Need I Say More?

PacMan pwns!

Love Letters

Watching full-length movies has never been a possibility for me these days. Short movies and youtube have always been my form of break and source of entertainment. I particulary like this one: Signs. It's a 10-minute clip about two people separated by distance and bridged not by email but by traditional letter.

Japan-ASEAN Student Conference

[all errors, sic.]

Are you a student at an AUN Member University?

The JAPAN-ASEAN Student Conference will be held in Japan on 13-19 November 2009.

The Japan-ASEAN Student Conference proposed by the government of Japan is in pursuit of forging networks among 120 and 30 youths from ASEAN and Japan in building mutual understanding and network of initiative. Reflecting the Three Pillars of envisioned ASEAN community, the Conference set discussion themes around (1) Environment (political-security), (2) Economy, and (3) Socio-Culture.


1. All expenses will be shouldered by the Japanese Government

The air ticket of students will be provided by travel agency subcontracted with JICE



2. The application package and documents send out from AUN Secretariat includes:

· Application Guideline

· Entry Form

· Sheet for Academic Background

· VISA Application

· Description sheet of three discussion themes

· List of travel agency subcontracted with JICE in ASEAN country



3. Qualifications of the applicant

Age between 18-25 (undergraduate or graduate students)
Have English Proficiency
Have a deep understanding and relevant background in the assigned theme
Have basic knowledge of ASEAN-Japan relationships is desirable
Have not been participated in JENESYS projects
Preference to be given to the students who had been participated the ASEAN University Youth Summit 2008, Thailand.


4. Require documents from applicant:

· Entry Form

· Information Sheet on Academic Background

· Two photo (5x5 cm)

· Three copies of passport

· VISA Application

· Essay (1000 – 1500 Words)

· One Recommendation Letter



5. The documents’ collection:

Documents submitted to AUN: (the soft files submission is desirable)

· Copy of Passport

· Entry Form

· Essay

· Recommendation letter

· Information Sheet on Academic Background



Documents that should be kept at AUN Member Universities in each country (for visa arrangement):

· Copy of Passport

· Visa application form (two original with photo for each)

· Copy of Entry Form



6. The deadline of submission

Please submit the list of candidate to AUN Secretariat by 10 September 2009

The submission documents (please see details on Item 5) can be sent to AUN Secretariat later but not later than 16 September 2009.



7. Selection process

The candidates from AUN Member Universities will be selected by the Steering Committee which comprises AUN Secretariat, JICE and Japanese Embassy, Thailand. The successful candidates will be announced by the end of September.



8. Visa Arrangement

After the conclusion of the selection process, Travel Agency subcontracted with JICE in each country will collect Original Passport and Visa application form (with photo) of the successful candidates. For further information on visa arrangement, please contact the travel agency in your country directly.

The list of travel agency is attached herewith for your information.



9. The contact person of the programme



Pornpen JOY Khooharungkitcharoen (MS)
AUN Programme Officer



Office of the AUN Secretariat
Room 210 Jamjuree 1 Building,
Chulalongkorn University
Phayathai Road,
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: + (662) 2153640/ 2153642 ext. 105
Fax: + (662) 2168808
Email: pornpen@aun-sec.org

Ratatouille too Late

Although Liguini's terrible command of his bipedalism makes me jelly on my chair, something has just been fixed in my head, and that is the Critic's concession:

Ego
"In many ways the work of a critic
is easy. We risk very little, yet
enjoy a position over those who
offer up their work and their
selves to our judgment. We thrive
on negative criticism, which is fun
to write and to read.

But, the bitter truth we critics
must face is that, in the grand
scheme of things... the average
piece of junk is probably more
meaningful than our criticism
designating it so. But there are
times when a critic truly risks
something... and that is in the
discovery and defense of the new.

The world is often unkind to new
talent, new creations. The new
needs friends.


Last night I experienced something
new, an extraordinary meal from an
singularly unexpected source.
To say that both the meal and its
maker have challenged my
preconceptions about fine cooking,
is a gross understatement-- they
have rocked me to my core.

In the past I have made no secret
of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s
famous motto: “Anyone Can Cook”.
But I realize only now do I truly
understand what he meant. Not
everyone can become a great artist,
but a great artist can come from
anywhere.

It is difficult to imagine more
humble origins than those of the
genius now cooking at Gusteau’s,
who is, in this critic’s opinion,
nothing less than the finest Chef
in France."
--------
I watched the movie just today. -_-

Multimedia Contest

ASEAN-Korea Centre is organizing the 2009 ASEAN-Korea Multimedia Competition for ASEAN and Korean university (including graduate) students. The winners will be invited to attend the Awards Ceremony scheduled to be held in Seoul in September and their artwork displayed at an exclusive exhibition. The deadline to submit entries will be midnight August 31st, 2009.


● Categories

1. Photography

2. Video/Multimedia

For Yurina, Dave, and Peter

화이팅 데이브, 판수야!
Ganbatte Yurina!

Bakla ako, pakialam mo [I'm Gay! So What?, literal]

This is a Facebook post written by one of my favorite professors who is as brilliant, if not more, as any heterosexual professor I've had.

