Tag: Filipinos
Hahaha
Good old Dan Brown! He can’t create a better PR if he wanted to. The Philippines has given it to him on a silver platter! It has gone viral! The more we, Filipinos, complain or talk about it (Oooppssss) the more people will get curious and get the book for themselves, ergo, making naughty Dan Brown more money that he can dream of.
Win, win for Dan Brown I am afraid.
Anyway it is true that the traffic in Manila can be really horrendous, there is pollution but not as suffocating as the book says and as to the sex trade, well I did not see a single prostitute or a working girl/call boy touting for trade during a month-long holiday my husband and I have recently taken in Manila.
In fact we have decided to get a little place in Manila to escape to during the bitter winters here in the UK.
So no Philippines or Manila is never the gates to hell but more like stairways to heaven and this is due more to the kind of people who live there. Bravo Filipinos!
Inferno is about a biological created airborne virus which can affect the fertility of humankind. 1 in every 3 will become sterile. Robert Langdon puzzled it out in the end but was too late. The virus has spread. In the end it was thought that it would solve the problem of population explosion.
Sienna a main character in the book had a very bad experience in Manila. She was attacked. Sienna was the one who said that the Philippines is the Gate of hell. We can surmise that her character said that tinged malice and a lot of fury.
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Inferno sparks a firestorm: Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown blasted in the Philippines for calling Manila ‘the gates of hell’ in book
- Dan Brown’s Inferno angers an official in the Philippines, who wrote a letter expressing disappointment in the ‘inaccurate portrayal’ of Manila
- In Inferno, a character describes the city as ‘the gates of hell’
- Actress Claire Danes received a similar rebuke after she called the city ‘weird, smelly and full of rats’ after she had filmed Brokedown Palace there
PUBLISHED: 06:18, 24 May 2013 | UPDATED: 06:18, 24 May 2013
Dan Brown’s description of Manila as ‘the gates of hell’ in the American novelist’s latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.
The book ‘Inferno,’ which is being sold in the Philippines, describes a visitor to the city who is taken aback by poverty, crime and prostitution.
The chairman of metropolitan Manila, Francis Tolentino, wrote an open letter to Brown on Thursday, saying that while ‘Inferno’ is fiction, ‘we are greatly disappointed by your inaccurate portrayal of our beloved metropolis.’


Raising ire: Author Dan Brown, left, has been blasted by officials in the Philippines for a quote in his latest novel Inferno, right, that likens the city to ‘the gates of hell’
Tolentino objected to the ‘gates of hell’ description, and to Manila being defined by what he calls terrible descriptions of poverty and pollution.
He said that the novel fails to acknowledge Filipinos’ good character and compassion.
‘Truly, our place is an entry to heaven,’ Tolentino said. ‘We hope that this letter enlightens you and may it guide you the next time you cite Manila in any of your works.’
Brown’s publisher, Doubleday, declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
‘Inferno’ is already a best-seller a little over a week since its debut.
The story drawn partly from Dante’s epic again features Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, the protagonist for Brown’s blockbuster ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and its follow-up ‘The Lost Symbol.’

In the book, Langdon’s companion depicts Manila as a city of ‘six-hour traffic jams, suffocating pollution, horrifying sex trade.’
‘I’ve run through the gates of hell,’ she said.
It’s not the first time that authorities have been angered by an unflattering description of the sprawling city of some 12 million people, where urban shanties and the homeless exist side by side with glitzy shopping malls and walled residential compounds.
In 1999, then-President Joseph Estrada banned Hollywood actress Claire Danes, who shot the movie ‘Brokedown Palace’ in Manila, from entering the country after she said in an interview that the city was smelly, weird and full of rats.
Estrada was elected mayor of Manila in last week’s elections on a promise to reverse the city’s decay.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330117/Dan-Brown-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Philippines-referring-Manila-gates-hell.html#ixzz2UBY2dUCo
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By NR RAMOS

