There’s nothing to ‘sacrifice’ now?

“We will burn that bridge when we come to it.”

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

By Alex P. Vidal

IN April this year, or a month after the Philippines started to absorb the initial blows of COVID-19 pandemic, we wrote that proponents of the Panay-Guimaras-Negros (PGN) Island Bridges Project “should not sacrifice” the P275 billion project under the Duterte administration’s Build, Build, Build program “no matter what happens.”

We invoked the assurance made by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) on January 19, 2020 that the much-ballyhooed project will proceed this year, or tentatively in September 2020.

NEDA had pointed to the Investment Coordination Committee (ICC), which reportedly approved the construction of the P189.53 billion project that will connect the islands of Panay, Guimaras, Negros through the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar had assured the project’s feasibility study was already completed in 2019.

The article came after President Digong Duterte hinted in his  announcement weeks earlier that the P275 billion emergency funds in the 2020 General Appropriations Act given by congress “might not be enough” if the pandemic will last for two years.

The money went to the Social Amelioration Program (SAP).

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The government might sell some of its prime properties, the president had intoned further.

“Let’s hope the funds for the PGN Island Bridges Project won’t be re-channeled for the ‘social amelioration program’ or ‘sacrificed’ to be used in helping the day-to-day sustenance of ‘starving’ poor families while COVID-19 continues to wallop the Filipinos,” read part of the article we wrote on April 13, 2020.

“We are confident the funds for the mammoth project have been secured and the pandemic won’t stand in the way for the much-anticipated start of the construction.”  

Ilonggos have been so excited and optimistic about the dream bridges, bruited about to offer a safer, faster, more convenient land travel to residents and tourists of the Western Visayas island provinces, once operational.

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Since it has been given a green light by the NEDA, Ilonggos will never accept any excuse once it has been sidelined anew. 

Delaying it because of the coronavirus would be unconceivable and unacceptable for the excited people of Iloilo, Guimaras, and Negros.

The biggest infrastructure project-ever under the Duterte administration will reportedly involve the construction of a 32.47-km, four-lane, and two sea-crossing bridges, including the connecting roads and interchanges that will connect the three Western Visayas island provinces.

The colossal land passageway project is expected to provide a safer and faster travel instead of the usual sea travel between the islands.

Also, the bridges will allow easier access and open a network of more convenient transportation linkage that can transform the flow of people, goods and services between the three islands and their respective provinces.

“These are the building blocks of our people’s dreams and aspirations to ease congestion and spread growth throughout the country,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said earlier.

The project had been publicized repeatedly to be financed by China's official development assistance (ODA) loan

It appears now there’s nothing to “sacrifice”, in the first place, just in case the coronavirus will linger and our economy will suffer a tailspin, if Senator Frank Drilon is to be believed.

The Iloilo senator lamented in a recent statement: "Nadulaan na gana ang China because of the pandemic siguro. So subong nagapangita ang gobyerno nga makahulam sa iba nga sources kay indi na magsige ang China nga magfund.”

Let’s hope this isn’t true.

For the meantime, let’s continue to wait and see.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Is it safe to come to NY now?

“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.”

—George Bernard Shaw

By Alex P. Vidal

A FRIEND “stranded” in the Philippines because of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, called me via Messenger on July 12 to inquire if it is now safe to go back to New York.

He was supposed to fly back in April, but flights had been cancelled when airports around the world were forced to suspend operations during that period to prevent the spread of coronavirus.  

I told him the truth: No yet. No way.

No one is in the mood nowadays to welcome anybody now that everyone is worried about the coronavirus infection.

No one wants to prioritize traveling from airport to airport, what with so many dizzying restrictions and quarantine rules and regulations.

“Assuming that flights are now back to normal or even if you have a scheduled flight and, thus, allowed to fly, still you will have to undergo a harrowing experience before leaving the Philippines and upon arriving in the US,” I explained.

It’s not wise to travel internationally at this time. 

Forget it—unless you’re a health worker or a diplomat. 

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Although our situation in the East Coast has been “improving” (we were the pandemic epicenter in March and April), the situation in the Southern and Western parts of the United States is now worsening, according to latest reports.

Having experienced the world’s biggest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, the New York State remains behind most other states in coming out of lockdown, but its reopening is firmly underway.

As of July 14, nine of New York’s 10 regions are in the fourth and theoretically final phase of a four-phase reopening process following the statewide coronavirus lockdown.

