Atwood in the Twittersphere Margaret Atwood A long time ago—less than a year ago in fact, but time goes all stretchy in the Twittersphere, just as it does in those folksongs in which the hero spends a night with the Queen of Faerie and then returns to find that a hundred years have passed and all his friends are dead…. Where was I? Oh yes. A long time ago, back in June of 2009, when we were planning the launch of The Year of the Flood and I was building a Web site for it. Why was I doing this building, rather than the publishers? Well, they had their own sites, and I wanted to do some non-publishing things on mine, such as raise awareness of rare-bird vulnerability and heighten Virtuous Coffee Consumption (Arabica, shade-grown, doesn’t kill birds) and blog the seven-country dramatic-and-musical book tour we were about to do. Anyway, the publishers were at that time hiding under rocks, as it was still the Great Financial Meltdown, not to mention the Horrid Tsunami of Electronic Book Tra

Homily delivered by Rev. Thomas A. Steinbugler, S.J. during Fr. Galdon's Funeral Mass date posted: 2010-03-23 09:30:29 Rev. Joseph A. Galdon, S.J, Funeral Mass, March 18, 2010, Church of the Gesu Homily delivered by Rev. Thomas A. Steibugler, S.J. Preparing these remarks has been a labor of Love, a labor bringing together the love of so many people for Fr. Galdon--the wake Masses, the Necrological Service last evening, Facebook, the Ateneo Website, the Province Website, and so many letters from his Galdon Girls, many from Prayer Days with Coeds. Since I have followed so closely in his footsteps thru the years, thinking about JAG has been like looking at a mirror, with most of the smiles on his side, the tears on mine. Let's see if we can bring some of those smiles out on our side. For our gathering this morning is truly a celebration of the Resurrection.. We bade goodbye to Joe over the past years, today we proclaim his good deeds, and we celebrate his victory march over suffer

Turning Villarroyo orange LITO BANAYO Malaya March 27, 2010 ‘Doesn’t Gibo see that the Garcias would not do anything without securing approval from their patroness, La Doña Gloria?’ CONJURE in your minds the green balimbing turning orange. Money Villarroyo three weeks ago in Davao used the pongkan as symbol. Except that he’s unfamiliar with the Davao pongkan. It hardly turns orange. Davao pongkan is green, just like its mandarin oranges. Must be the climate. When Hans Menzi yet had his citrus farms in Mati and elsewhere in Davao, he procured in the Seventies what agricultural technologists called a "de-greening" facility, where green pongkans and mandarins, including the native-bred Valencia oranges were placed in some kind of machine that neutralized the green fruit pigmentation and turned them into a pale yellow. Later, with the use of food-safe color dyes, Menzi turned Valencia and mandarins into orange. Parang "Sunkist" the then "stateside" and expens

Not even a pygmy Editorial Malaya March 27, 2010 MIKEY Arroyo, nominee of a party list group representing security guards, dared compare himself to sitting nominees of leftist party groups. Predictably, he exposed himself for what he is: a fraud. Mikey said leftist militant congressmen are "hypocrites" for assailing his party list nomination because most of them, including self-exiled communist party founder Jose Ma. Sison, do not belong to the working class which they claim to represent. "Mr. Jose Ma. Sison had been the chairman of the CPP and it is widely believed he is still chairman of the CPP up to now. But then, the CPP is a movement of the working class. Is Mr. Sison a member of the working class himself? I don’t think so," he said. We hold no truck with Sison. In fact, we are at opposite ends of the political spectrum. On economics, we favor the market system over central planning. On politics, we stand solidly planted on the side of liberal democracy agains

Testimonials Why Mar Roxas Leads All Surveys By Martin Bautista - Doctor, Senatorial Candidate March 18th, 2010 It doesn’t take a professional political analyst to explain why since the launch of his candidacy, Mar Roxas has led in all published and unpublished surveys without exception. The reason is simple. Filipinos from all economic and educational strata recognize the qualities of mind and heart which anyone aspiring for public office must possess. In a word, character. If you compare the viable vice presidential candidates with Mar Roxas, you see a stark contrast. 1. Loren Legarda is a talented woman with a great deal of energy. But her personal and political history shows that she is totally unprincipled. She turned her back on her Catholic faith and embraced Islam for a marriage of convenience. In the Senate she led the fight against President Erap, shed tears at his impeachment trial and then joined him as FPJ’s vice president. Only months ago she denounced Senator Villar as a

Legalizing the illegal Ellen Tordesillas Malaya March 19, 2010 ‘Arroyo can do anything illegal to stay in power beyond June 2010 and the Supreme Court will give it a mantle of legality.’ THIS is what is disturbing about the Supreme Court decision allowing Gloria Arroyo to make a midnight appointment to succeed Chief Justice Reynato Puno: Arroyo can do anything illegal to stay in power beyond June 2010 and the Supreme Court will give it a mantle of legality. This is the scenario that we are looking at: There will be partial failure of elections, only at the national level. That means no president, vice president and senators would be proclaimed by June 30. Since the term of incumbent Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile will end on June 30, there will be no Senate President, who is third in the Constitutional order of succession. (There have been calls for Enrile to do the patriotic act of resigning as Senate President so that someone whose term will end in 2013 could sit as Senate Presi

