Based on the image above, describe a possible disaster scenario.

Girl who killed self lamented family’s poverty in diary

November 07, 2007
Updated 22:00:31 (Mla time)
Nico Alconaba
Inquirer

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A 12-year-old girl, who became despondent over her family’s poverty, hanged herself inside their makeshift house a day after her father told her he could not give her the P100 she needed for a school project.

Using a thin nylon rope, 12-year-old Mariannet Amper hanged herself in the afternoon of November 2. She was a sixth grader at the Maa Central Elementary School.

Her father, Isabelo, 49, who was out of job as a construction worker, said Mariannet asked him for P100 which she needed for school projects, on the night of November 1. He told his daughter that he did not have the money yet but he would ask his wife if she could get some money for her. The morning after, however, he was able to get a P1,000 cash advance for a construction work on a downtown chapel.

By the time he got home, Mariannet already lay dead.

“Duda nako nga tungod ni sa kalisod namo (I suspect that she did it because of our situation),” Isabelo said.

Going through Mariannet’s things, her parents saw her school “talaarawan” or diary.

In her October 5 entry, Mariannet wrote: “Parang isang buwan na kaming absent. Hindi na kasi nakin (sic) binibilang ang absent ko. Hindi ko namalayan na malapit na pala ang Pasko.” [It feels as if we’ve been absent for a month. They’re not counting my absences anymore. I just realized that Christmas is just around the corner.]

Isabelo recalled that in that week, Mariannet skipped school as they did not have money for her food and transportation allowance.

“We did not have any money and I didn’t want Mariannet and her younger brother (Reynald) to walk to school,” he said in Bisaya.

But Isabelo clarified that Mariannet was absent for only three days. “For her, three days was like one month,” he said.

On October 14, Mariannet wrote in her diary: “Hindi kami nakapagsimba dahil wala kaming pamasahe at nilalagnat pa ang aking tatay kaya nanglaba na lang kami ng aking nanay.” [We were not able to hear mass because we did not have fare money and my dad was sick with fever. So, my mom and I just washed clothes.]

Along with her diary, the Ampers also discovered a letter Mariannet wrote for the GMA 7 television program “Wish Ko Lang [I just Wish].”

“Gusto ko po sana magkaroon ng bagong sapatos at bag at hanapbuhay para sa nanay at tatay ko. Wala kasing hanapbuhay ang tatay at nagpa-extra extra lamang ang aking nanay sa paglalaba,” she said in her “Wish Ko Lang” letter. [I wish for new shoes, a bag and jobs for my mother and father. My dad does not have a job and my mom just gets laundry jobs.]

“Gusto ko na makatapos ako sa pag-aaral at gustong-gusto ko na makabili ng bagong bike,” she added. [I would like to finish my schooling and I would like very much to buy a new bike.]

That letter, apparently written while Mariannet was still 11 years old, was never sent to “Wish Ko Lang.”

“We never knew that our daughter had dreams for us,” Isabelo said.

Isabelo’s wife, Magdalena, works part-time “repacking” odong and misua in a nearby factory, earning at least P50 a day. She also does laundry jobs on the side, receiving P100 to P150.

Isabelo, on the other hand, is in and out of work.

“I’m already old, no one would want to hire me,” he said.

The Ampers live in a hillside community at the back of the Yñiguez Subdivision in Maa District. They do not have electricity and water supply.

Of the seven children, only Mariannet and Reynald are left with their parents as most are grown up and have families of their own.

Even with only two children left to feed, the Ampers still have a hard time surviving.

A neighbor said that even in this “mostly poor” neighborhood, the Ampers were being discriminated against.

“Ayaw makipaglaro ng ibang bata sa kanila dahil madudungis daw sila,” the neighbor said. [The other kids do not want to play with them because they’re dirty.]

“Mahirap na nga sila, ni-reject pa ng ibang kapitbahay,” she added. [They’re poor and they’re rejected by their neighbors.]

Oh, the irony.

The National Press Club commissioned the Neo-Angono Artists Collective to do a mural for the club’s restaurant, in time for the opening. The guest of honor was Gloria Arroyo. Supposedly, the Presidential Security Group made a routine inspection. And during the inauguration, the mural was “altered.” The artists cried censorship; NPC claims it just removed the politically-charged parts of the mural.

If that is not censorship, I don’t know what else to call it.

Alright, let us define censorship. Wikipedia, take it away:

Censorship is defined as the suppression or deletion of objectionable information, as determined by the Censor.

