Thursday, April 11, 2013
Political daughters, sons want to move away from parents'shadow
Political daughters, sons want to
move away from parents'shadow
"True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right." BRIGHAM YOUNG
By Alex P. Vidal
Daughters and sons of prominent political figures who are running for public office are under pressure to prove they deserve to be elected into public office on their own merits, competence and qualifications, not because they are offspring of political figures with name-recall advantages.
These children of political behemoths want to paddle their own canoes and establish their own standards and styles of governance. They want to prove that on their own, they can institute social and political reforms and accelerate the standards of public service to the higher level sans the spoon-feeding support from their more experienced parents.
Many of them are vying for local and national positions and are determined to follow the footsteps of their parents and continue the family legacy in politics. Some of them are in politics either because they have been inspired and motivated by the quality of leadership instituted by their parents or because of the volition of their parents who don't want certain positions to transfer to other political dynasties in their provinces and districts.
VACATE
Some of these political parents are aware that if they vacate the positions and allow other families or political rivals to occupy or "borrow" them for the next four years, their chances of regaining back the positions are nil. In our society, once certain political families have tasted power, it's hard to live without it; and some dominant political families will move heaven and earth to retain the power by hook or by crook.
In the absence of qualified children, some politicians tap their wives or husbands or even brothers and sisters. The objective is to keep certain positions for other members of the household to occupy and turn them over to the next members of the family after another term of office has expired. And so on and so forth. The primary goal actually is to build a political empire to be ruled by members of the dynasty for the next generation.
DOMINANCE
The political dominance of certain families is actually against the constitution. In the 1987 Constitution, Section 26, Article II, it provides that the State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined law.
The reality shows that politics in the Philippines have been under the control of a few notable families and several attempts by serious lawmakers to pass the anti-dynasty law have proven to be unsuccessful due to lack of interest and support from the lawmakers themselves who are also interested to perpetuate their families in power.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Media practitioners in political season
Media practitioners
in political season
"Gusto ko happy ka." -- SEN. JUAN PONCE ENRILE'S campaign slogan in 2008
By Alex P. Vidal
Full-time media practitioners who wish to be part of the campaign team of certain candidates for the forthcoming elections should take a leave of absence or resign from their media outlets. They cannot serve two masters or ride on two horses at the same time.
They will compromise their objectivity and fairness if they continue to practice their profession while at the same time acting as mouthpieces of certain political aspirants; they will destroy their credibility if they will criticize certain candidates and heap praises on the candidates' rivals in a mind-boggling variety and fashion.
This is basically the call of the management of certain media outlets. If a news writer, editor, anchorman, commentator, columnist or even beat reporter show some tell tale signs of biases and bellicose attitude in the way they handle their news and commentaries, you can be sure the management knows how and when to unleash the guillotine of disciplinary action.
SERVICES
Politicians don't have to hire the services of full-time media practitioners to gain inroads in their campaign. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) gives them avenue to play fair and square; the poll body allows them to buy air time and newspaper space to promote their programs and plans once elected. This is where the so-called "blocktimers" come in for radio programs. Blocktimers don't have to be necessarily active or full-time media practitioners. Since the job is primarily classified as "seasonal," there are always available slots for semi-retired broadcast personalities and part time media strategists to handle the task.
Politicians who encroach on the job prescription of active media practitioners are in cahoots in the breach of the journalists' code of ethics. Active media practitioners who cavort with these politicians are guilty of selling the sacredness of their profession and surrendering the sanctity of their independence and aptitude; and their union is no different from a transaction between buyer and seller in the flesh trade.
CODE
In covering elections, the Code of Professional and Ethical Conduct of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI) cautions journalists to "pay your way."
"The newspaper must cover the cost of coverage during the election campaign and count, including dining out sources for stories, the airfare, hotel accommodation, per diem and operation expenses of staff members assigned to political parties and candidates," read the Code.
"No staff member shall be allowed to work on a part-time, full-time or contractual basis with any political party or candidate."
