Filipinos yet again are in the throes of a national cringe as a video of supposedly-veteran showbiz journalist Ricky Lo interviewing Les Miserables star Anne Hathaway makes the rounds in cyberspace. The video is a fine specimen of how the underbelly of the Filipino psyche is revealed when back-lit by the glitz of international celebrity.
Some all-too-familiar epic fails are revealed in all of a four-minute video.
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Name dropping
Lo thought he’d swoop in for the kill to take advantage of his knowledge of Hathaway’s well-known admiration for Filipino performer Lea Salonga (who herself had played Hathaway’s character in theatre productions of Les Miserables) who Lo emphasized is supposedly a personal friend of his. To highlight the point further, he handed his mobile phone over to Hathaway to show a text message from Salonga to her. Lo probably thought that making Hathaway aware of his personal relationship with Salonga would give him a tall-enough stool to stand on to negotiate the interview with Hathaway eye-to-eye.
Starstruck ignoramity
Perhaps a possible key part of the problem with Ricky Lo is that he may have been so starstruck in the presence of Hathaway that he bungled the entire interview. Some say that some of Hathaway’s snappy responses to Lo’s lame questions were uncalled for. But then she is the celebrity in the building. You don’t send a goat to negotiate with a tiger. Lo was obviously out of his league in this gig. A more seasoned and less-easily-intimidated journalist would probably have done a better job.
Veiled judgmental juxtaposition of poverty with wealth to make lame points
Lo at some point asked Hathaway, “And for somebody who perceived to have lived a life of luxury and privelege, how were you able to identify [with] Fantine?” Lo added before she could respond, “Have you ever experienced to be hungry? To [be] poor, and you know, just like the character,” to which Hathaway answers “That’s a very personal question.”
How does one answer that question anyway? One’s personal wealth is one’s own business, of course. That seems to be something that is beyond the comprehension of the typically Filipino mind of Ricky Lo.
Scripting a command impromptu performance
You don’t tell a professional performer to recite something for you before the cameras on the spot. That’s tantamount to requesting a pro bono employment of her talent. But that’s exactly what Ricky Lo asked of Hathaway in the interview: “And what about inviting fans from the Philippines to watch the movie, showing January?” Hathaway drops the final bomb: “Well why don’t you invite them? I think they’d much rather hear it from you.”
The whole interview was blatantly all about Lo’s self-aggrandizement agenda to begin with. But more to the point, Lo failed to realise that a common practice in the Philippines, telling an interviewee what to say (such as invite the audience to watch their movie), comes across as tasteless and patronising to professionals from other cultures. Lo should’ve just asked Hathaway if there was anything she wanted to tell her Filipino fans.
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This is the reason the truly talented and competent do not seem to find much incentive in pursuing a career in local politics and showbiz. Both fields are governed by an idiocracy and, as a result, dominated by the incompetent and mediocre.
[Acknowledgements: Quotes in this article refer to a transcript of the interview published on Technograph. Refer to Anne Hathaway’s interview with Ricky Lo on YouTube.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
OMG. I just HAVE to see this interview now. Whoever this Ricky Ho or Lo or whatever he is… What a moron. Yet ANOTHER example of how a Pinoy makes.the Philippines looks bad
Ricky Lo brought out the worst in Anne Hathaway. I used to think she was sweet, now I know she can be a meanie. But Ricky was asking for it.
Catwoman got catty. haha.
Ricky Lo deserved it. The manny the movie guy interview was way better.
Exactly. The penalty should go to Hathaway and NOT to Lo. The burden lies on Hathaway and if she has more finesse, she wouldn’t respond in such a way. I still say for Ricky Lo’s profile, he is pretty consistent regardless of the nationality or stature of the people he is interviewing.
Again your ignorance is shining. Shift the blame. You know, the more you post here the more folks are seeing just how ignorant you are. Diplomat my ass.
bill,
coming from a corrupt supreme court, i consider my suspension an honor not as a disgrace…
you had been emoting your being married to a lawyer.. indicative enough of your own inadeaquacy. stop using her skirt to to pad your own self-importance… get a life of your own…
You would rather look at whether Anne was being disrespectful or not, instead of whether the content of Ricky Lo’s questions made sense?
Typical Pinoy bakya behavior.
If Lo is being consistent you say, then perhaps he shouldn’t be. No one should assume that Pinoy celebrities will behave very similarly to foreign ones. It is the responsibility if the interviewer to do his homework.
i agree! Anne Hathaway is so full of herself! my god this woman is insufferable!
I don’t get why people are treating her as if she’s some immaculate holier-than-thou personality. She’s a celebrity and not every interview she does will be of people kissing her ass. I though she was rude, borderline racist even and just plain obnoxious.
Beth based on your comment here, Mr. Lo is flawless. All I see is criticsm of how you perceive Ms. Hathaway. Point missed. it does not matter who the subject is but Lo made the interview about himself and his KSP mentality. If AH is truly that bad, don’t watch her movies. If she is truly as bad as you say why bother sending this excuse of a journalist to interview her for a pinoy audience?
I can imagine TMZ interviewing her better.
why should the screw up of one or two tv personalities be taken as the representative of filipino mentality? —
because the questions asked by the interviewer are classic pinoy interview questions?
There are TV personalities that are good at their work, i.e., J. Soho, Taruc, Tina Munzon Palma, Angelo Castro, Carla David, and Mel Tiangco, just to mention a few… Why would Ricky Lo or for that matter, Abunda, be seen as model-representative of Pinoy bashing genre like you?
Americans do not consider Springer show the epitome of their culture.
So now the suspended lawyer can Speak for Americans? You are a case in point…..
Mel tiangco and sometimes soho also asks those stupid questions, by the way.
Why should they be representative? Because they are waaaaay more popular than 2 of the great interviewer you mentioned that I agree with you – tina palma and taruc
Jerry Springer? Really? Number one; Springer is not a journalist. He is a talk show (freak show) host. Number two; if Springer was somehow invited to one of these press junkets, I doubt that even he would be so lacking in propriety to ask questions like Rick Lo!
bill steffen, hathaway is full of herself and she has reason to be, she is a celebrity… but you are full of yourself and you are not even one… 🙂
Geez jcc, you kinda sound full of yourself too. Pretty arrogant for a disgraced lawyer. If you don’t mind I would like to have my wife check on the particulars of your suspension. She is a real lawyer. Practicing and not suspended.
what is the connection of my being suspended as a lawyer got to do with my ability to read american temperaments? did you feel inferior because i know your compatriots more than you do? —
First, your suspension reflects your character. Second, you tried to shift the blame to the system being “unfair” to you. Those two, in concert drop your credibility to somewhere around a minus 2. And as far as you knowing my countrymen better than I do, is a total conviction of your character. As far as I am concerned you fall into the category of somewhere between a corrupt politician and an incompetent lawyer. Of course thats probably where you want to be.
Bill,
Please leave JCC alone. JCC is a patriot who has done many great things for our country. What have you done?
And for the record, Lea Salonga is way more talented than Hathaway. This is the reason for Anne’s insecurity during the interview.
To answer your question about what I have done for your country: Back in the 70s I was on Jolo in defense of your country. So what’s your claim to fame?
We got an expert historian, art critic and psychologist here.
>JCC is a patriot who has done many great things for our country
>Lea Salonga is way more talented than Hathaway
>This is the reason for Anne’s insecurity during the interview
Your words are gospel truth, Pastor.
@proudpinoy,
Troll harder. Anne Hathaway insecure about Lea Salonga?? Why go record that she admires someone she is insecure of? Ricky Lo is a nobody internationally. No idea why you would think a nobody mentioning the name of Lea would make Catwoman insecure? Again troll harder Fishball wannabe.
at Bill Steffen Apply cold water to BURN! haha
at jcc *thumbs up*
The quality of Pinoy TV personalities reflect the overall character of their audience. Ricky Lo has been in the business for more than two decades. You’d think after two decades, he’d be among the best of them. This incident proves otherwise. That such a mediocre professional would for so long endure and be chosen for such a plum assignment as the interview of an A-List celeb like Hathaway illustrates the systemic furthering of mediocrity that is entrenched at the very DNA of Philippine society.
You hit the nail right on the head. Your analysis of the interview is spot on. Great point about Pinoy politics and showbiz being idiocracies… The fact that politics becomes a natural career progression for Filipino “actors” supports this. I’ve noticed social media has been instrumental in exposing stupidly globally, as is the case with the Philippines (RH Bill hoopla and Tito Sotto Cybercrime, etc). I am hopeful that this will allow for critical thought on a national scale and finally let the sensible and intelligent have a go at running things!
I meant to write “stupidity”, not “stupidly”. Ironic! I blame autocorrect.
There are TV personalities that are good at their work, i.e., J. Soho, Taruc, Tina Munzon Palma, Angelo Castro, Carla David, and Mel Tiangco, just to mention a few… Why would Ricky Lo or for that matter, Abunda, be seen as model-representative of Pinoy bashing genre like you?
Americans do not consider Springer show the epitome of their culture.
