TRAGEDY STRIKES BEFORE THE YEAR ENDS

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Photo from InterAksyon.com by Brandy Roa Solayao

As of today, the last day of 2014, rescuers and retrieval personnel of the Catbalogan City government are still searching for the missing victims of the landslide in Burak, Brgy. Mercedes, Catbalaogan, Samar. Fifteen people are reported dead, three of whom were small children–the youngest was 3 years old. It has been raining non-stop for two days as Typhoon ‘Seniang’ swept from Northeast Mindanao to Eastern Visayas. The typhoon dumped huge amounts of rainfall, causing massive flooding in its wake. Misamis Oriental has declared a state of calamity. In Leyte near the town of Carigara, a bridge gave way to the rushing river that has overflowed, cutting off several towns from Tacloban City.

In short, I am not in a celebratory mood.

The kids and I had been here in Catbalogan since December 23 to celebrate the holidays. So far none of our plans pushed through due to bad weather. To make matters worse, my kids and I were down with a nasty bug, triggering really bad asthma attacks. Trips to the beach and other jaunts would have to wait until our next visit.

This year has been tumultuous for me personally, bringing me highs and really deep lows. I changed jobs but before that, I succumbed to the burnout that has affected many of my colleagues in the online news business. One such colleague-friend left her editing post almost at the same time as I did. She told me the high stress level she had been enduring for the past three years has induced neurological ailments in her. “It’s not worth it in the end,” she told me, “at the expense of my health.” She quit her online news job and now she’s a correspondent for an overseas publication and she says she still has her internal targets but she’s doing her job in her own pace.

I can say the same thing for me. I do my job at my own pace and I choose the coverage I have to go to, depending on what my priorities for the month are. I set my internal targets and I am now developing my own system since I am working alone.

Do I miss the fast-paced newsroom/news cycle? So far not yet. Do I miss reporting things that matter? Sometimes but when I see my colleagues rushing past me due to hectic deadlines, I am thankful that I don’t have to deal with that anymore. Although my news cycle is slower, I have different demands and different challenges that I have to deal with. One of them is to be verrrrrry ahead of everyone else. That’s really tough but somehow manageable.

Still winging it, being a working mom. This year we sent the twins to school so at least somehow their boredom at home lessened a little bit. Sometimes I marvel at how quick their minds work. They’re an active lot.

Thankful for the opportunities and experiences learned this past year. Here’s to 2015!

Wala Nang Tao Sa Sta Filomena

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I had been singing this haunting song to my twins when I put them to sleep since the day I brought them home from the hospital until tonight. Yeah, I know it’s not a good lullaby but it’s the only song I could think of that I couldn’t sing without my entire being shredded into little pieces and stuffed into each note that comes out of my vocal chords.

I got to know this song through Patatag‘s Nagbabagang Lupa album, which my parents brought home one day. It was rare that my parents could buy tapes then because money was really tight so it was a novelty for us to have a tape of any musical genre at home. That tape was played to death on our lone radio/cassette player that sat on top of our mala-cabinet black and white TV.

I think my youngest sister and I had our first heartbreak with that album. I remember that same sister crying after hearing “Tano” because “kawawa naman sya.” I was six years old and my sister was five. The country was about to see its first mass uprising to get rid of a dictator. The housewife of a murdered senator was about to run for president.

Fast-forward, my parents again brought home another tape but this time it was by Joey Ayala, his first album. I discovered he was the composer of the song that has haunted my sleep for so long.

I saved bits of my small weekly allowance to buy his succeeding albums. I was in grade school that time. Later on I fell in love with “Walang Hanggang Paalam.” (That’s for another future blog entry.)

Anyway, the Patatag’s rendition was the one that got stuck in my head for 30 years. It was painful and at the same time beautiful. Joey Ayala’s song was so visual and yet deep. It was a song told from the point of view of a bird, seeing the desolation caused by war. A village caught in the middle of gunfire.

Well at least that was my interpretation when I was in high school and college. I have yet to Google its real meaning or the circumstances surrounding that song.

Years later, I had a gig writing for a series of 2-minute spots about child soldiers for RMN. Dong Abay was one of the musicians working on the series. We spent an afternoon or two figuring out how to incorporate the revised lyrics of “Pen pen de sarapen” with granadas and armalites and my script into 2-minute spots (In the end we used one of his original songs for some of the spots instead).

I was too shy to chat with him about Patatag then. I was also probably starstruck (hey, he was one-half of Yano of my highschool and college years!) and all I managed was “Yeah, I’ll email you my script.”

