Marlon’s World

The worst way to wake up squirming in the morning is to read the newspaper via Internet and find how much propaganda has been heaped by your government, particularly with reference to your church.

I am very appalled with the way the Arroyo Administration has been handling its publicity in relation to the Holy See. When John Paul II died, Gloria Arroyo gave an interview to CNN during the wake for the demised pontiff and said that she had received blessings to run for President from the deceased.

Now, a few months later, in an audience with Benedict XVI, Mrs. Arroyo claims that the present Pope does not look kindly toward the supposed meddling of the Philippine Catholic Hierarchy in Philippine secular politics. This, after presenting the Pope the signed resolution abolishing death penalty in the Philippines in an apparent move to court the Vatican’s support in changing the Constitution.

While I personally support the abolition of the death penalty, the recent move of the Administration smells of politics and inconsistency. One only has to remember the photos of a docile and prayerful Gloria Arroyo in a rally in support of rape victim "Baby" Echegaray so as to cringe in disgust. After all, when you see the situation from a broader perspective, it would be much better to have a lawful way of punishing criminals than to have a paralegal way of silencing dissenters. No matter how meritorious the move is to be pro-life superficially, the rate journalists and activists are killed during this regime negates all claims of sanctity.

Then, as if this still wasn’t enough, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo has begun his campaign to present for canonization two nuns from the Arroyo-Tuason clan. One of the nuns is Rosario Arroyo y Pidal, whose surname she most unfortunately shares some generations hence with the infamous Jose Pidal. I don’t know how people are canonized as saints but if ever, this is the first time a secular government in recent times has involved itself in the declaration of who is blessed and who is not. We then are lead to the premise this Administration brandishes, that the Philippine bishops are meddling into politics. If this is not meddling in the canonical processes of the Catholic Church, I don’t know what is. If Sor Rosario would be proclaimed blessed, I really hope the Vatican would change the Pidal surname to another. As a Catholic, I cannot bear to ask a blessed nun with Pidal in the name to intercede for me.    

Tsk, tsk. With the way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if this Administration asks for the canonization of La Gloria or the elevation to the cardinalate of Mike if and when it deems it fit.

Research majors, do you remember Murphy’s Law? When everything will go wrong, it will go wrong? That’s my situation now.

Hmmm, where do I start? I’m back from a rather long hiatus. It’s partly incidental, partly self-imposed: The incidental part consisted of me typing a gazillion papers for my finals in Spain while preparing for my "Roman Holiday" a la Audrey Hepburn. (Btw, watch that film as it is precious. Black and white version of "The Prince and Me.")

After all the brouhaha of the course and the trip, I returned to Valladolid without the three precious posters I had bought in the Vatican and Florence and with the battery of my laptop dead. I spent three days walking senselessly around town, looking for a batt replacement. I still don’t have it and I’m working with a computer directly plugged to the electric source (I know, I know, squinting modifier that one).

The self-imposed part was largely because of writer’s block. I have exhausted all ideas, in other words, and other than my collective ravings and musings about my dreary life and that of others, I basically am stuck with senseless sentences sewn together to make a paragraph.

My friend Mayee told me that I should blog "profesionally," i.e., get honorarium for the ads posted on my site if and when I have succeeded in luring half the planet to read my rant. That seemed to be a good idea up until I realized I am still the same computer idiot that I used to be a year ago and that my laptop isn’t exactly Professor X’s Cerebro. Besides, I have just recently discovered that one can comment on blogs (!) and I only have three comments thus far, enough proof to show that I’m not really that well-versed with computer and that most people may not be reading my blog. (BTW, I was told that I intimidate a lot of you, dear fans and foes, and that you are afraid to comment on my posts. I actually require — beg — you to comment.)   

That my laptop got busted came after a particularly rewarding but exhausting trip to Italy. I’ll spare you the details and let my friend Archie do the storytelling. But in brief, I’d say that:

1. Rome is dirty and teeming with tourists. Traffic is always horrible and the transportation, horrendous. That said, it must be noted that the management of tourist sites is rather efficient. Waiting in a 5-kilometer queue to the Vatican, for example, would only take 15 to 30 minutes. Potable water is free, free, free, and the Filipino community there is amazing. The Eternal City, despite the setbacks, never fails to wow.
2. Florence is for the artiste. If you like a small, non-imposing city with friendly people and valuable art pieces, go to Florence. Just be sure that you have reserved tickets to the two great Florentine museums, the Uffizi and the Accademia, months before or suffer the consequences of waiting three hours per museum to see a naked man and his schlong (David at the Accademia) and a naked woman and her seashell (Venus at the Uffizi).
3. Pisa is a five-hour trip at the most. Take a train from Florence for an hour. Walk to the city center for 30 minutes. Take pictures of the Leaning Tower and the other buildings for an hour. Buy souvenirs for another hour. Walk back to the train station for another 30 minutes. The extra hour is for unforseen exigencies. Amazing city, nonetheless.
4. Venice is the best. If you grew up near water (like most Filipinos), you like reading Shakespeares, or you simply want to be amazed, go to Venice. In my opinion, Venice is a cross between the grandeur of Rome and the romantic atmosphere of Paris. Whereas in other cities you’d have to go to the museums to feel cultured, in Venice you’d just have to walk through the streets or ferry through the canals. And shopping for masks is amazing. Yeah, yeah, the masks would probably end up collecting dust on your walls but who has Venetians masks within a 10-kilometer radius from your house in the Philippines?

I came back to my dinky ol’ room after a week of travel. A day later I was told that I could transfer to a new room. I hadn’t planned on doing so but when I saw my new room, I had to stop my saliva from dripping. I mean, I actually have my own veranda now!

So, I hadn’t fully recovered yet from my post-travel fatigue when I started transfering my books and clothes and cooking implements from the fourth floor to the third. I spent almost two days doing so, dedicating most of the time of the OC-ness of cleaning (i.e., rearranging the clothes hangers according to color and size, thematically arranging the books, color-coordinating the CD stacks, washing all the bottles of patis and toyo, compiling all receipts of purchases and train tickets from all cities I’d visited… you get the drift).

When finally I had everything in place, I discovered that the shower has problems and that the light bulb is yellow. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH.

Murphy’s Law to the max.

THANKS TO www.youtube.com, THE PHILIPPINES CAN NOW WATCH MY FAVORITE SPANISH BAND, ELLOS (Teehee).

I was watching Television Espanola two years ago and in passing I see this very weird band performing. Since I got nothing to do, I stayed and listened to the video. And here I am, in Spain, two years later, watching the same thing and thinking of ways of getting an autograph for my newly-bought Ellos CD.

Ladies and gentlemen, Guille Mostaza and Santi Capote in "Diferentes."

Watchit.Watchit.Watchit.Watchit