Oh, the drama!

Well, I guess I can't complain. Today wasn't a fantastic day by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it wasn't a gawd-awful one, either. To relax, I'm watching a Filipino telenovella on YouTube while typing this, and despite the ridiculous story line, I feel compelled to watch it. Every night, I would look forward to watching the next far-fetched episode - it's escapism at its best.

The story is the friendship between two men from opposite sides of the social spectrum - one who is dirt poor, and the other - filthy rich. They get along splendidly even if they don't have anything in common, apart from their name. They are both called David Garcia. I guess you know where this is going...

It turns out that they are brothers. They share the same father, but different mothers. The philandering father had a one night stand with a prostitute and produced David the Dirt Poor. I don't know when exactly he met his now wife/partner, but the two of them have also produced a sprog, David, the Filthy Rich. And somehow, their paths cross...and so begins the twists and turns of this very unlikely story.

The scriptwriting is contrived and the situations are hardly believable, and yet, so many people (including myself) watch it every day - at least 3000 of us. 

If there is one thing that I do realise about it is that I'm glad that it's only a fictional dramatisation. How tragic would it be if this situation happened to actual people.I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

Over a year!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post! It's true what they say - it's easy to start a blog, but very hard to maintain. Even my husband's blog only has a single post, which, of course, makes me feel a tad better that I'm not as rubbish as he is when it comes to keeping my blog updated.

The year started out OK - I have been quite busy with work and I suppose I should be grateful, judging by today's economic climate. Lately, however, I seem not to have the same energy and vigour as I used to. Perhaps it's the weather. After all, the snow storms of late have been awful and the cold and gale force winds have been relentless. 

Or maybe it's because I haven't had the chance to sleep very well. I've been catching up on years of not watching any Filipino movies or TV shows and so spend endless hours on YouTube, getting 'kilig' with the assortment of soppy romance-themed shows between John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo (actually, to be honest, anything with John Lloyd in it is a plus in my book!), KC Concepcion and Richard Gutierrez, and the like.

Whatever it is, I just can't seem to get motivated. I need to get my 'oomph' back. There's some very interesting projects in the pipeline which I really want to get my teeth into. All I need now is for this persistent cold to go away, and for me to stop watching Pinoy telenovellas til the we hours of the morning!

And of course, I need to start ranting and raving on my blog again. So to you, my non-existent reader, hang on tight. Mancypino's back - at least for now.

A vicious cycle

I must admit, I don't always know what's going on in the country of my birth, the Philippines. As a matter of fact, it's my father-in-law (who's English) often rings me to tell me the latest government shenanigans or when a natural calamity hits the country.

Most recently, I visited the Philippine Daily Inquirer website to be greeted by news about the latest cry of the people for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. A government official has testified before a Senate inquiry that Arroyo's husband Jose Miguel, and former elections chief Benjamin Abalos tried to get millions in kickbacks from a $339-million telecoms deal with China's state-run firm ZTE.

It amazes me how people easily forget the injustices the Filipino people experienced only 20 years ago. I was still a young girl when first People Power revolution took place, which ultimately ousted the Marcos's despicable dictatorship.

And yet, just a little over 20 years later, the scions of this same corrupt family are in power once again. Maybe not taking the highest seat in the land, but the fact that they are in public service at all, when they obviously don’t have the public interest at heart, beggars belief.

The Filipino people are tired of fighting and are losing hope that the country will every change. But at the same time, they keep on electing the same thieves, goons and unqualified politicians whose only claim to power is in their ill-gotten wealth. It’s a vicious cycle.

In contrast, anytime a politician in Britain gets associated with any wrong doing, the press and the people are quick to get to the bottom of the allegation and if found guilty, put enough pressure on the erring minister or government official so they have no choice but to swiftly resign, shamed publicly by their crime.

Not so with Filipino politicians. They will hang on to power with every shred of will they can muster, intimidating, bribing, and even killing people in the process. These people make a career out of public service, and get their equally corrupt gang of spouses, children, in-laws, and household help to replace them when their terms of office come to a close. Well, charity begins at home, right?

