What do milk and beer have in common?

What do milk and beer have in common? Find out here.
Here's an article of mine at Bulalat:

Danding Eyes Takeover of Aussie Dairy Firm

railing the nation

It was a warm and sunny day. Walking through the street had the surreal reality of living. Marrickville streets are typically empty, and since it was a public holiday, shops were closed, streets looked emptier even with the passing cars which take on the semblance of whizzing background aimed left and right. While on days like this, suburbs look like ghost towns, it wasn't an ordinary day. It was Australia day, and it was time for celebrating the building of a new nation, though on the basis of taking it from the original inhabitants.

Didn't get to see much of the celebration; we were going to Gosford. We waited at the Marrickville station for a few minutes. A Filipino couple passed by us. Rode the first iron giant to Central, then would switch to countrylink at the station. Central Station is a Victorian building criscrossed by the rail lines. It is modernity and the past intersecting at this hub of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world.

People bustling by to get to their destinations. It is a blur of life on the tracks of movement.
Had to get ahead of a queue to pay for my copy of the Sydney Morning Herald. Then took the train at platform 10 beside the news agency. Read through a bit of the paper. Suburban stations passed by - relativity theory in mind. Then the mobile phallus shot through the black hole of mountain tunnels, emerging to the green savour of the national parks and the sudden burst of the blue and golden incandescence of coastal and waterside towns on both sides. If there was a train line through the Visayas Islands and Mindanao, the view would be something nearly similar. Nature has a global facade.
There's this place, Hawkesbury River, where it looked like a line of earth was piled on the river to allow passage for the metal hulk. This was the Central Coast, about two hours fast drive north of Sydney.

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Great nations were built on vast tracks of rail. Before the advent of airplanes, trains provided the transportation of products and people throughout great areas. It minimized transportation time that used to be carried on the backs of horses or pack animals, was cheaper, and helped greatly in communication and interchange of culture, the building of national identity and the broadening of perspectives. Conscious and enjoyable travel unfastens that.

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There should be extended rail lines from Manila to the northern Luzon and eastern provinces. The rail network should also lead to the Visayas and Mindanao. From Luzon, one can come up with a line from Manila through Southern Tagalog then to Bicol, perhaps an underwater tunnel to Samar then a large aboveground bridge or underwater tunnel to Leyte and a submarine tunnel to Surigao and then to the rest of Mindanao. That's the eastern side. Alternatively, there could be a line from Manila to Batangas and a submarine tunnel to Mindoro. Diverging, there could be a line to Palawan from here. To continue, from the south of Mindoro, another tunnel to Panay Island, past Caticlan (which is where Boracay is), going through Iloilo, to Negros Island, with Dumaguete at the southern point of Visayas . Then it continues to Dapitan and the rest of Mindanao. Cebu could be connected from the east and west sides. The east from Leyte, and the west from Negros Island from Iloilo. Bohol can be connected through Cebu. A submarine connection could also be built from Cebu to Cagayan de Oro and the rest of Mindanao.

The setting up of such a railway network could do more for nation-building through the establishment of a tightened economic connection that easier transportation engenders. It paves the way to understanding and peace, if the underlying grievances are of course politically addressed. This is easier said than done. It requires stellar determination to launch such a grand infrastructure project, amidst the obstacles set up by debt, corruption and parochial lack of vision.

The RORO connection is an idea in the right direction, though there are problems on the road, and the program looks more like a PR job for Arroyo than a serious endeavour. Transportation is in the hands of the private sector, so fare is still in the domain of the market, which hinders movement for many people. Also, those ports Gloria named for her clan looks more like self-aggrandizement.

The building up of rail lines would also create another industry, not least in maintenance and the fostering of engineering. With the discovery of oil deposits near Palawan and in Mindanao, uranium ore in Ifugao, mineral deposits throughout the islands, plus the usual flora and fauna that could enrich not just industry but a whole way of life, there is a case that should be made for the building of the Philippine train. In this way, we also lay down the railroad to the Filipinos' liberation and opportunity.

rock star

Here's the result of a personality test.

