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Tiger,the sexy Buddhist, has his Asian American moment; Mother Tida’s embrace is Woods’ public display of his “Asian-ness” and the start of the golfer’s personal and spiritual comeback

In the Year of the Tiger, a Tiger apology seemed a good reason for me to come out to play.
I admit after trying to watch some fat middle aged guys on TV trying to hit a white ball into a small hole , I am especially ready for Tiger to come back.
But now after seeing his controlled media statement, I’m convinced of his contrition.
I never bought a TW hat, a watch, or a product he pimped. But I bought his statement.
I’m responding to his plea. I have room in my heart to believe in him again.
Mostly what did it was his mother.
I can’t recall seeing Tida, Tiger’s Thai mom, ever being featured in any of the coverage since that fateful Thanksgiving night.
We needed to see her.
Perhaps there was a breakdown in the cameras that gave us that cutaway shot from the back for the latter part of his statement. But it was great because it made us see Tida.
In my published columns, I’ve said Tiger coming clean would have to be a toal spiritual reawakening.
I’ve said he should bypass the Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons and embrace someone like Thich Nhat Hanh.
Maybe after Obama, maybe it’s Tiger who should check in with the Dalai Lama.
So it was heartening to see him acknowledge his Buddhism. During Tiger’s media void, Fox’s Brit Hume said Tiger should embrace Christ and essentially be born again. How missionary like of Hume. But Tiger did need to do something to recognize the source of his core values.
And now we’ve seen Tiger publicly declare how he was raised a Buddhist as a young boy by his mom and drifted away in recent years.
“I lost track of what I was taught,” Tiger said.
Tiger has rediscovered his roots.
That’s why the most important person in the room was his mother Tida, and her long loving embrace.
Whatever Tiger’s transgressions, it will be his Asian American side that will redeem him. 

And for those who consistently see him as black and black only (how many people like to refer to him as the first black this or that, while not recognizing he’s also the first Asian American in many cases?), perhaps now this public display of “Asian-ness” will show how Woods truly reflects a different, modern multicultural world.

Updated: Arroyo’s “Partial Martial” harkens back to Marcos’ days

Back in the 1980s, all you had to say was “Anti-Marcos rally” and hundreds of freedom loving people—Filipinos, Americans, American Filipinos—would instantly gather to express outrage with the Philippine dictatorship.
To be an American Filipinos had a real purpose then. The U.S. was in bed with a dictator.
Now the U.S. is only in bed with Philippine President Gloria “Marcos Lite” Arroyo. And everything else is muted.
We just don’t get upset much about anything anymore, including killing 31 journalists. Maybe we should.
I thought of that as I stood before a small group assembled in San Francisco after a mass was heard at St.Patrick’s Church for the journalists killed in Maguindanao just before Thanksgiving.
Including civilians, 58 people were discovered mutilated, massacred and buried in a Philippines killing field allegedly at the order of the leaders of the Amputuans, a powerful family amongst the country’s oligarchs with ties to the current president.
When I heard of the massacre, I admit to being unmoved at first. In America, journalists may lose their jobs. In the Philippines, they lose their lives.
With more than 130 journalists murdered there in recent times, you can understand why I reacted like a San Francisco native shaking off a 3.0 earthquake.
But then the all details came. For a single event, this one breaks the Richter, and exposes the state of the democracy created in America’s image.
Is it really all that better since Marcos?
From afar, the mass, organized by the Philippine American Press Club of San Francisco, was a good first response.
Phil Bronstein, the editor-at-large of the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area’s premier newspaper was among the speakers. Phil’s work made him a finalist for the Pulitizer. He said Maguindanao reminded him of the danger while covering Marcos.
“I had a few people threaten me so I felt briefly that discomforting sometimes scary sense of mortality and vulnerability,” Bronstein told the audience. “ But I could also leave anytime I want and come home.”
It was his way of describing the difference between the American on assignment and the native journalist,whose daily work is an act of courage and freedom.
“This many journalists killed is an estimable losss,” Bronstein said. “The work of these slain journalist is a vital part of the frabirc of any democracy.”
Bronstein suggested that we “do anything to press Philippine authorities to justice in this case.”
I just don’t think Phil was suggesting the authorities do something out of the Marcos playbook: Martial Law.
PARTIAL MARTIAL
Seeing Bronstein and others was like a reunion of the Marcos years. But without the hundreds and hundreds of protesters.
Still I didn’t expect Arroyo to make the analogy more relevant with her declaration of martial law in Maguindanao last week.
Sure, it’s not full martial law, pare. Oo. Just in Maguindanao.
Call it “Partial Martial.”
But there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant either.
The power move shows the lame-duck Arroyo certainly isn’t going gently into her good night. I thought PM was supposed to stand for “prime minister,” reportedly the next coveted position Madame Arroyo was concocting for future occupancy. That, of course, would require some changes in the Philippine democracy itself. It seems that with partial martial, Arroyo’s already applying some of her own self-serving constitutional interpretation.
She’s even using the same rule that Marcos used to invoke full-on martial law.
Pacifico Agabin, a former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, told Philippine Daily Inquirer reporters, Arroyo’s declaration is unwarranted and unnecessary.
The government has shown enough control of the situation in Maguindanao with the arrests of members of the Ampatuan family, and arms seizures.
“The only grounds for the declaration of martial law are invasion and rebellion. I don’t think the Ampatuans are capable of launching a rebellion against the government,” Agabin told the Inquirer.
He added that the constitution requires “actual rebellion,” not merely a threat. Changes to the constitution were made in 1987 to make sure another president couldn’t do as Marcos and declare martial law with a flimsy excuse.
Certainly a president can issue a “state of emergency” if need be. But to go right to martial law? Only a megalomaniac.
In this case, Arroyo has taken off her soiled velvet gloves and revealed her set of iron fists.
Did she really think it would be as becoming with the red dress?
There’s no reason for partial martial, period.
Arroyo likely feels the only way to distance her administration from her former allies the Ampatuans is to come down hard on all of Maguindanao. With partial martial, she creates the illusion of zero tolerance, whereas all along she has actually empowered the Ampatuans to do as they wish.
Partial martial also tests her power. It lets her feel the wheel of absolute control in a portion of the archipelago, and let’s her consider an option. Could she go all the way in her transgression of the constitution to perhaps to something far more self-serving—like extending her presidency for “the good of the country”? If that happens then the politician/villain can disguise herself as hero and humanitarian.
But the massacre of 58 and the extension of an unwarranted “Partial Martial” shows just how weak the Philippine democracy is. No need to be nostalgic for Marcos. Sadly, Arroyo fits the bill.

