McDonalds and Styrofoam

It’s time to come out. I am actually a closet environmentalist. I passionately follow issues around climate change and how consumerism and corporate greed accelerate what could be humanity’s own demise.

I am posting below a letter being circulated by Gary Granada and the Eco-Waste Coalition on McDonald’s refusal to reduce its use of styrofoam. (McDonald’s also refuses to divulge the nutritional content of its products, but that’s another story).

Why is styrofoam such a big issue? The Philippines produces 10 million tons of garbage every year. 5% of that is made up of styrofoam, while plastics in total (including styros) comprise of 76% of the total waste that we generate. Most of these wastes end up being burned or dumped in unhealthty dumpsites or in our seas.

We actually have a law on solid waste management that is not being implemented. The law advocates for recycling and supposedly regulates dumping of wastes. Under the law, open dumpsites (such as Payatas) should have been converted into controlled dumpsites in 2004, and dumpsites in general should be closed by this year. Unfortunately, local governments prefer burning wastes or dumping them somewhere, both of which have been found to be profitable. Just think of the contracts to buy or rent garbage trucks or to purchase incinerators (which are also illegal under the clean air act, but local governments have ways to go around this prohibition. the denr has actually been found to purchase waste burning machines that may be legal technically but still cause pollution).

One way to regulate the use of plastics is to urge companies, especially in the food industry, to use recycable or reusable materials instead. If McDonald’s takes corporate social responsibility serious, then it should strive to drastically reduce its use of plastics and styrofoam.

Gary Granada, whose love songs have the heaviness of light and the heart-rending sadness of clouds, is asking you to circulate his letter below.

My Personal Ordeal with the Arrogant Managers of McDonald’s

5 seconds

My name is Gary Granada, I am a KaalagaD volunteer, and I need 5 seconds of your time to help reduce the use of styrofoam in fast food chains.

How to kill a fly

Somewhere in Nueva Ecija, townsfolks dangle clear plastic bags filled with water in their windows to ward off flies. It obviously doesn’t work; even the local people I asked about the practice admitted as much. It somehow reminds me of a rural belief allegedly propagated by a UPLB professor that homosexuality is a product of pesticides. In short, Martial Law babies like me turned out to be gay because of Masagana rice. I really can’t explain why the notion persists.

Going back to plastic bags with water, I think I can offer several explanations:

The first one is from the Wile E. Cayote syndrome. Wile E. Cayote is, of course, the other half in the Roadrunner and Wile E. Cayote tandem. He is a fanatic and would resort to everything just to get the utterly monosyllabic Roadrunner (Beep beep). He would employ various ACME devices, deploy ACME gadgets and explosives, lay down elaborate traps, and still he keeps on failing to catch the rather quick bird.

Anyway, the Wile E. Cayote syndrome (or WECS) states that we all have a little Wile E. Cayote in our hearts. Some pesticides – natural and artificial – can kill some houseflies, but not all of them. So some folks just have to be ingenuous: they hang plastic bags with water and pray that with sheer luck and with a little help from gravity the bags would fall and squash the hapless housefly innocently taking a quick rest just below our simple folks’ weapon of choice.

My second theory involves an idea that I harbored since childhood, which in retrospect is admittedly a little sick. I am scared of dogs. I was bitten by what seemed to be a friendly canine when I was still in pre-school. I wanted to pet it, but it bit me instead.

I believe, or rather used to believe, that the best way to ward off dogs is to get a puppy, boil it, and apply the broth to your body – just like a lotion – to repel dogs. Of course I never implemented this idea, but I honestly believed that dogs would find the scent of the cooked puppy repugnant. I think I began to dismiss the idea when I saw a dog eating adobong aso. But it still might work with houseflies – so all it takes is to catch some flies, boil them, put the cooled broth in plastic bags. Hang the bags in windows to prevent flies from entering your house. (Let me warn you, though, that when applied to humans this formula is completely illegal and that animals, too, have rights).

The last theory is based on one of the Baguio jokes that was taken seriously. The joke supposedly explains that the reason why flies and mosquitos are rare in Baguio City is that in cooler places they find it hard to fly because have to wear heavy sweaters or jackets. Thus, they’d rather stay in hot nd humid Manila.

Anyway, the plastic bags were actually cooling devices, at least in their previous state. They were actually – or formerly – the yelo (from the Spanish word hielo) that you could easily buy for one peso in your suking tindahan. People would hang them in windows to 1. cool one’s house and 2. warn houseflies that the house that they are about to enter is cold. Since we were at the heart of a rural community and buying yelo is difficult, they hang plastic bags with clear water instead, hoping that it would be enough to fool the common housefly.

