AfterShock21

My Life My Words: Lessons learnt… Make for better stories

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:25:58 +0800

My Life My Words: Lessons learnt… Make for better stories:

So I have been back from Vegas since Friday and have been in a post vacation haze. A bubble if you will. Things haven’t been the same since I got back.

· Things taste different

· Things look different

· My perspective is different

Call it what you will but the bubble that I…

endlessme: My father told me this weekend that he has decided...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:34:39 +0800

Fintray, Scotland, 1969

Dumfries, Scotland, 1970

Fintray, Scotland, 1970

Aberdeen, Scotland, 1973

Aberdeen, Scotland, 1975

Aberdeen, Scotland, 1975

Calgary, Alberta, 1994

Mission, British Columbia, 2011

endlessme:

My father told me this weekend that he has decided to retire from racing. Here are some photos from 1969 to 2011 - the last photo shows him winning his final race at the age of 70.

haha honep nagsawa na si batman!! lol rotf

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:38:48 +0800

haha honep nagsawa na si batman!! lol rotf

Directed by Dillon Novak, Montauk Media *Fall Colorado Short...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:31:00 +0800

Directed by Dillon Novak, Montauk Media
*Fall Colorado Short Circuit Official Selection*
www.Montaukfilm.com.
“She Said” Performed by Everfound off of their latest album, Colorful Alibis and Scandalous Smiles
http://www.myspace.com/everfound

really love this song! :)

SHE SAID

I Close my eyes, truth is beautiful
So are lies falling from sweet lips
A thin disguise pulled me onto thinner ice
And I fell in

She said this will last forever
My love is the answer
She had me, she had me hanging
She said truth is what you make it
And everyone fakes it
Such a smooth and charming lie

Now I see past her fooling smile
Knew she’d leave, yet gave her everything
Please erase me from this memory
What was I thinking, woah?
Oh, what was I thinking woah?
Oh, what was I thinking woah?

She said this will last forever
My love is the answer
She had me, she had me hanging
She said truth is what you make it
And everyone fakes it
Such a smooth and charming

She said we’re going to the top
And I believed her
While everything I ever dreamed
Was going under
She said we’re going to the top
Oh, she said we’re going to the top

She said we’re going to the top
And I believed her
While everything I ever dreamed
Was going under
She said we’re going to the top
Oh, she said we’re going to the top

She said this will last forever
My love is the answer
She had me, she had me hanging
She said truth is what you make it
And everybody fakes it
Your such a, your such a lie

Your such a lie
Your such a lie

julienfoulatier: Painting by Richard Anuszkiewicz.

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:27:58 +0800

julienfoulatier:

Painting by Richard Anuszkiewicz.

cycnus: Pakayla Biehn

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:27:41 +0800

cycnus:

Pakayla Biehn

cycnus: Pakayla Biehn

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:27:35 +0800

cycnus:

Pakayla Biehn

Photo

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:27:24 +0800

daknee: Renata Brzozowska

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:27:13 +0800

daknee:

Renata Brzozowska

nickelcobalt: An Afternoon at Rose & Born !!!

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:24:12 +0800

nickelcobalt:

An Afternoon at Rose & Born

!!!

urbanemenswear: Leather backpack by A Kind of Guise fall/2011

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:23:59 +0800

urbanemenswear:

Leather backpack by A Kind of Guise fall/2011

Photo

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:23:20 +0800

ffffffound: On Display

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:22:56 +0800

ffffffound:

On Display

Photo

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:22:38 +0800

pelikula: Pelikula Q&A: Six Degrees of Separation from...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:21:00 +0800

pelikula:

Pelikula Q&A: Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay
An interview with director Tonette Jadaone by Jansen Musico

This is your first full-length film after doing a lot shorts, which do you prefer more?

