manny villar’s “moriones st” tv ad works! it is chismis we all love to watch

manny villar's "moriones st." tv ad

this ad on villar is actually chismis. come on, be honest with yourselves. it is fare we all love to devour on sunday afternoon tv. the fact that we are looking into the private life of villar and we are taken there by boy abunda, the master chismis person is just perfect for our sense of peering into the private life of manny villar. pinoys are voyeurs, remember? (check back on how pinoys have been turned into voyeurs from here: https://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/haden-kho-and-katrina-halili-turned-us-all-into-voyeurs/)

the whole ad is just packaged very well. we should be bored with  ads like these but we are not. we are fixed on the tv and we get to know who manny villar is. 4 stars!

read in full here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/villars-getting-to-know-you-tv-ad-moriones-st/

charice pempengco and celine dion duet at the madison square garden – a must see for all pinoys

charice pempengco is a 16 year old pinay who started her singing career in the philippines. she joined many singing contests and his biggest claim to fame in the country is a 2nd place finish in an abs-cbn singing contest.

ellen degeneres saw her youtube posting and was so impressed with her that ellen invited charice to perform in her  The Ellen DeGeneres TV show. she floored everyone in her first US national tv performance.

another US TV great saw her, oprah and did the same thing – she invited charice to perform in her own tv show. but did not end there, oprah took a very strong liking of charice and her talent that oprah became one of her biggest backers in the US.

oprah introduced charice to david foster a music great in america and set up a charice to perform a duet with celine dion in her concert at madison square garden.

charice pempengco and celine dion at madison square garden

charice as in all of her performances brought the madison square garden down. view the youtube videos of that performance. these videos are a must-see for every filipino.

view it here: http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/ or here http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/category/charice-pempengco/

chiz escudero takes solo lead in presidentiables survey for the first time

escudero for the first time takes solo lead in the presidentiables survey. villar slides to 2nd.

view the survey results here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/2010-presidentiables-poll-cast-your-vote/

1500 cebu prisoners pay tribute to michael jackson again

1500 prisoners pay tribute to michael jackson

they released a dance video in youtube with 1500 prisoners dancing to michael jackson’s “thriller” song. that youtube video became a hit with so far 24M hits.

they did it again as a tribute to michael jackson on his death. view it here: http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/

new response from NHI chair ambeth ocampo on rizal’s house painted puke green

published at PDI’s Letters To The Editor. letter parsed, read in full here: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20090627-212651/NHI-head-on-old-flag-Rizal-House

The other news article, “Rizal House is green but people see red” (Inquirer, 6/19/09), tells us what we already know – public reaction to the new color, and the clamor to have the house restored to its “original” color.

This is a case of judging a book by its cover. Before repainting the house, the NHI’s Historic Preservation Division carefully peeled off layers of paint that had accumulated over the last 50 years after the Rizal Shrine was reconstructed using contributions from schoolchildren. The green color everyone hates today happens to be the “original” color.

Nevertheless, the good news is that Boysen Paint has offered to repaint the house in the right shade of green for free. After the rains, we hope a deeper green, the color of “palay,” will continue to educate visitors on the meaning and significance of the surname “rizal” from “ricial” that describes a green field ready for harvest.

 We appreciate the concern for heritage as expressed in these articles but hope that in the future the NHI as the government agency responsible for history will be asked to comment so that the articles will be balanced and not only generate heat but, more importantly, provide illumination as well.

—DR. AMBETH R. OCAMPO, chair, National Historical Institute

Michael Jackson 1958-2009 : icon, epic, timeless, artist, genius, master, entertainer

 icon, epic, timeless, artist,  genius, master, entertainer – there are more but these are just the few words that describe michael jackson so perfectly well. from his childhood to adulthood, he knew what those words meant and he lived them. we pay tribute to one of the greats of music.

