Binibing Paniqui 2011: Keeping Love Real

Image by ~MVI~ via FlickrThe city of Paniqui, Tarlac is beautiful in a way that only provincial cities are beautiful. Everything is but a street away. The ice cream parlor where I feasted on a generous meal of thick, sliced crispy fries for only Php 25 is but a street away. The night bazaar where I slaked my thirst on a mango shake fortified with milk for only Php 10 is but a street away. The auditorium where the Binibining Paniqui 2011 pageant will be held is but a street away.

The city of Paniqui, Tarlac is beautiful in a way that only provincial cities are beautiful. You cross the street and you fall in love. There are two schools of thought on preserving the charms of small-town life. You can wrap it in plastic and try to keep things just the way they are. Or you can let the town grow, but carefully, mindful of the pains that growth can bring.

The Binibing Paniqui pageant represents the best of Paniqui. When you meet the candidates, you don't only marvel at the sight of their natural, Filipina beauty. You marvel at the way they see themselves. They want to show that it is important to be beautiful inside and out. The candidates are beautiful in a way that few pageant candidates are beautiful nowadays. They are lovely to look at, but they are even lovelier when they start to talk. You cross their path, and you fall in love.

I came here to give a talk on how strong Filipina women should make the decision to be free, and how that decision also involves being chaste. But, as all fruitful encounters are wont to go, I ended up learning how many Filipinas have already made the decision to take responsibility for their freedom. I ended up learning that many of the candidates already demand that they love and be loved in a manner that respects their vibrant femininity and their desire for a healthy family.

I came here to tell them that it is important to be "safe", but that it is more important to make good decisions in love and life. A condom might safeguard one's burgeoning exploration of intimacy, but that's only so far as sex goes. What about an even more vital organ? What about the heart? There is no condom for the heart. 


But the candidates, even though they could not articulate it before our discussion, already knew that. They already see themselves as more than just "beauty and brains". They see themselves as something precious, and undeniably loving. They see themselves as women of worth and character, who love and are loved in return.

You can wrap it up in plastic, or you can take care of it. In Paniqui, Tarlac, they've chosen to take care of it. It's a beautiful place. You cross the street, and you fall in love. 


Acknowledgements:


Many thanks to Anna Varona-Rivilla and Mayor Miguel "Dors" C. Rivilla. I can't wait to bring the Sweetness and the Sweetlings over one of these days. Mabuhay! 

Youth Lens: Responsible use of Facebook?

It's interesting how social networking sites have made so much smaller for all of us. While I can't exactly remember when I got my Friendster account, I remember the wild abandon with which I added several hundred of my closest friends whose email I could recall. Needless to say, I stopped using my Friendster account soon after.

While the most recent incarnation of social networking sites have become much more sophisticated in terms of allowing the user to filter the information he or she is willing to share with the people they are friends with, it seems people are still adding "friends" with as much recklessness and wild abandon as my younger, thinner self. We read in The 12 Most Annoying Facebookers:

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies -- you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway -- might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 "friends?" Unless you're George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That's just showing off.

One of the reasons why I blog, other than to host friendly disputes on the RH Bill, is to share some of the cooler things that have come my way. One of the reasons why I leave the comfortable little nest that I blog from is to share how using blogs and social networking sites can help promote legitimately enlightening, non-threatening, and reasonable discussion on important issues.

I will be giving a talk tomorrow on the 4th Youth Lens Forum at University of Asia and the Pacific. This year's theme is "Getting (Dis)Connected: Youth Engagement in Social Network Sites." Talks begin at 9 am and will continue into the afternoon. For more information, please call 634-2828 and ask for Dr. Maria Riza L. Bondal (rbondal@uap.edu.ph).

Enjoy!

I AM STRONG: Bukidnon!

Malaybalay City, Bukidnon is one of the most pleasant cities I've ever been to in the many occasions I have been called to serve on I AM STRONG. The entire trip, perhaps due to the accessibility of the Monastery of the Transfiguration, was blessed by cool weather, warm smiles and wide, generous hearts. And yet Memory is a peculiar muse. She is almost wanton in the experiences that she allows hapless mortals to look back on with fondness. To wit:

1. It was on this trip that I discovered that Nikko Fortades, IEP student, is something of a wacky pose wunderkind. His youthful exuberance and creativity, as well as his masterful poise and execution, allow him to seamlessly pose for "wacky" pictures at the drop of the hat. It's not just a skill, Nikko. It's a gift!
2. Vina Arenal, on the other hand, has just one "wacky" pose. She bends, with studied grace, with just the slightest bob of the head, to the right. It takes talent to willfully suppress the "wacky" poses that I know are in you Vina. You have my sincere admiration.
3. Michee, Carla, and Dez, whom we will henceforth refer to as Destiny's Child, will sing anything. But I get ahead of myself.
4. The context? Kuya Jun Corona, our beloved driver, has the most eclectic musical taste in Mindanao. The shuffle function on your iPod doesn't stand a chance. Given that he burned all those songs to disk, and his songs can just as easily shift from Piolo Pascual to a punk version of the Backstreet Boys hit "I Want it That Way" (ironic, I know) faster than Nikko can adopt a "wacky" pose, what is truly amazing about Kuya Jun's selection was that he deliberately chose them to be played that way.
5. That being said, Destiny's Child will sing anything. Anything!

