FIFTY-CENTAVO CUT ON TEXT MESSAGES: WE'VE BEEN CONNED AGAIN

Let me just digress again by saying that Mrs Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a lying shithead.
 
In her State of the Nation Address two days ago, she said: "Texting is a way of life. I asked the telecoms to cut the cost of messages between networks. They responded. It is now down to 50 centavos."

The people believed her and rejoiced--I did, too--only to realize after that what our president told us wasn't true. 

We all thought that the price cut was for good and for real (she made it sound that way), and wasn't just some three-month promo of the telecommunications companies.

We all thought that despite the "undernourishing effects" of 12% E-VAT on our favorite instant pancit canton, pandesal, and Jollibee products, we somehow had a reason to be thankful to our economist-president and to her administration.

Unfortunately for us, a text message still costs P1.00, unless we'd register with our respective network providers to avail of the promo--a very important information that Mrs Arroyo deliberately omitted from her report. 

As with her many previous boo-boos, she again just made an ass of herself and her administration with that bogus declaration, which (I think) could have stemmed from the fact that she had a very short list of more realistic, more honest accomplishments to brag about, which was why she pathetically included the supposed price cut on text messages that never happened. 

Mrs Arroyo has once again proven to us that "lying is a way of (her) life" and she indeed is one shameless liar, who couldn't quit issuing false promises and declarations just to make her administration appear pro-poor and graft-free and results-oriented.
 
Well, Mrs Arroyo, I hope you'd get to read this while you're eating polvoron: I won't mind if your next SONA would just be a five-minuter as long as every thing in it is true. I don't want another 57 minutes (the length of your recent SONA) of embellished "facts," more than half of which the people don't and can't see or feel in their everyday lives.

You might as well just shove that thick report up your tiny ass.

NEWS AND MEMORIES ABOUT MIDSAYAP, NORTH COTABATO

A friend from Midsayap, North Cotabato in Mindanao sent me a message through Friendster today, jokingly saying that it's like early New Year's celebration in his town these days because of staccato bursts and sporadic yet earth-shaking explosions.
 
Nobody uses firecrackers in North Cotabato. (I think.)
 
What actually happened was, hundreds of Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels launched sneak attacks on local electrical installations in the area as well as on detachments of the Philippine Army and of the local militia. Many have died already from said attacks, which, according to recent reports, still seem to be happening up to this day. 

This is sad news because Midsayap, together with the towns of Aleosan, Pigcawayan, Libungan, and Alamada--after many years of winnerless bloodshed against the rebels--have started to develop through concerted hard work of the local officials, the national government, and the various international development organizations.
 
I was able to visit these five municipalities in November of 2007 while doing documentation and advocacy work for a foreign-funded capacity-building project being implemented by a government agency under Malacañang.
 
Hiligaynon is widely spoken in these areas--particularly in Midsayap and Aleosan--and the disparity in accent and vocabulary from "Iloilo-style" Hiligaynon is very, very minimal. The people are very nice, friendly, and generous (and seem to exude an aura of peaceful fortitude--maybe as a result of their "regular" exposure to atrocities committed by the rebels, in my opinion).

I also remember the first (and hopefully not the last) time I experienced Midsayap's local delicacy called pastil, a ready-to-eat, banana leaf-wrapped treat of tasty, adobo-ish chicken flakes topped on rice that's popular among Christians in the area.
 
The interesting thing about it is--as I was told--this modern-day delicacy used to be a food ration during battles in the 1970s between Christian settlers and North Cotabato natives, who wanted to reclaim their ancestral homelands. 

Pastil was said to have an important role during those prolonged armed encounters.

To support their fighters on the field, Christian women and children in the community would work together and cook pastil to be delivered in the trenches. The Christian militiamen thus didn't go hungry, while their Moro counterparts--who came down all the way from the mountains, where they left their families--fought with empty stomachs.
 
According to stories, Christian militiamen would almost always find copra (dried coconut meat) inside the pockets of dead Moro fighters. All they had was copra for sustenance, while the Christians munched on hot, freshly-cooked pastil.

I know that the reasons for this decades-old conflict are deep, but I just wish that the day will come when all the fighting would stop, and both Christians and Moros in North Cotabato would, among other things, just share and serve delicious pastil.

LIVING PROOF, LIVING INSPIRATION: MARTIAL ARTISTS WITH DISABILITIES

I know a lot of "more normal" people (myself included sometimes) who are genuinely interested in martial arts/combat sports, but are shying away from actual training because of too many excuses--like they're fat or too thin or not very flexible or old or clumsy or with low pain tolerance or not athletic or sickly or just plain lazy.

Well, I've stumbled on a very inspiring blog that could probably change everybody else's perspective, as it did mine.

This blog features differently-abled individuals who have been actively involved in martial arts/combat sports despite their imperfections caused by accidents or illnesses or congenital malformations.

One very good example is Canadian kickboxer Baxter Humby--known as "The One Armed Bandit"--because he has no right hand. It was amputated at birth, just below his elbow, after becoming entangled with the umbilical cord.

Also dubbed as the only man in the world to win world titles with only one hand, Humby is the current International Muay Thai Council world super welterweight champion, and has a fight record of 53-10-1.

He holds a number of other titles, including IMTC World middleweight champion, International Karate and Kickboxing Council United States champion, and International Kickboxing Association champion.

On a sidenote, he also took part in the filming of Spider-Man 3, where he served as Tobey Maguire's double in doing a fight scene between Spider-Man and Sandman. Humby was the one who punched and made a hole through Sandman's chest.

Self-actualized albeit differently-abled individuals like Humby symbolize the virtue of an indomitable spirit. If he and the others like him could succeed in the field of martial arts/combat sports despite their obvious disadvantages and limitations, it's not unlikely that they'd succeed in other areas and aspects of life as well.

This very admirable mindset should what some of us "more normal" people learn to have and learn to apply in both our monumental and even petty endeavors.

Now visit this blog and start telling yourself "No more excuses!"

Photo & Info Source: Martial Artists With Disabilities Blog