Comments on: Political Blogs, Language and the Filipino Elite

by: gigi

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:50:31 +0000

lozada’s treachery should be punished. he is lying through his teeth. ombudsman or doj should file perjury case against him and make a sample that any person no matter if he is hailed as ‘hero’ is not above the law. 100% he doesn’t have evidence…please allow me to cite one instance during interview…lozada said the govt. is manipulating his celfone because the text messages which supposedly corroborate the story that he was abducted were being erased and the dates of some messages were being altered…he stated that the govt. used high technology to manipulate his own celfon (?) …hey…look at that statement…please investigate since nobody in his sober mind would believe him…even if you ask experts in the mobile technology..it cannot be done by anybody to manipulate text message stored in your celfon.
there are many instances that he is caught lying but nobody seem to mind..he is just using the religious groups.

by: Bignose

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 05:33:18 +0000

How did the very rich Filipinos get their wealth? How do the political leaders keep power and elect their siblings. It seems that a few families will always rule the Philippines and have the majority of the wealth. They will not allow a poor person marry into their rich family. I am not Filipino but I notice this and I would like to understand the culture better. I also wonder if the wealthy Filipinos were collaborators with the Japanese during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.

Any comments about this would be appreciated.

by: Meinardus

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 02:58:57 +0000

thanks, ronald (nice name!) for you insights. when i note there aren’t any pro-gma blogs, please don’t misunderstand this as if i would miss them. there are enough friendly gma-writers and commentators around in the msm to get how she and her entourage are ticking. politically and communications wise, however, i find it interesting that the palace’s spin doctors would not follow your “recommendation” and create “some pro-GMA blogs inhouse just to balance the net presence.” one explanation could be: they see no chance of getting anywhere by doing so. quite obviously, their target audience is not the intellectual “elite” (whoops, there i go again), but the masses.

by: baratillo books cinema @ cubao » Blog Archive » When bloggers meet

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:59:28 +0000

[…] It was also a pleasure to have met fellow-podcaster and Chronicler of Filipino Podcasts Manuel Viloria of Viloria.com . The track about media and podcasting was informative: to hear how journalists like Ellen Tordesillas of Ellen Tordesillas: Making life worth living and Erwin Oliva of CyberBaguioBoy on how they use blogs and their take on them; and to learn from Manual Viloria, Brian Ligsay and Pocholo Gonzales on how to set-up and Bloggers are like snowflakes, each is different and it shows when you talk or listen to each one. And like the different colors of the rainbow this divergence gives life to the blogosphere. Just goes to prove that there is a bit for everyone in the Philippine corner of blogosphere. Maybe that is why I find it bit inaccurate what Dr Ronald Meinardus, of the blog My Liberal Times, said about Filipino Bloggers in his post Political Blogs, Language and the Filipino Elite: […]

by: Amadeo

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:21:30 +0000

I sure would be interested to learn from Ms. Mackinnon how she came to the conclusion that the US blogosphere is the domain of the elite and that it is far more elitist than the MSM.

The popular perception here is that precisely because of and in response to the elitism of MSM, the US blogosphere has progressed exponentially as a medium for regular folks to voice their own concerns and opinions and not just be spoon-fed by MSM. And by elitism I take it to mean the attitude that a selected group of persons whose personal abilities, specialized training or other attributes place them at the top of their field, are the only people whose views on a matter are to be taken seriously.

And nothing thus could be as grassroots (or call it “netroots” with credit to the very popular DailyKos) as the US blogosphere.

by: ronallan

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:49:04 +0000

One can theorize that the cause for the rapid increase in number in political blogs, specifically anti-GMA ones, is the common perception that GMA, for several reasons, is highly undesirable as the head of state of this country.

I’m no sociologist, but I would go as far as speculate that it is the significant decline in the confidence level with the current administration that has fueled this trend. Filipinos have this tendency to shut out everything else if they’re content. If they’re not content, on the otherhand, they have this tendency to air out their grievances to anyone who would listen.

While politics is not the reason why I have started blogging in the first place, it has become a very convenient means of giving my two cents worth (if it is even worth that) on whatever political developments are taking place.

Yes, there is a dearth of pro-GMA blogs, but strangely enough, I have run across a number of pro-GMA Yahoo Egroups, and have even been invited to some. Strange. If I were in Malacanang, I’d probably recommend the creation of some pro-GMA blogs inhouse just to balance the net presence.

As for the use of English, one can over (or under) intellectualize this as much as they want. For me, it’s pretty simple. It’s the closest we have to a universal language. Even Filipino (Tagalog) is not spoken everywhere in the Philippine, given the huge number of regional dialects. Not to mention that it opens up my blog to foreign readers, if there are any interested in it.

On a practical side, English is very flexible as well. Not everything in English can be translated straightforward to Tagalog, and if I even attempt it, I will probably end up with either a Filipino document that the average Pinoy would probably have difficulty understanding due to the use of uncommon Filipino terms, or a corrupted Tagalog-English hybrid - Taglish.

Just thought I share some thoughts.

Enjoyed your discussion in the last iBlog. Hope to be able to hear more from you in the future.

by: Cyberbaguioboy » Blog Archive » Blogging in RP perceived as ‘elitist’ activity: blogger

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 19:04:40 +0000

[…] In his recent posting, Dr Meinardus ponders on the blogging activity in the Philippines and elsewhere. He also cites the story I wrote about our conversation cum interview […]