Here’s another video of the Binibining Pilipinas that proves that Filipina Pageant Contestants need translators:
If you think about it, her answer made sense! It is better to be naturally beautiful, because smarts can be learned.
Let’s say that she was able to make it into the final round of a world competition. Conceivably, she would do a better job of expressing herself in her natural langauge, while her translator would take care of packaging the answer for the judges.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is gazillions. At least, di siya nagpapatalo!
Have you ever noticed that, thanks to our infatuation with English, we insist on answering western beauty pageant questions without the help of translator? Even if we are fluent, wouldn’t our beautiful women gain a huge advantage if they had the time to think of the answer while the question is translated into Filipino? (or Bicolano, Cebuano, etc.)
Thanks to Alvin!
Yahoo! Answers, the Philippine edition, has been out for more than a week now. Thanks to the popularity of Yahoo’s answering service, one of the rare victories it has over Google, there’s already a lot of content on the local version.
But once again, the weakness of Yahoo! Answers—lack of quality—rears its ugly head. I mean, would you answer a totally silly question like: “Why phillipines is known as sex nation of asia?????” (a thread deleted a few days ago).
To be fair, Yahoo! Answers does have a lot of… answers to offer Filipinos. But we also have our own, quality answers here in the BBN. We indulge curiosities that include interest in Cebu’s stylish nightlife, to just how beautiful Marian Rivera is.
With Yahoo! Answers, the Philippine edition, being launched last week, I decided to look at some of the answers helpfully compiled here:
Be careful also about the streetchildren. I had seen 3 incidences of these children [sic] climbing tall fences here in our vicinity really fast. However, when you report this to the barangay, they seem so unaffected by this. There are children who sniffs rugby seen by the barangay, traffic aids & patrol man. However, they knew it buy [sic] they dont [sic] care about this. Children are robbing even guarded subdivisions. Be careful!
What?!
Be careful about people who make hasty generalizations! Especially when they don’t take the time to spell properly and use proper punctuation.
First to answer correctly gets some link love from me!
Piece of Me, one of Britney Spears’ latest singles, starts with the following lyrics:
I’m Miss American Dream since I was 17
Don’t matter if I step on the scene
Or sneak away to the Philippines
They still gon put pictures of my derrière in the magazine
You want a piece of me?
You want a piece of me…
Either the song’s writers (they, along with record producers, are the unsung heroes of the music industry) consider the Philippines such a remote place, or merely a place where the excesses of Western paparazzi are unheard of. What do you think, dear readers?
That world-famous video, which gained over 9 million views on YouTube and attention from Jason Calacanis of Weblogs Inc., was named the fifth top viral video of 2007 by Time Magazine. It was only six months ago that over 1,500 Philippine inmates in Cebu danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
All I’m wondering about Time’s take on the video:
“Questions arose about whether the 1,500 Filipino jailhouse rockers were enjoying some well-choreographed creative expression or suffering abuse at the hands of prison officials with MTV aspirations.”
is whether or not getting people cooped up all day to dance is abuse.
It’s a cultural thing. Every year, starting from Halloween up to All Souls’ Day (October 31 up to November 2), many Filipinos visit their dearly departed. This means that, in a heavily-populated city like Metro Manila, the traffic to, from, and within major cemeteries puts typical rush hour problems to shame.
City governments employ a large number of people on a holiday just to keep everything in order, and actually change the flow of the roads surrounding cemeteries. At least one major road in Quezon city becomes one way come the end of October. That’s why new cemeteries are now designed to handle a large volume of visitors. A cemetery recently put up in the Taguig municipality actually connects to a major highway. Who would’ve though that urban planning would play an important role in the placement and construction of cemeteries?
Genuine irritation can produce so much eloquence, as Elber proves recently with his demand to stop spamming him:
If you want meaningful change, then you have to stop irritating the people who can actually help you spread your message around. Stop getting in our faces. Maybe, just maybe, we might actually be open to what you’re trying to say.
He, of course, had enough of the spammer who couldn’t seem to get a clue, even though I already gave the spammer a brief lesson on how not to market online.
After this spammer tried to leave a comment on this blog, my personal blog, and even one of my pro blogs, I had enough. A little research gave me a way to contact the party the spammer was ostensibly representing. I informed them of what was going on, hoping to hear their side of the story.
Quite happily, they promptly replied to my inquiry, made it clear that the spamming was going on without their knowledge, and promised to contact this “overzealous supporter.” I’m inclined to believe them, given that they’ve been very open and forthcoming.
In any case, let’s hope that Elber’s loquacious put down makes it clear to those who want to spread a message online: relevancy avoids animosity.
Senators, foreign diplomats, cabinet ministers, a smattering of Forbes’s 40 richest Filipinos, movie stars and enough professional basketball players to play five-on-five. They are the elite of Philippine society, and they all gather at Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City to watch the men’s basketball rivalry between the universities Ateneo de Manila and De La Salle.
Thus read the first paragraph from a Sports article on The New York Times. A Nation’s Passion Lives in a Rivalry of Green vs. Blue, written by Raphael Bartholomew, talks about the affluent and influential alumni of both universities, and the enormous pressure coaches and players from both sides find themselves under.
Ah well, whenever Ateneo and La Salle play against each other during the UAAP Men’s Basketball season, everything becomes second. Including the ultra-rare regular season sweep of UE and coach Dindo Pumaren, who led his cagers to a 14-0 run to automatically earn a spot in 70th season finals.
Photo credits: Fabilioh.com and Photobucket user beyondbidj.