Staff members shall be discouraged from inviting candidates to stand as godparents in baptism, weddings and other church rites, or as padrinos in the employment of relatives or friends."
Media ethics remains an intractable issue to most journalists. It is always deemed taboo to talk about which journalist or newspaper is committing breaches, except in whispers in little, private circles.
"For why indeed must the mighty media admit to its own weaknesses, its own ugliness?" asked former Manila Times editor Malou Mangahas.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Broca’s Brain
"They were apes only yesterday. Give them time. Once an ape--always an ape. No, it will be different...Come back here in an age or so and you shall see..." -- THE GODS, DISCUSSING THE EARTH, IN THE MOTION PICTURE VERSION OF H.G. WELLS' 'The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)'
By Alex P. Vidal
IF we think we are a gift to mankind because we possess extra-ordinary geniuses, would we allow our brains to be stored in formalin to retard spoilage and displayed in museum after we die?
Many of us today probably possess brains that are qualified to be preserved for purposes of research and benefit of science.
Like Broca's brain.
In his book, Broca's Brain, reflections on the romance of science, the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan discussed the exploration of the universe; that is, it is about science.
Sagan analyzed diverse topics--from a crystal of salt to the structure of the cosmos, myth and legend, birth and death, robots and climates, the exploration of the planets, the nature of intelligence, the search for life beyond the Earth.
"But, as I hope will emerge, these topics are connected because the world is connected, and also human beings perceive the world through similar sense organs and brains and experiences that may not reflect the external realities with absolute fidelity," explained Sagan.
In all of our four-billion-year history of life in our planet, in all of our four-million-year history of the human family, Sagan said, "there is only one generation privileged to live through that unique transitional moment: that generation is ours."
MUSEUM OF MAN
During his visit at Musee de l'Homme or Museum of Man in Paris in the 70's, Sagan saw a container from the shelf and examined it closely. The label read P. Broca. "In my hands was Broca's brain," quipped Sagan.
P. Broca was Paul Broca, a surgeon, a neurologist and an anthropologist, a major figure in the development of both medicine and anthropology in the mid-19th century.
Sagan said, Broca performed distinguished work on cancer pathology and the treatment of aneurysms, and made a landmark contribution to understanding the origin of aphasia--an impairment of the ability to articulate ideas.
Sagan described Broca as "a brilliant and compassionate man" who was concerned with medical care for the poor.
"Under cover of darkness, at the risk of his own life, he successfully smuggled out of Paris in a horse-drawn cart 73 million francs, stuffed into carpetbags and hidden under potatoes, the treasury of the Assistance Publique which--he believed, at any rate--he was saving from pillage. He was the founder of modern brain surgery. He studied infant mortality. Toward the end of his career he was created a senator," Sagan disclosed.
Broca founded a society of "freethinkers" in 1848. Almost along among French servants of the time, narrated Sagan, "he was sympathetic to Charles Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection."
GRATITUDE
T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," remarked that the mere mention of Broca's name filled him with a sense of gratitude, and Broca was quoted as saying, "I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam." For these and other views he was publicly denounced for "materialism" and, like Socrates, for corrupting the young.
Broca died in 1880, perhaps of the very sort of aneurysm that he had studied so brilliantly, disclosed Sagan.
At the moment of his death he was working on a comprehensive study of brain anatomy. He had established the first professional societies, schools of research, and scientific journals of modern anthropology in France.
His laboratory specimens became incorporated into what for many years was called the Musee Broca. Later it merged to become a part of the Musee de l'Homme.
"It was Broca himself, whose brain I was cradling, who had established the macabre collection I had been contemplating," recalled Sagan. "He had studied embryos and apes, and people of all races, measuring like mad in an effort to understand the nature of human being. And despite the present appearance of the collection and my suspicions, he was not, at least by the standards of his time, more of a jingoist or a racist than most, and certainly not that cold, uncaring, dispassionate scientist, heedless of the human consequences of what he does. Broca very much cared."
