sicko

I just finished watching Sicko, a Michael Moore documentary about US Healthcare.

With just a few minutes after the film started off, I was so sure I would write an entry about it here. I was amazed and became a fan of Moore’s Farenheit 9/11, but that is nothing compared to the amusement and fun I got with Sicko.

Three important thoughts about the film:

1. The points of the film extend far beyond the United States of America. It goes head on to every single country with no reasonable healthcare policies.

2. It’s theme goes far beyond just health policies. It talks about government, yours and mine.

3.  More than government and health, it talks about humanity, about an idea too good to overlook: looking after another. 

4. I always believe in the Philippines, and intends to stay here all my life. I never really considered permanently moving into another country, until I saw this film.

5. Where the hell do all of our taxes go? I can lecture on and on about it, and so could you. We all know where it is intended to go, don’t we? But we don’t really know where it go: we can’t see it, and it don’t work for us. Read: it don’t work.

6. And yes, I am way over my ‘three important points’. Sixth already, and I can still go for another six. Watch the film, I bet you’ll be able to list a lot more.

7. And did I say ‘watch the film’? More than political, it made me laugh more than any of the comedy films I’ve seen.

benta

…that was what i thought while watching the Pacquiao - dela Hoya ‘Dream Match’. Worst box-office boxing match I’ve seen in years. It was like watching the memorable fight between Ultimate Warrior against Hulk Hogan, only that now I’m already 25, and the amusement of a 10 year old has long gone.

No counter punches while cornered by the ropes? No decent trace of a real fight from a boxer who had 10 world titles? Not a single round seemingly won by dela Hoya? It was definitely a Pacquiao show, with the Golden Boy allowing himself to be a breathing punching bag. Err, what’s golden in that?

I am a proud Filipino with every Pacquiao match, win or lose. But I just can’t believe that ‘Dream Match’ ; it was a very easy win like what happens only in dreams.

2013 / 2017

“I am an unofficial green card holder without my consent. We all are, on different terms.”

I was actually supposed to write an entry about the US Presidential Elections about a month ago, when I saw John McCain and Barack Obama battle it out in one of the debates televised worldwide. It made me wonder how come the Philippines never had any of those presidential debates. It could have at least given us a more enlightening outlook to how the candidates think, better than how the media portrayed them. But then again that’s another story.I was virtually there when Obama won the US Presidency in the election held two weeks ago. I was following the news in CNN and in the Internet. I silently wished for an Obaman America as the voting day closed in. I slept with the TV open on election day, wishing that when I open my eyes the first black US president is waving at the world, including me. True enough.I’ve never been an avid fan of US electoral system before, although I actually chose to study a couple of courses on American democracy and political philosophy. I guess on the next four or eight years, I will be one of those who will follow the turn of events in US domestic and foreign policy. Suddenly I became a political animal again, in the macro sense; a cynical spectator who fears for what lies ahead.

I wonder what will happen to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, or how NoKor and the old Persia will be viewed by the US under Obama. How about healthcare, and taxes, and Wall Street. How about globalization, counter-terrorism and world peace. How about the US government meddling with Philippine governance and economy. How about business process outsourcing. How about my job.

Perhaps that is the reason why all of a sudden I get too concerned about what Obama will bring into the table. With almost all my relatives living in their turf and with my job catching a flu when their economy sneezes, I will be affected by their policies. I am an unofficial green card holder without my consent. We all are, on different terms.

Talk about globalization. Talk about a ‘world without strangers’, and talk about that being strange.