Short films are my first love. I have short attention span, so short films really work for me. Sobrang komportable ako sa paggawa ng short films. I don’t need to consult people kung tama ba yung ginagawa ko, kung nakuha ba yung gusto kong sabihin. That’s why although I was excited to do my first full-length film, sobrang takot na takot din ako. Kasi ang laki ng hinaba ng 90-minute full-length film sa mga 3-min shorts ko. So may 90 minutes ako para magkamali. Pero may 90 minutes din ako para may magawang maganda.

Among all the extras in Philippine Cinema, why pick Lilia Cuntapay? What makes her such a good subject?

Kasi si Lilia Cuntapay yung extrang sikat na walang screen name. Nonong de Andres has “Bangkay” as screen name. We have Mahal, Mura, Dagul, pero si Lilia, wala. Ang screen name nya, kailangan mo siyang i-describe: “yung matandang babae na laging white lady o aswang sa mga horror.” Ang haba! That makes her different from all the other extras. Sikat siya, pero wala siyang pangalan.

How did you convince Lilia to do the project?

Binuo ko muna yung concept bago ko siya nilapitan. So kung hindi siya pumayag, wala akong pelikula. Eh pumayag. She loved the concept. Ang request lang nya, “Direk, basta wag nyo ipapagupit ang buhok ko ha.”

How was it working with her?

Isa siyang karakter. Medyo naninibago nung una si Nanay Lilia. Kasi naman, bilang extra dati, nasanay siya na 3 sequences lang siya per taping day. Eh dahil bida siya rito, syempre naroon siya sa bawat eksena. Eh bilang 75-years-old na si Nanay Lilia, pagpatak ng alas-sais ng gabi, parang hindi na kaya ng katawan nya. The spirit is willing, but the body is pagod na. Pero ide-deny nya. Hindi niya sasabihing pagod na siya.

“Nanay, pagod ka na? Pahinga muna tayo.”

“Ay hindi direk, kayang-kaya ko pa. Take na tayo.”

Pero yung mata nya, papikit na. Pero dahil lagi kaming magkasama, nahanap namin ang solusyon para bumalik ang energy nya kapag alas-diyes na ng gabi: gatas at Fudgee Barr.

Was Lilia able to see the final cut before it screened?

Just the first 15 minutes, when we accidentally played the DVD of the rough cut during the shoot and she was there. Nakatutok lang siya sa TV. Which is a good thing, kasi sabi niya sa amin, “Direk, hindi ako nanonood ng mga project ko eh.” Buti naman pinanood niya ‘to.

The trailer sets it up as a comedy. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?

Let’s just say, it’s a different kind of comedy.

This film has a lot of cameos…

Surprise na lang yung cameos. Pero definitely, hindi namin nakuha si Claire Danes. Busy raw siya. (Lilia’s worked with her in Brokedown Palace.)

Do you think there’s still life for Lilia outside of being the punch line in comedies or the scary old lady in horror flicks?

There’s life for Lilia outside the horror genre definitely. She’s played a lot of non-horror roles actually. But I don’t think she’ll be believable playing the bida. As Direk Peque Gallaga put it, the industry has put Lilia in a box. Her looks and history limit her roles. She definitely won’t be cast as a lawyer or a mayamang kabigan ng bida. It’s like a curse. Just like how why we didn’t see FPJ playing a coward, or Robin Padilla not winning a fight.

What has working with Lilia taught you?

Yung ibang extra, trabaho lang ang pag-eextra. Pagkatapos ng shooting, tapos na rin sila sa pag-extra. Yung iba, trip lang, gusto lang makita sa TV. Pero may ibang extra na may pangarap. Si Lilia Cuntapay, ganoon.

pinoytumblr: Choose a station, watch a gig, take a stand, and...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:20:43 +0800

pinoytumblr:

Choose a station, watch a gig, take a stand, and rock and roll! Here’s the line-up of Rock the Riles, Rock Ed Philippines’ 7th annual celebration of Int’l Human Rights Day!

Note: More performers to come! Add Rock Ed on Facebook for updates!

