Newsstand

Used books

We all have our reasons, I guess, for frequenting used books bookstores. Mine has a strong element of serendipity: Would I have even known about Alec Wilkinson's affectionate if not entirely sympathetic memoir of the great editor and fictionist William Maxwell, if I had not bumped into "My Mentor" while combing through the bins in Baguio last December? But it isn't all discovery either. I am also looking for particular books: books I've read before and would like to read again, books like Reflections without Mirrors, by Louis Nizer or Picked Up Pieces, by John Updike (I used to have a copy, but I can't find it anymore).

If you see any of them, give me a shout out.

Funny girl

I was looking for a copy of the speech by Emmanuel de Dios on fostering a culture of secular morality, when I stumbled onto a copy of Robina Gokongwei's remarks at the recognition ceremony for graduates of the UP School of Economics (of which De Dios, incidentially, is dean). I was with the Manila Times in its last few months under Robina's stewardship, so I found out for myself how naturally funny she was. Judging from her speech, she still is.

The first theory is the ubiquitous law of supply and demand. The reason I failed to graduate from UP was that I was kidnapped on the way to School in September of 1981, and guess what, right on the day I was supposed to take Porfessor Canlas’s exams. Contrary to the 2000 movie “Ping Lacson, supercop”, I was not jogging on the grounds of UP wearing a mid-riff when I got kidnapped ... I didn’t have the body then to wear that outfit and never will.

Israel at 60

The "Israel problem" remains vexing, especially in relation to the suffering of the parallel nation of Palestine, but those who believe in liberty and order may want to raise a glass in honor of Israel's thriving democracy, now entering its seventh decade. BBC is marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence with a wonderful 30-minute documentary about life in Jaffa, a port city where Arabs and Jews live in peaceful coexistence.

After the short-lived Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006, someone who visited Beirut as part of an international monitoring team wrote a front-page commentary in the Inquirer -- I forget who, but I'm sure with a little research in the office I can find the actual page. I remember being dismayed at the casual contrast the writer made between the inevitable tumult that lay in wait for Ehud Olmert's inept administration and the outpouring of adoration already falling on Hezbollah's collective head. The writer seemed to have discounted the main reason for the turbulence in Tel Aviv: that it was the noise of an open and democratic society, loudly calling its leaders to account. Of which other country can that be said in the Middle East?

A Haaretz columnist interviewed on BBC, for a spot news report earlier today, described his country's central narrative as one of "tragic success." I think he got it exactly right -- but the obvious must be belabored too. That Israel is a genuine democracy also means that Israelis can -- and do -- judge themselves by democracy's own exacting standards.

"Jaffa Stories" airs again at 11:30 pm tomorrow (Friday) night, and at 5:10 pm on Saturday (Manila time). The BBC website is a bit of a mess, so here are two links to essentially the same thing, but you get video (the outtakes from the documentary) only in the second link. Must be a British thing.

Column: Should journalists vote?

Published on May 6, 2008

A year ago, on his Sidetrip blog, Howie Severino raised an essential question. The problem the multi-awarded TV reporter recognized had started as a practical matter: Many journalists working on Election Day do not have time to vote. Perhaps, he wondered, there was an opportunity here, ready to be seized.

“This leads me to make an unoriginal proposal—if journalists are not going to have time to vote anyway, why not make that a principled omission rather than the result of a scheduling problem? In other words, journalists can refrain from voting as a statement of nonpartisanship and devotion to unbiased reporting.”

My immediate reaction to Howie’s question was personal. That is to say, I saw it as an identity issue. Like many other Filipinos, I wager, I see myself as a voter too, somebody who does not only take part in each electoral exercise but actually looks forward to casting his ballot. (The lesson of 1981 and 1984 remains clear to me: In the Philippines, election boycotts don’t work.) Besides, I remember thinking then, after rereading Howie’s blog post yet another time, surely all journalists have the duty to meet this minimum requirement of good citizenship.

Could I have gotten things wrong?