By Alex P. Vidal
IF we think we are a gift to mankind because we possess extra-ordinary geniuses, would we allow our brains to be stored in formalin to retard spoilage and displayed in museum after we die?
Many of us today probably possess brains that are qualified to be preserved for purposes of research and benefit of science.
Like Broca's brain.
In his book, Broca's Brain, reflections on the romance of science, the late astrophysicist Carl Sagan discussed the exploration of the universe; that is, it is about science.
Sagan analyzed diverse topics--from a crystal of salt to the structure of the cosmos, myth and legend, birth and death, robots and climates, the exploration of the planets, the nature of intelligence, the search for life beyond the Earth.
"But, as I hope will emerge, these topics are connected because the world is connected, and also human beings perceive the world through similar sense organs and brains and experiences that may not reflect the external realities with absolute fidelity," explained Sagan.
In all of our four-billion-year history of life in our planet, in all of our four-million-year history of the human family, Sagan said, "there is only one generation privileged to live through that unique transitional moment: that generation is ours."
MUSEUM OF MAN
During his visit at Musee de l'Homme or Museum of Man in Paris in the 70's, Sagan saw a container from the shelf and examined it closely. The label read P. Broca. "In my hands was Broca's brain," quipped Sagan.
P. Broca was Paul Broca, a surgeon, a neurologist and an anthropologist, a major figure in the development of both medicine and anthropology in the mid-19th century.
Sagan said, Broca performed distinguished work on cancer pathology and the treatment of aneurysms, and made a landmark contribution to understanding the origin of aphasia--an impairment of the ability to articulate ideas.
Sagan described Broca as "a brilliant and compassionate man" who was concerned with medical care for the poor.
"Under cover of darkness, at the risk of his own life, he successfully smuggled out of Paris in a horse-drawn cart 73 million francs, stuffed into carpetbags and hidden under potatoes, the treasury of the Assistance Publique which--he believed, at any rate--he was saving from pillage. He was the founder of modern brain surgery. He studied infant mortality. Toward the end of his career he was created a senator," Sagan disclosed.
Broca founded a society of "freethinkers" in 1848. Almost along among French servants of the time, narrated Sagan, "he was sympathetic to Charles Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection."
GRATITUDE
T.H. Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog," remarked that the mere mention of Broca's name filled him with a sense of gratitude, and Broca was quoted as saying, "I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam." For these and other views he was publicly denounced for "materialism" and, like Socrates, for corrupting the young.
Broca died in 1880, perhaps of the very sort of aneurysm that he had studied so brilliantly, disclosed Sagan.
At the moment of his death he was working on a comprehensive study of brain anatomy. He had established the first professional societies, schools of research, and scientific journals of modern anthropology in France.
His laboratory specimens became incorporated into what for many years was called the Musee Broca. Later it merged to become a part of the Musee de l'Homme.
"It was Broca himself, whose brain I was cradling, who had established the macabre collection I had been contemplating," recalled Sagan. "He had studied embryos and apes, and people of all races, measuring like mad in an effort to understand the nature of human being. And despite the present appearance of the collection and my suspicions, he was not, at least by the standards of his time, more of a jingoist or a racist than most, and certainly not that cold, uncaring, dispassionate scientist, heedless of the human consequences of what he does. Broca very much cared."
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Bradley deserves verdict but Provodnikov deserves world crown and Pacquiao next
Bradley deserves verdict but Provodnikov deserves world
crown and Pacquiao next
By Alex P. Vidal
Despite his failure to annex the World Boxing Organization (WBO) 147-lb crown, Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KOs) deserves to be put in line next versus Manny Pacquiao (54-5, 38 KOs).
In the eyes of some fans who did not score the bout but were excited to watch the Russian perform like Joe Frazer and Mike Tyson, Provodnikov should have been declared the new WBO welterweight champion last March 17 in Carson, California.
