Scandals and Scandalous Free Riders

If you look at Google Trends today, you'll find that the most searched item in the net seems to be about calorie restriction diet plan. Interesting is'nt? Despite the recession in the United States, people are still conscious of their diets.



It would obviously, not be true in the Philippines, where 2.1 million Filipino families are experiencing hunger. If they have their own PCs, maybe, they're be looking for "jobs", "work" or simply " how to get food the easy way."



I looked and saw that it's "scandals" and "cabal" that remains as some of the top search words that Filipinos look for. Of course, Marian Rivera seems to be the top female celebrity and Rihanna is going on second place. Paris Hilton remains a hot Pinoy sexual fantasy as Radnarok games.



However, in the blog sphere, people are quick to ride the crest of popular discussion. For example, I know of a blogger who'll jump right straight to the fire of irrationality just to increase hits on his site. He'll write entries without even a batt of an eyelash, again, just to get those hits.



Scandals are staple food for those intellects rotting in those coffeeshops. Worst, there are free riders who will just join the melee and the popular ride just to gain hits.



As what my friend used to say, they are the legitimate scums who try to bully their way into national (un)consciousness just by the click of their cheap laptops.

CBCP condemns Arroyo for corruption

The Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) just released a strongly worded condemnation of the Arroyo regime. CBCP head Archbishop Angel Lagdameo condemned the Arroyo regime for doing nothing to fight corruption. Lagdameo urged the people to act now and change the government.

This, by far, according to Ricky Carandang, is the strongest denunciation ever by the CBCP against Arroyo. Do we see a snowball of dissent against this regime, with Bolante's arrival as the starting point? Hopefully, yes. 

The rise of the New Patriots have begun. 

On second thought...maybe the CBCP is just muscle flexing so that Arroyo strictly followed what she promised---a veto against the Reproductive Health Bill? 

Is this another stunt to show Arroyo that CBCP has the numbers and the power of mischief to force Gloria to choose the CBCP over globalist reproductive health bill lobbyists?

UFO's, Global Recession and People's Revolts

Lately, there has been a renewed fascination on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and almost everything about alien or extraterrestrial life. If you look at Google's Zeitgeist, you'll find that one of the most searched topics include "alien" or "UFOs". Seems like people are looking for alien life with keen interest probably after NASA found water in Mars and Titan and some success probing other intergalastic systems and finding that water and other elements found on earth exists everywhere in the universe.

Scientists, including astrobiologists are saying that the possibility of "alien life" exists. What they are trying to find evidence is the existence of "intelligent" life which, for all intents and purposes, is the subject of most scientific inquiries. But, for what? Hoping for technology transfers or information-sharing on how to mine resources in the universe? Or just to connect?

If the goal of humankind is just to know if other life exists "out there", then one has to probe within the core of the earth to see if life exists there first. It does'nt need multi-billion space projects to know that. Yet, science is not interested on deep sea exploration even though the prospect of seeing and discovering new "alien" life is potentially huge.

One of the goals of space exploration is, I think, rooted in capitalism. These space probes are actually researches on resources, possibly for mining and profits in the future.

Let us go back to this public fancy on UFO's. If you look at history, you can definitely correlate the increase in "alien" research with that of intense global tensions. Previous to the crash of Wall Street in the 1920's were reports of people seeing flying saucers hovering almost all homes and in all places. Prior to the Second World War, we see hundreds of people in Britain reported UFO sightings. At the height of the Cold War, the same sociological phenomenon.

Now, we find amusing statements from World leaders saying that the fate of humankind rest in intergalactic space exploration, as if suggesting that we are on the brink of destroying the very cradle of intelligent life in this solar system. These statements fuel curiosity about what's happening "out there" instead of really, seriously proving what's happening "here".

I will not be surprised if people, especially those from the West, would report increased sightings of UFO's and the arrival of aliens in beige suits or white frocks. People are looking for ways to release stress and tensions owing to this global financial crunch. Am I suggesting that people are just hallucinating? Maybe. Or maybe not. It may be that aliens descend from their space crafts to help and give people some cash. Or that some alien billionaire decided to impart his huge tranche of cash, his profit from all those "alien abductions".

Here in my country, I can definitely predict a big political thing happening whenever people report sightings of dark, hideous creatures from the supernatural world. In the past, people report cases of winged creatures (manananggals) and blood-sucking vampires (asuwang) prior to a coup or a People's Revolt. ABS-CBN TV anchor Julius Babao started making headlines with his reports of asuwangs invading a depressed community in Caloocan city. A celebrity caused a sensation when he reported UFO's landing in some area in Sierra Madre and visiting folks over at that mystical mountain of Quezon province. He even named one of them over national TV. That happened before Erap saw a huge throng of people gather at the famed EDSA Shrine. We saw what happened afterwards--Erap became an "alien" and was caught and hauled at Camp Capinpin in Tanay.

I would not be surprised if, one of these days, Philippine journalists would start reporting cases of "alien abductions", "visits from the grave", "attacks from asuwangs" or even "malevolent duendes (dwarfs) raping virgins". Hey, its Halloween. Or it's the season for charter change?

(If you're really interested on the scientific inquiry about UFO's, look at the National Archives of the British government. They have recently released official documents on the UFO phenomenon. Check it out.)