Dabawenyang Iska

4 months after leaving the urban world abruptly k finally found the time to text me and some of her friends here in up mindanao. i remember still the last time we talked. it was cold and strained. so unlike the easy camaraderie we used to exude that made people in school call us supertwins, the inseparable pair, or sisters. i didnt mind. we were quite inseparable. though different as night and day we got along really well. k loves the limelight, the people and is too open, while i am the exact opposite. if i had the choice i would rather not surround myself with boisterous crowds or have meetings with administrators especially if they’re from up. you want to laugh, talk about politics and its intricacies: she’s the one. i on the other hand prefers to be alone, am very moody, and tries to avoid the limelight like hell.

but we got along quite well. yes, we argued like shrews at times, usually about my insensitivity and refusal to work with the downtown left peeps and her stubbornness. she wore me out with her incessant chatting of everything around her– the dogs, her lovelife, her dreams and ambitions…her frustrations (including me, hehe.) i wore her out with my refusal to talk or get involved with anything that involves immense sensitivity and emotions.

we both loved scouring the city for pirated dvd, especially sitcoms and watch them till our eyes are sore. we shared practically everything–food, thoughts, plans, and even flunking in school. she had plans of dominating the office, as usc chair and me as eic of the paper. but we never really got to share the office. it would have been fun to work under one roof knowing that the other was only a room away.

4 months ago she left abruptly. i knew she had changed over the summer. just as i did. but t was a difficult change. she steered her life towards ’saving the world’ while i on the other hand was intent on ’saving my own ass’. if you know what i mean. sad to say, things were a little strained before she left as i found myself enjoying the company of my brods and sisses.

i admit to harboring ill feelings. she left abruptly, leaving her responsibility as the usc chair behind. who wouldnt? i mean, look at them now, they cant even stay afloat. but since i know her it didnt really surprise me. not really. she was impulsive and im afraid she kinda had it in her.

i thought i wouldnt see or hear from her again. and yet just a few days ago i got a message from her, asking how i was. for a moment it was like the old days again, the old me and her texting each other. then she asked if i could spare a few days to visit her and i realized we were in very different worlds. i could not…and would not visit her. aside from a busy schedule, i could just not take the risk. not even for an old friend. besides, the people around me might ask and i wouldnt be able to answer or escape them.

the D has already told me not to, not if i dont want trouble with my parents. sorry k. i guess this is the end of the supertwin series. too bad.

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whoa. reading this article was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. its not everyday that i am familiar with jargons of the scientific world. lol. i have, of course, my biotechnology and sts classes to thank for. both are taught by prof. eufemio rasco, who i think is more than credible to teach both subjects. he’s not boring too, and an effective teacher if i may say so. no offense to civic organizations who might have another opinion on this…hehe. a tad too defensive eh? but he really is a good teacher.

now back to the article i read from yahoo news. it’s getting a lot of steam because of the possible source of stem cells. stem cells by the way are literally blank cells that can be transformed to any kind of cell, depending on what you need.

there are two kinds: the adult, meaning from adult human beings, and the controversial embryonic stem cell, which literally comes from embryos, mostly leftovers from in vitro fertilization and comes in thousands and laboratories might take the option of destroying them once their facilities are full. this, as expected, triggered indignation rallies and debates on whether its ethical or not and posits the question of how do we define life. Read More

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*Bulatlat file photo

Wednesday, 14 November 2007

Pagpupunyagi nina Karen at Sherlyn

Kenneth Roland A. Guda
Pinoy Weekly, Nob. 14-20, 2007

SA KABILA ng mga dinanas niya, matapang pa rin si Sherlyn Cadapan. Bata pa lamang, nakitaan na siya ng ganitong katangian, laluna noong naging atleta si Sherlyn. At tulad marahil ng mga torneong nalahukan niya noong kolehiyo ang pakikipagtagisan sa mga militar habang nasa kamay nila – laro lamang ito ng isip at determinasyon. Read More

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top 2 things found in your wallet as
always:
1. id
2. my luck one dollar bill

top 2 things to do when im sad:
1. sulk
2. get drunk

top 2 songs you can
listen to again and again
1. im yours by jason mraz
2. head over feet by alanis m.

top 2 reasons to watch television:
1. i find channel surfing therapeutic
2. i love cartoons.

top 2 places Id want to visit 10
yrs. from now
1. australia
2. paris

top 2 current obsessions:
1. avatar, the last air bender series
2. popong landero Read More

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Please pass this statement

What press Freedom?

