The Erasmus Mundus journey comes full circle

It has been nearly 10 years since my Erasmus Mundus journey began. After my daily blogging here tapered off, I experimented with photoblogging, then with blogging again at Pinoy Erasmus Mundus, then travel blogging, and now, I am back to EM with the Erasmus Mundus Forum. It's funny how I'm leaving trails all over the internet, which is now spelled with a small "i". How time flies.

This shoutout is for the forum, which just launched two weeks ago and is still taking its baby steps. The format is one I'm not so familiar with, but I believe it is essential for the task. I'd like to give back in the hope that one day the forum will be on its own two feet. It will take some time, but I'm hopeful. Please show it some love. Come visit it at erasmusmundusforum.com.

United Buddy Bears @ Pavilion KL

These two-meter tall bears must look familiar if you've been to Berlin, where the bear is the city's symbol. But these ones have also been to different countries, representing different countries on behalf of tolerance.

Malaysia

The Philippine bear is a bird! Design by Pierre F. Patricio, sponsored by the Philippine Embassy in Berlin

Guess who?

Each bear was designed by an artist. The bears have been in KL since December and will leave tomorrow. Let's wish them a safe and successful trip. More information on them here.

International Women's Day 2011

Spend two minutes with two actors I love: Daniel Craig and Judi Dench.

Are you, Facebook user from the third world, keeping the poor poor? Yes, says The Guardian. Discuss.

How the Facebook generation keeps people poor

"The 19 million Facebook users in the Philippines, for instance, about 19% of the population, are generally comparing themselves to other Facebook users around the globe rather than the 50% of Filipinos living on less than $2 a day."

Maybe not the best quote, but point taken. Now what?

Innovator + young voices + critics + more infographics

A break from the China images.

In the realm of sensitive, bashful older men, Dean Kamen is in a league of his own. Visit his TED profile page and watch his talks for proof that when you're changing the world, it doesn't matter if you wear a chambray shirt and blue jeans every day. No kidding.

Join the Center for International Private Enterprise's Youth Essay Contest 2010 for students and young professionals aged 18 to 30. There are three categories (Democracy that delivers, Entrepreneurship and society, and Women and participation) and three winners of $1,000 per category. Deadline is on the 18th of this month.

You'll learn a lot from 50 Informative and Well-Designed Infographics

I'm no critic, but writers all have inspirations: Critics on their inspirations [via Gibbs Cadiz]

Pulitikaraoke

Paintings to ponder: recent works aka the Pulitikaraoke series. Song titles take on different meanings.

Noughts & Crosses

Dress Up Garci

The kid's nickname is really Garci. He was born when Hello Garci was the hot issue.

Shady Circles, Rotten Eggs

I just realized that I need better photography of my work and better documentation of my exhibits. Will work on those.

From Ian Brown of the Oxford Internet Institute: E-voting is not the solution to poll chaos.

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Will be away for two weeks. Lots to show you when I come back. In the meantime, please drop by my website. Thanks! And vote wisely!

My thoughts exactly

This is not going to make me popular, but that's not what this blog is for.

I respect Pat E., but everyone's entitled to an opinion. I'm with Mia on this one.

Basta ganito na lang. Iboto mo kung sino ang gusto mo. At siguraduhin mong ginawa mo ang lahat para makilala mo ang mga kandidato.

[via Boing Boing]

Ang masasabi ko lang: Dang, paperless na sila!

Heavy and horrible

I've been resisting since yesterday, but since so many of the blogs I read have been posting about it, I thought it best to be informed and gave in. But I could not watch the short version of the civilian killings in Baghdad on WikiLeaks' Collateral Murder without stopping several times to take deep breaths.

I salute the brave souls who made it possible for the world to see the truth.

And now, time for a break. Doctor Octoroc Presents Dr. Horrible in 8-bit. Thanks, I needed that.

Waterlife

Earth hour tonight, friends. Let's remember that the earth is two-thirds water. Turn off the tap. Take shorter showers. Enter the world of Waterlife. [via Adverblog]

IAmPinoy + Madame

Call us an unlikely bunch of patriotic citizens, but my friends and I love the Philippines and want to do help build the nation in our own small way. Good news: IAmPinoy.me is now in beta. At the moment, we are still focused on the elections, which is only a few days away. But this is not about flag-waving and hand-over-heart gestures. Our long-term goal is more organizational. Are you part of an NGO? We'd like to know what you do.

There's a lot of work to be done, but we'll take it one step at a time. We're all volunteers. Here's a bit more about us. Stay tuned for updates.

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The irony will not be lost on you.

I have mixed feelings about David Byrne's Here Lies Love. You can't figure out whether to be proud or ashamed. The title song is my LSS for the week, thanks to Sara Meier and Vicky Herrera of U92's The Dollhouse. They played it when they had a special guest: Imelda Marcos herself. It's a moment that makes you want to cut yourself up into two, and you don't know whether to be happy or sad when you do. Here is that track.

