The Weekend Warrior

Of Failed Friendships (Mga "Kaibigan" Kuno)

2008-10-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

May mga "kaibigan" ako na nakakaalala lang 'pag may mabibigat silang problema. 'Pag okay na lahat, parang wala ka nang kwenta. Nakuha na nila ang gusto nila sa'yo eh. Iyon ang masaklap.

Ako naman itong si TANGA, ngayon ko lang napagtanto na ganito pala ang mga "kaibigan" na tinutukoy ko. Sagwa ng ugali. Ngayon namang ikaw ang nangangailangan ng tulong at pag-unawa nila, sila pa itong nangungunang manghusga sa iyo at magbitiw ng mga salitang 'di mo akalaing masasambit ng mga putang inang mga bibig na iyan (at patalikod pa).

Mahiya kayo sa mga balat niyo, mga tang ina niyo.

Isa pa, bakit mababawasan ang pagtingin niyo sa isang tao kung ang dahilan ng pagbitaw niya sa isang bagay ay nakaugat sa kanyang mga paniniwala? Tang-ina niyo talaga, ang kikitid ng mga kokote niyo. Bolshet!

ISANG MALUTONG NA PUTANG INANG UMAGA SA INYONG MGA HAYOP KAYO.

Good "TANG INANG" morning.

Happy Birthday!

2008-10-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Finally, I can say that my 24th birthday is REALLY happy. And the reason? Jamie made a phone call out of nowhere to greet me on my special day. Akala ko nakalimutan na niya..

Kumpleto na ang araw ko. Wala na akong mahihiling pa. Kapag galing sa taong pinakamamahal mo ang pagbati, palakpak ang tenga mo't tatalon sa tuwa ang puso mo..

Ngayon, pwede na akong matulog ng mahimbing. At aking babaunin sa pagtulog ang dalawampung minutong pag-uusap na iyon. Wala na akong mahihiling pa..

Para sa 'yo Jamie, maraming salamat. Ikaw lang talaga ang nakakaalam kung paano ako paliligayahin nang walang kahirap-hirap. Walong taon ba naman tayong magkasama. Alam na alam mo na..

Mahal na mahal pa rin kita..

Letting Go..

2008-10-05T03:55:00.000-07:00

Letting go doesn’t mean that it is over. It is having another chance to see if it was meant to be..

Blog - slash - Diary (?)

2008-10-01T16:02:00.000-07:00

Yeah, been contemplating about it for too long. Does it make sense for one to make such personal details for everyone to see? Maybe yes.. Maybe not..

I guess it all boils down to one's purpose. However, this freedom (of making blogs-slash-diaries) comes with great responsibility. Unfortunately, most souls out there seem to run amok with this newfound freedom to express oneself.

As for my own blog-slash-diary, I guess it is high time for me to start one. Why? To begin a new chapter in my life, I guess. The man is pretty messed up right now. I need an outlet.

Good day everyone.

Shultz and the 'Hit Men' Destroyed the Philippines

2008-04-24T07:28:00.000-07:00

Shultz and the 'Hit Men' Destroyed the Philippines
by Mike Billington

Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of features on the assault against the Third World by the "Economic Hit Men." We examine here the case of the Philippines.

The U.S.-orchestrated coup which overthrew the government of Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a classic case study of what John Perkins describes in his recent book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, as the post-World War II preferred method of imposing colonial control under another name. In the Philippines case, George Shultz performed the roles of both the economic hit man, destroying and taking full control of the Philippine economy, and the coup-master, deposing the Philippine President in favor of an IMF puppet—while calling the operation "people power."

Throughout this process, from the late 1970s through the February 1986 coup, and beyond, Lyndon LaRouche and his collaborators were fully engaged in the fight to expose and reverse this subversion and destruction of one of America's most important allies, by the supranational financial institutions which Shultz and his ilk represent. By mobilizing support from patriots of both the United States and the Philippines, the LaRouche effort put a spotlight on the crimes of the Shultz cabal, as will be shown below. Although the effort failed to stop the process at that time, the crimes thus exposed in the Philippines can and must serve today as a nemesis to Shultz and his neo-conservative operatives, who are in an endgame in their effort to impose a new fascist order over the planet.

