METRO OPINION
March 2 - 8 2014
In the Ring of Fire
L
ast week I was in Kabanjahe, North Sumatra for a lecture to Batak Karo farmers on how they could achieve food security even when they were under siege from Mount Sinabung’s relentless eruptions. The sporadic spewing of lava and ash by the volcano started back in September last year. I was having a lecture during the near-end of that month at Quality University in the Karo highlands when the volcano acted up. The sulfuric fume was so offensive that it almost disrupted my presentation. The deadly pycroclastic flows have since then displaced 32,729 people from their homes, leaving 14 deaths and causing respiratory illness to thousand of children and adults. Mount Sinabung is only 40 kilometers away from the scenic Lake Toba, the largest volcanic lake in Southeast Asia and described by one writer as the most beautiful place on earth. The eruption caused significant drop in the number of visitors who usually come to Lake
Toba to enjoy the magnificent panorama and soothing climate. The Indonesian government has issued the highest level of warning and forcibly evacuated the residents living near Mount Sinabung but thousands still opted to remain, fearful that their houses would be burglarized and the animals stolen. This is reminiscent of the attitude of many Filipinos who were reluctant to leave their dwellings even when they were within Super Typhoon Yolanda’s trajectory. Although Indonesia itself is typhoon-free, it is not spared from natural calamities like severe flooding and extreme drought. Located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is also prone to volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunami which have claimed the lives of more than a quarter million Indonesians during the past decade. Wikipedia tells us that about 81% the world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire which is in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. This seismic region extends from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the
Atlantic. It is sometimes described as the circum-Pacific belt. When Indonesia’s Mount Tabora and Mount Krakatua erupted violently in 1815 and 1883, respectively, they caused negative global effects. Both caused harvest failures and long years of volcanic winters in Europe, United States, and Canada. The most active volcanoes are Kelud and Mount Merapi on Java island which have been responsible for thousands of deaths in the region. Since 1000 AD, Mount Kelud has erupted more than 30 times, claiming innocent lives. It erupted again last week, shutting down the airports in Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Jakarta, Malang, Kediri, and Bandung. I had, in the past, lectured to students, teachers, and farmers in the mentioned areas and it was heart-breaking to learn about the difficulties that the Javanese had experienced. I am used to seeing the pitiful situation of displaced families resulting from natural calamities but I was still deeply touched by the deplorable condition of Mount Sinabung affected families - thousands of them - encamped inside government and church buildings. During
MY OSCAR AWARDS W
hat’s your
involvement with the Oscars
this year? I know that some people are Miss Universe pageant experts, and I am clearly not. My area of expertise is the Oscars. I’m a big fan of the Academy Awards, but since I am not a member of the Academy, I try to watch most of the movies in the running so I can really get into predicting the winners, and enjoy the journey with them. Thankfully, I am not scheduled to work on Oscars Sunday this year, so I can thoroughly enjoy the telecast including the pre-show “On-the-RedCarpet” special. Sadly but truly, I had to content myself with snippets of the awards show while at work, or enjoy the re-runs, in the previous years. Since this is my last Oscars in L.A. before we move to Maryland next month, I might just go to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood to pose with the giant golden statues in the morning after the awards night. The pre-Oscars is really crazy on Hollywood Boulevard. They close the streets as early as 8 a.m. even when the stars do not start arriving until about 4 p.m. on Oscar Sunday. So, no, I am not braving the crowds
and the crazy California weather [rain in the forecast] to catch a glimpse of Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio. Who are your favorites to win? Unfortunately, not all my bets may turn out to be the eventual winners, although I will say that I can understand if the Academy voted differently. Still, I think that it will be a crime not to award Cate Blanchett the Best Actress trophy for “Blue Jasmine,” Jared Leto as Best Supporting Actor for “Dallas Buyers Club,” and Alfonso Cuaron as Best Director for “Gravity.” I believe that “12 Years a Slave” will win Best Picture, even if I think that “Gravity” deserves it more. I will also be happy if Matthew McConaughey is named Best Actor for “Dallas Buyers Club,” even if my heart really goes to Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Wolf of Wall Street.” For Best Supporting Actress, my heart blindly chooses Julia Roberts for “August: Osage County,” but that’s a long, long shot; my mind tells me it’s Jennifer Lawrence for “American Hustle,” but my gut tells me that the Academy will go for Lupita Nyong’o for “12 Years a Slave.” Will your choices differ greatly for the other categories?
WICKED!
