Volume 5, Issue No. 18
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
Our latest as of Tuesday, November 21, 2023
~ Fame, fortune, power. "Or live just to play the game". They are the driving force for many people, including some in the local media. Singer and songwriter Alicia Keys aptly vocalizes it but in a different context. I borrow her lines, thank you, without distorting her meaning if only to highlight the situation in Toronto's Filipino community. The four verses in her song adroitly portray what some, or many, of us deny envisaging.
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PREROGATIVE IS 30 YEARS OLD
Writing a Column from the U.S. to Canada
That Stretch of Time Is Tedious But Also Rewarding
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
Some people live for the fortune
Some people live just for the fame
Some people live for the power, yeah
Some people live just to play the game.
- from Alicia Keys' If I Ain't Got You
TORONTO - By any measure, three decades of writing commentaries and opinion pieces for newspapers and now for an online blog is a stretch long enough to deplete one's energy.
It's been that way for me since I started a column in Filipino periodicals in California, Chicago, and Arizona. From 1993 onwards, Prerogative is my signature soapbox to vent or call attention to issues and problems of the day.
This year marks the 30th year of Prerogative. Its birth came after a quick jaunt to Tijuana, the Mexican town that borders San Diego, and back, in a four-door Plymouth Fury my brother had refused to drive because of its "Batman" look, but which my parents loved for comfort and lots of room.
Were it not for its full size and seemingly armored body, its powerful V8 engine could easily outrun present-day car models. Although the car was a gas-guzzler I enjoyed speeding within limits, zooming in and out of traffic in southern California freeways with ease.
Spending a whole afternoon in Tijuana afforded an opportunity to compare its ambience with that in Manila. I wrote a lengthy feature article for the San Diego newspaper where I was associate editor but I thought it was not enough to bring out everything I felt while in another country that, culturally, closely resembled the homeland.
So I volunteered to write a personal commentary that became a column that became Prerogative. It was well-received judging from the feedback I got, in fact, so encouraging that in addition to reporting the news, I also ran Prerogative regularly in the op-ed page.
It felt good then - as it is these days - to be able to express one's personal and professional beliefs in a manner that invites praise, censure, mockery, threats, and, unavoidably, potential lawsuits.
My position at that time, and even today, has not changed. Regardless of how readers view my opinion, it is my opinion, and my right to say what I want to articulate cannot be curtailed.
That's how it came about. I had started with light essays in the first few months in the mid-90's and gradually plunged into expository writing because of a flood of confidential information about wrongdoings by individuals and community organizations.
I knew then that I earned the trust of a wide segment of the community to be their advocate. In no time I expanded my reach - from news and feature writing to news analysis to personal anecdotes to investigative articles, the latter prompting one controversy after another.
Prerogative was, and continues to be, my medium. Even then, running a column does not spare me from being held accountable when and only when my facts are inaccurate and baseless.
Beginning in 2012, Prerogative was in print for seven years here in Toronto. Prior to that, it was a regular feature in San Diego newspapers for 12 years starting in 1993, and for several more years in the mid 2000's in Chicago. It has been online at Filipino Web Magazine since July 2019.
I have compiled choice articles from 1993 to 2009 in three volumes. Another collection starting in 2010 (the year I relocated to Toronto) to the present is also being anthologized into a book.
The depths for which one writes a column is tedious but satisfying, especially if it bears fruit. To some extent, however, such kind of writing is also disappointing when one's subjects choose to play dumb or turn a blind eye instead of confronting the issues raised.
This is where Alicia Keys' verses find a connection. What she wrote in "If I Ain't Got You" was her homage to Aaliyah Dana Haughton who at 22 years died in an airplane crash in August 2001.
Just to be clear, I'm merely adopting the lines as I find them relevant for this article. I'm not to mangle her meaning.
The language of that song is very striking. The four verses I pick exemplify the state of our Filipino community, and to a large extent, the media practitioners who are supposed to record every occurrence coming their way.
For fortune, fame, power, or "just to play the game," are what drive our overhyped leaders and some in the local press to immerse themselves in activities done in the name of the community.
The events of the summer are outstanding examples. Festivals popped up like mushrooms during those months and vanished quickly once they've harvested enough moolah for the pockets of organizers.
One street fest - the Taste of Manila (ToM) - was so brazen as to steal film footage from The Filipino Web Channel to prop up their promotional videos. That's not quite big, I suppose. If the idea of ToM was purloined by a former driver from his workplace, what would stop him from further filching?
For fortune, fame, power, or "just to play the game" must have been this powerful mantra that he and his ilk subscribe to. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).