But in the eyes of the three judges and some ring experts, Timothy Bradley Jr. (30-0, 12 KOs) clearly dominated the hard-hitting Russian challenger in their 12-round championship tussle that evoked memories of the Julio Caesar Chavez vs Sergio Martinez WBC 160-lb fracas last year.
Bradley was lucky to escape defeat even as he eked out a unanimous decision win to retain the title he wrested on a controversial decision from Manny Pacquiao on June 9, 2012. The unbeaten Bradley, who became the first fighter to upset Pacquiao in the United States since Erik Morales, was on the verge of losing by knockout when saved by the bell in the final stanza.
He won 114-113, 114-113 and 115-112 on the score sheets of the three judges.
HAIRLINE
Bradley secured the hairline win when he used lateral movements and "sweet" science to pile up points in the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds where he was able to damage Provodnikov's left eye. The man who rose to stardom after beating Pacquiao looked like a kindergarten pupil being harassed by a street toughie on his way home in the first and second rounds.
Provodnikov's heavy blows in the second round nearly put Bradley to dreamland. Bradley was saved by the bell twice--in the second and 12th rounds. Bradley was nearly entombed in the final assault where he hit the canvas due to exhaustion and late reaction from Provodnikov's hooks and wallops and was counted by referee Pat Russell. Ten more seconds and Bradley would have gone!
There's no doubt Provodnikov, 29, has the capacity to blow away Bradley, 29, in a rematch. But if Top Rank CEO Bob Arum intends to revive the career of the 35-year-old Pacquiao, the best move is to pit the Filipino buzzsaw versus the deadly Provodnikov either in July or September.
REMATCH
If Provodnikov will roll past the seemingly deteriorating Pacquiao, a rematch with Bradley will give him instant fame and big money. A knockout win over Bradley will qualify him for a duel with Floyd Mayweather or Juan Manuel Marquez.
Provodnikov's style attracts big fans and big promoters. He fights like a bull and attacks with both fists loaded with molotovs. Pacquiao, who failed to deck Bradley despite his superiority in experience and speed, would love to brawl with the heavy hitter from Beryozovo, Russia, who stands five feet and six inches like the Filipino lawmaker from Mindanao.
Although he moves like Ricky Hatton, Provodnikov has the heavier bombs and his left is as deadly as Marvelous Marvin Hagler's left. Whether he is using his brain in the ring remains to be seen. Pacquiao brutally pulverized Hatton in two rounds because aside from not using his common sense, he did not have the superior power capable of neutralizing if not sending fear in Pacquiao's heart.
WARRIOR
Provodnikov eats his opponent's punches and is not intimidated by cut and blood. He is a legitimate warrior in the league of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Kostya Tszyu, Vinny Pazienza, Orzubek Nazarov, and Arturo Gatti. But his menacing stance and power are not enough. He must penetrate Pacquiao's well-guarded defense and send a signal that he can do what Juan Manuel Marquez did when the Mexican dynamo finished off Pacquiao with a single blow.
Since Bradley would be a common denominator, Pacquiao knows Bradley was never in danger of being blasted to smithereens when they rumbled for 12 rounds. Against Provodnikov, Bradley hanged in the ropes, groped in the darkness and skidded on wobbly legs each time the Russian customer pummeled him with razor and hammer.
crown and Pacquiao next
By Alex P. Vidal
Despite his failure to annex the World Boxing Organization (WBO) 147-lb crown, Ruslan Provodnikov (22-2, 15 KOs) deserves to be put in line next versus Manny Pacquiao (54-5, 38 KOs).
In the eyes of some fans who did not score the bout but were excited to watch the Russian perform like Joe Frazer and Mike Tyson, Provodnikov should have been declared the new WBO welterweight champion last March 17 in Carson, California.
But in the eyes of the three judges and some ring experts, Timothy Bradley Jr. (30-0, 12 KOs) clearly dominated the hard-hitting Russian challenger in their 12-round championship tussle that evoked memories of the Julio Caesar Chavez vs Sergio Martinez WBC 160-lb fracas last year.
