Still Filipino at Heart and Buds

          In the Philippines, when one talks about traveling, the most definite thing that comes out of a Filipino mind, including me (of course!), is going overseas. But it is impossible for a traveler to encounter some forms of hassle along the trip. So when I found a literary article that tackles a certain trouble when going abroad, I immediately read it. The title of the article is “Where’s the Patis?” by Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil.

Here is a summary of the article:

          "A Filipino’s greatest dream is to be able to travel different countries. Once he/she steps on foreign soil, he/she could immediately cope up with the new culture, including the way the foreign locals dress, act, eat, etc. But one thing that a Pinoy will have difficulties coping up with is food. While in a foreign country, a Filipino will definitely long for the delicious taste of Philippine cuisines, for his first sense of security is his/her local sense of taste. The big problem is that there is no “patis” available abroad.  There are foreign dishes that are quite similar to some Filipino dishes like the venison, which is similar to the tapang usa, and the escargots, which are similar to snails, but the tastes are still far different. A Filipino will also have trouble finding a restaurant overseas that serves rice as a part of the main dish because in most countries, particularly in Europe and America, they consider rice as a vegetable, and the preparation of rice in such countries is not the same as how we prepare rice in the Philippines. Having no available Filipino dishes in a foreign country’s local restaurants, a Pinoy searches for a Chinese restaurant because Chinese dishes are deeply inculcated within the Filipino culture, but only to find out that the dishes are also different from the ones available in the Philippines. But better than a Chinese restaurant, a Pinoy will definitely search every busy sidewalk for a Filipino restaurant managed by, of course, a fellow Pinoy.” (Full essay available HERE)

        A creative technique used in this selection that caught my attention is the use of the word “patis”. For most of you, the word patis will just look like an ordinary word that describes a Filipino-made condiment, and doesn’t actually have a deep meaning in the text. But for me, “patis” was used to symbolize the love that the Pinoys have for their country’s delicacies, which contains distinct tastes from foods available abroad.

          I think, the message that the writer of the essay would like to convey is that, even though there are Filipinos who would choose other countries such as those in Europe and in the Americas over their own country, which is the Philippines, and to practice foreign traditions over their native ways, the good thing is that there will always be a part deep inside them that will always make them a true Filipino. In the essay’s case, the “part” that makes a Filipino always a Filipino is their taste for food. Wherever they are in this world, they will always remember the taste of their native land, and will always crave for it. Other people might also think that the message that the writer would like to convey in her essay is homesickness. A Filipino thousands of miles away from home just wishing to get back to his/her native land, instead, satisfies his/her loneliness through the different Philippine cuisines that are available abroad.

          But the “Pinoy” in the essay doesn’t necessarily represent all the Filipinos that are currently overseas. It was not mentioned there that there are also Filipinos who hold a grudge for their country. If most of them would like to remember the taste of their native land, other Filipinos actually prefer to remember nothing about their origin. For them, it brings them pain whenever they remember that they have the blood of a Filipino.

          Back to the topic. I think, the reason why the writer of the essay would like to convey this kind of message is to give hope to the nationalistic people of the Philippines who are losing faith to their countrymen abroad, in order to give them light that the Filipinos in other countries, who seem to have traded their native culture to some foreign traditions, are still Filipinos at heart and buds.

           

           

Into the World of Modern Magic

          I am a huge fan of magic. Actually, I’m a huge fan of the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling. Most of the genres of the Animes that I have watched include fantasy, which include magic most of the time. I’m an avid magic fan, to the point that I would do anything just to be transported to a world filled with authentic magic. But after I watched “Now You See Me”, a 2013 film directed by Louis Leterrier, it was a whole new experience for me because it was my first time to watch a movie that includes in its storyline the forms of magic possible to create in the real world.

