The Apple That Fell Too Far From The Tree

They call it keeping up with the Jones's. I call it my great misfortune. There are days when I wish I could untangle myself from this web of lies my whole life has been entwined on. For the people who know us, we are happy. My father is the life of the party, charming and gregarious. His wife, obedient and dutiful stays at home to watch over the kids. And the kids, attractive, smart and well-behaved never get into trouble. They meet me, recognize my family name. Their eyes light up. I come from a wealthy family, good genes, good track record. They look at me and think, she'll do well. After all, the apple never falls far from the tree.

This is one of those days. I am torn. When you have lived with tragedy for so long in your life, it becomes the norm. Then you get tired of being miserable and angry all the time, so you find the ridiculous. You laugh until you run out of air. It's like your life has become this one big joke and you finally get it.

I am torn between anger and boredom. Nothing has changed. Everything is in its place. There's mom ever the martyr, hoping and praying things will get better. There's my sister who thinks she isn't good enough, my brother who is mad at the world. There's me who knows that someone else's child will always be better for you. Then there's you dad, the kid with the magnifying glass lighting up an ant hill.

I'm tired and bored. I know I will never be good enough for you. And I just don't give a fuck anymore. I can live without you. My life would be much much better without you. So why don't you save us all the trouble and get it over with?

Tears, hair wax thievery and suddenly missing the ex

Sup, Betches?

What a week.

 It's sunday night and I feel drained. I need something to perk me up bad. I've just began my training as a volunteer nurse. Any feverish anticipation I might have felt these past few days for my upcoming training was completely overshadowed by the dread and the panic that swiftly crept up my neck. The Visayas Mindanao Debate Championship (VMDC) is highly anticipated by debaters, adjudicators and debate enthusiasts from Visayas and Mindanao. This year my univ was given the honor to host the 3rd VMDC. My best friend and I had been planning last year to join as a team. After the November Board Exams I researched about various topics to prepare for the tourney. I missed debating. I spent the past year studying for the board exams. My life was a tedious cycle of study-lecture-study-exams. We were housed in a beach front dormitory. TV and internet access were banned. We were basically locked up for two months in a boot camp. 

 Anyways, The VMDC is slated to take place two weeks from now. Debaters from the other schools were beginning to become agitated. Invitations had not been sent, specific dates were not posted. We were thrown into a harried frenzy. Our very unreliable adviser was suffering from a bad case Procrastinator's syndrome. nothing at all was done. Dear Manong and I decided to take the matters into our own hands. We set up meetings, established working committees, designed logos, built linkages. Each minute was golden. 

 In the other side of things, the nurse in me was experiencing a different kind of frenzy. My unruly thick black mane refused to be tamed. It was my first day on the job and I did not want to disappoint. I was in a hurry, I had to be at the hospital at 7.45. It was now 7.30 and my hair was sticking out in ll directions. My saving grace finally came in the form of my brother's tub of hair wax. It was a men's hair product, aptly named 'Master'. And it was surprisingly good for a cheap hair product. My thick strands were held firmly in place without the slick wet look. I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned to the Hemodialysis Unit. While the rest worked in pairs, I was left to fend off by myself. 

 I enjoyed working in the HDU. The staff nurses were very supportive and accommodating. I was not given a moment to feel out of place. The machines looked very complex, I was afraid to even go near it, so I did the next best thing. I asked a load of questions. And my questions were sufficiently responded to. I easily became familiar with the routine and dynamics in the unit. My shift ended at four. 

 I fell instantly asleep after dinner, my day was busy and exhausting. I stayed up late at night to watch MJ's memorial at the Staples Center. It felt strange, I missed him like a brother. The past few weeks since his death were a little difficult for me. I couldn't imagine a world without him. I've always been a big fan. I remember being three years old, scrawny, wide eyed and awestruck. My mum was a big fan of his and we had this old betamax tape of his music video that I loved to bits. I'd watch it all the time. I forgot the title of the song but I still distinctly remember being fascinated by the animation and the graphic work. He was riding this amusement park type ride and all these weird things surrounded him. I remember the mouth shaped tunnel. It was tongue in cheek and I lapped it up. I remember attempting to moonwalk and failing miserably. When he came to the country for a sold out concert, I went ballistic. I couldn't believe he was in my country. I grew up knowing there was no better entertainer than Michael Jackson. And now at twenty one, I realize how true that is. I stayed up until 4 am to watch his memorial. I was an utter mess, just sobbing my heart out in the middle of the night. 

