Revilla’s magical win

 

Revilla and his ‘budots’ dance campaign video.

I am of course talking about Ramon “Bong” Revilla who seem to have secured the 11^th spot in the senatorial race in the last mid-term elections.

Like many, I am wondering what Revilla has that Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile do not have.

I mention the three in comparison because all are out on bail after being charged with plunder at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan over alleged misuse of their pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the lump-sum funds previously allocated to legislators.

Could it be that Revilla has a more effective talisman than Estrada and Enrile have? Not that I believe that having in their possession something that is thought to have magical powers and bring good luck could actually happen, but the fact that Revilla has been returned to the Senate after what he has done makes one wonder really.

Does a lucky charm really works or is it the shallowness of the Filipino voters that made Revilla won?

It would have been a satisfying victory for the people if, like Estrada and Enrile, Revilla was repudiated too. For a government official, and a senator at that, to be accused of pocketing P224 million in kickbacks from fake projects with the help of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles who herself was convicted of plunder is simply unconscionable no matter how one looks at it and the same rejection, therefore, should have befallen his candidacy.

I mean, if like Napoles, Revilla’s former chief-of-staff Richard Cambe, was also found guilty of plunder by the anti-graft court, what does that speak of Revilla acquittal, given that he is the head of his Senate staff? The same question can be ask of Enrile, while his former chief of staff, Jessica Lucila Reyes, continue to languish at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, while Enrile was released on bail in 2015 in consideration of his old age and poor health.

Does this mean to say that had Estrada and Enrile also utilized a campaign video that showed him perform a goofy dance that they would have won too?

How shallow and cheap can we all be to parlay our votes for an idiotic dance so that we can have a questionable character at the senate to represent the Filipino people in legislative matters that will protect the interests of the country and its government?.

Sense of humor is one thing that Filipinos have aplenty. But just because a candidate has found a medium to amuse people so that his disgraceful past can be swept under the rug is another deceitful act on the part of the candidate.

On the part of the Filipinos who still voted for him, it is called stupidity.

Messi is ‘D10S’

Lionel Messi

There is no doubt Lionel Messi is a great football player. Others even rank him ahead of Pele, Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still an active competitor now.

How else would you rank Messi except as the best considering that the 31-year-old has spent his entire professional career at Barcelona, where he has won nine league titles, six Copa del Rey honors and four UEFA Champions League winner’s medals? On top of that he has five Ballon d’Or awards to his name. The Ballon d’Or award honors the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists.

Messi also inspired Barcelona to an historic treble-winning season on two occasions, securing the league, cup and Champions League in 2008/09 and 2014/2015.

No wonder Barcelona fans are calling him ‘D10S’! DIOS?

Well, not really. That is just how the fanatical fans of Messi chant when he is playing to their excitement and satisfaction. Fans can be adoringly imaginative and this is how the name came about when they replaced and inserted the number 10 of Messi’s jersey to still read and sound like you are saying the name God, or DIOS in Spanish, in vain.

But is it really a sacrilege as Pope Francis, a fellow Argentinian, warns the football fans? I don’t think so.

Everybody knows that Messi is not God – in their minds, hearts and souls.

But it just so happen that there is an artistic way of calling Messi that would push him further to play more sensational than he already is to the delight of his fans and that is by exquisitely replacing the two letters with numbers in the word DIOS to ‘D10S’ to be shouted at the top of their lungs!

That is all there is to it.

 

Preserving our sanity

 

Every time elections are held in this country we always find ourselves at the crossroads where our sanity is being tested to the limit.

It used to be that there were only two political parties to choose from where its respective leaders running it and endorsing their candidates share common values and ideals about the party and the same mission and vision for the interest of the nation and its people.

Election was never a complicated process then as those selected as candidates on both sides were competent and able and had no other motivation but to serve the people in earnest.

It was always fulfilling to have exercised ones freedom of suffrage then knowing that whoever wins will perform to the best of his ability and according to the moral beliefs of the party he represents, which translates to the aspirations of the people.

Alas, elections today have become a political circus of sorts – entertaining, yet confusing and unnerving not only because of the numerous political parties coalescing/aligning with one another but more so because of the wide differences in the nature, character and notoriety of candidates running for office.