In a Nov. 16 interview on radio station DZAR in Manila, LaRouche described his own view of the special mission of the Philippines nation: "The Philippines has a very important pivotal role, some people would say geopolitically, in the entire region, of trying to bring together on a global scale for the first time, a world system, which is capable of accommodating both the European cultural heritage and Asian cultures. This is the great barrier, the great frontier, of a hopeful future for this planet: to bring together the cultures of Asia—which are different than those of Western Europe generally—with European culture, to get a global culture based on a system of sovereign nation-states, which understands that this unresolved cultural question has to be addressed, with a long-term view, of several generations, of creating an integrated set of sovereign nation-states as the system of the planet. So the Philippines is a very special country, with a unique importance for the people of Asia, in particular, in playing a key role in bringing about this kind of general integration of Asian and European civilizations."

The lesson of the subversion of the Philippines in the 1980s for today is clear. Shultz is the eminence gris behind the neo-conservatives running the Bush Administration, which has brought the world to the current disastrous circumstance. It is also the case that the Philippines, although currently lacking any national leadership comparable to that of Marcos, is nonetheless facing a new coup threat, orchestrated by the same neo-conservative circles in Washington who were responsible for the 1986 coup.

The popular memory of Ferdinand Marcos today, in the U.S. and in the Philippines, is largely shaped by the massive disinformation campaign created in the early 1980s by the circles around then-Secretary of State Shultz, and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz. Marcos was accused of corruption, human rights violations, plunder, and even the murder of a political opponent, Benigno Aquino—and this caricature is repeated ad nauseam still today. While Marcos was not without faults, he was by far the last Filipino head of state to have understood the challenge of true leadership in a world slipping towards chaos. His overthrow by the Shultz cabal had nothing to do with the charges issued publicly, but were intended to stop his national development policies, and his international collaboration with LaRouche and others in countering the genocidal policies of the IMF, and bringing into being a new world economic system based on development and justice.

Marcos's True Legacy

Marcos was elected President in 1965, just as the United States launched the disastrous and futile war in Indochina. The fact that the United States used its bases in the Philippines, Subic Bay and Clark Airfield in Luzon, as launching pads for the Indochina War, fed a domestic insurgency by the Maoist New People's Army (NPA). Marcos was then treated as a close friend and ally of the United States. Even when he declared martial law in 1972, with the Indochina War still raging, the Administration of President Richard Nixon raised no objections.

But Marcos was not only concerned about "counterinsurgency" in declaring martial law. When he was elected President in 1965, the Philippines was still essentially a colonial economy, although the United States had granted full independence on July 4, 1946, as had been promised by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1934. Productivity was low in both agriculture and industry: agriculture lagged as the Philippines relied on special access to U.S. food exports, and industry was confined to process industries, rather than the development of basic industries.

Marcos set out immediately to establish Philippine food self-sufficiency in rice and corn. This also required breaking the control of the landed aristocracy left over from the Spanish imperial era. Marcos was the first President of the Philippines who did not rise from this elite class, but was a "commoner" trained as a lawyer.

As President, he focussed on basic agricultural infrastructure, especially irrigation, in the major food-producing regions of Luzon and Mindanao. Credit facilities, mechanization, and the introduction of high-yield rice varieties, which needed irrigation, resulted in the elimination of rice imports by 1968.

Land reform, primarily a political problem, remained illusive. However, when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, among his first acts was a proclamation that the entire nation was to be considered a "land reform area," and a declaration that all tenants working land devoted primarily to rice and corn were to be the owners of that land, up to a specified limit. Despite the enraged opposition of the oligarchy, the program proved to be extraordinarily successful. Coupled with the infrastructure and mechanization improvements, a quarter of a million peasants became land owners, and grain productivity increased by half.