MANILA, Philippines – It is common to see girls screaming themselves hoarse, if not literally going crazy over good-looking male and female idols that make up the currently very popular Hallyu trend, particularly K-pop. But what to make of boys that do the same?
A recent report on GMA News revealed that there’s a growing number of young male Pinoys that are as rabid fans as their female counterparts in rapt adoration of imported South Korean music talents. Not only do they buy album after album of these pop gods, they also try in earnest to save their earnings just to be able to attend their concerts.
Indeed, more than just memorizing the song lyrics, aping the dance moves, and combing their hair in the manner of their heroes, they also collect all sorts of memorabilia they could get their paws on. These include shirts, posters, even rare energy drink cans bearing the images of such K-pop idols as Girl’s Generation and Super Junior.
There’s a lesson to be gleaned in such dedicated adulation, this according to respected Filipino musician Jim Paredes of APO fame, who believes that the establishment of such strong rapport between fan and star is a result of hard work and perseverance that involves not only the artists themselves but the South Korean nation as a whole — and it’s something we Filipinos should strive to emulate.
“They have five, ten year contracts, [in the course of which] they come out very polished, they are taught everything,” he said in the same report. “Ang ginagawa nila magkasabwat and record company ang radio, TV, media, government, everything…in promoting them. Pati na ang tourism [department] kasama dun.”
Paredes maintains that the growing clamor for these foreign acts only serves to highlight the fact that we are yet to come up with a good answer that will serve to combat the slow decline of the relative importance of Original Pilipino Music [OPM] in the consciousness of young Pinoy music lovers.
Not that he believes it’s too late for the local industry to rise up to such a challenge, insisting that key to this, is learning to appreciate what is truly ours.
“Koreans sing Koreans, Chinese sings Chinese, tayo lang ang hindi ganu’on,” he explained. “Globalize the Filipino who speaks Filipino to the world.”
“Remember that our most successful recording ever was ‘Anak,’ it was in Tagalog. Tri-nanslate sa maraming languages ang mabili pa rin ‘yung Tagalog.”
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The World of OFW (Overseas Filipino Workers)
BUHAY OFW
“Hon, padalhan mo naman ako, kasi may gusto akong bilhing shoes dito.”
…
“Sa uwi mo, ‘wag mong kalimutan yung pasalubong nina nanay at tatay ha?”
“Akala ko ba, may padala kang package? Ang tagal naman!”
“Punta tayo sa Cebu sa next vacation mo…”
Ilan lang ito sa mga walang katapusang requests ko sa asawa ko nung nasa abroad siya. At kapag walang favorable response, nagtatampo ako. Nasasabi ko pa na tinitipid o pinagdadamutan niya ako. Dun na pumapasok ang pag-aaway namin, dahil hindi ko daw siya maintindihan. Nabubuwisit ako, kasi alam ko na malaki ang sahod niya, pero bakit ang higpit niya pagdating sa pera? Di ko man masunod luho ko gaya ng sapatos, mga bags, damit at iba pang gadgets? Hayyy nakuuu…
Until dumating yung time na nagdecide kami na sumunod ako sa kanya sa banyagang bansa. At last, makakasama ko na rin siya at maipabibili ko na rin mga gusto ko, bwahahaha!
Sa eroplano pa lang, naiisip ko na ang mga bagay na gagawin ko –shopping, bakasyon, dine-out, gala to the max! Paglapag ng eroplano sa Kuwait International Airport, wow! Ang INIT! Humid pa! Sumasakit na ang ulo ko sa biyahe pauwi sa tutuluyan naming flat (kung tawagin ang apartment). Latang-lata ang pakiramdam ko sa init ng klima, summer daw pala kasi! Naisip ko, huwag na muna ang shopping at gala, pahinga muna…
Dumating yung time na lalabas na kami at mamamasyal, excited pa mandin ako.
Pagdating namin sa Mall at nakita ko ang mga bagay na gusto kong bilhin…bigla akong nakaramdam ng panghihinayang…Makita ko pa lang ang tag price, gumagana na kaagad utak ko sa Riyal to Philippine Peso conversion! Napansin ako ng asawa ko at tinanong nya kung alin daw ba gusto ko, sabi ko na lang, huwag na, next time na lang…
Dumaan ang mga araw at nagiging malinaw na sa akin ang araw-araw na pamumuhay ng mga OFW. Kay lungkot pala maging malayo sa pamilya, ang hirap mahomesick! Nakakaiyak makita ang mga pictures ng family sa FB tuwing me okasyon. Yung malungkot ka at gusto mo silang makasama kaya lang hindi naman puwede magbus pauwi ng Pinas.
Mas naiiyak ako pag naiisip ko na, kawawa naman pala ang kabiyak ko noong wala pa ako sa piling niya. Sa init at pagod maghapon sa trabaho, wala siyang choice kundi magluto pa rin pagkauwi para me makain, at gawin ang mga bagay mag-isa tulad ng paglalaba.
Bigla akong nahiya sa sarili ko…naalala ko bigla yung mga araw na nagtatampo ako sa kanya kasi hindi niya ako mapadalhan ng pera para mabili yung gusto ko. Yung mga araw na natitiis ko siya dahil sa aking walang kabuluhang pagtatampo, natitiis ko na hindi tumawag o magtext man lang…Yung mga araw na wala akong ginawa kundi planuhin kung ano ang mga bagay na ipabibili ko sa kanya pagdating ko dito.
Dahil pala bawat text na mabasa niya, ay laksang tuwa na ang dulot sa kanya. Bawat tawag at dinig pa lang sa boses ay ibayong lakas ang bigay sa kanya…dahil sa bawat baryang kinikita niya, wala siyang naiisip kundi ikaw na pamilya niya…
Ang hirap palang maging OFW…pag nakikita ko sa mga pictures yung ngiti nila, mga magagandang lugar na pinapasyalan nila, mga pagkaing nakahain sa harapan nila, sa likod ng mga ito, nakakubli ang ‘di masukat na lungkot at pangungulila. Marahil ayaw nila na tayong mga kaanak nila ay mag-alala kaya tunay na sitwasyon at nararamdam ay itinatago nila. Nakakaya nilang malayo at magtiis, mabigyan lang ng magandang bukas ang kanilang pamilya.
Saludo ako sa lahat ng OFW na nagtitiis para sa mga pamilya nila!….