Caesar, you're a Rock Star!
People are impossibly attracted to you wherever you go — whether or not you know it or not. There's something about the confidence you emit through your actions, conscious and otherwise, that compels people to want to come in for a closer look.

Criticality and Hope

Critical people have always been hit for being pessimistic about the world, for being 'negative,' seeing only what's wrong. They're told to 'look at the bright side, for once' or 'you should be happy with what you have,' 'you're lucky,' 'count your blessings.' Yet the critical people are happy, do count their blessings, yet would want to improve the world they're gonna leave for the next generations - if it isn't too late already. Being critical is being cognizant of the impediments to progress, of the war-mongering obstacles to just peace, of the policies and laws - economic and political - that incrust many people to lives of hunger, poverty and oppression.

Critical people are in one sense fantasy-breakers, since many would rabidly cling to such fantasies with the fanaticism of one whose only happiness is to maintain that dependency. While it is more comfortable to live in such a world, it is nevertheless the Matrix, a configured/reconfigured trap for the human soul. Thus critical people also have to act and articulate further the workings of the real world - to become organic intellectuals.

In the end, struggle is soul-searching, scraping and realizing the human potential out of a tarnished humanity. Thus, it is not the responsibility of organic intellectuals to sing praises to arbitrary power; their responsibility to the people is to criticize it. An honest and decent person would be ashamed to turn a blind eye against the world, and instead turn to an inward-looking religion or personal asceticism. Being fulfilled individually is intricately tied to social upliftment. While one may be happy alone, it is empty, devoid of content, since a person, to become human, has to develop social interaction. In seeing problems that exist and trying to overcome them, one finds oneself climbing the hill towards one's humanity. This is the essence of hope.

A Bleak Future

Saw setting of Bush inauguration. It looked like Imperial Rome. Lavish party while people in Iraq are dying. In the restricted/restrictive discursive space of the imperial rulers, invasion is liberation, offense is defense, an arching power in the wings of the Iraqi elections is democracy. In this perverted dimension where the use of the word has been so debased, one country is bringing freedom to the rest of the globe, with no sense of irony, it seems.

New moves by the US look disturbing. I don't know what exactly it is, but I have a vague feeling of something bleak ahead, crucially in the coming five years. Have to do more research. Meanwhile, people should be more alerted to what's happening in the world. Perhaps the UN, progressive governments, people's movements, even the Church should be mobilizing more its people.

Quotes: "The eye has become a human eye when its object has become a human, social object"

Aijaz Ahmad: "The first resource of hope is memory itself."

the making of dystopia

"Lift your head. You're a Filipino." This was M weeks ago. I seriously didn't know how to react. The easiest reply would be pride. I was proud. Yet there was also being an internationalist. It was an awkward moment.

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Slight digression: I'm not disavowing my ethnicity here, let me be clear on that. The purpose here is analytical in order to understand and perhaps lead to action. Culture and biases are products of human actions and thought in the context of differential history.
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(The flow of thought that follows emanates from the above incident, whose context and the provocated statement would have to be put aside for now. Sorry, while writing has to have some form of structure and organization, thought is non-linear)

From that I realized that all these are instilled, so much so that we'd be willing to risk our reputations and necks for what we believe in. Thus we're taught in grade school who the Filipino heroes are, worthy of emulation. We memorize the national anthem, extolling sacrifice for the motherland, which has been raped and from whom justice has been denied. The whole thing, our outlook and attitudes are instilled, molded; we are indoctrnated into the society we have to grow up in. Those were the nationalist days, although this would be more superficial than it seemed.

The content was not always taken seriously. A look at the lingering colonial mentality gives an indirect proof.