Here is the trailer of the movie from VISO Trailers:

(Source: VISO Trailers. (2012, November 20). Now you see me - Official Trailer [HD] [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MHDYZJWLXA)

          The movie is all about four different people who do not know each other, but have one thing in common: They possess vast amount of knowledge about magic tricks and they actually hold outstanding magic capabilities. One day, the four of them received some sort of "tarot cards". Written on the opposite side of the cards is an address, which will lead them into a completely different track in life. This marks the beginning of the legend of the four horsemen. Together, they organized three outstanding magical shows that involves giving away their audience a huge amount of money. In order to have a big amount of money, they had to initiate a robbing business using "magic". But since there is no strong evidence against them, the police can't do anything reckless against them other than putting the four horsemen on the watch list. On their final trick, in order to make them appear innocent, they framed one of the antagonists in the movie by putting every single amount of money they stole into the antagonist's car, making him look like the mastermind in all the robbery cases. In the end, the four horsemen were all shocked from what they found out. The one person who mobilized them to create best magical tricks in their entire life was no other than an FBI agent. The entire time, the agent was acting that he was one of the enemies. But it turned out that he has been an accomplice in the very beginning. "First rule of magic? Always be the smartest guy in the room."

          The very thing that made this movie get my attention is its video effects. The effects gave way to emphasize the different magic tricks being performed by the actors and the actress, which takes my breath away every time a trick was performed. Another thing that I love about this magical movie are the seemingly unbelievable tricks like teleportation and illusion magic. These “unbelievable” tricks were explained detail-by-detail in the movie which made it look possible to carry tricks like these in real life. The movie left no dangling questions inside me because it is a kind of movie that is complete in thought. I also think that the movie has no logical loopholes, which could damage the movie’s storyline. It is a complete move, I would say.

Teleporting from Vegas to a bank in Paris in 3 seconds. Real? Nah, just a trick.

          The only thing that I do not like about the movie is the message that it would like to convey. It somehow sends a message to the audience that it is alright to commit a crime as long as you will not get caught, or there will be insufficient evidence to prove that one is guilty. In the movie, the four horsemen, who robbed different people and institutions, were not proven guilty because there are no sufficient evidence to prove that they really did the crime.

A Horseman (left) playing around with the cops, confident enough that he will not be imprisoned because of “Magic”.

          But I think, the director of the movie would like to convey that kind of message because he wants to show an instance that could possibly happen if Magic tricks were misused. We can’t ignore this possibility because, in a modern world like ours today, people does not actually believe in magic, and would find a news article that contains the news headline “People held in prison for using magic to rob a bank” hilarious. Like, SERIOUSLY?! Who in this world would believe in this magical robbery incident?

 

"Rewind the Future"

          Recently, a controversial anti-obesity video ad pulled the internet into a state of chaos. The different viewers have their own perspective about the video. The ad was entitled “Rewind the Future” and was created by Srong4Life and uploaded to the online video-sharing site YouTube.

Here’s the video ad from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4life:

(Source: Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Strong4Life. (2013, September 10). Rewind the future. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jcr3WOkL_1w

          In the video, they used a first person perspective, which made me feel that I am the one acting on the video. This style made me feel, somehow, what the person starred in the video was feeling. The speed of the transition from one video clip to another, plus the sound effect of a man heavily breathing makes it breath-taking advertisement (literally). The creator of the video ad also used the “flashback” effect, which made the title “Rewind the Future” fit the video perfectly. Here are some print screens arranged in order from the video that proves that it used the “flashback” effect:

1] Scene from the operating room due to heart attack.

2] Scene showing the problem (Unhealthy eating) which led to the person’s ailment.

3] Scene showing that the root cause of the person’s unhealthy eating habit is the way how he was spoiled by his mother.

          The message that the ad leaves, for me, is to change some of the parenting habits that most parents are doing today. The common knowledge is that, when a baby is crying, one must give anything that the baby likes in order to stop the tantrums. But this is a wrong kind of thinking! The things that one do to baby can gravely affect the baby’s future. Once the baby grows up, he/she has the tendency to bring with him/her the ways that he/she learned when he/she was still a baby. For the video’s case, it was the unhealthy way of eating that the main person has brought from his baby years until the time that he grew up.

          Other people might find the video a little offending because, back at the last part of the video, the scene at the operating room was once again flashed, together with the words: “Your child’s future doesn’t have to look like this.”

Here’s a proof:

          Stating a line like that, while having an over-sized man in the background can be offending to some people because, in some way, the advertisement carries some form of discrimination with it. It sends a message to the audience like: “If you are over-sized, you will have a devastated future.”

          Strong4Life is a movement known for fighting the epidemic of child obesity. So, I think, Strong4Life’s purpose of creating this ad is to create a better future for the children who are at risk of obesity, by trying to change their wrong eating habits and lifestyles as early as possible, which can help them avoid the impending diseases associated with being over-weight.