As a blogger or Filipino are you concerned about our democracy and the future of our country especially now that 2010 Presidential elections are just around the corner?

If so, Bloggers’ Kapihan is inviting you to an event that will be a step in the positive direction:

What: Bloggers’ briefing on poll automation

When: July 19, Saturday, 1:00pm – 3:30pm

Where: COMELEC Automated Electoral System Information Office, ground floor, Palacio del Gobernador Bldg. Intramuros, Manila (near Manila Cathedral)

The Commission on Elections will give a special briefing on poll automation to 20+ bloggers on July 19.

COMELEC and its technology suppliers will conduct actual trainings on the usage of electronic voting machines and automated counting machines. Video presentations and tutorials will also be shown. The voting machines will be used in the ARMM elections next month.

The briefing will also be an opportunity to hear the feedback of voters and bloggers about the poll automation program of Comelec.

Program

1:00 Opening remarks – Mr. James Jimenez, Comelec Spokesperson

1:05 Comelec presentation

2:40 Reaction from Bloggers’ Kapihan

2:45 Open Forum

Due to limited seat, we urge the interested participants to send an email to mongpalatino[at]gmail[dot]com.

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I tried to ignore this but hey, the commotions and agonies and some mud-slinging has finally provoked me to share my two-cents.

As Sir Yuga summarizes, it all started out when Noemi rang the bells after finding out(?) that the blog of a 13-year-old kid who’s been making money, making it big in the blogosphere and helping other bloggers to be the same has not been totally honest in terms of blog ownership and authorship, or so the critics cry out.

“Honesty is the best policy”

Or so the convention says, this is at the core of this entire brou-ha-ha in the Philippine blogosphere.

Mix in ethics or the morals of parenting (Christian morality in this case), making money online from a popular blog and that “Blogger’s Code of Ethics” is being tested once more. More so, this controversy has revealed some interesting inner-workings of the Philippine blogosphere. Something we’ve seen last year in the aftershocks of Philippine Blog Awards. And just recently from the mixed, yet profound reactions about the results of the recently-concluded search for the most influential bloggers in the Philippine blogosphere.

I agree that “honesty is the best policy.” But it’s a custom, a norm, a common practice; it’s just like the “Blogger’s Code of Ethics.” Sociology teaches us that customs, norms and common practices change over time as society changes. What could be right or morally acceptable today (again this depends on what morals are we talking here) could be the opposite tomorrow.

Plugin in the internets

Just now, as this latest controversy is showing us courtesy of the blogging and the blogosphere, the norms, morals, and ethics of our society has changed, and continues to do so. To drive home my point, I quote the comment I made on SexyMom’s say on this controversy;

It’s the price of being famous at such a young age. A completely honest disclosure is a remedy here. Hopefully it will close this chapter and help people, especially the concerned bloggers to move on.

A side of me is saying it’s “The old refusing to give way to the new.” -Avlin Toffler, Future Shock

Besides, it’s their own blog [so] unless they’re spamming you or hacking your own blog, let them be. If you can’t stand the way they blog, don’t read their posts, [and just] delete their feed from your reader.

Sure there’s that “Blogger’s Code of Ethics” but it’s not a binding contract or law or convention on all bloggers. It’s a ‘guideline’ a reminder of some sorts on how one should blog or should not.

But here’s where our dilemma starts, “Ang tama sa iyo ay mali sa tingin ng iba” this is from Joey Ayala’s song “Magkabilaan” it basically translates into “to each his own”. Now if you’re going to impose your own view of what’s ethical or not on somone just because you view yourself as a standard or vangaurd of that particular ethics, customs or norms and you don’t approve of others’ own view of what’s ethical or not; what’s your right to do so?

[inserted just now]
Is it because we’re famous or influential? Is it because we’re better-off than others? Is it because we’re surrounded by people who nods to almost everything we do or say?

And so we ask ‘who’s being unethical now?’

I know by this time I might be drawing some flak now, but I’ll go back to what SexyMom has pointed out [and has cleverly observed], it’s the parental instincts that are clashing here. One set of parenting standards and practices standing against another.

But hold on, do they really need to be opposing each other?

More so, should we tell parents what to do with their own child considering the fact parents would [inserted]almost always act in the best interest of their child?

Should we cast judgement on mere hearsay or observations?

It’s a good thing Sir Abe has done something which is what should’ve been done in the first place; meet and talk with the 13-year-old-blogger and his dad.

Hopefully things will be sorted out.

UPDATE:

Finally, something more sensible and more just has been done. Sir Abe has just shared some enlightening truths about Carl and his ‘partner-in-crime’ father.

Hopefully, in closing, it will end as I agree with what Dave Starr said;

One of the reasons I live in the Philippines is because there are not 10,000 “go-gooder” busybodies telling me what to do (and what not to do) every minute of the day. Now, do to the “magic” of the Internet … and a lot of people with too much time on their hands … it appears the suffocating US-style “child-smothering” approach to life has followed me here. I wonder why these crusaders aren’t worried about the 14 yo girl with forged papers who is working as a GRO or the 14yo boy with 2 years of schooling who spends 14 hours a day in his uncle’s jeepney collecting fares or the 14 yo girl who cleaned our house yesterday because her mom )who usual works for us one day a week) was sick and if the girl didn’t come by and work … and get paid … they wouldn’t have eaten last night?

Let’s put things in perspective here. A bright and interesting 14yo boy and his dad are collaborating on a blogging effort. How much does Carl do and how much does his dad do? Yuga took the time to give us a pretty decent perspective, but the bottom line is .. what difference does it make? If you think using a 14yo’s persona to make a blog better read and more interesting is ‘exploitive” of the child then I would submit you have a _lot_ to learn about exploitive behavior. Carl is not being “exploited” at all. How I wish I could have worked together on something like that with my dad when I was 14 … no matter which of us was the better “wordsmith”.

Here’s one last tip, go out into the streets, look for a sari-sari store and you’ll see that a vast majority has named their litlle businesses after their favorite child.

Should we call Bantay Bata now?

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