Shaw Station

Paolo Santos, Silent Sanctuary, Peryodiko, Duster, Kala, Gracenote, Kai Honasan, and Playphonics — Rocking for Education

Cubao Station

Noel Cabangon, Paramita, Hijo, Hilera, Turbo Goth, Camerawalls, FMD, Top Junk, Chongkeys, Ganhava, Alex in Wonderland, Miko Pepito, Faintlights, Allecia, Nityalila, OG Sacred, Midsummer, LTNS, and Toyo. Presented by Dakila — Rocking for Global Trade and Development

Ayala Station

Radioactive Sago Project, UpDharmaDownm Encounters With A Yeti, Musical O, Sleepwalk Circus, Hidden Nikki, The Charmes, Not Another Boy Band, Dr.Strangeluv, and Acasha. Presented by Terno Recordings — Rocking for the Environment

Taft Station

Tanya Markova, Giniling Festival, Stonefree, Soapdish, Above Zero, Wika, Heavy Heavies, Hatankaru, AJKA, Soundvent, Eevee, Letter Day Story, Kaligta, Kilos, Circa, Not So Fast, Philia, and Ciudad Tribu — Rocking versus Hunger

Boni Station

Flippin’ Soul Stompers, Collie Herb, Good Leaf, Tarsius, The Go Signals, Fingertrap, Jeepney Joyride, The Strangeness, Nanay Mo, Tirso Cruise Three, FilterKeen, Kevin’s Express, and Big Band Groove — Rocking for Gender Equality

Quezon Avenue Station

CinemAlexis Film Showing — Rocking for Maternal Health

Buendia Station

Intolerant, Reklamo, Bad Burn, Odat, Trapeze, Penguin, Pull It Surprise, Sirens, Save Me Hollywood, Jejaview, Htachbanko, Around the Metro, Lady Ransom, Jensen Gomez, Archievals, Harlequin Carnival, and Sleep — Rocking versus HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Preventable Diseases

North Avenue Station

Mayonnaise, Tonight We Sleep, Hansom, Subscapular, Sirens, Chris Cantanda, Shoulder State, Lights in Transit, Arcadia, PileDriver, Wilderness, and Twin Lobster. Presented by Mary Moon Productions — Rocking for Children’s Health

kamalayankonsciousness: OFWs, Happiness, and Coke . [Or Why...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:58:53 +0800

kamalayankonsciousness:

OFWs, Happiness, and Coke . [Or Why a Coca-Cola Advert is Short Circuiting My Brain]

Let’s get the obvious over with: This is a FANTASTIC advertisement. It has a strong emotional pull, high production values, and connects the product to family, struggle, and how hardship can be overcome by the simple things, like a Coca-Cola.

Well done Coke. [insert ironic soft clap here]

I hate this ad. I hate it with a passion. And it seems from a casual viewing of the comments related to this viral video, that I am somehow virtually alone in thinking this.

In the ad, Coke sends a handful of overseas foreign workers (OFWs) back to the Phils to reconnect with their families. Its central message seems to be: Coke cares about the plight of OFWs.

And there for me is the disconnect.

While I appreciate this piece of propaganda for what it is I know that in reality, instead of helping OFWs, Coca-Cola is actually part of the problem. Like other multinational capitalistic ventures in the Philippines its policies are actually facilitating poverty and migration—in other words, Coke helps create the OFW phenomenon and therefore the ad is an insult.

Moreover, I know that most viewers also know this to be true. They may not know the specific details, but they know that multinationals have NOT been good for the majority of the people in the global south, including in the Philippines—so why all the love for the ad?

I want to explore this.

Coca-Cola has had a long history in the Philippines (RP), its primary economic connection is tied to the Philippine sugar industry. Coke bought Philippine sugar, and so indirectly supported the sugar haciendas that ‘employed’ Filipino peasant farmers.

Philippine sugar was one of the main reasons for the American invasion in 1899. President McKinley was backed by The Sugar Trust, the 6th largest US corporation which controlled 98% of the sugar refining interests. The RP economy was set up to supply American sugar needs with ‘locally’ produced sugar. Before WWII sugar made up 60% of the value of all Philippine exports.