JCC, good springboard but Springer is a daytime talkshow host. The pinoys reporters/ anchors you mentioned are parallel to Peter Jennings , Connie Chung , John Roberts etc. Name a significant American reporter with the same “beat” as Ricky Lo that induced a national facepalm? Then maybe I will see the rest of your point more.
Once again Angelo Castro, Mel Tianco etc are not peers of Ricky Lo. Whoever interviews show biz personalities for Inquirer that is more the league of Mr. National Facepalm.
Springer show and other American shows that cater to tasteless culture also abound in America. But they are seen more as evidence of a free and tolerant society, rather than the endemic culture of “smallness” of American society. We should see Jimmy Santos, Joie De Leon, Vic Sotto, Revillame, Abunda and Ricky Lo in the same light, our tolerance to crashiest culture and base entertainment. Freedom is not only for Enstien, Voltaire, Benign0 of GRP, Jefferson, Locke, and Hobbes.
crassness… not crashiest.. mea culpa.
What the hell does an interview conducted by a Filipino have to do with American TV?
Agree…
boom!
very well said, sir.
love your blog!
MidwayHaven…. BUT of course TMZ can do a better job interviewing her… hello.
Um…okay?
I aw the video earlier today. It looks like anne Hathaway felt she was being tricked to answer ridiculous questions being thrown at her. It was kinda rude of him. Well, what can we expect from a self appointed showbiz scribe who earns his living writing intriguing blind items worse than tsismis.
Here’s another interview with the Filipino and this is way better than what Ricky Lo did. Guy should get notes from him, but then again, too late for him.
There you go. This one’s a definite thumbs up. Simple formula — let the interviewee speak uninterrupted and make the interview about the interviewee.
Now I wish that Ricky Lo’s interview happened before this. And I do admit, I watch this video several times and makes me happier now.
the video won’t work in my system, but if the interviewer is a filipino, why can’t u use her/him to represent filipinos having coming of age?
Because Ricky lo iS supposed is always sent to interview the a-listers
how about this benign0- why not use this interview as pinoys shedding of his ‘boondock’ culture? –
Well, who the hell mixed urine with wine?
I think it was merely a matter of cultural difference. I’m not a fan of Ricky Lo but given that this is probably the first time he interviewed someone of this caliber, I think he did okay. It’s so easy for people to criticize when you are not in this position. Yes, he asked a personal question – that’s very Filipino. it’s a Filipino trait and we don’t necessarily have to condemn an entire culture just because we don’t ask questions like Americans do. I wouldn’t necessarily condemn him of incompetence just for that interview – he wasn’t that bad. Him pointing out Lea Salonga was good for the Philippines and I give him 5 star for that. That is contrary to anyone accused of being intimidated. I’m glad to know Anne Hathaway knows and admire a Filipina like Lea Salonga. This guy above is the a$$ki$$er and he is so loud- it’s worse than interrupting. At least Ricky Lo was courteous and humble. The interview above is more cheapy than classy.
Ricky Lo?
He “wasn’t that bad”, was “very Filipino”, and was probably “the first time he interviewed someone of this caliber”.
But of course.
Then Ricky Lo shouldn’t have been dispatched to interview Anne Hathaway to begin with as he was not the right bozo for the job. As I said in the article: you don’t send a goat to negotiate with a tiger.
“Wasn’t that bad” doesn’t cut it in the world-stage. That’s plain old Pinoy pwede-na-yan mentality at work there, I must agree is “very Filipino”, a “virtue” which you, by your own reckoning, attribute to Ricky Lo.
You fail to see the irony in what you say above — which makes me regard your rather quaint ad hominem where you judge my article as “not a work of genius either as your statements are too literal” sort of like how Hathaway probably regarded Lo during that interview. Like the tiger that she is looking bemused as a goat attempted to exchange ideas with her.
Ha ha! 😀
Am I right in interpreting that you find your article as “world-class”? eh, delusion much?
Once again, if you made this site to challenge Pinoys to rise intellectually then you are failing colossally. Your reference to the word “Very Filipino” is derogatory – there’s no intellectual challenge here, just plain racism. You are a racist against your race. As Rizal would say it, “you stink”.
The problem with you is that you can’t tell the difference between racism and criticism. Criticizing a dysfunctional Filipino culture which leads to very poor progress is not racism. And that is one of the disease of da pinoy that you are suffering.
correction: that leads
Domo: syllogism. criticism of a particular person and blaming it to an entire society that person belongs to is racism. When you single out an entire society, that’s racism. Ricky Lo is merely one person. Him interviewing Anne Hathaway has nothing to do with the Philippines. He is an individual, who happens to be Filipino. Don’t blame the Philippines, and the rest of the Filipinos who has nothing to do with his interview. Your arguments are so fallacious. That is your disease – don’t blame it on Pinoys. Your bravado just goes to show how little you understand about human beings, let alone yourself.
And please refrain to use terms you don’t really understand.
Your entire argument in this article is “Ad Hominem” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ad%20hominem.
My criticisms are based on your flawed reasoning in this article.I am judging you merely based on the language you used in this article (when language, I don’t mean the English language but how you constructed your reasoning). Your criticisms are purely based on your personal biases with no intellectual basis. It’s just plain tabloid. There’s no intellectual value in this article but plain trash talk. This crassness is not a Filipino trait but of someone who doesn’t have any breeding regardless of which race you are coming from. There are many people who rants and argue like you in other parts of the world. Your words do not reflect respect, morals and intelligence. Your entire article above is gutter language. When I say its “too literal” – it leaves no room for any one to think and see wisdom. It is so brutally direct void of any art. Yes, you are as guilty as your interpretation of Ricky Lo’s interview. Between you and him, it doesn’t seem like his intention was to insult. Your article is insulting to any human being. It contains no intellectual value for any reader. It doesn’t add any value to the objective of this site. It’s not even a political piece.
Firstly, you cite “flawed reasoning” and “lack of art” without offering anything in the way of stating exactly the nature of the “flaw” in my reasoning that you claim to see nor define the specific standard of artistry that my article supposedly does not reach. In short, you simply make empty assertions that don’t actually challenge specific aspects of the content around which you make said assertion.
The real point, however, is around the spectacle you make of yourself looking for qualities one expects of a Mona Lisa in a work that you yourself describe as “tabloid” in character. So who’s the chump now? 😀
Fact is starting you in the face and this article’s only aim is to put that fact in a structure that the readers here can run with and build upon depending on what they make of what’s been presented here. You’re the only one here exhibiting that deficit of imagination typical of Da Pinoy
Of course I did. You just refuse to acknowledge it. Your “ENTIRE” article is so literal. It’s tabloid because the language is crass. The entire objective of the article is derogatory and fallacious. Your ending paragraph doesn’t follow but a mere add on in the hope to justify your foul and racist language.
//You’re the only one here exhibiting that deficit of imagination typical of Da Pinoy//
Are you sure about that? Are you saying you can READ all the minds of your readers? Presumptuous much? Are you still not aware how you lead the “bandwagon mentality”? I suggest before you respond to take some time and review your comments before you embarrass yourself further (and downgrade further your objective of “challenging the status quo”). Your article and your words DO NOT CHALLENGE the status quo. You reflect the very Filipino culture you abhor…the Filipino culture of your own creation based on your own interpretation because of your lack of understanding of the human culture.
Nope, I can’t read minds any more than you can mine. And yet you still make judgments about the intentions and nature of mental faculties I apply when writing this article. Tsk tsk. Pinoy nga naman talaga. That you’d latch on to that observation of mine and use it to go into speculation on my ability to read minds is rather revealing of the lameness of the general stance you maintain here which does not seem to go beyond whining about what the article is not rather than comment on the basis of what the article is at face value. Perhaps you need to look into this condition of yours, your inability to deal with reality before it becomes a serious hindrance to normal living for you… 😛
But in the end, it was about the Actor and the Film, not what the interviewer (or thinks what his audience) wants.
Plus, it was more fun, and Ricky Lo is the exact opposite of a fun interview (let’s be honest, the guy can be your stereotypically boring math teacher)
And people, your criticism against Ricky Lo is very racist of Filipinos (typical crab mentality response on something so petty). The article above is not an objective criticism at all. It’s still tabloid. The writer above is more guilty than Ricky Lo of being cheap and shallow.
Sorry man, GetRealPhilippines is exactly what it means. Not for the onion-skinned. Bitter tasting medicine but this is exactly what this culture needs.
Filipinos are not a race.
And what can you expect from a cheap journalist whose daily articles in Philstar are all about beauty contestants, showbiz chismis, and questions about the sizes of the male interviewees’ underwear probably giving him excitement & hints on the sizes of their genitalia.
Lester2k1: Being rude and crass or advocating an abusive language is definitely not a value and I don’t see how any Filipino should take any value in that. Stooping down is not going to help Filipinos. Elevate pinoys (as your claimed objective) by showing that you people have class yourself in the way you phrase your arguments. There’s a way to criticize without being cheap about it. Indeed, Ricky Lo can be quite nasty but in this particularly interview, he was rather decent. You gotta give him that.
“Stooping down is not going to help Filipinos.”
You’re missing the point. Actually, you have no idea how dysfunctional our culture is. Honestly speaking, “If someone makes fun or criticizes Filipinos, the latter takes it as an insult to their intelligence.”
