Skip to main content

Gene Alcantara as MP for UK parliament

Dear Mae Williams and other Fil-Brits,

Yes, please campaign for Gene Alcantara as an MP for the UK Parliament. He is a friend of mine, a good writer, and astute commentator on Philippine and British affairs. Although he has lived in the gray island these past many years, he retains a deep love for our country.

In the end, that is the only requirement one should have for public officials. Love for a country that will not make you cheat to win an election, gag the media, destroy the judiciary, turn the military pilots into your own private pilots.

I lived in the UK in the early 1990s and was vastly amused by their political satires, one of which was Mr. Prime Minister, if memory serves. They skewered the members of the Upper House and the Lower House, or as they put there, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

If these wicked and sharp satires were done here, the producer, directors, writer, crew and stars would have long been beheaded. Filipinos have a sense of humor, but we are pikon as well.

And as they say, in politics as well as in life: "ang mapikon, talo."

Comments

Unknown said…
good day Chair Remoto of the Ang LAdlad, I'm Myni SOriano from the Civil Service Commission under the Publications and Media Relations Division. We would like to invite you as our guest on our weekly tv program on NBN channel four. Our topic would be the LGBT's role in national development and their engagement in our national affairs. however, we find it diffcult to reach you through the contact details posted on the LAdlad website and on other digital networks as well and the coming tv program will be held this wednesday on april 29. if in case, how can I easily reach you so that I can give you a ring regarding the details and guidelines for the program should you consider our invitation.

also, if you could invite one from your organization who you consider as a gay role model who would like to come together as guest as well.


repectfully,
Myni Soriano
0927-822-9652
Hailen Reed said…
Allow me to be thoughtless and a tad overbearing.

The only reason I left a comment here is that this was the latest post.

And the only thing I know about you is through snippets from jessica zafra's columns. And the Ladlad books. Through these books I have embraced who I am.

How does a Filipino writer succeed in a country where people barely read?

More importantly, who would give a chance to a writer who has never published anything?

I'm not brilliant, but I'm good. What advice can you give the newbie?

Thanks.

Popular posts from this blog

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...

A mansion of many languages

BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...

Taboan: Philippine Writers' Festival 2009

By John Iremil E. Teodoro, Contributor The Daily Tribune 02/26/2009 A happy and historical gathering of wordsmiths with phallocentric and Manila-centric overtones *** This is from my friend, the excellent poet and critic John Iremil Teodoro, who writes from the magical island of Panay. I wish I have his energy, his passion and his time to write. Writing needs necessary leisure. But this budding, bading politician has shifted his directions. On this day alone, I have to attend not one, not two, but three political meetings. And there goes that new poem out of the window. Sigh. *** According to Ricardo de Ungria, a poet of the first magnitude and the director of Taboan: The Philippine International Writers Festival 2009, “the original idea was for a simple get together of writers from all over the country who have been recipients, directly or indirectly, of grants and awards from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). What happened last Feb. 11 to 13 was far from being ...