Political weather-weather - Danton Remoto REMOTE CONTROL | DANTON REMOTO | 03/16/2010 12:32 AM www.abs-cbnnews.com Views and analysis I am still writing this column because I am not running as a nominee of Ang Ladlad for the party-list elections on May 10, 2010. Only those running for elective posts are barred by the law from writing articles and columns and holding book launchings. So for those who keep on asking me for money because they want to campaign for me, go back to the boonies, please. The five nominees of Ang Ladlad are Ms. Bemz Benedito, a transgender who studied Sociology at the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School; Atty. Germaine Trittle Leonin, from the College of Law, University of the Philippines; Mr. Cris Lopera, a seasoned NGO leader from General Santos City in Mindanao; Ms. Naomi Fontanos, another transgender finishing her graduate degree in Education at the State University; and Mr. Dex Macaldo, who used to work as a media officer with another, elected party

Unfazed Cabral orders $8m worth of condoms Manila Standard Today THE government is using $8 million from the $19-million Global Fund grant to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to buy condoms from the United Nations, Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said Sunday. “If it’s from the UN, a condom costs only P1.50 to P2, but if we are going to get it from commercial sources, it will cost P7 up to P10,” Cabral told a health forum sponsored by the Philippine College of Physicians. She said the Health Department had P63 million last year to help prevent the spread of AIDS, but it had so far spent nothing to buy condoms. “We are still using funds from the international aid agency called the Global Fund whose biggest donor is Bill Gates [to buy condoms],” Cabral said. Catholic bishops slammed Cabral and asked President Gloria Arroyo to sack her after she distributed condoms in Sampaloc, Manila, on Valentine’s Day eve, saying she was immoral, but Cabral said they could not stop her from campai

By Ida L. Bata Sunday Inquirer Magazine First Posted 18:56:00 03/06/2010 “I AM a woman. I’m not gay.” This succinct line from a song by a local artist best describes how Transpinays (or Filipino transsexuals) see and accept themselves –and hope the rest of the world would too. The words reflect the experience of Filipino transsexual women, says Brenda R. Alegre, a clinical psychologist who has completed a study on transgenderism. Herself a transsexual, Alegre explains that they are individuals whose sex and gender are in opposition, and so they seek to hormonally or surgically alter their bodies to match their gender identities. Gays, on the other hand, do not feel the need to change their genitals, she adds. Alegre began her research back in 1993 while completing a Psychology course at the University of Santo Tomas. “The research was something I really wanted to do. My feeling of being a woman is genuine and sprung from the time I was 5,” she shares. Her research included watching and

With enough funds, DOH willing to give out contraceptives Thursday, 25 February 2010 Newsbreak Magazine Health chief Cabral: Some bishops can be ‘vicious,’ but I have a job to do While Catholic bishops were intensifying its campaign against candidates backing the reproductive health bill, their attention was caught by a Cabinet member who gave away condoms at a flower market in Manila on Valentines’ Day. Newly appointed Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral has since been tagged as immoral by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and is being asked to resign. Cabral clarified that the distribution of condoms was not meant to promote artificial birth control methods, but a way to remind the public the need for a “responsible sexual behavior” to combat Human Immunodeficiency Virus or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), a disease that reached an epidemic level in just a year. In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Dateline Philippines” on February 24

By Bong Austero Manila Standard Today 3 March 2010 If I didn’t have my hands full with other pressing engagements last Monday, I would have been there at the Department of Health compound on Tayuman Street in Manila joining hands with women’s groups, non-government organizations, and people living with HIV/AIDS in support of beleaguered Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral. From what I gathered from friends who were there, the crowd turnout wasn’t bad. Certainly not huge if we are to use El Shaddai or Jesus is Lord standards—but being able to gather close to three hundred live bodies is already a feat given the level of demonizing the cause, and Cabral herself, have been getting from the Catholic Church. Rallying in support of condoms is not exactly something one would usually like to be known for. Also, getting people to rally around and in support of a cabinet secretary of the present dispensation does not sound like a wise move. But people did show up—and I am glad that they did. Abou

Bastardizing the party list Ellen Tordesillas Malaya 3 March 2010 PARAÑAQUE Rep. Roilo Golez sees a conflict of interest in the Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes membership in 1-Utak (United Transport Koalisyun), a partylist group. Golez said in the hearing of the House Energy Committee last Monday, Reyes admitted that he was offered a slot in the 1-Utak party list and in a TV interview, he said he is considering it. His nomination indicates that he has been an I-Utak member for at least the past three months because the law states that a nominee should be "A bonafide member of the party he seeks to represent for at least ninety (90) days preceding election day." There are calls for Reyes to resign because, as Golez said, "his membership in 1-Utak, a player in oil products price and supply issues, which are within the jurisdiction of the energy secretary poses a clear conflict of interest." Concerns have also been raised about Mikey Arroyo, son of Gloria Arroyo who has

