The portrayal doesn’t even claim to be a the British’s general perception of Filipinos. It’s a comedy show for pete’s sake, with a comedic sketch of a perceived condition among Filipino domestic helpers. If there’s one to be faulted with such a sad reality, or a perception of it rather, it should be the proximate cause of the phenomenon–the government.

Even more disappointing is how the congresswoman from Akbayan is riding the issue to get mileage among domestic workers. Sa isang taon pa po ang eleksyon.

If we’re to raise hell, which I believe is not totally unjustified, we need to transcend mere demands for an apology from the BBC or from the British government. We must demand accountability from our own government for its failure to protect our domestic workers abroad, and for its failure to create jobs that has pushed so many Filipinos into such situations. I don’t think foreigners can be solely faulted for their perception of Filipino domestic workers. We can’t expect them to know any better. Let’s condemn the reality and its causes, not its mere manifestation in a comedy show!

And while we’re at it, let’s demand our own television networks and film producers not to portray domestic workers the same way. And stop forwarding Inday jokes. Treat your househelp better. ‘Wag pa-ipokrito.

I have a terrible backlog of entries that I have to publish before anything else, but I find this a little too good to pass.

I had just finished watching Goin’ Bulilit, a children’s gag show, on ABS-CBN. Part of tonight’s show was a spoof of a showbiz talk show where one of the kids impersonating John Lapus was interviewing another child actor impersonating President Gloria Arroyo.

President Arroyo is made to sit on an electric chair. The host explains that the chair would electrocute the President if she lies to John Lapus’ questions.

Interestingly, for a children’s gag show in a segment spoofing a showbiz talk show, the questions were mostly about the NBN-ZTE corruption scandal. And as expected, the President is portrayed as lying to her teeth. And she of course, gets electrocuted a number of times. Hilariously, as the President is electrocuted, everyone on the set suddenly dances like crazy with a shower of colorful confetti and merry background music complementing the stint. It was fuckin’ hilarious! The same stint would be repeated over and over as the President is electrocuted. Crazy. Tawa ako nang tawa! Way to go, Goin’ Bulilit! It just feels so remarkable for me for a children’s gag show to come up with political satire like this.

In the end, as the President is caught lying the last time, she oddly escapes another electrocution. A kid impersonating the President’s husband, Mike Arroyo, enters frame and declares that her wife is safe as they had already bought control of the electric company. That was, of course, in reference to the Meralco issue. Instead of the audience dancing to the same merry music, the President and her husband go dancing in the middle of the set mocking everyone else. Nice one!

I was not particularly or personally offended by this advertisement. In fact, I found it quite hilarious. Perhaps it’s because I view it as a Filipino, and I thought it simply followed common Filipino humor, even if it relies on our penchant of poking fun at things provincial.

But this is a commercial advertisement in Spain. While I do not undermine the capability of ordinary Spaniards to distinguish the humor behind the commercial, I think this brand of humor is something reserved for those who know the Philippines well enough. Otherwise, it really just serves the purpose of generalizing a people based on stereotypes. It still relies on a very backward and agrarian colonial view of the country they once colonized. I feel like the advertisement portray Filipinos as the indios they once always thought we were.

I guess I can put it this way–for me it’s okay for family members to poke fun at one another, but it isn’t when other strangers do.

This thing ABS-CBN is doing, going around mass communication colleges in different universities, is obviously, a systematic public relations campaign coated as say, a campus tour regarding youth involvement in nation-building (what with the upcoming May elections) or coated as a youth media summit, like the Pinoy Media Summit held at Miriam College where student representatives from all the communication schools in the Philippines were invited. There’s nothing wrong with it really. It’s quite ingenious actually that they are conducting all these to woo “future media practicioners” into their fold, while they’re in school. They even sent the “Tres Marias” (Charie Villa, Maria Ressa, Luchi Cruz-Valdes) of their News department to speak with us in UP last Monday.

This News Plenary symposium, by the way, is sponsored by Studio 23 in coordination with our student council, as part of their “Y-Vote” campus tour.

