2.21.08 kulturnatib

Yesterday once more

In my last column I wrote about experiencing a festival parade in Quebec City. It wasn't much of a parade. The locals themselves said so. It hardly compared with our own Sinulog, which, I said at the end of that column, gave me a feeling of what could only be called pride.

Now, it seems that another parade is moving with a potentially far greater impact than all the Sinulogs so far put together. And it promises to be just as colorful, riotous, and, as always, with much drama. It is a march of history that is raising expectations welling up into pride and hope among us Filipinos all over.

Since arriving here I get an inkling of what is happening in the Philippines through the internet. Usually, it comes in the form of emails from family and friends. But, also, I regularly go through the roster of my favorite columnists in the Inquirer for updates on home news. But, of late, I had not done any of the latter.

So, an email notice of a new YouTube posting was my first clue. The heading said; Video link – GREED. Upon opening this mail the opening line said; Cebuanos Show of Support for Jun Lozada.

Immediately, I thought of two close friends. Both are related distantly through common family lines, the Lozadas among them. Who could this Lozada be, I wondered? Why would Cebuanos show support for him enough that a friend – who should otherwise be busy recording a reunion CD with an old band with the namesake of that old Bisaya revolutionary, Leon Kilat -- would bother doing a YouTube posting about?

After clicking on that video link, I was immediately back to surfing through my favorite Inquirer columnists. Among them is veteran essayist, Sylvia Mayuga. As usual, she is right dead on the spot. Or should that be right dead on the money?

She writes, “Dear Jun, Can you surf the Net where you are? If not, someone must have told you by now that you, Romy Neri, Ben Abalos, Mike Arroyo and the ZTE-NBN scandal are all over YouTube these days. That’s 30 videos and counting . . . .”

Since my friend posted his YouTube video the day after Mayuga wrote her open letter to Jun, it could not have counted among the 30. But, with the internet in general and YouTube in particular being called the new 'viral' media, you could bet that this virus has already spawned or infected into many more YouTube videos. Truly, and counting. Many of these will be posted from outside the Philippines.

Mayuga also further observed that “. . . It cannot be an accident that you, a new Filipino icon, are neither a temporizing priest nor a glib lawyer but an IT engineer trained to make intricate new systems work . . . . Now, with video as a laser sword and the Internet as a global screen, who can say what fresh chapter your tearful act of honesty on ZTE-NBN has opened for our global nation?”

All these were ricocheting in my head as I watched a play staged at the National Arts Center. It was a recasting of the Shakespearian classic, 'Julius Caesar,' into 'Death of a Chief.' It is Julius Caesar in a uniquely 'aboriginal' or 'autochtone' or even 'Indian' perspective.

The uniqueness comes with the weaving of the historical experience of the conquest, subjugation, forced integration and, now, reassertion of identity and legal rights of Indian communities or nations in Canada and North America with the wider, deeper and common themes of the power of leadership and the corruption of this power that Julius Caesar is about. In both worlds, in Caesar's Rome and among the Indian communities, as it is indeed everywhere, people struggle with the idea and the reality that power corrupts.

Upon getting home from the play I felt I had to get in touch with some friends. To get a feel of the ground the way the internet just gives you a glimpse of. The Cebuanos do support Jun Lozada, reported a friend who belongs to another line of Lozadas.

But, he says, it is still slow in coming. The more enlightened among the clergy are leading it, the students should be at the forefront but they are not. Still, he says, people know that something is in the air. It has the smell of truth.

Here, we are trying to get our Filipino friends together. For once, there will be something hopeful to talk about and, hopefully, to be proud about once more.