The World Food Summit Menu

In the 2002 Food Summit, they dined on:

Foie gras and toast with kiwi fruit
Lobster in vinaigrette
Fillet of goose with olives
Seasonal vegetables
Compote of fruit with vanilla
Vins multiple fine wines

Now recently they had it toned down
because of decorous hypocrisy :

2008 menu

Vol au vent with sweetcorn and mozzarella
Pasta with cream of pumpkin and shrimps
Veal olives with cherry tomatoes and basil
Fruit salad with vanilla ice cream
Vin Orvieto Classico Poggio Calvelli 2005

In 2014, the menu would have to be:

Soylent Green
Lucky Me Instant Noodles (Pasig River Flavor)
Cardboard siopao
Chocnut
Red Horse Beer

Hillary

I read Barrck's book even before he keynoted the Dem's party years ago but my heart really belongs to Hillary. That's why, like Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, it's a pain watching her post-NC speech.

Villar's Bilyar

One of the "nicer" things that Senate President Manny Villar did was organize the Villar Cup. One, billiards is one thing we're good at and second, his name is almost a homonym to "bilyar." So I didn't know there was a controversy behind the 1st Villar Cup until Villar's camp sent an email to me (and presumably to the rest of the media) about Efren "Bata" Reyes denying that they joined the tournament only because of the money. Reyes also said (the statement was in Filipino) that Villar is not "incompetent" to hold such tournament and that they were not paid to join the senator's gimmick. Paying top players to join a tournament is the norm in golf and presumably in billiards as well. So what's all the sour-graping all about then? Roxas can have a market beautification contest to remind people that he is "Mr. Palengke" or encourage people to cook meals at P50 (Roxas). Bayani Fernando can hold cycling tournaments to remind people that he is the only one to install bike lanes in his city. Or maybe a tenor singing contest. Noli de Castro can have a dwarf-tossing contest. It's all in the image, peepz.

My Sad Republic May 6: Sue

Lawyer Elly Pamatong filed a case against the Supreme Court for changing his middle name from "Velez" to "Chavez." Small thing you say but Pamatong:
1) filed a case against the Pope and Manila Archbishop Gaudencio "No Gays in Santacruisin'" Rosales for rumormongering
2) wanted to make Philippines the 51st state of the US
3) punctured 170 cars in Manila after he was disqualified as a presidential candidate
Also, a Romanian filed a case against a beer company because he got drunk after drinking only one can of their beer
An English guy fined 225 pounds for not closing his basura properly
Warboys Community Primary School is forced to ban its logo of a witch on a stick because it drives away parents and students

Jun Lozada

I expected him to be smaller, but then he was among nuns. He said he can not be compared to Chavit Singson. He asks the people to buy lotto tickets if they want to change the fate of their country, or sort of. I love the whole lotto metaphor (or should that be conceit). He is a little ashamed of receiving doleouts compared to the cabal in the government who actually earns the wages of 20 million workers in only one transaction. Outrage is what Jun was after but then from the audience I can only see admiration.

Obama, You Have a Call Center

Mickeyed

Of all people. Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, the most vocal critic of Mickey Mouse colonialism, in Recife, northeastern Brazil, March 27, 2008. Picture taken March 27, 2008. REUTERS/Lula Marques-Folha

Games of the GG Part II

The Greedy Group vs. Whistle-Blower-Probinsyanong-Instik-Who-Suddenly- Found-Instant-Fame-And-Is-Now-Acting-Like-A-Politician (WHPIWSFIFAINALAP). Losers. While the Gucci Gang Scandal has a cast of a thousand beautiful people, the Greedy Group Scandal features a cast of a thousand ugly people. The investigation tackled a whole range of yummy topics ranging from melo-drama (must the star witness always cry and look perplexed and constipated?), sex (a witness who can not testify for fear of being outed by at least two senators who themselves should be outed), comedy (hambur-jer, bukol, tong-pats. A surprise witness who caused the senators to be surprised), action (a man kidnaped at the airport, brought to Laguna, and before one can say Sister Act III, was rescued by nuns), and a whole lot of mystery (money by the billion dollars, and who the hell is F.G.?).

Jun Lozada (J.Lo) and Joey De Venecia . Winner – Loser. Winner for preventing that dirty ZTE deal to push through and, exposing the shenanigans of the very dirty Abalos. Losers because as the feisty Miriam would say "this is just a fight for kickbacks". Pare-pareho lang kayo.

