The politicization of death, the Untied States of America, and the Bad Samaritan

1. After the very obvious politicization of art naturally comes the politicization of life and death. But "there were no political concessions (this time)," assured Malacañang, an assurance that certainly made things even more suspect. Like, don't you smell something fishy here? The controversial (i.e., hackles-raising) Sassy Lawyer most assuredly sees something else: the "commutation" of the death penalty might have something to do with the Paco Larrañaga et al. rape case.

2. I can see a lot of people have been to the "iBlog Summit." What's that? How come I wasn't invited, when people regularly borrow and steal ideas from this blog (something which I don't mind because I make it a point to have a quid pro quo)? How come the 'oldest' and 'biggest' bloggers (and I'm not referring to myself) were not even there? I'm not sour-graping or anything, just asking. I think such "summits" are a premature thing for a Third World country like R.P., where the majority of bloggers don't have their own Internet-connected PC and instead are blogging from the office or the 'cybercafe.' You might be unduly shocked, but that's the current reality of Philippine blogging that nobody pointed out. And we can add that the participants there were not really representative of the blogging 'community,' if there's such a thing - or at least not yet. (Update: Someone, Ronald Meinardus of My Liberal Times, correctly pointed out that blogging in RP remains an elitist activity, but he missed making a qualifier; he must be referring to blogging "that actually matters to mainstream media and policymakers". Oh, well, the organizers may well be quite right in using the word "summit"; apparently, they see the invitees as representing the top of the tier, as it were; I won't dispute that, but nevertheless there was such a tinge of arrogance somewhere, in terms of johnnies-come-lately ( say) appropriating something just like that. But, well, at least people like Abe Olandres, Janette Toral (overall organizer?), and Manuel Viloria have long been in the business of online publishing and stuff, and I think they somewhat have that right, plus they invited someone like Rebecca Mackinnon of Global Voices to come over, although even Mackinnon is really a mainstream media crossover. I just find it quite odd that the affair sounded more like a media conference than a real bloggers meet, and so there must be some kind of an adjustment of verbiage somewhere.

3. In what's becoming to be the Untied States of America... It's good to keep on watching the developments in the immigration debate in the very land built by immigrants (that is, after stealing all the credit from the Native American tribes). I can't wait to see the day the Spanish language (Mexican edition) is declared as the official national language of what used to be the Very Much United States of America.

4. Some awfully profound thought struck me lately (actually, it's a routinary thing): If there's such a thing as a "Good Samaritan," like a forcibly published item of "good news," it's because there's such an offensive presumption of a Bad Samaritan. Who are the Samaritans now? Where are they? If they still exist, they have all the right to lobby against, or protest, the totally un-PC term of "Good Samaritan." "Good Samaritan" automatically implies "Bad Samaritan," which in turn suggests a naturally evil people, the evil race called Samaritans of the evil land called Samaria. Of course, there's the Biblical usage of the term to consider; all I'm saying here is, can you imagine if there's such a thing today as the "Good Filipino"? Certainly, such a term would necessitate an entire jihad first before it ever reaches Google News or the Oxford English Dictionary. The re-defining of the word "Filipina" in that dictionary should still be a fresh wound - or it should be a wound that should never heal. The Samaritans, Good or Bad, are lucky to be an extinct species today.