At that time the industry supported over one million jobs (RP population in 1939, 16 million). Today that number is at best around the 500,000 mark (population today, over 94mil).

The industry has been in decline since “independence,” intensifying in the 1960s with the development of the corn syrup (sugar still made up about 20% of RP exports). The big crash began in the 1980s when Coke switched from sugar to corn syrup in its US product (sugar down to 7% of RP exports), and it’s getting worse: just this past summer the RP sugar industry proposed a boycott of Coke for bypassing the Philippine sugar market all together.

“As you may know, our province is very well-known as the sugar bowl of the Philippines and is very dependent on sugar industry…and recently, government agencies have found out that Coca-Cola has been deceiving them by importing millions of kilos of sugar… intentionally labeled as pre-mix sugar by coca-cola to escape from sugar tariff. This has been the cause why the sugar economy has been going down and definitely this will kill not only the planters and sugar workers, but the whole province as well…” [29 May 2011, Batang Negros]

The fall of the sugar industry alone (an industry created by the Americans to serve them and then simply abandoned when it was no longer useful) has resulted in very clear economic losses for the Philippines and its people.

Look again at that timeline.

The sugar industry began to fall apart in the 60s and intensified in the 80s to near collapse today. What else happened in that period?

Those were also the decades that gave birth to the RP government’s unofficial Labour Export Policy, a system that went into full gear in the 80s as a way to prop up the government’s budget deficits. A country that was set up to be an exporter of raw goods was financially desperate, so they became an exporter of people. In 1984 around 350,000 OFWs left the country. By 2006 over 1 million became migrant workers.

To me, this alone should be enough reason for the Filipino people to have negative feelings towards Coca-Cola and American economic policies.

But that isn’t the only ill brought upon us by the cola company. Coke has also been bottled in the country since 1912, and their presence has done nothing to improve the lives of everyday people. The company is renowned across the global south as notorious for poor work conditions, and union busting to the point of using terror tactics to quiet unruly workers trying to organize*. Just ask Ghay Portajada, who has been without her father Armando (who was president of the Coke worker’s union) since 1987 when he was abducted and never seen again.

*for more information on Coke’s global human rights violations: http://killercoke.org/

It is a combination of these factors that leads to today’s 4000 OFWs leaving the Philippines everyday:

The US came to the Philippines to create a cheap supply of raw materials and labour. By supporting and enlarging the hacienda system (which is a semi-feudal system of landlord and serfs) the US created a economy dependent on cheap exports. This unequal political and economic system also requires large scale poverty. ”Requires,” because poverty is necessary in order for a feudal system, and for cheap labour, to exist [clearly no one would choose to be a landless peasant farmer if there were better options].

Widespread poverty also helps to drive down the cost of labour for factories (like Coke’s). Violent union busting also helps to keep costs low. This violence is permissible (and necessary) because both the companies and the landowning elite who happen to also be the political class share similar interests. Should the companies be inconvenienced then the elites lose the source of their money and power.

So with all this being clear, the question that remains is ‘why?’

Why do people (including OFWs themselves) love this advertisement so much? Why does the clearly negative effect of Coca-Cola not translate, and instead they attribute a positive feeling to the ad and the product?

For this we will have to step back and examine the nature of modern advertising.

Think back to how ads looked in the early 20th century. Back then it was obvious. There were companies, there were consumers, and the companies had products that they wanted the people to purchase. So ads advertised the virtues of the product: its price, its value, its usefulness.

Coke began with advertising its health value (it was originally marketed as a medicine), then it advertised its taste and price point, and eventually this morphed into its advertising a lifestyle, a culture. The product became detached from what was marketed.

Why?

It all began with a man named Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew. He saw great value in his uncles studies into human psychology; he saw its value applied to wartime propaganda, and he rightly realized that it could be used in peacetime—for the benefit of corporations.

It was a time of great unrest. People were calling for greater fairness and social equity. Unions were mobilizing strong opposition to the status quo, and there was a need from the elites for a method to control the restless lower classes resulting from the industrial revolution.

