May each strum of your deconstructed guitars echo through your consciousness.

May your defamiliarized instruments call unto powers beyond our own.

From old to new, familiar to unfamiliar, may music lead you here.

Your industrial music contrast and merge with the green, waiting.

May Shiva’s destruction bring you rebirth.

Elemento serenades you to your awakening.

Overwhelming the space with your industrial sound.

We all listen, waiting, hoping…

We are all your weapons.

Artists deserve a happy life, please wake up, play and laugh with us some more.

Pulis Pangkalawakan, gisingin si Lirio! (Thanks Jeff for this photo.)

From Jorge B. Vargas Museum website:

The Vargas Museum begins its 2012 calendar with the exhibition Sandata by Lirio Salvador on 19 January 2012 at 4 in the afternoon. The exhibition will include old and recent works interpreted as ‘weapons of sound constructions’ by an artist working with sound, performance, and assemblage. It will open with a performance by Elemento, an experimental sound group founded by Salvador.

Salvador utilizes everyday and industrial materials such as bowls, bicycle gears, stainless steel pipes, utensils, and discards to form musical instruments. Wanting to own a guitar, he improvised his first stringed instrument when he was a teenager with meager resources. This innovation has become part of his life-long artistic process. Carefully composing these elements to craft pieces that are both decorative and modern, the artist distills the notion of the everyday by reconstructing seemingly banal objects into new forms, translating their meanings.  Sensitive to the visual, auditory, and tactile aspects, Salvador and the collective Elemento opens up possibilities for contemporary artistic expressions through the generation of experimental music with these instruments, including those produced with home-made synthesizers and amplifiers.

Sandata will run until 25 February 2012. For more information, please contact the Vargas at +632 928-19-27, +63 981-85-00 loc. 4024, +63 928-19-25 (fax) or e-mail vargasmuseum@gmail.com.

Portia's notebooks

Hardly anyone writes anymore. I forgot to take a screen shot of it, but when I posted my blog yesterday, Truman Capote said that, “It is not writing, it’s typing” (or something to that effect). Which is true, for the most part, we don’t really write anymore, we just type in our computers (or tap in tablets). It’s faster and more practical that way. But for ideas, I still think its best to do it the old fashion way. The seed of the best typewritten work comes from actually writing. That is how we learned to write and that is the way to get the ideas flowing and the critical questions to manifest itself.

Granted, these notebooks were a splurge. They do cost quite a lot, for a notebook. I have also read various reviews, especially about a Moleskine and their marketing. The thing is, the feel of the paper is nice, it’s not too thick for it to be heave and not too thin for inks to bleed. The 240-page Moleskine is just as thick as the 128-page Daycraft. My notebook from the previous year, teNeues also makes wonderful paper and creative hardbound covers, but the rule lines are too large and it’s quite heavy. My notebooks for this year, the thesis formation year, are quite fabulous…

Daycraft Signature Notebook

The Daycraft Signature Notebook was my first purchase of the three. It contains my everyday notes for every subject. It does not have any pocket, which is a downer, but it’s really pretty. The cover looks like leather, but it’s Italian polyurethane and it feels really luxurious. No animal died for this one. The formation of the thesis, among other things are written here. Granted, it looks like a scratch paper, especially the way I write on it, but it doesn’t make it any less pretty. Also, it is two-toned, so, even if it receives quite some bumps, it does not really show on the side.

Daycraft Signature Notebook

For more thoughts and questions, here is my latest splurge, the large Moleskine hardbound ruled notebook. It currently contains thoughts, questions and interpretations of Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement. I am re-reading it for a paper that I have to write. They publicize this as the notebook of Picasso and Hemingway. I really thought these notebooks were over-priced. They might still be, but for me, it’s worth it. It inspired me to write.

Moleskine Large Hardbound Notebook

As mentioned earlier, its paper is thin enough to be light but thick enough to be substantial. And I really enjoy writing on it, which is what notebooks are basically for. Also, it’s an acid-free paper, which is important if you want your writings to last. The writings on the teNeues notebook from last year still holding up despite the abuse. Hopefully, the Moleskine lives up to expectations.

