FUTURE SHOCK :

This is about Dr. David Gross' Lecture and granting of Honorary Degree, which kicked off the Centennial Lecture Series ( Mr. Nemenzo was the second one ).


Nobel Prize winner Dr. Gross has a lot of things to say and
they were all cool.

Among the highlights :

- everything boils down to Physics. Including Global Warming.

- his major Nobel Prize winning work dealt with the theory of Quantum Chromodynamics. It has butressed the Standard Model (SM) essentially describes (and has been experimentally verified a number of times over) the 3 out of the 4 fundamental interactions between elementary particles which makes all matter, including ourselves. Whatever that was.

- Intelligent Design simply just means that life was created by a supernatural entity. Which is the recourse thought of religious fundamentalists, by the way.


- 50-100 years from now, human lifespan will not only double, but stand 10 times longer.

- 1,000 years from now , we would be conquering galaxies.

Our own scientists ( such as College of Science Dean Dr. Cesar Salome ) meanwhile believe that a National Science Complex is more important than our sovereignty.

Maybe in the future, we'll get to take our cake and eat it too.

Opening ;

It was alright.
Nothing like a perfectly realized accomplishment, or a series of them coming into the fore. Nothing like a good cliched statement, either, eh ?

Anyways, there is us, the Film Committee. Personally, I liked how it turned out our way. It has rather impeccably integrated and adapted the elegance ( yet stoic ) UKM presentation and fused it with a Filipino flair all its own, showing in pure evocative visual what we truly are all about, or must be. Glad to see the insistence for an organic and relevant sense of pathos in the work come into the output, and in a way that could be understood in a primal level. Basically, it worked. And I think a lot of people agreed.

My personal regret was that I wasn't able to show the DVD output copy I made, the video of which I processed through the Cyberlink software I'm beginning to love more often. For everybody's information, it is a filmmaking tool I've been toying around for sometime now which gives works funneled through there a higher sheen in a near 24 frames per second rate. Meaning it can elevate works to a look of film, and stay that way. I did the output under the assumption that our stuff will be presented on a TV and on a DVD player, but no complaints here at all. But people ought to have seen it. Stuff looks like a commercial from the '90s.....













Special regards to Athena for handling the editing chores and Bea for the pics.

" Four Walls of the Classroom " and several years ago .....

Here's the thing. I have heard of former UP President Francisco Nemenzo before. In fact , I knew him quite well. Talks in several volumes, eats a heartily breakfast, some such. Not that this guy is unknown in public circles, anyways. Much has been said about him in the news of late.

Trillanes ROCKS, by the way. The Magdalo should have shot down the Malacanang Palace back in 2003. Plus, the Nov. 29, 2007 standoff is something I'd wholeheartedly would have wanted to snowball rather well, if it ever went anywhere. Preferably, blood-splattered. Arrogant, rock-and-roll apathetic pricks would come up with the word ' abberation ' in their minds and usually point to this as an example. Nope, THEY are. Lie down with that knowledge, and stop blaming this on the activists again, instead of YOUR BULLSHIT TOLERANCE. Bet that wouldn't affect your daily opium dose of ' bar hopping gimmick ', huh, sucker ?

Just have to lay that all out there immediately before going completely off-tangent.

First, and perhaps the only time, I ever got to talk to our former UP President , it was for our Field Class. It had to do with an assignment on hand in which our group were seeking out a bunch of people for their one-two opinions regarding activism in the campus. He did say a lot of things pretty interesting in that respect, such as the predominance of evil Catholic forces in our student body at one time ( and perhaps their clandestine upwelling into the territory of late, leaking from the drainage in the form of the CBCP ). And so forth. Fears were also raised about the plunderous multinational hordes pushing their actions one step worse here and actually about to employ THEIR own workers from THEIR own country into our own shores, and the illegitimate politicos up there straddling towards finally making that a possibility in 2009. Just so you know. This , to him, will be the dealbreaker which will make activism rise within our walls once more. Obviously, NBN-ZTE is not much prescient back then.

But of all things said ( and sadly, such parts didn't make it on the camera, since this was a chat ) , one was the most pertinent. He has admitted to supporting the TOFI. In principle. He simply could not sit down and let some guy whose father owns an entire upper floor of ' Robinson's Mall ' paying a mere P 300 per unit sum. This is what he thinks is ' Marxism'.

I did not get the opportunity to rebut that , but to this, I will have to definitely say one thing only : like it's anyone's damn bussiness.

