22.08.09

Culture Clashes and Bruises

Videoke.

Songs in all midi-synth-shades of bad, or worse, and videos atrociously made in the 80ies in the Netherlands (which have nothing to do with the song in question of course) - this, accompanied by good Green Tea with Gin, some mushrooms (no, not what you think) and happy people makes for suprisingly good entertainment and a fun time.

As an absolute newbie in all things sing-along, I was a bit challenged by the whole affair: Especially since I knew only a tiny fraction of the diverse and interesting ballads from the 70ies, 80ies and 90ies. I saved myself with a bit of Frank Sinatra, and failed miserably at Elvis and Jackson (mainly because the midi was so mangled I had troubles recognizing the songs. But hey, my excuse.. I can´t sing anyway. )

But yeah: Pinoy karaoke is not the public humiliation we all know from Europe or Japan, but rather a variant of Singstar without the playstations - you get a room, and a machine, and you sing all you want for a few hours.. All-you-can-sing, practically.

I personally think the pinoy fascination with this electronic campfire is a hint at an earlier tradition of singing and poetry that must have been impressive indeed... But yeah, I think I did enough heavy history rants in the older posts.

Currently, I´m battered, bruised, destroyed and yet happy: Adrenaline does that to you. I had the time of my life in a padded-stick fighting session behind Matias Eatery (sic!) with Juno (a wonderful stickfighter and griller of diverse edibles, also on sticks). I really enjoyed it, and have taken the beating well enough (as I got a T-Shirt and a stick). But this session has really shown me my limitations: Even though I might have some idea of how to use the stick, and how to step, I´m still a tortoise to Juno´s hare, and when I get around to blocking something, I have allready taken in about 5 strikes to the hand and belly. Yay!

But yeah, speed can and will be trained: There´s nothing more motivating than landing a few yourself.

cheers, the d.
(Yay! I can still type.. a bit.. )

05.08.09

Atrocities in the Name of God: The Spanish in the Phillipines

If you know a bit about the history of South America, you will be able to guess at the policies the Spaniards, or Kastila as they were called here, imposed on the natives. But your guess will be far off.

The peoples subjugated in Mexico and the Andes were somewhat more used to having a centralised ruler, and once the Spanish had taken out the respective monarchies, resistance from the common people (who just had a different royality imposed on them, often using the same administration) was scarce.

The Phillipines, however, were populated by a wide variety of very warlike societies, not at all used to give tribute to anyone, and they fought the Spaniards at every step. The history of the Phillipines is a history of unspeakable atrocities comitted by the frailocracia, the name given to the de facto rule of many religious orders. To give you some idea of the nature of the tributes collected here: besides paying annually a sum of ten reales per household, the natives were also press-ganged to forced labour for forts, construction of churches, shipyards, woodcutting, in adittion to numerous personal services that more often than not where not even paid. Aggravating their situation, the majority of the communal lands, the basis of their former subsistance economy, had been taken over by haciendas or the orders. The tribute to be paid remained the same.
As if that wouldn´t be enough, the crown exacted a forced sale, at ridiculously low prices, of grain, chicken and pigs, even where the populace was already suffering from all the above.

The people died like flies. Smallpox and tuberculosis ravaged the malnourished and overworked, once proud, people of the Phillipines. Many towns burned all their livestock and houses, and fled to the mountains, where resistance against the opressors continued throughout the Spanish occupation. Rebellions arose again and again, in spite of retaliatory policies that consisted of burning a whole village for each Spaniard killed.

After the initial military resistance had been quashed, many adopted a suicidal tactic I have never heard of anywhere else in the world: The inhabitants refused to sow, killed their livestock, and thus, by starving themselves, sought to starve the Spaniards (who they observed to do no work except killing).

Unconquered until today, Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago regularly sent retaliatory strikes against the spanish shipyards, where the expansionism of that utterly mad and criminal regime was quenched again and again.

It is such a history that has produced the Phillipines we see today.

It is in the spanish legacy that the modern exploiters of women put themselves.

Such disgraces against humanity as were witnessed by this paradise - A better proof for the absence of any kind of god can´t be provided. Yet, the Pinoys retain the brainwashing that centuries of monks installed in their battered bodies: Miracles happen, the "true" paradise awaits you in the afterlife.

The liars continue to profit.

-d-