September 01, 2006

Quote of the year

"(The Philippines is a) beautiful country with warm people. I will tell my friends to visit the Philippines because there are talented singers and dancers with the potential to become pop stars.”

Andrea Albert Pierre Casiraghi of Monaco

WHATEVER happened to "visit the Philippines because it has a lot of fabulous white beaches and fantastic shopping malls?" Well unfortunately for us, this royal—son of Princess Caroline of Hanover and commoner Stefano Casiraghi, and grandchild of that ethereal beauty, the late actress Grace Kelly, and her husband Prince Rainier of Monaco—he wasn't able to tour the beautiful spots in the country and instead got up close to the poverty and muck that is more the general rule around these parts, rather than the exception. (It didn't help that his visit commenced just as the oil spill in Guimaras was spreading its gloom and doom in the Visayas, while the government and Petron Corp. sat around doing absolutely nothing.)

Andrea came here as a follow up to his uncle Prince Albert and mother Princess Caroline's earlier visits, on behalf of Amade Mondiale founded by the late Princess Grace, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting children's rights and uplifting their welfare. So necessarily, the 22-year-old royal cutie with blond shoulder-length wavy hair, had to visit the organization's projects in Sta. Ana and Payatas.

How he got the idea about our "talented singers and dancers", I confess I don't know. He must have watched Eat Bulaga or one of those inane variety shows playing out to a dedicated Filipino TV audience, while he was tucked away in the comforts of his luxe hotel room. Ugh.

Speaking of inane variety shows, is there any way our newly appointed Education Secretary Jesli Lapus can forbid public schools from visiting these noontime shows as part of their regular field trips? I remember when I was in grade school, we used to have lunch in Fort Santiago or Luneta. So it really floors me when you see a whole group of elementary school kids in their uniforms watching these shows along with their crazy teachers among the studio audience.

Oh I'm sure the teachers and principals of these public schools will justify these trips to TV studios as "educational" as the kids will see up close how TV shows are produced. Honey, we didn't do those until we were in high school and old enough to understand what TV production was all about! Obviously it's a way for the teachers to have some fun while at work. And you wonder why we have more artistas than we care to know? Most of them just pretty faces lacking in any real talent.

Go back to Fort Santiago kids, and learn why Rizal got shot in Luneta!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What if he wants to wear my clothes?

Anonymous said...

how true, stella! i can't imagine how the schools would allow kids to go to various tv studios or even MALLS for that matter, as part of their field trip! ano ba yan??? kaya lalong walang nangyayari sa ating mga kabataan eh! nakakainis!

and these tv shows are not helping at all! they continue to produce stupid shows that continuously degrade women and insult the viewers' intelligence! i remember once, meron pang some contests where children were involved! and what did the tv hosts did? well, they made fun of the children: some cried, some were just stupefied!

well, that's tv shows for us!