Typically censorship is done by governments, religious and secular groups, corporations, or the mass media, although other forms of censorship exist.

I still wonder why reporters join that club. After all, isn’t that club involved in other controversies? Read this column by Neal Cruz, who has been following the shenanigans of the NPC.

Irony. A group of press people practicing censorship. Philippine society has indeed taken a great stride. To idiocy.

(Yeah, I know, the title is not relevant. But I like the way it sounded. =P )

Wow. A month after we found out that cash were given to congressmen at the Fortress, now comes someone who is pointed as the one who distributed the cash. And that someone claims that the money came from their party, KAMPUPOT, este, KAMPI. Wow.

Can you believe that? I don’t.

1. Why only now? Abante and Villarosa should have made that admission on the day the issue was forced out. The timing reeks of planning. After all, after Panlilio and Mendoza exposed the cash gifts to governors, the supposed source of funds admitted giving cash two weeks after the fact. And since there was no visible and audible outrage, the people has given the politicians a clear signal – rob us more, fool us more. So admitting now is just OK, right?
2. Why give money to non-party mates? You take care of your own, right? Poor Angelica Jones. (Background: the showbiz actress ran for the position of provincial board member under KAMPI. She lost, and blamed the party for not supporting her.)
3. Where did KAMPI get all that money? Mike Arroyo? Iggy Arroyo? Jose Pidal? Wow, I had no idea KAMPI is this rich. Maybe I should join the party, no? Most probably I’d get the laptop that I am eyeing. Hmm.
4. Ronaldo Puno once claimed that the money did not come from them, instead pointed to Lakas’ Jose de Venecia.

One caveat: Remember Crispin Beltran’s claim that one Francis Ver, former KAMPI henchman, tried to bribe him to endorse Pundido, este Pulido’s not-so-pulido complaint? Maybe there’s truth in that accusation, after all. See? Lying will not help you; indeed, a good liar must keep up with his lies, otherwise his crimes will be exposed.

And yet the people are content watching Pinoy Big Brother and Zaido. Oh well. Kudos to ABS-CBN and GMA7 for such a wonderful job of insulating us from mundane idiocy called GOVERNANCE.

—

You know, if I were a senator, I will get my Php200 million pork barrel and allocate one million for each Filipino. And with around 80 million Filipinos, I will still have a surplus; I will invest that so that for every Filipino born after such distribution, they will get a million, too. Now, ain’t that cool?

Or maybe a laptop for every Filipino, plus a 3G phone.

Because the price of crude oil reaches ridiculously new heights, and despite the annoyingly repetitive claims of economic turnaround (obviously a product of hallucination caused by that narcotic called POWER), the Department of Energy is asking us poor blokes to save on energy. Taking heed of their illustrious call, I am therefore proposing the following mitigation measures.

1. Build more LRTs. All main thoroughfares should be covered. Let a thousand LRT lines bloom. This measure will eliminate the need to use gas-guzzling motor vehicles. If feasible, build inter-island LRT lines.
2. Use computers for only four office hours per day. Use a typewriter and/or calculator for other tasks. Read newspapers instead of blogs. Utilize the laggard postal system instead of email.
3. Turn off lights during daytime. If possible, don’t turn them on unless essential and necessary. The use of candles is highly encouraged.
4. Cellphone use should be limited to one unit per family, and should only be used for eight hours per day. Develop cranks as cellphone chargers.
5. Develop a nationwide septic tank network, wherein methane produced by all septic tanks in the country are collected and stored as fuel.
6. Public utility vehicles shall only be allowed to ply their routes during rush hours. Private vehicles shall only be allowed to travel during non-rush hours, except in case of emergency.
7. TV and radio should only broadcast from 4AM to 10PM and 6PM to 10PM. Networks are encouraged to produce shows that are not energy intensive. Use of non-essential equipment shall not be allowed, like excessive lighting.
8. Congress shall convene for one month only. Members of Congress shall only be paid for that session month. They shall hold their sessions at SM Mall of Asia’s Music Hall, all expense paid by SM, of course. If not possible, session shall be held at the Quirino Grandstand.
9. The President and Vice-President shall be limited to one provincial trip per week. It is encouraged to plan ahead so that these officials can cover as much ground as possible during said trips. The President shall be limited to one foreign travel during his term, and he can only travel for a maximum of one month. The Vice President is not allowed to travel abroad.
10. The courts shall hold their hearings at basketball courts. Each case shall be disposed with within 5 working days, including reconsideration appeals.
11. Laptops shall not be allowed outside the office or home. The four-hour-per-day rule applies for office use.
12. People are not allowed to fart, unless the fart can be collected for methane.
13. Use of non-electrical fans are highly encouraged. Aircons shall only be allowed from 10AM to 4PM, and the minimum temperature is 20 degrees Centigrade.
14. Families shall prepare a meal that is good for the entire day. Food recycling is highly encouraged.
15. The use of freezers shall not be allowed except for medical purposes. Ice cream and other related industries are encouraged to go into other, less energy-intensive business.
16. Holidays that use a lot of electricity are banned.

