Harold Pinter, playwright, has provoked quite a hubbub with his Nobel Prize lecture: much of it is a condemnation of United States policy since World War 2, particulary support of right wing dictatorships. He believes George W. Bush and Tony Blair should be considered war criminals. To see what the fuss is about, read his lecture, Art, Truth & Politics, or follow this link to download a recording of his lecture or the full text. (introspection points out he mentions the Philippines in his speech).
Politics can’t be far from the writer’s mind. Here is William Faulkner’s 1949 Nobel Prize banquet speech (click to listen or control-click to download):
Faulkner’s speech was later referred to by John Steinbeck when the time came for him to deliver his own banquet speech as a Laureate in 1962.The Nobel Laureates are chronologically listed on the Nobel Prize website, and you can listen to and download recordings of many of them.
Jove Francisco has an interesting entry on why he’s rooting for one candidate in Pinoy Big Brother; even more interesting are the reasons he gives why others, like Uma Khouny, won’t win.
Willie Galang has an entry on Jessica Cutler, whose blog made big news (and which is again available, apparently, on line) because of her candid writing on her sexcapades.
Yupki who is in Bangkok comments on the Thai King’s birthday and the king’s speech, which apparently included a dig at the Thai Prime Minister (and links to the speech). Is it just me, or was a lot lost in translation?
SuperBlessed says the famous Nanny Speech may be a hoax (and thinks a foreign blog may have plagiarized her).
Love & Light has an entry on a grisly murder in her neck of the woods in Japan, and how people feel less and less safe.
Carlos Celdran points to a curious historical photo.
McVie supports pink cinema, but is sometimes bored to tears. In other cinematic news, rocketboychronicles reports on the Hollywood remake of a Filipino film.
The favorite brand of toilet paper of Manila Journal? Sit & Smile!
And congratulations to the winners of the Philippine Blog Awards!
Big bandwidth fun:
Koreans love eggs (torture provided by Screenhead).
Life is short. Play More. (X Box). Did you know? Speaking English can kill you.
Whoever thought an ostrich singing a Cristina Aguilera song could be so touching? Watch Pretty Bird.
An explicit, clever, and yet morbidly optimistic warning about HIV-AIDS: watch AIDES.
Girls just wanna have fun -but watch out for that guy’s ring tone: watch the Vodaphone commercial, Night Out.
And possibly the most heart-warming commercial by Coca-Cola ever filmed –Smile.
Those Chinese lip-synchers won’t give up (in Chinese) and here, in with more boyband music! And even more (in Chinese)! And still more! They seem to be an industry.
For the record, Filipino adolescent hip hop.
Finally, since ’tis the season, an Anime version of the 12 days of Xmas.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, media, music, Philippines, Pinoy Big Brother, Reality TV, videos
MLQ, maybe you should also mention that Harold Pinter mentioned the Philippines (at least in passing) in his pre-recorded Nobel lecture. That should make more Filipinos interested reading his speech 🙂
thanks anomie, i revised the entry accordingly!
mlq,
Maybe some Jews who were expelled (deported) from Spain made it to Manila (from Carlos Celdran’s post). They could very well in Manila long before it was offered as a sanctuary (from one of ylur article). Or they could have just came as Spaniards in search of a place free from prejudice/persecution.
nonongg, but not to the extent they would place the star of david over the coat of arms of spain.
Regarding your column today, how can you compare the motive of pgma with those against her as a matter of winning and losing like some sort of gladiator combat and how can you lists their comparative strengths and weaknesses as if your buying a car? She is presumably the president of this republic, presumably voted into office by the people and as such singularly carries the weight of that responsibility alone unlike all others so there’s no comparison of motives with anyone else. She is accused of cheating (and its plainly so unless we shall continue to pretend to be blind and dumb)her way to the presidency and that alone should stop all arguments as to her motives, her strengths, and all plus points one can think of and demand from her accountability before anyone else. She should resign and vacate her office (an institution which is distinct and separate from GMA the person) and let the constitution work. There is no other way out of this. The burden of sacrificing is on her being presumably the president and not on her detractors. The arguments put forward by the person you’ve talked to reflects the kind of thinking put forward by the Concom body and their likes and it is that one man or a group of men with good intentions and love of country can decide and dictate what is good for 85 million other Filipinos without going through the electoral process and without gaining the mandate for such decisions. You know in some other culture and in not so a distant past, her shame requires her death to redeen her honor but not so here now, now we have 25 million worth of vaccines wasted in the DOH and no one is at fault? We have a billion pesos wasted in the computerization of the COMELEC and no one is shamed into resignation, we have deaths caused by illegal logging in quezon just a year ago and have anyone resigned from any of these? No one is accountable. Not here in the Philippines, not even the president or is it more so the president? presumably the president.
alexander, my own views regarding the president are clear. but other voices should be heard, too, and until we hear and understand them, we won’t be able to figure out why she’s still in power.