 I went to work the following day looking harassed. So sorry have not been posting much, currently very busy. I will try to post more often this week. I suddenly miss the ex. Wonder why this feeling is suddenly dawning on me. Didn't shed a single tear when we parted ways. Now I miss him, his stubble, his scent, his skin, his eyes, his hands. Is this some sort of delayed reaction? has my sleep deprived brain gone haywire? Now I am missing him, and I'm horny. But will definitely not go there, sex always complicates things. He was a good boyfriend, and I want it to be the last thing I remember from our relationship, sex will drive us both mad. Will leave everything in its proper place. Me and my space, he and his hibernation. Maybe it isn't him I miss but the sex? Was that stupid facebook quiz right, after all? Have I become the female equivalent of Barney Stinson? All this time I thought I was a Carrie and at times, a Charlotte. Am I secretly and truly a Samantha? 

 Have I been delluding myself into thinking I want a good relationship, not hook-ups, not flings, but a great happy secure relationship with a nice sensible man. Dear God, Am I in it for the fuck? Have I inherited my father's horndogness? *shudders*

 Too tired to ponder. Maybe will reconsider while bathing tomorrow. I always think clearly when I am at the bath. Meanwhile, is it wrong to fantasize about a priest? Am I committing some mortal sin I am not aware of? Will I be eternally damned?

The priest is the president of my univ and he is wickedly gorgeous, clever and articulate. I caught him stealing a few glances last night during practice. Felt strangely tingly. Must avoid, will definitely be eternally damned.

Tomorrow I'll be on duty at the intensive care unit, dear God please do not let any of my would-be patients die on me. 

 

Book Eaters

    An update regarding the great book blockade of 2009. Below is an excerpt from Robin Hemley's response to a blogger's post. You can view the entire post here. 

     ...But it IS accurate and no exaggeration when I stated that virtually all AIR shipments of books into the Philippines were stopped between January and March. That doesn’t mean that books were not arriving in the country – ostensibly, books on freighters were still allowed in and you could receive personal books via Amazon during that time. The exact dates were these: air shipments stopped on January 26th and the first shipments were released on March 17th, a day after Undersecretary Sales spoke with importers and book sellers, and storage fees were paid.

I didn’t have simply one source, but a number of sources, all well-placed in the book industry and all quite willing to talk with me as long as I kept them anonymous. It seemed a reasonable request and still seems so.

It’s true that I was not at Undersecretary Sales’ powerpoint presentation, but she made photocopies of the presentation for the booksellers and I was given a copy of this, detailing all of the Department of Finance’s rationalizations. It doesn’t surprise me that she expresses dismay that the booksellers and importers were not in agreement with her. I was told they tried to express their dissatisfaction, saying they would agree, “for now,” but perhaps this point was not made forcefully enough?

Interestingly, the Department of Finance initially told Customs to release the books on January 27th, but their order was ignored by Rene Agulan, and eventually, for reasons I don’t understand, Customs and the Dept. of Finance, found common ground on this issue. But at first, according to a letter (I'm away from home at the moment, so I don't have the letter in front of me, nor the letter's author, only my notes) dated March 5th to Atty Pasion-Flores of the NBDB, the examiner refused to release the books despite the fact that all previous requirements had been met, including a “certificate of membership with NBDB.” Further, it was required that the Dept. of Ed certify the books as educational, but the Dept. of Ed told the book sellers that the NBDB should rightly issue this certification. It was Agulan who apparently decided that these books were not educational, much to the collective dismay of the importers.

It’s Agulan who was the main barrier at first, and a couple of book industry people I spoke with wondered how one examiner would have such power? In any case, as I mentioned the Dept. of Finance soon backed up Agulan.

In my initial piece, I also made mention of Amazon shipments being held up at the post office over the years, and customers made to pay seemingly whimsical amounts for their books to be retrieved. But this part was edited out of the final piece.