Column: Blogs to read

Published on April 29, 2008

A city road cuts through the village where I live. Our version of the social contract allows non-residents to enter the village on one side and exit on the other at reasonable hours. Many use the road as a short cut that brings them from Quezon City to San Juan, or closer to Makati, between 5 a.m. and 10.30 p.m.

It used to be that when the road was still a two-way street the Christmas season would find us, the residents, trapped inside the village, with the roads clogged with transiting non-residents in a rapidly souring holiday frame of mind. Several years ago, however, the city government converted the road into a one-way street, solving most of our traffic problems overnight.

The man with the blue guitar

I didn't think I'd find Wallace Stevens in China, especially not in the heavily touristed water village of Zhouzhuang, but there he was, a shearsman of sorts, not at all bent over but standing upright with his blue guitar. They said, "You have a blue guitar,/ You do not play things as they are."/ The man replied, "Things as they are/ Are changed upon the blue guitar." And, yes, the day was green. (Read Miranda Gaw on one of Stevens' most famous poems, long or short.)

The essence of the book

What is the printed book's "most important feature"? Jeff Bezos, explaining Kindle, has an answer:

At the beginning of our design process, we identified what we believe is the book’s most important feature. It disappears. When you read a book, you don’t notice the paper and the ink and the glue and the stitching. All of that dissolves, and what remains is the author’s world.

Read his letter to stockholders here.

PS. What I really want to know is, Can Amazon keep the Kindle's delivery-under-60-seconds promise even in muggy Manila?

Road closed

A city road cuts through our village. Our version of the social contract allows non-residents to enter the village on one side and exit on the other at reasonable hours; many use the road as a short cut that brings them from Quezon City to San Juan, or closer to Makati, from 5 am to 10.30 pm.

It used to be, when the road was still a two-way street, that the Christmas season would find us, the residents, trapped inside the village, with the roads clogged with transiting non-residents in a rapidly souring holiday frame of mind. Several years ago, however, the city government converted the road into a one-way street -- solving most of our traffic problems overnight.

Earlier this month, the road was closed, to make way for the rehabilitation of the small bridge that crosses the creek in the middle of the village. Road Closed signs were posted at strategic locations, including the main village gate. No passing through, the signs add, naming the streets affected.

It seems that for many Filipinos, however, traffic signs are nothing more than suggestions. Up till today, many non-residents enter the village, despite the presence of the Road Closed signs. In the middle of the road, they are forced to double back (sometimes causing heavy traffic) or make a detour. Perhaps they don't think the signs apply to them?

Buyer's remorse?

That, I understand, is the underlying Hillary strategy: To make Democratic delegates reconsider the inevitability of Barack Obama's candidacy. But it seems it's the New York Times which may be in the very act of regretting its earlier endorsement of Senator Clinton. See (by way of TPM Cafe) the Times editorial on Clinton's expected victory in the Pennsylvania primary, published mere hours after the polls closed.

The opening paragraph of the editorial titled "The Low Road to Victory":

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Pressing the case

I find the Boston Globe to be somewhat more critical of China than its sister newspaper, the Gray Old Lady. This editorial, for example, sounds the alarm over the consequences of China's growing nationalism. (I first read it in the International Herald Tribune.)

The Duke University incident is troubling indeed. But the money quote reaches for something altogether larger: "the nationalistic vehemence that has come into view this spring among China's best and brightest is a troubling phenomenon. It suggests that nationalism has replaced Maoism or Marxism as the legitimating credo of China rulers..."

A Dear John letter

Manuel Buencamino responded to my Newsstand column today with characteristic, ah, zest. He tried to refute my take on the mental dishonesty of name-calling and libel-by-label by, well, calling me names. The title of his blog post? "Teachers Pwet." (No possessive.) Ah, yes. A real class act.

(to be continued)

Column: Armchair radicals

I've been trying to upload this column since about 1pm, but something's wrong with our office connection. Every time I tried to access Typepad, I got an error message. I guess everybody IS a critic, even our SysAd.

The column is the reason why I worked off a month's backlog in this blog in one night (last night); I needed to clear the ground for it, so I could post it the same day it was published in the paper. I don't know why; I just felt I needed to do it. Perhaps because it criticizes two non-public figures?

