"Selective criticisms; Selective judgements"

It has been quite a while since I last wrote, yet this is quite not an ideal topic for me to break the ice.

Recently there were some issues that has caught everybody's attention, drawing each and everyone's opinion as well, and with all due respect, everyone's entitled to it.  But generally, I am quite irritated as how the majority responded to each of these issues.

My opinion is that, we (Filipinos) have a selective criticism behavior.  What's worst is that some of them speak as if they are "holier than thou", injecting their moral concerns while bashing the supposed guilty party. 

I am not siding anybody, this is my personal take. 

Here are some of the examples (a few happened in a not so distant time, up to the latest, based on my awareness of such events) of how people, not sometimes, but most of the time, become selective critics:

1.  The "Diana Zubiri scene at Ortigas Flyover", remember how the public and great "know-all" and "moral guardians" reacted to this photoshoot by FHM at that time?  Some people criticized, even filed case to  FHM and Ms. Zubiri for such act, calling it as well as a distraction to the traffic, much more, it was "improper" for her to be in such outfit in public. Let me compare it to what we have now:

  The recently concluded Bb. Pilipinas had a parade of beauties, and in their bikinis.  And how did the general public reacted?  Ms. Zubiri was alone when the people criticized her in her bikini, while just recently, people applauded and admired the 40 candidates who paraded in similar outfit.  Majority rules?  And I was not aware of anybody complaining of such "distraction" and moral issues.

2.  Remember how the public reacted to then President GMA's comment on her sex-life despite her poor administration, and how people right now frolic on PNoys supposed "lovelife" despite his poor administration as well?


3.  I recalled back in the 90's how Sen. Sotto bashed Eraserheads with their song "Alapaap", supposedly suggesting that the song was about drugs, their other song "Kaliwete" also gathered criticisms of supposed sexually suggestive double meaning, there are other local artists that were also labeled of such "crime"; Last year, the CBCP banned a local rap-artist song entitled "Banana", a supposed parody of another foreign artist's (Akon) song. 

Why selective?  Listen to our local radios, and you can point out some songs which not only we can imply double meaning, some songs talk "directly" about sex, drugs, alcohol.  Latest songs to name a few are Katy Perry's "Peacock", Akon's "I Just Had Sex"  Rihanna's "S&M"  which explicit talks about the singer's sexual fascination/fetish.  Aside from the lyrics, check out the videos, and these also enjoy airtime in some of our local music video channels.

And where are our "moral guardians"? Must be tuning to a different station.

4.  I had enough of the Janjan issue and I need not elaborate on it.  My take?  Why feast your fangs on one incident, when there are other shows that, it may not have shown a minor being abused on live televisions, but these shows have an effect on kids that is worse than what that Janjan kid had experienced.  if these critics are very much concerned on the issue, they should be more concerned of the millions of kids watching at home, exposed to shows which imply a basic business-earning formula, "sex sells".  How come these noontime shows with scantily clad dancers get away with it?  With celebrities doing sexy dance numbers, telenovelas with sexy scenes, there was even one show of Party Pilipinas with the theme "Strip Tease", and it didn't even received criticisms. 

Talk about abuse of minors, imagine the kids who watched these kinds of shows, and tell me how do their minds perceive those images and scenes from the tube.

5.  AFP corruption issue is quite funny and sad.  I have so much respect to the men and women who put their lives on the line for the country and our people, and it is quite sad, and disgusting that some of them taint this noble profession.  And what's more embarrassing is that with the state of our national defense, the supposed budget for modernization, and due compensation to those whose lives are at stake are "stolen" by those who were expected to lead.

Funny that some of these supposed brave officials resort to hiding when issues are thrown against them.  And it is quite irritating that some of them, who are supposed to be molded by an elite institution to uphold, trust, loyalty and integrity, blame the public, the society, the civilian community had tainted their idealism with corruption and deceit. 

Sadly, how one can come out, exposing anomalies of which he was once part of, and with this "courageous" act of expose, he is now considered as a "hero", a medium for change.  Truly this is one brave act, but on the other hand, it is more of a cowardly act, why?  In exchange of his expose, he should not be accused of such crime of which he was once part of? (Rabusa to file raps vs former bosses over AFP corruption)

6.  Advertisements, in order to sell, should have an "it" factor, a creative, catchy theme, gimmick.  What bothered just the other day is the pulling out of one of my recent personal favorite McDonald's Commercial saying that the ad conveyed a wrong message on relationships to viewers, especially minors. 

In that case, CBCP should look into other similar media with similar  issues of having/sending a wrong message on relationship to minors.  Are they aware that some television shows/telenovelas depict that almost all relationships involved a love triangle, and the parties/characters involved are young teen celebrities?  I recall one kiddie talent show before, the host asked the kids who among their co-participants are their crushes. 

Pulling said advertisement and saying it a success is really a failure, with the technology today, this clip is available anytime in the internet.  And if they are very much concerned as to how kids would perceive relationships, (related to my previous paragraph), below is a billboard of said youngstars endorsing an apparel brand:

"Return to Temptation".  What does that supposed to mean?  How can you explain to a minor what temptation is about, when another billboard shows this:

Now, what is temptation?



Sadly, this is how people look at things, and yet these same people act like they are the authority, and based on some of the items I mentioned.

And this is how I see things as well.