These facts have been repeated ad nauseaum, to the point that it is increasingly becoming a mantra to a lot of folks - which is primarily due to the fact that they WON'T listen ( rather like shouting at your fellow housemates to ' Go down the goddamn stairs ' , so much that in repetition it becomes noise. The tragic thing which is it being singularly taken more often as such ) , but University of the Philippines, like others of similar infrastructural nature , is a STATE UNIVERSITY. It is brought up, funded for, and sustained by the government, through taxes paid for by the public, and not just their own damn pockets. I think we should take note of such matters when squarely looking at this issue. People, should at least know who exactly to thank, or pau gratitudes towards, let alone serve. Meaning, it's a public property set there for a reason : to provide education for everybody else, into uplifting their lot beyond better labor quality. To build industries with and not subordinate such things. To serve the people and not be service industry fodder. You do NOT keep a public property from people because of their economic disposition; equal access and all that. And you do NOT demand payment from something they have ALREADY paid for; most especially for something where they do not even get to benefit, but could not even enter. The deal has always been about bashing impeding inequality and NOT punishing the rich of your damn fiction. Like the TOFI punished the rich. Because,from what I see now, with this scheme that these putrid eggheads have unilaterally, and disgracefully shoved down our throats, seems its only the people that have top floors of posh buildings all to themselves who are capable of enrolling.

Now, he's at it here again, talking even more volumes about how we ought to expound beyond the four walls of the classroom, and smash the fascist Arroyo regime, redeem ourselves and build a better nation, and how democracy has constantly failed to succeed at this. Pretty compelling panderings, but sorry , pal. You cannot create anything substantial out of this rot with a deprived flock of masses who could not even right or read, or get a diploma to work; and are made even worse off now in such regard. How can you expand beyond the four walls of the classroom when there isn't any classroom to begin with ?


In fairness to the man, he did say he was only considering it at the time, simply because he didn't have any guts to do it. An independent study he has commissioned saw that there was exactly no way this can be promulgated WITHOUT damaging the middle class. It was only Roman who had one. People like Emeldita Roman should not be congratulated in the least , especially for a policy that tricked down from this administration.


_____

Now when is someone going to shoot the President ?

NEW SIN :

From : http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7010282589


------
March 10, 2008 5:14 a.m. EST


Isabelle Duerme - AHN News Writer :
" Vatican City (AHN) - In an attempt to give moral and ethical behavior more significance to current times, the Vatican has recently announced seven new deadly sins, published in an issue of the L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper.

The revision of the list comes after 1,500 years, with Vatican officials explaining that the new items address a global "secular" society bent on the concerns in the age of globalization. The sins are said to be an address to the "decreasing sense of sin" in the modern world....

Mgr Girotti named the new mortal sins to be (1)genetic modification; (2) human experimentations, (3) polluting the environment; (4) social injustice; (5) causing poverty; (6) financial gluttony; and (7) taking drugs. "

......

Social Injustice :




Causing Poverty :



___

PROTEST @ 100 ( Jan. 2008 ):

I'm very much aware that this wasn't a particularly sanctioned activity by the evil UP Administration, but since I have just begun in here, might as well go straight for the jugular. The protest action was, indeed, an impromptu, a trickle of the moment, and quite a spur. But at least it was an expression of disgust. Good stuff and a significant omen of things that which was to come. Shall we ?

<>

The first days I got spurned out back to the damn scholastic beat, I got into bussiness early. Not that this was much of a something. I HAVE been on the internet. That method of social awareness can be but hampered by the DSL, which like anger, is quite a gift. Some outdoors afterwards from here was just about nice.

Moral irregularities grabbed my attention, going to class. Not that such a thing is quite a ' jump the shark ' like it used to, given these laughably institutionalized apathetic times of late ( the great philosophers of yore should have probably been spitting on us from their graves now ). But this one is just, shall we say, ' the Peak ' of it; like, you stumble across a terrible snag like this, you can never turn your eyes away. just. Something that have to do with Spiderman, a superhero, beloved by kids, making a deal with the Devil, with Evil itself in the comics, and the Marvel company condoning that . Literally. The Editor - In - Chief, was in fact the one who commited the dismal thing on paper; as the ' artist ' he alleges himself to be. Specific score was this : the poor loser was recently gloating about in a painful personal crisis. His infamous Aunt May apparently got shot by a hired gun after he pissed all over the government for a reason. Now she is lying critically near dead, pitilessly so in the CPU plug. Whipping-lad face couldn't deal with the happenings rather well. So, in a pathetically contrived fashion, a petite , chirpy young lass suddenly came prancing by . She is, in fact, Mephisto, the Lord Demon himself; reverting back to his corporeal form quick to get the hamfisted point across. The iconic bastard then puts him in a wringer with an ultimatum : namely, he will grant him his Aunt back well and good, in exchange, of all things, for his marriage. Meaning it shall never exist in any reality . Peter Parker ( aka. him ) was married to caring, bombastically beautiful Mary Jane at the time. He agrees to it. Yep, awful.

The Editor-In-Chief even got the gall to later defend this ' character development ' in the media. He couldn't make the realistic superhero go through a ' divorce ' or an ' annulment ' ? That would certainly piss off the parents. Divorce, and/or annulment, after all immoral things, & it may just upset kiddie minds. Making him deal with a living symbol of evil in their book - and a recognized one at that, by them no less - solves that problem. America being America, namely the WORLD, this just pretty much says a lot about the predominant moral mindset nowadays, doesn't it : actions would not be bad or wrong because of their inherent nature, taken from a vacuum, but on principle of sanction . It is thus perfectly okay to shake hands with Satan itself to protect preestablished morals - & whoever it preferred first. Something that our hypocritical local prelates ( I call then Padre Damaso, then split their heads in halves ), have been up with of late : sealing the country's eminent destruction at the hands of a Falangist few because it puts their doctrine in charge. Like that neo-liberal cabal of the premier state university messing with us of late .....


