The Philippines welcomed a new President today with the inauguration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III at Malacañang Palace. Noynoy is my Uncle. His father Ninoy Aquino Jr. – who was assassinated in August 1983, is first cousins with my grandfather, Claudio Aquino. The Aquino’s are leading the country once again as Noynoy follows in his late mother Cory’s footsteps as President of the Philippines…and he carries on the dream of my Lolo Ninoy to serve his people because in Lolo Ninoy’s words, “The Filipino is worth dying for.”
All that being said, it was a big, exciting day for my relatives in Manila to watch history in the making and attend today’s event …
Here are a few more photos they took at the inauguration.
This past February, I had the pleasure of meeting Deep Foundation – http://www.deepfoundation.net, while attending the MAFA Conference in Indiana. These three emcees – MUG Shot, ILL Poetick and CJ (reppin Queens and Jersey), deliver intelligent insight and well-crafted lyrics, along with an admirable sense of social consciousness. And they are outspoken when it comes to paying respect to their Filipino roots through their music. Below check out a track and video they did in response to derogatory comments made publicly by Adam Carolla.
“Minority Report (Response to Adam Carolla)”
by Deep Foundation & Hydroponikz
Video by Hydroponikz – http://www.hydroponikz.com
*The views depicted in this recording are solely those of the artists, and by no means do they encourage or condone violence against other people.
Earlier this month, Adam Carolla made disparaging comments about Manny Pacquiao, the Philippines, and its people in his popular “The Adam Carolla Podcast.” For those who insist that it was merely a joke and that Carolla’s comments should not be taken too seriously, we encourage you to listen carefully to a clip from the podcast. We do not feel that he was joking when he made rants such as, “All they have over there is Manny Pacquiao and sex tours,” and, “Here’s how you know when your country doesn’t have a lot going for it: When everything is about Manny Pacquiao.”
When your culture, your nation’s identity and the worth of your people are devalued, misrepresented and ignorantly disparaged by one possessing a historically oppressive skin tone, those who bear the brunt of the dishonorable insults will naturally be cajoled into action. Such was the case when Adam Carolla’s comments in regards to the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao and his Filipino supporters were aired on The Adam Carolla Podcast.
Carolla posted an “apology” on Twitter, but only after thousands of Filipinos signed a petition demanding an apology did he post one on his site. We felt the need to respond to his comments reducing our people to simply Manny Pacquiao worshipers and prostitutes. So we did.
I was completely entertained when I watched the youtube videos of Manny Pacquiao on Jimmy Kimmel from last night’s show! I mean he is just “SO FILIPINO” …and I don’t mean that in a bad way because that is my heritage, but this guy is an UBER STAR in boxing and of course in the Philippines, but he’s pretty non-chalant and sort of seems oblivious to his celebrity! But getting back to the “SO FILIPINO” part…singing – Filipino’s LOVE to sing and dance, the stereotype is karaoke at family parties and having a magic mic! In Manila there are stages for singing and dancing at the malls and many public places, variety shows on the weekend (the Filipino versions of Sabado Gigante) and have you ever watched MTV’s America’s BEST Dance crew!?!? Up until the last season most of the crews had at least one, if not majority Fil-Am’s dancing with them. So to see Manny singing on national (late night) TV …it’s just funny to me! The song he picked too…lol
Seriously, Pacman seems SO amused to be on the show, and I wasn’t sure if Kimmel was just catching him off guard with questions or if he was just excited to be on American TV…just listen to him laugh, very cute! At any rate, come November 14 ….GO PACQUIAO!! Once he gets past Cotto…I’m hopeful for the eventual fight we all want to see – Pacquiao vs. Mayweather!!
