Trees

You will not look at the trees or a tree the same way after clicking on this and even if you're on drugs.
And then if you are interested about the Kalinga bodong and the tribal wars they are trying to mend, then take a look at New Guinea. Here's anthropologist Jared Diamond's essay on the tribal wars there.
The UK Telegraph tries to give their best 100 films

Francia on Bush's TWAT

Please read Luis Francia's story on GWOT in The Nation.

December 10

Today is Human Rights Day. Don't think of yourself. Think of the people who disappeared and their loved ones who go on hoping. Think of the writers and artists who were killed so that your leader can be given a human rights citation. Think of the sufferings you caused for not thinking of others. Think of the war we are in because we stopped acting. UNSUBSCRIBE.

Onoda

Here is wickedpedia entry on the Japanese straggler in the Philippines:

Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (小野田 寛郎 Onoda Hirō; born March 19, 1922) is a former Japanese army intelligence officer trained by the Nakano School who was stationed on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He was there when it was reclaimed by the Allies in February 1945, towards the conclusion of World War II. Most of the Japanese troops were slain or captured by Allied forces. Onoda and several other men, however, hid in the dense jungle.
Onoda continued his campaign, initially living in the mountains with three fellow soldiers, Akatsu, Shimada, and Kozuka. One of his comrades, Akatsu, eventually surrendered to Filipino forces, and the other two were killed in gun battles with local forces—one in 1954, the other in 1972—leaving Onoda alone in the mountains. For 29 years, he refused to surrender, dismissing every attempt to convince him that the war was over as a ruse. In 1959, Onoda was declared legally dead in Japan.
Found by a Japanese student, Norio Suzuki, Onoda still refused to accept that the war was over unless he received orders to lay down his arms from his superior officer. Suzuki offered his help, and returned to Japan with photographs of himself and Onoda as proof of their encounter. In 1974 the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He flew to Lubang and informed Onoda of the defeat of Japan in WWII and ordered him to lay down his arms. Lieutenant Onoda emerged from the jungle 29 years after the end of World War II, and accepted the commanding officer's order of surrender in his dress uniform and sword, with his Arisaka Type 99 rifle still in operating condition, 500 rounds of ammunition and several hand grenades.
Though he had killed some thirty Philippine inhabitants of the island and engaged in several shootouts with the police, the circumstances of these events were taken into consideration, and Onoda received a pardon from President Ferdinand Marcos.
After his surrender, Onoda moved to Brazil, where he became a cattle farmer. He released an autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War, shortly after his surrender, detailing his life as a guerrilla fighter in a war that was long over. He revisited Lubang Island in 1996, donating $10,000 for the local school on Lubang. He then married a Japanese woman and moved back to Japan where he established a nature camp for kids. At the camp Onoda shares what he learned about survival through resourcefulness and ingenuity. As of 2007, Onoda is still living in Japan.

Irony of our Pinoy Times

"He had leadership skills but he was an activist and he was rowdy. At the height of student activism, he was the most vocal of the school activists”

Dr. Cleofe Bacungan, former registrar of the Philippine Science High School
on Gen. Hermogenes Esperon

Esperon, now the AFP Chief of Staff, of course came back last exactly year to the bastion of campus activism then and now (read: UP Diliman) and was egged on by the students (read: pinagbabato ng mga itlog at mais). Sad for the general but ironic.

CIDG

I Googled for "CIDG" and instead was brought to "Cardiac Inherited Disease Group" and "Civilian Irregular Defense Group." I thought the second one was a joke on our CIDG which is Civilian Intelligence and Detection Group, but then CIDG is a real thing. The CIA created CIDG or Sidgee in Vietnam in 1961 as a low-level intensity conflict. The Green Beret has their ADC or the Area Development Centers mostly among the Montagnards or the IPs of the area. This is so eerily similar to the Philippine situation then and now it got me into a praning mode early Monday morning. And then along Session Road, there was a rally of placards denouncing the NPAs.

Tayaotao

Twenty-seven year old Marine Sergeant Michael Tayaotao, said to be the first Igorot soldier to die during the Iraq war, will be buried Friday (Saturday Manila time) at Poway, California.Tayaotao, a bomb disposal technician with the 7th Engineer Support Battalion, was killed Aug. 9 in Al-Anbar province while undergoing combat operations.

