To another week of campaign
I’m overwhelmed sometimes. Running during last year’s Mass Comm student council elections wasn’t this hectic. Most of us in the slate, including Marella and I for Film Department Representatives, were running unopposed. There was very little pressure that time. This year is a lot different. Our party is running with a full-slate opposition, which as I’ve mentioned in a previous entry, is similarly determined to win the elections.
[These pictures were taken from our makeshift campaign booth during the afternoon of the first day of campaign period]
I actually just got home a few hours ago from a mini-mudslinging training workshop. My next class is in seven hours. I still have a term paper to write and a Spanish dialogue to memorize. And I haven’t slept. I need something (or someone) to keep me going.
I know I’m not supposed to show weaknesses during campaign. I don’t actually know how many students from Mass Comm read my blog, but… admittedly and with all humility, nakakapagod talaga ‘to. Sometimes I want to recluse and recollect myself before facing fellow students and subjecting myself to their scrutiny. Sometimes I don’t want to smile anymore because I’m exhausted, but I have to because individuals really do vote partly on personalities and packaging. I simply want to impart what we want to do as a party and as individuals, it sucks that we have to be partly ‘trapo’ in order to convince everyone that we are actually sincere in our platform and other such objectives. And if that is what it takes, then we shall continue doing this. Here’s to another week of campaigning!
bakit kasi ayaw pa sabihin kay (fill in the blank) para u have someone to keep u going. *wink**wink* di ba, it’s one of ur new year’s resolutions? ahahay!
Ano ka ba, admittedly, you’ve been trapped into the corrupt system of absolutist political parties. Haller, why would you need “mini-mudslinging training” for? What does that mean? You practise semi-black propaganda? You don’t even watch what you write anymore, anything can be taken into context.
The problem with running under a party AND OPPOSED BY AN INDEPENDENT ONE is that you are beholden to your ideologies of your party that is more or less absolute. My former Maths professor (whom I love to bits and pieces) made chaka a bunch of Stand-UP candidates by asking: “So, ano pa ang iba niyong ginagawa maliban sa mag-rally ng mag-rally?” And they were stumped. Another group in CSSP were asked about their “programmes” and they described the problem of the tambayans. WOW. As if we didn’t know that.
The point being is that there’s such a thing called MEDIAN VOTER THEOREM. The reason why political parties like say, the Democrats and the Republicans wouldn’t be absolutely liberal or absolutely conservative is because NO ONE IN THE REAL WORLD IS ABSOLUTE (and I’m absolutely sure of that :P). So unless you stop badgering on the same rhetoric you had since October, you’re losing the silent majority. Just a friendly advice from your toughest critic.
Celeni dear, YOU’ve been badgering on the SAME rhetorics against my ‘rhetorics’ since October.
And you use the word absolutist and beholden to your own advantage. you obviously don’t know the workings within the party, but all stands are made through consensus building. Also, I am in STAND-UP not because I am forced into it, but because I believe and I belong in it. I support and join its calls not because I am beholden by affiliation but because I believe in it. I can’t see how can you validly claim the party to be absolutist, when you’re looking at the party trapped within your biases and your own ‘rhetorics’.
by the way, mudslinging training is when we practice answering questions thrown at us.
Which, obviously wouldn’t work for you if the professor asked you to leave the room.
Well, I do not recycle rhetoric (walang plural coz it’s a non-count noun). The reason why what I say seems recycled is because you answer the same way. A consensus among people with the same issues is a consensus among people in the same school of thought, which is pretty much… non-consensus. So yes, I reserve the right to call you absolutist, because you can never accede to any of my previous comments that I made contrary to your position. You’re always so defensive and unaccommodating.
So there. Buti hindi ka nag-campaign in my CMC class. That’s why I still have a lot of angst.
exactly. we naturally gravitate towards the same stand during deliberations/analysis and concensus building. nobody’s forcing any ideology on anyone. no one’s beholden to any ideology. absolutist? how can you call me absolutist. celeni i’ve always allowed myself to be subjected to your criticisms since time immemorial. i take your points at sinasagot ko naman yung mga sinasabi mo sa kin. you cant however make me drop what i believe in because that’s something that i hold for myself.
To boost your morale!
Goodluck and God Bless Kuya Bikoy on your campaign!
It is normal to have detractors, and those detractors might be of help to reach your goal! Just keep on listening to them! Kasi minsan pwede silang makatulong! They have those “ideas” that can improve your “ideas” in some way.
But still, I am looking forward to your victory. Kahit na I am still not a part of the UP Community, I wish na pag nandyan na ako, maabutan ko pa kayong nasa serbisyo pa ng student council. As I read your posts, I think you have the qualities of being a leader. Continue to hold on to what you believe in! I can’t criticize for now, (dahil ano nga ba ang alam ko?) pero alam kong nasa tamang daan kayo. Kayang Kaya nyo yan!
Go kuya Bikoy! Go Bikoy! Go Bikoy!
Vic: You never take my advice or criticisms. You respond to them the way you’re trained to respond to them, which in essence is REPEAT RHETORIC.
And no, consensus comes from opposing ideologies, not people with the same ideas and figuring out which wording they’d use. So yes, I would still say WHATEVER.
Hi Bikoy!
You don’t know me po, but I’ve browsed thru your blog and found it very interesting. you write well and take next-to-perfect pictures. consider me a fan. =)
i have to agree with Celeni, tho. Bikoy, man, you don’t have to go there. don’t you realize what STAND-UP is doing to you? they are making you an extremist.
i’m a UP alumnus and i know oh too well how the system works. i also know enough to say that when you get out of college, you’ll find leftist ideology almost never works. it’s difficult to explain exactly how or where it fails, but there is reason for its unpopularity among the masses (contrary to the thought that it is the masses who cling desperately to the left). it’s never going to work, man.
that said, i wish you success on your studies. right now, you are primarily a student and you owe it to me (and the rest of the pinoys) to make good with the taxes i pay. hehehe…
and please stop joining rallies… i agree they make for interesting pictures, but they’re mostly empty rantings. leave that to those who enjoy dispensing them.
Friends of Bikoy,
Give him space. At his own time, at his own pace he will realized. Matalinong bata iyan. He knows what he is doing. Let it be. Give him space and wish him luck.
Village Tickler