Temper fidelis

Have been scouring the web for a video clip of the latest display of “presidential composure” by gma, but have found no such clip. Ewan ko pero parang medyo natawa kasi ako nung nakita ko ‘yung video from ANC. Lalo na ‘yung curtain lecture niya sa staff niya, na nakuhaan ng ANC ng audio, after niya mag walkout.

(Sa posisyon kaya ni GMA bilang presidente may balak siyang mag walkout? Hehehe)

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GMA can’t really act her way out of a paper bag can she?! Her televised addresses (primary of which is the “I am sorry” speech) reeks of artificiality. Sobrang wala siya talagang karisma at konek. Of course we know that it is all scripted, but her pale-faced expression, contrived compassionate face, and monotone vocal delivery betrays the choreography and fakery of it all. Finding a sincere trace of genuine emotion in her voice and expressions is a needle-in-a-haystack task.

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Balitang Olympics lang:

Na-tigok na pala ang tsansa ni Liu Xiang, ang Olympic Poster Boy ng mga Chinese, sa kaniyang event, ang 110m hurdles.

Grabe din kasi pressure sa tao na ito. And to think na sa isang event lang siya magco-compete.

Sabi nga ni James Fallows:

Liu has probably been under more individual pressure than any other person involved in these Games. It would be as if Michael Phelps were the only American ever to have won a gold medal in swimming — Liu’s position among Chinese male track and field athletes — and would be racing only once, in the 50-yard freestyle.

Sabi naman nung coach niya kasalanan daw ng Chinese sports program ang lahat.

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Dun sa mga Phelps fanatic, o basta intereseted lang kay Phelps, maiging basahin niyo itong sinulat ng malupet kong college tropang si Martin.

May nabasa pala akong makulet na description dun sa feat ni Phelps–Great Haul of China. Hehe, la lang.

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Ok din pala yung mga recent entries ni Fr. Mercado sa blog niya tungkol sa usaping GRP-MILf-MOA.

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Relax lang muna.

“Who can stand in the way of the march of history?”

Evan Osnos’ recent article in the New Yorker presents the most nuanced rendering of present-day China. A panel speaker in a conference I’ve attended said that China is so complex two people could say two entirely different things about China, and they could both be entirely right. The views, sentiments and philosophies of the middle-class Chinese youth, the primary gatekeeper of China’s future, is well represented in the Osnos article. From where I sit, I see a cross-strain of Western ideologies and inherently Chinese values, like nationalism, pervading the post-Tiananmen generation. Chinese Publisher Li Datong states in the article that the Chinese “young conservatives” (described by Osnos as “neocon nationalists”) possess a conservatism “distinct from a status-quo conservatism, because they are not satisfied with a country that has only a status-quo and not a principle.”

The article is also written very well. You have to allot a bit of time though as typical of NewYorker articles, the report sprawls to a breadth of 6,000 plus words. The stacatto tone of the ending paragraph, with sterling economic use of short sentences, is pure awesomeness. Short sentences is the shit y’all!

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Sinologist Orville Schell, in a recent Newsweek cover article, states

While honest criticisms should not be muted just because Chinese leaders find them grating, we foreigners should be mindful of this complex psychological landscape. In reacting to contemporary events, we tend to forget just how deeply implicated we are in how China came to experience and view the modern world. This long relationship has created a still rather unyielding tension as each country interacts with the other. Despite the fact that China has gotten closer than ever to escaping from this past, it’s important to understand that its leaders and people are still susceptible to older ways of responding to the world around them. Now is not the time to provoke them further and impede their progress toward a new, more equal and self-assured sense of nationhood.

Isaac Mao, China’s “first blogger,” on blogging in the mainland

“Looking at the experience in my homeland, I also believe the abuses of censorship produce a certain level of social fear – which leads to less creativity.”

(I actually met this guy at a media conference in Bangkok. He was very nice.)