sawasdee

"Pa picture tayo kasama sina sam milby at anne curtis," my mom said while we were having our greasy, carbo loaded dinner at a resto in alabang town center a few days before new year.

"Mom, kung kay thaksin nga hindi ako nakipag picture-an nung nasa hongkong, kina sam milby at anne curtis pa kaya?" i answered, a bit annoyed.

now that i think of it, i should've approached him at the peninsula in hongkong and had my picture taken.

oh well, i guess i would have to go to peninsula in bangkok or at vanilla brasserie to get my photo taken with the thai billionaire businessman and owner of the manchester city.

yes folks, 17 months after being deposed in a military coup, thaksin sinawatra is back in bangkok.

kissing the thai soil.

with his family and supporters at suvarnabhumi

According to reports, Thai authorities rapidly detained the 58-year-old billionaire politician and took him to a court appearance. There he was ordered him to post $267,000 in bail pending a hearing on March 12.

Thaksin and his wife, Pojaman, face corruption and conflict of interest charges in connection with her purchase of prime Bangkok real estate from a state agency in 2003, while he was prime minister. Pojaman returned to Thailand in January and was released on bail pending trial.

Would the thai court convict him? Would the newly elected PM, who is from Thaksin's party grant him pardon (like you know who)?

When asked if he would be pulling the political strings in Thailand, Mr Thaksin told the BBC that he had retired from politics.

"I think in my life I have devoted a lot to my country and I think I have done a lot politically. No more politics," he said.

Sounds like somebody back here, right?

***

Here at my backyard circus, aside from walking and stumbling and fumbling, a lot of people have been.. ummm.. praying...

what could she be praying for?

back-up divine intervention

There will be an interfaith rally at ayala tomorrow.

Erap will be at the rally.

Am i going? My answer: NO.

I've got better things to do than go to the circus.

Gaaad... I'm starting to get annoyed by all philippine politics.

Lengthier explanation on my next post.

celebutant

“Hi. Do you already have a wedding coordinator?” asked the nice lady in blue.

“Umm… I don’t have a wedding coordinator yet.” I answered, trying to pull an Abalos-Atienza-Defensor-Razon stunt at the bridal fair.

“Oh. So when is your wedding?”

“Err… what services fall in your package? I mean, I don’t have the time and energy and patience to compare menus, look for photographers—all that hoopla. I would just want to walk down that aisle, exchange I do’s, get that kiss from my groom and live happily ever after.”

“I see. You may want to avail of our full coordination package. It starts from a year or six months before your wedding. We will be the one to search for suppliers, provide you concepts for your wedding—color motif, theme—and coordinate everything—schedules for shoots, pre wedding parties.”

“How much would that cost?”

“It ranges from 60,000 to 100,000.”

“Okay, I will avail of that package. Actually, my parents and siblings are willing to shell out 500 grand for wedding coordination services.”

“500 grand? Really?” asked the surprised nice lady in blue.

“I’m not kidding. But aside from the caterer, florist, photographer, stylist, couturier and musicians, you would also have to find my groom. He’s still somewhere out there. ”

Maniacal laughter.

“Why are you laughing?” asked Sarah.

Mitch, the wedding coordinator and Sarah were done discussing. I snapped out of my Murakami-Pahlaniuk universe and got back to my role as bride’s maid on duty.

“Wala lang. I just thought of something really funny,” I explained, half embarrassed, half apologetic for spacing out in the middle of the discussions with the wedding coordinator.

"I'll be passing on this wedding folio to you," Sarah said. A bit excitedly. Oh, she is in love all right-- and people who are in love are optimistic. And happy.

I smiled sheepishly and thought of my dating relationship. Err... my lack of a meaningful, promising dating relationship.

Three rounds of the venue and several fliers, brochures and business cards after, I’m no longer surprised at why getting married in this country has become a multi-million peso industry.

By the time we got out of the bridal fair venue, Megamall had a gazillion people. I found it hard to

breathe.

Tintin joined us and we transferred to Shang rila for coffee and to think through some options.

As we walked from Mega to Shang, my thoughts, like the buses in Edsa, were racing with abandon in my head. When will I get married? Where will I get married? Who will I marry and why is he taking sooooo looooong to find me?

I remembered the story of Lynette Lewis. You see, she wanted to get married at 22, but didn't end up getting married until she was 42. So while all her friends were getting married and having kids-- she remained single for 20 more years-- confined to being a bridesmaid/ maid of honor and to just having godchildren.

God taught Lynette so many things in that long-- very long period of waiting. One-- that life has its seasons. Two-- that each of life's season has its gifts. Three-- that we should celebrate whatever season we are in. Four-- that God knows the desires of our hearts and that He is faithful.

When I was 22, I planned to get married by the time I was 26. If I got married in 2006, would I have remained married by 2008?