Another major step after the declaration of martial law was to contract with Westinghouse for the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant—which was to be the first (and would still be the only) commercial nuclear power plant in Southeast Asia. While nuclear power is clearly the only sane solution to the energy requirements across the region, the sad saga of the Bataan Nuclear Plant symbolizes the pure evil of the policies enforced by the "economic hit men." As originally contracted, the plant should have cost about $1 billion, and produced 1,200 MW of electricity by 1984. However, after the hysteria generated by the anti-nuclear "Nuclear Club of Wall Street" (see EIR, Dec. 3, 2004) following the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, the Carter Admistration imposed retroactive safety regulations which contributed to more than doubling the cost of construction. Then, after the overthrow of Marcos in 1986, one of the first acts of the new Presidency of Corazon Aquino was to mothball the fully completed, but never used, Bataan Nuclear Plant. The Philippines has been forced to pay countless billions in debt service, and pays still today over $155,000 per day, for this nuclear facility, without having drawn one watt of electricity from the state-of-the-art facility. Two further nuclear power facilities which were planned to provide 1,880 MW of electricity by 1991, were also scrapped.

Nuclear energy was not the only innovation of the Marcos regime. In 1979 Marcos announced a plan for 11 major industrial projects, with the intention of shifting the focus of the nation's industrial economy from consumer goods to basic heavy industry. Included in the plan were steel, petro-chemical, pulp and paper, a copper smelter, aluminum, phosphate fertilizer, diesel engines, gas and oil, a coconut industry, and the nuclear power program.

The Marcos Administration, during the 1972-81 martial law period, tripled the country's road network, doubled the electrification of the country's homes, increased irrigated cropland eight-fold, and achieved rice and corn self-sufficiency.

Minimum daily wage rates tripled, although inflation, driven by international oil price hikes and exploding U.S. interest rates, more than wiped out these wage increases.

Enter the Economic Hit Men

This level of development—especially the capacity to free the nation from dependence on the international oil and raw materials cartels—was not to be tolerated by the international financial institutions. The contrived oil shortages of the 1970s left the Philippines, like all non-oil-producing nations, with huge debts. This was followed by the 20%-plus interest rates imposed by U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker in 1979, which doubled and tripled the debts of most Third World nations within a few years.

In 1981, Marcos lifted martial law. Also in that year, he attended the North-South Summit in Cancun, Mexico, organized by Mexican President José López Portillo (see accompanying article) where he spoke out for a "new world economic order," and denounced the destructive "conditionalities" imposed by the IMF in exchange for financial assistance in a crisis. Then, in September 1981, Marcos pushed through the Philippine Congress nearly $4 billion worth of priority infrastructure projects, including irrigation, drainage and flood control programs, highways, telecommunications, and airports.

This was answered in 1982 (the year George Shultz became Secretary of State) by an IMF report which attacked Marcos's projects, demanding debt payment instead: "In the Philippines situation, restraint on public investment could be an effective instrument for securing an improvement in the current account deficit." IMF Director Jacques Delarosière lectured that the country had set "unrealistic growth targets," while the World Bank denounced the Marcos government for supporting national industries.
These "softening up" raids were not adequate to control the Marcos government. Shultz visited Manila in the Summer of 1983, overseeing another 20% devaluation of the Philippine peso, thus further increasing the costs of financing the already-illegitimate foreign debt.

The full-scale assault began in the Fall of 1983, with the murder of Benigno Aquino. Aquino, an opposition leader whom Marcos had allowed to leave prison in order to get medical treatment in the United States (despite facing a death sentence for murder and subversion), chose to return to the Philippines in August 1983 after three years in the United States. He was gunned down as he emerged from his plane in Manila.

Although the actual conspirators were never officially discovered, the assassination was immediately blamed on Marcos, and the economic hit men called in the "jackals" (as Perkins called those whose job was to depose or even kill world leaders who resisted the demands of the economic hit men like himself). In the Philippines, Shultz and Wolfowitz doubled as economic hit men and jackals.

As to Aquino's view of the pending threat to his life, he had been asked by the U.S. magazine Mother Jones in January 1983, while contemplating his return to the Philippines: "What do you think Marcos will do?" Aquino replied: "He will keep me alive, because he knows the moment I die, I am a martyr, like Martin Luther King, and he wouldn't want that. Another possibility, he lets me out, and the communists knock me off. They blame Marcos. They have a martyr and they have eliminated a stumbling block." Aquino also understood the actual cause of the economic disaster striking the Philippines: "If you made me President of the Philippines today, my friend, in six months I would be smelling like horseshit. Because there is nothing I can do. I cannot provide employment. I cannot bring prices down."