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 03/01/2010 1:54 PM MANILA, Philippines - In an effort to get the support of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders (LGBT) in the May polls, Atty. Adel Tamano of the Nacionalista Party (NP) promised that if elected, he will be party-list group Ang Ladlad's "voice in the Senate." During Ang Ladlad's national convention over the weekend, Tamano claimed that it takes someone who has experienced discrimination such as himself (who is a Muslim) to be able to represent marginalized sectors like LGBTs in the Philippines. "Being a Muslim, I too, am a part of a minority group that is stereotyped and discriminated against like LGBTs in the Philippines. I know what you're going through and I know how frustrating it is not to be heard," said Tamano, who is president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and the legal counsel of popular cosmetic surgeon Vicki Belo. "It takes someone who has experienced discrimination to be able to represe

Senatorial candidate Atty. Adel Tamano says he can be Ang Ladlad’s “voice in the Senate” www.adeltamano.com Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate and spokesman Atty. Adel Tamano received warm response from Ang Ladlad Saturday when he said that he will be the partylist group’s “voice in the Senate.” Tamano made this statement before officers and members of Ang Ladlad, the national organization of Filipino lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBTs), during the group’s national convention Saturday. Tamano was one of only three senatorial candidates invited to grace the event. “Being a Muslim, I, too, am a part of a minority group that is stereotyped and discriminated against like LGBTs in the Philippines. I know what you’re going through and I know how frustrating it is not to be heard,” Tamano said. “It takes someone who has experienced discrimination to be able to represent marginalized sectors like LGBTs. I could be your voice in the Senate,” Tamano offered. The Ang Ladlad gr

Attacks against Ang Ladlad is political, not moral March 2nd, 2010 by Patricio Mangubat www.filipinovoices.com A few days ago, ZTE-NBN whistleblower Joey de Venecia III spoke before a huge throng of gays and lesbians. Based on what my friend told me, Joey spoke of the attempts by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to discredit or disallow Ang Ladlad, a partylist organization espousing the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) members. A renewed attempt is underway, purposedly to strike out the name from the list of accredited partylist organizations. And this, says Joey, is nothing more than a direct affront to Philippine democracy. In his speech which was sent to me by email, Joey said that it is the height of irony that we call our society “democratic” when government discriminates against members of the LGBT. Since when, asks Joey de Venecia III, did sexual orientation become a “precondition” for citizenship? Let me quote one part of his press statement

What can I say to this except, hahahahaha? Expect the dirt to become thicker as the days pass. *** Aquino’s campaign tack gets personal, calls Villar copycat Christine Herrera Manila Standard Today march 2, 2010 THE tone of presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III has switched from a campaign promising hope to directly attacking his closest rival, with the Liberal Party standard-bearer now accusing Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party of copying his campaign strategy. Aquino, who was in Cebu over the weekend, said the Villar camp had also resorted to tying orange ribbons along the major thoroughfares, similar to Aquino’s yellow ribbons, aside from imitating his campaign vows and advertising materials. “Give him one month and even my hairstyle he will copy,” Aquino said in Pilipino during a campaign sortie. Aquino’s new attack mode nearly escaped the attention of the Manila-based media were it not for a press statement released Monday by the Liberal Party media bureau that began

Labor Leader Gets Support of Coup-Linked Magdalo Party MANILA – Susan Ople, a former Philippine labor undersecretary, has been endorsed by the 55,000-strong Magdalo Party, a group originally linked to the July 27, 2003 coup launched against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Known as the Oakwood Mutiny, named after the posh apartel where the putschists were holed up, the failed overthrow was instigated by a group of 321 armed soldiers who called themselves "Bagong Katipuneros." Magdalo’s endorsement of Ople’s bid after Bro. Mike Velarde, leader of Catholic charismatic movement known as El Shaddai, recently endorsed her in Hong Kong. According to Rey Robles, chief of staff of detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, “Ople embodies the very core of Magdalo’s principles and that is change and good governance. She is competent and well-prepared to be in the Senate as the lone and genuine voice of labor and the OFWs.” The labor leader actually met with Trillanes at the custodial servic

New documentary on Nobel laureate Szymborska By AGATA KLAPEC March 1, 2010, 11:31am WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A rare documentary about Nobel Prize winning poet Wislawa Szymborska portrays a lively yet distinguished woman who savors the world's contrasts, from 17th-century Dutch painting to boxing. And, in a bit of unsuspected prescience, it shows a school document from 1937 that saw a classmate declare that she would one day win the Nobel Prize in literature, a feat she accomplished in 1996. The 70-minute documentary "Sometimes Life is Bearable" by Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska, which aired Sunday, is the first time the notoriously media-shy writer has offered such insight into her life and fascinations. She let a crew from Poland's TVN television visit her at home in Krakow and accompany her on travels throughout Europe from Italy to Ireland. Viewers see Szymborska, 86, enjoying her less-known literary hobby - composing saucy limericks - while visiting places including Mohe