Moleskine Large Hardbound Notebook

When I finally decided on a planner for the year, I knew I made the fabulous decision. I am currently using this extra small, sky blue diary from Moleskine. It has daily pages, so I can write appointments and thoughts that happen on the course of the day. I stick some color-coded Post-it half inch flags on it to remind me of upcoming deadlines and appointments, and yes, my first quarter is really looking crazy. It’s gaining the abuse of being in a bag all day, the pages have some marks as early as now, but its holding up beautifully. The best part, it’s really light. I hardly notice it in the bag. Also, it’s so pretty and cheerful, it really does look like how a perfect sky should be. It’s a bright, cheerful addition to the collection.

Moleskine Extra Small Hardbound 2012 Planner

At the end of the day, any notebook should do, the important thing is that we write. As I said, these are splurges that happened is a span of a few months. These are what I buy when I shop, I buy notebooks, pens and of course–BOOKS. Lots of them. I am a geek. I have to admit that. These are the “stuff” that I buy on a retail-therapy mode. And this is it, for today’s Diary of a Grad Student.

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On my first day back in grad school, I was immediately welcomed not with one, but with two gifts.

This is my turquoise bracelet from Monette, to match my necklace… She says this is a truth stone, and she felt like I needed it. And I do!

This foldable bag is from Jeff. It’s a good shopping bag, to reduce our carbon footprint. Also serves as a good book bag. I just dragged 6 hardbound books from Shopping Center yesterday with it.

Then came my planner dilemma. The planner that I wanter from Fully Booked disappeared. I was thinking on getting this anyway but I didn’t want to consume the extra coffee needed. Well, Dj gave me this one instead.

Unfortunately, the planner wasn’t what I thought it would be. The paper was a tad too thin and it’s a bit heavy. Also, there are a lot of look-alikes which I really hate. Dj didn’t mind anyway. He was betting for a Moleskine as well.

Speaking of planners, Fred gave me one as well. It’s a really colorful, pretty planner from PETA. You don’t see a lot of this.

Finally, I got this coin purse from Mark. Really loving this Boy Agimat! coin purse which he designed. More on Mark Salvatus’ artwork here. Currently using this coin purse  right now. Hope it brings me luck.

Simple cheers that make our day. Then, I continue on with studying and teaching. This is it for now on a Diary of a Grad student. I have to go back to Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgement. I am re-reading him for my thesis preparation. I hope to write again soon. A lot of books and art events to write about!

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The Key of Dreams by Rene Magritte 1898-1967 private collection

From the movie Mona Lisa Smile and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, how did we think about the ideas of arts? Let us compare it ideas presented in most art books such as Robert Cumming’s Eyewitness Companion to Art. How can we apply that in everyday life?

**Note: all links to blog posts, readings, and books are strictly for academic purposes only.

To my students, forgive the lateness of the post, there are some WordPress kinks that I had difficulties with. 

Image via Wikipedia

The first Ancient Civilization that we learn in class is on Ancient Egypt. I think that the journey should start from there, where we can see monumentality and attempt at permanence in the grandest sense. We watched the BBC Documentary Egypt: Rediscovering a Lost World. Here is a summary from About.com:

This BBC DVD set (three discs in the British version, which includes the special bonus disc Pyramid) is possibly the best introduction to Egyptology you can get. Telling the tales of three leading figures over six episodes: the adventures and discoveries of Howard Carter (discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb), Giovanni Battista Belzoni (collected antiquities and discovered the tomb of Seti I), and Jean François Champollion (deciphered hieroglyphs) are brought into stunning life.

It is probably every budding Egyptologist’s dream to travel to Egypt and visit the sites of the pyramids, temples, and tombs. For most of us it will remain a dream. The second best thing you can do is treat yourself to this BBC series about the discoveries which lay the foundations for today’s knowledge about Africa’s oldest recorded civilization.

