Flashpoint Articles: For Viral Use Only

I noticed recently that my friends have been sharing articles that they hate. Either a misguided columnist or contributor said something discriminatory, or the CBCP was interviewed and they said something stupid again. When I see these posts, I try not to read them, because it seems to me that they are “flashpoint articles” or articles that are disseminated because publishers know that it will get a lot of rage-driven hits online. Or do they really think that these articles deserve space in their publication?

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Mrt Blues: Why are women lumped with the disabled?

Going up the train station

The train stations in the Philippines are segregated. There are special carts for a certain group of people–the elderly, children, the disabled, and women.  I got nothing against these people, and I understand this is like a “courtesy lane” where you give special treatment to certain members of society that need a little consideration. But why are women, grown adults at that, categorized with the “helpless”?

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Sex Talk: Only Talk about Sex If You’re Not Having Sex

I don’t know if these commercials are still airing on TV, but I remember there were two commercials encouraging teenagers to talk to their parents about sex. The setting is always the same. The family is about to eat, then the kid says something to the mom and dad. In one commercial the kid is a girl and in another it’s a guy.

Although it’s great that the commercials are encouraging teenagers to talk to their parents about sex, the commercials send a subliminal message–only talk about sex if you’re not having sex.

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Immersion Journalism in the Philippines?

Recently, I’ve been reading the book New New Journalism  by Robert S. Boyton, and I got interested in immersion journalism, a method where journalists spend a year or years with their subjects in order to come up with a non-fiction book that reads like a novel.

I want to do this too. I want to shadow someone and know all of his or her idiosynchrasies. I want to observe even the most ordinary details of that person’s life and painstakingly describe it. I want to create a realistic painting with words.

The problem is I don’t know if these book deals exist in the Philippines, and plus I am not sure what I want to write about. I have a bagillion and one ideas, but I don’t know which one commands me enough such that I will obsess about it for a year.

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Philippines and Gays: From Babaylans to Charice

After I read “A revealing map of the countries that are most and least tolerant of homosexuality” by Max Fisher where the writer said that he doesn’t know why Philippines has a high level of tolerance toward gays even if it’s a conservative Catholic country, I decided to write to Mr. Fisher in order to explain the interesting parts of Philippine culture and its treatment of gays. I just sent it last night, so I don’t know if he’ll reply. Anyway, here are the parts of my e-mail (I kind of revised it a bit for this blog):

Remember that the Catholic religion wasn’t the original religion of the Filipinos. It was brought by the Spaniards and imposed on the people. Even if many consider themselves Catholic, there is a phenomenon called split-level Catholicism wherein the individual retains non-Catholic beliefs even if they identify themselves as Catholic. These pre-Spanish beliefs could be one of the reasons why there is tolerance when it comes to gays. Why is that so? Let me talk about the babaylans.

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