There is need therefore for every Filipino to be convinced that in order to preserve ones sanity in the upcoming 2019 elections we have to examine our own consciences and determine the best candidates who will be able to help Pres. Rodrigo Duterte accomplish the programs he has set forth for the country during his term of office.

It is still a long time until Duterte’s presidency expires in 2022 and there is nothing more important than to ensure that there are no personal or political hindrances in the country’s march to progress.

There is no doubt that Duterte’s popularity comes from his out-of-the-box type of governance that is being recognized and accepted by the people as what is propelling the country forward and the only way to keep it moving positively is to have newly elected people in government that could contribute fresh and doable ideas for what the president has envisioned for the country.

What is harmful to our sanity is when we allow ourselves to be suckers of pretentious candidates – young, old and very old – who because of their seeming closeness to Duterte are making a pitch of their usefulness, but in reality have continuing hidden agenda of their own.

For sanity sake, let us vote in the coming 2019 elections intelligently and judiciously.

 

 

A kiss was all it was

 

A kiss planted by President Rodrigo Duterte on the lips of Bea Kim, a Filipina said to be married to a South Korean with whom she has two children, while on an official visit to South Korea has initiated a controversy among the many seemingly prude critics and feminist bigots in this country.

Whether the smooch was made on the lips, the cheeks or on the forehead for the world to say the fact is all it was, was a kiss.

So why make a big fuss about it and make it appear like it was a sinful act?

Because it was Duterte who did it, he who has been labeled as misogynist by women’s rights advocates and by some preachy opposition politicians?

For one to be tagged as misogynist, he is one characterized to be strongly prejudiced against women.

Now, is Duterte living up to this disparaging description when he has a wife and daughters to reckon with in the family?

What I am just saying here is that one has to understand where Duterte comes from and learn to know and appreciate him, warts and all, for he is not the traditional or conventional leader that one expects him to be.

Duterte himself has admitted that he is not and can never be presidential in any manner, shape and form. Sadly, this is what his critics from the political circle and the women’s right advocacy groups expect him to act.

Well, what you see is what you get about Duterte and this is what makes him tick with the Filipino people.

But when some entity or group of people look at events beyond the context of having fun and connecting with the crowd by pure entertainment  as Duterte is used to doing when meeting with his countrymen abroad, then that is the time when problem arises.  It could even get worse, as it happened in South Korea, when malice is imputed.

Duterte is not a comedian but he uses his antics to make people laugh and identify himself with them and this is what endears him to the people.

This was a time for laughter and not for retribution, which Duterte is also wont to make.

This is exactly what happened when Duterte asked an unidentified audience member to kiss him in exchange for a book he was handing out.

Since when has kissing been ‘sickening’ and a ‘despicable display of sexism and grave abuse of authority’ when the recipient herself was forewarned not to take it seriously as it was just for fun, a gimmick in fact?

Ms. Kim was game enough and went along with Duterte’s strategy of entertaining his countrymen, saying later that the kiss did not mean anything and it was done to make the audience giddy.

So the question is: if the kiss on Ms. Kim’s lips did not scandalize her, why would it matter to a group of sanctimonious people?

 

Boy claps his way to Guinness World Records

 

I do not know if you have heard or saw this record breaking feat that Seven Wade, a 9-year-old boy from Florida, had done, but I find it interesting and admirable that I decided to share it with you.

Wade bested erstwhile hand-clapping record holder Eli Bishop by clapping his hands 1,080 times in one minute to Bishop’s 1,020.

The new record holder said he studied Bishop’s technique until he was confident he could surpass it.

Chikako Wade, the father, told Guinness World Records that his son was so driven to break the record he would regularly burst into random bouts of clapping at every moment he could.

Seven began rehearsing daily by timing himself against the microwave.

With the help of his father he gradually built his routine up of speed clapping to three times a day in longer intervals than his usual 15-20 seconds and would often have to take days off due to the blisters he’d develop.

“I think it was important for Seven to witness and understand that a lot of preparation and planning goes into something like this. It’s not enough to just be good at something,” the father said.

Mr. Wade says if other kids want to break a record they too should pick something rare and uncommon and “be ready to practice… a lot!”

Indeed, a worthy advice from a proud father!