I don’t know why GMA Network isn’t doing these sorts of PR campaigns. ABS-CBN probably know they’re the more controversial and more criticized one. But as far as this PR campaign is concerned, I think they’re pulling a good job at convincing us to give them higher regard and maybe even join them in the future, as future employees or professionals.

It’s not that I’m planning on getting into the broadcast industry. I still prefer working in film. But seeing that TV is the stronger and more influential field, it’s one of my options.

I just came across GMA Network‘s new news website, GMANews.tv, and I have quite a good impression of it. It is pretty neat, organized, aesthetically-pleasing, rich and content-loaded. They have streaming videos and they also got their correspondents, news anchors and other journalists on an integrated blog network. I wonder why their rival television network contents itself with a mediocre-looking and a disorganized news website.

ABS-CBN though, has its own plans up its sleeves I’m sure. Eugenio Lopez III, the company’s CEO, in the 2nd Pinoy Media Congress a few months ago, talked about development of non-linear content delivery over the internet and investing in HDTV broadcasting technology. They’ve lit up their transmitter tower quite nicely, for a start. Hehe.

Anyway…

While eating at a restaurant with my UP MCO friends a few nights ago, I noticed that we were the only ones who were staring at the almost-muted television set. It was pretty interesting to have realized now that all we talked about that night were media-related. How gossip and media geeky these Mass Comm kids are.

All these hopping around local media sites, reminded me of what I’ve also been thinking about reorganizing UPMassComm.net. I’ve sort of left and abandoned it already, I don’t really know what’s happening in there anymore. Perhaps with the help of some volunteers and some willing web developers, we can fix it up and turn it into a more useful student portal for UP Mass Comm kids, the future of Philippine media, hehe. I’m thinking of something like a portal where film students can upload their documentaries and short films, where broadcast majors can upload their shows, journalism folks can publish their reports and communication research junkies can post their studies and findings.

Which brings me to another idea about shooting short video segments with my friends in Mass Comm over YouTube and other such video content platforms. Wah. Let’s see if these ideas take flight.

Here are video clips of reports from tonight’s late night newscasts from GMA 7 and ABS-CBN 2 regarding the destruction and tragedy that Typhoon Reming (Durian) brought upon the provinces of Bicol.

ABS-CBN’s Bandila provided some information as to how some of us may help the victims of this calamity (through their network’s own foundation, of course).

Of course, while millions of Bicolanos are suffering the aftermath of the typhoon, we shall not expect our Congressmen to do anything substantial than to busy themselves with ramming their much desired Charter Change down everyone’s throats this week, while our President takes care of her sick husband at some posh Manila hospital.

Manila and its auxiliaries are facing an imminent water shortage crisis. High demand has not been coupled with enough rains the past months. 76% of Manila’s water come from Angat Dam. Some of its electricity come from the same source. One of the issues always raised whenever a crisis like this happens is one regarding supply priorities. Angat Dam is in Bulacan. Bulacan is responsible for taking care of Angat Dam’s watershed. Bulacan, though, does not get any royalty or taxes from its water resources. When times of shortage come, water supply for Bulacan and Pampanga’s irrigation needs are the firsts to be cut in favor of Manila’s water and electricity consumption. Manila, understandably, is the economic and political heart of the country.

This is the second half of a Probe documentary by Ricky Carandang which aired last night over ABS-CBN.

Do we always have to be reminded to conserve water?

I finally caught up with the latest episode of the third season of Lost last night. Yes, after nights of staying up late at night watching more or less five episodes a sitting. This show can really get me glued to my computer monitor for hours. The series is really exciting and storyline is really stimulating. People crashing and being stranded on a strange island trying to figure out what the hell is happening to them–strange being an understatement. Surfing the web and reading all sorts of theories regarding what the island really is or who the Others really are or how every happening and character is related to all the others, geez it can get you into hours of inquisitive self spoiling.

When I thought these sort of television series couldn’t get any better, here comes Heroes. Rickey of Rickey.org recommended it in one of the comments he left. The series is about individuals who discover that they have extraordinary abilities as a result of human genetic progression. The thing is, the world is in peril and they soon realize that they must seek each other out and save the world together. It’s just on its sixth episode of its first season, so it’s not too late to start following the series. It just gets more interesting as the story progresses.