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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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NEW YORK --- These days some people are really ambitious; they're into this power and might mode. And they believe that exercising whatever power and influence they have makes them a cut above the rest.
Hence, we see them act as if they were what French King Louis XIV had claimed: “L'Etat, c'est moi” (I am the State.) Or as translated into a situation in our community: “I am the president, the law and the judge. I can do whatever I want with you or anybody else.”
A few days after being sworn in as deputy mayor of Jersey City, Ludy Corrales, national treasurer of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and overall chair of the Philippine American Friendship Committee (PAFCOM), blew her top.
She expressed her disappointment with Patrick Villavert, Editor/Webmaster of PinoyOnBoard.com, an online publication, for including the views and opinion of Bobby M. Reyes, a hardline NaFFAA critic, in his publication.
PinoyOnBoard.com has published articles of Reyes that are critical about NaFFAA. And Corrales, who is being called the honorable deputy mayor lately, didn't like Villavert to “continue patronizing Bobby Reyes” in his Website.
Although Corrales said “this is not a threat,” the effect of what she wrote was nonetheless evident as saying the same thing. She wrote: “I think PAFCOM will stop doing business with you. This is not a threat but you are not contributing to the community if you subscribe to negative publicity, the accusations of which are all unfounded.”
I thought Corrales, a public figure, had treated the media with understanding and respect. I remember writing something about her on that issue. Now I know I was wrong. I guess first impression doesn't really last. She has shifted into a corralling mode.
What has gone into her mind? Even though PAFCOM had nothing to do with what was going on with the exchanges of e-mails between NaFFAA and Reyes, why did she have to drag PAFCOM's name into it?
What if someone didn't like her (on a personal basis) and told everyone to stop doing business with the mortgage company that she heads? How would she feel? Corrales should know better. Or maybe I'm wrong with my impression again.
Doesn't Corrales know that her boss, L. Harvey Smith, the acting mayor of the City of Jersey City, wrote articles critical of the late Mayor Glenn Cunningham and his administration? Maybe the acting mayor should know something about his honorable deputy mayor's view of “negative” media.
Perhaps, he'll be surprised to know that Corrales does not share his boldness to use the media to express his views.
And perhaps, even if the honorable deputy mayor has arranged a community “Fundraiser and Dialogue” with the acting mayor on Sept. 15, Acting Mayor Smith wouldn't consider Corrales' efforts as brown nosing. Is that being “negative” or “positive?”
Who judges if a news item or a commentary is “negative” or “positive”? You and I, including Mayor Harvey, know that this is left with the readers to decide, not Corrales or her NaFFAA associates. Corrales should know better. Or maybe I'm wrong with my impression.
Villavert wrote Corrales: “Our publication has nothing against NaFFAA. My questions on the achievements of NaFFAA have no negative intentions. If you or anyone else in the NaFFAA wishes to tell their side of the story, send us your official statement and we will be more than happy to post them in our publication.”
And in another strongly worded e-mail, Villavert told Corrales: “Your threats of PAFCOM and NaFFAA boycotting our publication will not intimidate us but rather raise more questions on how your organization handles criticism.”
Towards the end of his e-mail, Villavert added: “Bobby Reyes is too much for you to handle, do not add me into this puzzle. Show us proof that Bobby Reyes' allegations are unfounded and we will stop publishing his NaFFAA articles. Simple as that.”
You and I understand that clearly. It is as simple as that. Corrales should know better. Or maybe I'm wrong with my impression.
I believe that only people who are not content with their own efforts and achievements seek to subdue their fellow man; only people who do not find comfort in their own mind seek to silence others.
Corrales is in a corralling shift.
Send comments to rickyxpres@aol.com or visit Website at PinoyOnBoard.com.
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I miss school. I miss having to get up at the same time everyday without having to think of what to wear -- because we had a uniform (even if it was a hideous orange color); or of how the day would go because classes were scheduled. I miss recess and lunch and the routine of it all.
But more than actually going to school, I miss the excitement that came with the start of a new school year. Most of all, I miss back to school shopping. Since clothes weren’t part of the deal, back-to-school meant mainly school supply shopping for me and my friends.
I remember, the first time I shopped with my friends, I was 12, and we went to the National Book Store in Greenhills, where we stocked up on Corona notebooks and Kilometrico pens – every year there was something “uso” (trendy).
That year it was Corona notebooks, the next year it would be those fancy binders called Trapper Keepers which only a lucky few possessed (They were purchased on their US summer vacations, or purchased for them as pasalubong.), and later would come the PILOT pens and in college, the multi-functional Filofax. (Yes, I am dating myself because this is before hand-held PDA devices and hi-tech celphones.)
I eventually had my own Trapper Keeper but by then the trend was fading and giving way to other binders and notebooks. I was never a trend-setter anyway, but I did like my TK, with its compartments and wide-lined paper (which by the way, also had to be “imported” because the local three-ring binder fillers had lines that were single-spaced instead of double-spaced.)
When I reached high school, the race to get the fanciest school supplies didn’t matter anymore at least as much as your brand of hair-spray. Maybe we were growing up, or growing vain.
It is hard to avoid this consumer-driven back-to-school culture that drives parents up the wall with their kids demanding the latest gadgets and the coolest clothes. But as parents, we must learn to set limits. And can anyone remind kids that the latest coolest must-haves aren’t what school’s about?
Tomorrow, my son goes to pre-school for the first time, and I will remind him to have fun, make friends and learn. But I have a nagging feeling he’ll come back and tell me about his classmate’s cool Spiderman lunchbox.
END
E-mail me. manilagirl01@hotmail.com Visit www.manila-girl.com
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