Whether or not taxes are imposed consistently or not, it seems to me that any tax or duty, whether 1%, 5%, or 50%, whether imposed by one clerk at the post office or by the Dept. of Finance as a whole, clearly goes against the very straightforward language of the Florence Agreement. Bottom line – duties are not to be levied on imported books. If the Philippines wants to withdraw from this treaty, then that’s its right. I’m not a lawyer, and I couldn’t go into all the details in my short article, but I believe that international law trumps national and municipal law.

As one blogger eloquently puts it: 

“A few thoughts on the DOF response. International treaties such as the Florence Agreement have the force of law in the Philippines, and are of co-equal status with the Tariff and Customs Code. Congress could not by law repeal commitments made via treaties, you need to withdraw from the treaty. So I disagree with her claim that Congress needs to pass a law amending the TCC to impose the 0% duty on books, that law already exists and is called the Florence Agreement.”

As far as corruption goes, there's individual corruption and then there's institutionalized corruption. 

But I think it’s the red tape as much as anything that has/had book importers so frustrated, the notion that their books might be held up for months while it was judged what was educational and what wasn’t, and by whom.

I also agree that people are focusing too much on TWILIGHT. 

When I wrote the piece, I wasn’t sure how much attention, if any, it would receive. I wrote it because it seemed to be an issue of importance that book lovers in the Philippines should be aware of, and it was right there under the radar. I’m glad that people are now discussing it, and I hope that some good will come of this in the long run.

Thanks!

Robin Hemley

The Department of Finance issues Department Order No. 17-09, published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Easter Sunday, April 12:

The Department Order institutes a regime in which all books brought into the country are deemed subject to Customs duties until or unless a complicated process of obtaining dispensations from the authorities are resorted to; and which further assumes that titles must be in small quantities and not for sale, barter, or trade to qualify for any Customs duty exemption.

The Order furthermore institutes an elaborate series of definitions for books covered by existing Duty-free importation privileges, which are definitions different from the broad classifications in the Florence Agreement; and furthermore, restricts the interpretation of the National Book Development Act to apply only to the duty-free importation of books “used for book publishing.”

The duties imposed are 1% for “educational, technical, scientific, historical or cultural books” and 5% for all other books, according to the Department of Finance’s new definitions.

Below is the letter the National Book Development Board sent to the Secretary of Justice in response to the provisons given by the DOF.

April 30, 2009

HONORABLE RAUL M. GONZALEZ

SecretaryDepartment of Justice

Padre Faura St., Manila

Dear Secretary Gonzalez:

The book reading public in the country is suddenly jolted when the Department of Finance (DOF) imposed duty on the importation of books through Department Order No. 17-09: Guidelines of Duty-Free Importation of Books, issued on 24 March 2009 by Secretary Margarito B. Teves, published on 12 April 2009 at the Phil. Daily Inquirer and is now being implemented.

We earnestly seek your opinion on said Guidelines because they run counter to Sec. 12 of RA 8047, which provides that “In case of tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing, the Board and its duly authorized representatives shall strictly monitor the quality and volume of imported books and material as well as their distribution and the utilization of the said imported materials.”

It is interesting to note that RA 8047 or the Book Publishing Industry Development Act of 1995 was co-authored by Secretary Teves when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

Your immediate rendering of opinion on this matter will greatly benefit our reading public and the book industry.

Please find attached a copy of the DOF Guidelines and the position paper of the Book Development Association of the Philippines.

Respectfully yours,

LIRIO P. SANDOVAL

President

    

    The people at customs and the DOF seem to be operating on the assumption that we are idiots or the irrefutable belief that we will be as a consequence of this taxing matter. It is unbelievably absurd to assume that their book taxing will not encounter public friction since it will only affect a small select segment of the population purchase and read books imported to the country. This is not and cannot be a valid argument to support their motives to tax books. First reason is this, this argument further strengthens the significant need of the government to encourage the filipinos to read more. The fact that only a miniscule percentage of the population reads is a very strong motivation to push forward our right for affordable books and the county's commitment to the florence agreement. In Malaysia, books are tax deductibles because they want their people to invest in reading and education. Our government on the other hand, is making the cost of education expensive for its people. If this pushes forward, books will become luxury items and reading will become a leisurely activity reserved for the wealthy. Second reason is because we deserve to have access to educational materials. It is the right of every filipino, not a mere privilege for the wealthy. People who could not afford such reading materials will either avoid them entirely or succumb to illegal means to have copies of their own. E-books will proliferate. The problem with this is that books are copyrighted material. It will be very easy to sell and download bootlegged E-books in the internet. I think most people also will agree with me that reading five hundred pages of literature on a computer screen is not exactly appealing.The country will become a haven for piracy. 

