the winning answer of Precious Lara Quigaman (Miss Phil Int'l)

[ushanaei]

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"MABUHAY! representing the democratic and freedom loving people of the pearl of the orient, i am Precious Lara Quigaman, from the beautiful country of THE PHILIPPINES"

Q: "what do you say to the people of the world who have typecasted filipinos as nannies?"

A: "i take no offence on being typecasted as a nanny. But i do take offence that the educated people of the world have somehow denegrated the true sense and meaning of what a nanny is. let me tell you what she is. she is someone who gives more than she takes. She is someone you trust to look after the very people most precious to you - your child, the elderly, yourself. she is the one who has made a living out of caring and loving other people. so to those who have typecasted us as nannies, thank you. it is a testament to the loving and caring culture of the Filipino people. and for that, i am forever proud and grateful of my roots and culture."

[JoRed]

COMMENTARY

Boxers, Beauty Queens and Bugaw na Gobyerno

We need to struggle against the prostitution of our nation. All this preposterous government is doing is to sell our people out. In the diversion of psychic ping-pong, our morale is at the losing end.

By JPaul Manzanilla
Bulatlat
[img width=159 height=252]http://www.bulatlat.com/images/5-35/pacquiao.jpg[/img][img width=202 height=288]http://www.bulatlat.com/images/5-35/quigaman.jpg[/img]
Â* HEROES' WELCOMES:
Boxer Manny Pacquiao and
Miss International Precious Lara
Quigaman wave to admirers
during their welcome parades


In the rare times that I am able to watch primetime news there is always the struggle between the same things being churned out by the tube and the uneasiness over things to come after all the catastrophes.

Good News: World-class Filipinos!

I was watching GMA 7's 24 Oras evening of Oct. 3. News of a Filipina beauty queen who has quenched the nation's thirst for another title dominated the broadcast. Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman arrived from competition and the local press was on a rampage. There she was beaming with pride, simultaneously boosting testosterone levels and goading envy of male and female viewers.

The recent victory of boxers Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, Brian Viloria and Ray "Boom Boom" Bautista in different boxing competitions followed the beauty pageant report. It was a rare feat this time so the Manila city government paraded the three warriors on the streets outside the city hall on the way to Malacañang. At the Palace grounds, Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo praised Pacquiao, Viloria and Bautista for once again raising high the Filipino morale in these trying times.

Both tales dramatize the labor to win. We see how athletes and beauty queens stand to represent the nation in their great battles abroad. Making the best out of the human body, Quigaman, Pacquiao, Viloria and Bautista are on a voyage to beat the odds. And they have endured.

Bad news: The losing story

For what else can be taken to mean by all these images?

For the past few months, there is a general feeling among the people that all is lost. The President cheated her way to electoral victory and was able to maneuver herself out of the crisis for the moment. Oil prices have continually risen that it has become routine for public transport drivers to ask for fare increases and the poor majority to protest in anger. A de facto dictatorship is in place in the guise of the calibrated preemptive response policy. Hindi lang talo. Ligalig ang mamamayan, 'ika nga. This type of bad news initially tops ratings but later on become losing stories of a corrupt republic.

What do these images want?

I think the sense of loss and failure is what is being evaded here. Television capitalizes on dramas of competition, triumphs, failures, and endurance. After all the mishaps, the Filipino spirit has to be soothed by episodes of victory. Bad news and good news are being broadcast simultaneouslyto neutralize events, and thus, to defuse the tensions confronting the social order. More than this formula people are coached to recognize skills, talents and labors after our fellow countrymen have won abroad. Isn't it fitting to reward hard work not there but here, in the midst of all the efforts to survive? Do we have to wait for outsiders to appreciate our kababayan before we give credit where credit is due? Aren't we becoming master mimics of this world when we triple the praise for those who have won the master's game? More importantly, is success possible here in our very country?

This is reactionary. We need to know the real story.

Unable to provide decent jobs for poor rural folks, young men from the countryside resort to boxing in hope that an agent might discover and bring them to the capital and finally build their careers up for boxing superstardom. Boxing contests are brutal; many die because of unprofessional game conduct. With regards beauty queens, it is common knowledge that many become hapless victims of sexual harassment. The modern Filipina women being sent as representatives in pageants – pretty, sexy and witty – are effectively, if political correctness be told, anti-modern. They are, despite and because of high social stature, exploited to strengthen and not demolish patriarchal standards of femininity. And we all believe that Filipina women have gone a long way from being servants and *** objects. As Filipinos adore such images, becoming ideal citizens of this spectator republic, television and the rest of the profit-driven media benefit from this racket.

Outlook

These are not new – or more precisely – not news anymore.

We need to struggle against the prostitution of our nation. All this preposterous government is doing is to sell our people out. In the diversion of psychic ping-pong, our morale is at the losing end. And the rhetoric of "good news" in popular consciousness must be countered by critical reception. What needs to be examined are the means with which the people work through the hardships of everyday living – skills, talents, intelligence, hard work, innovations, ingenuity, small acts of kindness – that are to be reworked from token appreciations to collective heroism. The myth of the human essence beating against the odds must be rebuked for this can only mean that the Filipino triumphs because he is simply Filipino. "Winning" stories are after all stories of endurance.

Amidst the failings in this nation of boxers, beauty queens and a bugaw government, our daily struggle to survive should be a movement toward a far better order we stake to inherit. ___________

JPaul Manzanilla teaches in the Department of Arts and Communication of the University of the Philippines Manila.

[Spec-V]

[img width=200 height=155]http://www.webcomicsnation.com/swapmeet/sellerfiles/snore2_small.jpg[/img]

[Miguel]

DAMN!!! First we had something good to read about, then someone would just want to spoil all the fun. Why are just some people so sadistic, like trying to prove that there is no reason to have fun or to celebrate, why do some have to commit self-inflicting pain. That's the reason why this country can't progress, when things are going great someone would just want to dampen the feeling. Before the "Hello Garci scandal" the rate of the peso to the dollar is P53=$1, the economic outlook were all going positive, credit rating agencies rated the Philippines from unstable to stable, all was going good, then here comes the "moralist" and say there was an election controversy; what's the result? Political instability and the economy was badly affected. We already had the positive results on our hand, why would one always look for loopholes, for the "truth'? what "truth"? or was it greed and pride masqueraded as truth? DAMN!!... ok now, enough of this, now back to PRECIOUS LARA QUIGAMAN, MISS INTERNATIONAL 2005.

[pandisal]

thats why you cummies doesn't have love by the poeple coz you want to supress even the simpliest happiness... look at every coummies nation before... they changed!!! so don't get your hope up to get people's love.. your are just a some dirt need to be broom out together w/ this low life politicians....

[Empress_Of_Drac]

Right...This kind of people don't want to enjoy life...they are spoilers who just always want to see the holes of the doughnuts...sad to say but true...they won't be contented in anything...they would die asking for more and more...in short they are losers...(sorry...) but I mean it...

[websniper]

I really appreciate Precious Lara and PacquioaÂ* because they give honor to our country,..eehh... how about you CPP-NPA? Do You?

[tolstoi]

these cummies means of entertainment is only the TARZAN and BAROK shows played 24 hrs a day on their jungle outpost.

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

Very well said Miss Pihil INternational ...

Kana gyud mga CUMMIES .... mga pakialamera .

[rome_calm]

mga bro! hail those people brought us up to the top! and to hell those who always oppose for the good of this country. crabmentality is the best suited phrase to them who always block and clogged up the common good of this country. i saw a problem not just one but a big problem.....we always feeding the greedy and not the hungry....thats all folks thank you and God bless!