The opposition may have roundly lost in the last national elections, but for progressive forces there was a glimmer of hope in the local government arena where a crop of junior politicians won over established dynasties in some crucial positions. One of these is Vico Sotto, with his boyish good looks and down-to-earth style, who was elected mayor of Pasig City.
Almost everyone I know who lives in Manila is excited for the upcoming Van Gogh Alive multi-media immersive exhibit set to open later this month. Van Gogh is undoubtedly one of the most popularly known painters of all time and his body of work one of the most easily recognized. It is thus no surprise that this event has generated plenty of buzz.
The film Joker has played into the agenda of people of various political stripes. Conservatives have stoked up fears of it instigating mayhem on the streets, there are liberal voices who criticize its depiction of mental illness or its supposed glamorization of “incel” tendencies. Each assessment can be examined by the individual watcher if they are so inclined. But what I want to address here is whether it is the progressive masterpiece that some claim it to be. I think it is not.
It was a dangerous decision, but this underscores the urgency of that task, which Kaylo readily took on. This decision may have cost him his life, but Kaylo believed in his people and in their capacity to be decisive and to take the fight into their own hands. He had come of age during such a time – during the 1994 pangayaw – and there was no reason to believe that they could not do it again.
One of the things that constant militarization, or continuously renewing Martial Law, accomplishes is that it normalizes the sight of fully-armed personnel and their weaponry in public and civilian spaces (like schools). It makes things that you would only normally see in an active conflict zone a part of our everyday. It conditions us to think that our safety depends solely upon their highly-visible presence in our communities and landscape.