I am not too sure. Things happen for a reason. God is also teaching me a coupla things.

I will be on bride's maid duty for eight more months. Sarah and Sundy's big day is on October.

As we settled in our booth at the Dome cafe, I looked at the bride-to-be, my good friend and thought, well, God is faithful-- I will celebrate my season and Sarah's season.

team bride: bride's maids: me and tintin. bride to be: sarah (in green)

pow-lee-teehks

forty nine years after overthrowing fulgencio batista in 1959, Fidel Castro finally turned over the control of Cuba to his brother and defense minister, Raul early this week. (feb 19 i think).

he survived several attempts of the US to get him out of power-- and thus, outlasted nine american presidents.

my friends who had seen Fidel Castro said he is a sight to behold, even at his old age.

when fidel was younger

i wouldn't mind having a dictator-- as long as he is tall and good looking. castro stands 6'3".

(our homeland dictator only measures 4'10." worse, sans the power, she can be fugly. i'll give oreo cookies to whoever could guess who she is.)

***

at the land of the free and the home of the brave, billary clinton's commanding lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has vaporized since the Super Tuesday contests two weeks ago, and now, not only is Obama out in front, he's also chipping away at her base.

obama rama in full throttle

***

back at the home front.

people have been walking.....

solidarity... err...

unity walk

first they called it solidarity walk. then they changed solitary to unity. porjosporsanto. (thanks to quezon.ph for the photos.)

atienza looked groovy in his pair of aviators. (he could be hiding his lack of sleep? shame? guilt? behind the tinted lenses).

and la presidente-- looked very cruela deville in her red outfit.

so while some were walking, other were stumbling. the cruela deville label is passe. according to joey salceda-- it's should be bitch.

i love all these name calling. probinsiyanong intsik, big boy, president evil and now-- luckiest bitch.

in the vernacular, i say, may sademonyo si GMA.

i just hope she runs out of luck really soon.

coke whore

finally, finally.

coke zero has landed on Philippine shores. first time i drank this was in hongkong last year.

got a liter bottle from the grocery last sunday and drowned myself in it.

i still prefer coke light with lemon though. the alumni of alcoholics anonymous would understand why.

i love coca cola. i refer to it as my sanity drink. when i'm on the brink of something, i get my coke fix. never fails to keep me from going amuck.

i wish they'll have coke cherry zero here next.

try it!

not going gently into the night

okay, okay. so i gobbled up my cynicism and guess where i found myself yesterday afternoon?

somewhere here:

feb 15 rally: sobra na, tama na, kumilos na!

i really didn't have any plans of going.

i mean, i stayed out really late on valentine's night (yihee!) and i got a gazillion things to do-- like check my students' papers, finish my lecture notes, come up with a critique for a project, start reading g.g. marquez's "love in a time of cholera" which i got last christmas, and perhaps, get some sleep.

but hearing adel tamano got me out of bed and into the streets.

well, there weren't too much people. most of my acquaintances from civil society organizations were there though.

jazzy and i stationed ourselves somewhere near the enterprise tower.

as i stood there listening to the speeches and the chants, i can't help but get a sense of dejavu.

anyway, it was the first time i heard the song which goes: "don't go gently into the night, rage into the dying light." chikoy pura of the jerks performed it so well, i want an Mp3 of it.

there would be more mass actions they say, till mrs. arroyo falls off her high chair in the palace.

God save this country.

rage against the (arroyo) machine

"if broken hearts were commercials, we'll all be on TV."-- one obscure comedian

it's valentine's day and i am talking of broken hearts.

when you swim with sharks everyday for a living, it can be surprising how you are still able to feel something aside from cold and numbness.

over cups of coffee and tea, some friends and i had been doing a lot of analyzing lately. making sense of the mess that has been rocking this republic. trying to convince ourselves that we made the right decision to stay in the country.

this morning, a friend texted me: "happy valentine's. are you going to the rally tomorow?"

i replied: "not going. i'm swamped. got a gazillion things to do."

friend: "be careful. you might already be on the dark side."

me: "haha. the admin is flawed, the opposition is as flawed. all sides are gray. always, there is more than meets the eye."

i wonder how many people will go tomorrow.

yes, i am upset, disgusted, angry at how things turned out in this administration.

but just like in love, after your first few failed relationships, you become cautious. you become skeptical. sometimes, a bit too cautious, you stop taking risks. at its worse, you become numb. cold. deadened.

when i look at the opposition-- which includes those we kicked out seven years ago in edsa dos, and think that these guys will be replacing the current administration-- i can't help but hold back a bit.

they look nice now as oppostion--you know, raging against the excesses of the arroyos, calling for transparency yaddi yaddi. how they will handle power is anyone's guess.

in relationships, i've been told that you would only know what a person is truly like when you get into a relationship with him/her. but other than that, it's difficult to know the real deal.

question would be: are you willing to take risk? is there still room for error?

arrgh... tacky melodrama. let's just play pictionary shall we?

some of the posters/ stickers that you'll see tomorrow

God have mercy on this country.

it never ends...

