On the Definition of a Certain Word

Love ---a woman asked me once what the word meant. I didn’t know what to tell her of course. I wasn't well versed on subjects concerning the softer emotions. All I knew was that it’s a word that manly men should only use when referring to food, cars or gadgets. Using the word when referring to another person is highly inappropriate and should be frowned on. Writing about the definition of love in a public blog is an offense that should be punishable by stoning.

I told her that I may need time to figure out how to define it and I told her that I may need her help. Over the course of getting to know her, I slowly got to know what love does to a person. (This is on a case by case basis of course.)

• Love will make you eat exotic food
• Love COULD make you eat kuhol, given enough time
• Love will change your sleeping habits
• Love will make you go out of your comfort zone
• Love could make you more sociable
• Love will make you throw the man code out the window occasionally
• Love will make you more outdoorsy
• Love will make you a sentimentalist
• Love has an entirely different set of special logical rules which may be contradictory to normal logical rules. Love’s special logical rules will almost always win out.
• Love will make you join a race in which you may possibly have to endure a great deal of “bossing around”
• Love will make you emo occasionally
• Love will make you feel happier in general
• When the object of your love wraps her arm around your arm in a movie theatre, love will make you feel comfort, the likes of which you’re unlikely to feel anywhere else
• Love will introduce you to his cousin, jealousy
• When love leaves, it will leave a void in your chest that would be very difficult to fill

After a few months, she asked me again to define the word. I already knew what the word meant but I still couldn’t define it. So I said it’s like the color blue. How do you define blue without referring to things that are colored blue? You can try your best to define blue to someone who’s blind but you will never come close to giving that person any idea of what blue looks like. The person will need to have perceived the color to understand what it looks like. In the same sense, I don’t think that love, as a feeling, can be effectively defined to someone. You could describe things that are affected by it but He or she will have to have experienced love to fully understand what it is.

It took a while but I can finally say that I now know what love is. You wouldn’t know what you’ve been missing out on until you finally feel it and realize that your life wouldn’t have been half complete without it.

This is the color blue:

And this is love:

Rumminations on Blogging

I’ve neglected blogging for almost a year now. I feel like I’ve become a shallower person as a result.  A friend asked me once for my opinion regarding a suitor of hers. The first question I asked her was: “does he have a blog?” As soon as she said no, I said that he was not worth her time.

I judged a lot of people that way.  The people whom I found interesting were usually those who wanted to keep concrete records of their opinions, convictions or feelings, whether that be through writing, art or even video/audio recordings.

I had a certain respect for people who felt that their thoughts or opinions were significant enough for them to be ascribed some sort of permanence.  The human mind is always in a state of flux. Thoughts are generated, morphed and oftentimes lost. Thoughts are so fundamental to a person’s existence that losing them forever almost seems like a sin. And there’s a finalizing quality to writing in that when you write down a thought or an opinion, it becomes, in a way, final. It acquires a definite and tangible form and structure and ceases to be just a jumble of spontaneous thought bubbles that pop in and out of existence.  It becomes like a photograph, only not of one’s face but of one’s mind

I’ve been re-reading a lot of my past entries. When you revisit memories they’re usually not the same as when you first experienced them. Even the strongest of feelings subside eventually and with them, go the thoughts that they produced.  It’s nice to read your thoughts at the time that they were conceived, thoughts that may otherwise have been forgotten. It’s nice to know what your convictions were or if you had any. And it’s nice to know if you still feel as strongly about them

I feel like I have changed a lot the past few months. Whether for the better of for the worse is a matter of perspective. I’ve modified some goals. I'm not as profit oriented anymore
I got into photography, I went dating, socializing, clubbing(WTH?!), expanded my group of friends, acquired a new appreciation for fireworks. I also experienced betrayal, jealousy, I almost got into a fight, felt the highs of passion and the lows of inadequacy -Normal things for most normal people but keep in mind that I used to spend months not interacting with a single person.

Such a drastic change in lifestyle would probably lead to an equally drastic change in personality. But I take comfort in the fact that even if I change or even if I lose half of my brain mass due to intellectual inactivity, I’ll have a record of who I was.