Randy David to oppose Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in Pampanga congressional seat

Randy David

if gloria mcapagal arroyo runs for congress in pampanga, randy david, UP professor and political poet will oppose her in the congressional district in pampanga.

we applaud randy david!

read more here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/randy-david-pdi-columnist-professor-to-oppose-gloria-macapagal-arrroyo-in-pampanga/

May 2009 SWS Presidentiables Survey: dramatic changes, high undecided puts manny villar on top

this  SWS april to may 2009 presidentiables survey is  asking the question “who is the best leader to replace gloria macapagal arroyo in 2010”.

this is what we had to say about that:

it is in some sense a loaded question becuase it adds the dimension of anchoring the answer on gloria macapagal arroyo. more importantly, it does not at all reflect the situation that respondents will get into in may 2010 when they elect a president. by may 2010 when they vote, arroyo will not be a factor at all which then in many ways weakens the results of this survey.

there have been dramatic changes:

we need to cross tabulate and we do not have the data but what the results seem to say is that the dramatic rise in the undecided caused the dramatic decreases in ratings of some of the presidentiables. that seems to say many of the previous supporters of presidentiables escudero and legarda and to some degree de castro did not shift their support to other candidates but simply decided not to decide.

read in full here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/sws-presidentiables-survey-dramatic-changes-high-undecided-puts-manny-villar-on-top/

Rin On The Rox duo who sings inside the bathroom – 2 pinays in the US, YouTube sensation appears at The Ellen DeGeneres TV Show

this has been in YouTube for sometime and these two US-pinays have become youtube sensations. their thing is they sing inside the bathroom. it’s not just the singing in the bathroom but they really have great voices and sing so well together.

the ellen degeneres show found them and they got invited to appear in the tv show to perform.

 

Erin was standing outside, talking on the phone with the producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

more of them here: http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/

PinoYouTube – have a laugh or a cry

there must be thousands of them out in the wilds of YouTube. we will hunt them and put them all here for the glory or gory and for tears or laughter.

view them here: http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/

view this pinoy dancing to beyonce’s “single ladies”. also pay attention to the pilipino lyrics of the sone. click here and leave a comment of praise or dismay: http://pinoyoutube.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/hala-bira-beyonces-single-ladies-ala-pinoy/

Ateneo grade school: 6 confirmed swine flu cases, suspends classes june 25-26, return june 29

taken from here: http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=25&aid=6881

————-

June 24, 2009

TO: THE ATENEO DE MANILA GRADE SCHOOL COMMUNITY

RE: CANCELLATION OF CLASSES FROM 25-26 JUNE 2009

FROM: THE HEADMASTER

I wish to inform the community that classes for Primary School and Middle School are canceled on Thursday, June 25 and Friday, June 26. Classes will resume on Monday, June 29, 2009. This forms the proactive response of the school to the A H1N1 concern.

Our constant monitoring of the students has yielded as of yesterday, June 23:

A. Information on six confirmed cases among our students, two of whom have been in contact with their classmates. The School Infirmary is in constant communication with the students on quarantine to monitor their progress

B. A profile of the absences among our students for the week of June 15-23.  The 4-day respite from school is intended to achieve the following:

A. To minimize the spread of the Influenza A (H1N1) virus
B. To allow the sick members of our community to recuperate
C. To allow the rest of the community to build resistance

Given the changing circumstances surrounding this whole issue, the school would also like to take this time to formulate a response that is relevant to these shifts.

Among the directions it would like to take would be:

A. To craft a protocol that shifts from containment to mitigation
B. To make adjustments in the school calendar while staying within the required number of school days
C. To put in place make-up mechanisms for lost academic time
D. To invite authorities from the DOH to give expert advice to the members of the community as regards new directions and strategies

The previous decision on the quarantine period for 3-Sumakwel (from June 22 to June 28) and for 2-Kanlaon (from June 24 to June 30) stays.

The Parent Teacher Conference Scheduled for Saturday June 27 is indefinitely postponed. Offices will remain open on June 25-26.

We urge you to regularly refer to the AGS Website (www.ateneo.edu/ags) for updates.

We continue to enjoin the community to contribute to the aim of achieving a more heightened awareness of the indispensable role of healthy habits and personal hygiene as the best deterrent against this novel virus.

Thank you and may God bless our community always.

NORBERTO MARIA LUZA BAUTISTA, SJ

AH1N1/Swine Flu at ateneo grade school: 2nd GS section quarantined

from the ateneo website:

——-

Grade School A(H1N1) Advisory # 4
date posted: 2009-06-23 12:36:54

June 23, 2009. This is to inform the community that a student from 2-xxx has been confirmed to have contracted the influenza A( H1N1) virus. Background data show that the student had no off shore travel history .