    When I was in college it was fairly difficult for me to indulge myself in leisurely reading. My allowance per day was fifty pesos, three hundred pesos in a week. I'd consider myself lucky to save even a hundred pesos by the end of the week. A hundred pesos is not enough to cover the costs of a paperback novel. The best I will be able to purchase with my hundred pesos will be a teen glossy magazine. And since teen glossy magazines were not really my thing, I'd spend my savings on necessities instead. If a secondhand book sale happened to drop by my city, I'd purchase a couple of paperbacks at fifty to seventy pesos a piece. In the small sleepy town I live in, there is only one decent bookstore that sells popular books. No Murakami for me. Meyer, Kinsella, Roberts and Coelho are aplenty. Sometimes we'd drive to Cagayan de Oro and shop for a whole day. I'd spend most of my money on a few new books. That was indulgence for me. I know how difficult it is to scavenge for loose change at the bottom of a tattered bag in order to buy that Murakami smiling from the showcase window. That was my lowest point. 

    For the college students making ends meet with a very strict budget I know what a big strain this will be. I would rather spend two hundred fifty pesos for three kilos of rice, a few canned products and some packets of instant noodles than a two hundred seventy three page paperback novel that I will devour in a span of two days. In these hard times where people are losing their jobs, costs are rising and needs must be met, reading for pleasure will be the last thing on everyone's mind. This matter will further the gap between the rich and the poor and perpetuate illiteracy in the country. Expensive books, this is the best way to alienate the youth from reading. We have a right to accessible and affordable books. We need to defend this right now more than ever. 

     Trace the timeline for the Great Book Blockade of 2009 here. 

     Say NO to the Philippine Book Blockade. Click here.

Update: Finally. 

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo on Sunday ordered the Department of Finance to scrap the taxes imposed on imported books and reading material.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the directive was prompted by a torrent of criticism on the move of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), which is under the supervision of the finance department, to impose the duties.

“President Arroyo ordered the immediate lifting of the customs duty on book importation,” Remonde said in a text message to The STAR.

“The President wants books to be within reach of the common man. She believes reading as an important value for intellectual formation, which is the foundation of a healthy public opinion necessary for a vibrant democracy,” he said.

Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo directed Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to revoke Finance Department Order 17-09 which imposes duty on book importation.

“Secretary Teves said he will comply immediately,” he said.

Teves earlier said the BoC has yet to compute the revenues to be generated by the taxes.

Teves, however, said that revenue generation was not the main reason for the import duties but to clarify regulations on book imports as provided by the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

The UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM), led by secretary-general Ambassador Preciosa Soliven, said the imposition of taxes on books runs contrary to government efforts to promote reading among children and the youth.

“Taxing imported books is tantamount to taxing reading habits. At a time when parents and educators worldwide have expressed alarm on the continuing steep decline in the reading habits and practices especially among the young, the tax measure is counterproductive to current initiatives to rekindle a reading culture,” UNACOM said in a statement.

“The measure would surely further discourage young and even old minds from appreciating, recognizing and rediscovering the value of reading,” UNACOM said.

UNESCO in Paris, France was reportedly already aware of the controversy over the BoC’s imposing duties on imported books, a clear violation of a United Nations world pact forged in 1950 where countries agreed to exempt reading and cultural materials from import duties.

John Donaldson, UNESCO senior legal officer based in Paris, said the Philippines, as a party to the Florence Agreement, must respect the principle “Pacta sunt servanda (Pacts must be respected).”

“This fundamental principle of the law of treaties, enshrined in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, provides that treaties in force are binding upon the parties and must be performed in good faith,” Donaldson said.

“It follows that if the Philippines decides to apply custom duties or other charges on the importation of materials coming from another State Party, and for which the Florence Agreement foresees an exemption, it will be in breach of its obligations under this Agreement,” he said.

UNACOM said the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Legal Affairs submitted that DO No. 17-09 issued by the Department of Finance was “contrary to the Philippines’ obligations under the UNESCO Florence Agreement and is inconsistent with its principle of free exchange of ideas and knowledge.”

