my last Trade Tripper BusinessWorld column for 2013:
Before anything else, to borrow a line from Jim
Carrey: a Christ-y, Christ-y Merry Christmas to all! Of course,
Christmas was three days ago but you know what they say, every day
should be Christmas Day. On the other hand, 2013 has four days left to
go and whatever you may say of it, the year that soon will be was, was
never boring.
Many will be greeting the New Year with champagne, which in this
country means any wine that has a gas problem. But that’s fine with me,
as long as one doesn’t get too haughty with it. I’ll probably greet
2014 with a Gibson in my hand, which is actually just a martini with a
little onion in it (and perhaps ice). Which reminds me of my favorite
martini quote: one is all right, two are too much, and three are not
enough.
Pope Francis was chosen by Time as its Man of the Year. Which doesn’t mean anything really. After all, today’s Time Magazine isn’t exactly The Economist. And one suspects that Pope Francis was chosen because of his alleged "progressive" views. Just ask the New York Times.
Which is completely the opposite of reality. If anything, the selection
of Pope Francis serves as vindication of Pope Benedict XVI. What with
Catholic doctrine on contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage,
divorce, and euthanasia already ably defended by PBXVI, what is left for
Pope Francis to do is to build on the strong foundations his
predecessor left him.
One of my favorite pieces of dialogue is from the "Great Game" episode of Sherlock:
Sherlock: "Just tell me what happened from the beginning."
Barry: "We’ve been to a bar, a nice place, and I was chattin’ with one
of the waitresses and Karen weren’t happy with that, so we got back to
the hotel and ended up having a bit of a ding dong, didn’t we? She was
gettin’ at me, saying I weren’t a real man--"
Sherlock: "Wasn’t."
Barry: "What?"
Sherlock: "It’s not weren’t, it’s wasn’t."
Barry: "Oh..."
Sherlock: "Go on."
Barry: "Well, then I don’t know how it happened but suddenly there’s a
knife in my hands. And you know, my old man was a butcher so I know how
to handle knives. He learned us how to cut up a piece--"
Sherlock: "Taught."
Barry: "What?"
Sherlock: "Taught you how to cut up a piece."
Barry: "Yeah, well, then I done it."
Sherlock: "Did it."
Barry: "I stabbed her over and over and over and I looked at her and she weren’t-- ... wasn’t movin’ no more. Any more."
Barry: "Hey, you gotta help me, Mr. Holmes! Everyone says you’re the best. Without you... I’ll get hung for this."
Sherlock: "No, no, Mr. Bewick, not at all. Hanged, yes."
Sherlock should be the grammar police on Facebook. That people air their
numbingly inane dramas on social media is their right. But that they
mangle the English language while doing so violates the human rights of
those with a brain.
Speaking of Facebook, one of the funniest memes I saw had this quote:
"Why name hurricane fag names like Sandy? Name that shit Hurricane Death
Megatron 300 and I guarantee niggas be evacuating like they need to."
The guy who wrote this (a black gentleman named Kendrick Lamar) has a
point. Seriously. If instead of saying "storm surge," calling it by a
non-technical name like (as a friend of mine suggested): "lalamunin kayo ng p*%#^ dagat!" (you will be swallowed up by the son-of-a-bitch sea) could have saved some lives.
Remember Tacloban? The need for recovery, the fact that the people there
still need support, and with reports that relief goods being diverted
somewhere else, all this took the backseat as people in Manila are
bizarrely obsessing over bashing the Binays. I can understand that some
people may not like them politically. But some of the hatred is
unjustifiable. As far as I know, the Binay family never collaborated
with foreign invaders or betrayed the Katipunan, looked down on
non-mestizos; they continue to keep Philippine passports, speak fluent
Filipino, and keep whatever wealth they have in the country. Frankly,
for a Filipino to hurl insults based on skin color, of not being a coño, or being a nouveau riche, against another Filipino is despicable.
2013 is a good year for TV. Breaking Bad ended its run. So did Strike Back. New or relatively new shows hit their stride: Banshee, Dracula, Bates Motel.
There are new great talk shows as well and most of them are on Fox. I
realized that a lot of people hate Fox News but never actually watched a
show. So I recommend The Five (seen currently at 5 p.m. on local cable) and Red Eye
(unfortunately in the Philippines available only on the Internet).
After all the smugness one gets watching CNN, smart common sense will be
a welcome change indeed.
That’s it. Made my word quota for the week. Happy New Year all!