Around three months ago, the National Press Club commissioned us to do an 8×32 foot-mural on the history of press freedom in the Philippines. A lot of problems were encountered during the production phase mainly because of the delays in the schedule of payment on their part, as stipulated in the contract we signed. Still, through the commitment and dedication shown by the members of our group, the mural was completed in time for the unveiling scheduled on October 26. Finally, we would be able to sleep a lot more easily.
Or so we thought.
We were shocked to be informed by one of their board of directors that changes were made in the mural without our knowledge.
We, the Neo-Angono Artists Collective, would like to express our outrage, revulsion and protest against the total lack of respect of the NPC for the integrity of the commissioned artwork, as shown by the slipshod alterations they caused in several parts of the said mural, to wit:

1. The erasure of a big portion of the newspaper held by the central figure, containing the statement of the International Federation of Journalists regarding the perceived effects of the anti-terror law on press freedom, and replaced by a hideous bird-monster in a cage;

2. The alteration of the headline of the newspaper Jose Rizal is holding from “Press Freedom Fighter’s Son Abducted” to “Press Freedom Fight Is On” and the defacement of Jonas and Edith Burgos’s pictures as well as the erasure of Jonas’s name;

3. The change of the tattoo on Andres Bonifacio’s left arm from the alibata “K” to a sappy red heart pierced by an arrow;

4. The erasure of the name of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines from the banners of the rallyists; Read More

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THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB’S CLUBBING OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

By John L. Silva

The National Press Club’s defacement and censorship of a commissioned mural in their club restaurant recalls to mind a celebrated incident involving the Mexican artist Diego Rivera and the Rockefeller Center.

In 1933, Rivera was commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller to do a mural for the lobby of the RCA Building at New York’s Rockefeller Center. Rivera, a leftist, was well known for his grand murals replete with sinewy laborers in all forms of working poses. He had just finished a large scale mural with a similar theme for the Detroit Museum of Art sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and despite the bias for proletarian vistas, the liberal, art loving Rockefellers decided their center should have a Rivera mural too.

Rivera though added a portrait of Lenin in the mural and this was over the top for Nelson Rockefeller. Despite his wife Abby’s lament, who collected Riveras, Rockefeller confronted the artist demanding he remove the offending Lenin. Rivera, already paid for the mural, refused, was summarily fired, and the mural destroyed. Rivera would have his revenge by recreating the same mural back in Mexico with Lenin in his glory and the patriarch John D. Rockefeller inserted elsewhere drinking martini at the expense of the toiling masses. Read More

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REBEL WITHOUT A CLUE
Truth in art
By Patricia Evangelista
Inquirer
Last updated 01:01am (Mla time) 11/11/2007

MANILA, Philippines — The issue of the press freedom mural that was
bastardized by the National Press Club is one that has been zipping
down the highways of cyberspace, flooding e-mail inboxes, swamping
newspaper columns and television reports with outbursts of
indignation. The basic facts are these: that the NPC commissioned the
Neo-Angono Artists Collective (NAAC) to produce a mural depicting the
state of Philippine Press Freedom, that the NPC later decided that it
did not depict their “apolitical” perspective of what press freedom
is; that on the artists’ refusal to change the mural, the NPC took it
upon itself to “correct” the painting using a different artist; and
that, on the day Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo unveiled the mural,
astounding changes had taken place, least of all the alibata tattoo
on Andres Bonifacio’s arm morphing into a heart pierced with an arrow. Read More

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“it is never too late to be what you might have been…”

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