As a response to this, the Ateneo Grade School will put on quarantine the entire class of 2 Kanlaon. The quaqrantine period  will begin on Wednesday June 24, 2009 till June 30, 2009.  The parents of the  students under quarantine are urged to report to the AGS infirmary information that will be of relevance to the monitoring of their children’s health condition.  The Kanlaon students may go back to school on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

Concurrent with this, the AGS  continues to document the absences of the students in the whole Grade School. The school feels that this data becomes central in the efforts at monitoring developments and in assisting the school craft an appropriate response.

Again, the entire community is enjoined to visit the Ateneo Web for advisories as well as precautionary measures to be taken to address the spread of the virus. A section in the web is dedicated to all pertinent
A( H1N1 ) related matters.

source: http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=25&aid=6868

AH1N1/swine flu now at the ateneo grade school

the ateneo grade school admin did the right thing when it took the initiative to delay by a few days the opening of classes of the grade school when it was found out some ateneo high school students had swine flu and classes were suspended for the high school boys for 10 days. we agreed that it was a smart move to err on the safe side.

however, a new development has occurred – there is talk that a whole section of grade school students were quarantined. the whole class was asked by the school not to go to school for a number of days presumably because member/s of the class had swine flu.

the AGS admin has not made a formal announcement on the matter. the information has been circulating among parents through text and yahoogroups only and no formal announcement by the school.

without a formal announcement from the school on the matter, this is just a rumor. if you are an ateneo parent wouldn’t you want this rumor confirmed or denied by the school?

—————

announcement made at the ateneo website:

 

AH1N1 Update  Advisory # 3

date posted: 2009-06-22 07:38:54

A student of 3-Sumakwel has been tested positive for the Influenza  A[H1N1] last June 19, 2009.

Upon the recommendation of the VP for Planning and Administration, Dr. John Paul Vergara, and after his consultation with the DOH, the AGS will put the entire class of 3-Sumakwel on quarantine for 7 days starting  Monday, June 22, 2009. They may go back to school on Monday, June 29, 2009.

As our infirmary personnel monitor developments among the students in this class, we urge parents of these students to feel at liberty to report to the school through the infirmary, any indications of flu in their children.

Meanwhile, revisions have been made to the AGS quarantine procedeure, reducing the length of quarantine from 10 days to 7 days.  Please continue visiting the AGS web for possible updates in the protocol pending advisories from the DOH .

source: http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&aid=6854

“impossible traffic” at the Ateneo Grade School

“impossible traffic” was how one ateneo dad describes the traffic situation at the AGS. we concur.

it has now taken much longer, at around 2 to 3 times longer to get in and out of the ateneo campus in the morning during drop-off and most specially in the afternoon at pick-up. what used to be getting in and out of the ateneo from 10 to 20 minutes, it is now anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes depending on the time. and that is just to get out and in to the AGS campus.

something is also wrong now at katipunan, on the approach to and getting out of the ateneo campus. traffic lines are now much longer, bumper to bumper and standstill traffic is more common. we wonder if the new traffic scheme implemented at the AGS is causing the traffic jam outside of ateneo. commuters and drivers along katipunan must now be fuming mad at ateneo.

pictures were taken on june 19, afternoon dismissal.

bumper to bumper traffic on road along katipunan. this reached up to the gate.

the other side is no different - bumper to bumper traffic on matheson road reaching all the college buildings to gate 3

double parking on both sides on parking beside the football fields across the blue eagle's gym

comments and suggestions posted here, to read, please click: https://wawam.wordpress.com/new-ags-traffic-scheme-comments-suggestions/

dramatic cell cam video: Neda’s death at Iran protest

we are posting here the cell cam video that is an eloquent statement on what is happening in iran. be warned that this is graphic video, view at your own risk.

we are also posting the commentary made on the video as posted in youtube.

her name is NEDA.

Basij shots to death a young woman in Tehran’s Saturday June 20th protests At 19:05 June 20th Place: Karekar Ave., at the corner crossing Khosravi St. and Salehi st. A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes. The protests were going on about 1 kilometers away in the main street and some of the protesting crowd were running from tear gass used among them, towards Salehi St. The film is shot by my friend who was standing beside me. Please let the world know.