If anything, Joey is a winner for being instrumental in the removal of Yoda (his over staying father) as speaker of the house, and as the head of his political party. To this, thank you Joey. On a lighter side, CW's officemate is wondering if the real father of Joey de Venecia is Mayor Sanchez of Caluan, Laguna. Not because they both committed heinous crimes, but they both sport heinous hair-dos.

As for J.Lo. CW thinks he is telling the truth. Well, most of of the time anyway. But please, Clarissa Ocampo he is not. CW finds J.Lo too glib, too showbiz, and too politician for comfort. The act is fast becoming stale, J.Lo. As the Melanie Marquez would say : You can cry once, you can cry twice, you can even cry thrice…but you can never cry four. CW does not want to think the fate awaiting this man once his usefulness has dried-up.

Benjamin Abalos. Loser. CW can not think of an adjective to describe this creature. Except, Ang Tigas ng Mukha Mo! You are about to kick the bucket Mr. Abalos, so think of the legacy you are leaving behind your grandchildren. All carrying the Abalos name. Please, have some decency.

My take on the "decent" Abalos family. They held a presscon a month ago. It's a telling, the reporter wanted it to be touching but No!, story. The Abalosses held a Mass but Ben wasn't there. Where, you ask. But of course, golf.
And his lawyer had the temerity to say that "he was stressed enough.' No time for God, but golf, Yes. Greedy, but leisurely, bastard.
Then the son had this to say about his mother:

“My mom wasn’t sleeping. We have not had a good night’s sleep for the past two years,” Benhur said

Sleepless nights: Check

"According to Benhur, his nephews have been teased and taunted in school because of their grandfather."

Unjust vexation: Check

Hey, if the decent Abalosses go on, they can get rich suing the people.

Hogs turned to Kitty, by Amazing PGMA

Apparently, pigs went to pigs. Or (fund for) pigs turned to (election) kitty. In other words, the Greedy Gang went hog wild.

The government may have spent some P900 million out of its P2.46-billion swine program to fund the 2004 election campaign, a civil society lawyer said Wednesday. In an interview on dzBB radio, lawyer Harry Roque Jr said he is now organizing the documents involving balances of up to P900-million in the government swine program involving Quedan and Rural Credit Corp. (Quedancor). Notably, the balance was spent during an election year, Roque said.

Greedy Meets Gucci Part I

forwarded message:

WINNERS – LOSERS : THE HEAT IS ON.

From the Greedy Group to the Gucci Gang. From Jamby to Janina. From Ramielle Malubay to Rovilson & Marc. Conventional Wisdom is at it again. To rant. To rave.


The Season of Lent is a good time to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly events we have been experiencing for the past months. Conventional Wisdom (CW) a firm believer in the saying what will not kill you will only make you stronger, is back and fortunately, has not succumbed to aneurysm caused by the scandals heaped upon by the likes of Gretchen, Kris, Ruffa last year.

Unfortunately, only to be replaced by even bigger scandals these past months. Read on, and find out the latest score card.

The Gucci Gang vs. Conned-Aussie-Gay-Guy-With-HIV-Seeking-Revenge- Through-His-Blog (CAGGWHIVSRTHB). Losers. Probably the biggest and hottest scandal du-jour after the ZTE. Gloria Arroyo should be sending thank you notes or better yet, cash (via Western Union) to Brian (the CAGGWHIVSRTHB) for taking the heat out of the Senate ZTE investigation. Giving us, the masses, what can only be described as a nuclear melt-down to gawk at.

Spanning two continents, the blog features a cast of thousand beautiful people (ok, not all beautiful. As the acronym T.I.M. Y.A.P. rightfully spells : T. Inang Mukha Yan, Ang Pangit) involve in drugs, sex in all its permutations, and con artists posing as society boys and girls. The blog tackled a whole range of delicious topics ranging from suspense (a murder cover up inside an exclusive condo), action (police raid of someone's room in the middle of the night in picturesque Boracay) comedy (the clam chowders, or married rich men who actually like other men, but pamper their trophy wives to death), horror and science fiction (all the fat, ugly, and balding high society people who think they are svelte, gorgeous and, with full hair), sex (someone asking for head inside a running elevator), and documentary (a dissection of someone's personal hygiene). This is Discover Channel at its Best.