Send me an email if you have other theories.

Milenyo, Meralco and a ‘Second World’ country

Shortly after President GMA announced that the Philippines has already become a Second World country, “Milenyo” (international name: Xangsane) slapped her with a wet rebuke. “Milenyo” does not even qualify as one of the strongest typhoons to hit the country; its sustained speed of 130 kph is nothing compared to Loleng’s maximum winds of 290 kph in 1998. Yet power supply is down in most parts of Luzon and some areas remain waterless. Worse, 72 people were killed. Whoever told President GMA to proclaim our ascencion from a Third World to a “Second World” country should be made to travel the length of EDSA in the middle of a tropical typhoon.

(Incidentally, and a colleague was wise to point this out, “Second World” as a term collectively refers to the communist-socialist states that were within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.)

Anyway, power is still down in our village. I’ve been calling Meralco‘s 16211 24-hour customer service hotline since Thursday, and this morning, at 4 AM, I finally got through. I had to endure Meralco’s jingle (“Bagyo o bumaliktad man ang mundo, maasahan ninyo… Mas masaya, mas maganda ang may kuryente…“) for several minutes, and finally a voice – a male voice – answered on the other line. I asked him immediately when Meralco would be able to restore power in our area, and he said that they don’t have an estimate yet but – and here he was suddenly upbeat – i should be happy to note that 60% of Luzon has electricity already.

I would have asked him to give me a list of places with power supply – anywhere in Luzon – so that I could immediately pack up and move out, but that would have been too calloused on my part.

A carol ann duffy weekend

Sow Sunday. it would have been nice to waste it on a good conversation – on what’s happening in Thailand and Hungary, which proves that a parliamentary form of government does not guarantee political stability or economic wealth; or why this flurry of naked Filipino men online may mean that it’s easier to get laid these days, but it should not be interpreted as synonymous to gay liberation; or why the cabinet and the bed my room have to go.

i’ve decided to spend most of the weekend online, and i stumbled upon Jeanette Winterson’s website, where I got introduced to Carol Ann Duffy. That’s where my weekend went: with poems so scorchingly true. it’ll be Monday again in a few hours, but i don’t regret being with Duffy most of the time.

Thailand: PAD has disbanded and media gag persists

The People’s Alliance for Democracy has disbanded. Suriyasai Katasila was quoted in the media as saying that it has served its purpose, but apparently there was also a rift in the coalition due to differing perspectives on the coup.

Meanwhile, the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR) issued a statement calling for the immediate lifting of the gag against the media. Read below the statement released by CPMR through its Secretary General Supinya Klangnarong.

Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR) express our concern about military coup against freedom of expression in Thailand.

CPMR sincerely regrets for the military coup and the abolition of 1997 Constitution.
Eventhough we had been realising that the administration ruled by disposed Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinnawatra was vigorously violating the principle of democracy and civil rights but we
consider the military coup is not a democratic solution either.

CPMR is truly disappointed if this would dismiss the principle of Article 39, Article 40 and Article 41 under the Constitution which reaffirms press freedom, freedom of expression and the principle guaranteed that broadcasting media and telecommunication are public resources.

CPMR deeply concerns that Administrative Reform Council (ARC) was occupying and forcing national television stations for the coup and showing attempt to block the freedom of_exprerssion which would replicate the crisis in the past.

CPMR firmly address a statement to ARC, if they are sincerely heading the country for the sake of democracy and political reform in Thailand;

1. Remain and Uphold the principle of free press, freedom of expression, right to know and free flow of information, according to Article 39,40,41 as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), Article 19.

2. Abolish the Martial law and let citizens freely exercise their political rights and liberty.

3. Stop blocking the free flow of information inside and outside Thailand.

4. Encourage the existence of community radios and all kind of media in order to work fairly under a climate of freedom from fear

5. Bring back the political power to the people as quickly as possible.

With respect in civil liberty and media freedom regardless of any political circumstances,

Campaign for Pupular Media Reform (CPMR)
21 September 2006

Chutzpah

Four session days have passed and the House of Representatives remains empty. They have opened the session and subsequently adjourned simply because there are not enough legislators to constitute a quorum.

The excuse last week was the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization, which held its 27th General Assembly in Cebu City. Other representatives, meanwhile, joined President GMA’s European junket.

This week, it’s the budget briefings that have kept our dear congressmen and women too preoccupied to attend the regular session. Please don’t misinterpret me. It’s not as if they are now suddenly busy with their parliamentary work. Actually, what happens is that while the formal budget deliberations are taking place, legislators are also busy having side meetings with representatives from line agencies to demand for congressional insertions and other requests. In fact, in most of the budget hearings, the buzz from these negotiations and horse trading is noisier than the formal debate itself.