Incredible reproduction of Van Gogh masterpieces

 

Painter Zhao Xiaoyong works on a copy of a self-portrait by Van Gogh.

I chanced upon an episode of Witness on the Aljazeera cable television and I was glued to my seat watching it, such that I decided to share it with you.

This short film by Haibo Yu and Kiki Tianqi Yu shows the incredible talent displayed by a family of painters and some friends in duplicating the famous works of art by renowned artists, which in this particular case were those of the Netherland’s famous son, Vincent van Gogh. The much talked about Chinese painter here is Zhao Xiaoyong.

While we are confronted with stories of fake news now-a-days, stories about fake paintings coming from all over, but especially from China, has been with us for a long time that it no longer surprises us.

What is amazingly surprising, however, is the prolificacy by which these fake paintings are being produced by poor, migrant people eking out a living in a crummy place.

Enjoy reading the short article and be amazingly entertained watching the video by clicking at this website: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2018/02/dreaming-vincent-china-copy-artists-180208090217935.html.

Eid al-Fitr and Trillanes’ continuing woe

First let me greet Happy Eid al-Fitr to the Muslims all over the world, but especially our brothers and sisters in Marawi City who are suffering the misfortune of having their tranquil lives outrageously disturbed and bedeviled by the Maute-ISIS militants.

Muslims are celebrating the Eid-al-Fitr religious holiday with prayers as they mark the end of Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, during which believers abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours.

It is my fervent hope and prayer that the Marawi siege will end soon with government helping rebuild the lives of people and in the forefront of reconstructing the damaged city.

On a much different note I cannot help but share with you this video that reflects nothing but the continuing woe of Sen. Antonio Trillanes.

Nobody, but nobody really wants to be in the shoes of Trillanes now. He made a big boo-boo of himself during the highly watched interview he had with BBC’s ‘Hard Talk’ host Stephen Sakur that it looks like he has become the butt of jokes already.

It Trillanes thinks that his predicament in the interview will come to pass as swiftly as it shamefully happened to him, he is wrong for this will forever remain a stigma on his persona that he should start kissing his political ambitions good-bye.

Good for him and enjoy this video!

 

Realities of the times and the humor of aging

 

Sharing these images with you for some laughter — and truth!

‘Balls’ of steel

 

That is what this gongfu (kung fu) master has literally – ‘balls’ of steel!

I thought man’s family jewels (testicles) were the weakest and fragile part of man’s body that would bring one to his knees with wrenching pain once it gets hit.

Every male, one time or another, must have experienced the excruciating pain felt following a direct hit! You can ask a boxer who has been at the receiving end of a low blow.

Until I saw this video I did not have the faintest idea that there was such a training that would turn this vulnerable part of man’s body into an unsusceptible ‘balls’ of steel or iron crotch.

Check this link out about Master Wei Yaobin and his followers and if you are a male person I am sure you will keep on grimacing at every blow that hits its mark!

But what i found painfully funny are the self-flagellations!

http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/move-over-ip-man-meet-iron-crotch-man

Cruelty of sun bears at the Bandung zoo

 

I do not know if you have read about or seen already the woeful condition and the pathetic sight of the sun bears found inside the Bandung zoo in Indonesia’s West Java province.

Am sure there are more miserable looking animals inside but the sun bear is singled out here in this video and link of an article that I am sharing perhaps because of its rarity.

The sun bear, which is considered the smallest of the bears, can only be found in tropical forest habitats of Southeast Asia, and has been classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because of its depleted suitable habitat caused by deforestation.

While it is bad that they are kept in the zoo for public display, it is even worse for their kind because they cannot do what they are suppose to do if they were in the wild, what with their long tongue 20–25 cm (7.9–9.8 in) to extract insects and honey and with their large paws and large sickle-shaped claws, which is believe to be an adaptation for climbing trees.

This video that I am sharing, which was taken by Indonesia-based Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, only shows how inadequate the funding perhaps to make the animals healthy and the facility to remain sustainable.

But what is even worse perhaps is the lack of trained personnel to run the zoo.

What a pitiable sight indeed.

For more on the subject you can also visit this link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/skeletal-sun-bears-indonesia-zoo_us_58819d50e4b0e3a735684c7f.