I AM STRONG: La Union!

My apologies for being virtually incommunicado this past week; the lovely Oasis Country Resort in La Union provided internet access, but I would have needed a time machine, or at the very least a Time-Turner such as the one Hermione Granger used just to find the time to write.

Still, despite the interminably long and eventful ten-hour travel time, the strength sapping humidity, and a workload which recalls the statement "Death is light as a feather; duty, heavy as a mountain", I had a wonderful time working for I AM STRONG in La Union. Why? In the very best Elizabeth Barrett Browning fashion, let me count the ways:

1. I was reunited with the ever-so-jolly Dr. Antonio Torralba, who I finally reduced to some sort of speechlessness with my dinner reference to "Barrel Man-ilow". I just realized that without any knowledge of the peculiarities of the "Barrel Men" figurines of Baguio and the subtle phonetic delights in tweaking Filipino accents for English use, the joke above is probably beyond translation. And yet I try. Beating a bad joke into submission is not like me at all. Odd, that.


2. I was reunited with former students, some of whom have blossomed beautifully into happily married mothers (such as Chelina delos Trinos Gutierrez), some of whom blossom even more whenever you say the name Brian (such as Ms. Vina Arenal) and some of whom have, happily, changed not at all (such as Ivanna Aguiling, the only lady in our company who deliberately planned "spontaneous outbursts" just to prove that she isn't the reserved square we all know and love).

3. I was able to share what little I knew with the very warm-hearted public school teachers and student leaders who, despite my ineptitude, took down practically everything I said, and probably induced blindness in my right eye due to the number of photographs that they had me pose for. Digression: my right side is my best side. End digression.

4. I was able to make new friends, bury old enemies (no, just checking to see if you got this far), and have a great deal of fun doing what I love best.

Pictures are in my Multiply. Enjoy!

Equatorials 2007: A Batch Full of Poems

I apologize for the lack of activity in my blog last week, but I would like to state, in my defense, that I had a full plate. First, I helped out with Love, Lunacy, and Poetry, the Literature Department's culminating event for the school year. While my wife Tina was giddy with delight at having to entertain noted poet Dr. Gemino Abad (her unabashed admiration of the esteemed poet leads me to wonder why my son Manuel shares his ears, but that's a topic for another time), I had an equally, if not quite as self-serving duty myself: to bring Ol' Blue Eyes to the affair, by way of cool event music.

Next, I had to attend the Equatorial Celebrations for this year's Junior Batch in UA&P, if only because they mistakenly selected me as Batch Ninong yet again. Frankly, I'm surprised they're not sick of my dated antics, because I am. Still, the event in itself was truly an occasion for joy if only for Dr. Elizabeth Urgel's Batch Ninang address, Sam Macagba's tearful response on the part of the Junior Batch, and a surprise appearance by poet laureate Pablo Neruda, by way of his poem Tu Risa (Your Laughter), which I read to the Junior Batch in lieu of boring them with a metaphysical reflection on the nature of free will and sharing. Here's an excerpt (translated by Donald Walsh):

Take the bread from me, if you want
take the air from me, but
do not take from me your laughter

Do not take away the rose,
the lanceflower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in your joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

Congratulations, Juniors! Some of you might never grow up to be poets of note, but by the sincere, irrepressible joy with which you engage life, never doubt that you are all poems worthy of being enshrined in the hallowed halls of classic poetry. Enjoy!

A Weekend to be Spent on Love...in Literature

I was invited some time ago by a former student, Miguel Quinto, to give a short talk to the students of the Amber Center. I must confess that when Miguel first asked me to give a talk, I was all "talked out": my many commitments delivering talks on a wide variety of topics, as part of my extension work for the University and my apostolate, left me all tapped out. Which is why I found it providential that when Miguel (a proper and serious lad) sent a formal letter inviting me to give a talk, I finally stumbled on a worthy topic to give a talk on, courtesy of the students inviting me: "Love in Literature".

My students never believe me when I say this, but more often than not, we learn more from them than they ever do from us, their teachers. Of course, I'm still in shock. How could I not have given a talk on "Love in Literature"? To make amends for this deliberate (and I suspect, divinely ordained "D'oh!"), let me provide a link to a rather erudite fellow, Robert Pinsky, who didn't forget to reflect, at length, on love and literature in Slate.

Photo Credits:
Picture of Robert Pinsky comes courtesy of The Academy of American Poets
Picture of Homer Simpson comes courtesy of Zapin.info