Also, crab mentality is just a myth. If it wasn’t, it’s for crab people. Tastes like crab, walk like people. They have a tough shell but total softies on the inside, using emotional outbursts rather than logical thinking. Just like what you’re doing right now.
And yes, yours is onion. Deal with it.
You are probably the one who doesn’t understand that your language and reasoning very much reflect the dysfunctional culture in this country. It is a pity how crass and unreasonable your criticisms are and you are not even aware of it. Be careful, you are becoming the person you loathe.
Same to you. Because you’re totally missing the point. Also, you didn’t get what ‘onion’ means for Da Pinoy. I’m talking about ‘balat-sibuyas’, just like what you’re doing right now. Also, you’re arguments are all strawman.
And with the racist junk. There is no such thing as race. There is only ONE HUMAN RACE. The Human Genome Project said it.
TROLL harder.
//They have a tough shell but total softies on the inside, using emotional outbursts rather than logical thinking. // Try some honesty and review if this statement make any logical sense. Just because it sounds like English, it doesn’t mean it is comprehensible.
it’s called metaphors dimwit .
Vergil: Just out of curiosity, when you say “Onion”, what do you understand of that metaphor? Onion as a metaphor is a positive term. It’s a metaphor used in qualitative research. It’s used in political satire to help an audience see their point through critical thinking. When I say, this is no Onion, I refer to this site, http://www.theonion.com/
And your satire is not a work of genius either as your statements are too literal. This is no Onion. You need to work on your metaphors if your objective is too challenge Pinoys to rise intellectually.
We could also point out that Lo was so disrespectful when Anne was still answering a question and Lo continued asking question without letting the latter finish… What can be the excuse for that?… Hmmmm…
As I’ve said, it’s merely a cultural difference. If you don’t know that about Pinoys coz you’ve lived out of the country for so long, then you should revisit the culture of your roots. Interrupting someone in the Philippines is not a sign of disrespect but over enthusiasm.
then it’s a cultural difference that needs to stop (and points for you for destroying jcc’s earlier statement hehe). we can’t have too many journalists who ask stupid questions in their interviews. buti sana kung tayo tayo lang. nakakahiya sa iba.
No, you’re just being an apologist for Pinoy cultural dysfunction.
Also, the interview was not done in the Philippines, so why would you insist that Pinoy mores be in effect in this interview?
So, does that mean foreign celebrities or people for that matter should research how the Filipino behave in an interview first, before they agree to be interviewed so that they won’t be offended when that sort of thing happens? Isn’t that the job of the interviewee?
correction, the interviewer…sorry
What’s the big deal about Hathaway anyway? I’m an American and to me she is just another overpaid Hollywood Celebrity that’s does not live in the same world the rest of us do. If you cannot see that these “Celebrities” are so full of themselves then you are delusional. Here is a fact for you all. When celebrities take a crap they wipe their asses just like the poor man does. Theirs is a fantasy world. Ours is the real world.
Bill: I was about to say that too. It’s a really petty matter and Anne Hathaway is no tiger. Why make such a big fuss over it?
Its not just Rick Lo. I have seen far too many so-called journalists here in the Philippines totally ruin an otherwise thought provoking interview with foreign celebrities and public figures. In an interview with Nelson Mandela, this reporter, obviously way out of her league, began to ask questions about Mandela’s personal life, in particular, the recent marriage to his “younger” wife. Mandela responded to the reporter; “… you are far too young to be asking me such questions… I am the former President of South Africa and I am here to talk about…” (you get the idea). I recall one interview of an American who started a charity organization here. One would think the interview would focus on the charitable organizations achievements and information on how the viewing public can help but NO! 80% of the interview was focused on the relationship with his wife (a Filipina); how they met, where they were married, etc…
The point of this article is CORRECT! Its not just Ricky Lo! This country is full of “incompetent and mediocre” reporters who are only good at interviewing “incompetent and mediocre” personalities. Take one look at the Palace Press Corps (the reporters who work the press room there) and you’ll see what I mean. An outsider would see them and think it was “bring your kids to work day”!
I would be interested to see the video clip of that interview with Nelson Mandela and that American charity founder. Issues are case to case and it’s not a one size fits all. If you don’t support bandwagon mentality, then be consistent and refrain from enticing bandwagon reasoning. Be objective about it. I’m sure there’s more details you can draw from that interview without focusing on the petty matters. Exercise some tolerance my friend. I’m sure Nelson Mandela didn’t intent to give those comments in the same way you interpreted it.It’s all interpretation after all (subject to doubts).
If you would like to see the Mandela interview, your are more than welcome to Google it. As to my interpretation of his response to the childish questions as if they were being asked by a giddy school girl, I will say this… If I was a current of former State Leader visiting a foreign country to promote a charity, I would find it offensive that one of the first three questions asked were to get information about my young newly-wed wife! That may be OK for Filipinos but I can assure you that is not OK for foreign dignitaries.
As to your comment regarding the “bandwagon mentality” let me say this… This article (and the interview it refers to) only reinforces what I have seen in this country for many years. Ricky Lo failed to realize that his interview was granted to promote the movie and the actress, NOT to promote or make a sad attempt to turn the interview into a promotion for Lea Salonga, one of the many stage actresses who performed the role over its 25+ year run on Broadway!
I, like most (if not all) “Westerners”, have HIGHER STANDARDS. If you are happy with the low standards of your reporters and journalists then so be it. I would only hope that you reporters/journalists would exercise a little more common sense when they interview us.
//I, like most (if not all) “Westernersâ€, have HIGHER STANDARDS. If you are happy with the low standards of your reporters and journalists then so be it. I would only hope that you reporters/journalists would exercise a little more common sense when they interview us.//
Do you have any idea how “presumptuous” your statement is? By “high standards”, what is your baseline? Westerners having better standards? who comes to the Philippines and engage in pedophilia? Westerners. Who comes to the Philippines looking for a Filipina wife because they are submissive? Westerners. Come on, step down your high horse and refrain from selling your sanctimonious kool-aide. You have no standards. You have presumptions. That’s all you have.
So you racism finally slips out. I am an American with a Filipina wife. She is far from being “submissive” as you like to say. She damn sure does not need my money because she has her own. Btw, I am not now, nor have I ever been a pedophile. You see to like to throw the words racism, and pedophile around at the drop of a hat. Kinda makes me think of the “Pot calling the kettle black”. You description of “westerners” shows your true colors. RACIST.
Like I said before tolerance people, you just can’t tell the difference between racism and criticism. Your mindset is so elementary. Do me a favor and go back to that level. Andami mo pang kakaining bigas inutil dahil wala ka pa ring masyadong alam.
Sometimes to deal with hollywood celebrities successfully,you need to leave that Filipinoness behind and adjust to Hollywood culture.Better yet get some tip from Charice.
Maybe peopel like Tolerance People, just love the status qou rather than challenging it… he he he..
You hit the nail right on the head!
Jetlag: I probably got more credible “western” education than you and has engaged with “diplomats” more than you do. You are laughable. You don’t understand diplomacy any more than your knowledge about people and their culture. Your statements smack of ignorance.
Judging from your comment about pedophiles, even though this is a discussion about the news media, I would have to conclude that you are wrong on both counts. However, I do not have to compare transcripts or how many Diplomats I have been in close contact with to prove my point.
“Jetlag: I probably got more credible “western†education than you and has engaged with “diplomats†more than you do.”… I think you meant to say; ‘I probably HAVE more credible Western education than you and HAVE engaged with Diplomats…’ I suppose whatever institution of higher education you attended neglected to include English Grammar in its course instruction… My advice; QUIT while you’re behind. Your arms are too short to box with me.
Ahh, why am I not surprised? The typical Pinoy who nitpick on grammar. It’s so obvious you have never been in a Western education. Even Americans themselves have bad grammar. It just goes to show how very little knowledge you have about different cultures and you claim to have “high western standards”?? hahaha. Presumptuous hypocrite.
Just as a clue, I will continue to skew my grammar and care less about it, and see if you are incapable to get the substance of my logic despite the lack of grammatical perfection. It seems to me that you are getting the point of my argument by the way you respond but you can’t argue “the issue at hand” in the same capacity so you divert your attention on grammatical flaws. So typical Pinoy….you are as guilty as your pronouncements. You are hilarious.
Correction: I mean you are a typical “racist” Pinoy as not all Pinoys are like you. More and more Pinoys are becoming less racist and less attached to idolatry on Western influences – more awareness of the humanity spectrum (regardless of where one is coming from).
Tolerance people is a fraud. You speak of something you have no knowledge of. Racism is rampant in every Country of the world. You are a typical liberal whiner and assume that you know what is best for others. I have been all over this world from north to south and east and west. My military career has put me nose to nose with racists of every form. I found that those that like to use the racist label the most are the biggest of all racists. Here’s a flash for you: Racisim has and always will exist in this world no matter how hard you try to “wish” it away. Folks like you live in a fantasy world.