Feel free to add your suggestions. Let us all take responsibility to conserve energy and decrease our dependence on oil.

As I was taking pictures during a fire near our place (blog entry here), taking a video came into my head. However, I only had a 64MB M2 loaded in my Sony Ericsson P1i (the bundled 1GB M2 was being used by my brother for the M600i; the phone doubles as his music player), so I was not able to take a video. The phone’s internal memory is actually 160MB.

There is another reason why I did not take a video.

—

Video blogging or vlogging is relatively new here in the Philippines. Vlogging is actually blogging using video as medium (as opposed to the traditional text). But why engage in vlogging at all?

Let’s face it. Pictures are better than words. Moving pictures more so. You can easily convey your message via video. Just look at how effective those crap that the giant networks spew at us.

Vlogging for me is the most effective implementation of citizen journalism. During the online blog/comments debate on blogging as privilege, one commenter in this blog used the broadcaster as an analogy to blogging: not everyone can be a broadcaster, not everyone can be a blogger, so blogging is not a right. (Yeah, it does not follow, and just because not everyone can be a blogger, blogging ceases to be a right.) While it is true that the networks control (1) what can be shown and (2) who can present, these limitations are surmounted by vlogging, disregarding the prohibitive economic factors.

Journalism has three forms: print, radio, and TV. All of the three are controlled by commercial interests; there is no completely-independent media entity. But blogging changed that equation. Can’t see your written piece published by the leading paper? Post it online. Frustrated radio broadcaster? Do a podcast. And now: rejected by a talent scout to be a news anchor? Vlog!

Citizen-journalism has its own sphere of online debate, mainly centering on whether bloggers can be journalists, and whether bloggers should be bound by journalists’ code of ethics. We will skirt those issues and instead put vlogging in the Pinoy context.

We are limited by the vagaries of technology and economics. While the necessary requirements of vlogging are relatively cheap (as compared to last year), these equipment are not available for most of us. For example, the minimum requirement might be a cameraphone with a decent memory module. Smart and Globe market LG KU250 as a cheap 3G phone for Php 6000. It has a camera and a measly 10MB internal memory, but you can use a microSD card for expansion (you can get 1GB microSD for less than Php 1000 at CDR-King). If you are earning minimum daily wage, tough luck.

Second, as pointed out by some bloggers, the Internet penetration rate in the Philippines is depressingly low. Blogging remains (as of now) a domain for middle and upperclass Pinoys. There are free blog hosting services out there, but can Pinoys afford the computer and internet time rental?

Third, and the most superficial (yet the most serious hindrance): not everyone is telegenic. This is one of the criteria that networks impose on prospective talents. After all, who would take ME seriously if I vlog? But again, vlogging removes this hindrance; a vlogger is now under the mercy of the general vlog viewers. The hindrance is gone; the new hindrance is whether the people will accept you or not. At least there is no subjective gatekeeper anymore. Your audience is now your master. You know, some might say “Ang kapal naman ng mukha nya” (That person is so thick-faced), but that’s part of a vlogger’s life. Vlogging is not for those who lacks confidence; and Filipinos do not lack confidence.

When that day comes, when an ordinary citizen can post a video of himself reporting on local events and politics, journalism will never be the same. Vlogging will be the vehicle for citizen journalism.

—

Going back to the incident stated at the beginning, one more reason that I did not shoot video. When incidents like this happen, I always try to put myself in the shoes of the involved, in an attempt to gauge the raw emotions brought about by the event. The first thing that came into my mind was anger and annoyance. There is something perverse in documenting the misery of others, as if shooting pictures, taking videos, interviewing victims as the disaster happens is just so wrong. I was so ashamed of myself – I stopped taking pictures, went home, and left the mobile phone at the computer table.

—

(In support for Coy Caballes’ uBlog, iVlog project on Pinoy vlogging.)

What is common between an elected official and people being interred at public cemeteries?

Both have term limits.

Happy Halloween!