#opinionpiece

Bale, ang Pinoy Racism… sa kapwa Pinoy lang

Napanood at nabasa ko lang sa internet yung term na “intraracial racism.” Hindi ko siya inimbento. Hindi ko rin siya pinag-aralan nang pormal. Pero nung narinig ko siya, parang may kumatok na pamilyar. Parang hindi bagong konsepto, kundi bagong pangalan lang sa luma nang ugali.

Sabi doon, posible daw maging racist ang isang tao sa sarili niyang lahi. At sa Pilipinas, hindi ito mahirap hanapan ng halimbawa. Hindi ito yung klasikong racism na iniisip ng karamihan. Walang lahing ibang tinatamaan. Sariling atin ang target.

May hierarchy kahit pare-pareho tayong Pilipino. Kulay ng balat. Punto ng salita. Lugar na pinanggalingan. Antas ng buhay. Maputi ka, may lamang ka. Moreno o maitim, may kasunod na biro o duda. Galing ka sa Maynila, parang default na “mas may alam.” Galing ka sa probinsya, parang may kailangang patunayan.

Hindi ito laging lantaran. Minsan biro lang. Minsan “ganun talaga.” Pero paulit-ulit. At dahil paulit-ulit, nagiging normal.

At dahil dyan, napaisip tuloy ako. Hindi na sa nalaman ko, kundi sa nakikita at napapansin.

Habang malaya tayong maghusga sa kapwa Pilipino, iba ang kilos natin sa banyaga. Biglang may control. Biglang may effort. Biglang may kabaitan na halos scripted.

Hindi ko sinasabing peke lahat. Pero hindi rin siya ganap na natural.

Parang may silent agreement: Kapag banyaga ang kaharap mo, dapat mabait ka. Dapat magalang ka. Dapat ipakita mo na “ganito ang Pilipino.”

Kasi kapag umuwi siya sa bansa niya at nagkuwento, hindi lang ikaw ang nire-represent niya. Buong Pilipinas.

Kaya ang nangyayari, nagiging parang walking advertisement ang Pilipino. Hindi lang tao, kundi promo material.

“Punta kayo sa Pilipinas, mababait kami.”

Hindi mo man sabihin nang direkta, pero nandun yung intent. Parang sales talk na hindi mo inamin sa sarili mo.

At syempre, may kapalit iyon. Turismo. Opportunity. Good image.

Samantalang sa kapwa Pilipino, wala namang kailangang i-maintain na imahe. Kilala ka na. Kilala mo na sila.

Kaya doon lumalabas yung totoo.

Doon ka malayang manghusga. Doon ka hindi nagfi-filter. Doon mo nilalabas yung standard mo, kung sino ang “lamang” at kung sino ang “kulang.”

Hindi lahat ng Pilipino ganito. May mga taong patas. May mga hindi tumitingin sa kulay o pinanggalingan. May mga hindi kailangang mag-adjust depende sa kausap.

Pero hindi rin maikakaila na may pattern.

At minsan, ang pinaka-ironic na parte nito ay hindi tayo bastos sa ibang lahi, pero nagiging malupit tayo sa sarili natin.

Parang mas kaya nating respetuhin ang hindi natin kapareho, kaysa sa kapwa natin.

Siguro kasi sa banyaga, wala tayong comparison. Sa kapwa Pilipino, puno tayo ng sukatan.

Sa dulo, hindi ito simpleng usapan ng pagiging mabait o hindi.

Mas malalim siya doon.

Kasi kung ang kabaitan mo ay nakadepende sa kung sino ang kaharap mo, hindi na siya kabaitan.

Read my blog to find out!

Why a break could be the best thing for you

Running is a tough sport, to say the least. You spend hours pouring your soul into workouts, long runs, etc to go through hell and back to get the PR you’re aiming for. If you want to be good at the college level it requires self-discipline, maturity, and a lot of perseverance. But could a break be the missing link in your training plan? (more…)

Senior Assassin may seem like a fun way for seniors to celebrate the end of their high school career, but we have to take into account the proven dangers the game poses to students.

By: Shaylin Bogart

Senior assassin is an end of the year game high school seniors play, the game is a student organized game centering around eliminating their assigned targets with water guns in order to get a cash prize, there are "no kill zones" such as churches, work places, schools, homes, as well as vehicles.

Upon first glance the game seems like harmless fun for seniors to celebrate the end of the year before graduation, which most of the time is true however there have been concerns raised regarding safety for students.

There have been several instances of students landing in the hospital, inadvertently causing police shootings, as well as school lockdowns all because of this supposedly harmless game.

According to CBS News Texas, in Arlington, Texas, a 17 year old boy named Isaac Leal ended up on life support while playing Senior Assassin. While armed with water guns Isaac Leal jumped onto the back bumper of a jeep as it was pulling out of the driveway, the driver made several sharp turns to throw him off of the jeep, and after 5 minutes of holding on for his life Isaac Leal ended up on the pavement with a severe traumatic brain injury. After that he was put on life support just weeks before his graduation in 2025, he ended up passing away before he made it to graduation.

A game meant to be fun and for making great memories should never land anybody in the hospital with a severe head injury, and it especially should never cause death weeks before graduation.