A decade later, I got to work with AR Sabangan when we were doing investigative stories for InterAksyon. I learned that she was part of the Nagbabagang Lupa album and she was the one who recruited Dong Abay and Grace Nono to join Patatag. Parang, whoa, my youth revisited (sorry, AR, alam mo namang malaki tanda mo sa kin hehehe).

One hazy night (well, hazy because my head was already cloudy with all the stuff we had been doing for our investigative gig), we were able to go down the Patatag memory lane, allowing me to ask her about some of the lyrics of the songs that played on a loop in my head for 30 years.

And I told her that Wala Nang Tao sa Sta Filomena is one of my favorites and their rendition is the one I could never forget.

I hope this song will be remembered by my kids as something that their mother had sung to them while they slept. A song that would remind them that all is not well in other parts of this country. I just hope when they grow up, there won’t be any Sta Filomenas anymore.

OFW FOR A WEEK

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Went overseas because of some assignment and because i had to deal with some administrative stuff for work. I just experienced how it is to be an OFW and i say it was one hell of an experience. My only consolation was that I knew I would be going home by the end of the week whereas real OFWs had to deal with months or years of loneliness.

While I was away, I missed my twins’ first public performance in school where they sang danced. I wasn’t able to take photos.

I learned about my kids’ late night/early morning cries as they searched for mommy in bed. It broke my heart but I was so far away and all I could do was pray.

My routine was to walk to work (my hotel was just near my place of work), do the usual stuff a reporter is supposed to do, go home at 8:30 pm, have dinner, and plop on my hotel bed at 10 pm. Repeat. Everyday. Thank God for Viber, I could communicate with my family whenever I was within a wifi hotspot. My phone was on roaming mode but of course calls are expensive.

I couldn’t wait to get back to Manila.

Imagine, it was just only for a week. What if I was faced with months and months of loneliness but financial circumstances didn’t give me any choice?

Salute to the OFWs. I just wish you didn’t have to be there wherever you are. I wish jobs are plentiful here back home.

SURVIVOR

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My daughter (the younger of the twins) was once again confined in the hospital in August due to a severe bronchial asthma attack. We were admitted at 5 am and the only available bed in the pediatric wing was in the ward. I say that was fine since the hospital was expensive and their semi-private and ward rooms (four in a room) aren’t really that bad.

Yeah, you get to share the room, have to put up with the noise of others and you have to share the bathroom. But that set-up was interesting for a journalist like me since I get to hear about the stories of each patient.

One of the stories that struck me was that of A.

A is a four-year-old brain cancer survivor. Brain cancer. It is one of the most painful cancers out there according to an article I’ve read years ago. And here was A, with stitches on his head, enduring one of the most painful things the physical world can offer.

His mother told me he was diagnosed at age 2.5 after he complained of a debilitating pain at the back of his head. There was a lump and it turned out to be cancerous. She said her son went through all the treatments and therapies available. He used to be a chubby kid, his mom said, but looking at him now, A has been reduced to almost skin and bones.

But still his mother is very generous with her smiles. She talks as if what she and her son went through was just as simple as having his tonsils removed.

“Halos dito na nga yan lumaki. Dito na sya nagbirthday,” A’s mother told me, with a catch in her voice.

Fighting for her son’s life is not cheap. Their finances, as expected, suffered to the point that they are now a charity case of this well-known hospital. She diligently queues up at PCSO for aid. Her older daughter stopped going to school to ease the financial burden and to help in taking care of A.

What this mother and child went through is something I hope I will never go through myself. I salute their courage and strength.

God bless them.

A’s mom said her son used to sing and dance like my little girl, before he was diagnosed. There were no tears in her eyes. Her voice was not breaking. Probably she had shed enough. Probably she has already lost her voice a thousand times. Here she was, she was talking to me in a voice that tells me her son will soon learn how to walk again. Brain cancer has weakened his leg muscles since he spent most of his time in bed.

‘Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno’: A fangirl’s review

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Published in InterAksyon.comAugust 7, 2014 · 3:20 pm

MANILA – “The strong shall live, the weak shall die.”

That might as well be the line that defines this second installment of the “Rurouni Kenshin” franchise, which is based on the manga and anime “Rurouni Kenshin” (shown as “Samurai X” here in the Philippines more than a decade ago).

This was also the guiding principle of Kenshin Himura’s (Takeru Satoh) arch nemesis, Shishio Makoto (Tatsuya Fujiwara), who was the rogue hitokiri that the Royalists/Imperialists engaged after the former laid down his sword 10 years before. Kenshin was the assassin that the Royalists used in broad daylight while Shishio, his kohai, was the hitokiri in the shadows.