The Big Apple is the only region still in phase three.

The U.S. has now confirmed more than 3.6 million COVID-19 cases and 139,921 related deaths, according to Worldometer, which is tracking COID-19 statistics. 

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Over the July 11-12 weekend, the U.S. recorded more than 100,000 new cases, The New York Times reported.

More than 13.65 million cases and 585,536 related deaths have been reported worldwide.

The seven-day average daily deaths across the U.S. reportedly reached 700 on July 11, up from 471 on July 5.

Though high, it's still hasn't skyrocketed to peak numbers in April, when the U.S. was reporting 2,200 deaths on average every day. 

Eight states reportedly logged single-day record deaths, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Tennessee, over the past week. 

Texas logged a state record of 119 deaths related to COVID-19 on July 8.

Back here in New York, regions are to reopen in four phases, prioritizing industries that pose the lowest risk of infection for employees and customers. 

The details of each phase are not necessarily set in stone, either, as the state has already made adjustments to the original guidelines, like adding outdoor dining to phase two.

The plan was originally for state and regional officials to evaluate the outcomes of the reopening phases over two-week periods and decide whether the region can move onto the next one, but each phase will not necessarily last only two weeks.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Village holds sexual experimentation

“Sex gets your endorphins flowing, the chemicals in your brain that make you feel good. Having sex makes you feel good, and increasing your erotic sophistication improves your self-esteem."

By Alex P. Vidal

THE Kerista Village is a commune in which members are not monogamous. 
They practice polyfidelity—they have sex with other members of their group, but not with outsiders. 
In the following viewpoint, Even Eve, a member of the commune since 1971, explains that such sexual experimentation increases creativity and happiness.
There was a period of time when an article in Psychology Today featuring Kerista as a rare unusual example of non-monogamous people who were jealously-free prompted TV talk show producers across the nation to contact them to appear on their shows. 
They did the Phil Donahue Show, the Today Show and a number of appearances on local (San Francisco Bay Area) programs.
By the eighth or ninth show, they were feeling sort of burned out on describing their sleeping schedule to middle America and thought it would make a lot of sense to start focusing the discussions more on other elements of their lifestyle, like their plan to create a grassroots philanthropic movement that could solve serious world problems. No go. 
The dialogue always came back to what Phil Donahue called “the sex part” of the trip and stayed there, regardless of efforts to shoot off in other directions.
“I see this as a plus, really, At least there’s something that gets people’s attention. When I first came into contact with Kerista and Keristans—of whom, at the time, there were only a handful—one of the first things I heard was the maxim, ‘’It all boils down to penises and vaginas,’” Eve is quoted in Sexual Values. “Though I had been moving in hip circles, I was startled by such a blunt reduction of all life’s complicated mysteries. Yet it seemed on reflection, to be fairly accurate, even if hyperbolically stated.”

PREOCCUPATIONS

Eve explains: “My main preoccupations back then was certainly sex-related. What type of relationship, or relationships, did I want? How many? Sex with women and men or men only? And what about all those stereotypical sex roles? How should I get rid of them, and who could I meet that would agree with me about them? Was it true that the vaginal orgasm was a myth? Was there really such a thing as a happy couple? And on and on, ad nauseam at times.”
Like in Kerista clarified the significance of the boiling it all down to genitals homily. It wasn’t that other things weren’t important or wonderful. It was just, very simply, that until a person had sorted all those issues out and gotten her/his intimate life into a satisfactory place, everything else was to some degree put on hold. First things first.
“My guess about most people is that a lot of this sort-and-find stuff related to their sex lives goes on subliminally, without must consciousness, because it’s only very recently that sexual matters have begun coming up to the surface for open thought and discussion. This means that an awful lot of people are going around with a good portion of their total awareness potential buried, as it were, in underground vaults where they can’t do much with it,” Eve adds further. 
“Just imagine what the world could be like if that locked up potential was liberated for conscious, intelligent use! Despite periodic societal regressions, I think things are going that way.”
The idea of polyfidelity has immense erotic appeal to those of them who have opted for it for reasons beyond the sexual fact of sleeping with a number of wonderful partners. 
One of the biggest draws is the erotic relationship between the people of the same sex who (in hetero groups such as those existing in Kerista) share the experience of relating sexually to the same opposite sex people.
They call these people “starling” sisters or brothers, and these friendships are unique and delightful. 
There has been a lively debate going on within the commune for several years now connected to this, having to do with trust and closeness. 
According to those on one side of the debate, there are two “tiers” of relationships in a B-FIC (Best Friend Identify Cluster), with two different levels of closeness. In the closest tier or ring are the sexual relationships; in the second ring are the starlings. 
Both are precious, but (according to this perspective) sexual relations have innately more depth of feeling, trust and intimacy than platonics.