Have you ever heard the phrase “assumptions are the mother of all fuck-ups”? You ASSUME correcting your grammar is some sort of (Filipino) defense mechanism. You ASSUME I “very little knowledge” about different cultures. You ASSUME I have no “Western Education”. You ASSUME that I am a “Pinoy”… Well son, you better buckle-up! I am NOT Filipino. I am an American. I am a College Graduate. I am a Veteran. I am a world traveler (as a result of my current profession, military service and for pleasure). I have been to more countries on this planet than you can even name! I am also married to a Filipina who is anything but “submissive”! So take you childish rants elsewhere! If you don’t agree with the article, FINE! That’s your right! Have a cup of Shut-the-hell-up and take your lame trolling tactics back to the Barrio dude!
Bwahahahahah. Looks like that one just opened a king size can of 807 Whoopass. Got your six bro…
Ninety per cent of the time, I have not agreed with Benign0, but I would not call him a racist. Tolerance people had raised very sensible points in his posts and his tenacity in trading barbs with the GRP people is admirable.
I looked at Benign0 and his regular repertoire of bashing the Pinoys as crude and tasteless, but because I cannot ascribe ill-motive, I assumed that the framework of such crudity was to awaken the Pinoys of their inherent flaws in order to address them.
There are two types of inspirational speakers: one that sees your hidden potential and asks you to develop it in full measure, the other — consider you a deadbeat to even dream of a career, but you strived hard nonetheless to prove him wrong. Benign0 is the latter.
Actually that’s always been my response since the early days to people who admonish me about my focus on the dysfunction of Pinoy society: Prove me wrong, plez.
I guess I can believe you have engaged with diplomats. What high minded Filipinos would like to believe is that they are engaging in Diplomacy. In reality it is more like hillbillies engaging in a game of checkers while the other side is playing a sophisticated chess game. No wonder the country is in the shape it’s in.
There you go again with your bandwagon reasoning. You are more guilty of your own accusations than the people you accuse. Hypocrite.
jon-asshole is that you?
Uh, it seems the bigger hypocrite is the one ho made assumptions and goes playing victim. Isn’t that right?
Like Bill said, typical FRAUD.
Having watched “Les Misérables” last night, I would like to offer an alternative direction the interview could have taken. In one of her responses, Anne Hathaway mentioned her research for the part. Particularly, researching the plight of women who are forced into prostitution. That response, for me, would have led to more questions on that subject since the performance of Hathaway was so powerful and thought provoking. Not to ask follow-up questions on the subject was a HUGE opportunity missed. Lea Salonga, Anne Hathaways’ weight loss (or gain) and “Trolls” on this thread notwithstanding; this is a very powerful movie and all of the actors deserve full praise for their performances. Most notably, was Anne Hathaways’ performance of “I Dreamed a Dream”! THAT should have been the bulk of the interview (in my opinion)! NOT some lame attempt to link the movie with a Filipina performer who had nothing at all to do with the movie’s production.
I’m surprised though, that no one has yet called on Pinoys to declare Anne Hathaway persona non grata because she snapped at Ricky Lo. Haha.
I’m sure one or more of the idiot congressmen will suggest just that…
The interview started out as very pleasant. Hathaway smiling, well dressed, appeared headed for a lengthy interview to give Ricky Lo his few minutes of fame and glory. Respectful inspite of his thick accent up until 2:57 of the interview when he dropped that Fantine question which made Hathaway uncomfortable.
I agree with benignO. Lo blew that big opportunity to shine among his peers in the Philippine media. His lacking in the way of Hollywood was evident thinking perhaps he was interviewing Kris Aquino who, as the world knows it would not mind telling her sex life in living color.
Watch it and cringe!!!
At the time of commenting there are 85 responses. I don”t recall anyone brining up these points. Any journalist sent to any news event is there to represent his audience. Ask questions that the audience would ask or at least want to know the answer to. Ihave said many times that pinoy mass media consumption is reflective of the pinoy in general. See what the pinoy will consume and see what they will ignore. Take from that what you will.
KSP is the root of all evil and Ricky Lo instead of being interested in what Ms.Hathaway wants to or has to say instead tries to make his own version of street cred. Suddenly attention shifts to him. I have never been journalism school but isn’t the axiom “report the stroy don’t be the story”. Lo forces his KSP agenda on the subject because he is representing a KSP audience. An audience who identifies so much with an American Idol contestant who did not spend one second in the Philippines at the time of her participation. Lo seems like someone who does not get it. You tell me if it’s an embarassment to Lo’s employer who already employ as columnists a BS rump kisser and someone outed in a controversial blog a few years ago as very fond of nose candy. Lo may be a fool but look who sent him to what passes for a high profile gig.
Looks like some comments here got me lost. Another problem with some Filipinos is that they go off-topic just to get a few cheap shots. Well, that’s not me.
I agree with you, Sir. And like Apollo of below post, I actually didn’t think Anne was offensive at all.
Apart from saying it the right and the wrong way, as my English teacher once said, one’s intelligence is defined by the questions he asks. Based on what I’ve watched, I noted that it was an ill-prepared, unintelligent, and insensitive interview, a fitting description to most, if not all, of Lo’s interviews. I also think that he pressed the panic button a few times on this one.
I don’t really need to know why this interview went viral or how it started. Is it a feeble attempt to discredit Anne by earning the so-called Filipino ire?
Nah.
After watching the interview I don’t think that Anne came across mean at all. I love her anyway and was worried about watching the video in case it changed my concept of her, but I think she handled it very well and was polite in the way she declined questions that obviously annoyed her! At the end of it, I still love her! <3
“you have any idea how “presumptuous†your statement is? By “high standardsâ€, what is your baseline? Westerners having better standards? who comes to the Philippines and engage in pedophilia? Westerners. Who comes to the Philippines looking for a Filipina wife because they are submissive? Westerners. Come on, step down your high horse and refrain from selling your sanctimonious kool-aide”
this is the most racist comment i have read of all on this exchanges
Looks like I am addressing the Blogger formerly known as Tolerance people… To clarify and since the meaning behind my comment about Americans having “HIGHER standards” seems to have eluded you… By “higher standards” I mean; by comparison, we expect and in some cases demand more. I could list all sorts of comparisons (between the US & Philippines) but that would be redundant since the good folks at GRP have covered those areas thoroughly so lets stick to Entertainment and News. TV commercials in the US have higher standards of production value (sound,lighting,cinematography,etc)than 90% of Philippine movie productions. As to the News Media, our acceptable standards are very high (although some would argue that Fox News occupies the low-end of the spectrum while others would say its CNN). We would not accept nor tolerate a reporter who is interviewing the SECSTATE about the hostage crisis in Algeria to ask questions about her personal life. We would not tolerate an entertainment reporter on a movie promotional junket to steer the interview away from the topics which are the actor and the movie itself. However, we do accept a certain amount of “latitude” when it comes to Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen (LOL). That is why the movie distributors, (Fox,Universal,Paramount,etc) spend so much money to make their talents available for as many reporters as possible; to promote the MOVIE. If a reporter from ET would have failed the way Ricky Lo did, he would be fired PERIOD. Here in the Philippines, piss-poor-performance is not only tolerated but it is expected and, like we are seeing now, should anyone stand up and demand BETTER, they are called “crabs” and “racists”.
bill,
coming from a corrupt supreme court, i consider my suspension an honor, not a disgrace.
and please refrain from using your wife’s skirt as a way of padding your own self importance. build your own trenches and fight your own battle — we discuss issues here , not your wife’s profession, much less my own circumstance.
is your wife an ambulance chaser that you have to use this forum for obvious advertisement of her profession for potential clients?
or is she a supreme court ‘kiss-ass’ that she have to use you to mouth a bureacratic bias against my person?
get a life and don’t troll for your wife! let her be her own troll.
JCC, before you dig your hole any deeper, allow me to give you a few words of advice. Just someone mentions his/her spouses ethnicity or profession that does not mean it becomes an open invitation to personally attack said spouse. That’s hitting way below the belt dude! Further, Bill, being a War Veteran, has already dug his own trenches and fought his own wars! So try to act like an adult and do NOT make personal attacks against his wife!
CORRECTION: “Just BECAUSE someone mentions his/her spouses ethnicity or profession…”
@jetlag807, bill,
whoaaa, hold your horses — you insulted me first… i was just returning the favor. you tried to pad your self-worth by injecting the profession of your wife… nobody asks about her, and nobody was insulting her, until you promote her as honorable and trashed my person. that is not even the issue here. you argue by shooting the messenger and not confronting the message. now that i shoot back with the same fervor, you cried foul…. inasmuch a you brought her in the forum as an honorable, i asked if she kisses the ass of the supreme court to be one. i believe that is a legitimate inquiry.
by the way, what did you do in jolo? pacify the moros the way you did in 1902-1913? what’s so honorable in that?
The Jolo “massacre†of U.S. Army campaign in the Philippines in 1902 came after the Balangiga Massacre in Samar in 1902 that predate the U.S. massacre in Haditha in Iraq in Mai Lai in Vietnam.