Fujiwara plays Shishio with relish–he even has Shishio’s raspy, menacing voice that the character had in the anime series. I could barely recognize Fujiwara (who played Light Yagami in the live-action Death Note movie) behind the bandage, red-rimmed eyes and peeling skin.

The movie opens with Saito Hajime–the chief of police of the Meiji government and formerly the head of the Shinsengumi (the military police protecting the Shogunate)–facing Shishio, who in turn has the Meiji policemen hanged and later dropped into the roaring fires below. Saito (played by Yosuke Eguchi) is still as stoic as ever, barely showing any emotion as his men fall to their fiery end.

This sets the tone that this movie no longer tries to be cute and the body count will surely mount.

In the midst of this inferno, Shishio tells Saito of his grand plan to wrest control of the country from the government and lead Japan in becoming a stronger nation at the expense of all what he considered as weaklings. Obviously he’s a fan of social Darwinism.

Those who have not watched the anime, read the manga or seen the first installment would have a difficult time following the next scene that shows life for Kenshin and his friends at the Kamiya Dojo. The movie dispenses with introductions and references to the first movie to save time (since the “Shishio/Kyoto Arc” is about 30 episodes in the anime).

The Meiji government has asked for Kenshin’s help to neutralize and even kill Shishio, who is now a growing threat to the hard-won peace that the Emperor’s men have managed to put in place. As Home Minister Toshimichi Okubo says, Shishio’s skills as a samurai are equal to that of Kenshin’s.

But then why would Kenshin help the government clean up its mess? It was the government who created the monster that is Shishio, Sanosuke points out during Kenshin’s meeting with government officials.

The movie does not make the government’s failed attempt to kill off Shishio pretty. Instead of just shooting him in the head (which should have explained the metal plate around his head), the Ishin Shishi (government’s group of assassins) stab him repeatedly with their swords at close quarters and douse him with gasoline together with the other corpses that Shishio killed in the name of the Emperor. The only fly in the ointment is Shishio manages to live–thanks to the snow that falls right after the grisly crime.

Shishio, however, is thankful for what the government did to him for this taught him resilience and made him stronger. His ultimate aim is grander than just merely exacting revenge on the government. Getting rid of it is just a means to achieve his goal, he tells Kenshin during their first encounter in a village that Shishio burned to the ground.

To help him realize his dream of taking over Japan, Shishio gathers his Jupongatana (Ten Swords) to fight off Kenshin and kill all those who oppose him.

As a fan of Rurouni Kenshin, I can’t help but notice the movie’s glaring departure from the anime and manga (sorry to non-Samurai X fans):

1. Aoshi Shinomori should have been part of the first movie, as an employee-assassin-bodyguard of the opium pusher Kanryu, and the last members of the Oniwabanshu are supposed to be there with him. Megumi and Aoshi should know each other since they have been employees of Kanryu but in the second installment of Rurouni Kenshin movie, the two are complete strangers to each other.

2. In the anime and manga, Aoshi’s men are supposed to be annihilated by Kanryu’s Gatling gun (in the first movie). He pins the blame on Kenshin. In the movie, however, Aoshi goes looking for Kenshin to avenge his men’s death, who are supposed to be protectors of the Edo castle before the Restoration period. Aoshi’s men were tricked and killed of by the Meiji government after the Royalists took over. Guilty by association, Kenshin is hunted by Aoshi.

3. Cho’s long flexible, whip-like swords (similar to the urumi from India) were replaced by ordinary long swords. It would probably would have been difficult to train with and film fight scenes with this kind of weapon without resorting to CGI.

*Spoiler alert!*

4. Kenshin was supposed to have gone to his sensei, Hiko Seijuro, after his fight with Cho (member of Jupongatana), to complete his training and learn the essence of the Hitten Mitsurugi Ryu (his style of swordfighting). In the movie “Kyoto Inferno”, an unconscious Kenshin is found on the beach by Hiko after he jumped off the battleship Rengoku to rescue Kauro, after she (kidnapped by Sojrio Seta) was pushed off by Shishio into the ocean.

5. Sanosuke is supposed to destroy the Rengoku with the bombs supplied by his friend and Shishio, Yumi and Hoji escape and regroup in Mount Hiei where the final battle should take place. No such thing happens in the movie. Shishio and his Jupongatana successfully leave for Tokyo in the battleship.

