Kapit-Tuko

Someone asked me if we have a gecko at home because he will buy it for 2.5 million pesos. On instances like these, I would become speechless. Questions and facts would whirl inside my head it's like going crazy. (Have you experienced traveling on a bus for almost 10 hours and you got scared to realize that your thoughts are in disarray? This is similar to that experience.

First, what's with the gecko which we locally named TUKO? Someone said its blood and liver could cure cancer. Others theorized it is an additive for illegal substances. Then, scientific stuff was mentioned... Millions,too, were spoken...

This is my problem: Are the buyers authorized to buy such reptiles? Who are these buyers when in fact there is no company present in the region where signage of this business is conspicuous. We buy copra, we buy seaweeds, we buy nipa, we buy bayat and kinhason... but no We buy tuko.

I remembered one time when a person came to the former school where I was teaching. The guy announced that he is a talent scout of ABS-CBN. He was interested to "sign-up" a male student and the parents asked for advise from me (I was designated as the guidance coordinator that time). The talent scout then discussed without any stimulus about the talent fee. He talked 500 thousand starting fee and I blurted out: You're talking about money this big and yet you were only commuting using trisikad?

The point is this: If this is such a big business, who are these buyers who only come and go looking like thugs? They'd tell you about bank-to-bank transactions while dusting-off the "kaitan" they got from Noventa. Is there a permit of sorts from the DENR since geckos are exotic animals? If they're only interested on the blood and liver of the reptile then dump the tuko, would the animal-rights' advocates cry foul?(Then the whirlwind of thoughts then stop on the image of Cindy Crawford and the supermodels going naked than wearing fur!)

A teacher, full of conviction, told me about this. She said that we could retire from the education department and find geckos. I shushed her since we were on a hired van and other passengers might think that teaching is really a pathetic profession that we'd rather look for lizards than facilitate the learning process!

Indeed, we are motivated to have more possessions. I could not blame this to poverty since I saw a lot of people in the malls frequenting Marithe+Francois Girbaud and our so-called poor students are spending on cellphone loads than books. Our sanity will be blinded by the figures mentioned to us. When millions will be discussed we then forget to ask LAW: Is it Legal? Is it Accepted? Is it Worthwhile? That's why we sometimes swallow illegal drugs and become mules for a bigger fee.

But stories are yet to be told and reasons are still to be analyzed, qualified and accepted. We will not put this one to a dark light. It's just that we have to ask. If indeed geckos are worth millions, then so be it. But the facts must be clear. Since we already realized how expensive swallows nests, shark's fin and Beluga whales' liver could be...gecko's blood might be the next.

I might also try reviving that sigbin controversy since this alleged creature could cure AIDS!

(photo:pinoyexchange.com)

When Justin Turns Samson

Is it his hair that catapulted him to such fame? For how could we say that it's his voice since we could not even be assured that his music will be remembered when he will be swallowed by fame itself. Sorry Justin Beiber fans but we lovers of the arts could not even find the aesthetics every time he struggles with the choreography given by Usher's dance creators.

I don't have anything against him or or his music. I could understand how adolescents swoon when he is on TV or onstage since I also saw how my friends shrieked when Robi Rosa of Menudo displayed his feelings via "If You're Not Here (By My Side) during the 80's. I know how to be edging towards being a groupie because I collected and read almost all of the music and articles of "The Cure".

Yeah, there's a certain stage when young persons invest a lot of emotions on entertainers...

But could we just shrug our shoulders when fame starts become bigger than life? Could we continue to make him as a role model if he'd display arrogance and things which are against the universal values? For starters, respect cuts across races and orientations.

Justin Beiber, the teen idol, recently had a concert here in the Philippines. I was mum about it for he is not R.E.M. or Coldplay but the promotions were everywhere.

Then he arrived in Manila and was reported sick. He turned down the after-the-concert party due to his alleged illness. We could understand that. But how could we accept his behavior when he would snap to a camera man covering his departure? Worse, he slapped away the CD an airport crew wanted him to sign. Even if one is sick, he knows that the crew probably has a kid who idolizes him, or probably a niece or nephew, or simply the person himself... Empathy, if not developed in a person could make him become dysfunctional. Historical data showed how serial killers lack this competence. If he lacks the education he direly needs due to his age, his handlers and managers must be concerned about this since POWER would soon take over. Even if they're old enough to be his fathers/mothers, they could be screamed because he is simply Justin Beiber. The managers/agents must give him character education since the singer is the product himself. What if the consumers won't patronize the product since it is rotten in the core? What would be their cut when there are no more demands for records to produce?

During the last Grammy awards, I knew that Beiber won't have anything except if there was a popularity contest there. Even the Best New Artist trophy was not garnered by him. For how could he topple the likes of Lady Antebellum and Muse?

Point: Singing could be honed since it's a skill. But in this industry, there are Phil Collins, Seal, Michael Stipe, Sting, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Bjork, Tori Amos, Alanis Morisette and others who reek TALENT. When this skill would be paired with bad attitude, we could only wait for him to be another Britney, Lindsay and others to become a has-been.

Like Samson, Justin needs a haircut.

(photo:celebritysmack.com)

When Blogs Die

When the news that Friendster is going to have an overhaul of their system, you wondered what will happen to your blogs. According to the advisory, the pictures and blogs would be wiped-out. Where would your thoughts go? When the ideas, opinions and other stuff from the mind are immortalized on the virtual memory, they could be considered as snippets of one's soul. So, with the demise of such thoughts, part of the soul would also succumb to the "other" place. But, again, is there a nirvana of sorts in terms of these?

Reading your blogs could sometimes enthrall you. There are ideas which you could not remember having. There are also beautiful words and erroneous syntax... Still, you wonder what prompted you to think about those things. Sometimes, a stimulus could just be a simple event that would mutate into something incomprehensible. There were instances too when the events are too good to be true and you say nothing at all.

You then remember Stephen King's "The Dark Half". You got scared too much when the writer's other half knocked on his doorstep and introduced himself as his pseudonym humanized. Paranoia and other forms of insanity could be traced but then the author was wise enough to allow the reader to imagine that indeed the dark half is true. Paired with the smell of apples and the vivid imagery of sparrows on the cable wires, sleep would be a bit impossible for those who are gifted with clear image projections.

Then, there are instances that you got scared of yourself too. Looking at the humongous bulk of your journals, you sometimes hear them whisper. Since 1986, you were scribbling things on a myriad of feelings, occasions and trivial stuff. When you would dare open them to read some, it seems that they were being written by a different person. probably your dark half...

But you're concerned about them. Even if you get scared sometimes with the way the mind brings you to unimaginable places, you still worry they're going to vanish like cosmic dust...

Digressing, there are men you know who have this scary thing once they'd get drunk. Like a stranger, they would show something that even their friends and their families get amazed with the display of something near the bizarre or even the macabre! After the euphoria, they would put the blame on the alcohol and dismiss everything indifferently. Now, you realize that multiple personalities live inside you and the people around. There are trigger points when these characters come out in the open. Some are beneficial and others could be harmful... Sometimes, by just thinking about it could cause a headache...

You need to save your soul, er, your files now.

(picture: sodahead.com)