Bradley was lucky to escape defeat even as he eked out a unanimous decision win to retain the title he wrested on a controversial decision from Manny Pacquiao on June 9, 2012. The unbeaten Bradley, who became the first fighter to upset Pacquiao in the United States since Erik Morales, was on the verge of losing by knockout when saved by the bell in the final stanza.
He won 114-113, 114-113 and 115-112 on the score sheets of the three judges.
HAIRLINE
Bradley secured the hairline win when he used lateral movements and "sweet" science to pile up points in the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds where he was able to damage Provodnikov's left eye. The man who rose to stardom after beating Pacquiao looked like a kindergarten pupil being harassed by a street toughie on his way home in the first and second rounds.
Provodnikov's heavy blows in the second round nearly put Bradley to dreamland. Bradley was saved by the bell twice--in the second and 12th rounds. Bradley was nearly entombed in the final assault where he hit the canvas due to exhaustion and late reaction from Provodnikov's hooks and wallops and was counted by referee Pat Russell. Ten more seconds and Bradley would have gone!
There's no doubt Provodnikov, 29, has the capacity to blow away Bradley, 29, in a rematch. But if Top Rank CEO Bob Arum intends to revive the career of the 35-year-old Pacquiao, the best move is to pit the Filipino buzzsaw versus the deadly Provodnikov either in July or September.
REMATCH
If Provodnikov will roll past the seemingly deteriorating Pacquiao, a rematch with Bradley will give him instant fame and big money. A knockout win over Bradley will qualify him for a duel with Floyd Mayweather or Juan Manuel Marquez.
Provodnikov's style attracts big fans and big promoters. He fights like a bull and attacks with both fists loaded with molotovs. Pacquiao, who failed to deck Bradley despite his superiority in experience and speed, would love to brawl with the heavy hitter from Beryozovo, Russia, who stands five feet and six inches like the Filipino lawmaker from Mindanao.
Although he moves like Ricky Hatton, Provodnikov has the heavier bombs and his left is as deadly as Marvelous Marvin Hagler's left. Whether he is using his brain in the ring remains to be seen. Pacquiao brutally pulverized Hatton in two rounds because aside from not using his common sense, he did not have the superior power capable of neutralizing if not sending fear in Pacquiao's heart.
WARRIOR
Provodnikov eats his opponent's punches and is not intimidated by cut and blood. He is a legitimate warrior in the league of Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Kostya Tszyu, Vinny Pazienza, Orzubek Nazarov, and Arturo Gatti. But his menacing stance and power are not enough. He must penetrate Pacquiao's well-guarded defense and send a signal that he can do what Juan Manuel Marquez did when the Mexican dynamo finished off Pacquiao with a single blow.
Since Bradley would be a common denominator, Pacquiao knows Bradley was never in danger of being blasted to smithereens when they rumbled for 12 rounds. Against Provodnikov, Bradley hanged in the ropes, groped in the darkness and skidded on wobbly legs each time the Russian customer pummeled him with razor and hammer.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
EPIC OF GILGAMESH
"We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it." JOHN F. KENNEDY
By Alex P. Vidal
By Alex P. Vidal
Alfred Adler's "What Life Should Mean to You" will have to take a back seat to pave the way for the more illustrious and more realistic epic poem from Mesopotamia which is among the earliest surviving works of literature.
If we want to know the real meaning of life, we must read The Epic of Gilgamesh, written about 1,500 years before Homer wrote Iliad and Odyssey. Preserved on clay tablets and deciphered in the last century, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story about the adventure of the great King of Uruk in his fruitless search for immortality and of his friendship with Enkidu, the wild man from the hills.
We can always raid all the bookstores in the world and stumble into the latest research made by the world's best psychologists and even modern transcendentalists and existentialists, but none can compare to The Epic of Gilgamesh that also narrates the legend of the Flood which agrees in many details with the Biblical story of Noah.
