There was a time when men were men, bound not by rules but mutual respect. A respect that one need not earn but modestly given by virtue of simply being men. Contracts are not made by voluminous set of recycled trees but by a few pristine words.

In the wars of the old, rivals shake hands before and after battles. Even opposing sides have mutual respect. They are enemies in the battlefield, and being soldiers, comrades outside of it. These days, the gentlemanly conduct of directing a battle, were all gone.

Now, she who pretends to be your friend is your enemy and he who you assumed to be your enemy is your friend. This thing had gone from who’s right to who’s wrong and ventured into who’s the friend and who’s the enemy? No, the world had not gone mad.

Only Janet and her cohorts.

They just threw away common values in lieu of personal comfort. They forgot their own ethical standards in exchange for assumed value and profits. They have rendered their friends and community to their enemies to save their own skins. And all the while they keep on pretending that nothing happened.

And when faced with a mountain of questions, they simply dismissed such in a quiet way as if to humble themselves. But this false humility only shows the utmost arrogance and lack of respect to the people who have put them where they are.

Yes, I admit I got pissed. Who wouldn’t? We were all used, abused and fooled.

Between heated arguments and fact-checking, I tried to maintain a sense of balance, giving the accused the benefit of the doubt, waiting for them to air their side, only to wait in vain, and complaints simply dismissed as an insignificant consequence.

Here comes the lone philosopher of sorts, instead of checking the merits of the case presented, ferociously attacked the complainant simply for the act of complaining. And when I tried to level things up by explaining what the issue is all about, discreetly apologized.

Thinking I found another gentleman on the other side of the field, I cast down my arms, and fully accepted his apology at face value. Only to be blocked afterward, and in being so, had no more chance of defending neither myself nor the complainant even after some dimwits continue to badmouth us personally.

They must have forgotten. That in Facebook, once you commented on something, all that was posted afterwards will keep on showing up on your email in the form of notifications.

I was pissed. So I track the wannabe down. I’m sure his pride would more than double; somebody like me is stalking him.

I found three Paolo Mendoza in California, two in the Philippines. I found accounts not only on facebook, but on friendster, myspace, spock and twitter. But keep in mind the number of people with the same name. So I cross-referenced it to the writing style of the philosophical wannabe that he is and found our guy, where he live, even his phone numbers.

No I would not dare invade his privacy, that would be too low. I am not like them. Of that I am certain. Know thy enemy, know thyself. I only want to know who I’m up against.

I also found more blogs, to name a few;

1. philosophical-bastard.blogspot.com. This is his original and probably first blog, which is now closed to the public (I wonder why),
2. www.paolomendoza.info. Still in limbo when I first checked it. Now had a couple of postings about Philippine history.
3. www.pinoy-channel.info. Aside from an entry taken from Associated Press also has nothing
4. www.seyoh.com. A smorgasbord kind of site and some efforts at pun that falls flat
5. www.my-cause.info. Here at least I found a bit of a substance which is not that much. I’ve been there done that. Any cause would be futile if you promote it in a passive mode. You need to go out and present it to your network and not just let the idea stay where they are. One has to actively force it down somebody else’s senses.
6. paolomendoza.blogspot.com. At first I thought this belong to the other Paolo because this is a Spanish blog entitle Dibujo Technico. But comparing it with his other profiles with an architecture background made me think it is also one of his. Especially when I found an entry/question in yahoo answers with the same name asking for a translation from Spanish to English. Only now, the username is hidden.

I am sure there are more sites to his belt, being the – if I may borrow his term- trendsetter that he is. Mainstream media also had a term for this, FLY-BY-NIGHT.

And Janet all the while was just mum, pretending to be humble with her “smile na lang ako ha?” comments as if to justify the lie that were promoted. And just like that philosopher wannabe, she was keeping her bridge to the complainant alive. As if nothing happened.

“Hi Reynz. Just got time to logon sa chat and was trying to catch up with you online earlier. My understanding is that you have your concerns about the writing project.
However, I hope that shouldn’t stop us from communicating as I regard the disagreement (disappointments) as nothing personal.

If it’s ok with you, can we accept it as one of those where we can agree to disagree without affecting the relationship we had prior to it? If not, I understand and will not bother you anymore.

At any rate, I’m just here. Have a great week Reynz.”

Humility? Arrogance at its finest.

There is the sad tale of two sissies. Who despite public displays of strength and rightfulness, or however way they try to show wisdom and wit, lack the balls to go along with it.

The shades of gray can never be clear. The past month we have witnessed humility-laden arrogance and what seemingly to some are arrogance but in fact a show of humility.

There will always be mountains to put our heads up high, huge wall of masses that had withstood the test of time, enough to humble anyone. There will always be wide oceans to make us stoop and bow, a tremendous space of water more than enough to swallow us whole, let alone our pride.

Both our arrogance and humility have brought us here. Fortunately for us but not for them, they will also keep us here. Without any hint of hypocrisy, we barrio folks are ourselves arrogant. Arrogant that we, away from Imperial Manila, can be influential, in the right sense of the word, and will continue to be humbled by the common folks who embraced us as non-intellectuals, but common people.

One might consider this issue as moot and academic. But let me remind you, cooking with Janet is now a yearly venture. Not until she faces her own demons, it will evidently haunt her from her past.

And we will be there to make sure she remembers.

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BURAOT is your quintessential skeptic but a not-yet-so-hopeless pessimist. Impatient most of the time, hence the name, he yearns to discover the magnanimity of the universe and the infinite folly of human stupidity (yep, that was Einstein's). And yes, oo.. he also want world peace. You can stalk him out at Anak ni Kulapo and I Am Buraot.