Three students from the University of the Philippines have set up an online survey for Filipino (by blood) bloggers who reside in the Philippines and maintain a personal blog. Click here to provide your answers, and Renz Angeles, Marielle Dado, and Racine Maniego finish their final Psychology 118 project.
You’ll be asked to provide your blog’s URL and some data regarding your blogging habits and style. Want to keep things hush hush? Here’s what the students have to say: “We would like to assure you that we respect your privacy, and will render all results anonymous. All blog URLs will be deleted after this study is completed.” You can email them if you have any questions.
I’m very interested in the results, because they may provide a better picture of the Filipino blogger. You’ll find the results on this blog once they’re ready.
The Erap Plunder trial finally ended after more than six years. Joseph Estrada was sentenced to life imprisonment for plunder, while his son Jinggoy Estrada and personal lawyer Edward Serapio were acquitted. Looks like being the 13th Philippine President had its share of bad luck.
The Philippines made history once again: EDSA was the first bloodless revolution, Cory Aquino was Asia’s first female president, and Erap is probably the first head-of-state to be criminally convicted. But, no matter how much current president GMA wants it (as Erap’s vice-president she came into power when he was ousted from office), the book won’t close on this issue. At least not just yet.
Filipinos always cheer for the apparent underdog, and some bloggers can’t help but feel sorry for the corrupt politician. And those who consider the incumbents equally corrupt hope that they’ll get what’s coming to them. But almost everyone is looking towards the future, especially businessmen who see the verdict as a positive development.
The Overseas Filipino Worker will always enjoy the love of their fellow countrymen, unless you think people who work away from home to provide their families a better life aren’t worth paying attention to.
Well, Reyna Elena likes them, and that’s why she’s come up with her own OFW Slogan and Logo Design Contest:
The whole idea is simple. Create a catchy slogan and a sleek logo that captures the spirit and best expresses and exemplifies what an Overseas Filipino Worker is all about. This is my response to the negativities hurled to all Overseas Filipino Workers by a notorious columnist who’s got the blessings and allowed [sic] by some newpaper dailies in the Philippines.
Reyna’s shouldering the prize money herself (Php 10,000 is around $200), so you’d better make it worth her while! Details are of course in her post. Deadline for submission is October 14, 2007, 11:59 EST (12 hours behind Philippine time).
Recently, a comment was caught by this blog’s moderation queue, meaning it was automatically marked as spam, with good reason. This comment, which seeked to promote a future senate candidate, was totally unrelated to my last Malu Fernandez post. Luis, who blogs over at drivebyshooter.net, also reported receiving the same comment from 122.53.136.228. We both shared our irritation through email.
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The Jester-in-Exile lead me to this post, which lead to this source. Malu Fernandez will continue writing for The Manila Standard.
A company once sold their second-hand and old-model products at low prices. Unfortunately, their price list was inaccurate. Hundreds of customers lined up under the hot sun, and were disappointed when told that many of the eagerly expected products were no longer available. And of course, some of them voiced their displeasure online. Some were calling for boycotts, unaware that it’s basically impossible to boycott a major distributor. The management chose to keep quiet, correctly thinking that the issue would be largely forgotten after a few days. Has the same thing happened with Malu Fernandez?
Did Malu and company just decide to lay low until the name-calling, boycott proclamations and viral disdain disappeared? If so, I don’t blame them one bit. After all, would you take comments like “Malu Fernandez = Life in its lowest form!!!” seriously? The fact is that the sheer number of shallow and from-the-hip opinions of this issue have simply overwhelmed any thoughtful arguments. Why would anyone let this kind of discussion dictate what they do?
To be fair, I’ve done nothing to elevate the discussion or approach the issue constructively, unlike Nick and Tess. This will be the last time I’ll ever write about the Malu Fernandez controversy on this blog, because sometimes it’s just best to move on. Especially when there really is no point in continuing.
Eugene is multi-talented. Eugene is the intrepid programmer behind Lakbayan. Eugene is the designer who adapted the BBN Theme to work with Text Pattern over at Vista Pinas. Eugene is the map-addict who edits that blog. Eugene is the photographer who took lots of pictures of the second Taste Asia Bloggers’ Fest.
Why do I say this? Well, Eugene’s Taste of Asia Mural (more like tableau actually) is the perfect resource for anyone who wants to see just how some local bloggers look like. Granted, people like Sharm may have received the short end of the visual stick, but the links to the people featured will make exploring these personalities easier than you think.
So let’s all thank Eugene for patiently compiling the bloggers’ pictures and their URLs. Click on the thumbnail above to visit the post and see the full-size version.
Metro Manila is the capital of the Philippines, and is also the country’s economic, and political center. That’s why a common mistake we Manileños make—including yours truly—is to practically ignore the rest of the country. At least we partially address this shortcoming through Style Cebu. But that still leaves out the southern region of Mindanao.
Which we shouldn’t. Because the bloggers in Mindanao are quite an active and passionate bunch. In fact, you should watch out for the 2007 Mindanao Blog Awards, which will be the cornerstone event of the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. We should follow the example of Andrew dela Serna, the man behind Ratified.org. He’s shared his creative talents to come up with the logo you see above, featuring the distinctively Mindanaoan icon known as the vinta.
A shout out goes to the people behind Davao Blogspace and Mindanao Bloggers, two websites that show that there’s more to the Philippines than just Metro Manila. Here’s to making sure all the bases are covered, and for providing a new challenge for us: giving all Filipino voices their due consideration, wherever they be based.
The Bayanihan Blog Network is The First Filipino Blog Network, so obviously we consider all of our member blogs Filipino.If you take a look at our blogs, our idea of “Filipino Blog” becomes clear. We all cover topics related to the Philippines, or relate topics to the Philippines. All the editors are Filipino who mainly write in English.
In other words, location doesn’t matter, so long as there’s a reliable internet connection and some Filipino blood behind the post. Melissa, one of the partners of this network, blogs about her expat experiences all the way in Germany.
English is the medium here, because we really believe that the Filipino voice deserves to be heard by as much people as possible. It remains the most widely used language online, making it a great way to get the word out. It also helps that all of the bloggers here are fluent in it.
But we’d like to hear what you have to say. In your opinion, what makes a blog Filipino? Could it be the language, the person behind the blog, the topic, or simply something intangible that we haven’t thought of?
Malu Fernandez continues to attract negative attention. There’s the movement to push for her dismissal, and supposed motives behind her apparent elitism. But her ruined online reputation wasn’t the only topic Filipino bloggers covered over the last week.
There’s much more to the Philippine blogosphere than arguments, controversies, and issues. The voice of the Filipino isn’t a one-trick pony after all.
Proving increasing corporate interest in bloggers, Mrs. Fields hosted around 60 bloggers last night in their new store located in Manila Pavilion. They were rebranding themselves as a company more appealing to the overpriced-coffee crowd. Only time will tell if mixing their decently successful formula (great-tasting cookies) with the staples of franchise frappes will work. And yes, I’m writing about this because they freely gave out food and drinks; it’d be bad if I didn’t repay them with some exposure, right?
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