I was reading a friend's blog entry about the Da Vinci Code and how it was "banned" in the Philippines. As I re-read the comment I left, I found it funny that I just went off on a rant about the state of my homeland:
It's a work of fiction, yes, but Dan Brown bills his work as fact, hence the stink.
I know at least 10 people personally who have said that the Church is evil because nobody ever told them that Jesus had a wife -- information they got from reading, or being told by someone who has read, the Da Vinci Code.
Obviously fools will believe anything.
But the bru-hah-hah that the book (and now the movie) creates deflects the attention from the points that one, from an art history standpoint it is inaccurate and false, two, from a theological standpoint it is innacurate and false, and three, the movie and the book would be nothing without controversy. Much like Brokeback Mountain wouldn't be jack if it wasn't about homosexual cowboys.
As for the Philippines focusing on frivolity: that will forever be the case until bloody revolution changes the face of our homeland. Just like every other country, the rich and the powerful control the media and things like the Da Vinci Code are what they use to turn a blind eye toward life-and-death issues.
But the difference is that the Philippines is a corrupt country where democracy and its existing system of checks and balances does not work. So the face she puts on the world will forever be overly made-up with too much foundation and too much lipstick that hides a bloated corpse...
Until this "bloodless revolution"-slash-Edsa XMXXCII bullshit ends and Filipinos put aside the "bahala na" attitude and do something.
Posted by glenn at June 21, 2006 01:51 PM