Until people are made accountable, punished, put in prison for their crimes, and are barred from taking up any position of public office in the future, in a few year’s time, the Filipino people will be once again taking to the streets, trying to throw out yet another politician, whom they elected only a few years before.

Absolute Rubbish!

Now, before I start, can I just say that I am under no illusions that my taste in TV (and in films and music for that matter) falls somewhere between awfully cheesy and positively dreadful. Just one glance at the contents of my iPod will get you to agree. I have everything from Britney Spears, S Club 7, Barry Manilow…all the way to the Masters of Cheese, Westlife.

But my husband is something else. A self-proclaimed music and film aficionado/guru, he looks down at my music and DVD collection with contempt and disdain. And yet, for all his snooty-nosed musings, he watches 2 TV shows that I think are worse than all my easy listening CDs combined.

As I type this, I am subjected to yet another rubbish episode of ‘Masters of Science Fiction’. I’ve never seen anything so utterly cringe-worthy in my entire life! These one-hour shows every Thursday evening on Bravo (need I say more?!?!) have the most ill-conceived, badly written and painfully shambolic scripts I have seen since Mission to Mars (don't even get me started on that one!).

Tonight’s episode is about a scientist who has developed these silver bird machines, who are supposed to uphold the delicate balance of the earth. So, like miniature Robocops, these creatures fly around the earth stinging the bad people with laser-like powers. And of course, just to add a bit of a twist (if you can call it that), the birds turn bad and go on a stinging spree.

Total and utter rubbish! Even my youngest niece can come up with a better story than that! Worse of all, my other half actually acknowledges that the show is crap, yet every week, we sit together and watch something even worse than Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

To top it all off, Sundays are dedicated to another Bravo TV masterpiece – ‘Dog The Bounty Hunter’. A whole day of this pretend cop and his family of equally dodgy characters is almost impossible to avoid. Dog (yep, that’s his name) owns a bail bonds company in Hawaii, and when a criminal goes on a runner, he finds them and brings them to justice – with a twist! He gets all gooey and gives unsolicited advice for these hardened criminals to mend their ways. Aaww shucks!

I think I’ll be sticking to listening to my cheese this weekend. No, I don’t think – I know.

Will the real Jo Malone Please Stand Up!

There has been a lot of brouhaha about Philippine lifestyle columnist Malu Fernandez. Her recently penned article in People Asia and The Manila Standard has generated so much outrage and outcry from OFWs the world over due to her racist, discriminatory and tasteless comments. Much has been said about the article, including blog sites asking for her resignation.

In Malu's article entitled, "Are you a stinky linky? Or do you smell like a divine divalicious babe?" (16 April 2007) she goes on a tirade of her awful experience of flying coach class on her way back from a holiday in Greece.

As a person and individual, she has every right to pen articles to express her misguided and delusional opinions. Mind you, If I could afford it, I too would fly Business or First Class all the time, but alas, not all of us are fortunate to have Ms Fernandez's hefty bank account.

However, I was terribly irked when someone who thinks of herself as a woman of the world starts talking utter rubbish! As a Jo Malone scent wearer, I was irritated when she wrote, and I quote,

"...and oldest friend Samantha Eduque got me into Jo Malone and I haven’t stopped buying his scents."

Jo Malone is a woman, for Ms Fernandez's information. Surely someone as up her own back side as Ms Fernandez would know that. Any journalist/writer worth their salt would've done a bit of research. That's what Google is for. Maybe she should go to one of Jo Malone's stores here in the UK to get a bit of education (only if she can fly First Class, of course!)

It's a shame that Ms Fernandez is more interested in making pretentious and derogatory comments about people who keep the Philippine economy afloat than getting her facts straight. It's a good thing she only writes about frivolous topics like perfume and travel. God forbid she ever gets an assignment on real life, hard-hitting news.