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."
- Thomas Jefferson

i wanted to stay away from this. i wanted to just sleep it out-- in the hope of waking up to a better day.

but sleep had been elusive the past week. in the times i get to sleep, i dream of being taken by unidentified men from the airplane's tube, being escorted to an altis and driven around the south of manila without explanations, without getting any logical answers from my escorts.

each time i'm jolted out of slumber, i go through my files and review my service contracts to make sure i was never tasked to moderate greed. i wring my three braincells dry to remember details of projects that i've been involved in the past two years and pray that the projects are clean and won't merit a senate investigation.

ah, senate investigations-- pinoy style. i understand why jun lozada wanted to run as fast as his made-in-china leather shoes can carry him when he received the subpeona from the senate. (the made in china shoes is an assumption. i mean, he is chinese after all and he just flew in from hongkong.)

being caught in a mess such as the NBN deal is, i think, the worst thing that could happen to any professional who just wants to make a living using his brain. there are more chances of surviving in a nuclear cross fire between north korea and pakistan than in this.

there are so many things that i want to post here. but i'm being very cautious lately. someone powerful could be reading this and is arranging for my pick up at the tube. more importantly, i know that there is more than meets the eye in this scenario.

so let's just play pictionary shall we?

nbn-zte deal: mischief, mayhem, greed.

jun lozada in the company of nuns and la salle brothers, the closest thing to divine protection.

in the presence of his enemies. jun lozada with GMA's men

ever heard of fashion police? call them quick!

tol is back. (was he ever gone?)

remind me to never to get into donor funded government projects.

and to pack my bags soon.

on my sleeve

i hold tj responsible for my restlessness the past few nights. he wrote:

Living in that solitude which is so painful in youth but so wonderful in maturity has fueled my thoughts of the profound much to my emotional chagrin. I wonder if I have reached that age when I desire constant companionship from someone who can bear my unbearable existence with me. But I may never find someone like that. Not in this country at least.

what i thought can't be put to words, he did.

what i feel can't be anymore real than this.

what is it with models and heads of states these days?

meet france's new first lady: carla bruni.

i didn't know they already got married. when pres. sarkozy was sworn in as president early last year, he was still married to cecile. and then the divorce. and then carla happened. and three months after, they got hitched. ah, love. surprising.


and looks like some other model is getting friendly with another head of state, and might become another model-turned-nation's-first-lady.

naomi campbell with venezuelan president hugo chavez

the latinas better watch out for flying gadgets thrown at them if sparks indeed fly between rage-a-holic and chavez.

hmm... i should've been a supermawdel.

of this government and other demons

my thoughts are still a tornado in my head. can't think. can't write.

malacanang and congress have turned into modern day sodom and gomorrah.

for those who do not know the Bible, let's put it this way: Philippine politics has gone really very bad. as in Britney bad.

i read the papers and chanced upon manuel quezon III's column on PDI this morning. it's not necessarily the good news that i wanted (like-- the first family being wiped out from the face of the planet)-- but a very good read nevertheless.

here's the piece:

Live from the Bastusang Pambansa
By Manuel L. Quezon III

Speaker: “We will now proceed with nominal voting. Call the roll.”

Clerk: “Aquin, Lahat.”

Aquin: “Mr. Presiding Officer Creature, may I explain my bribe?”

S: “The undistinguished gentleman has three congressional minutes.”

A: “Mr. Speaker, I come here with a heavy heart but a heavier wallet, and for that reason, much as it pains me, in the name of my district, may I manifest my gratitude to the President for this opportunity to prove my loyalty. I vote yes, for change! Not loose change, Mr. Speaker, but the kind of change that stood us in good stead, when we were last in Macao at government expense. Truly, it is a privilege to serve the President’s sons, who are, after all, people, too, and so by serving them, we all serve… the people. I vote YES.”

C: “Garapal, Medio.”

Garapal: “Parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Presiding Officer Creature.”

S: “What is the parliamentary inquiry by the undistinguished gentleman?”

G: “May I know if our proceedings are being monitored by Madam?”

S: “The Majority Floor Leader Creature will answer.”

MFL: “Yes, well, ah, the independence of this noble chamber is unquestionable, but yes, I understand that we are being monitored on TV, radio, and of course you, uh, all know the Baranggay Bansot Legislative Liaison Office… they are there, behind the uh, peephole…”

G: “In that case, may I explain my bribe?”

S: “The undistinguished gentleman has three congressional minutes.”

G: “Thank you, Madam, for these thy blessings, which we are about to receive, through Your Excellency’s husband, Our Lord, and the Department of Budget and Management, Amen.”