In the age of globalization, a new outlook is being instilled upon us. Globalization supposedly would bring the country into progress, into a whole new world away from the darkness of the economic ravine. Thus we heard the likes of Emil Javier (former UP President) making us understand that 'nationalism is passe in the age of globalization' - and people do not die laughing. Yet I doubt he's truly an internationalist. Such bombastic pronouncements without a critical look at the form of globalization we're having is naive. It is an attempt to blunt the sharpness of the ideals of Filipino nationalists from Bonifacio, Rizal to Recto and Tanada. It is a vain effort to mask that it is precisely the underlying precepts of what is now called globalization that has contributed more to the economic basket case called the Philippines.

The struggle begins in the form of a counter-hegemonic effort by progressives of every kind, by extolling not chauvinistic biases, but rather the good in Philippine culture in order to contribute to a new and progressive culture, leading to more solidarity in the national and international context.

***

Nationalism in one definition is fighting for the dignity of your home, raising the standard of living, political life and culture of its people, free from intervention and manipulation by other countries and ruling elites. Internationalism means being able to appreciate and interact with other people with equality and dignity. Sometimes it could be synonymous with solidarity - 'standing in other people's shoes.'

***

It also made me realize how heavily indoctrinated Filipinos are towards the west, especially to the US of A. Hence you'd have some Pinoys shouting 'I Love America!' even though history has shown the US' kind of gratitude to the Filipinos. Though there is that 'love-hate relationship' between the US and the Philippines, the 'hate' part is more from those who have opened their eyes to history and the present dispensation. It takes a counter-culture indeed to combat years of colonial mentality.
When I say the US, i do not mean the entire people, but the ruling elite and their spokespersons in the establishment and media.
To wean Filipinos out of this, they must now start looking at other cultures too. At the rich cultures and traditions of Asia, the history of Europe, the struggles of Latin America, the mystery of Africa, development of Australia and the Pacific Ocean islands. In order for Filipino culture to be enriched, it can take the best from all the cultures of the world. A healthy person is exposed to every element it can stand.

That goes for progressives too, who are in some way obsessed with the US as well. There is a bit of wisdom in an Irish Liberation's pillar when he said that the best way to beat the enemy (in this case, the British empire) is by ignoring it. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't pay attention to the main hegemonic power and oppressor, but having alternative societies to show could have an effect on people, to truthfully understand that there is another world other than America. The world is composed not only of celebrity wannabes, biker gangs, cops and psychopaths, alien abductees, survivors who betrayed their former allies and other stereotypes in US shows. The world is a much richer place, and it is not just the USA.

***
On this side of the world: while Australians watch US shows, eat their food and wear their stuff, Aussies have an active dislike of Americans. So that an advertisement for a beer brand in a bus stop reads: "More refreshing than a quiet American." And it sells. Perhaps they're not blindsided by ideological persuasions coming from the US, so that they tell things as they are. It's not only Australians, I gather. It is true that being a predator is lonely, being the global beast means being feared by the world. It's only from the likes of its neo/colonized minds that it gets support. It's like the Stockholm Syndrome, where the victim of deprivation of liberty empathizes with its captor.

***

Ever since I've been here i don't believe I've encountered racist tendencies. It's probably my recalcitrant character, or my being from UP, which makes me proud ('you unworthy of my antipathy!') so that minor remarks pass by me. Yet racism does exist in a multi-cultural setting. It can manifest itself in employment opportunities. In Australia, ironically, racism probably originated in workers' communities, since these communities tried to protect their residents. One mining community which gained workers' rights - even before workers in Europe did - required people who wanted to work in the mines to have lived in that community for at least a few years, to the exclusion of migrants. Australia's development as a workers' country is a bit complex. They're said to have developed a 'socialism without ideologies,' but that's largely untrue. Of course, if at some point of a country's history it developed a workers' movement and a working class culture, then it would reflect through its policies and the kind of living conditions in that country. Thus you have socialized health care, extensive railroads, housing and decent wages. Though with the onslaught of neoliberal policies and the conservatives being in position, the coming years would presage uncertainty.