“At dawn the 1,250-man column marched toward what Wood called “Hassan’s Palace.†Soldiers continued to kill Moros indiscriminately along the way.â€
“Over the ensuing week, whenever the Americans encountered a hostile-seeming cotta, Wood summoned his artillery and followed the shelling with an infantry assault. There was widespread destruction and killing, including the deaths of many women and children.4 Wood’s scouts reported that Datu Andung, with a large number of hostile Moros, had taken refuge in a mountainside cotta. Wood personally led two cavalry troops rapidly through the jungle to Mount Suliman. As McCoy tersely wrote, “Then Mr. Andung’s turn came.” A meticulous body count found eighty-two dead Moros. This “pretty piece of work” came at the cost of one American killed and three wounded.5 Wood’s diary entry that night read: “It has been a very busy day’s work and I think has given the Moros a very wholesome lesson.”6
Wood had enjoyed the campaign, a welcome change from unrewarding administrative detail. He officially reported fifteen hundred killed, not distinguishing men from women and children. There never any prisoners of war or survivors. This total was about 2 percent Jolo’s entire Islamic population.Seventeen Americans had died in the fighting.†(The Moro War, James Arnold, The Moro War, 1902-1913).
http://philippineamericanwar.webs.com/balangigamassacre1901.htm
lp
fg
i mean the balangiga massacre was in 1901 — not 1902.
So now I am a war criminal? I was here in the 70s, not in 1902. I was there at the behest of YOUR Government with Philippine Marines. I sure did not ask to be there. As for your little girly tantrum about 1902, you neglected to mention the atrocities of the Moros to Philippine and Americans in that period, but that’s just the Lawyer in you. There is only one side of a story to a Lawyer and thats THEIR side of the story. Yeah and that goes for my wife too. While we are on the subject you also chose to leave out of your diatribe what atrocities the Moros commit today. War is hell boy. You would not know cause you have never been there. on that note let me ask you what you have done for your Country other than piss somebody in a high position off or bend the rule of law just a little too far. You are the kind that takes credit for anothers hard work and sacrifice. Yes you lead from behind with your mouth and not your actions. You are on the winning side of a conflict no matter who is winning. Whatever way the wind blows that is your direction. Soldiers don’t make policy, they just enforce flawed policies made by lawyers in Government positions. Soldiers don’t start wars, politicians (mostly lawyers) start wars. And again, my wife knows how I feel about it. I know a lot of lawyers and we have civil conversations, why can’t I have the same with you? Oh wait, I know. I just don’t like bullshitters like you. That is all.
Bill,
Here is the snippet of the Balangiga Massacre:
In the April 18, 1902 issue of the New York World, Richard Thomas O’Brien, formerly a corporal in Company M, 26th U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiment, based in Miag-ao, Iloilo Province, Panay Island, described how his birthday went on Dec. 27, 1901 at Barrio Lanog: [LEFT, Miag-ao Church, late 1890’s]
“It was on the 27th day of December, the anniversary of my birth, and I shall never forget the scenes I witnessed on that day. As we approached the town the word passed along the line that there would be no prisoners taken. It meant that we were to shoot every living thing in sight—man, woman, and child. The first shot was fired by the then first sergeant of our company. His target was a mere boy, who was coming down the mountain path into the town astride of a caribou. The boy was not struck by the bullet, but that was not the sergeant’s fault. The little Filipino boy slid from the back of his caribou and fled in terror up the mountain side. Half a dozen shots were fired after him. The shooting now had attracted the villagers, who came out of their homes in alarm, wondering what it all meant. They offered no offense, did not display a weapon, made no hostile movement whatsoever, but they were ruthlessly shot down in cold blood—men, women, and children. The poor natives huddled together or fled in terror. Many were pursued and killed on the spot.
“Two old men, bearing between them a white flag and clasping hands like two brothers, approached the lines. Their hair was white. They fairly tottered, they were so feeble under the weight of years. To my horror and that of the other men in the command, the order was given to fire, and the two old men were shot down in their tracks. We entered the village. A man who had been on a sick-bed appeared at the doorway of his home. He received a bullet in the abdomen and fell dead in the doorway. Dum-dum bullets were used in that massacre, but we were not told the name of the bullets. We didn’t have to be told. We knew what they were.
“In another part of the village a mother with a babe at her breast and two young children at her side pleaded for mercy. She feared to leave her home, which had just been fired—accidentally, I believe. She faced the flames with her children, and not a hand was raised to save her or the little ones. They perished miserably. It was sure death if she left the house—it was sure death if she remained. She feared the American soldiers, however, worse than the devouring flames.”
Company M was commanded by Capt. Fred McDonald.
Please don’t preach your moral authority over the Filipinos and don’t sidestep the issue that 1901/1902 is different from your military operations in the island in Jolo in seventies… 🙂
Were you on Jolo in the 70s? If not how can you comment on it?
I would expect nothing less from you than to go into attack mode Bozo. I make provacative posts where you are concerned because my aim is to let all who read GRP post know exactly who you are and what you are about. You are extremely easy to manipulate and I enjoy doing it. You are easily brought to anger an lose your cool. Not a good thing for an Attorney. Having said that, my wife does not need anymore clients. She has neither been disgraced or suspended like you have. Your posts are arrogant for someone of such a low stature and you have shown to everyone how low a loser can go when he is called out for what he is.
don’t you know that ninoy did not lose his credibility despite being a convicted murderer, rizal as a traitor, bonifacio as a traitor, general sakay as a traitor, solshenitsyn as a traitor?
the court is not the exclusive processor of what the truth is..
now who is pissed off?
all of ricky lo’s interviews with hollywood celebrities are cringe-worthy. why does it have to be him anyway, surely we can get better interviewers than him…
i agree
If you say that in the 70s you were in jolo protecting the country, many would say, you were there to protecting marcos and dole pineapple…
Like I said before you moron. I didn’t make the policy. I just enforced it like both governments ordered me to do. I never said I looked forward to it or that I liked it. It was my chosen profession and an honorable one. Unlike you I did what had to be done under the circumstances. But thats me, not you. And the thing about Marcos, and Dole is pure bullshit. I know a whole hell of a lot of Filipinos that would disagree with you. You have lived under a rotating dictatorship since you got your independence, so get over it.
Read your history padre! —
Now you know the reason why politician-lawyers craft state policies. These are sensitive issues to be left to soldiers who have no brain.
As regards your claim that dictators were purely our creations, and your presence in the country was due to the invitation of the government instead of promoting U.S. imperial interest in the region, here is your compatriot who says otherwise:
“The rule of Syngman Rhee and the U.S. backed generals was merely the first instance in East Asia of the American sponsorship of dictators. . The list is long, hut it deserves reiteration simply because many in the United States fail to remember (if they ever knew) what East Asians cannot help but regard as a major part of our postwar legacy. U.S. sponsored Asian dictators include:
Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo in Taiwan. (Taiwan started to democratize only in the 1980s after the Carter administration had broken relations with it.)
Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines (brought down by Cora Aquino and her People Power movement after Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush had hailed him as a democrat).
Ngo Dinh Diem (assassinated on American orders), General Nguyen Khanh, General Nguyen Cao Ky, and General Nguyen Van Thieu Vietnam.
General Lon Nol in Cambodia.
Marshals Pibul Songgram, Sarit Thanarat, Praphas Charusathien, and Thanom Kittikachorn in Thailand (where they were essentially care takers for the huge American air bases at Udorn, Takli, Korat, and Ubon).
General Suharto in Indonesia (brought to power with the help of the Central Intelligence Agency and overthrown with the help of the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency).
Several others had careers too brief or obscure to rememberr clearly (for example, General Phoumi Nosavan in Laos). These men belong to the same category of petty tyrants that the former Soviet Union used to staff its satellites in Eastern Europe from 1948 to 1989 (although the Russians usually chose obedient members of the local Communist Party apparatus over militarists).
The U.S. government used economics, as well as authoritarian regimes, as a tool of empire building. Our most effective, nonmilitary policies in East Asia were to trade access to our markets for East Asian toleration of the indefinite billeting of our soldiers, aircraft, and ships in their countries. Admittedly, following the Vietnam War, the United States briefly toyed with the idea of letting its empire in East Asia go. President Jimmy Carter explored withdrawing our troops from South Korea, particularly since North and South Korea were at that point nearly indistinguishable in terms of human rights abuses and Stalinist-style development policies. But he was forestalled in 1979 by the assassination of the South Korean dictator, General Park Chung-hee, and by his inability politically to cast off one satellite just as another one, Iran, was in open rebellion against the United States. When, in the final days of the Carter administration, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in order to prop up its own puppets there, any talk of giving up our empire evaporated.”(Blowback, Chalmers Johnson, p. 26-27).
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson summarized the intent of Blowback in the final chapter of Nemesis.
“In Blowback, I set out to explain why we are hated around the world. The concept “blowback” does not just mean retaliation for things our government has done to and in foreign countries. It refers to retaliation for the numerous illegal operations we have carried out abroad that were kept totally secret from the American public. This means that when the retaliation comes — as it did so spectacularly on September 11, 2001 — the American public is unable to put the events in context. So they tend to support acts intended to lash out against the perpetrators, thereby most commonly preparing the ground for yet another cycle of blowback. In the first book in this trilogy, I tried to provide some of the historical background for understanding the dilemmas we as a nation confront today, although I focused more on Asia — the area of my academic training — than on the Middle East.”[10]
Please read the most enlightened minds of your compatriots Padre, so you will not be ‘shooting’ in the dark, both figuratively and literally. 🙂
If you choose to take the word of a digruntled ex CIA agent as the Gospel that is your problem. Chalmers was booted from CIA and under Federal Investigation for leaking secrets. But thats what I said about lawyers before. They tell only the side of the story they want you to hear. I don’t really care what a traitor has to say, they are not worth the time. But here you elect them to office.