When somebody is 17 or 18 years old they're meant to be celebrated for the accomplishment of graduating high school, there shouldn't have to be a funeral celebrating their life before they even get the chance to graduate.

According to First coast news, in Jacksonville, Florida, an 18 year old student at Bishop Kenny High School was playing Senior Assassin armed with a water gun in a dark neighborhood aiming to hit his target, then, an off-duty officer mistook the realistic water gun for a real gun and shot the student because of that.

The fault may rest on both the student and the police officer, the students should have known better than to carry water guns that looked realistic and aiming it at other students in public, however, the grown adult police officer with a real gun should have known that difference between the water gun vs. a real gun and should have done more to assess whether or not the situation warranted him to use his gun.

This was a horrific incident that was completely preventable from all parties, the point here is that this isn't even the only event of serious injuries caused by this game which shows that these are not singled out incidents but rather a pattern.

According to Douglass County Sheriff's Office, "In the first incident, masked kids were seen at a grocery store in Highlands Ranch, and residents thought a robbery was about to occur. In the second case, a caller reported someone pointing a gun out of a vehicle’s sunroof at fast food restaurant in Highlands Ranch. Deputies located the car and conducted a high-risk stop in a parking lot near W. Highlands Ranch Parkway and Town Center Drive. Inside, deputies found two water guns that looked like real handguns. Parents were called, and the teens were released to them after a serious discussion about the dangers of this game that is being played across the country."

The water gun in question that was involved in the South Iredell High School lock down. Photo from WBTV.com

According to WBOY.com in North Carolina, 18 year old Arkady Muller entered a convenience store and pointed what appeared to be a pistol at two other teenagers inside the store, later on authorities figured out that the pistol was really a water gun, and this was merely for the game Student Assassin.

Officials at the South Iredell High School were alerted by the police of the event, which they happened to find a car that matched the description of the suspects car in the high school's parking lot, which led to the school itself to go on lockdown.

There may not have been any actual harm done in this instances, however, Senior Assassin has been shown to go seriously wrong very quickly.

In fact, Arkady Muller received actual consequences due to this, they ended up getting arrested by police officers and charged for the crime of disorderly conduct.

Real charges, real consequences.

Even if we weren't taking into account the amount of harm and damage that this game has already caused, isn't the premise of the game in and of itself a bit questionable?

After all the premise of the game is to, in essence, shoot and eliminate people you know with a water gun, to me it sounds like a game made for the glorification of shooting and killing people for fun which is not something we need in the current political climate.

Shocked. Horrified. Sad. Angry. But Never Accepting. #abortionlaws #womensrights #opinionpiece

I’m still in shock. I don’t know why I should be, but I am. When I heard that Roe v Wade was overturned today, I immediately wanted to go protest, somewhere, anywhere. For years, I have been mystified by the idea of “separation of church and state” because in my lifetime, I do not think it has existed. We go to churches to cast our votes. Religion is brought into marriage and to our bedrooms.…

So following the mixed to negative reception to Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, it’s reasonable to once again ponder if movies based on video games is still worth something doing. As someone who has seen this movie and the overall serviceable yet very noticeably flawed horror movie it ultimately is, where it missteps as a movie and as an adaptation got me thinking again about this question. As cool as it is to see some of our favorites experiences, stories, characters, moments and elements from the source material brought to life in a new media, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always done well, let alone with any actual care in some cases. Whether a studio wanting to capitalize on a successful game by adapting it but refuse to give it a proper budget, filmmakers not willingly or unwillingly not understanding the media they’re adapting which can be alienating to fans of that original media, or filmmakers intentionally making bad adaptations since profit is guaranteed thus negating need to make quality media. These only being some of the very real things that happen often within the industry for these kinds of projects can make one wonder if its still worth it. Each movie more or less being a dice roll with these possibilities factored in. Though there are exceptions, some of these movies actually are made with care, perhaps hindered in one or more ways but still something made with actual artistic intent. Mortal Kombat(2021) is a good example, though not a perfect movie it’s still something that was very clearly made by a competent and passionate team who had immense passion for the material they were adapting and it really showed in the final film. Though Welcome to Raccoon City could also fall into this, having been written and directed by a filmmaker who very clearly loves the source material and a cast and production team who all mostly shared his sentiment. But where this otherwise arguable “passion project” falls short is its budget, this movie was made with a very small 25 million dollar budget which for a project of that caliber isn’t something that will work out too well and it didn’t. For all it manages to do, it still comes off as cheap in many places and overall unfinished from a lack of narrative substance which is unfortunate. Despite the popularity of Resident Evil as a video game, as a franchise, the studio and other individuals backing the movie decided a project that really had potential wasn’t worth putting the money it needed to be fully realized so it was very compromised as a result. This could be indicative of entire problem, if the parties mostly responsible for these adaptations don’t respect or care for the material enough when it comes to actually adapting them, then it is still worth getting all of these if they’re either going to be soulless products or heavily cheap budget titles that can’t fully live up to their roots. Would we be better off just keeping games as is and doing anyway with film adaptations(perhaps all kinds of adaptations even), or should we keep trying in the hope there will be people who can get them right? As long as games keep being a very popular and lucrative industry, there will be a market for adaptations and spin-offs spanning other media. One can only hope there comes time when we get these consistently right.