Racism has always been there where differences occur, aggravated by various conditions. Yet it is rooted in oppression. If you're stepping your foot on someone else's neck, you have to justify it somehow. It could be the shape of their nose, or the colour of their skin. The mentality sticks and you develop the culture. It's also appropriated by those in power. If the black people had the money, the reverse would be true. But that's only true if social inequality is very glaring.

Another irony is that while capitalism may intensify racist tendencies in order to exploit differentials in wages and exploitation - much like the function of the reserve army of workers where due to people competing for jobs, wages can be pegged at a minimum - capitalism can also stand without it. That's to rake in previously unavailable labor into the marketplace. Sure it would mean a loss of white privileges in the boardroom and the office after dark, yet if fundamental relations are not threatened, then there is no problem. It's also desirable in the international operations of multinational companies. So the irony is that offices acquire an international character - not internationalist - that provides the grist of the capitalist business machine.

***
Trends are not inevitable or irreversible. It takes effort and perseverance to produce a more desirable world.
The way things are unravelling, we do not want a dystopia, even though we can't create its reverse, of utopia.

Filipinos migrate to virtual earthlights

I rarely appreciate my constant chatting and Internet activity. At any one time, I'll be chatting with someone from the Philippines, friends from China, from Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Korea, Africa, latin America or Australia. Putting aside the interaction in the real world, activity in the Internet is connectivity in practice.

*****

Filipinos are spread the world over, like peanut butter on bread, mainly due to the deteriorating economic situation in their original country. In the Philippines, they are faced with a future (or, alternatively, no future) bleak with uncertainty, brought about by poverty, hunger, disease, lacking or totally without the means to alleviate their families from these problems. Thus they are forced to migrate to 'better lands,' to the 'land of milk and honey,' to 'the land of liberty' and all such slogans - slogans that may even contrast with the bitter realities. That future would now hopefully be their past, no way of going back to that situation, except in the effort of helping their families.

Any movement would naturally be an adjustment, so there is that aftershock after the initial awe and wonder of a new - and, compared to where they came from - and arguably better place. The rude awakening would only come in later. They would realize, for example, that their education would not be recognized, so that M.D. graduates would work as nurses, because of the questionable value of their degree, because the worth of such is deemed suspicious, or simply unworthy of measurement. They would encounter different values, racism, demeaning working and living conditions, so that many of them try to mitigate their alienation by being more traditional than they were back 'home,' so they become more strict (not without the frictions) with their children, or more religious, suddenly law-abiding and politically conservative. So that a friend in the US would be shocked at my opinions about the US government and expectedly ignorant of the foreign policies of her adopted country. Expectedly, yet still surprisingly. These are not inevitable trends.
The value of travel and exposure to different places and cultures, notwithstanding, there is a need to probe the structures that have brought about the mass exodus ('the diaspora,' in the words of the tower intellectuals) of people. For now I will not make this a treatise on the movement of capital and labour and debts and the psychological scarring of a struggling people bombarded by wars, imposed economic policies, etc.; it's 1:43 a.m. No kidding.
Let's just say that while capital is free, labor is stilll in chains. Capital has rights; working and poor people don't. It's the free market democracy. Those with the money can vote on policies, those without it can't. So you have lots of people disenfranchised. Poor people, for example, and future generations yet to come. This has lots of implications on social and environmental issues.

***

I remember this orientation being given by the DFA. About a hundred people there. One was going to Japan, the other I think to Korea, this one to the Land Down Under. The rest of it was going to the USA. And most of them to California. I think California is a Filipino colony.

***

I am persuaded that people of my generation and those from UP cope better, perhaps because nothing best prepares a person for the uncertain conditionalities of life than education (plus for UP grads, being street-smart) and the relative inexperience and risk-taking of young age, which is not yet that jaded.