Stereogum posted this video of "Please Don't". Interesting archive of footage from that era.

The Art of Recycling @ ADB

"An exhibit of art work from solid wastes generated in ADB." Winners were chosen amongst these after I photographed them. I had intentionally skipped the entry that won later because it didn't look recycled at all!

Click on the images to read the signs.

recycled trophies; painting on discarded carpet tiles

electronic junk; carton network

tarp bags; decor made of fallen leaves

bags made of fact sheets (I like!)

beverage can table; seat made of tape receipts

Home: Rendez-vous avec la planète (2009)

There seems to be a lack of audience-friendly and unanimously critically acclaimed films at the ongoing French Film Festival at Shang. Now that's a dangerous combination.

I caught Home, a full-length science lecture with beautiful imagery and musical score. I overheard a latecomer say "Akala ko ba French?" The narration was entirely in English. I mistook Glenn Close's voice to Susan Sarandon's.

The beginning is slow and feels like a very long poem. Show, don't tell, I wanted to say. How much is real and how much is CGI? I couldn't tell. And then you get specifics. Iceland. Cyanobacteria (two guys snickered at the sound). The Grand Canyon. The turning point is the harnessing of oil.

"Faster and faster"
Fast forward to cities and industrialization of agriculture. There's not just a little Dubai-bashing here, but merited. So much sun and no solar panels? Shame, shame. Finally, global warming and greenhouse gases are mentioned. Important point: monoculture is not forest.

"It is too late to be pessimistic"
The film ends on a positive pro-renewable energy note. Again, I become proud of Denmark. I'm not sure how the 88,000 employees of the PPR group, which includes well-known brands such as Gucci, Puma, YSL, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Bottega Veneta, are involved here. (Surely, we need to consume less.) But take a bow anyway, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The film deserves to be seen by the whole planet.

Watch HOME here.
www.goodplanet.org

No, no, no

I'm interrupting my regular programming for an issue of national importance. Sparks rounded it up best. Since we should not "give Arroyo even the flimsiest excuse to declare emergency rule, or worse, martial law", I will be brief:

Let us put HR 1109 in its proper place: the shredder.

Au Pinoy

My friend R has taken up the issue of Filipina au pairs in Denmark. He wrote to me on Facebook recently. An extract from his message:

Sometimes,

I become angry. Or sad. Or something inbetween.

When I look at how the different Filipino organizations here in Denmark are working against each other. Competing. All wanting to be "alpha male", so to speak. So they don't share information easily. And the only real losers are the members of those organizations, or, more acutely, those who are Outside those organizations. Who don't belong to any of those networks.
...

Sometimes I wonder why they seem to be so focused on the church (im Not against the church), or their karaoke, or their social meetings, when so many other things - the very foundation for their visa here in Denmark, or, rather, those who come here after them - is all in the air.

Messages went back and forth. I tried to explain the fatalistic attitude, even the gap between Pinoy students and au pairs. I want to be involved in the discussion. If you also do, visit Au Pinoy to know more.

Earth Day

It takes a lump of coal to move one megabyte of information across the Internet.

You can say tons of things about saving the planet. I'll do my bit by staying offline as much as I can.

Happy Earth Day!

Sakay na!

I came across Jeepney magazine while walking at Eastwood City Walk. A former EDSA street vendor approached me and I found it hard to ignore his earnest and eager sales talk. An appeal to mercy, yes, it was. But I was receptive to the idea because I had seen Big Issue vendors in London and I understood the concept of the glossy street magazine. Half of the P100 cover price goes direct to the vendor, which I think is a significant income for them and a much better incentive to work hard than a simple dole-out. Think of it as sustainable giving which gives you something instant in return. I picked out the fourth issue on the Homeless World Cup. The fifth issue should be out soon. For more info, visit the Jeepney website.

Something's coming

Do you feel it? The creatives are doing it: banding together to pursue a socially oriented goal. The organizations have different structures and main objectives, but you can see that there is something brewing. Whether it's a sense of nationalism or political involvement, all these groups know that art is not just for art's sake. It is always aware of context and its role in awareness and action. While I don't consider myself an activist, I am concerned about apathy and its role in perpetuating the ills of society. That's the last thing we would want to happen in this country. It's good to know that no one is fighting alone.

There's DAKILA, the Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, which is holding its Arts and Advocacy Lab music session tonight starting 5pm at Conspiracy Bar and Cafe.

The FARM Gallery is launching its Creativity and Global Crisis group exhibit with a series of talks on May 9, 11am to 6pm.

The Artists Revolution, led by Juana Change, Sockie Fernandez, Raymond Lee, Leah Navarro, Jim Paredes and Rody Vera, is planning a concert at the Music Museum on May 11, 8 pm.

PAG-ASA's next forum, Media in the Age of Wowowee, is on May 22, 6pm at the PETA Center.