According to her aunt, Connie, the Tayaotaos trace their roots in Balili, La Trinidad. Though Michael was born in San Diego, CA and was never been to the Philippines, he was an FBI or a Full-blooded Igorot. His father Mario is a retired US Navy serviceman and mother Hilda is from Kapangan. Connie said that Michael's grandmother Bibiana would be attending the burial. Michael would be buried beside younger brother Vincent who died last October while a student at the University of California in Irvine.

Tayaotao is a bemedalled soldier who was even praised by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a courageous man. "His courage is an example of the extraordinary commitment that is displayed every day by our nation's service members. Each time we lose a member of our armed forces, we are painfully reminded of the cost of freedom and democracy," Schwarzenegger said in a press statement.

Tayaotao was on his third tour of duty when he died and has already spent nine years in the Army. Another Fil-Am soldier was killed last week in Iraq, bringing to six the Fil-Americans who died in Iraq since May. Army Private First Class Paulo Marko U. Pacificador, 24, died of wounds on August 13 in Qayyarah when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. Pacificador, a son of a Filipino soldier, was a resident of Queens, New York City and was born in Buguey, Cagayan. Pacificador joined the US Army in January 2006 and was on his third mission when he and two others from the 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1^st Cavalry Division died in Iraq. His father, Jose, belonged to the Philippine Air Force. Mark was six when their family migrated to the US. Four other Fil-Ams died in Iraq since May.

The Coffee War

“It is disgusting to note the increase in the quantity of coffee used by my subjects and the amount of money that goes out of the country in consequence. Everybody is using coffee. If possible this must be prevented. My people must drink beer. His Majesty was brought up on beer, and so were his officers. Many battles have been fought and won by soldiers nourished on beer; and the King does not believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be depended upon to endure hardships or to beat his enemies in case of occurrence of another war.” Frederick the Great of Prussia

“There are various theories as to what characteristics, what combination of traits, what qualities in our men won the war. This democratic heritage is highly thought of: the instinctive mechanical know-how of thousands of our young men is frequently cited: the church and Coca-cola, baseball and the movies all come in for their share of credit; but, speaking from my own observation of our armed forces, I should say the war was won on coffee.” Ilka Chase.

Last Call for Alcohol

Finally science that is really working for us. The University of Kentucky (home of Jack Daniels)decided to study why drunks are so belligerent. According to the July issue of the journal Psychological Science, the study showed that alcohol can both increase and decrease aggression.
"In the study, both drunk and sober men, age 21 to 33 years old, competed in a computer game in which they had to complete a command (like "press the space bar") quicker than an opponent. Winners could zap their opponents with shocks of varying intensity," LiveScience reported. "Some of the drinkers also were given a taxing memory task during the game. The distracted drinkers showed less aggression toward their opponents, zapping them with weaker shocks, than the "empty-headed" drinkers as well as the sober non-drinkers."
The point of the lesson is that the drunks were more aggressive but if you distract them, they can become pacifists.
"The scientists suggest sober men had enough cognitive space to deal with both the provocative zaps and memory distractions, resulting in a low level of belligerence. Activating working memory reduces the "cognitive space" available for aggressive thoughts and resulting actions. Since drinkers have a diminished mental capacity, the memory task "used up" space that otherwise could have been allocated to a brawl."
So distract the drunk. And the rule I finally made up from the study is the 3D. Dumb Drunks Dangerous.

Bodies

Sunday afternoon, I was walking along Session Rd. when I saw a crowd in front of the entrance of Music & Magic and Country Mart. Turned out a man was found dead. He was there even in the morning and could have suffered a stroke. People thought he was just drunk. A friend said it was a lonely way to die. Lonelier still a police report I got about two bodies found in the border of Benguet and La Union:

The first cadaver is described to be between 30-38 years old, about 5’4” in height, medium built, fair complexion, military haircut, wearing black short pants with blue stripes, with tattoo markings on his body as labeled with barbwire on his neck, barbwire with heart, sword with heart, rose on the upper right arm, skull with barbwire, animal Indian with name “Analiza” on the left arm, dragon on his left back portion, with gunshot wound on his forehead and strangulation marks on his neck and chin.
The second cadaver is between 35-40 years old, about 5’4” in height, medium built, fair complexion, clean haircut, wearing black short pants with tattoo markings on his body labeled as sword with heart, with name “Tess” on the upper left arm, JW initial on the lower right arm, with gunshot wound on his middle chest and strangulation marks on his neck.

Somewhere out there, Analiza and Tess are grieving or maybe not.