The first two episodes cover Howard Carter’s quest to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun, and is a shining example to all of us not to give up on one’s dreams. Having divided the Valley of the Kings into sections, he scoured each part for Tutankhamun’s resting place, only discovering it when he reached the final section!

The middle two episodes follow the adventures of Giovanni Belzoni, engineer and one-time circus strongman, who had an unerring ‘nose’ for discovering antiquities and lost tombs. Belzoni cleared the entrance to Abu Simbel and rediscovered the tomb of Seti I (Sethos I), the father of Ramesses II (‘the Great’). Much of what he collected now lies in the British Museum.

The final two episodes cover the French linguist Jean François Champollion’s determination to be the first to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (and beat the British hopeful Thomas Young). Despite being handicapped in his endeavor in working with error-prone copies of hieroglyphic inscriptions, Champollion became the first person for almost two thousand years to be able to read the ancient language.

The series was filmed on location, with panoramic views of ancient temples, pyramids, and tombs as they are now, and reconstructions of their creation. The whole series is tied together in the stories of these three men and the ancient Egyptians they longed to understand – particularly Tutankhamun and Ramesess II. You get a real sense of being there, whether it is the early 1800s or 1900s, or back in Pharaonic Egypt.

Here is a Power Point presentation that I prepared for the lesson on Ancient Egypt. It is clickable and downloadable. Here is the same presentation that I uploaded on 4shared.

Next that we watched is on a civilization earlier than Egypt, that of India. Again, BBC provides a good documentary of this. The Story of India shows the roots of their ancient civilizations, from their written texts to their monumental architecture. Here is an episode summary from PBS.org:

The world’s largest democracy and a rising economic giant, India is now as well known across the globe for its mastery of computer technology as it is for its many-armed gods and its famous spiritual traditions. But India is also the world’s most ancient surviving civilization, with unbroken continuity back into prehistory.

Like other great civilizations—Greece or Egypt, for example—over the millennia it has enjoyed not just one but several brilliant golden ages in art and culture. Its great thinkers and religious leaders have permanently changed the face of the globe. But while the glories of Rome, Egypt, and Greece, have all been the subject of TV portraits, as yet there has been no television story of India on our screens. This series sets out for the first time to do that: to show a world audience the wonders of India; the incredible richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes; and the intense drama of its past, including some of the most momentous, exciting and moving events in world history.

Read the rest here.

I only focused on the first part entitled Beginnings and the fourth part entitled Ages of Gold. Here is the summary for Beginnings, again from PBS.org:

The first episode looks at identity and the roots of India’s famous “unity in diversity”. Using all the tools available to the historical detective—from DNA to climate science, oral survivals, ancient manuscripts, archaeology, and exploration of the living cultures of the subcontinent—Michael Wood takes us from the tropical heat of South India to the Ganges plain and from Pakistan and the Khyber Pass out to Turkmenistan where dramatic new archaeological discoveries are changing our view of the migrations that have helped make up Indian identity.

We begin long before recorded history with the first human journey out of Africa. In extraordinary scenes in the tropical backwaters of Kerala, Wood finds survivals of human sounds and rituals from before language.

In Tamil Nadu the latest DNA research takes him to a village where everyone still bears the genetic imprint of those first “beachcombing incomers”—the “first Indians” who went on to populate the rest of the world excluding Africa.

Then on to the modern discovery of India’s “first civilization”—the lost cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in today’s Pakistan and the mystery of their collapse, which Wood discovers may have been due to massive and far-reaching climate change.

Forward again to the Ganges plain and the “Age of Heroes” in time of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata.

Throughout, this colorful and exciting film is full of the sights, sounds and people of today’s India. Wood ends the film in a vast crowd of pilgrims at the great festival of Holi in Mathura in north India, covered from head to foot in colored powder and telling us, “this is just the beginning!”