I have to say I agree with you. That you for making my point for me. Brainless Soldiers did not make these policies. You are correct in pointing out that Lawyers and politicians make the policy decisions. Thanks for the post. You are not as stupid as I thought you were.
Hahahaha… You flashed your patented argument of shooting the messenger instead of taking the bull by its horn by claiming that Chalmers Johnson was a disgruntled ex-CIA agent. For a career soldier, you appeared extremely naivete.
There is something really wrong with the CIA, and exposing it for what it is not ‘a grunt’, it’s a patriotic duty.
“The hold of the Corsican syndicates in Marseille was weakened, since their most powerful leaders had made the tactical error of collaborating with the Nazi Gestapo and so were either dead or exiled. Most significantly, Sicily’s Mafia had been smashed almost beyond repair by two decades of Mussolini’s police repression. It was barely holding on to its control of local protection money from farmers and shepherds.5
“With American consumer demand reduced to its lowest point in fifty years and the international syndicates in disarray, the U.S. government had a unique opportunity to eliminate heroin addiction as a major American social problem. Instead, the government—through the CIA and its wartime predecessor, the OSS—created a situation that made it possible for the Sicilian-American Mafia and the Corsican underworld to revive the international narcotics traffic.” These operations were the first signs of the CIA’s willingness to form tactical, anti-Communist alliances with major narcotics dealers, whether in the cities of Europe or the jungles of the Third World. During the forty years of the cold war, several of the CIA’s covert action allies were to play a significant role in sustaining a global narcotics industry that supplied the United States.†(The Politics of Heroine, CIA Complicity in the Global Trade, Alfred W. McCoy, p. 25).
“Steve Coll ends his important book on Afghanistan, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, by quoting Afghan President Hamid Karzai: “What an unlucky country.” Americans might find this a convenient way to ignore what their government did in Afghanistan between 1979 and the present, but luck had nothing to do with it. Brutal, incompetent, secret operations of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, frequently manipulated by the military intelligence agencies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, caused the catastrophic devastation of this poor country. On the evidence contained in Coll’s book, neither the Americans nor their victims in numerous Muslim and Third World countries will ever know peace until the Central Intelligence Agency has been abolished. (cited by Chalmers Johnson in Dismantling The Empire, p. 11).
“IN THE GLOBAL dissemination of its new interrogation doctrine during the Cold War, the CIA moved through two distinct phases, first operating undercover through police-training programs in Asia and Latin America and later collaborating with Army teams that advised local counterinsurgency forces, largely in Central America. Throughout this thirty-year effort, the CIA’s torture training grew increasingly brutal, moving by degrees beyond the original psychological techniques to harsh physical methods through its experience in the Vietnam War.
From 1962 to 1974, the CIA worked through the Office of Public Safety, a division of U.S. AID that posted police advisers to developing nations.1 Established by President John F. Kennedy in 1962, OPS grew, in just six years, into a global anti-Communist operation with an annual budget of $35 million and over four hundred U.S. advisers assigned worldwide. By 1971, the program had trained over one million police officers in forty-seven nations, including 85,000 in South Vietnam and 100,000 in Brazil.2 Concealed amid the larger effort, CIA interrogation training soon proved controversial, as police agencies across the Third World became synonymous with human rights abuses— particularly in South Vietnam, Uruguay, Iran, and the Philippines. (A Question of Torture, Alfred W. McCoy, p. 60.)
By the way, the seventies were the height of MILF-MNLF rebellion in Mindanao under Marcos following the massacre of some 27 muslim recruits in the Jabidah Project. If your tour of duty in Jolo were under those years, then you must be aware of the regular skirmishes between the muslim rebels and the govt. troops of Marcos. It was not picnic years, it was bloody years. You were fighting in Marcos troops when you said in your post here that in the seventies you were busy defending our country and you seem to be very proud of it because you were invited to fight in it and probably had relished in it. Please tell us, how many “rebels†did you kill?
Additionally, I have not called you a moron… When I said soldiers without brain, it was generic, it was not meant for you, but if you felt alluded to by the statement, maybe because you were a moron after all… Anyway, you called me a moron and stupid first. It seems that you are only capable of dishing out those pejoratives, but extra sensitive of receiving them.
@Proud Pinoy, Thank you for the accolade. 🙂
Why do you assume that I am a big fan of the CIA. I stated 2 facts. He was a disgruntled CIA Employee, and that he has been under investigation.. The military in fact does not like the CIA and is FORCED to operate under CIA Command from time to time. The reason for this being that the Military is operating under the rules of the Geneva Convention. The CIA is not. Have I got your attention now.? If there are abuses ( and there are) the Military is the one blamed, not the CIA, who are the ones who are in fact the abusers. Do you think it was the Military that waterboarded terrorists? Nope. Thats all CIA little man. But in the majority of abuse cases by the Military, the soldiers that were responsible were tried and convicted. Not so for the CIA. Do you think rendition was by the military? Nope. CIA. The CIA is run by lawyers and bureaucrats that use the military as there scapegoats to cover their own coward asses. You know nothing about how the military operates. You read what you choose to read, authored by left wingers and disgruntled employees, and then you come back here to the blog with quotes about things you are ignorant of, by authors with an agenda. You don’t have an original thought of your own. You are a true lawyer in every sense of the word. You quote rumor and innuendo as gospel. He said, she said is your doctrine. You actually sound like a left wing Marxist Revolutionary spouting the manifesto of some moron living in the Netherlands, in the lap of luxury while the common folks do all the heavy lifting. The difference between you and me is that I see things in black and white, right or wrong, you on the other hand operate in the murky grey area between black and white and right and wrong. Whats wrong with the world today? Whats wrong is that there is no right or wrong, only the grey areas where right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. That being said, in America there are two professions reviled by the people. One is a used car salesman and the other is a lawyer. They are both considered on notch below a cockroach. As for my “relishing” combat? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. One does not relish not knowing whether he will live from day to day and one does not relish that fact that he may have to take a life to preserve his own. Soldiers know that the enemy is no different than they are. They have families. Mothers, fathers, wives, sons and daughters. If it were left up to soldiers there would be no wars. As I said before, soldiers don’t start wars. Lawyers and bureaucrats start wars while you sit in your comfy offices while the rest bear the brunt of your flawed selfish decisions. How dare you accuse me of pleasure in taking a life when you have never been there or done that. The only regret I have about my military career is that I have had to serve people like you. A thousand of your kind is not worth one soldiers life. You are just not worth it.
No, siree!!!
Military personnel becomes CIA operatives later.
You have to recognize the disease to treat it. Truman recognized it and don’t tell me that he is a left-winger too.
” For sometime I have been disturbed by the way [the] CIA has been diverted fom its original assignment. x x x We have grown up as a nation respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historical position, and I feel that we need to correct it.” — Truman, the U.S. President that signed the National Security Act of 1947 creating the CIA.
Alfred W. McCoy is a respected scholar. He is your compatriot.. Plase google him and look at his credentials.
You are right. Some of the military do go to CIA, but a very small part of them. We refer to them in the military as Mercenaries. Most of them do one hitch in the Military and defect. You won’t find many career soldiers in the CIA. For one thing we are too old when we get out. Of course there are those career soldiers like General Betrayus that find their way there
The 1902 Jolo massacre and the 1901 Balangiga massacre were done by soldiers not by CIA operatives, beacause then, CIA was not yet existing.
Back to 1902 again? Here’s what you are leaving out about that story. It was in retaliation for mutilating and beheading American soldiers. Can’t say for sure cause I wasn’t there. Can’t say whether I agree with it or not. But please if you are going to tell a story tell the whole story.
Yes, because they tried to molest a local girl. But your retaliation includes young children, women and old people in the carnage that even your own country was shocked of your actions. No different from the Mai Lai massacre, only more gruesome. But this come as no surprise, when you look at the way you treated your native indians.
Hahahahahahaha, I can’t dispute what happened in 1902. But obviously you were there. Don’t you have to go see your parole officer or something?
the balangiga events i have posted came from the soldier that participated in it, your compatriot by the way… 🙂
bill,
Your post on January 21 in answer to Proud Pinoy:
“To answer your question about what I have done for your country: Back in the 70s I was on Jolo in defense of your country. So what’s your claim to fame?”
Then you followed it with another post that you were invited to fight in it.
You blow hot and cold at the same time…
When I pointed out the ugliness of the war and that in the seventies, MILF-MNLF were fighting government troops incensed by the massacre of muslim recruits in the Jabidah project of Marcos, you suddendly postured that you do not relish in ‘killing’
But please read again, I don’t accuse you of relishing in it. I gathered from your post that you “probably relish” in it because you breast-thump about it when you tried to belittle Proud Pinoy.