Published on April 22, 2008

I've read Jing Karaos' take on the so-called Jesuit guidelines for political action, written before Talk of the Town featured Manuel Buencamino and Men Sta. Ana's arch critique of the Easter Sunday document issued by the Philippine Jesuits' Commission on the Social Apostolate. I've also read Boyet Dy's response to the Buencamino/Sta. Ana critique, lately making the email rounds. I agree with both, but I must say I found each excruciatingly polite.

Buencamino and Sta. Ana have committed the old crime known in the free-spirited Sixties as libel by label; it will do all of us who take part in the public discourse good if we say so plainly—and call them to account for their intellectual dishonesty. (Leloy Claudio's critical response to the guidelines, which also came out in the April 13 edition of Talk of the Town, is a different matter. It is, in my view, a sincere effort to engage the issues.)

The time for Hillary to quit

Is right after winning Pennsylvania. The bloodletting in the Democratic party has gone on long enough.

Column: "Zhengyou"

I wrote the first third of this column in Shanghai, in my room (1010, as it so happens) at the famous Park Hotel in the center of the city. I thought that allowed me to use the privilege of the dateline.

Published on April 15, 2008

SHANGHAI—Of the many facts thrown our way about China’s impressive growth since Deng Xiaoping “opened” China in 1978, I found the following bit to have the most bite. When the 22-story Park Hotel in this city was built in 1934, it was the tallest building in the Far East. It remained the tallest building in Shanghai until 1988. But in the past 20 years, Wang Jianjun told us over dinner one night, some 4,000 buildings taller than Park Hotel have been built in Shanghai.

I have not had the chance to verify this startling statistic for myself, but it is not difficult to believe. This teeming megalopolis is a sprawling forest of skyscrapers.

Of course, Madame Wang is an official of the government of Shanghai Municipality, and it is her responsibility to present one of the world’s largest cities in the best possible light. (She was editor in chief of the 2007 Shanghai fact book.) She spent a considerable amount of time talking about Expo 2010, which Shanghai will host. But she also parried political questions with great skill and explained the official line with genuine conviction.

For instance, to the essential question about the sources of Shanghai’s extraordinary progress, she pointed to three factors: the reforms that opened up the Chinese economy, the continuity of a central government that provides stability, and the hard work of the people of Shanghai themselves. It was almost convincing.
To the inevitable follow-up question (Surely the history of Shanghai, already a famous port in the 19th century, must have had something to do with its present progress?), she gracefully accepted the premise as a given, but eventually returned, forcefully, to the talking points.

Column: Fragile (emerging superpower inside)

I wrote this column, in its entirety, on my phone, inside a chartered bus, en route from Shanghai to the lake town of Hangzhou. Naturally enough, I ended up with a terrible headache. (Talk about a sense of vulnerability.)

Published on April 8, 2008

BEIJING—Is China already a superpower? At a forum in Bangkok early this year, William Dobson of the influential Foreign Policy magazine fielded the question with flair. The question gave him an idea, he replied. Perhaps his magazine can devote a cover story to the subject—and be the first to give China the coveted, contentious label.

In fact, others had beaten him to it. Newsweek published a special issue on China late last year, with Fareed Zakaria’s introductory essay describing the world’s fastest-growing economy as a “fierce but fragile superpower.” The piece was based in part on Susan Shirk’s pioneering book, “China: Fragile Superpower.”
Many signs point to China’s looming preeminence. Only last week, it was reported (by the state-owned China Daily) that the country had overtaken the United States in number of Internet users. (I haven’t had a chance to verify this piece of news, but surely it is only a matter of time, perhaps only of months, before the assertion becomes undisputed fact.)

The construction of the Olympic complex here is on an unparalleled scale; the main site is essentially a new city, rising to the northeast of the Forbidden City. The complex is the express undertaking of a great power taking its rightful place on the world stage. It brings to mind not the declaration of successful nationhood of the Seoul (1988) and Tokyo (1964) Olympics, but the revelation of a new national epic, like Berlin in 1936. To be sure, everyone you talk to says no state funds were used in the project, but it is difficult to overstate the patriotic pride many of the Chinese have invested in the Games.