Within two months of the assassination, the remaining credit lines to the Philippines were drastically cut, and another 21% devaluation was imposed. The nation was bankrupt. Finally, on Oct. 15, 1983, Marcos was allowed to declare a moratorium on the unpayable debt, but only on condition that the big projects he had backed to modernize the nation be scrapped, while many of the industries supported by the state were turned over to domestic and international vultures (this was done under the guise of accusing the owners of these industries of being corrupt "cronies" of Marcos).

The LaRouche movement, meanwhile, was sponsoring conferences in Bangkok, Thailand, one in October 1983, and another in October 1984, on the subject of the proposal authored by Lyndon LaRouche for "Development of the Pacific and Indian Ocean Basins." Philippines Deputy Foreign Minister Pacifico Castro attended the 1984 Conference, speaking on "Regional Economic Cooperation and Security," joined by government and business leaders from across the region. The conferences proposed such "Great Projects" as the Kra Canal in Thailand, and the physical transformation of Asia, as the driving force behind a new world economic order.

Jackals

The opponents of Marcos were soon being wined and dined in Washington, by both the right wing (Shultz and Wolfowitz) and the left wing (Rep. Stephen Solarz, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Princeton's Richard Falk) of the "Project Democracy" apparatus, which performed the subversive tasks assigned by the synarchist banking institutions. Salvador Laurel, the son of the quisling President of the Philippines under the Japanese occupation, headed the opposition after Aquino's assassination, and in February 1984, visited Washington, where he was greeted by Vice President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State Shultz. Representative Solarz introduced legislation into the Congress to abdicate the treaty regulating the U.S. bases in the Philippines, cutting the agreed aid to the Philippines by two-thirds. At the same time, a nest of anti-nuclear and anti-development NGOs in the United States took up the cause of overthrowing the "Marcos dictatorship," including a gathering of anti-nuclear forces in Manila, including Richard Falk and representatives of the West German Green Party. Stephen Bosworth, a close collaborator of Henry Kissinger, was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, and from that position he would subsequently orchestrate the coup against Marcos.

By October 1984, the Philippines was forced to submit to an IMF refinancing package that included an end to price controls on rice and other staples, a float of the peso, unrestricted foreign exchange speculation, import reductions, domestic austerity, and yet another devaluation—making a total of a 63.3% devaluation in one year, nearly doubling the cost of financing the foreign debt. Ironically, the opposition, fully supported and sponsored by the IMF-related institutions, rallied support among the population by denouncing Marcos for "acceding to the oppressive conditions of the IMF."

Throughout 1985, President Ronald Reagan defended the American relationship with the Philippines and with President Marcos, despite the fact that Secretary of State Shultz and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz openly disagreed with that assessment, instead demanding Marcos's head. The crisis came to a head in July 1984, when the U.S. Congress adopted the Solarz proposal to rip up the Bases Agreement, not only slashing the financial commitments, but insisting that the remaining aid be distributed not by the Philippine government, but by the Church, which, under Cardinal Jaime Sin, had openly called for insurrection against the government.

By November, the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezezinski, carried out a "war game" against the Philippines, based on a scenario in which President Marcos is assassinated, Soviet "spetsnaz" commandos join the New People's Army in taking over the Philippines, and the U.S. military goes into action to "save" the country.

The CSIS's work in Asia was largely financed at that time by the C.V. Starr insurance empire, run by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Greenberg and C.V. Starr owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines, and a number of Philippine politicians as well, and served as the crucial "on the ground" economic hit man in the Marcos coup.

Marcos continued fighting for the principle of a new world economic order. In November 1985, EIR and the Schiller Institute, the international association directed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, invited Gen. Edgardo Mercado Jarrin (ret.), the head of Peru's Institute of Geostrategic and Political Studies, to tour Asia, promoting the partial moratorium on foreign debt then being implemented by the Peruvian government. In addition to conferences in Thailand and India, General Mercado Jarrin and the EIR/Schiller Institute delegation met with President Marcos in Manila. Marcos told the delegation: "Third World Asian and South American countries should get together and push through the condonation of part of their loans. How can Third World countries pay their loans, amounting to $900 billion?" Marcos estimated that the paying capacity could not exceed $300 billion.