I write for a variety of reasons. But most significant of all, I write for the same reason that people erect monuments to fallen heroes, or for the same reason that people seemingly waste large areas of land to preserve historical structures - to create a permanent imprint of that which is fleeting, time

Her Name was Katherine

The internet has become a record keeper for all sorts of personal information, from the most trivial to the most intimate. Wittingly or unwittingly, almost everybody has left a left a trace on the internet open for google to find. If a person mattered then there might be an article created for him/her by those whose lives he/she has affected Or he might be a subject of an entire article on wikipedia if he affected the lives of a lot of people. If a person wants to matter then he may create a dent on the internet himself by creating a blog like the one you’re reading right now.

Every year, my family gathers in a small patch of land somewhere within the forest of crosses and tombstones of manila north cemetery to commemorate the life of a person we lost 11 years ago. Her name was Katherine. We called her Kathy. She was the 2nd youngest of us four siblings.

She had a lot of things going for her. She was pretty, she was smart, she was studious and she had the gift of gab. She was too young to have decided on a career path but my mother used to suggest to her a lot that she be a dermatologist (I think she had expressed some interest in the idea as well). One, because it’s a lucrative career. It’s common knowledge that dermatologists are professionally trained to suck every peso out of their clients’ wallet. Two, so she could cure her own skin problems.

She had a lot of infectious and unique mannerisms. I think she started the trend of babytalking in the family. Both of my other sisters do it now quite extensively. She also was into the habit of inventing words. A habit which I think I may have picked up from her. Whenever she would watch TV, she had this weird mannerism where she’d face the tv sideways and she’d watch from the corner of her eye. Whenever I would try to access an image of her from my memory, the image of her watching tv always stands out as the clearest. It’s funny how the habits that I used to think were annoying are the ones that I remember the most.

She was born on the 6th of December, 1984. She succumbed to asthma on the night of September 17, 1997. She was just about to turn 13. I remember waking up to the sound of commotion. My mother was panicking and Kathy’s struggle was quite audible. My parents tried to calm her down (because stress would just aggravate her asthma) and then they rushed her to the hospital
I tried to ignore it but at the back of my mind, I had a very strong feeling that she wasn’t going to make it. I also had suffered from severe asthma attacks in my youth and I knew the feeling of fighting for every breath to the point where you feel like you don’t want to anymore.

It was like drowning but, in some ways, more torturous. When you’re drowning, your ordeal would just last for about 10 or so mins and then you’d pass out and die. My worst asthma attacks lasted for almost a month and the apex would last up to 5 days, during which I’d be bedridden and any attempt at exertion would leave me close to losing consciousness.
I saw what she went through and I knew that it was worse than anything I had ever experienced. That night, before my parents rushed her to the hospital, I heard her say “ayoko na” (I don’t want to anymore)

I think the call came at around midnight. I think It was my mother who delivered the news. I remember vague details about what happened exactly.  My youngest sister was playing jackstone. I was on my bed. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events but I think I slept again after I heard the news. Maybe because I wanted to wake up and realize that it was all just a bad dream or maybe because I wasn’t quite sure how I would react yet and I wanted to postpone it till morning.

It was strange because I felt sad but I didn’t feel as sad as I expected to be. I got a bit teary eyed but I don’t remember crying. The full impact of what happened didn’t catch up with me till much later.

I used to call her “bispringe” (bestfriend). Kathy and I were quite close when we were much younger but we weren’t in good terms when she passed away. I think we weren’t speaking for more than a year. It was a long time ago so ¬I don’t exactly remember what started our fight but I remember calling her “ketong” (leper). Kathy had allergic dermatitis which caused certain areas of her skin to form scabs. We were calling each other names at the time. She brought up some of my insecurities so I thought it was a fair trade. But of course it wasn’t and it was really insensitive of me. She cried so to say that she was affected would probably be an understatement. I never got to say sorry. We never got to make up.

She was already a young lady when she passed away but my clearest mental image of her is when she was much younger, when we were still quite close. She didn’t have a lot of pictures in her latter months and we didn’t get to interact much so it’s hard for me to remember clearly what she looked like. I remember that she grew her hair longer, her skin improved and she got slimmer. (she was chubby when she was younger) but it’s hard for me to assemble a full picture in my head. There’s very little to remember her by.

I never got to know what kind of life she got to live in her latter months. She kept a diary but due to a misdirected gesture of sentimentality, we never got to read it and we never will. Her thoughts and secrets were buried with her literally.