People Power In Iran? 4pm Tehran, 7pm Manila 7:30am US East Coast

Iranian Opposition Planning New Rally Saturday

By VOA News 20 June 2009

Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi are planning another mass rally Saturday, a day after Iran’s supreme leader warned the opposition to end protests over last week’s disputed election.

Mr. Mousavi is expected to address the rally in Tehran’s Revolution Square. Tehran’s governor, Morteza Tamadon, said the gathering is not authorized and should be canceled.

On Friday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said if opposition leaders do not cease their protests, they will be responsible for any violence.

read here: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-20-voa2.cfm

——————

this is worth watching tonight. a rally is scheduled to be held in tehran at 4pm, 7pm manila time. lines have been drawn in the sand where Iran’s supreme leader has warned against protests and saying opposition leaders will be held accountable.

opposition leaders and mousavi, the election candidate who said there was fraud in the elections, have vowed to hold the rally. millions have attended previous rallies, will the 4pm rally have the same number and power?

is this the start of people power in iran?

——

The People Power Revolution (also known as the EDSA Revolution and the Philippine Revolution of 1986) was a series of nonviolent and prayerful mass street demonstrations in the Philippines that occurred in 1986.^[1] It is sometimes referred to as the Yellow Revolution due to the presence of yellow ribbons during the arrival of Ninoy Aquino.^[2][3] These protests were the culmination of a long resistance by the people against the 20-year running authoritarian^[4] regime of then president Ferdinand Marcos and made news headlines as “the revolution that surprised the world”.^[5] The majority of the demonstrations took place at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, known more commonly by its acronym EDSA, in Quezon City, Metropolitan Manila and involved over 200,000 Filipino civilians as well as several political, military, and religious figures, such as Jaime Cardinal Sin. The protests, fueled by a resistance and opposition of years of corrupt governance by Marcos, occurred from February 22 to 25 in 1986, when Marcos fled Malacañang Palace to the United States and conceded^[6] to Corazon Aquino as President of the Philippines.^[7]

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_Power_Revolution

is jose rizal turning green in his grave?

ambeth ocampo, chair of the NHI is “the idiot who painted rizal’s house green” and that is a quote from the column he wrote on the PDI on the topic on june 3.

in his reply, aside from acknowledging he is the idiot who did it, he also knows rizal’s house was painted with the ” green color everyone hates” .

while in his reply to wawam.wordpress he says they scraped off the paint and found out the “original” color of the house was green, this trivia was not mentioned in his june 3 column. we wonder why this was mentioned only now.

but let’s say they did find green after they scraped it – the june 3 column did say the “Rizal Shrine is not the original home of the National Hero. It is not covered by the same rigid conservation principles applied to a 19th century house. The present Rizal Shrine is but half a century old, having been reconstructed by Juan Nakpil in the 1950s and funded by donations from schoolchildren.”

that begs the question, when they scraped it, they were not really scraping the real house of rizal. they scraped the house that someone else imagined to be rizal’s house. so using this argument as reason for painting it green may not hold water, or paint.

based on what he knows and those written in his june 3 column, the best conclusion is that we do not know what was the color of rizal’s house. and yet he knows the green color that is there right is one that everyone hates.

 he writes in his column historical sites like those of rizal should “inform, educate and inspire”. this green color certainly does not “inspire” at all. what it does is it makes us want to puke.

the education part is also questionable since this part seem to be just on the trivial pursuit of rizal’s surname to mean a green field. this is trivia and of no real consequence in our appreciation of rizal, his works and deeds. reducing education to a trivial pursuit is an insult to the genius and writings of rizal and something i am sure educators really frown upon.

is painting rizal’s house into green, something everyone hates and something we are really not sure about the only way to communicate the meaning of rizal’s surname?

we agree with ocampo that it is a cute trivia but it does not deserve such a huge place, screaming to the point of inspiring vomit from onlookers. in the scheme of what rizal has done for our country, it is less than a tenth of oen dot in the ellipsis of rizal’s life and his achievements.

we also do not buy what the rizalistas said that they accept the green color to mean rizal was an environmentalist. the color green taking the meaning of the environment is one that evolved during the modern times, not during the spanish period. the color green then most probably did not have any meaning yet.

and did rizal’s family really think about it that way? did they paint their original house green to pay tribute to the trivial pursuit of the meaning of their surname?

we do not think so. except that this idiot who painted rizal’s house green thought so. that is all that there is to it. enough of hiding below the skirt of historical facts and detective work. it does not hold water, nor paint. even if you scrape it. not even green paint.