The Aug. 16 EIR published a story entitled "Plotting the Fall of an American Ally," which reported that U.S. Ambassador Bosworth was plotting a military coup against the Marcos government. The article reported: "Bosworth now meets up to two hours every day with Acting Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate whom the United States is attempting to groomn as a leader of a new civilian-military junta, despite his loyalty to President Marcos." The story was based on information from reliable sources both in the Philippines and in Washington, where certain patriotic layers within the government, intelligence, and the military did not accept America's transformation into an imperial power serving the synarchist financial interests.

The EIR exposée forced a public denial by General Ramos and by Ambassador Bosworth. As events proved, the warning was deadly accurate.

Marcos was finally coerced by Washington into calling new elections for February 1986, even though the Constitution mandated elections only in 1987. The opposition, in constant coordination with U.S. Ambassador Bosworth and the Shultz State Department, chose to run Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, as the Presidential candidate, with Laurel for Vice President.

As still seen today in such neo-con-controlled "people's power revolutions," such as in Georgia and Ukraine, U.S. intelligence agencies financed and controlled the "citizen" electoral monitor organization, the National Movement for a Free Election (Namfrel), and prepared to declare "vote fraud" if the election did not go the way intended. Paul Wolfowitz in November 1985 told the U.S. Congress that there would be a "complete collapse of political confidence" if the elections were not perceived as "fair"—i.e., if Marcos were not defeated.

Indeed, on election day, the opposition was ahead in the early returns from Manila—which was expected—and Aquino was instructed to declare herself the winner. However, when the rural votes came in, where Marcos was still loved for the development he had brought to the nation, Marcos overtook Aquino and won the election.

In an astonishing public admission, former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines William Sullivan (who had also been Ambassador to Iran when the Shah was overthrown by similar means in 1979), told CBS News on Feb. 9, two days after the Philippines election: "The facts as they emerge are becoming increasingly irrelevant, because it's the perception that prevails both in the Philippines and, I think, internationally, that Mrs. Aquino won the election as far as the polling places were concerned, but the government, in the tabulation, changed the vote counts."

As EIR had warned, General Ramos then led a military revolt against President Marcos, calling for crowds to surround the military base in the center of Manila, to create an image of "people's power," while the masses of the population were disenfranchised by the overthrow of their elected President. By the end of February, President Reagan had been convinced by Shultz to give up his defense of President Marcos, and endorse the military coup; Marcos and his family were sent to Hawaii.

IMF Carnage

The results of this subversion are still evident today in the decay of the economic and social fabric of the Philippines. Corazon Aquino fulfilled every IMF request, from the closure of the completed nuclear power facility to the deregulation and privatization of much of the economy. It was a surprise to some of Aquino's supporters, but not to LaRouche, when the pro-IMF members of the Marcos Cabinet were retained in the new government. General Ramos took over directly in the next Presidential election in 1992, selling the nation to the Enrons of the West through corrupt, unequal contract agreements, especially in the energy sector, which left the country in absolute bankruptcy after the speculative assault on the Asian economies in 1997-98. Joseph Estrada, another "commoner," was elected President in 1998, but was allowed only two years in office before another "economic hit man"-orchestrated-coup (again with General Ramos doing the bidding for his foreign controllers) brought him down in January 2001.

The current President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has generally done what was demanded of her by the neo-conservatives in power in Washington. However, when she pulled the token Philippine military force out of Iraq, and then upgraded the country's relations with China, she won the ire of her patrons, and is now facing the threat of yet another coup—with General Ramos again the neo-cons' man on the scene.

LaRouche, together with his collaborators in the Philippines, intends to use this history of the economic hit men, in the Philippines and elsewhere, as a necessary part of the fight to end such criminality forever. As LaRouche concluded in his address to the Nov. 16 radio show quoted above: "I have had a long-standing special attachment to the Philippines, and I am very much concerned for its integrity and sovereignty and well-being today. I would be very happy, and the Philippines would make me very happy, by being truly sovereign, successful, growing, and peaceful again today. And you may expect that wherever I am and whatever I am doing, that commitment is very active within me, for very special reasons that I won't bother going into, on this question of the Philippines. I am concerned. The sovereignty of the Philippines and the success of the Philippines as a sovereign Presidential republic is, to me, one of the necessary ingredients of a future for the whole Pacific area of the world."

*Ramtanu Maitra and Gail Billington contributed to the research for this report. The author can be reached at mobeir@aol.com.