In purchasing power parity, China already ranks third in the world. In part, this is a direct consequence of the greatest improvement ever engineered in the quality of life of a people: by most accounts, some 500 million Chinese citizens have been lifted out of poverty in the last 30 years.

One tree, many shadows

Beijing, April 2: There must be a million trees in the capital, but as someone in our group helpfully pointed out, quite a number of the trees were newly planted -- apparently to spruce up the city in time for the Olympics. The effect is decidedly charming; there's greenery everywhere. But as in this photo of a lone tree and many shadows, the questions linger.

Bird, man

Beijing, April 3: As vendors from out of town (quite probably part of what is referred to as the city's floating population) harried our group to sell (fake) Olympic souvenirs and the ubiquitous Little Red Book (Mao's thoughts were being sold for 50 yuan per book, but were eventually bargained down to 10), a man stood quietly on the side of the street, admiring the birds he was selling.

Column: Barbarians at the gates?

Published on April 1, 2008

The controlling metaphor to describe the work of journalists is gatekeeping. The image suggests not only the making of distinctions (this story should be denied entry; that story should be allowed through) but also the power of definition: The news is what editors or producers or reporters say it is.

But when gates are falling down all around us, what is left for gatekeepers to do? (I am reminded of the old dig at Microsoft’s closed, monopolistic thinking: The open alternative, it was said, is No Gates, No Windows.)

In an increasingly open media environment, the reader or the viewer or the listener or the user defines what is news: The news is what I’m interested in, when I’m interested in it. That last condition is telling: When we access the news has important, indeed industry-changing, consequences for the news profession. It raises yet another question about underlying assumptions: If a gate is open all the time, is it still a gate?

To journalists of the old school, this emerging world is deeply unsettling.

Column: Spanking the bishops

Published on March 25, 2008

It is always a writer's privilege to receive letters or other feedback. But the comments I got last week, for the column devoted to Manny Pacquiao's "unconvincing but legitimate" win over Juan Manuel Marquez, were more gratifying than usual, because I got the sense that many of them came from new readers, drawn in by the (largely) non-political topic.

Perhaps they would enjoy this addendum, which I was not able to include last week: AP's Greg Beacham called the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch a great fight. "The WBC super featherweight title bout is sure to be remembered as one of the year's most entertaining fights, from Pacquiao's third-round knockdown to Marquez's fantastic final rounds, and a career peak for both courageous competitors. By the 12th round, it was close enough to go either way--and that's precisely why it was so great." (I am quoting from the version carried by the International Herald Tribune.) And then came Beacham's money quote from coach Freddie Roach: "The fight was very close, but I thought the knockdown was the difference. If it would have gone the other way, I would have accepted it, because with a fight like that, the difference is almost nothing."

* * *

Pacquiao-Marquez scorecard

The other day, I found the scorecard I kept while listening to the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch on dzBB. I thought, What the heck? Maybe I'll post it.

Round Pacquiao Marquez Total
1 9 10 9-10
2 9 10 18-20
3 10 8 28-28
4 10 9 38-37
5 10* 9* 48-46*
6 9 10 57-56
7 10 9 67-65
8 9 10 76-75
9 10 9 86-84
10 10 9 96-93
11 10 9 106-102
12 9 10 115-112

*After watching the (much) delayed telecast, I changed my mind and gave Round 5 to Marquez; thus, my final score was 114-113 for Pacquiao.

Column: Manny Pacquiao's lesson in legitimacy

I got rather interesting feedback about this column; I got the sense some readers had stumbled into my column because it was about Pacquiao.

Published on March 18, 2008

A crisis it isn't, but there is no denying the reality. A cloud of doubt hangs over boxing icon Manny Pacquiao's split-decision victory over Juan Manuel Marquez. Can Philippine politics learn anything from Pacquiao's legitimacy issue?