***

The 'earthlights' analogy is taken from strategic planning talks sponsored by the Pentagon. There is ongoing indoctrination there about the 'have-nots' coming from outside earthlights. From outer space, one can see the illumination coming from big cities like New York, Los Angeles, London, etc, and the coastal areas of China and other cities and less illuminated countries. The 'have-nots' come from the darkness surrounding those lights, and so the shining guardians of the world must look out for these. There is another paradigm of becoming aware (beware) of 'the gap' between the 'haves' and 'have-nots.' So the masters of the universe and their enforcers must understand this and hopefully bridge that gap through the initiative of the US. It is not imposing, it is not intervening; it is the benevolent empire, which has no boundaries and will be indefinite. Welcome to the New (yet staidly old) World Order.

phantom of sound

I think I've more or less learned how to put in music, so am embedding them in the blogs I'm managing. Blog experience becoming more multi-media.

***
Backtrack:: here's a post from my former blog, dated April 27, 2004:

Passed through UP. Went to Soli meet. Lisa, Ryne, Divine, Cha, Agnes, Floyd, Ronald in meet. Had isaw

singing the nightlife culture karaoke

Weekends in Sydney means for many of my generation partying, clubbing, going out, pub-hopping, drunken drivers with their car stereo full blast, startling the older people waiting for their bus. In the absence of political activity, people tend to find escapist entertainment, in an attempt to shatter the monotony of their everyday lives. On the one hand, it is a way to relax from the exhaustion and alienation brought about by the week's work.

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Segue into memory: I find that kind of culture more expressive in places like Malate, Makati, Timog, Ortigas or Libis. Don't forget the feral nightlives in Olongapo, Baguio, Cebu, Bacolod, Davao and the somewhat more diluted nightlife of Iloilo, to name some. And the more or less pub culture of Bangued, Leyte, Tabuk (Kalinga), Cotabato and other more provincial cities.
###

More conscientious people only have themselves to blame if they see this as a 'decadent' culture, because of lack of effectiveness, and perhaps effort, in helping to catalyze an alternative culture with more awareness and solidarity.
But really, I think Sydney's nightlife is more fun. Especially if you see the different cultures more or less shedding their inhibitions (in its many connotations). So you have Irish, English ('Poms'), Kiwis (New Zealanders), Asians (sorry, too many to mention), Southern Europeans, Indians, Bangladeshi, etc., doing their thing. Of course there are places the Irish, for example, would preferably go to, like a dance pub at the corner of George St. (main Central Business District street), and the Chinese have their own, like karaoke bars and dance places in and around Chinatown.

Mentionable dance bars in King's Cross include Empire and Bourbon - taking note of my limited experience. Of course, King's Cross is notorious for its strip clubs and the really underside section of the night.

**
Went with *****(sorry, trying to keep friends in personal life out of public virtualia) and her god-sister to their territorial domain, Chinatown. It's really one of the places I usually sneak to when I go to the city. Chinatown (really only a big street and surrounding buildings) is located near the CBD, beside Marketplace and at the back is Darling Harbour. On either side of the main street are various shops and restaurants that are nearly always full. One can glimpse here a bit of Chinese culture, and one gets treated sometimes to Chinese music as well (the Chinese lyre?), accompanying your walk for two blocks. If you want cheap eats, look for the underground diners. Sometimes it's really crucial to have Chinese friends, especially when ordering at restaurants, as their menus are more often than not written in Chinese. Of course you have the lugaw, siopao, siomai (dumplings), but you find they call them other terms, as one should naturally expect. I reckon there'd also be differences relating to one's being Cantonese or Mandarin. In the same area, you also have different cuisines, which is what I like about Sydney (don't know much about the rest of the country; Melbourne would probably be as much cosmopolitan). So you have food from assorted places. Yum on your lips, tongue, throat and stomach, you can choose from Indonesian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and others. Aussie ("Fish and Chips"), Greek, Italian, Lebanese, you tend to see more in the suburbs. Right now my favourite is Thai food (red curry, Tom Yam). What a gastronomic delight!

refracting the atmosphere.