Join Us at MarikinaValley.com

2008-04-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank my new online buddy, JC, for inviting me to register at MarikinaValley.com - an online community for Marikenyos / Marikenyas. It is an honor to be among the 'founding' members of the said board. Hopefully it will prosper into a BIG TIME website in terms of productivity and popularity. So there lies the challenge. I will do my best in contributing stuff that suits the Marikina residents' taste, whatever it is.

To JC and MarikinaValley.com, congratulations and more power!

If you are a Marikina resident, please join us at MarikinaValley.com and feel free to partake in the discussions or perhaps start your own topic. Forum rules apply.

A Thing in Life I Don't Understand..

2008-04-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

..and probably will not.. forever..

I don't understand why there are people who get something they don't deserve. I mean, there are better, more deserving souls out there, but why does this happen?

The Last Goodbye to a Long-time Friend..

2008-04-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

My dog, Piper, passed away this morning. Mom broke the news when I woke up. I thought everything was just a dream, but a teardrop from Mom's eyes fell unto my arms and I know it's for real. He is 13 years old.

No illness or whatsoever. He just reached the finish line. And like the warrior that he is, he's too old and worn out and decided to take a rest, for life.

I feel devastated. What could be worst than worst? Napakapangit na buena mano sa umaga ang balitang ito.

Piper came into the family way back in October 1994 as a gift from Ninang Martha on my birthday and he was with us eversince. Apparently, my would-be bestfriend then was also born on the same month, so that pretty much explains one of the reasons why I am so attached with this dog. Magkapareho kami ng buwan ng kapanganakan.

I knew this was going to happen though, given the fact that his age and the average life span of a Japanese Spitz is near coincidence - but definitely not today. I was unexpecting that Piper would pass away that sudden - without any warning, without any hint. He seemed to be very vigorous because he always greeted me with a persistent bark and never stops until I get into the house. He was healthy. He was our longest-serving family guard.

Maaaannn.. the memories.. the memories.. It pains my heart a hundred-fold.

I rarely shed a tear. Life taught me to be a tough guy, but definitely not this day. I'm trying to reserve my emotions but I have to shed tears of agony for you man.

Farewell, my ever-loyal friend. We will see each other again, but not now, not in the near future. So be patient where you are right now and when the moment comes we cross paths again, I will be carrying a Science Diet with me (your favorite).

Goodbye, Piper. I love you and I miss you very much.

It's Summertime! It's Reggae Time!

2008-04-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

My South Park Version

RANT: Why do irresponsible people exist? Why do insensitive people exist? Come to think of it, they don't deserve to live. They are 'pain in the arse'! SHOOT THEM! Bwahahaha!

Breathe in.. Breathe out.. Owyeah.. Better..

Happy summertime people! Enjoy the summer vacation!

Rakista v2 is the New Rakista.com Homepage

2008-04-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

As of 0530H (Philippine time), Rakista™ v2 BETA is the new homepage of Rakista.com. This is part of the ongoing major upgrade that RiDz (Harold) and TIX (Malbin) have been working on for the past several months solely for the purpose of providing quality online community experience to every Rakista™ member.

I've witnessed first-hand the Rakista™ v1's demise from the World Wide Web during an attempt to access my account and salvage a few topics that deserve attention at the new site. Unfortunately, I was too late for it - and I saw it crashing like the World Trade Center in 2001. And as far as my memory is concerned, Dencii and I are the last ones who were able log in before the crash. So that makes a bit of history for both of us (two good-looking gentlemen gracing the old homepage for the last time).

Goodbye Rakista™ v1.. Hello Rakista™ v2!

~ FIREWORKS ~

Yeah.. and that was the story..

Anyways, with this change, it is for the first time that I felt the pressure that comes with the status as a new Clan Leader [Moderator] for Rakista™ v2. Yes, I am among the new batch of moderators handpicked by RiDz himself to handle various clans in the site. Aside from the three Clans that I created (Outdoor Exploration Group, Gaia Online™ Rakista Guild, University of the Philippines System), I was tasked to co-lead five (5) Rakista™-managed Clans namely Reggae, Ska, World, Sports, and Pilipinas. That makes a total of eight (8) Clans which I have to check on from time to time.