A large fistful, actually, starting with the following paradox: Pacquiao deserved his win, because the fight could have gone either way.

I had wanted to put together an argument for a media boycott of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's deputy spokesperson, Lorelei Fajardo, whose media relations philosophy can be summed up simply enough, as deliberate ignorance. (Like Scott McClellan, formerly of the Bush White House, Fajardo is deployed to meet the press precisely because she is out of the loop.) But this will have to wait.

I am a boxing fan, and it is not often that one can come to the defense of a warrior like Pacquiao. Allow me.

Closing time at the Forbidden City

I took this snapshot as our group was being herded out of the Forbidden City, in Beijing, at a little past 5 pm, last April 3. (I had time to take two shots, before we were all shown the door, or rather the gate, directly opposite the one in the photo; this is the second.) Something about late afternoon sunlight ---- yes, even in China ---- always speaks to me.

Column: How Jun Lozada may lose his groove

Published on March 11, 2008

What happens now? The answer depends on our sense of the situation. It does not seem to me that it is the middle of February 1986 or the second week of January 2001 all over again.

The more I think about it, the more it strikes me: We are back in 1984 or 1985, when the outrage over the assassination of Ninoy Aquino had put the Marcos regime on the defensive—but people power was not even a dream.

To be sure, there are two crucial differences between then and now. The economy was in dire straits then; and Marcos moved around in a pharmacological fog, his instincts that of a dead man.

But the similarity is all-important: Then, as now, it is the opposition’s state of preparedness that will determine the outcome.

Column: '2010, or earlier'

Published on March 4, 2008

The issue is accountability. The allegations of abuse of power and large-scale corruption are credible; the processes to vet them, to force an accounting from the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, should be, too.

But despite new spokesmen and a return to campaign-style governance (or maybe that should read, because of the return of the perpetual campaign and deliberately clueless spokesmen), the administration is doing all it can to delay the reckoning.

The abduction of Jun Lozada is the paradigm (in the narrow sense Kuhn used it). It is the experiment, the exemplary episode that makes sense of the puzzle or problem we face. It is through this lens, therefore, that we should view the national broadband network scandal.

Even if we were to consider Lozada's efficient exit from the airport as friendly rather than hostile, we would still have to consider the episode as part of an elaborate Malacañang-approved plot to keep Lozada away from the Senate. That much is clear; that much is key.

That leading lights of the government—from the office of the executive secretary, to the chief of the Philippine National Police, to airport authorities—cooperated (or conspired) to prevent Lozada from being arrested by agents of the Senate tells us all we need to know: as in the compromised impeachment proceedings, as in the preempted mass protests, so with the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings. This administration does not want to be held to account.

Column: The case, maybe, for People Power

Published on February 26, 2008

What do we know for certain? If we were to take a page from Descartes and doubt everything about the continuing political crisis, perhaps we can draw up a short list of incontestable facts that reasonable people, from whatever side, can readily agree on. It is hard to take anyone seriously, for example, who disputes the following:

Ben Abalos, when he was the chairman of the Commission on Elections, was personally involved in a government project -- the national broadband network -- that had nothing to do with elections.

The NBN contract awarded to the Chinese state firm ZTE Corp. was problematic, as even President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has belatedly acknowledged.

The Arroyo administration cooperated -- or conspired -- to prevent Jun Lozada from testifying about the ZTE-NBN deal before the Senate.

Romy Neri, the socioeconomic planning secretary at the time of the signing of the ZTE contract and a key witness in the Senate investigation, has touched base with members of the political opposition.

An over-assertive Executive has narrowed the public’s options for holding the Arroyo administration accountable for any anomalies arising from the ZTE-NBN controversy. (Perhaps the President’s men will quibble with “over-assertive,” but there is no question that the administration’s hard-line stance, in place since at least the “Hello, Garci” scandal broke in 2005, assumes greater scope for Executive discretion.)

Unfortunately for Malacañang’s many spokesmen, these undisputed facts justify the growing public disgust that can be seen even from behind the wrought-iron walls of Malacañang.