DIFFERENCE

On the other side of the debate, Eve emphasizes, is the view that there is no inherent difference in trust and closeness between sexual and platonic B-FIC relationships. 
“The two types of involvements are different but equal; the determinants of how intimate you are with any of your partners has to do with other factors, such as how long you’ve been together and what sorts of shared experiences you’ve logged in. According to this second theory, in fact, you might feel closer to a same-sex, platonic partner with whom you’ve had a stable friendship for many years than to a sexual partner who has only come into the group recently, and has had a history of being unstable in B-FICs due to unsettled psychological issues.”
According to eve, it’s the kind of dialectical debate that they find enjoyable, and pursue in a relaxed and leisurely fashion as they drift through life with each other, without the expectation that one side will ever convince the other to change their views. Conversations about themes like this presuppose a high degree of erotic sophistication.
“We do not deal with any jealousy whatsoever and never have within the Keristan life-style. But there are things that have taken some working out,” Eve points out. “I can remember the time, about none or ten years ago, that Lee and Judd decided to go out to see a live sex show at one of the adult theaters in San Franciso. This was shortly after we had all decided to let go of most of our former erotic restrictions. They came in late that night, having had a good time, and some of us asked them to describe the show. After hearing a brief description, I made a face and said something like, ‘I don’t know how you could find watching women masturbate entertaining,’ in my snottiest tone of voice. Lee looked at me and said, ‘Well, how long have you been beating your wife?’ At that point I backed out down from my implied superiority position and began to realize that the amount of emotionality I was feeling probably had very little to do with the immediate situation and was something I’d really have to take a good look at.”

We don’t write scathing resignation letters

“The pen is an instrument of discovery rather than just a recording implement. If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you're simply using a pen to record what you have thought out.”

—Billy Collins

By Alex P. Vidal

I CAN’T recall a single case where a newspaper writer or editor in Iloilo, or Western Visayas for that matter, has written a scathing resignation letter to the local publisher during his departure.

Not even in the national broadsheets, as far as I can remember, at least since democracy was restored after the EDSA Revolution in 1986.

In my time as a post-EDSA community journalist, I witnessed editors and writers, including myself and other regular columnists, transfer from one regional paper to another without any prejudice to the relationship with the publishers and coworkers in the publications we’ve worked with.

There were clashes in principles and political views, but personal and professional ties have remained intact even after the separations. 

We never wrote resignation letters that would burn the bridges with our former media bosses and colleagues like New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss, who recently published a scathing resignation letter she sent to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger on her personal website.

Weiss noted she doesn’t understand how toxic behavior is allowed inside the newsroom and "showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery."

Weiss wrote: “It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times.” 

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She then explained that she joined the paper in 2017 to help offer a different perspective, as the Times’ “failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers,” and fixing that issue was critical.

“But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned,” Weiss wrote. 

“Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.”

Weiss lamented that “Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times,” but social media acts as the ultimate editor.

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FOR many Filipinos, the broad daylight and “senseless” murder of ABS-CBN by the 70 congressmen in the House joint panels on July 10, was like a death of a family member.

The same melancholy is felt in the Filipino communities in other parts of the globe that used to wake up and go to bed monitoring the events in the Philippines and enjoying the programs in their TFC channel. 

Many mothers, wives, grandparents, and children, in particular, had considered ABS-CBN as their household companion.

They regularly watched and listened to ABS-CBN’s public affairs program, news, entertainment like soap opera and noontime shows like they were doing their regular private and household chores.

All of a sudden, that important “member” of the family was gone but its nostalgia and good memories.

All of a sudden, the TV channel where they used to tune in to locate ABS-CBN during prime time, is now displaying a rainbow.

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Until now, many ABS-CBN lovers continue to mourn like they are in an actual vigil of the dead in the funeral homes.

Most of them find it hard to accept ABS-CBN’s sudden demise, and the insults and vitriol they hear from people who add insult to their injury are further helping deepen and exacerbate their sadness and agony.

