(with apologies for cross-posting)
First posted 03:44am (Mla time) Nov 22, 2005 Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A6 of the Nov. 22, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ENTER THE WORDS "PEKENG pangulo" [fake president] on your Google browser, and you'll get a surprising, if mildly subversive result: The website of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Try typing "sinungaling" [liar], and the browser will direct you to Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye's profile.
The President and her trusted men have just become the latest subjects -- or victims -- of "Google bombing," a trick used to manipulate the results yielded by search engines.
An Internet-savvy group of young militants has succeeded in making Ms Arroyo's website,
http://www.kgma.org/, the answer to a search for "pekeng pangulo" on popular search engines like Google or Yahoo!
The militant Youth Demanding Arroyo's Removal (Youth Dare) yesterday declared a success its online campaign to Google bomb the websites of the President, as well as those of her ardent defenders.
A query for "sira-ulo" [lunatic or fool], for instance, will take one to the official website of the Department of Justice (), presumably a slur on Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
PimpA search for "bugaw" [pimp], on the other hand, will show a link to the personal information page of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales on
http://www.i-site.ph/, the online databank of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Finally, typing "sinungaling" on the browser will lead to Bunye's profile on the Office of the President website (
http://www.op.gov.ph).
Google bombing the President's website, as well as that of her subordinates, is just one of the many ways Internet users can express their dissent against what they believe to be a fake presidency, said the group's spokesperson Raymond Palatino.
Denizens of the worldwide web have not had enough of the "Hello Garci" controversy, despite the junking of the impeachment complaint against Ms Arroyo in September, he said in a statement.
"During Edsa Dos [EDSA People Power II], we had text messaging. Now we use the blogosphere and the Internet as mechanisms to reach other people and unite in various issues," he said.
Young radicalsThe Google bombing was a joint project of Youth Dare and the "young radicals" Internet blog, said Anakbayan media officer Sarah Katrina Maramag.
The group got the idea from Internet activists in the United States who linked the search words "miserable failure" to the official biography of George W. Bush on the White House website, Palatino said.
However, it was not the first Google bomb on a Filipino public figure. In April 2004, the late actor and defeated presidential contender Fernando Poe Jr. himself became the subject of a Google bomb. The search words "bangungot ng bayan" (the nation's nightmare) directed one to the Freedom, Peace and Justice Movement website, which showed Poe's picture with supporters.
A Google bomb is an attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine.
A page will be ranked higher on Google if the sites that link to that page all use consistent anchor text -- the text used in the link. A Google bomb is created if many sites link to a page by using a certain phrase.
If that phrase is entered on the browser, the page to which the most number of websites or blogs are linked using that phrase will appear.
Youth Dare and its member organizations are planning to come out with other creative online activities and projects, such as "Hello Garci" computer games, Palatino said.
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"Fatherland raped motherhood and told her it was for the global good.." - Frentè
What better reason to wake from a self-imposed hiatus from any kind of reflex writing/ranting (aside from the usual daily press release, another reason actually for my so-called mental block) than to hear of a Filipina gang-raped by AT LEAST five US Marines?
What better way to react than how anamorayta did when I broke the news to her, "Mummy, it's so eighties!" (with appropriate expletives).
Straight from the Twilight Zone, that is. I was too young to notice, much less be angry about anything during the eighties but I've seen enough of stuff like these in Minsan may isang gamu-gamo ("My brother is not a pig!") to conclude that this country is going to the pigs. Or rather, has already gone and so far off towards achieving self-destruction.
It is also so sixties, seventies, nineties, American colonial/neo-colonial era, period. Rape as one of the most gruesome crimes is as ageless as imperialist dominance. Last I checked, rape is STILL a universal crime worthy of a quick and impartial trial in any court of law. What makes this case unique (but not isolated; numerous similar cases against US troops worldwide remain unsolved to this day) is that it underlines rape?s definition of being a test of superiority, the rapist overpowering the victim.
All other arguments -- that the 22-year-old was a prostitute, that she drunk herself to oblivion, that she had it coming, that she is merely coming out now because she wants to extract more money from the GIs -- are immaterial and, if I may say so, downright dim. These do not even figure anywhere in the equation.
Pig-huggers (for lack of a better name to call them) bring these on to prevent the real issue from emanating. The real score: the nationalities of the rapists and the victim and their status on Philippine soil cannot be discounted. This case has finally brought to the core atrocities that should have been first priority in the government's calibrated pre-emptive measures. It has given proper limelight to the likes of VP Teofisto Guingona who has long expressed apprehension over one-sided US-Philippines military treaties. If anyone is entitled to their I-told-you-sos it would be him and others who played a part in kicking out US bases in 1991 and against the ratification of the VFA in 1999.
Now, while the DFA chooses to keep mum over the matter and Malacanang is scrambling to clarify its (lack of) criminal jurisdiction, the "sextet" are safely locked from the public's scorn. Same thing, while the case is clearly more than a criminal one but involves a test of national sovereignty, pig-huggers in the palace are advising Filipinos to "stay calm" and dangling repercussions of a diplomatic downer in front of our outrage.
And why not? US hand has figured in every dismal nook of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's so-called strong republic. Heck, it is even now responsible for Mrs. Arroyo's political survival for no other cost than outright subservience to US dictates on political and economic policies.
To enumerate:
It was not Ramos who was the real knight-in-shining-armor when he responded to Mrs. Arroyo's distress call last June. It was Ramos' long and sustaining agenda for a Cha-Cha and a federal form of government that the US strongly supports.
Payback time was when the government secretly signed the controversial Venable LLP contract to administer the lobbying of the Cha-Cha to US officials. This, however, caused much furor when exposed that it had to take backseat lest the growing anti-Arroyo movement erupt into a full-fledged anti-imperialist front.
After a "sorry" performance during the wake of the "Hello Garci" scandal, Mrs. Arroyo seemed to have mustered needed bravado to unleash her fascist retribution after presiding over the UN Security Council Meet in New York. End result: the CPR, omnipotent EOs, cold-blooded political killings, and an overbroad anti-terror bill being railroaded in Congress patterned after the post-9/11 US Patriot Act.
More payback. Mrs. Arroyo has finally taken it into herself to implement the long-overdue EVAT Law -- a thing that the IMF-WB has pestered her with for the longest time. The EVAT Law, as part of her so-called '8-revenue measures,' will generate enough income to pay up a substantial amount of foreign debt acquired through years of heavy borrowing. Biggest burden: taxpayers. Biggest debtor: the US.
Come to think of it, the gang-rape case against the 22-year-old Filipina and similar other atrocities have only served to illustrate how Filipinos have been ravished by imperialist dominance over the years. And how past and present governments (especially Mrs. Am-Girl Arroyo's) seem to thrive on making the Filipino people unsuspecting victims.
Come to think of it, the sextet is Mrs. Arroyo's very own Twilight Zone. Her worst nightmare. Worse than, say, the risk she had to take when she had no choice but to pullout Filipino troops to rescue Angelo Reyes' hide.
This time, she pulls out the troops, she loses everything. And if does, she still has to try them in Philippine courts -- an even worse nightmare.
Either way, she would wish she never wakes up. ###
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