With “Partial Martial,” Philippines President Arroyo secures her legacy as “Marcos Lite”

President Arroyo has finally secured her legacy as “Marcos Lite.” 

That’s my name for the president who has managed to keep the corruption levels and human rights violations during her administration under a level to cause absolute world-wide indignation.

She’s President Obama’s buddy, right.

But now Arroyo has unequivocally earned her sobriquet by using the already horrific Maguindanao mass murders  to justify martial law, a straight steal from the Marcos playbook.

For one second, perhaps we can let cooler heads prevail. Is it really all that bad? It’s not full martial law. Just in Maguindanao.

Call it “Partial Martial.”

Of course, there’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant either.

But let’s give the president the benefit of the doubt.

The power move shows Arroyo certainly isn’t going gently into her good night. I thought P.M. was supposed to stand for “prime minister,” reportedly  the next coveted  position  Madame Arroyo was concocting for future occupancy. That would require some changes in the Philippine democracy itself,  but it seems that with this “p.m.” Arroyo’s already applying some aggressive  constitutional interpretation.

She’s even using the same rule that Marcos used to invoke full-on martial law.

But as Pacifico Agabin, a former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, told Inquirer reporters, Arroyo’s declaration is  unwarranted and unnecessary as the government has shown control of the situation in Maguindanao with the arrests of the Ampatuans.

 “The only grounds for the declaration of martial law are invasion and rebellion. I don’t think the Ampatuans are capable of launching a rebellion against the government,” he told the Inquirer.

He added that the constitution requires “actual rebellion,” not merely a threat.

There was already a change in the law in 1987, so that a repeat of Marcos could not be possible without a real threat to the government.

The U.S. Constitution, from which the Philippine Constitution has a “martial law” clause. But who in his right mind would declare it in a democracy without a real threat to the government.

Certainly a president can issue a “state of emergency” if need be.  But to go right to martial law?

In this case, Arroyo has taken off her soiled velvet gloves and revealed her iron fist.

Did she really think it would be as becoming with her red dress?

There’s no reason for partial martial, period. A massacre, as bad as it is, isn’t a rebellion.

So what’s the purpose, of p.m.?

Well, p.r.

 Arroyo likely feels the only way to distance her administration from her former allies the Ampatuans is to come down hard on on all of Maguindanao.  With partial martial, she creates the illusion of zero tolerance, whereas all along she has actually empowered the Ampatuans to do as they wish.

She also tests her power. Partial martial let’s her feel the wheel of absolute control in a portion of the archipelago, and let’s her consider an option. Could she go all the way in a transgression of the constitution to extend her presidency for “the good of the country”?

Legislators and the people must speak out now. Marcos Lite? “Partial Martial” is a clear sign of a second coming.

San Francisco’s Philippine American Press Club start “Justice Fund” to aid journalists killed in Maguindanao Massacre

In San Francisco, in a show of sympathy, solidarity and support for the 30 journalists killed in the Maguindanao Massacre, the Philippine American Press Club will hold a program at St.Patrick’s Church (Mission and 4th St., San Francisco) at 6pm on Wednesday, Dec.2. 

After a memorial mass, the press group’s program will feature journalists who have extensively covered Philippine issues. Among the speakers are Filipinas Magazine publisher Greg Macabenta and San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein.  The program is free and open to the public.

Donations will be gladly accepted to seed a “Justice Fund” to assist families of the victims, witnesses and groups speaking out for the rights of journalists. 

In Manila, an estimated 3,000 Filipino media workers and supporters staged what was called an “indignation rally” on Monday near Manila’s Malacanang Palace (The Philippine “White House”) . So far 57 bodies have been recovered connected to last week’s massacre in Maguindanao. 

 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091201-239484/Media-groups-hold-indignation-rally-on-Mendiola