She passed away before the internet went mainstream here in the philippines. She never had a friendster profile, no myspace, no facebook, no blog. You won’t find any picture of her online. There’s no record of her thoughts, no record of her hobbies, her favorite movie, no record of whether her status was “single”, “in a relationship” or “it’s complicated” when she passed. No information about her will appear in any google search.

There is no significant record of her existence outside the memories of her immediate friends and family. I’m not even sure if her friends still remember her. She may just be a tiny speck of memory to them now. All we have left of her are the very few pictures that she left us and memories that get more and more vague as time passes.

When I first created this blog, I wanted it to be a shrine to me. A record of my existence that exists outside of the people who know me. A depository of my thoughts at different stages of my life that I (or anyone interested) can look back to someday. It doesn’t matter if anyone cares to read it. It’s for me.

I write this entry now for her so that the memory of who she was would not just exist in our heads and in our old photo albums. So that if you’d search for her name, it would appear somewhere within the deep recesses of google. As a record that she existed and that she mattered! …a humble shrine to her existence and an apology that is 11 years overdue. It doesn’t matter if anyone finds it or cares to find it, it’s for her.

Her name was Katherine M. Zosa and this is her online memorial

On the Meaning of Life

“What is the meaning of life?” The question has been pondered about by countless philosophers for centuries. It makes me wonder why… because I think it’s a pointless question. I don’t think the question is pointless because I think that life has no meaning. I think it’s pointless because the question assumes that there should be a general standard for meaning and that it has to be defined external to the person asking the question.

There was a commercial by the World wildlife foundation which I found to be a bit intellectually substandard. The commercial was about wildlife conservation. I don’t remember the exact words, so I will paraphrase: “It is perhaps the greatest question man has ever asked. We know that plankton exist to feed the whales, we know that zebra exist to feed the lions, we know that (insert species here) exist for (insert species here). What about us? What is our purpose?

I didn’t like the commercial for a variety of reasons. One, because it states that the inane question “what is our purpose” is the greatest question man has ever asked. Two, because it seems to assume that there is a universal purpose for why we are all here

From a lion’s perspective, a zebra’s purpose may be to satisfy its hunger. But from the zebra’s perspective, the purpose of its existence may be to get through life without satisfying the lion’s hunger. Purpose comes from either the lion’s or the zebra’s intent to achieve its own respective goals -Goals that are diametrically opposed to each other.

One may say that the purpose of fire is to give us warmth or to heat our food. But fire didn’t come into existence to serve man. Fire existed and then man found purpose for it. That purpose only exists to those with minds to see benefit from fire. From fire’s perspective, it doesn’t care what man does to it. Fire itself has no intrinsic purpose for existence except for the subjective interpretations of purpose that man assigns to it.

Meaning is defined as the overall purpose of one’s existence. The claim that there is an overarching purpose for the existence of everyone or everything is a circular claim. The question “What is the meaning of life” is a question that proposes its own answer 

Purpose requires intent, can only exist in minds that are capable of intent and is perspective relative. From a theistic standpoint, it’s a valid question since you may be of the belief that you were created by a mind that is capable of intent, for a purpose that it defined itself. It is valid to ponder what intentions your god had for creating you. Though I don’t see how you can get an answer unless you can ask him yourself.

However the question just doesn’t make sense in a secular forum because it presupposes true the assumption “purpose precedes existence”; That we were put here for a purpose that preceded our capability to define it and that the birds, lions, the whales and us are pawns fulfilling a purpose that was devised by a mind that is capable of intent –by asking such a question, you are already presupposing true the existence of a sentient creator

One of the most irksome questions that theists ask me is “If there is no god, how can our lives have meaning?” 

Believers who can’t see meaning or purpose in life without god bother me. I just don't understand why some people can't grasp any concept of meaning or purpose without god. It seems like they’ve surrendered so much of their thinking process to their chosen deities that they’ve forgotten that purpose could also be defined from the first person perspective. They believe that they have a purpose, I believe that I have a purpose. The difference is that I don’t need other entities to define that purpose for me

It’s not just believers who misuse the word “meaning”. Some atheists claim that according to evolution, the meaning of man’s life is to spread his genes. I think that “meaning” is not the most appropriate word here. Evolution is a mindless process that is incapable of purposeful action thus it cannot ascribe meaning or have reason for anything that it “does”. Evolution gave us the capability and the motivation to procreate. Whether that will be the purpose of our existence will be determined by the individual who has the mind to conceive of purpose

The question “what is THE meaning of life” makes as much sense as “what is THE favorite color” which cannot be answered unless you have a reference point. For the question to have sense, you have to replace “THE” with “you” or “my”. So instead of asking: “What is the favorite color”, ask what is your/my favorite color

Instead of asking “what is the meaning of life”, ask: “what is the meaning of your life?” “What is the meaning of mine?”

