and made to take separate cars. Kim didn’t want to leave me, and as he couldn’t get into the for-women-only cars, he took me with me to the for-men cars.
It was a scary experience, one that I don’t want to go through again.
Men pushed and pushed against each other trying to get into the cars, and if it weren’t for Kim I would’ve been completely crushed. The train was packed with people — workers on their way to and from work with their heavy backpacks; yuppies trying to keep their shirts from getting too sweaty and creased; students carefully cradling their 3G mobile phones (and probably sick with worry that the phones would get snatched).
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Interesting political developments all around. So who says people power is dead and that everyone’s already sick and tired of protests?
The very threat of Filipinos taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands has made the proponents of charter change via constituent assembly backpedalling and making excuses for their arrogant behavior. Speaker Jose de Venecia’s already prominent ears must have turned red when the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and the El Shaddai made their strongly-worded statements against Con-Ass.
It doesn’t matter that they outnumber the Minority, the Majority in the House cannot stand up to the greater numbers outside Congress, sickened and disgusted by how the Majority and the House leadership led by JDV conducted themselves and twisted the House rules to suit their agenda.
It’s amusing in a disgusting sort of way the way these congressmen and women try to justify their abuse of power by saying that it is all for the Filipino people. They keep saying that amending the charter will be for the good of the nation, ensuring that the country moves forward, and that government leaders will no longer be saddled with a backward constitution that hampers their goals for the country.
Somebody please hand me a barf bag.
After the way they handled this issue, bullying their way towards the establishment of a unicameral constituent assembly, how can they continue to say they have the interest of the nation at heart? Are these the leaders who will guide the Philippines towards moral recovery, economic progress and political maturity?!
So we’re looking forward to a Christmas season marked by protests. Deck the halls with banners and streamers, falalala-la, lalalala! Red, after all, is the official Christmas color.
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Been watching episodes of Numb3rs. I’ve missed Rob Morrow.
I wonder if all those mathematical computations and algorithms that Charlie Eppes comes up with to solve crimes and murders could really apply in real life. In the series, he solves homicides and massacres and pinpoints not only the perpetrators, but how exactly they performed the killings to the minute they fired the guns.
Isn’t there a Charlie Eppes-type who can help the human rights groups solve the 798 political and extra-judicial killings since Macapagal-Arroyo came to power?
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Congress of Labor Organizations national chairman Timoteo
Aranjuez has made the accusation that Ka Bel had first-hand knowledge as to why two labor leaders were killed 16 years ago.
A report came out in the front page of the Manila Standard Today broadsheet titled
‘Lawmaker knew about Rights Day murders’ today, December 11, wherein Aranjuez
is quoted as saying that knew about the murders because the killings were
reportedly carried out by the New People’s Army. Aranjuez also asserted
that the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) labor
center which Beltran helped found and led as national charmain from 1986-2002
is a front for the NPA.
Ka Bel says he
doesn’t know why Aranjuez is bringing up these accusations yet again; but he has an inkling that it has to do with the over-all campaign of the
Macapagal-Arroyo administration to demonize progressive people’s organizations
and militant groups. Aranjuez is the secretary-general of the Partido Demokratiko
Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) which is known to be a pro-Arroyo group. The
PDSP is also headed by national security adviser Norberto Gonzales who also
continues to foam at the mouth slandering the activist lawmakers of Anakpawis,
Bayan Muna and Gabriela Women’s Party.
Neither Ka Bel nor KMU have anything to do with the murder
of Edilberto Federico and Ernesto Gonzales. The PDSP is using this 16-year old
unsolved murders against Ka Bel and the
campaign for his release. This has
Norberto Gonzales’ hands all over this. Gonzales leads is notorious for making false accusations against the
leaders of progressive and militant groups. Gonzales should also be made
responsible for the continuing spate of political and extra-judicial killings
against human rights advocates and members of progressive mass
organizations.
The KMU has never advocated the assassination of leaders or
members of rival labor groups, even those who have committed serious crimes
against the workers by cooperating with employers and capitalists and the Department of Labor in undermining
the trade union and human rights of workers. Neither is the KMU a front for the
NPA. Nakakasawa na ngang marinig yang mga ganyang akusasyon, oh well.
Aranjuez, ka Bel’s fellow
veteran of the labor movement, shouldn’t allow himself to be used by the
Macapagal-Arroyo government in its campaign of political repression directed
against progressive leaders and the sectors they represent. If only for the
sake of his previous involvement in the genuine and militant labor movement, he
should not let himself be a pawn in this demonization that directly results to
the murder of activists.
December 10th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Your portion on the MRT ride reminds me of one time when I almost got into a fight at the Cubao station.
I was getting off, and then there were a number of men who pushed each other and even at those getting off to get in. It was close to 8 p.m. and there weren’t too many of them, so they could have all got in without pushing anyone.
One man made the mistake of pushing me and I repaid in kind with a punch to his stomach. I waited outside for him to get back out and get me into a fistfight, but he didn’t.