For those who are not familiar with the new Rakista™ version, here is an overview of what the innovations are:

- CLAN SYSTEM
- TABS
- WRITINGS
- CLASSIFIEDS
- GIGS
- JOKES
- POLLS
- ARTIST REGISTRATION
- GAMES
- PHOTO GALLERIES
- MOBILE
- PROFILE CUSTOMIZATION
- PROFILE COMMENTS
- SOCIAL NETWORKING

Pretty soon all these radical changes will be functional and I bet our Rakista.com experience will never be the same again. I've seen several critiques about the new site though, and the most common among them is "Oo, nakakalito iyong bagong site.. Doon na lang ako sa luma.. Mas gusto ko doon.." *CUTS WRIST AND SLITS THROAT*

Oh well, now that there's no more OLD RAKISTA™ to fall back on to address these rants, I guess we all have to welcome with open arms our new online home. There is no turning back right now. Let's face it - changes are inevitable, we are a growing community, we have to overhaul the system, improve and move forward.

Kudos to RiDz and TIX for pulling this off. You guys are superb. And thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for giving me your confidence in handling the aforementioned clans. Rock on!

And for the kids who rant about not liking the new version: C'mon people! You signed up for free and yet you rant like you guys are the sponsors! WTF! Move on and get a life.. Now, if you do have feedbacks, suggestions, violent reactions or whatever, we have a proper way of doing that. Please send it over to the Site Administrators or better yet, post them at the Site Feedback Forum. And yes, please stop spreading the news that the new version is UGLY. I hate how power of suggestion clouds the judgement of our kids. Quit it..

Nah seriously, I do understand the rants though. I feel the same way but probably because I have adapted myself to the old version's this and that. But in time we will adapt ourselves to the new system. Don't force yourselves. Take it slow and take it to the heart.. and pretty soon you'll gonna end up loving what you are hating right now..

Alright see you then at Rakista™ v2.. Cheers!

I'm Gonna Pull Some Strings, Eh?

2008-04-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Two days from now, I'm gonna subject myself to probably the greatest hurdle in my academic life. I'm gonna remove my 4s on my two major subjects and I know it won't be that easy. Why? It is simply because these subjects aren't really that easy to get away with. I'm talking about notorious ones who have robbed graduation hopefuls of their chance to walk the "walk" and extend their agony a little bit longer..

I feel like I'm in a deep S.H.I.T. right now.. But yeah, I'm very familiar with situations like these. I guess I'm gonna get through (hopefully)..

Pull some strings? If I could just do that, I'd be done with college a year earlier..

Bring it on, man! Haha!

Who The Cap Fit.. Let Them Wear It..

2008-04-05T02:03:00.000-07:00

~~~
Who The Cap Fit | Bob Marley & The Wailers | Rastaman Vibration

Man to man is so unjust, children
Ya don't know who to trust
Your worst enemy could be your best friend
And your best friend your worst enemy

Some will eat and drink with you
Then behind them su-su 'pon you
Only your friend know your secrets
So only he could reveal it
And who the cap fit, let them wear it!
Who the cap fit, let them wear it!
Said ah throw meh corn, me no call no fowl
Ah saying, "Cook-cook-cook, cluk-cluk-cluk"

Some will hate you, pretend they love you now
Then behind they try to eliminate you
But who Jah bless, no one curse
Thank God, we're past the worst
Hypocrites and parasites
Will come up and take a bite
And if your night should turn to day
Ah lot of people would run away
And who the cap fit let them wear it!
Who the (cap fit) let them (wear it)!

And then ah-gonna throw me corn
And then ah-gonna call no fowl
And then ah-gonna "Cook-cook-cook, cluk-cluk-cluk"

Some will eat and drink with you
Then behind them su-su 'pon you, yeah!
And if night should turn to day, now
Ah lot of people would run away, yeah!
And who the cap fit, let them wear it!
Who the cap fit, let them wear it!
Throw me corn, me no call no fowl
Ah-saying: "Cook-cook-cook, cluk-cluk-cluk"
... : "Cook-cook-cook, cluk-cluk-cluk"
Throw meh corn (cook-cook-cook)
Me call no fowl (cluk-cluk-cluk)
~~~
[START OF RANT]

One of my favorite Bob Marley songs; the lyrics pretty much hit the nail - it happens a lot in real life. It's hard to determine real friends among a sea of people we get acquainted with. There are many pretenders out there; been a victim so many times already..