Meanwhile, here is a summary of Ages of Gold from PBS.org:

Episode Four is the story of India in the Middle Ages. At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, and the European Dark Ages, India had a series of great flowerings of culture, both in the north and the south. In this episode Michael Wood shows us some of the amazing achievements of medieval India: In astronomy they discovered the heliocentric universe, zero and the circumference of the earth.

They mastered the world’s first large scale wrought iron technology—the Delhi iron pillar, and their courtly culture was the setting the world’s first sex manual, the Kama Sutra.

Meanwhile in the south the rising power of the Cholan empire spread Indian arms and culture to the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Andamans, and to Java and the Malay peninsula, where the Tamil diaspora is still powerful today.

Wood visits the Cholan capital at Tanjore, and with extraordinarily privileged access takes us right inside the greatest temple of that time (founded in 1010), to see the ancient rituals still being performed.

In a fascinating sequence we see traditional bronze casters, making religious images for the temples, just as their ancestors did 1500 years ago.

We visit a traditional Tamil family in the temple city of Chidambaram, go with them on pilgrimage and witness the ancient mountain top festival of fire that was already famous in 700AD!

The story ends in Multan in Pakistan in the early eleventh century with a shadow on the horizon—the first invasions by Turks and Afghans bearing the Muslim faith that will change the story of India and turn the subcontinent into the biggest Muslim civilization in the world.

Here is the Power Point presentation I prepared on Story of India. Here is the same presentation available on 4shared.

Yet, let us go back to the Philippines, especially after watching Dreamweavers, the T’nalak weaving of the T’boli. How can we compare the Ancient civilizations of Egypt and India compare to that of the Philippines? Their art and architecture are monumental while ours are mostly utilitarian. What does this say about our art and culture?

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Image via Wikipedia

In their late 20′s, Rizal wrote Noli Me Tangere, Luna painted the Spoilarium and Bonifacio started the armed revolution. Those of us in our late 20′s today, what are we doing with our lives? We go on Facebook and Twitter, we chat, we over-pay for our coffees, we drink and party. A lot of us are forced to work in call centers and other outbound services that pay a tad better than other workplaces. What are we really achieving?

This musing is paraphrased from and inspired by an Ambeth Ocampo quote that spread in Facebook some time ago. I can’t remember his exact words. But it went on something like that. I am in my late 20′s. Though I have never worked in a call center or any corporation for that matter, I understand the sentiment. It’s not just because young people want much money that they go to those workplaces, sometimes (or most times), it’s just the work that is available. At least it is the work that is largely available with a good pay. I’m a teacher and I also have some research projects, I have to say that friends in corporations have more financial stability compared to myself. In today’s society, we do need money to survive. To get money, we need jobs, and the jobs that are widely available are in fact, call center jobs.

Maybe someday, the government will help Filipinos in the creation of jobs. No, not outsourcing from foreign companies but developing local industries for our citizens. They can develop local agriculture in the provinces. We can think of ways to create jobs, so we can stop exporting Filipinos; and start to create a self-sustaining Philippines. Maybe when this happen, we can have more time, energy and resources to develop the arts. Maybe then, we can inspire more people to be like Jose Rizal.

We commemorate Rizal Day every December 30. There are a lot of arguments on his being declared as a National Hero, as well as the colonial agenda behind it. Nevertheless, his words are imprinted in us. He wrote the great Filipino novel, yet to be surpassed. I found a Facebook post once, computing the costs of Rizal’s education and travels; it is substantial, to say the least. But his relatively comfortable life and his opportunities to travel the world and educate himself does not make him any less of a hero. I have great respect for the revolutionaries, of course. Yet, there is something about fiction that immortalizes an age, just like what Rizal did with his Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. Through his text, his writings, his letter and his poetry, we shall never forget. What he left us should be substantial enough to remind us of our history.

We should nurture the arts. Jose Rizal is proof enough of it.