But your bravado seems to be a product of sleeping too long with a coacroach…
I have never slept with you. And it’s not Breast Thumping, it’s chest pounding. You are very feminine aren’t you.
Were you trying to nitpick now because you ran out of substance?
No more so than you when you implied my wife was a cockroach. You see, she’s the only one I sleep with
No more than you when you implied my wife was a cockroach. You see, my wife is the only one I sleep with.
You were the one who classified lawyers as even below the level of cockroach.. What makes your wife above the cockroach level, simply beause she is your of wife? Don’t be patronizing – you lose your objectivity.
bill,
i am really confused the way you argue… you were not a fan of CIA, but when someone accused CIA of wrongdoing you called him a liberal wingnut and a disgruntled employee. should you not be joining him because you have the same view as the other guy?
then you accused me of sounding like a marxist revolutionary and expressed regret of having to serve people like me… man, get your argument in order. are we not supposed to be at the other end of this great divide and not serving each other’s butt?
but anyway, i have found you a very angry person – angry at the politician-lawyers who sent you on the front-lines and you are taking it on me because i am a lawyer. however you were not taking it against your wife who too is a lawyer. in one breath you detest lawyers, in another you embraced the lawyer. you found me destestable knowing that the supreme court censured me for alleged wrongdoing, but you have a soft-heart for soldiers being court-martialed for alleged wrongdoing. you found your own bias in favor of the men in uniform, but would not extend it to lawyer who could be in the situation of your soldier-buddies, (wrongly-tried) because i am not a soldier.
i’ve got your entire emotional get-up figured out. we have actually the same bias… you were against the very system composed of politician-lawyers who sent you to the frontlines, and look at me as a part of that system.. and i am against the corrupt judicial system in our country. but i do not blame you for my own personal circumstance, while you blame me for your own circumstane. that’s the difference.
you need a shrink to address your issue.
You still did not to address what I actually said in the post. I want to know what you just address what you choose to. Tell me why you think that you are qualified to say I relished what I did? Are you qualified enough to say that it was ok for the Moros to behead and mutilate Filipinos? Get this through your thick skull. Nobody made a profit by any of this slaughter. Not the US Soldiers, Not the Moros, not the Filipino soldiers, not the people. The only ones that made a profit from this is the lawyers and bureaucrats. And as far as my wife goes, she gets a pass because I love her and I don’t love you. And the quotes and articles you post mean nothing to me. You let other people form your opinions and then spew them as the Gods Honest truth. You are as mindless as the soldiers you hate so much and villify. Keep dancing boy
I was in the Philippines when martial law was declared. I saw young cadres lifeless bodies in the morgue. I was a reporter of a weekly tabloid. what is the fault of these young cadres lying on the white cold tiles? — they simply fighting for food…
Who killed those folks? Americans or Filipinos? Maybe some of your Senators would know cause I sure don’t
The point is not who killed those young cadres. The point is that the U.S. should have not propped Marcos corrupt government and send their soldiers to fight in his government… But the U.S. was obliged to do that to serve ]its imperial designs, fearful that after Marcos, the country would be run by the communists and american businesses will be confiscated. In fact the U.S. believes that anyone who opposed Marcos was a communist.
Well, finally we agree on something. You still refuse to accept any Filipino responsiblity for those people being killed. But I have come to expect that so it’s neither here nor there for me. As far as US policies goe, why do you think I am in self-imposed exile in the Philippines.? As far as miss Pinoy pride goes she/hes asked me what I did for the country. Don’t you think that was kind of an attempt to discredit me? I answered honestly and directly with a little sarcasm for good measure.
hahahaha.. if you think your tour of duty in the country was an imposition by politician-lawyers of the system and you personally do not relish in combat, you can always leave the army…. Muhammad Ali risked going to jail so he can protest the senseless killing in Vietnam. but you are not him.. we’ve got you totallly seized up as a soldier willing to be used as pawn in the dirty power-politics.
so do not preach from an ivory tower to belittle the Pinoys who have no combat experience as you do.
are you really an adult, or an adult idiot?
What an idiotic way to construct a sentence.
Well I guess Mr. RLo knows the meaning of read between the line.
Wow I can’t believe that opinions on whether who is to blame could be almost evenly divided. Weird world, huh?
I wonder why there are people still blaming Anne for frankly answering awkward questions. Then I begin to shiver upon hearing their reason as cultural.
You see, that’s why only few Filipinos (and oh my they were milestone! for us…) make it big outside. If you’re going to work, act professionally. And that obviously doesn’t exclude movie star interviews.
I may be wrong, but it appears to be that the comments section seem to be about lengthy ad hominem arguments. Admins, may you escort these bickering gentlemen home, and clear their irrelevant graffiti?
Now, who is really pissed off. You started it and I have never called you a moron.. 🙂
but you are a moron…
What makes you think I am pissed off? Actually I am really having a good time here. But you did call me a moron. Remember? What was it you said about brainless soldiers? I was a career soldier…… Hence, according to you I am brainless….. a moron.
“To answer your question about what I have done for your country: Back in the 70s I was on Jolo in defense of your country. So what’s your claim to fame?†— Bill Steffen, Jan. 21.
I found it excruciatingly painful the suggestion that Proud Pinoy and I should feel indebted to this U.S. soldier, fighting against Moros in Jolo during the most repressive rule of Marcos in the 70s. He flaunted his exploit in this forum that he was defending our country on “invitation†from our government and belittle others who have no equal claim to “fame.â€
This hubris is scandalously suffocating…
What was our way of life in the 70s which our soldier Bill was willing to defend?
Here is a snippet:
“During the late 1970s, the main object of Church attack was Sgt George Presquito, commander of the local death squad. One of the worst incidents was what one Church publication later called ‘the Vilma Riopay Story’. At dawn on 17 July 1977, a group of heavily-armed masked men under Sgt. Presquito’s command surrounded a peasant house at Magballo, a village on the Tablas plateau about eight kilometres from Fr O’Brien’s parish. ‘You are the one we want’, said Sgt Presquito pointing to Vilma Riopay, a 21 year old woman who was a ‘devoted catechist’ in the Columbans’ Magballo parish. Despite her father’s pleadings, Sgt. Presquito’s squad drove off with her in a truck they had commandeered from the Daconcogon Sugar Mill. Immediately after the abduction, her father, Domingo Riopay, sought the aid of the Columban priest who spread an alarm throughout the diocese.
Three days later, Church contacts in the neighboring Diocese of Cebu somehow learned that she was being detained by Constabulary headquarters as an ‘NPA suspect’. After many attempts, Redemptorist priests and RGS nuns won an interview with a Constabulary colonel who admitted holding Vilma but refused to let them see her. The Redemptorists telephoned Bishop Fortich at Bacolod who wrote his local Constabulary commander pleading that Domingo Riopay be allowed to visit his daughter. Accompanied by the director of the Catholic Social Action Office for Negros, Fr. Suplido, Domingo Riopay flew to Cebu City and pleaded for his daughter’s release. Since no charges were pending, the Colonel complied.
Noting Vilma’s obvious disorientation, Domingo and the religious took her to a Cebu hospital where examination found bruises about the chest and thighs. Her condition was diagnosed as ‘acute psychotic reaction’. She later revealed that she had been taken to a ‘safehouse’ in Bacolod after her arrest where she underwent interrogation and torture – denial of sleep, electrocution, beating about the genitalia and the ‘water cure’. A year after the incident, a psychiatrist’s report on Vilma read: ‘Subject is still found to be suffering from anxiety and tension accompanied by recurrent headaches, insomnia, occasional nightmares, withdrawal from socialization and poor decision and work performance… She might become emotionally invalid for life. Definitely, she could not stand trial in court’. Despite formal complaints from Bishop Fortich, the Constabulary denied any knowledge of Sgt Presquito and no action was taken. (Priests on Trial, Alfred W. McCoy, p. 177-178).
More are coming Bill.. 🙂
This Sgt you speak of. What was his unit? Was he tried, convicted or aquitted? C’mon Boy. I can find all kinds of crap on the net like that. I can pick and choose what I try to feed the people, like you do. Like I told you before, you pick and choose the crap you feed people. If in fact it did happen, I didn’t do it. Also you neglect to mention the Moro death squads. But that’s just you I guess.
I quoted it from Alfred McCoy in his book, Priests o Trial..
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/9/21/alfred_mccoy_torture_and_impunity_the_us_doctrine_of_coercive_interrogation_pt_2
Is that the right link? It took me to “Torture with impunity” not Priests on trial. I am gonna google Priests on trial
http://www.amazon.com/Priests-Trial-Alfred-W-McCoy/dp/0140079386
Thanks
So you send me to Amazon for a book review that says nothing about the phantom Sgt. I guess I’ll have to buy the book to see if you are not making this up
why don’t you buy the book as i do so you can be informed? what have you been reading about the Philippines, Hartzel Spence’s “For Every Tear A Victory?”
Please stop posting bullshit links. Everybody that went to those links know you are a bullshitter. Our conversation is over, unless you would like to meet me in person and then we can discuss your comment about my wife. You certainly do not represent Manhood.
now who is really pissed off? 🙂
I quoted it from Alfred McCoy in his book, Priests on Trial..