It is 5:30 PM....

....and it is hot in the city.

Passing by Newtown would display undergarmented bodies trying to cope with the heat which distorts the atmosphere. So much so that it's cooler to be inside the house.

slave to the blog

There is a an ice shackle around our un/willing arms...

Certain people, awhisked by quotidian chores and responsibilities, unaccepting of the whispered freedom they earn from such activities, don't find it ironic being slave to the machines, the virtual and real kinds, that they smoothly assimilate as part of their assumed duties.

As it is, blogging is not just an enjoyable habit, it's an enforced habit.
So when checking other people's blog sites, you see comments like "I haven't been blogging for awhile," or "I couldn't think of anything to say for the past couple of days." And they'd probably apologize for it.
There is the same jagged noise, when the phone rings, and we have to stop everything we do, freeze time in order to answer the nagging of the machine. It is a slap against the whispering in our hearts.

Have a break. Digital/virtual calls, their relative value notwithstanding, should never be substituted to real, face-to-face interaction.

speaking in tongues

What a long way from the past, linguistically speaking, when I used to greet people "Happy New Year!" only in English or Filipino (and its dialects). Now i'm greeting in German (Prosit Neujahr!) and Mandarin (Xin Nian Kuai Le). May it be a fruitful and amazing new year. People have to work hard for it, though, lots of things to change.

investigator

another game

You Are the Investigator

5 You're independent - and a logical analytical thinker. You love learning and ideas... and know things no one else does. Bored by small talk, you refuse to participate in boring conversations. You are open minded. A visionary. You understand the world and may change it.

What number are you?

soul kind

This is just a game. but I'm a retrospective soul.
The most misunderstood of all the soul signs.
Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are.
You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life.
You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor.
Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily.
But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes.
For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present.
You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life.
Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul.

You Are a Retrospective Soul

The most misunderstood of all the soul signs. Sometimes you even have difficulty seeing yourself as who you are. You are intense and desire perfection in every facet of your life. You're best described as extremely idealistic, hardworking, and a survivor. Great moments of insight and sensitivity come to you easily. But if you aren't careful, you'll ignore these moments and repeat past mistakes. For you, it is difficult to seperate the past from the present. You will suceed once you overcome the disappoinments in life. Souls you are most compatible with: Traveler Soul and Prophet Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

silhouettes of an idle time

The new year would definitely be a period of adjustment, as new plans and the direction of my life would be changed...once again. Hopefully for the better.
Anyway, right now just reading books, a few DVD's, catching up through the net, surfing friendster - typically petty-bourgeois:) Also checked Uni. of Sydney's info day. Checking out UNSW and UTS. Might take up masterals - but of what? It is definitely a formless moment in the clouds.

US had advance warnings of tsunami

Still looking into it, but it seems the US had advance warnings of the tsunami. The US Naval installation in Diego Garcia was warned from an advanced tsunami warning post in Hawaii. Yet they didn't inform South Asian countries in the path of the tsunami, except Australia and Indonesia (very late). Now it's the US armed forces that are handling the relief program. Talk about P.R.

confronting/ the/ fear of life

Sometimes we retreat too much into our comfort zones that going out into the world is like being exhaled into a tropical wilderness, without immunity to the germs and potential diseases attached to interaction. We end up being scared of the world. Yet evolving that immunity could only mean going out more, facing other people, striking up conversations, talk, communicate, discuss, lecture, learn, preach, open up minds, theirs and yours.
Looked at this way, the experience could then be as if down a long, dark, familiar tunnel, you are then rushed and born into the light. And start a rich and complex life, out in the open, with other people.
It reminds me: The powers-that-be always attempt to dam the dispossessed; catalysts can aid in the process of bursting the dam, until all dams are opened. Along with the hardening of the earth, rain must fall. Efforts should be made to help people articulate their demands and empower them in their communities. This will require unity, organization and struggle.