The November 29 Coup

I turned the TV on yesterday with the intention of watching some intellectually stimulating shows from JackTV. Instead, I was treated to one of the more entertaining live local news stories I had seen in a while.

Senator Trillanes walked out of a court hearing, traversed the streets of makati with a bunch of armed men. They marched towards the manila peninsula hotel, commandeered it and called for the people to join them in overthrowing the arroyo administration. The military and the police gave them a deadline to surrender. The deadline came and passed. Swarms of troops started storming the hotel. Gunshots were heard. A tank crashed through the front door of the hotel.
Senator Trillanes seemed really determined so I was expecting it to end in bloodshed. I was sure people were going to be googling pictures of Trillanes' corpse later in the day But alas, Trillanes and company gave up with hardly a fight

Much to the dismay of the Media personnel who were caught inside the hotel at the time of the incident, they were tied up, rounded up like cattle and forced to ride non-airconditioned buses (the horror) to bicutan, in which they were detained. They were understandably outraged (airconditioned buses would've been a more humane option) However, this is a very good tactical move for the military for magdalo soldiers have a reputation of being exceptionally good at subterfuge. A number of them could've easily blended in with the media. The magdalo soldier's proficiency in disguise is displayed in the picture below in which, if one would look very closely, a magdalo soldier can be seen inconspicuously disguised as a Rastafarian "MAWN" . He doesn't stand out at all.

Senator Trillanes is a very colorful character with very lofty goals and very creative/dramatic methods of bringing them to fruition
He believes that toppling the current government would solve the problems of the Philippines. What a non-simplistic worldview. This goes with the"let's-give-money-to-the-poor" ideology as guaranteed ways of permanently eradicating poverty in the Philippines. He doesn't share with us his alternative solution because he knows that the Filipino masses want to use their brains. He intends to make us use our brains by making us guess what his plans are.

Senator Trillanes used a lot of fighting words. He said he was ready to die. He said he wasn't going to back down. His confidence and charisma were so intense, hypnotic and overflowing that he was able to convince elderly civilians, family men with a lot at stake, to embark on a perilous, military crusade with just a handful of armed soldiers with them.

Guingona not yet dead, just dazed by Trillanes' hypnotic charisma

When the tank came crashing through the door though, he gave up almost instantaneously without resistance. But this wasn't an act of cowardice. This was a selfless act of genuine heroism for he really wanted to save the civilians who were with him. The same civilians whom he kept from leaving the hotel when the bullets started flying

An Entry About Haters

Too much rage is never a good thing

The Philippine blogosphere has been a very vocal community lately. Bloggers wrote about their opinions on issues that mattered to them and fought for their advocacies. I think that’s definitely a good thing as it elevates people’s perception of blogging as something that's more than just a pastime for nerds and egotistical maniacs, like yours truly.

I didn’t post my thoughts on some of the major issues so here they are: I understand why Malu Fernandez’s article offended people but the unruly mob that personally attacked her in a very uncivilized manner gave some of the points she raised in her article a bit of credence. I think the death of Chris Mendez was absolutely deplorable and justice should be served swiftly…

I’d rather keep my thoughts on the other issues to myself since I don’t want to offend other bloggers any more than I already probably have. I’ve tried to be as Apolitical as I could on most of the issues because I didn’t really have strong feelings for any of those issues and I didn’t feel like I had anything original to say about them that I could express in more than a few sentences.
A lot of the blogs that have chosen to take a side on those issues got a lot of flack from haters who did not exactly agree with their views. Haters even attacked people who have taken a more or less neutral position

In this article, I’ll be discussing the various flavors of trolls/haters that populate the local blogosphere. They come in various levels of articulacy but they all have one thing in common. They all have a penchant for dishing out personal attacks like Joey Deleon dishes out “slightly inappropriate” jokes. They’d not only insult you, they’d insult you below the belt …and then they’d insult everyone who’s related to you

I.)Some haters seem to be educated and express their displeasure with you in a somewhat civilized manner. Here’s a typical comment from such haters: :
“I find your biased take on the issue to be counter-logical and extremely idiotic. You, sir, are an idiot and a loser. Fuck you, your dog and your barber.”
I just wish they’d leave my barber alone. I happen to like my haircut right now. Also, I love dogs but I don’t have a dog right now. Browny passed away already. I actually welcome comments like these. They spur discussion, increase your hits …and at least you don’t feel shorthanded since they have actual points to accompany their insults.