F
amiliar with the lyrics “I know I’m who I am today because I knew you” and/ or “Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better/But because I knew you/I have been changed for good”? This is from “For Good,” music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz of the award-winning Broadway musical Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz. This is a duet between Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (The Good Witch of the North). I have neither read the book by Winnie Holzman nor Gregory Maquire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995) that inspired the production of this musical. I have watched this musical though last Sunday, February 23, at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines with its Australian and New Zealander performers. As expected, I was entertained and reminded once again that as an artist, it is your devotion to your craft that makes it special.
Devotion being the time and energy and attention spent in perfecting details that in the end, like a jigsaw puzzle, everything will fit together in an organic and fluid manner. Thus, its beauty and power – joy, especially to its intended reader and/or viewer. It was a smooth, fast-paced production. The lights and music, the production design, the costume, and the actors in their magnificent character portrayals and singing were enchanting. The Emerald City glowed; the stage smoked, blinked, roared. No wonder Filipinos love this musical; those who can afford it, of course. As for me, it was a free Parterre box ticket, the area reserved for the President of the Philippines and his company, that according to the artist community, he has not occupied since. Well, I am a taxpayer; not bothered at all receiving complimentary ticket. I patronize local productions and pay for it. You can google the synopsis and other details about the musical. There are countless reviews on it online too. So let me talk instead about the pleasure of watching musical. My own pleasure, of course: I can only
I think not. I predict that Original Screenplay will go to Spike Jonze for “Her,” Adapted Screenplay will go to “12 Years a Slave,” Animated Feature to “Frozen,” Foreign-Language Film to “The Great Beauty/La Grande Belleza,” Documentary Feature to “20 Feet from Stardom,” Original Song to “Let It Go” from “Frozen,” and Original Score to “Gravity.” I watched all of the Oscar nominated shorts, and I have my favorites, but they are not heavily favored. For Animated Short Film, “Get a Horse!” will probably win, although I think “Room on the Broom” was marvelous. In Live-Action Short Film, I really liked “Helium,” but I think the award will go to “That Wasn’t Me/Aquel No Era Yo.”
daytime, the women and the children would remain in the shelters while the men went back to their villages to tend their crops and livestock. “Our livelihood is affected by the periodic eruptions,” said Ibu Esther Ginting, “Our vegetables, fruit trees, and other cash crops are covered by volcanic ash. Even our poultry and livestock are slowly dying from excessive smoke. It’s very tramautic. It is only by God’s grace that we continue to hang on,” she added. When Typhoon Yolanda devastated Central Philippines, the Indonesian government was quick to respond to our distress call. Tons of food, tent shelters, medicines, and various relief supplies were air-shipped to needy areas by the good-natured Indonesians. While it is true that our government and many nongovernment organizations had extended earlier assistance to the survivors of the deadly Banda Aceh tsunami in 2004, there has been no Philippine assistance to the Mount Sinabung refugees until this time. It would be wonderful to see hundreds of Filipinos reciprocating the goodwill of the Indonesians by doing mercy missions in the Karo highlands. over “12 Years a Slave”?
What about the technical categories? I’ll humor you on these eight categories because I also want to see how many of my choices will make it. My predictions are: “The Great Gatsby” for both Costume Design and Production Design, “Dallas Buyers Club” for Makeup and Hairstyling, and a “Gravity” sweep for Cinematography, Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. So you see now why I think that “Gravity” should win Best Picture
Any thoughts on Ellen DeGeneres as host? I like Ellen DeGeneres, but after Seth MacFarlane’s Oscar hosting turn last year, I have been wondering why the Oscars try so hard to be funny like the Emmys. I like my Emmys comical and zany, with television personality hosts like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. I also like my Tonys song-and-dance-y with veritable stage actor hosts like Hugh Jackman and Neil Patrick Harris. But for the Oscars, I don’t know, I guess that I just want my Oscars a little more formal, a little more dignified. After all, most movies and performances that are honored are pretty serious. I mean, tell me, which comedies won Best Picture after 1977’s “Annie Hall”? Does the hybrid-genre “Shakespeare in Love,” and the musical “Chicago” even count as comedies? Just look at the Best Picture list from 2000: “Gladiator,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Chicago,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Crash,” “The Departed,” “No Country for Old Men,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Hurt Locker,” “The King’s Speech,” “The Artist,” and last year’s “Argo.” I rest my case. Now, can you imagine an Oscars hosted by Anthony Hopkins, or Glenn Close?