C: “Rucut, Mando.”

Rucut: “Mr. Presiding Officer Creature, may I explain my bribe?”

S: “Yes. Go ahead.”

R: “My name is Congressman Mando Rucut. R-U-C-U-T. Got it? That is my name, and here is my vote. I vote YES. Let me repeat: YES. YES, YES, YES. That’s me, Mando Rucut. R-U-C-U-T, who voted YES. Thank you. Do I get more since I voted five times?”

S: “Unfortunately, this is the House, not the Comelec, you only get one vote here.”

C: “Saamin, Siempre.”

Saamin: “Point of information, Mr. Speaker, before I explain my bribe.”

S: “What is the point of information?”

Sa: “I would like to know, on behalf of the ten thousand patriotic, able-bodied, spiritually-advanced members of my district, where our uh, err, shall we say, development assistance…”

S: “The undistinguished gentleman is directed to the South Lounge to collect his Success Fee.”

Sa: “Thank you. Without further ado, I vote YES! This country needs change! Lots of it! And now, Mr. Speaker, I must excuse myself to answer a call of nature.”

S: “The undistinguished gentleman need not enlighten the House on the state of his bladder-”

Sa: “Objection, Mr. Speaker! Not that kind of a call of nature!”

S: “In which case you are not required to manifest your intention to go to the South Lounge.”

C: “Son, Second.”

S2: “Hey, you. I will now explain-explain, ha? I expect as much time as I want. Because I like. Mmmkay?”

S: “The distinguished, charming, handsome gentleman from the district in which he was not born, but who has, by the Grace of God, come down from the clouds to demean himself by serving the people, has, of course, unlimited time, in consideration of his esteemed blood ties to our glorious-”

S2: “Shaddap. All of you. I’m not here, ha, as her son but I’m here, ha, as well… I’m here. Got it? So, let me say… WE WIN! THEY LOSE! WE ALWAYS WIN! HAHA! I vote Yes. Because.”

MFL: “Mr. Speaker, may I make a motion to have the immoral, I mean, immortal, words we just heard, framed and distributed to every barangay in this country?”

S: “Any objections? Does anybody dare? Hearing none, so ordered.”

C: “Mesa, Onder D.”

Mesa: “Mr. Speaker, in voting Yes, let me explain my bribe by saying, the only thing permanent in this world is change. We change underwear. We change clothes. We change in appearance. We are always changing, because change is good, the more we change, the better we become, because, in truth, and I say this in all sincerity, with utter conviction, the only time we do not change is when we die. And, Mr. Speaker, to quote the great President Marcos, I do not intend to die!”

S: “The motion is carried. Yoda is deposed. The new speaker, Jar-Jar Binks, will now give his inaugural address.”

Speaker Jar-Jar: “Monsters out there, leaking in here. Weesa all sinking and no power. Whena yousa thinking we are in trouble? Better dead here than deader in the Core. Ye gods, whatta meesa sayin’? Gungans no giben up witout a fight. Wesa warriors! Wesa got a gwand army. Dats why yousa no liken us, I tink.”

(Applause. Meanwhile, Yoda tells the media, “Around the survivors, a perimeter create.”)

eyeluvit!

and here's a blog post from Butch Dalisay that made me laugh some more:

F&J69: Restoring the Damage
Flotsam & Jetsam

I’M NO great fan of Joe de Venecia, but I could feel for him as I watched the live telecast of the vote to oust him from the Speakership, on the floor of the very same Congress he had ruled for longer than any of his predecessors. “Et tu, Brute?” must have gone through his mind dozens of times as one former ally after another took the mike to cast a vote against him. Earlier, he gave an impassioned one-hour speech denouncing corruption in government and calling himself a “sinner”—but a few years too late.

Not only JDV took a beating tonight. So did the English language, which these congressmen seem so hell-bent on improving (or is that uncharacteristic self-awareness?).

Herewith some choice gems of oratory, verbatim, from their “humble representations.” Check the transcript—you’ll find them there:

“We should vote to restore the damage which has been badly tarnished as far as the image of this house is concerned.”

“The fruits of our sacrifice is bearing fruit.”

“We will bring you back the ongoings at the House of Representatives.” (from a TV commentator)

“This will result to a tectonic eruption!”

“Longetivity in power is no reason to stay in power.”

“It is eminent that he will not be speaker in a few hour.”

“Event has its own time, and time has its own events.”

“I cannot afford to punish a statesman, a political leader this country ever had.”

"As the Speaker so eloquently put it in his frivolous, er, privilege speech..."

And just to remind us that there are worse things than bad grammar, give a listen to:

“Congressman Nograles is my cousin, but the Speaker is the father-in-law of my brother... so I abstain.”

“I must rise to defend my cabalen—the President!”