II.)There are haters that still have some semblance of tact and attack you in a very indirect manner. Here’s a typical comment from such haters: “There are certain bloggers in the Philippine blogosphere who are quite insensitive to the plight of the oppressed. They hide behind wit and sarcasm but underneath all the humor, there’s nothing but stupid and illogical arguments. They are actually very stupid losers who do not have a life and I have no respect for their godless ways… I’m not talking about a certain blogger named jaywalker of course” -Somewhere in there, you could swear that there is a hidden hint or two.
I find attacks like this to be quite annoying since you really can’t defend yourself against them. They can always say that they weren’t referring to you and then you’d be labeled paranoid. The best recourse would be to reply with another indirect attack that has so many hints that no one would doubt who you’re referring to. Just stop short of spelling out his full name. When he calls you out on it, tell him you weren’t referring to him and that the hints were purely coincidental.

III.)And then there extremely passionate, extremely brutal haters who make absolutely no attempt to hide behind civility. Here’s a typical comment from such haters:
“R U Filipino? R U CraZy? st00pID? Gago? BObo? Ulol! wHy R U nOt offEnding wHEn pipol R insUlt ur contryman. TraYtor U R woRshIP ThE US, comMercialist DoG. You sHulD depOrtEd 2 Amrika. BrIng DOwn GovrnMNT Dey BomBing gLorietTA. Replace wITH cOmMunsim m/”
Funny how after so brutally butchering the language like that, they still have the audacity to accuse someone of being bobo?
You find yourself in a bit of a dilemma. You don’t want to bring yourself down to their level by replying to them but if you don’t reply to them, their fellow haters, whom they share the same remarkable double digit IQ score with, will think that you’re getting pwnd. Taking the high ground seems to be the most prudent course of action but I’d much rather Insult them using words that are beyond their level of comprehension. That way, they wouldn’t know whether to react negatively or positively. Something like this would suffice:
“I find your thrasonical comportment, your temerarious use of invectives and your lack of erudition on the topic at hand to be telling of your exiguity of breeding. You, sir, are the very antithesis of gentility. Please refrain from adulterating my comment box with your animadversions that reek of plebian mentality”Who knows …they may even thank you out of confusion

BTW Now that I’ve had time to ponder about it, I think I actually hate my haircut.

I Hate Filipino Culture

Now before you post hate comments, let me first say that I’m no elitist. I’m not even rich in the first place so I have no right to be elitist. I’m not one of those snobs who wouldn’t recognize the country of their origin either. Read the entry in its entirety before commenting.

I hate the inter-cultural ignorance that permeates our society. Few cultures condone racism. It wasn’t too long ago when Whitney Tyson was regularly made fun of in TV shows because she was part black. And still today the term negra is a term that can be used very liberally, in public, with little consequence. The sad part is that instead of quelling it, mainstream media is actually responsible for encouraging this type of mentality. When a Filipino sees a black man, either he’d stare at him, snicker or say a derogatory comment. And why wouldn't he when his favorite TV shows tell him that it's ok. Ironically, Filipinos are very sensitive when it comes to issues about their own race. When a biscuit was named after us, a lot of people were offended. And when Claire Danes made some negative comments about the Philippines, she didn’t only receive hate mail, our government actually banned her from ever entering the Philippines. That’s just embarrassing. Who the hell elected emotionally insecure kids to run our government?

