This for me, is the most memorable line in the book, The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini.

I heard about the book when it was already being filmed and there was a controversy about the “rape scene” part since it is haram . One of my colleagues told me it was an emotional book. So when a friend asked me what book I want for my birthday, I said The Kite Runner (although I was thinking of Twilight saga that time). And I had no regrets of choosing this over Twilight.

Kite Runner described the age-old tradition of kite flying and running after the defeated kites in Afghanistan. It is a story about Amir’s childhood and his friendship with Hassan, the son of their servant. Amir and Hassan grew up together. Despite the differences in social status (second generation of master and servant relationship), religion (Amir’s a Sunni, Hassan’s a Shi’a), in education and almost about everything still, the two young boys developed friendship that goes beyond all of these. They also shared commonalities- they both have the same wet nurse since they both have lost their mothers.

I had a hard time reading it since the book is really too personal for the author that I could not help but stop those tears from rolling. Amir, though an only son of a businessman, yearns for his father’s attention. He thinks that his father even loves their servant’s son more than him. Because of his yearning to be recognized, he let down and gave up the person who is willing to give him more than what he asks.

On the day of the kite flying competition, Amir decided to beat everyone. He got what he wanted and wanted more. He also wanted to get the blue kite he defeated. And Hassan, the greatest kite runner on their neighborhood promised him to get the blue kite shouting, “for you, a thousand times over!”

Hassan disappeared for several hours. He was cornered by the middle-class bullies. They wanted to get the blue kite. But Hassan said no, and was severely beaten. Instead of giving up the blue kite, he gave up himself, his dignity and suffered in silence. Rape, here is oppression. Worse, Amir saw it all and decided to do nothing.


With my other books given by my benevolent friend. Super thanks!

What’s the best of this novel is usage of contrasts. To show what loyalty is, the author portrayed betrayal. To show bravery, he showed how Amir cowered in fear. To show remorse, he described the build-up of guilt and the way for repentance in the most difficult way.

I don’t expect the twist and it made me wanting to flip eagerly. Amir and Hassan are after all, half-brothers. The revelations alongside with the ‘flashbacks’ of their childhood, are very heartwarming. With the war and atrocities committed by the Taliban government to its people, Amir has to go back after fifteen years and save the only link to his past- Sohrab, Hassan’s son. He also has to face his greatest nemesis- Assef and to seek retribution of the latter’s crime committed to Hassan and to Sohrab.

What moved me is the difficulty that Sohrab has to go through. The children caught in war are very vulnerable. The psychological trauma of being used by pedophiles, and the added trauma he has to go through in the grueling process of adoption. The bureaucratic adoption process takes toll on him that at the young age he decided to commit suicide! Now that’s a very terrifying thought!

The ending is very promising. With Sohrab flying the kite and Amir running after the defeated kite, it’s a reverse picture of the past--A past that is slowly healing.

The Kite Runner is about friendship, of age-old traditions, hypocrisy, discrimination and cross-cultural adaptation. For now, I’m looking for the DVD of the movie adaptation.

Lovers come and go. There are pains you thought you wouldn’t be able overcome, but later on learned to live with it; forgiving but not forgetting. For forgetting means never learning the lesson from that experience.

And as the parting became a part of the past, you reminisce as how that love affair started in the first place. You muse. Laugh at your idiocy. You told yourself that it’s a part of gaining experience. It helps you to be mature on the next relationship. That there are lessons in tears.

Albeit that short love affair I was able to recover. Thanks to my other lover. A love affair that I could and would not let go. A love affair that started eons ago. A love affair with a great lover.

Tatay Boy used to tell me that one must use his/her head in making decisions. That’s why it was put above, over the heart. It is there to keep the balance, when the heart becomes irrational. That’s why he always says it is very crucial what you put in your head. He always emphasized the importance of reading and writing. It’s the best exercise for the brain, he said. I did not understand what it meant back then.