It took you long enough, you beastly extortionists. 

Books and Taxes

 

     An article published in Inquirer's website today from columnist Manuel L. Quezon III will dampen every bibliophile's spirits. You can read the whole article here. Back in 1952, the Philippines became a signatory in a United Nations treaty named the Florence Agreement which mandates the tax-free importation of educational, scientific and cultural materials in order to promote a  high standard of education, to foster "the free exchange of ideas and knowledge and, in general, the widest possible dissemination of the diverse forms of self-expression used by civilizations are vitally important both for intellectual progress and international understanding, and consequently for the maintenance of world peace." View the entirety of the treaty here. For the past two months, the importation of books to the country has virtually ceased. Most of the books in bookstores are imported, the ones that are locally published are those in the Filipiniana section. What transpired? 

     Robin Hemley, the Director of the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program who's in the country on a Guggenheim Fellowship narrates how the customs officials dug themselves a stupendous gold mine by demanding duty fees for the load of Twilight books that entered the country. Stephenie Meyer's hyped up Twilight novels caught the attention of customs examiner Rene Agulan who decreed that duties be paid. In order to avoid hassle, the importer complied and paid. The Importer should not have done this since Philippines has been a signatory in the Florence Agreement for fifty seven years. Agulan argues the books were rightfully paid for because they are "not educational". Yes, but they are cultural materials nonetheless and thus the treaty applies. Encouraged by the success of this particular encounter, the customs officials curtailed the shipment of all the books entering the country. Booksellers are currently intensely negotiating this matter with various government officials. The books are presently stranded in storage facilities. 

    Government officials are up in their elbows defending the added fees. Here is an excerpt from Robin Hemley's article: 

Finance Undersecretary Espele Sales explained the government's position to a group of frustrated booksellers and importers in an Orwellian PowerPoint presentation, at which she reinterpreted the Florence Agreement as well as Philippine law RA 8047, providing for "the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing." For lack of a comma after the word "books," the undersecretary argued that only books "used in book publishing" (her underlining) were tax-exempt.

"What kind of book is that?" one publisher asked me afterward. "A book used in book publishing." And she laughed ruefully.

I thought about it. Maybe I should start writing a few.Harry the Cultural and Educational Potter and His Fondness for Baskerville Type.

Likewise, with the Florence Agreement, she argued that only educational books could be considered protected by the U.N. treaty. Customs would henceforth be the arbiter of what was and wasn't educational.

"For 50 years, everyone has misinterpreted the treaty and now you alone have interpreted it correctly?" she was asked.

"Yes," she told the stunned booksellers.

The writer David Torrey Peters, who once spent a year in Cameroon (which is even more corrupt than the Philippines), wrote of being pulled out of a taxi by a policeman who demanded that he produce his immunization card. David did this, but the cop told him that he was missing an AIDS vaccination. When David told the man that there was no such thing as an AIDS vaccine, the policeman was indignant.

"You think just because there isn't an AIDS vaccine I can't arrest you for not having one?"

This is the I-will-say-everything-with-a-straight-face-no-matter-how-absurd hallmark of corruption. It's what Orwell wrote about in his classic essay "Politics and the English Language" when he warns of the ways in which bureaucrats defend "the indefensible" by twisting words to suit their purposes. Though he singled out English, corruption happens in every language. However, he did make special mention of undersecretaries as being among the worst purveyors of actual meaning. Not that that has any relevance here (cough, cough), Undersecretary Sales.

  Kudos to the government for once again reaffirming how vile and corrupt they are in pumping revenue from every opportunity that catches their attention. Who knows? Next time it might be oxygen's turn. Don't hold your breath.

      Kudos to the government for depriving the filipinos of affordable reading materials.

      Kudos to the government for proving once more to the international community how miserable it is to live in this country. 

      Kudos to the government for encouraging the filipinos (specially the youth sector) to avoid reading good books. You know what they say,  reading good books leads to enlightenment and education. And education leads to empowerment. We wouldn't want our kids to start thinking critically now do we? We wouldn't want them to see the many flaws in the way you govern the country. That would be extremely detrimental to the fate of the nation and distressing to your well-being. We'd be better off naive, stupid and ignorant. You wouldn't want those crazy ass smart kids to figure out how to better run the country. That would be disastrous. Tsk tsk tsk...