Culture – Page 26 – PATHLESS TRAVELS

2012-04-282012-12-03

The art of breaking rules

Vietcong rubber sandals — This pair of sandals, its soles crafted from tough rubber tires and its straps from rubber interior tubing, was standard issue for South Vietnamese guerrilla fighters during the Vietnam War. I saw it as a symbol for breaking rules.

I remember an anecdote about breaking rules that I read somewhere, so long ago in my youth I no longer remember from which book or magazine. But the story struck me so deeply I still remember the details like I read it just yesterday.

An American writer is visiting Paris, and one evening he takes a cab to attend a late-evening dinner in another part of the city. The French cab driver, it seems, is fluent enough in English to strike up a conversation with him, and the writer is happy to oblige as he wants tips on how to get around town. So they talk sporadically about random topics. Continue reading “The art of breaking rules”

2012-04-092018-10-31

My krazy kalendar

One day my neighbor Kabsat Kandu, frustrated about having to rush from one work chore to the next, exclaimed aloud that he wanted a clone so that he could be two places at one time. That way, he could gain 48 hours’ worth of time at the cost of 24 hours.

“Well,” I tell him, “we still have no technology for cloning your brain and all its contents — however small these might be — but there’s an alternative solution that society as a whole would want to try.”

His interest clearly piqued, Kandu nevertheless feigns coolness. “And what would that solution be?” he asks with nonchalance. Continue reading “My krazy kalendar”

2012-02-262012-02-26

Romancing the sword (4)

This is Part 4 of a multi-part essay written for my “Pathless Travels” column. It was originally published in Northern Weekly Dispatch, 21 Aug 2005, and which I then reposted a few months later on my defunct blog hosted at Blogspot. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

The year was 2005, and the GMA broadcast network had scored a big hit with the sword-and-sorcery TV series Encantadia. Sword battle movies were on the comeback trail worldwide, from Hollywood to China, and the genre seemed to appeal to Filipino sensitivities. But does it really unlock insights to our own history? From our rich historical military legacy as a people, are we learning anything practical and applicable to our own times?

Suicide volunteers had their limbs and torsos tightly bound in fibrous cloth or leather strips. Then, on signal, they assaulted the enemy lines with kampilan, kalis or bolo tied with thongs to the wrist of each hand, as they shouted “Allah’u akbar!” or “Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!” or simply “Tadtad!” Illustration is by Ellsworth Young, from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22407/22407-h/images/p227.jpg

I hope that you, most patient readers, have followed me thus far. Maybe you get in a vague way what I’m trying to say but can’t pin it down. Some of you might suspect that this is merely a nostalgia trip that meanders from one hazy idea to the next. So let me try and summarize the whole nebulous thought in one short paragraph:

War is too important to society to be left only to the professional soldiery. It must be the serious and routine business of the whole citizenry. Let us learn from our rich military legacy, not just through films and books, but by preserving and using what is still of practical use. Continue reading “Romancing the sword (4)”