Here is a clip from the excellent documentary ”The Century Of The Self” in it they explore Bernays immeasurable contribution to capitalist propaganda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0OrT-8gXMs

Bernays was the man with the answer. He knew that through use of Freud’s theories you could manipulate thought, that it was possible to switch needs with desires in the minds of the people.

Out of this would come the political idea of how to control the masses: satisfying inner selfish desires made people happy and thus docile.

That thought has been central to this, and to be honest, most Coke commercials in the Philippines. Watch in these commercials how Coke links its product to hope, community, and charity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ourx95ng5uk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiu9PcEyQ5Y

In these ads Coke is giving and kind, just like the Filipino people. And yet the reality is vastly different. But we watch these ads and we feel good, we feel hope, and we attribute it (subconsciously, if not outright) to Coca-Cola.

On the surface the Coke OFW ad is a feel good tear jerker, dig deeper and it’s an insult to reality, to the people, and the people and organizations that actually do care about the plight of OFWs. In the end we feel good, but we are demoralized, and we are belittled.

If we are to look at this ad and honestly hear its message it would be: Coke cares enough about what you think of them that they mimed concern for OFWs—because either you, or at least someone you know is an OFW. And if we think Coke cares, then we will forgive them, or at the very least, maybe we’ll forget their complicity and just go with it, because everyone else is. And for OFWs it’s worse, because who knows better than an OFW how horrible it is to be separated from everyone you love?

All the while the reality of the company is bitter and dark.

So as I wrote to open this, “I hate this ad. I hate it with a passion.” It’s not because the ad isn’t good, I admit it is very well done. It’s because the reality of this ad, this company, and capitalist system that it serves works against the very thing it’s advertising: decency, justice, and the dignity of people.

Modern ads make us forget our true needs and replaces it with the feel good emptiness. So I ask you all now: what truly are your needs? What truly are your desires? And does this ad, does this world system in which we live, give you any hope of reaching them?

For example, the real desires of most OFWs is NOT to be reunited with the homeland, with their families—it’s that they didn’t have to leave in the first place.

We need to see that Coke and the system it represents is part of the problem: it helped expand and solidify the hacienda system and the powerful elite class that results from this semi-feudal system. It supports the top down relationship with Western powers, taking away Philippine sovereignty through semi-colonialism/imperialism.

There are people and organizations out there that truly care about the people. You yourself may be one of those people. They took your desires and appropriated them for themselves. See it for what it is: as yet one more insult to add to a long list.

alex felipe

BAYAN-Toronto spokesperson

*BAYAN (Bagong Alyansang Makabayan) is an anti-imperialist, multi-sectoral alliance struggling for true democracy and sovereignty in the Philippines.
**alex co-hosts Radyo Migrante, a weekly radio program about Philippine issues on CHRY 105.5fm in Toronto [SUNDAYS, 9pm EST]. You can also listen around the world via the web: www.chry.fm

***email: byncan.to@gmail.com

scipsy: Low power scanning electron microscope image, showing...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:58:44 +0800

scipsy:

Low power scanning electron microscope image, showing osteoporotic architecture in the fourth lumbar vertebra of an 89 year old woman (x20). The bone is heavily eroded in places by the action of osteoclasts and consists mainly of thin, fragile struts. (via Bone Research Society)

robotcosmonaut: Untitled

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 18:58:35 +0800

robotcosmonaut:

Untitled

Psalm 22:1-5 My God, my God, why have you deserted me? Why are you so far away? Won’t you...

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:04:56 +0800

Psalm 22:1-5 My God, my God, why have you deserted me? Why are you so far away? Won’t you listen to my groans and come to my rescue? I cry out day and night, but you don’t answer, and I can never rest. Yet you are the holy God, ruling from your throne and praised by Israel. Our ancestors trusted you, and you rescued them. When they cried out for help, you saved them, and you did not let them down when they depended on you. (CEV)