This reminds me of the last event I attended for 2011–2HOG: tula-dula-musika-pelikula last December 14 at PETA Theatre. Renato (Butch) Santos, as I find out through Google is a retired banker turned Palanca-winning poet. He pushes and explores the Filipino language in the creation of poetry. Though current usage such as jejemon and text renditions makes a lot of us cringe, he manipulates it into his poetry and makes it relevant to the Filipino youth. This is the challenge of art today, how can we make it relevant for Filipinos today?

2HOG is not just poetry, but inter-media performance. PETA called it cinepoetry or moving poems. The poems were written by Butch Santos while the performance was directed by Maribel Legarda. The visual inter-play was no doubt on the theatrical side–the movements, voices and general acting is larger than life. Such performance will not be out-of-place in a theatrical space. It feels like the actors and the poetry are trying to break out of the screen into the on-looking audience.

Though there are quieter moments in the short performance, it is not made to be subtle. This is among the events that I wish I was able to show my students. Poetry has become detached to the Filipino youth, hearing it and seeing it move would help them appreciate the experience. Uploading it to YouTube is also an excellent idea. As a teacher, I know how difficult it is to get a printed text and convince a student to actually read it. But if it’s in YouTube, it can certainly be a different conversation entirely. (See the cinepoems in Youtube here.) Butch Santos even announced the link during the event, his username is Ewanlangatbpngkuwan.

Yet, the experience of being there, despite the smallish crowd is something else entirely. The mood, the live music, the inter-play of the senses cannot re-created online. At least, not yet. I think that we need more performances of this kind to inspire the youth. Creating and performing should re-claim its place in the spotlight. Rizal was killed for his daring. Today’s artists are killed by a lack of support. If these performances could be made widely available, the public may then re-evaluate the role of art in their lives and perhaps may inspire them to think of what they can do for our country.

Butch Santos was a banker for most of his life, but it did not stop him from being a poet. Neither should the call center industry stop our youth from being artists. As seen numerous times before, the internet is not a place to be limited, rather, it is a place to push boundaries. It was a struggle for Rizal to publish his work, it is no struggle for us to publish ours now. Granted, the accepted avenues may still be difficult to get to, but the advent of internet technology helps us break that barrier. The challenge now is to create something of value with the medium we are provided. 2HOG is just a start.

Here are some photos that I have taken during the event.

I still hope we can create more spaces for the arts, as well as nurture artists and future artists, so more events like this can be possible for more people. In time, we can see another great Filipino novel of Noli Me Tangere‘s proportion. It may not necessarily be in print but in inter-media such as this.

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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p.s.

This is my first post for 2012, and here is what Erasmus has to say about it… Yes, my love for writing continually grows.

Image via Wikipedia

Is Christmas real?

Christmas celebrations are mostly real. At least, as far as I’ve experienced it with my family. Christmas Eve was the first time I thought of this article, after I read this from Rolando Tolentino’s tweet “ang pasko ang pinakamatagumpay na fantasy production ng bansa: gumawa ng bubble na masaya, kumonsumo para sumaya kahit sa dami ng trahedya.” In the midst of tragedy and consumerism, do we really have the spirit of Christmas? Or is it simply a part of a grand fantasy production? My Christmas song for this year is actually, Final Fantasy X’s To Zanarkand. (It lifts my spirit up, thinking that Brandon Sanderson finished the first draft of A Memory of Light. But that is a story for another time.) The news is uplifting, and the best part of Christmas, as far as I can see, is that it uplifts people.

Yet, I still can’t get rid of the voice in my head that all of this isn’t really real. The decorations, the supposed “happiness” and celebrations. It’s all marred with fantasy and consumerism. The malls are filled with people buying things on “sale”, they even extend their hours to accommodate all the Christmas shoppers. Admittedly, for a number of times, I am one of those shoppers who like clothes, shoes, bags and accessories.  Though as the years pass by, I find it more and more taxing to go to malls during the holidays. As I don’t have a car, there is always a long line to commute. From what I see, even if I do have a car, there’s just plain too much traffic jams and parking areas are crowded and expensive. Do we really understand the “Spirit of Christmas?”