Next year being an election year, this craving for more development projects is not surprising. Former Camarines Sur Representative and now DBM Secretary Rolando Andaya, who once said that a fifth of the pork barrel goes to the pockets of legislators, is predictably silent.

The Senate is still busy with inquiries that go nowhere because government officials continue to snub them. Bong Austero is appalled by the treatment that PCGG Chair Sabio is getting from a Senate panel investigating a sequestered asset, while Manolo Quezon believes that the Senate simply has no choice. I don’t really see anything wrong with Sabio’s arrest, and though I take issues, too, with the Senate’s excesses, Congress as an institution has broad oversight powers. It should certainly not be abused, but when the entire Executive is ignoring your invitation, then the institution must assert its independence.

And oh, Miriam is sick again. This time with anorexia.

The pink elephant and coming out

When I was in high school, I always imagined that I would come out in college. I already had in mind how I’d do it, or where I would study, or what course I would take. It turned out to be more difficult than I imagined, and I was only able to come out during my last year in college.

But I did venture out of the closet once in a while. The first time was in my Humanities I class. Our teacher, the good Ms. Heidi Abad, who is now a friend of my sister, asked us to write a brief reaction to a poem by Maria Aguilar. I went crazy and used as many stereotypes as I could to link the poem to homosexuality, when in hindsight I think a more distant interpretation would revolve around non-conformity. I suppose I was just a little restless then and in need of air.

To breathe – exactly what literature and writing offered. After Aguilar’s poem, I started taking out books about homosexuality from the library – Neil Barlett’s Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall and others – just to breathe, a defiance that was more personal than anything else. It wasn’t quite coming out – I was still scared and had, on several occassions, threw away the borrowers card at the back of the books I loaned to avoid being traced. But I kept venturing out of the closet – i wrote an essay for a newsletter about an lgbt student org that happened to be right across our own tambayan, I also told a dear friend about this “disposition” I am in. I somehow came out eventually.

Remind me to tell you about a rather long, tearful bus ride that happened soon after. Meanwhile, here’s Maria Aguilar‘s Pink Elephant.

I ride the Pink Elephant down
Hollowed corridors with past blasphemies
Scrawled lazily on dim walls.
People accuse me in negatives
Their gawking faces like flashbulbs
Exploding in the sacreligion of the time.
I ride the Pink Elephant
Past the huddling in the dark
Of people who whisper
Of the circus of my going,
Jeering, laughing, crying,
At the pinkness, at the elephant,
At the ridiculous impertinence of the act.
But though they may point,
And try to paint him black,
I ride the Pink Elephant still
Down and away
Convinced of his reality of pinkness
Against the insincerity
Of crowds wallowing in the pseudosanctity
Of black and white.

57

Got this from Libay.

Send flowers to Manila

LAGABLAB is urging everyone to say it with flowers this time around. If you are an overseas Filipino worker or if you have a few dollars or some cash to spare, why not send flowers to the leadership of the House of Representatives and the Senate to push for the immediate passage of the Anti-Discrimination Bill? The bill seeks to penalize discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders. In the House of Representatives, the main author is AKBAYAN Rep. Etta Rosales, while in the Senate, Sen. Bong Revilla authored the bill.

Patayin sa puyat si palparan

The guy just won’t fade away. Might as well deal with him, though I don’t exactly agree with the macho strategy of the New People’s Army. I’m neither for armed struggle nor for active non-violence, but, other than being a staunch advocate of world peace, i am in favor of earnestly gathering sound proposals on how to deal with a guy like Gen. Jovito Palparan.

The best proposal yet is this – “Oplan PPP: Patayin sa Puyat si Palparan.” He looks malnourished (just look at his disproportinately small head), so sleep deprivation would be very debilitating for this guy. This won’t be easy, because in spite of the human rights violations he has obviously committed, he actually admitted that he is still able sleep well at night. Since he’s based in remote rural areas, where the only creatures that are active at night are truly nocturnal, the only way to keep him up until the wee hours of the morning is to invite him every night to judge your ubiquitous gay beauty pageants. This is the only strategy that does not violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For the public’s information, gay beauty pageants, duly supported most of the time by the Sangguniang Kabataan or the Baranggay Council, can run for 10 hours and last until 5 – 6:00 AM. Sometimes, they even have to break the pageant at daybreak and continue the contest immediately after sunset.

If you are from Bulacan, Nueve Ecija or Pampanga, then do an act of patriotism and invite Palparan to judge your gay beauty contests. Believe me, that would, ehem, neutralize the menace.

Just so you know, this brilliant idea is not mine. And I do have a cedula.