THE MALU FERNANDEZ SCANDAL: ENDING
Malu Fernandez apologized and resigned. I cannot resist but to write about Malu in one among the last blog entries concerning the subject in pinoyblogosphere yesterday by espousing the idea that she and her publisher should address the issue squarely the soonest possible time. The movement condemning her 1, 2 pages article which came out on the June 30, 2007 issue of People Asia triggered public condemnation about how she maligned OFWs. Her antagonistic answer to public outcry for her to apologize added fuel to the fire that professional bloggers, writers, communication experts and specialists, public relation consultants, old and young alike who surfs and frequenting the net feasted and joined the band wagon.
It was in tingog.com, which I suspect was authored by a Cebuano, mentioned in Marko’s site that hits hard right at the heart of the publisher, now proposing to ban and boycott Manila Standard Today and People Asia. As you search in Google or Yahoo for her name, Malu became an instant record holder. If there is a person most hated by her countryman maybe, it’s none other than Malu. Other sites from anonymous authors begin to sprout, now, clamouring for others to join the prey to boycott Manila Standard Today and People Asia. It was then that some joined calling for sobriety for the publisher and Malu to address the issue squarely immediately. It was providential that Malu opted to extend her apology and tender her resignation, maybe upon realizing the extent of the damage caused by the snowballing effect of the controversy. Malu resigned. It might have been the honorable way for her publisher and their editors.
If there is a lesson to be learned from the above experience – in today’s world of advance digital age – one thing was proven: corporations, publication houses and big media outfit does not have the monopoly of the media to stir public opinion. Individuals, independent publishers, artists and private citizens, in their own right may freely participate and express their own views and opinions through the use of modern technology, the internet, which power to influence people is more of a reality than perception. The Malu Fernandez incident awakened Pilipino sentiment worldwide. It demonstrated to the world how Pilipinos took a stand on issue affecting a class within their own social structure. Unlucky, the object of criticism is one of their own. Unlucky, it has caused damage to the publisher of Malu’s article. Whether they like it or not, the stain remains on the outfit where Malu’s article were published and it may take time to heal.
Others may go on with the advocay. Others may choose to close that part of history in blogging communities to look forward for a more challenging exercise when the situation calls for our spirit of patriotism to once again be awakened. The Malu Fernandez scandal.
The Resignation of Malu Fernandez: A lesson and a warning
The diva finally got what she deserved.
I could not resist going back in front of my computer and blogging about Malu Fernandez’s much-awaited resignation. The news was on ABS CBN’s TV Patrol just a few minutes ago and I myself could not believe how my husband and children dug into their tinola with more zest than usual upon hearing about Fernandez’s more subdued apology and resignation. I didn’t realize, until tonight, that my family’s been asking for this as much as I’ve been.
TV Patrol mentioned that there are sectors of the society who are planning to file formal complaints against her. Well, perhaps that is really how the story should end. Personally, a public apology with a resignation letter to boot is not enough to put out the fire that Ms. Fernandez started.
Malu Fernandez
The Marocharim Experiment… first cross-post in, like, ever >
Somewhere in the blogosphere, I just heard that the controversial Malu Fernandez resigned from the Manila Standard because of that article about OFW’s. Needless to say, though, I don’t share the same sympathy for Ms. Fernandez with that of Miles Levin, the cancer patient who blogged about his battle with cancer and recently, has just died.
Believe me, I like ridiculing people. One of the things I like best about living is to call people names and to insult them for the hell of it. Often, this ridicule is passed off as “satire,” “social criticism” and “commentary.” You can take any chump in the street and make a Conrado de Quiros out of him. Go read any tabloid, read the opinion columns, and you’ll see what I mean.
I think what made Malu Fernandez the almost-Antichrist of the Filipino blogosphere (although I wouldn’t take too lightly to that, because I have this deluded belief that I’m that almost-Antichrist) is her unrepentant dislike for OFW’s, her elitism, and for all intents and purposes, her weight. The way I see it, if you’re going to go about your business discriminating people, you might as well say it outright, disclose the fact that you’re a bigot, and we’re even. But if you do that very same thing and pass it off as “journalism,” “creative writing” or “satire,” or if you’re going to create this “character” as a venue to vent out your prejudice, I suggest you wrap razor wire around your neck, hang yourself on the tallest tree you can find, and do the “Du-du-du Da-da-da.”
I don’t think that it’s right to single out a Malu Fernandez, or a Tim Yap for that matter: I think that there’s enough razor wire and tall trees in the Philippines for us to have a mass execution to rid ourselves of journalistic ineptitude once and for all (let’s start with “investigative reporters”). The way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with being a prejudiced and discriminating bigot for so long as you admit to being one, and you do your prejudgment, discriminating and bigotry as what it is and not pass it off as an exercise in “journalism.”