We’ve all heard “peace on earth and goodwill to men” bit. (Ehem, what about women?) But another complication is the basis of Christmas itself. The birth of Jesus? “Peace on earth and goodwill to men” is really more acceptable. Biblically, if there really is a Jesus, it’s very doubtful that he was born in the dead of winter. From the description, and even from traditional beliefs and stories, this birth is more probable during spring or summer. Most certainly not during winter. It is very likely that various winter solstice celebrations are appropriated for Christian practices, similar to other Christianized feast days. This alleged birth of Christ is not based on an actual computation but on a Papal declaration.  (Read more on The History of Christmas and Christmas at History.com.) Christmas celebration as we know it is first a fantasy production of the church to Christianize “pagan” practices and inculcate religious practices to the people.

With all these inaccuracies, I need to ask again, is Christmas really real? Or is it really one big fantasy production? After all, it is a creation and production of a Christian church. Yet, I have been celebrating Christmas all my life, and I have to say that it is real, at least, as real as you want it to be. Children are happy, families are bonding and there is a spirit of happiness and sharing. If such things are sincere, I have to say that Christmas is in fact, real. But not necessarily in the Christian sense of the celebration.

After the church, the next institution to capitalize on Christmas celebrations are the corporations. The fantasy production of the market created the need to spend money and purchase to celebrate the holiday season. We now have this need to buy things, then buy more things, and then buy and buy more things. It’s an impulse that a lot of us have. To say otherwise is hypocrisy. We can control this impulsive need, but to say that we don’t feel it is unbelievable. We can’t help it after being bombarded with images and expectations of purchase. That is how we celebrate–buy abundant food, buy expensive gifts and buy the entire Christmas experience. We have created our of Christmas fantasies based on the commercial market.

This forceful expectation results in a lot of sadness and ennui. There are expectations that Christmas should be happy and magical, otherwise the season becomes depressing for a lot of people. Falling short of such magical expectations is an incredible let down. Where the magic of Christmas? Or does it even exist? I was going down the road of questioning the magic of the season until I saw the Christmas decorations made by my nephews and nieces. It’s simple, yet sincere. They do not have the expectations that us, adults have. These children just feel it, not force it. They do not have the sense of creating a fantasy production. They see the fantasy but they do not yet have the impulse to create and buy it. Yet, it is us who creates the expectations for them until they learn to have such expectations for themselves. As they grow older, such expectations become disappointments. There is no matching the fantasy production of religious and commercial advertisements.

Maybe at its core, Christmas, as we know it, isn’t real. It is a big trap of a fantasy production that we fall into. But for some reason, this time of the year has been celebrated even before the birth of Christ. There are still sincere celebrations going around. As I said, families are bonding, children are playing and there is still a sense of happiness for a lot of people. Maybe there is still something to it worth investigating. We just need to be conscious on not falling into traps that make Christmas a source of ennui and depression rather than a source of happiness and hope. Being happy and expecting happiness are two very different things.

**On that note, there are a number of engagement videos going around Facebook. Part of me was thinking magic and romance of the season, while a part of me is also questioning if this is also a part of fantasy productions that cause disappointment and disillusionment for a lot of people. What do you think of it? 

Meme Proposal | Tim * Audrey from Crazy Monkey Studio on Vimeo.

Tadhana: Coach Rio’s Engagement Proposal Video. from Ian Celis on Vimeo.

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A picture paints a thousand words.

We heard that phrase numerous times in our lifetime. True to a certain extent. Yet, a thousand words may still remain silent on certain truths.

Sendong typhoon sent netizens into a frenzy. The power of social media manifested again. In a short time, various organizations collected millions of Pesos to help citizens of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. This is one of the best aspects of social media. Yet, there is one aspect that has been bothering me for some time. And I have no answers to the questions and issues that I will bring up.