They are aware most of those who hated ABS-CBN were probably motivated only by their canine loyalty and too much admiration for President Digong Duterte, not because they believed ABS-CBN was evil.

If Mr. Duterte did not declare a war against ABS-CBN, those bashers probably would never say a single bad word against the doomed broadcasting network.  

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Air of hopelessness

“A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.”

—Elbert Hubbard

By Alex P. Vidal

SOME people are getting impatient and there seems to be an air of hopelessness hovering in many parts of the Philippines now that the situation appears to be “not getting better” in as far as the COVID-19 pandemic is concerned.

Instead of seeing the decline of COVID-19 cases after the second quarter of 2020, there seems to be no stopping the pandemic from further bringing sufferings and sadness to the people.

It seems COVID-19 will stay as long as it is still 2020.

The bad thing is there is no assurance it will be fully contained by 2021, not until the vaccine has been discovered and mass-produced quickly.  

We are now entering the third quarter and COVID-19 cases continue to rise instead of going down.

And the trending is worldwide with the United States still leading the pack with nearly 3 million cases and nearly 150,000 deaths.

Hospitals’ critical care capacity in the Philippines is near the “danger zone” at 70 percent, according to the Department of Health (DOH).

Several hospitals in the country have already reportedly stopped accepting patients with coronavirus disease.   

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We are glad that here in New York, which used to be the epicenter since March, “things are improving” and the state is now going to be held up as the model for the rest of the United States because of its “remarkable road to recovery”.

New York was hit first, while the virus and how to treat it were still poorly understood, and New York City is an international travel hub with densely packed neighborhoods and a heavily trafficked public-transit system. 

It got hammered.

The outbreaks in other parts of the US aren’t anything like what happened in New York, at least not yet. 

What others states, notably Florida, Arizona, Texas and California are trying to do is avoid New York’s fate, even as they are lectured about the superiority of the Empire State’s approach.

The positivity rate—the percentage of tests coming back positive—has increased in all of these places, and in Arizona has reportedly gone above 20 percent. 

The seven-day moving average for the positivity rate reached an astronomical 50 percent during the worst of the outbreak in New York.

Deaths are also reportedly going up in all these states, but the scale so far is completely different from what New York experienced. 

About 32,500 people have died in New York.

About 4,300 people have died in Florida, a state of comparable population. 

In Texas and California, both bigger states, about 3,300 and 7,000 people have died.

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Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced July 14 the actions taken in its ongoing response effort to the COVID-19 pandemic.

FDA scientists have identified specific areas of the so-called spike proteins on the surface of the COVID-19-causing virus that appear to be key to triggering strong protective antibody responses in rabbits exposed to the virus. 

The virus uses one part of the spike protein to attach to a cell and another to fuse with the cell membrane, enabling the virus to infect the cell. 

The scientists studied antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, which could help inform vaccine design by increasing our understanding of the various triggered antibody responses.

As of mid-June, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than eight million cases of infection and approximately 450,000 deaths globally, making the development of safe and effective vaccines to prevent this disease a priority. 

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Caesar and ABS-CBN

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

—Soren Kierkegaard

By Alex P. Vidal

SIXTY senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, took turns in stabbing to death Julius Caesar at the Theater of Pompey on March 15, 44 B.C.

Seventy congressmen, led by Rodante Marcoleta Cassius and Michael Defensor Brutus, murdered ABS-CBN in the House Joint Committee for Legislative Franchises, Good Governance and Public Accountability on July 10, 2020.

What did the Roman senators gain and accomplish after killing Emperor Caesar?

Nothing.

Except that history was so cruel to them. 

They had to escape outside Rome after being chased by angry Romans who burned their houses and other edifices.

Cassius and Brutus both committed suicide after being crushed one after the other by the combined forces of Mark Antony (Caesar’s trusted lieutenant) and Octavian (Caesar’s 17-year-old nephew who became Emperor Augustus) in the Battle of Philippi in 42 B.C.

As their primary source of news, public affairs program, and entertainment, Filipinos love ABS-CBN dearly as the Romans admired and loved Caesar as the symbol of their strength and dominance before Jesus was born.

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What did the 70 congressmen gain and accomplish when they murdered ABS-CBN, by the way?

Nothing except, perhaps, helping bloat heavily the ego of a dictator. 

Will history be also cruel to them?

Let us wait and see.

