Category: Media

Filipino viral videos: mere modern symptoms of a very old cultural dysfunction

November 19, 2012 benign0 32 Comments

As my colleague Ilda pointed out, Filipinos seem to be averse to speaking out. This may seem to be a counterintuitive assertion to make, given how Filipinos pride themselves with a tradition of flamboyant political activism, tacky spectacle in the way they practice freedom of speech in their mass media, and voluminous undifferentiated chatter in…

Civics, Crime, Culture, Lifestyle, Media

Filipinos who cyber-bullied #Amalayer girl showed worse behaviour than her

November 17, 2012November 17, 2012 Ilda 240 Comments

So I finally saw the â€œAmalayerâ€ video posted on YouTube and I just had to ask myself, what the heck was the big deal? Why did this video go viral? Itâ€™s not even funny and thereâ€™s no way to tell why the girl, Paula Jamie Salvosa went ballistic towards the security guard at the LRT…

Civics, Culture, Education, Lifestyle, Media

Multiply Is Being Subtracted

November 16, 2012November 16, 2012 Gogs No Comments

“Disc Six A dance remix, so I can catch the latest trend and it’ll make you scratch your head and wonder where my taste went. So now my fans are crying sellout, they say that I’ve lost my touch. They say I should just get the hell out before I do too much.” The…

Culture, Media, Society, Tech Talk, Technology

‘Amalayer’ girl Paula Jamie Salvosa should have Tagaloged when she Englished

November 15, 2012December 14, 2015 Kate Natividad 136 Comments

Perhaps Paula Jamie Salvosa, a.k.a. the Amalayer lady had a bad day and navigating the steaming chaos of one of the LRT stations in Manila’s train system is not exactly the best cure for a shitty day. But I can’t help but think back to how the Japanese, in their direst days following that really…

Civics, Culture, Lifestyle, Media

Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill another casualty of the Noynoy Aquino administration

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012 benign0 24 Comments

We recall back when President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III was in campaign mode (as if the President ever got over such an operating mode) that the President reportedly put up the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill as an absolute priority of his administration… Presidential frontrunner Sen. Benigno â€œNoynoy” Aquino III said last Sunday that…

Government, Media, Politics

Can social media ‘activism’ force Tito Sotto to apologise to Kerry Kennedy and Sarah Pope?

November 13, 2012 benign0 36 Comments

It seems to be becoming a showdown between the much-vaunted “power” of social media “activism” and the traditional institutional power of a Senator of the Republic. The most recent news report on the brouhaha over allegations of plagiarism being directed against Philippine Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III screamed “Netizens refuse to let Sotto off the…

Culture, Media, Politics

Harrassment by Presidential Security: There’s Three Sides To Every Story

November 13, 2012October 26, 2013 Gogs 23 Comments

“There’s three sides to every story, baby. There’s yours and there’s mine and the cold, hard truth.” Long Way Home Don Henley On October 2012 a man meeting his family at a local restaurant was threatened to be arrested . This man’s only crime was parking in a restaurant that just happened to…

Culture, Government, Media

What the victory of US President Barack Obama means to Filipinos

November 8, 2012November 8, 2012 benign0 22 Comments

Filipinos follow American showbiz, American sport, American fashion, parrot American accents, ape American attitudes and, yes, act out American politics. Indeed, Filipinos were all but carried away by US election fever trooping to “mock US elections” organised by the US Embassy in Manila and whooping it up after the victory at the polls of re-electionist…

Culture, Media, Politics