This, I think, is the whole lesson in the Malu Fernandez controversy. There is room for all sorts of bigotry and prejudice in this world: nobody denies anyone a chance to laugh at a farting man who ate his fill of sarciadong kamote. We really can’t tie ourselves down to a frame of ethics that prevents us from mocking people, from discriminating, from drinking deep from the bottle of Hate-a-rade. But the least we expect from all of this discrimination, prejudice, bigotry, and hatred is honest disclosure.
I’m no rapper, but if you’re gonna have to hate a playa, the playa run game on ya, buck wild with the trigger. You know what, I heard that from somewhere…
THE FEELING OF NOTHINGNESS
I’m feeling down today, bored, lonely and a bit apprehensive of what life might bring tomorrow. I’m not getting any younger and yet I’m still single, worried that I might end up alone when I grow old. I don’t want that to happen. Most of my friends are married and have already their own families and kids and they are happy. To be honest, I’m a bit envious and jealous of them, seeing them happy and secure with their status, with their husbands who are on their side who loves them. I know I should not be feeling this way but I can’t help but ask what’s wrong with me? Why do I always end up lonely and hurting whenever I’m in a relationship? Why do they always leave me?
I feel as if nobody cared about me, as if I don’t exist at all, as if nobody sees me. I feel so empty, so sad, and I don’t know what to do and don’t know where to go. My life is literally worthless, empty, and there is a big hole somewhere in me. Some of my friends remembers me only when they want or need something out of me and they forget to see or know how I was or what I’m up to. I want to go somewhere far away wherein nobody knows me, I want to travel the universe and never come back here on Earth. I want to be lost in nowhere, float across the globe, soar in the sky, fly high and never look back. I want to feel nothing, not even joy nor pleasure, no nothing. Just the feeling of nothingness because I feel that that is me. NOTHING… NOBODY..
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Mission Impossible
The Dog name was Scrappy and let’s call the chihuahua Chichi from our neighbor who I think was on feminine itch that day. I quickly grabbed my camera as if I was one of the crew of National Geographic lol. Imagining I was at the Virgin Forest of Africa hehehe.
They tried doing it for quite some time until both of their tounges stick out due to exhaustion. After then they parted ways, I guessed they realized that it was impossible.
Only to find them again this morning doing MI2. hahaha.
Next time I’ll post MI2 
You can also view it here!
Pinoys Don’t Handle Success Well!!!
i just wanted to express something about what i have seen once too often…
haven’t you wondered?
i live and work abroad, and to make the story extremely concise, i went away for a different reason, i could get a IT job that looks is a factor. its not that im butt ugly but im meztiso…
we as a people put a premium on looks, we equal looks to social standing and economic power. geez, we even have enough whitening soaps and lotions that we could make a fruit salad with all the flavours with it.
it does not speak well of us, pretending to be somebody else. we dont need to be white to be successfull.
Chef Fritz’s Appetizer Recipe Uno: Oven Roast Rosemary Garlic Potatoes
This simple appetizer recipe got rave reviews the last time I served it to friends. Cheap and easy to prepare, too! And by cheap, I mean dirt cheap. You only need button potatoes if you have all the other spices and ingredients on hand. Plus you will need an oven or an oven-toaster. Surprise you family and friends because, yes, this one definitely tastes gourmet without much of the hassle. Ready?
It’s also about accountability
Cross-posted from my weblog.
THE ISSUE OF accountability, I think, is one of key important ingredients missing in the renewed debate on the state of education in the country.
This three-part series of the Inquirer here, here and here laid down all the numbers, capped by today’s editorial that takes to task the DepEd bureaucracy for not getting the basics right. In the same breath, it called for a return to the basics, addressing the usual shortages in classrooms and teachers among them.
Sen. Edgardo Angara and the Inquirer editorial however failed to explore a crucial question: 15 years after the Angara-chaired EdCom released its findings, why can’t the bureaucracy get its basics right? Or to borrow Angara’s language, what prevents us from extracting “more efficiency and more productivity from both our education budget and our education department”?
Accountability, or the lack of it, I will submit is one of the answer.
Come to think of it, to whom is DepEd really accountable for its continuing failure to deliver the minimum education outcomes? The easy answer, of course, is the Filipino people. But HOW? Let us examine the options:
Street basketball
It is the lamentable lack of sports facilities in a community that pushes our youth to use the streets as their playground. Barangays which are privileged to have proper basketball courts do not worry about the youth using the streets for playing. The fact remains that majority of our youth does not have access to these sports facilities
Read more at Mongster’s Nest
The Philippines’ 1st Cyber Counterculture Movement: Malu Fernandez, Hala Lagot Ka!
Counterculture means literally going against the dominant culture in a society. Do we still think being matapobre is in? Do we still think privilege without responsibility is in? Are we going to let a “divalicious” lifestyle columnist ridicule our breadwinners? Read here.