be subjective and testimonial here. But we know music, in general, alters our mood. That is an established fact. Neuroscience has explained this already. One good book I enjoyed is Daniel Levitin’s This is Your Brain On Music: The Science of Human Obsession (2006). I love musical because it gives me a certain ‘high.’ You know what I mean, the activation of one or two of our happiness hormones. At one point, if not often, I’m sure you experience this too: from running a marathon, playing sports, climbing a mountain, smelling your favorite perfume or food, shopping designer clothes, having mind-blowing sex either with your loved one or a stranger – the list goes on. Sitting there from Act 1 to Act 2, my mind and body relaxed: I was soothed. This Wicked, a testament of imagination, talent, and hard work: I rose from my procrastination blamed to mercury regtrograde. I felt alive from revulsion when Doctor Dillamond, a Goat and the only Animal Professor in Shiz University (the school of wizardy) lose his power of speech and was thrown out into obsolence. My though balloons were the Cyber Crime Law, the 1986 EDSA Revolution
Anniversary, the revolution in Ukraine, the ever-growing commercialization of the Philippine education especially in the tertiary level, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Hinilawod, the enduring theme of West-North conflict, the subversive and transcendental elements in this musical, the competitive Filipino talents: that night in May 2012 when I watched Phantom of the Opera in New York City, and the next day, an off-Broadway play I now can’t recall because I got bored and kept thinking of how good - better even - our actors are in the Repertory Philippines and Tanghalang Pilipino. This is my kind of “high:” the moment of being in a bubble courtesy of the power of reference. I was watching Wicked onstage and in my mind, the classics, the masterpieces, the best in our popular literature and culture, in the contemporary. No work of art exists in a vacuum. Thus, I came out of CCP with a renewed sense in our task to produce during this time when it is easier to just consume. Similar to the theme of “For Good,” to produce the best, we need to consume the best. I’m glad we got Wicked.
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Fire Prevention Month 2014 T
he month of March is dubbed the Fire Prevention Month every year. It is during this time when incidence of fire rises, as statistics can prove. Recently, six young lives were taken by the raging inferno, partly due to inadequate knowledge of fire safety at home and unsafe habits of family members. As this writer is also the Public Information Officer of the Bureau of Fire Protection Region 6, let me take this opportunity to impart some information about the observance of Fire Prevention Month. Proclamation No. 115-A of then Pres. Marcos set the month of March every year to be the Fire Prevention Month which is observed by firefighters, government and volunteers alike. This year’s theme “ISULONG ANG KAUNLARAN, SUNOG AY IWASAN, KAALAMAN AT PAGIINGAT ANG KAILANGAN” bespeaks the tiny but significant truth in survival during fires at home or anywhere else. Kaalaman; knowledge of fire behaviour and fire safety at home can mean life or death in most victims of conflagrations. Did you know that when thick black smoke fills the room you can still breathe if you drop and crawl at the floor? Smoke is lighter than air and will always go up leaving a small space of about a foot at the floor level from which one can breathe while crawling to the exit. Do you know the exit of the building or structure where you are right now? Take the time to read the signs on every floor level and trace your position with the floor plan placed in the walls of buildings. Can you locate the secondary exits? Can you locate the fire hose cabinets or the fire extinguishers? Do you see emergency lights in conspicuous places in the building? Can you identify the alarm system installed in the building? If not, take time to look around. These information can save your life once fire occurs. Buildings are required to install these devices and information like the floor plan and exit signs. These are inspected by BFP Fire Safety Inspectors because all establishments applying for permits will always pass by the BFP fore Fire Safety Inspection Certificate as a pre-requisite to the issuance of permits by Permits and Licensing Office of any LGU. Another vital word in the Fire Prevention Month Theme is Pag-iingat. Habits are hard to break and unsafe habits are especially hazardous to you and your family. Make it a habit to check your electrical installations and appliances for wear and tear, depreciation and damage. Make it a habit not to overload your electrical installations and do not use octopus connections. Make it a habit to use DTI-approved appliances and do not use substandard equipment. Make it a habit to conduct evacuation drills with your family, especially with the children, for them to familiarize your residential building or structure when fire occurs. Blindfold children and let them find their way out of your house to simulate the conditions of fire inside a burning structure. Three children from Bacolod City, one from Iloilo, one each from Cabatuan and Passi City became casualties recently. Children are vulnerable and should be most protected among family members. Be fire safe and become the firefighter in your home by arming yourself with enough knowledge against fire and how to combat it at its onset. Visit your nearest fire station to know more. Like the Facebook Page of BFP 6 at Public Information Section, BFP 6 and add their FB Account at PIS BFP 6 to receive updates from your firefighters in Western Visayas.