Last year, the AWBHoldings.com Wall of Shame contained the names of all the honorable congressmen who voted not to impeach Gloria Arroyo. This year, it is time to put new names in that virtual wall.

So vote in the poll at the side bar. Basically, these four choices are to be included in this year’s Wall of Shame. The thing is, who should be number one? That I leave to you, dear readers. So vote now.

If you want to explain your vote, leave a comment. If you want to nominate someone else, leave the name at the comments. Prank comments shall be deleted.

In his lecture for the Bloggers Kapihan, Victor Villanueva gave four tips to new bloggers. One of them is worth expounding further, and in context of what had happened in the blogosphere recently.

His four tips are as follows:

1. Know what you are saying.
2. Try to be visual.
3. Link up.
4. Go out.

For the first tip, he said the following:

* Be prepared to face the consequence(s) of what you write.
* Be prepared for confrontation.
* Deleting (or locking) entries can be futile.

Let me discuss his first tip and apply it in the context of the the Malu Fernandez controversy and the Cris Mendez case.

Bloggers took note of the mean things Malu Fernandez had said about Filipinos in general, and they blogged about it. The posts range from intellectual ones down to outright ad hominem attacks. The comments were worst. Fernandez isssued an apology and resigned from the publications who published her articles. The daily did not accept her resignation.

A show on a cable news channel took notice of what had happened, and they had invited several bloggers and journalists for a discussion. The bloggers were put on the defensive, as if the problem began with the bloggers, and the show never even bothered dealing with what Malu Fernandez wrote. Aside from an implicit validation that blogging is a new avenue for information (which for some journalists is a direct competition), it somehow made me reflect on blogging at that point.

When the time comes that a blogger has to take a stand, he has to think hard about it; when he does take a stand and blog about it, he should expect that someone will contradict him. And if the blog post is controversial enough, the blogger should expect negative comments. He should be prepared to explain, to answer questions, to receive brickbats.

Which leads me to the next issue.

Dr. Tess Termulo pointed to a blog post at a certain social networking site where the blogger said something controversial enough to merit comments that are against the blogger’s idea. The blogger cannot defend her assertions, so she locked the entry so that only a select few can read and post comments.

Remember what Bikoy had said? “Be prepared to face the consequence of what you write.” “Be prepared for confrontation.” “Deleting blog entries can be futile.”

That blogger should have attended Bloggers’ Kapihan.

You are free to write about what you feel and what you think. When you publish it for the entire world to read, expect that someone will disagree. That someone will express his disagreement. He will point out why you are wrong. There will be confrontation. If you cannot defend what you have written, if you cannot face confrontation, you are only defeating yourself. You are only showing that your stand is weak, your opinion untenable.

And locking a blog post is like deleting it – it is futile. Going back to that locked post that Dr. Termulo had pointed out, The Jester-in-Exile had managed to read the post, and published that post in his blog, together with his comments blasting the locked post to bits.

Blogging is not as simple as journal or diary writing. In writing a diary, only you can read what you write. When you blog, it can be read by everyone with an access to the Internet. I suggest that you think first, and think hard, before clicking the Publish button. If you can’t defend it, don’t blog about it. You are only putting yourself to the slaughterhouse.

UPDATE:

While this blog post is old, it is a classic example of how the blogosphere works, and ultimately, how a flawed commentary should be addressed – blasting all arguments to bits.

The MRT is a disaster that is waiting to happen. All it takes is one accident or mistake, and you’ll probably have one disaster that might equal or surpass the Wowowee Ultra stampede a year ago.

Take a look at this picture:

(Photo taken using Sony Ericsson P1i, image size reduced)

This scene at North Avenue Station (south bound) always happens during weekday morning rush hour. Picture was taken at around 8:05 AM. The inflow of people peaks between 7:30 AM and 9:00 AM, and overflow happens due to a lot of factors. For me, the inefficiency of the MRT as a system is the main culprit. Most train systems operate on a time table, and they should operate like clock-work, otherwise the system will crumble. But that is not the topic of this post.

As I have said, this scenario will lead to a disaster; all it takes is one mistake or one accident. I had labeled four parts in this picture where disaster can happen:

1. Thank Bayani Fernando’s Gwapo project for this. The MMDA has raised EDSA’s sidewalks by several centimeters. So, imagine this number of people packed together, jostling in. Disaster can happen if one person trips because of the high sidewalk. With the pushing that happens, this scenario is the most probable.

2. After you have survived the MMDA sidewalk, half of the station entrance has two steps. Not as high as the MMDA sidewalk, someone can trip here, since at this point the jostling and the pushing is at its worst.

3. This is the most dangerous – a wayward vehicle. Multiple vehicle collision. Highly improbable. I hope.

4. At this point, you are about to enter the second set of stairs (there are three), and here is a bottleneck. Jostling and pushing is evident here, though not as bad as below. Still, just one person tripping, and it is a disaster.

There is actually one more point but I failed to take a picture. This point (pictured above) is at the station platform. Some people, in their eagerness to get in on the coming train, already stand near the very edge of the platform, despite the warnings blaring on the public address system. At rush hour, the platform can be jampacked. And when the train arrives, people are again jostling and pushing to get in. Trust me, if you are near the edge of the platform and the coach door opens, you don’t even have to take a step to get in.

Disaster almost happened one time when one lady tripped as she was getting in. Good thing no one’s got the worst out of it. But it did bring home the point (at least to me) that the MRT is just seconds from disaster (and yes, that is a show at National Geographic). And hopefully, there will never be an episode of that show that will feature the MRT.