I was further talking about these things with a few people in a CAl org tambayan, when a few fellow tibaks people arrived. A symbolic protest gesture by STAND-UP is about to be performed at the Sunken Garden in a few hours; preempting the Jan. 8 Centennial celebrations kick-off . This is , of course against the increased commercialization of education and that goddamned helipad ! Might as well.

What we have done was more or less people etching a veritable ' 100 ' across the storied grassy knoll with their prescience, flashing signs of anger and stance against state abandonment held up in printed pieces of bond paper.

It was fine, in fact. There are no ' dealings with the devil ' here.

Torching The Campus ( Jan. 8 , 2008 Centennial Open ) :

You people see that demonstration below ?



That was what I was up to at the time. It's my idea of a centennial celebration and my idea of a parade. It's not your issue or anybody's, except the fact. It's how I went by dealing with what was, it seems, an ill-timed, unwisely spent, rather mean spirited commemoration of a premier state institution that used to mean more than exhorbitant overpricing of a public property and other than ' It's Great '. Least something that wouldn't have sat idly by and passively put up with that horrible, mono-conformist theme song without seats being broken down, or tires smoking up in flames. Dear God, why oh why have we come down with such an impasse ?!?!?

More on the ' mean-spirited ' later....






I was actually with a bunch of pips few hours earlier. In the Vargas Museum Coffee Shop that need not be explained to be exact. Prior to this,I think I was purposefully ignoring the whole damn festivities going on around me , & yet couldn't prevent myself from passing through it. Saw the Rayadillo batch spurting out from nowhere on that road near the CASAA and to the right of me ( from where I was going, entering inside the AS through the walkway ) , and then some folks who I do not know coming in from the other side. It felt rather crazy to me. I wouldn't say more. Anyway's I was, like , out; until these pals provided a conversation amidst stomachs full in bursting from the Mongolian Rice Bowl meal.

People present were this fellow UP Grail member, who was, like me, set to graduate this year of the centennial, and a certain person named Mr. Ernest Caliwag. Amidst the pleasantries and such, and sitting through these, we were talking some about globalization and post-modernism, and how there is not much real ' right and wrong ' in the world anymore, since there are no grand theories now, what with everything dismantled by the savant free market. Hubris and a joke of course, and I more than made sure that I spat that message out. Frankly, it was nothing much.

Then , the streaming of folks from the opposite side from where we were sitting , the road facing the Vargas Museum, was becoming so many, it cannot be ignored. So many were coming in from everywhere. I just shut my piehole there, and went like not looking. Until the Los Banos contingent arrived. All of which were chanting ' No to Tofi ' or something like so in unison. I'm sold. How far is this gesture gonna be stuck up the pompous asses of the wretcheds who dared bypass us, I wonder. The moderate onslaught of the Stand-Up folks made me stop just wondering. Immediately , I gave my regards to these people I was with and bid farewell.

< Hopefully, this should not go overboard into a full blown novella now. I've been restraining myself a bit >



Now for the ' mean-spirited ' part. Oh there's definitely a lot of that.
Did you all the timing ? None of you ever stopped and wondered why this wasn't a specifically friendly schedule for students and faculty and such ? Like on a FRIDAY perhaps, or a Saturday, like it's always done. The fireworks were nice, wasn't it. How many more classrooms, or potential computers did this gimmick butcher & saw go into the ashes along with it - then make us all foot the bill again, after our society has already paid for it with its damned taxes ? These were the things going on in my mind marching in that contingent with a bunch of people who at least knew what's what as well and weren't afraid on spilling the beans.

Then , the jeers arrived. Some were being murmurred about, other things were being spat in our faces. In particular, a pack of nosy, obnoxious piece of stains even deliberately tresspassed and crossed our path, & threw out some misguided epithets before walking out further in denying everything. Strange, right ?

UP looked a lot like that on this day. Its as if activism never existed here.
Its as if this much esteemed institution is not a rightfully state-funded institution, invested by our race, our people, our nation to produce academicians and social makers that will respond to its plight and do something about it, but a temple that people built for no significant reason, demanding tribute.

Oh, so THAT is the deal NOW, huh ? Sorry, I NEVER noticed.

< From what I heard in other parts, there is yet another arrogant petty-bourgeouise prick who threatened with force a group of similar activist, for nearly raising something like a ' makibaka, huwag matakot ' sign. They raised it anyways. >

Meanwhile the presentation goes on in a jiffy. The highlight of the whole damn deal was the torch-bearing ceremonies. 100 people of various dispositions , alumni and UP people all, were to be called one by one onto a podium; after which they were to put their respective lit torches to a bonfire and make the ember shine real bright. The first, from what I can remember, is someone who is miraculously 100 years old, or least near that mark; his distinction largely being the fact that he still lives and breathes. So he went in and did so. Others simply took on and followed suit.

It is not much of a surprise that the last one to put the torch down is the current UP President.

Watch it burn.