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/9/21/alfred_mccoy_torture_and_impunity_the_us_doctrine_of_coercive_interrogation_pt_2
But let me be clear. I am appaled also by death squads of the left. But that is not justification for State sponsored torture. Doing that will make govt. no better than the enemies it tries to defeat.
Besides, as you said, as a soldier, you are bound by the Geneva convention, or this is only your pretension?
Yes I am bound by the Geneva convention and I adhered to it. War is very unpleasant business no matter what side you are on. This is not a dig at you or anyone else, But, there is no humane way to fight a war. In the end everybody loses. Soldiers are bound by an oath they take. (at least those that are honorable). Be that right or wrong it is what it is. Brutality begets brutality. If you have never seen it first person, I know it will be hard to understand. The folks that send soldiers to do their job never see it, but nevertheless want it done. Emotions and adrenaline run high in combat, on both sides, and bad things happen
Bill,
JCC is seriously destroying you with his superior arguments and it is, frankly, quite sad to see such a one sided display of intellectual annihilation.
Why don’t you do yourself a favor and recognize that you are outmatched and honorably capitulate.
JCC,
Maraming salat sa iyong mga sakripisyo para sa ating bayan. Dakila ka kuya! Malaki ang utang na loob namin sa iyo.
Magkita na lang tayo muli sa Istarbacks 🙂
Proud Pinoy
You sure are presumptive with your position as arbiter. Bill, I got your back.
Thanks Gogs. Some folks just like to see the side of things that they want to see. As far as Proud pinoy goes. His handle says it all.
Proud Pinoy/ Pastor Ernie –
intentionally comes in discussion with agenda. Agenda is to SH** disturb while taking on a theme. Like blog discussion version of being a drag queen show. One night Barbra Streisand another night Diana Ross. Then becomes self proclaimed judge.
Gogs, he sure likes to kiss ass, are you an ass-kisser P.P?
Ang dadaldal niyo!!! May nalalaman pa kayong “AD HOMINEM” diyan, and dahil lang dun akala ninyo eh matatalino na kayo, hahaha… Pa english-english pa kayo, kala ko ba mga pinoy kayo, tsktsk… Eto lang naman yun eh, bakit ba hindi ninyo matanggap na malaki ang pagkakamali ni Ricky Lo as a journalist/interviewer? Yun lang naman yun eh… Ang dami dami niyo pang sinasabi kasi eh… May nalalaman pa kayo diyan about racism, criticism, etc… SH*T!!! Kayo kaya ang tanungin ng mga nonsense questions na yun, tignan natin kung ano ang isasagot niyo o kung matutuwa kayo… Palabas mo, tapos kung sinu-sino ang babanggitin sayo… Cmon! Mas mabuti sana kung ang naging mga tanong na lang niya eh yung tungkol sa palabas, hindi yung kung anu anong walang kwentang tanong… Yun lang naman ang puno’t dulo nito… Tama din na ‘wag nating idamay ang BUONG sambayanang pilipino sa nagawa ni Lo… He may have represented the Philippines pero isa lang din siyang indibiduwal at HINDI siya ang BUONG PILIPINAS/PILIPINO… Yun lang yun… At sa LAHAT ng mga intelehenteng tao diyan na ingles pa ng ingles at gumagamit pa ng kung anu-anong linggwahe diyan, HINDI to paligsahan, ok… Hindi ninyo kailangang gumamit ng mga malalalim na salita para lang ipakita na matatalino kayo… Pwede niyo namang gawing simple lang, para naiintindihan ng nakakarami dito…
Yun lang po…
Typical pinoytard with a childish, whiny mindset. Hoy batang paslit. Usapang matanda ito. Bumalik ka nga sa kakalaro ng mga laruan mo.
Typical pinoytard with a childish, whiny mindset. Hoy batang paslit. Usapang matanda ito. Bumalik ka nga sa kakalaro mo ng iyong laruan.
Kiko,
My advice to you is, grab some popcorn, sit back, and watch the show of “pleasantries” being exchanged.
Oh yeah, one more thing, shut up.
If you actually dig through his crap-pile of whines, you’ll see that this guy has a point which somehow agrees with the article. He even brought up the point that we should blame Ricky Lo as an individual, unlike what many pinoys reason out as a “cultural gap” (still makes me cringe). Of course this should also apply to Filipino achievements, which I assume he also agrees with.
Besides those valid points he brought up, I’d disagree with how we should always argue using our national tongue. That’s just derailing the topic discussed; we should always just understand the context of our arguments. Tsaka di rin ako marunong humatak ng mga salitang Filipino kung nakikipag… tagisan? Sorry naman, pero ibang usapan na yun kung sakali, at walang kinalaman sa blog post na ito.
Sya nga pala, sana din maintindihan ninyong LAHAT na kanya kanyang opinyon ang naisusulat dito, kaya hindi ninyo kailangang mag-away away dahil para sa inyo eh ang opinyon ninyo ay tama, ngunit maaaring maging mali para sa iba… Dependsahan niyo man hindi eh walang mawawala sa inyo dahil opinyon niyo lang yun, at hindi opinyon ng lahat ng nakakabasa dito…
World peace! 🙂
Wait a minute, did you read the article?
Maybe he did, but didn’t understand it. Maybe he read the comments, then got even more confused.
Ricky Lo botched the interview! He was not properly prepared. He was ill-mannered and clumsy. Far too many “reporters” in the Philippines lack professionalism, integrity and knowledge about who or what they are writing about! Prove me wrong!
I completely agree with you. To add insult to his self-inflicted injuries, plans of glorifying him by his fellow moronic local press had backfired.
How the hell did a 4 minute interview of an actress ended up copncluding the culture and thinking of a whole race? Do you people even know that there so many of us who do not even care or gives a rat’s A$$ about Lo or Hathaway. Wake up !!
Ricky Lo’s Hathaway Interview = Fremdschämen in Perfection
hahaha
Also the review says nothing about any Americans. Only the Philippine government. One more thing. We were under the command of Filipinos and refused to obey orders on more than one occasion. nobody in their right mind wants to die
Hey Bill, did you disobey your Filipino commanders because they were insanely wrong or just because they were Filipinos?
Because of unlawful orders.
Ricky Lo studied English at the University of the East? I guess this school lost all credibility now.
Well that explains his poor use of English vocabulary…he’s poorly educated. The University of the East is a joke.
Good thing he’s of Chinese descent. Whew!
For a so-called “veteran” in the interview business, Mr Ricky Lo demonstrated immaturity, lack of intelligence and a dismal paucity of empathy… Most of the comments here are right: he is an embarassment to the Filipino people and should content himself on interviewing starlets who are on the same level as he. For a very important interview, his lack of preparation was evident, and this betrays lack of respect for the interviewee, as well as unprofessionalism…
The netizens are right: Pls quit interviewing international stars and give yourself some decency….
Well said
Ricky Lo’s interview is very BORING. I seriously couldn’t understand what he’s saying and he doesn’t even speak properly. I don’t know why Ricky’s interview is longer than Manny the Movie Guy’s. Manny’s interview is more exciting and I wish that could’ve been longer.
It’s funny how Anne is supposedly “rude.” She was being nice if anything. If I were in that interview, I would be bored to tears and walk out.
no matter how trivial these things may be, (such as this interview) these are products of a culture…so now as for this Ricky Lo, he should have known better..he should have done his homework and prepared properly so as not to make dumbass of himself….
BTW, who was the idiot who thought of this Ricky Lo in the first place? he’s pretty much like an Anne Coulter of showbiz who does nothing but stir up the pot and cause chaos and mayhem in showbiz! jeezus christ…..
You can’t compare Anne Coulter to this guy. Completely two different people. He is just like a Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. Thats a perfect comparison.
Look up the interviews of Ricky Lo with Alan Menken in Funfare. Search words: Ricky Lo, Alan Menken, Funfare. It is a November 2007 report. Alan Menken was promoting the movie “Enchanted”. Ricky Lo asked about Lea Salonga instead. Look up the interview of the Twilight actors, by Ricky Lo, in youtube. Read the comments of the people who posted three years ago. They said, Ricky Lo was not an engaging interviewer. Search for the article of Ricky Lo in Funfare, with his interview of Liam Neeson. Listen to Ricky Lo state his opinions in the interview. An opinion like : “Taken 2” is more emotionally demanding for Liam Neeson than Liam’s role as Schindler in Schindler’s List. To which, Ricky Lo was called, weird, by Liam Neeson. I say, Ricky Lo is consistent. Consistently LAZY, who did not do researches on the body of work of his subject (Ricky Lo can not name one title of the songs Alan Menken played of his compositions), who loves to interject his own opinions in the interview, who asks his subjects to compare (which is better? your favorite?) the subject’s present work with past work. Ricky Lo is consistently a failure in interviewing. So, who is sending him to these interviews? And he interviewed 200 celebrities by now, how many of those 200 interviews are by talents in Hollywood who take their craft seriously? And how many are those from “someone” not necessarily with talent, who just wants to get famous, regardless of using their private lives or scandal to promote themselves? I think, Ricky Lo, should stick with the “talents”, who use controversies and scandals to gain fame.
Feeling Boy Abunda hehe