NHI Chair ambeth ocampo responds to wawam.wordpress on rizal’s house painted green

 reply posted here: https://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/shocking-historian-wants-us-to-appreciate-rizal-through-trivial-purssuits-we-need-significance-meaning-from-our-heroes-not-trivia/

reply from ambeth ocampo:

Thank you for reading the column and having strong feelings about the preservation of our heritage.

Before you see red while seeing Rizal’s house in green we hope you can at least read the reasons for the change:  http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090603-208524/Why-Rizals-house-turned-green

People who have complained demand restoration of the house to the “original” color but then the funny part here is that the NHI HIstorica Preservation division before repainting the house scraped off layers of paint from a part of the house and, believe it or not, the green everyone hates today happens to be the “original” color when the reconstructed house was opened to the public 50 years ago.

Perhaps it is the shock of the old rather than shock of the new.

Dr. Ambeth R. Ocampo
 Chairman National Historical Institute

historical sites should inspire, elicit national pride; rizal’s house painted green embarasses us

ambeth ocampo, chair of the national historical institute rationalized the painting of rizal’s house into green with this:

In his column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 3, NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo explained that the reason for painting Rizal’s house green was to “highlight, and inform visitors of, the meaning of his surname.”

The surname Rizal is rooted in the Spanish word “ricial,” which means a green field ready for harvest, Ocampo said.

and this is what we have to say:

well, it is an intent or in marketing it is a brand intent but just because it is there does not mean it is usable and should be used. there are products for example that cause diarrhea if eaten too much, but these brands do not choose to highlight that in their marketing strategy.

we are all familiar with Tide Detergent brand. we all know what “tide” means but we do not see depicted in it’s packaging design nor do we see sea water included inside a pack of Tide Detergent Powder.

mr. ocampo’s first name is ambeth. we can guess that is a combination of his dad and mom’s first names, but i am sure he does not want to be called “beth” since he is male.

what mr. ocampo has done is give us trivia. everyone knows we enjoy trivial pursuits for fun or to make fun of. but that does not at all apply to a national hero and most specially to apply that to his house to make it look horrific and trivial.

it is not trivia we want from rizal, it is meaning and significance that we want. when we find meaning and significance in rizal, then we become a better nation. something i am sure rizal would have wanted.

for a historian, i am shocked that mr. ocampo did not know that.

mr. ocampo is the first historian we know of who intentionally pursued trivia rather than facts, meaning and substance.

historical sites are supposed to elicit respect, inspiration, nationalism and pride, nothing of the sort comes to mind from rizal’s house painted green. it embarasses us.

read in full here: https://wawam.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/rizals-house-painted-green-an-insult-to-jose-rizal-and-all-filipinos/

call or email Ambeth Ocampo, NHI chair on Jose Rizal’s house painted green

jose rizal's house painted green. photo scanned from PDI.

these are the comments printed in that news article. we agree completely with the comments. all filipinos should speak up and get the NHI to bring back the glory to jose rizal’s house.

“The house symbolizes Rizal and [the paint job] is an insult to his memory,” she said.

“That’s all we have here in Calamba, and we’ve lost our symbol,” Lazaro said in expressing worry over losing the city’s main historical and tourist attraction.

“It’s embarrassing,” she said. “We are having a hard time explaining to [guests] why it is green.”

Lazaro said it was different in the pre-green days: “Children would turn quiet upon entering the house. There was a certain ambiance and romance, it being an old house.”

She said this was contrary to a reaction from another recent guest who referred to the shrine as “a toy house.”

Another resident said Rizal’s house now looked “like a cake.” Lazaro said teachers on a tour of Calamba were “angry that they lost credibility before their students” in showing the national hero’s supposed representation of home.

Ambeth Ocampo

get in touch with NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo:

• NHI Telephone Number: 525-7695 (Melanie is secretary; Troy is assistant to the secretary)
• email: aocampo@ateneo.edu
• Ateneo De Manila University: 426-6001 ext, 5240 or 5241