Tag Archives: Typhoon Yolanda

“Hobbit” big, “Anchorman 2” smaller than expected, as weekend box office receipts tallied

“The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug” was again the No.1 movie in the nation with $31.5 million in tickets, giving it a two week take of $127.5 million, according to the NY Times.

“Anchorman 2,”lived up to its name and finished 2nd at $26.8 million. But it opened on Wednesday and is up to $40 million total, well on its way of making back the $50 million it cost to make.

Now instead of showing up in ads and free media everywhere plugging the movie, maybe producers will start showing up to Filipino community fundraisers or consider giving a little bit in aid to the typhoon victims in the Philippines.

As I pointed out on my blog post for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the silly anchorman was sullied by an ignorant joke that promotes a Filipino stereotype.

http://aaldef.org/blog/anchorman-2-movie-didnt-need-racist-ethnic-joke-against-filipinos.html

It was just one line, am I being too sensitive?  I don’t think so.

If all you see in the media about Filipinos is negative, then such jokes are indefensible. If there were something to counteract the throw away line in the movie, it would have been easier to take.

For example, there were a number of tasteless jokes about African Americans in the movie, as well. But there were African American actors in the movie  who were able to clearly rebut Ron Burgundy/Will Ferrell.

Read the piece on the blog.

http://aaldef.org/blog/anchorman-2-movie-didnt-need-racist-ethnic-joke-against-filipinos.html

And let’s hope that once the producers hit their $50 million nut, they will consider giving aid to the victims of the typhoon in the Philippines. The typhoon displaced millions of people, many of whom are hungry.

And not eating dogs.

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PODCAST:It’s the 40th day, and counting after Typhoon Haiyan. Rick Rocamora, UN photographer, talks about his images of the typhoon that was called Yolanda in the Philippines, and the best way people can help the nearly 4 million displaced victims there.

Rick Rocamora, an award-winning Filipino American photographer, was in the Philippines when the typhoon hit. Coincidentally, he got an assignment from the UN to document the disaster. He talks of how difficult it was to get to the region, and how tough it was to take images when there’s tragedy all around. He talked to a 7-year old boy, Ferdinand Gonzaga, suddenly orphaned, who held on to a teddy bear. He talks of people like Walter Valdez, 33, who lost his whole family and home. Valdez has left Tacloban  to live with relatives in Manila. But even there, he doesn’t know where they are.

Rocamora says the best way to help is to give to a reputable charity.( I like Catholic Relief Services out of Baltimore, MD, as it has a reputation for using money efficiently. But there are others, too https://secure.crs.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=9A142990A14AADFE61CBDC06ADF1E4AB.app260b?df_id=6140&6140.donation=form1 )

Rocamora’s photographs are on display in San Francisco at the Exposure Gallery through mid-January.

[powerpress]http://www.amok.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Rick-Part-1.m4a[/powerpress]

Rick Part 1

 

My piece on the typhoon on CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/opinion/guillermo-typhoon-haiyan/index.html?iref=allsearch

 

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