Brian's blog makes Gossip Girl, Devil Wears Prada, and The Nanny Diaries look like The Sound of Music. Next to Celine Lopez, Kris Aquino is a nun. The blog is vile, dirty, bitchy, and oozing with venom. CW likes it.

We may not wear Gucci. We may not be able to set foot in your clubs. We go to StarMall instead of Greenbelt 5. We ride on that can of sardines masquerading as MRT, and we buy our lunch from the Jolli-jeep. But we do honest work for an honest pay. And we live real, meaningful lives. Thank you very much.

How to Kill a Country

Atlantic Monthly just came out with an article on how to kill a country. Samantha Power gave ten ways. Check how PGMA is faring in this dreadful checklist.

Bad EggS

Nanay Mameng Diunida, chair of the urban poor organization KADAMAY), led members of her organization, the Anakpawis partylist and the NNARA Youth-UP Diliman in an Ouster Sunday egg hunt at the public market in Trabajo, Sampaloc. They searched for the Easter eggs until they collected all the 10 eggs that spell OUST GLORIA.
Also:
A UROLOGIST
GUITAR SOLO
RIOTOUS GAL
OUT GO RAILS
RITUAL GOOS
GOAL IS TOUR
SUGAR TO OIL

Update on the Punctuation Family

Cory Aquino's : puts -PGMA force in ?
Kris's delayed . becomes ...
Colon cancer is in the genes so Noynoy has a ;

Political Ad

Punctuation Family

Cory Aquino has cancer of the colon.
Her daughter easily missed her period.
Her son is in a pause.

The Sins of Patronage

Everyday there are full-page ads from a local government unit or a group of LGUs vowing their support of the administration of President Arroyo. Today, there was a correction of an ad from the Assumptionistas eternally beholden to the President. It corrected names of deceased included among the signatures. A full page ad from the Inquirer costs about P250,000. The Assumptionista correction cost about P75,000. This infuriates me because they eat up space that would have had stories from journalists like me. Instead, we are bumped off because the mayor of Maasin, Southern Leyte is spending a huge chunk of its IRA to say that he loves to lick the ass of an evil person. Until I remembered what a powerful person in authority told me last week: that these ads were paid by the government. It all made sense now. You pay for the ad so that you can have a semblance that people are still on your side while at the same time, you dislodge stories that are mostly critical of your government. This is the essence of the patronage politics. Hey, I pay you so that you will support and silence me. President Arroyo (God Bless her Soul) will be paying generals, mayors, governors and many, many others until 2010. She will be using up our money to silence these potential enemies. She has to stay till 2010 because she has to pay the people who made her buy her way through the elections. Which meant that she had to extend her term to pay off her enemies now. That's why we also need to cut her now and cut cleanly.

The Media part of the Presidential Campaign in the Philippines Has Began

Last year during the Media Nation 4 in February, I made the mistake of giving my email address to the staff of the keynote speaker. Yes, he is Sen. Mar Roxas, the LP presidential candidate. Now I get four to five press releases from his staff. I don't know though who gave my email add to Sen. Manny Villar, the presidential candidate of NP. Now I get five stories from Villar everyday. It's not a computer-generated email service where you can hit "DISCONTINUE" and get it over with. So I have to bear with this till 2010. Now I spend a few minutes, deleting them with the spam.

Voting through Fonts

Designers tried to become voters in the U. S. presidential campaign. They looked at the fonts used in their campaign stickers instead of their personalities and issues. Well, your choice of fonts like your choice of music reflects on who you are or what you aspire for. Never mind if your team chose the design. It's still between the candidate and the font. Guess who wins? According to Boston Globe, it's Obama and McCain who show "change" in their font selection.

Your Campaign Music Defines You

• Audio | Romney's campaign tune, You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive
• Audio | Romney's campaign tune, Don't Stop Believing by Journey
• Audio | McCain's campaign tune, Take a Chance by Abba
• Audio | McCain's campaign tune, Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry
• Audio | Giuliani's campaign tune, Taking Care of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive
• Audio | Giuliani's campaign tune, Best of Both Worlds by Van Halen
• 
  
• These are the campaign jingles of the Republican presidential frontrunners. Your music defines you, according to Miami Herald Well, they are all old.
• And here's Hillary's campaign song. No kidding!
• 
  

Gas Price Around the World

As Nash would say in the next blog (Hey, I'm in San Juan. Don't disturb), look at Venezuela. Maybe Hugo is doing something right.