(Warning: This is a rant so pardon the profusion of argumentative fallacies. I deserve to unburden myself once in a while, I guess.)

I woke up this morning thinking this day would be pleasant. And I must say it started pleasantly. I finally submitted a chapter of my dissertation to my supervisor via email (after weeks of mental constipation) and got my Schengen Visa via the Polish Embassy in Singapore which granted it to me free of charge! As soon as I got the visa from the travel agency along Cantonment Road, I was ebullient!

That ebullience was cut short by the little incident that happened at the bus stop while waiting for Bus 167 that would take me to Orchard Road (I was to register as an overseas absentee voter at the Philippine Embassy located at Nassim near Orchard.). At the bus stop was a compatriot, a manong (uncle), who was speaking to what I surmised was his wife/lover/ girlfriend on his cell phone (I overheard him say ‘I love you’ to the other party). At one point in the conversation, he said these exact words in Tagalog: ‘…may bakla nga dito, e (in fact, there’s a gay man here).’ He was referring to me of course. We were the only people in the bus stop and really, there was no other gay spirit riveting his otherwise discriminating attention. My instant reaction was to glance at him with my rather bushy left eyebrow arched. Then he said to his fellow interlocutor: ‘Oo tumitingin nga sa’kin (Yeah, he actually glanced at me)’ to which I retorted ‘Pinoy po ako, naiintindihan ko po kayo (I’m Filipino. I could understand what you’re saying).’ Well, he was taken aback after I said that. He probably thought I was a Chinese Singaporean, or a Peranakan, or Thai (my apologies to Chinese Singaporeans, Peranakans, and Thais). I repeated what I said earlier: ‘Pinoy po ako (I’m Filipino).’ He quickly composed himself: ‘Ay sorry (Oh sorry)’ and then he continued to talk to his fellow interlocutor.

That was a very unpleasant experience, but I kept my cool. I thought I was just too blessed on this day to get a visa free of charge. Nothing can dampen my jovial mood. Not a butt ugly manong (ok, I’m biased but he is really bereft of male beauty!) who needs to be educated in civics, particularly the art of civic discourse.

When the manong’s telephone conversation ended, there was still no Bus 167 and we remained to be the only people under the waiting shed. As if to assuage the damage he has caused, he reiterated, ‘Sorry talaga. (I’m really sorry).’ I replied, ‘OK lang po (I’m OK)’ with a tone of sarcasm.

The guy is not only bereft of male beauty. He is bereft of balls. How could he afford to be so smug, so careless and so tactless and just take back words easily when his weakness is revealed? At the bus stop, I projected the iciest persona I could muster and distanced myself from the manong (Ang kapal kapal niyang kupal siya. He is not even my type! If the bus stop were an island where the two of us are the only surviving mammals, I would choose to die a spinster!). How could he be so mean and suddenly turn so defenseless when his vulnerability (in fact, stupidity) is unveiled?

I actually have no problem with the label ‘bakla’ per se. That term has been reclaimed/ re-semanticized by gay rights activists. Thanks to them, it has become a badge of courage, a sign of defiance in the sea of normativity. To others, it is a heroic subversion of what is repressive, of that which constricts livability. That it should hurled at me with contempt by a person who I do not even know since Adam is, however, reprehensible. Only my friends who know me and who have earned and deserve my endearment can call me that. But NOT even my most cherished friends hurl the term at me during our most carefree moments. That it should be used to spite me (albeit stealthily) while I sit quietly at a distance with the least-to-nil disturbance made on others around me is what offends me most. It is contemptuous; it is intolerant; it is inhuman.

At that point while I was waiting for Bus 167 alone with the man bereft of male beauty, I suddenly thought of GMA’s 2009 SONA. (That SONA will be remembered for its combative rhetoric – very consistent with the 2003 persona she carved in what should have been her valedictory address.) Well, I thought that that moment alone with the man bereft of male beauty was actually an appropriate time to be combative. And be boastful.

There was of course a moment of smugness when I would make obvious the NUS bag I was carrying. I thought the man bereft of male beauty should know that I am a doctorate student of Asia’s leading English language university (though not the top in the world), that I graduated with honors and among the top 10 percent of the UP system’s graduating class of 1998 (though not a summa cum laude and obviously not the creamiest of the cream), that I was awarded Outstanding Teacher in the Humanities and the Social Sciences at 26 (though only in UPLB and not in the entire UP System, which I should remind manong is the Philippine’s premier state university), that I’m the lone Filipino (scholar) presenting a paper in the 2009 International Conference on Political Linguistics (although I’m not really sure how well publicized the conference is. Haha!), and that I am all those things without having to pretend that I am straight! I am all those things (modest achievements as they are) without being heterosexual! Most of all, I need not be heterosexual to be able to exercise human kindness, compassion and tact! Charing! I surreptitiously laughed at the thought, of course. It would be the height of hypocrisy, not to mention, of being pathetic, to unleash those words to a blundering compatriot. Besides, I wouldn’t expend too much rhetorical energy just to spite a man already bereft of male beauty.

So when Bus 167 finally arrived, I gracefully walked towards it with my very dignity intact. Without gazing at the man bereft of male beauty. I thought he doesn’t deserve even the slightest of my rare glances.