In posting tragic images, where do we draw the line? Yes, tragic images touch us, it brings to the worlds the pain and suffering that the Filipinos underwent because of this typhoon. But, is it right to share, propagate and immortalize these images? These are private sufferings of the people of Iligan and Cagayan De Oro. Social media and even our traditional media (TV and newspapers in particular) use and re-use these tragic images, without permission from the people represented in their worst suffering. If we can ask them, would they want us to spread images of their despair?

Historically, photography has always been a powerful medium in moving the world. The image by Nick Ut of the Napalm Attack in Vietnam is one of the most powerful images in photography’s history. It was also one of the images that swayed public opinion in going against Vietnam War, which eventually added pressure to end the war. Images are just that powerful.

Napalm Attack by Nick Ut, 1972

I have always been impressed with this photograph. But I view this photograph under the telos of history. I now realize, as tragic photos and videos haunt us left and right, that there are certain ethical concerns which documenting tragedies and sufferings overlook. Before, there was always a certain period of time that distances us from viewing a photograph. Even if it was just a day or so, a photograph was historicized. Now, with the immediacy of publishing photographs, tragic photos rub us the wrong way. We know that these people are not so far from us, and are suffering right at this moment. Is it right to photograph them as we do? And share these photographs as we are all guilty of?

Kim Phuc, the girl from the Napalm Attack, was fortunate. She lived. They found her a couple of years ago, alive and happy, presently living in Canada. She formed a friendly attachment with the photojournalist, Nick Ut. But not all stories are that fortunate.

This brings me to Vulture Stalking a Child by Kevin Carter. This image was just as powerful as Napalm Attack. But it was received very differently by the public. This photo was published in The New York Times in 1993 and won Carter a Pulitzer Prize in 1994. The success did not silence the critics of Carter. He stated that it took him 20 minutes to get the settings correctly and his critics took that negatively as he did not help the child while doing this. A few months after winning the Pulitzer prize, he committed suicide.

In a way, his guilt is our guilt. A lot of us, do not help, a lot of us just view. We take photographs and share it everywhere, to everyone we can reach. Voyeuristically, we look at such tragedies and we feel better about our own situations. The child became an iconic image of the suffering and starvation in Sudan. Yet, such image and immortalization did not help the child, or anyone for that matter. It encapsulated suffering and isolated it. It was a tragedy on so many levels. And we continue that tragedy.

Vulture Stalking a Child by Kevin Carter

I remember these images as I watch TV and see photos and videos about Sendong on the internet. We, Filipinos, are voracious in our appetites for such tragic and graphic images. Photographs of dead children are shared and propagated in social media and labelled as “share if you care” or something to that effect. Do you really care if you share such images? In the long run, do we not cause more hurt and pain to these people–seeing their families, friends and loved ones dead or broken by the typhoon?

We might get donations due to pity extracted by these images, but for how long? In time, do we not grow numb as we aestheticize tragedies? This is not a tragic play, we do not watch it, we experience it in the present. We should give them dignity in their suffering. Are we really helping them as we represent and immortalize their tragedies?

As I said, I have no answers to the questions and issues that I am posing. But it is worth thinking about. We go on, we rebuild and grow from this tragedy. Yet, are we really growing as a nation? Images are powerful and these are the images that we are creating for ourselves. We need to think about on where do we go from here.

For donations to Sendong Victims:

UNICEF

One for Iligan

On Napalm Attack:
Girl in Iconic Vietnam War Photo Brings Message of Hope
Vietnam War ‘girl in the picture’ reunited with journalist who saved her life
Picture power: Vietnam napalm attack

On Vulture Stalking a Child:
Vulture Stalking a Child
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KEVIN CARTER Visiting Sudan, a little-known photographer took a picture that made the world weep. What happened afterward is a tragedy of another sort.
Kevin Carter: The Consequences of Photojournalism

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• Iloilo province gives P2M aid to CDO, Iligan (iloilocapitolnews.wordpress.com)
• Loloy and Jackie, the mutts who save their owners from Iligan floods (pinkpixie786.wordpress.com)
• No Home. No Water. Death All Over. Typhoon Sendong Aftermath (jilliebee.wordpress.com)

P.S.