I hate wowowee and eat bulaga. I hate their brand of humor. I hate the way the members of the audience bounce up and down and laugh like escaped mental patients as they sing their favorite novelty songs. My blood pressure shoots up whenever I hear novelty songs like “itaktak mo” and “boom tarat tarat”

I hate entertainers who dress up like drag queens and make fools of themselves for the sake of comedy, which isn’t even funny in the first place. It disgusts me. I don’t have much respect for people who have no sense of dignity and self-respect

I don’t get Jimmy Santos. Why is someone getting paid so much money for intentionally speaking carabao English. Is that supposed to be funny? Maybe so if it was unintentional. Majority of Filipinos talk like that naturally. They’re a lot funnier than Jimmy Santos but they don’t get paid a single centavo. Why is pun and slapstick always the main course in Filipino comedy? It’s not even witty pun. It’s just pure dumb “if-you-replace-a-word-with-a-random-word-that-sounds-the-same- it’s-funny” type of pun. I occasionally laugh at slapstick humor but not when it involves people who get slapped in the back of the head for nothing and make weird whining noises after. That’s just annoying and demeaning

I hate our religious zealotry. When faced with a challenge most Filipinos would reply with “If that’s what god wills, then let it be” or “Let’s leave it up to god”. Why take action at all if god will determine what’s going to happen anyway? If something good happens to them, it’s because of god’s good will. If something bad happens to them, it’s also because of god’s good will. It’s a win-win situation for god and a lose-lose situation for Filipinos. Why don’t we give credit to whom credit is actually due. Filipinos love shifting the credit and blame to higher authority. They blame or praise anyone but themselves. Instead of praising themselves for their accomplishments, they praise god and instead of blaming themselves for their failures, they blame the government. If you’re unemployed or underemployed, you could blame the government or you could also look in the mirror. There are a lot of job vacancies in the Philippines but employers tend to not want incompetent people in their workforce.

I hate it that the word “ambisyosa” or “ambisyoso” has a negative connotation here. Our society dictates us to conform and not to stand out. Our society stifles creativity in the name of practicality. Our society suppresses assertiveness and encourages submissiveness –Kids can’t argue with their parents and students can’t argue with their teachers. We’re raising generations upon generations of drones and servants when we should be raising thinkers and leaders. I actually think that our schools are making us more stupid.

I hate the lack of respect for human life. I hate the way people would make more children than they can feed in the hopes that those children would generate them some money in the future. It’s a reproductive strategy that is reptilian in its primitiveness. Higher animals like the great apes and dolphins produce just one offspring at a time and nurture it for years and years with care. Same is the case with more developed civilizations. We, on the other hand, produce armies upon armies of generic offspring and leave them to fend for themselves, the way insects and reptiles do. Why wouldn’t we? Our religion says contraception is evil. No one will question the word of god. I hate how religion has so much power over the state.

I hate the fact that so much of our lives revolves around idolatry. I hate the fact that Filipinos can’t tell the difference between what is real and reel. Why did people vote for Lito Lapid and Erap? Because they killed a lot of bad guys and saved a lot of good guys in their movies. Politicians bombard us with intellectually insulting, emotional arguments and shallow entertainment because truth of the matter is, most Filipinos are shallow people. And for shallow people, you don’t need to present intellectually gripping arguments or detailed blueprints. You just need to appeal to their emotions. There was one episode of Dong Puno live before where a woman from the audience was asked if endorsements from actors would influence her vote. With a wide smile on her face, she wholeheartedly said She’d vote for any candidate whom “Juday” endorses. While jumping and clapping like a crazed lunatic of course, the way eat bulaga and wowowee people do.

Am I bashing all Filipinos? No. Am I referring to a certain sector of society? Yes. The sector that makes up the bulk of our society, the same sector of society that politicians abuse for their own ends. The same sector of society that elected Erap into power, The sector of society whose votes can be easily bought with just a few pesos. The sector of society that has the most voting power. Am I referring to the poor? I will not use the word poor. I do not like classifying people by their financial status. But I don’t mind classifying people by their way of thinking and by their culture or lack thereof. I am referring to people who subscribe to “masa culture”. A culture that is rife with Crab mentality, dragging down anyone who wishes to rise up into their own pit of communal stagnation; a culture that is so practical that it lacks awareness and interest on matters that do not immediately concern their day-to-day living, A culture that puts so much emphasis on idolatry that independent thinking becomes muffled

Kids who are exposed to foreign literature, foreign media and foreign cultures usually grow up to have more open and creative minds. I believe one reason why our achievements, as a nation, pale considerably to those of our neighbors is that “our” culture is inherently flawed. Those of us who succeed here are either of a foreign culture (the Chinese) or those exposed to western ideals. Masa culture isn’t Filipino culture. Mainstream media makes it seem like it is. We shouldn’t be proud of it. We shouldn’t embrace it. Masa culture is a byproduct of ignorance. It’s also a purveyor of ignorance. A vicious beast that feeds on itself

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Update: My replies to the comments: Link