FRIENDSHIP
The story centers on a friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Together, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence Enkidu to death.
This story comes from an age which had been wholly forgotten, until in the last century archaeologists began uncovering the burned cities of the Middle East. Until then the entire history of the long period which separated Abraham from Noah was contained in two of the most forbiddingly genealogical chapters of the Book of Genesis.
DISTRESS
The later half of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's distress at Enkidu's death, and his quest for immortality. In order to learn the secret of eternal life, Gilgamesh undertakes a long and perilous journey. He learns that "The life that you are seeking you will never find. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping."
If not the best literature ever written, the cycle of poems collected that rounded the character of Gilgamesh that carried back into the middle of that age, deserve a place in the world literature.
In an essay, Arthur Brown wrote, "We read The Epic of Gilgamesh, four thousand years after it was written, in part because we are scholars, or pseudo-scholars, and wish to learn something about human history. We read it as well because we want to know the meaning of life. The meaning of life, however, is not something we can wrap up and walk away with."
MEANING
To see for ourselves the meaning of a story, Brown said "we need, first of all, to look carefully at what happens in the story; that is, we need to look at it as if the actions and people it describes actually took place or existed."
"We can articulate the questions raised by a character's actions and discuss the implications of their consequences," Brown added. "But we need to consider, too, how a story is put together -- how it uses the conventions of language, of events with beginnings and endings, of description, of character, and of storytelling itself to reawaken our sensitivity to the real world. The real world is the world without conventions, the unnameable, unrepresentable world -- in its continuity of action, its shadings and blurring of character, its indecipherable patterns of being. The stories that mean most to us bring us back to our own unintelligible and yet immeasurably meaningful lives."
If we want to know the real meaning of life, we must read The Epic of Gilgamesh, written about 1,500 years before Homer wrote Iliad and Odyssey. Preserved on clay tablets and deciphered in the last century, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story about the adventure of the great King of Uruk in his fruitless search for immortality and of his friendship with Enkidu, the wild man from the hills.
We can always raid all the bookstores in the world and stumble into the latest research made by the world's best psychologists and even modern transcendentalists and existentialists, but none can compare to The Epic of Gilgamesh that also narrates the legend of the Flood which agrees in many details with the Biblical story of Noah.
FRIENDSHIP
The story centers on a friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu, a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the people of Uruk. Together, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence Enkidu to death.
This story comes from an age which had been wholly forgotten, until in the last century archaeologists began uncovering the burned cities of the Middle East. Until then the entire history of the long period which separated Abraham from Noah was contained in two of the most forbiddingly genealogical chapters of the Book of Genesis.
DISTRESS
The later half of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's distress at Enkidu's death, and his quest for immortality. In order to learn the secret of eternal life, Gilgamesh undertakes a long and perilous journey. He learns that "The life that you are seeking you will never find. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping."
If not the best literature ever written, the cycle of poems collected that rounded the character of Gilgamesh that carried back into the middle of that age, deserve a place in the world literature.
In an essay, Arthur Brown wrote, "We read The Epic of Gilgamesh, four thousand years after it was written, in part because we are scholars, or pseudo-scholars, and wish to learn something about human history. We read it as well because we want to know the meaning of life. The meaning of life, however, is not something we can wrap up and walk away with."
MEANING
To see for ourselves the meaning of a story, Brown said "we need, first of all, to look carefully at what happens in the story; that is, we need to look at it as if the actions and people it describes actually took place or existed."
"We can articulate the questions raised by a character's actions and discuss the implications of their consequences," Brown added. "But we need to consider, too, how a story is put together -- how it uses the conventions of language, of events with beginnings and endings, of description, of character, and of storytelling itself to reawaken our sensitivity to the real world. The real world is the world without conventions, the unnameable, unrepresentable world -- in its continuity of action, its shadings and blurring of character, its indecipherable patterns of being. The stories that mean most to us bring us back to our own unintelligible and yet immeasurably meaningful lives."
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