Life's quite unfair sometimes..

Masyado lang siguro talaga akong mabait. Hindi sa pagbubuhat ng sariling bangko pero totoo ito. Isa sa mga kahinaan ko ang magtiwala agad sa mga tao kahit kakikilala ko pa lang. Iyan pala, sa likod ng kabaitang pinapakita sa'yo, eh binibira ka na pala pagtalikod mo..

Ugaling barbaro nga naman.. WTF.. What a way to treat a "friend", right?

Tamaan na ang matamaan, pero PAKYU kayong lahat na umabuso sa kabaitan at katapatang pinadama ko sa inyo.. May araw rin kayong mga lintik kayo!

~ HINGA NG MALALIM ~

Olrayt, okay na ang pakiramdam ko. Salamat kay Bob Marley at sa Blog na ito, nailabas ko rin ang mga kasawian sa buhay.

Basta tandaan: 'WAG MAGPAKATANGA. MAGING MAPAGMASID. MARAMING IPORKITO(A) SA MUNDONG IRE.

[END OF RANT]

Ako? Oo! Mahilig ako sa Reggae!

2008-04-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Nahilig ako sa Reggae nung naging matalik kong mga kaibigan ang dalawa sa mga kapatid ko sa akyatan, si Wing "Wingperson" Larase at si Yo "Big Brader" Muan II. Laging nagpapatugtog ang mga iyan ng Reggae sa campsite 'pag nasa bundok kami at talaga namang na-enganyo ako mula nang dumampi sa 'eardrums' ko ang off-beat na siyang tatak ng musikang ito. Sa kanila ko rin nalaman ang tungkol kay Bob Marley, Budoy, Hemp Republic, Peace Pipe, at kung anu-ano pang Reggae na banda, lokal man o dayuhan.

Maniwala ka man o hindi, bago ang Reggae, mahilig ako sa Pop Punk, Alternative, Rap Metal (Nu Metal). Siguro nahilig din ako sa emo ngunit 'di ko alam na emo na pala iyon. Mahilig ako sa maiingay at mabibilis na bagsakan nung kasagsagan ng aking pagbibinata. At siyempre dahil maingay ang tugtugan, nadadala din ako.. Isa ako sa mga kupal, mayabang, maangas noong high school ako (isang tipikal na tinedyer).

Ngunit nang dumating sa buhay ko ang Reggae, biglang liko ang buhay ko. Nadala ako sa napakapayapang saliw ng musikang ito. At siyempre, iyong 'lyrics' ng Reggae, na madalas ay tungkol sa kapayapaan, hustisya, pagmamahal, paggalang at pagiging positibo sa mga pananaw sa buhay, ang biglang pumukaw sa mapagmataas at maangas kong personalidad.

Sa madaling salita, malaki ang naging papel ng Reggae sa paghubog ng pagkatao ko.

Kaya sa inyo, Wing at Yo, salamat sa pagkakataon at naging kaibigan ko kayong dalawa. Malaki ang naging papel ninyo sa buhay ko. Dahil sa inyo, natuto akong mamundok, uminom ng alak, maging 'cool' na tao. Dahil rin sa inyo naging malibog pa ako lalo (Mga walangya! Hehehe!).

Magkikita-kita rin tayo sa finals, mga kapatid ko sa lagalagan. Mabuhay ang mga Rockhounds!

My Lakbayan Grade is..

2008-04-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar.

Susunod sa Visayas at Mindanao naman. Hehehe ^_^

Red Horse - Rakista™ Rakrakan™ Series 7

2008-04-04T05:11:00.000-07:00

Ano, kitakits na lang ha?

Masdan Mo Ang Kapaligiran*

2008-04-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

Something to think about, ladies and gentlemen.. Think..

*Pasintabi sa ASIN

The Rockhound™ signs up a new blog.. Again..

2008-04-04T03:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,

Yeah, I want to try something new this time. I'm a bit tired of Friendster and Multiply. So here I am at Blogger.com.

New blog. New beginning.

Welcome me. Hahaha!

Much respect,

The Rockhound™