*End of spoiler*

CHARACTERS

– We have a more brooding Kenshin here, who now has the tendency to hunch his back, tilt his head to one side and narrow his eyes when he throws his dagger looks to his opponent. There is a scene where he looks like a possessed angry animal with a stiff neck and walks like he’s suffering from cramps.  Attempts at “oro” and to make him comical fail.

– Sanosuke is still baka (stupid) and loud as ever. He is probably the only comic relief in this movie.

– Kaoru has expanded her menu of weapons. Aside from the usual bamboo sword (shinai) for kendo and wooden sword (bokken), she uses a jo (wooden staff) and a naginata (similar to a European glaive) during the Kyoto attack. She rarely smiles now.

– Smaller screen time for Megumi but the chemistry between Megumi and Sanosuke is more palpable compared with that of Kenshin and Kaoru. There is even more love (bromance!) between Sano and Kenshin (compared with the Kenshin-Kaoru pair) when the former hits the latter in the case and says he followed Kenshin to Kyoto to help him.

– I fear for Saito’s health. He always has a cigarette stuck between his lips, even when slashing his enemies. No facial expressions whatsoever still.

– I love Sojiro Seta. He delivers that happy smile when he kills, he speaks with other people, and with dealing with Shishio. He is like a misplaced child among the seasoned killers. But he is the best fighter among the Jupongatana and the fight scene between him and Kenshin is one of the highlights of this movie.

Which brings me now to…

The fight scenes: I will watch the movie over and over just for the fight scenes and wax lyrical about them.

Kenshin fighting with Shishio’s men after burning down a village is so much fun. Great choreography and fast sword play on the part of Takeru Satoh. No, the bad guys are not lining up to be beaten and do nothing while waiting to be beaten up. They attack Kenshin from all sides and Kenshin beating them all up from all directions was a sight to behold.

Kenshin’s fight with Sojiro after Shishio and Yumi took off involves lightning-fast swordplay and great choreography. If I remember it right, there is flying involved. Kenshin and Sojiro’s fighting stances are similar and it is exciting to see what comes after the stances. When you finally see Sojiro’s fighting technique on live action, your heart will stop.

The fight between Kenshin and Cho elicited “whoas” from the audience during the movie premiere at Megamall Wednesday night. In one scene where Kenshin catches the “true sword” thrown at him by Arai (the swordmaker’s son), the audience even clapped their hands in delight. Can’t describe it properly because I have to watch it again to appreciate its beauty.

DOWNSIDE:

Long speeches. They look and sound like orations instead of explanations made by several of the characters in the movie. The exchange between Kaoru and Kenshin before the latter leaves for Kyoto is too long. This same problem made the first movie’s ending look silly, with Kaoru running out of breath but still able to deliver her long monologue.

Too little chemistry between Takeru Satoh and Emi Takei makes the parting before Kenshin’s travel to Kyoto too long and the meaningful gaze between the two contrived. Or maybe it’s just me.

Despite these (because of the nitpicking on my part), this movie is still a must-see for “Rurouni Kenshin” fans out there. For the non-fans, the sword fights are enough reason to watch.

On covering dead children

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“Being calmly rational about dead children feels like a very particular form of madness. Whatever else journalistic objectivity is, it surely cannot be the elimination of human emotion. If we don’t recognise that, we are not describing the full picture.” How can journalists be objective when writing about dead children? by Giles Fraser (The Guardian)

Palestinians gather around the body of 40-day-old baby Kerem Ebu Zeyid, who died after Israeli attacks in Gaza on 29 July. Photograph: Belal Khaled/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

That’s why I can’t cover war. Or famine. It’s gut-wrenching trying to be objective when kids are involved. Going to Yolanda-hit areas already shattered me. I am a very passionate and emotional person pa naman. Kaya it’s better for me to be a heartless business reporter. (hehe)

No, really. I can’t cover these topics because it destroys me. People like me are oftentimes taken over by emotions. The reason why I lasted as a business reporter is because it is one of the coldest subject a non-initiated journalist can think of covering. The reason I cannot cover war, disasters, famine, and depressing things like that is because I hate them. I hate covering things I abhor because I cannot distance myself from the reasons that why these stuff happen. I will always take sides and it will reflect through my writing. I cannot possibly write about dead children without any emotion lest I be accused of being a sappy unprofessional journalist.

Some people thrive in reporting horrors like that and I do salute people who do because without them, who would deliver to us the news from the ground?

But then, I will be the last person raising my hand for the assignment. Not because I am afraid of the uncomfortable circumstances but because it will rip my heart and head apart.

Which reminds me, I haven’t been debriefed from my Yolanda coverage.