Apparently, this is also my 140th post. Do I celebrate when I wrote about tragedies?

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First is the “bring a book” and “donate a book” confusion. Really. If they wanted us to donate a book, we have a bunch. Most of us do. My friend interpreted the “bring a book” as bring a conversation piece book. Reading the fine print after, it’s what I figured as well. Given that its Writer’s Night, it sounds like an idea for an ice breaker. But apparently, it means that you are supposed to donate the book that you bring. Since, no one wants to donate the conversation piece books, we went for the “option”.

They are selling “booksale” books, that you can buy in order to donate. But here is the narrative of what really happened. From this enormous box, we “bought” the books that we wanted to “donate”. There were four of us, so we paid P50 apiece. Fine. Then when we “donated” these books, they just placed them back into the box we got them from. Yes, I am confused. Why couldn’t they just charge us P50, upfront? I would’ve paid it since I am already there and wanted to check the event out. Why the pretense of “donating” a book? What’s more, who am I donating the book to? Are they sponsoring a charity or literacy program? If they are, they didn’t say. It’s not in the poster or advertisement. There is no statement saying that I am doing this for charity, for the benefit of any organization or person in need, at least not explicitly. It really rubs off the wrong way.

Then of course, entering the venue itself, gives me another jolt of shock and disbelief. In the lobby of GT Toyota are VIP seats, for the “Contributors” and some publishers. The white, air-conditioned room has seats, while the rest of us common minions are meant to stand, cocktail style (without the cocktails) outside. Sure, the rain has stopped, there’s only a light drizzle and we’re not getting wet anyway. But still, I am beyond offended. Since when do we divide people like this? Inside the University of the Philippines? What’s more, is that they are selling beers for P120 for 3 cans. We are not even supposed to drink alcohol inside campus (theoretically). Alcoholic drinks are sometimes served at events and Writer’s Night (years before) is known for free beers. If they cannot afford to serve free beer anymore, that is just fine. But selling it in the event? That’s just plain crass. And illegal. I doubt that they have a permit to do this, especially inside school.

Then of course, there’s an awarding ceremony happening upstairs, again, in a rather small room that can only accommodate very few people. It has the feeling of writers awarding themselves. Some of them, I know for a fact, deserves the award and recognition. But elitism was never a part of UP culture, at least, not the UP that I have grown up in. Clearly, things have changed in a decade. But I did not expect that the change will be as blatant as this. I felt like an ordinary groupie slapped in the face as the institutionally verified writers are able to sit in chairs and get served. They are playing rock stars, while the rest of us, the “groupies” stand outside awaiting their descent from the upper tiers.

No, we did not wait. The food is still in their warmers, covered, by the time we left. We went to Rasa and enjoyed “Singaporean” food, which was surprisingly good. Some went to a poetry event in Makati, one went to the Richard Marx concert and I opted to head home. I am still too upset and disillusioned. Years ago, Writer’s Night was held in an open field, with chairs and tables for everyone, open mike for everyone, food and drinks for everyone, and performances–open to everyone, for everyone. I keep on saying for everyone, because that is how it was. It was for everyone who wants to see, mingle, join and talk. There was no discrimination, everyone was treated the same way–an award-winning writer, a student, a teacher, or an unknown. I am beyond disappointed. They moved up the venue, they moved up everything. They moved up and left everything else behind. They left behind the character, class, etiquette and ethics of a supposed campus event.

My only hope is that someone realizes this and does something about it before this culture is fully drowned in elitism and discrimination. We are still in the University of the Philippines, it’s supposed to be something more than a narcissistic take on a literary scene. Even in a gallery opening, a millionaire collector would stand in the same room, eat the same food and drink the same drink as a poorly dressed observer and lover of the arts. I hope it’s not too late for us, even if I’m “just” a blogger writing.

**I didn’t even have a nice camera on me, I just have my phone camera. As I said, I didn’t really expect to go to an event that night. Sigh. 

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