Oh Well....

A week from today, people in this part of the world will be exercising their right to vote for the man who will occupy the most powerful office in the world for the next four years.

National polls and trends point to an Obama victory. They may very well be proven right.

But as a lot of these electoral exercises go, different motivations and situations will drive people to prefer one candidate over another. The motivations could be any of the following: economic, political, social, or emotional.

Some people will base their decision on which candidate's campaign proposals would better address the nation's economic problems. Some people will vote upon due consideration of each candidate's resume and professional track record. Some people will vote because they share the same social experience and history with one candidate. Some people will exercise their right of suffrage and vote for the candidate simply on the strength of the endorsement of celebrities and other pop culture figures. Some people will vote for one candidate simply because his election will make history.

Regardless of who wins, the next President and Presidency will be consequential for the world if it isn't so already. The next President will either be one who was a celebrated war hero who served with distinction in the US Senate or one who has become a favorite among glitzy Hollywood celebrities and the media elite because his campaign style has been nothing short of "cool". But for many people in this world, things boil down to how a President's decision would impact their economic well-being.

For all the people's talk of how much they care for their lives; of how much they love the things that they get to enjoy in life that became possible as a result of either their job or business; of how much it means to them that future generations grow up in a morally upright environment; and of how much it means to people to have a goverment that would continue creating economic opportunities for those who seek them, it bothers me that from all indications, they will vote into office the one candidate who stands for social and economic policies that go against the very things they care about.

Oh well, as the say, "Be careful of what you wish for."

W Endorses Mac and Palin

McCain finally got a much needed campaign "boost" from the President last night.

Enjoy. :)

Satirists often provide a good gauge of the public mood. Senator McCain has indeed tried his very best to distance himself from the President Bush since the beginning of the year. However, except for a few good weeks for him in late August through early September largely brought about by "Palin Mania", his awful handling of his campaign, the Palin candidacy, and his continued failure to sell his tax proposals are all helping to pave the road for an Obama landslide victory in less than a couple of weeks.

Sorry, Mr. McCain.

A Presidential Inauguration in 1935

This event was a first in Asia. This event marked a crucial milestone for a region that was lorded by Western powers at the time. Some of the colonial powers even expressed their concern over the event's impact on the peoples of the region. Time Magazine reported that the British voiced displeasure over this development because it could signal the demise of the white man's rule over that part of the world. The event I'm referring to is the subject of the following newsreel from 1935 that reported on the inauguration of Manuel Luis Quezon as President of the new Philippine Commonwealth.

President Quezon's inauguration was held at the steps of the neoclassic Legislative Building on November 15, 1935. As can be seen from the video, the occasion was graced by then US Vice President John Nance Garner (1868-1967) who served under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1941. According to Time, Mr. Garner led a party of 17 senators, 26 representatives, and 34 American newspapermen. Secretary of War George Henry Dern (1872-1936) also attended the event as President Roosevelt's personal representative. It was estimated that about 15,000 official guests were on hand to witness history being made.

Mr. Quezon was sworn in to a six-year term by Justice Ramon Avancena (1872-1957) who was then Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court. The 1935 Constitution, which the Filipino people had approved in a plebiscite held in May that same year, called for the election of a President to a single six-year term with no reelection. It also called for a unicameral National Assembly. These provisions were however changed later that same decade (1939-40) when the Constitution was amended to allow for a bicameral Congress and to allow a President to govern for a maximum of two four-year terms.

One can see from the video that it was a very well attended affair. It was estimated that about a quarter of a million people attended the ceremonies marking the inauguration of the President and the birth of the Commonwealth. It is to be noted too that President Quezon's inaugural ceremonies were held on the steps of the Legislative Building and not at the Luneta Grandstand as succeeding Presidents have done since 1946. I am assuming that the decision to hold the inaugural ceremonies at the steps of the Legislative Building was patterned after the American tradition of holding Presidential inaugurations at the steps of the US Capitol Building.

The Legislative Building stands at the corner of Taft Avenue and P. Burgos Street. Thus, I'm assuming that the impressive military parades shown on the newsreel were held on P. Burgos Street. It can also be seen from the joyous and excited attitude of the crowd that the move towards independence enjoyed broad popular support.