History has always been cruel to tyrants, oppressors, rapscallions, and egregious political lackeys like the 70 solons.  

It was ancient Greece that first experienced tyranny on a large scale both from the external threat posed to their small city-states by the mighty Persian empire and from the tendency of their own politics to veer between extremes of tyranny and anarchy. 

A change in government usually meant the new winners would oppress the previous winners, prosecuting them and seizing their property. 
Responsible self-government under the rule of law was fragile.

Waller R. Newell, professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Carleton University, warned that different categories of tyrannies emerged over the ages that have helped to classify and condemn tyranny and other exploitative forms of authority, and to encourage self-governing societies. 

We can still apply those categories today.

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But the 70 congressmen don’t need to escape with their tales wagging like Cassius, Brutus, and their co-conspirators in Ceasar’s murder while the Filipinos grieve for ABS-CBN’s demise. 

It will be their respective constituents who will kick their asses come election day.

What the 70 congressmen did was already equivalent to a political suicide.

Even in “death”, the Filipinos will continue to love and support ABS-CBN the way the Romans honored and immortalized their beloved Caesar.

It was fundamentally and logically wrong to eliminate a media institution that has been functioning as a major pillar of Philippine democracy over flimsy reasons.

It was pathetically erroneous and a monumental blunder on the part of the government to treat ABS-CBN like an ordinary pizza parlor or ice cream manufacturing company when its primary and paramount function is to safeguard democracy as media watchdog.    

Although we find it hard to comprehend why they would hate ABS-CBN with such mind-boggling magnitude and even “celebrated” the network’s defeat like the people of Moses who worshipped the golden calf, we can never hate back those who had sought to guillotine the country’s hitherto leading broadcasting network that employed 11,000 workers nationwide.

There is history as the final arbiter.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

  

Dong Li

“Fair peace becomes men; ferocious anger belongs to beasts.”

—Ovid

By Alex P. Vidal

WITHOUT looking at her face, the name already evokes fear and terror: Dong Li (not a feminine-sounding name). 

But she is neither elderly Shaolin “Master Dong” nor menacing sumo wrestler “Ba Dong.”

Dong Li is a 27-year-old Chinese woman who lives in Makati City, and who earned notoriety after the video showing her beating up several traffic officers and a biker in an unprovoked attack recently went viral. 

At first glance, it looked like another case of an irate and recalcitrant female pedestrian hammering away at uniformed men after being accosted for not wearing a mask in public amid the pandemic.

But when she started hitting the cars with an umbrella like a golf player and giving the terrified traffic men eagle-claw chops like a participant in the Dancing with the Stars show, it became apparent a circus madwoman was on the loose and needed to be restrained by a superior force.

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But Dong Li wasn’t a pushover. 

No “superior” force from her macho victims could tame the unruly vixen. 

Even the bystanders were too frightened to interrupt Godzilla’s wrath.    

Her weight and size, her astonishing reflexes, were already lethal weapons.

The way Dong Li utilized them to execute her brutality and sadistic skills could qualify her to the Tokyo Olympic Games discus throw and weightlifting pre-qualifying rounds. 

There could be four reasons why Dong Li went berserk by using an umbrella, punches, and kicks to singlehandedly manhandle her all-male victims before a horrified public.

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Either she was high on illegal drugs or intoxicated; she had a mental problem and wasn’t supposed to leave her house that afternoon; she was doing a prank video, which is a fad nowadays; or she thought the Philippines was already a province of China, thus it’s an “open season” to harass and mistreat the new “second-class citizens” and get away with it.

Dong Li must have taken some cue from the presidential speeches where subservience to China has always been a dominant mantra.    

It’s good Dong Li finally landed in the calaboose after she appeared to have vanished a few moments after pulverizing the traffic enforcers one after another. 

She was lucky it happened in broad daylight and nobody dared to stop her on her tracks with a single blow on the chin or a Chuck Norris-roundhouse kick in the abdomen. 

Or even worse than that.  

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LOOK WHO’S DANCING. Instead of always enticing our children to dance the way Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque wanted them to as an act of escapism, let’s instead expose our youngsters to science and technology.

We need more scientists in this modern age; we are now living in the world of 5G and space travel technology.

We need to advance; we need to take two steps forward and not to stagnate and deteriorate as “Tiktok” dancers.

When the aliens invade us one day, what shall we do to defend ourselves?

Dance the hula hoop?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)