The newsreel also briefly showed President Quezon's son, Manuel L. Quezon, Jr. (1926-1998), standing attentively and smartly dressed in an aide-de-camp's uniform. Unfortunately, due to the age of the film, it was quite difficult for me to identify the elegantly dressed couple MLQ Jr. stood next to.

I don't mean to deviate from the historical significance of this newsreel but there is one last observation regarding its content. It can be observed from the video that as President Quezon took his oath of office, one of the microphones that stood before him prominently showed the call letters KZRM. Quite a bit of historic information can be derived from the call letters on that microphone stand.

Note that this was the 1930s, a period before the birth of television broadcasting. Thus, all events of historic or national importance were broadcast over radio. Unlike today where call letters of radio stations in the Philippines begin with the letter "D", it is to be noted that during the pre-war years, specifically from 1924 through 1947, the call letters of radio stations in the Philippines began with the letters "KZ". This designation was in accordance with the radio broadcast laws of the US which applied to our country being an American colony.

KZRM was one of six major radio stations that operated in Manila during the pre-war years. The others were KZEG, KZIB, KZRC, KZRF, and KZRH. KZRM was owned and operated by the Radio Corporation of the Philippines (which later became known as RCPI) and began broadcasting in 1928. The Radio Corporation of the Philippines was then a fully-owned subsidiary of the Radio Corporation of America, or more popularly known to radio and music enthusiasts as RCA.

Of the six stations mentioned, KZRH, owned and operated by the Manila Broadcasting Company is the only one that is still around to this day. This radio station began operations in 1939 atop the Heacock Building in Escolta and is now known to Filipino listeners by its call letters DZRH.

It was at a 1947 International Telecommunications Union conference held in Atlantic City, New Jersey where the radio call letters for the Philippines were changed to begin with the letter "D". Radio stations that broadcast from Manila were assigned call letters that begin with "DZ"; radio stations in Luzon were assigned the letters "DW"; Visayan stations got "DY"; and Mindanao stations were assigned "DX".

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this newsreel. Though it runs for less than a minute, it still manages to provide us with a wealth of historical information about our beloved country.

Live From New York.... It's Sarah Palin!

Well, it was just a matter of time before the real Sarah Palin made an appearance on Saturday Night Live and last night, she did just that. This was the opening skit:

Though both Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey have both expressed support for Senator Obama, everyone deserves a lot of credit for being such a good sport. It's obvious that everyone still had a good time. Third World politicos can learn a lot from these people in terms of civility.

Anyway, it wasn't the only skit for Ms. Palin. About 45 minutes into the show, she again appeared on the Weekend Update skit and danced to a hilarious rap tune the folks at SNL wrote up for her:

Enjoy. :)

True Freedom Denied

The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.
- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) "On Liberty"

I will keep this post brief but in the Philippine context, it is pretty obvious that my country has failed to live up to Mr. Mill's definition of what true Freedom means.

As a people, we have been denied for so long the right to pursue a life of happiness and good on our own terms. We have always been denied the right to decide what would be positive or negative for us individually. Certain sectors within our society such as the Catholic Church and its lackeys in government, along with the oligarchs, have taken it upon themselves to decide what would be good or bad for all of us.

The examples are all around us and come in various forms: press and movie censorship; the absence of a divorce law; the absence of a comprehensive reproductive health bill; a "cheap labor" economy; systemic graft and corruption; the absence of strong anti-discrimination and anti-sexual harassment laws in the workplace; dirty and violent elections; and the unfair and unequal administration of justice. These are but to name a few.

The absence of true freedom has set our country back. In my humble opinion, denying the people the chance to decide what makes them happy and what is good for their own well-being tends to demoralize them and kill individual initiative.

The country has so many structural problems that require immediate attention and meaningful solutions. I've often wondered if we will ever see the day when these problems will finally get resolved. Millions of our countrymen have already lost all hope that they're now leaving the country in droves to fulfill their dreams elsewhere. People will always go where they feel their skills are needed and where they know they will be fairly compensated for their contributions.

We will never be able to fix our nation's problems for as long as we fail to conduct intelligent and open-minded discussions in an environment that's free from fear and intolerance. It is only through open, honest and thoughtful discussion of issues will many brilliant ideas see the light of day. But until then, our nation's problems will remain simply because certain powerful sectors of our society have decided that what's good for them ought to be good for the rest of us.