To show his point, he rewards me with books and notebooks and the complete colorful crayola whenever I learn new words. He gave me the power to decide what’s the next ulam for the night. He brought me the first composition notebook where I wrote the alphabet and copied the numbers and holidays from the calendar. He taught me to write even before I could comprehend what words I have formed on the notebook

I learned reading not through the perennial ABAKADA booklet but on calendars and Helen Merez’ pocketbooks from our neighbor’s collection. When I went to Iloilo, I marveled at Archie, Veronica and Betty from my second cousin’s collection. I learned reading the clock when I was threatened not to get hold of Archie comics for a week.

When it comes to fairytales, I was a late-bloomer. I have heard and marvel at the folklore of aswangs, fables and legends of Mt. Kanlaon first before I heard and read about Snow White, Cinderella and Rapunzel. I only read about the damsels in distress and the knight in shining armor in the Collection of Fairytales from our neighbor’s encyclopedia set. I was enthralled by the magical world of Thumbelina, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and I never returned the book until I finished reading the stories for the nth time.


Gay Placer, an elementary classmate was my favorite then. She always let me to tag along with her when she goes to her grandfather’s place. I got to borrow books from their family’s collection. During high school, I adore Roan Salanga and her father’s National Geographic collection. I will always remember getting hold of the first Harry Potter book in school, way before it was adapted on the big screen. I will always remember being reprimanded on our Chemistry class, for getting lost inside Hogwart’s Charms lesson. Roan’s younger sister, Valeene has a collection of Witch and Candy mags that were our “bring home/ official on loan” whenever we crash their house for our weekly movie marathon.

When I received my first salary as library student assistant, I bought Harry Potter 6 immediately. Never mind if that entails cutting off my weeklong meal allowance. When Paulo Freire was introduced on our development communication class, I wanted to get hold of his books. I looked for it on bookstores. Sadly our bookstores do not have copies of his works. I posted a query on book lovers web and second hand books site. A fellow member on the site posted reply and asked for my email address. Thought he’ll send an e-copy of the book. But I was wrong. Three weeks later, a new copy of Pedagogy of the Oppressed arrived. The thrill of receiving a book from a total stranger will forever be etched on my memory.



Angely Chi,’s The Great Gatsby, Pearl Dy’s Break Away and Momsie Charlen’s A Lion’s Heart are one of the best gifts; the primary start up of my modest book collection.

Fresh pages of books amazes me,yet the smell of old books never cease to capture my imagination. That distinct woody starchy smell of books. I love scrounging the second book shops, ecstatic on the adventure and thinking of the hands who first owned the books. While most girls would love to receive flowers and chocolates from their partners, I prefer books. My former boyfriend and I might have changed our paths but the books he sent along with the chocolates will always be treasured.

The sensual Love in the Time of Cholera, a gift on my 22nd birthday will remain as a big part of the bittersweet memories of 2009. Sex and the Media in Asia is part of the collection from the best mentor one could only wish for. Bob Ong will remain as my close ally especially on my gloomy mood- the best anti-depressant.

Anne Rice, Kurt Cobain, Jodi Picoult and Michael Ondaatje serve as appetizers for the sully mood. Haruki Murakami, a very expensive one remains to be my most sought after pleasure read.

As one booklover friend said, unlike in books where you can always see the ending, in relationships both parties have to work out to write a better ending of their own romance. Relationships takes a lot of complexities that sometimes you would opt to read than to deal with it in the real life.


Books tackling Mindanao issues. My bedside companion when I was still starting on my work.



What's on my list? My mini book collection. Still upgrading.


Our relationship with our physical lovers may end but we should keep the love affair with great lover...


BOOKS.



-------
Read for life, all your life.

It's 2010.
It's the year of the tiger.

A new year to fill our memories, to learn more and make decisions. I pray and wish for hopeful and blessed year for us. Hope and yes WORK for change, in our governemnt and most of all in ourselves.

Before going home this Christmas, my suitor (tehee!! ('0') and I agreed to meet before I went home for the Christmas break. Avatar is the movie that came to my mind. As I was already trying to nap for not to miss the good scenes of the movie on last full show when I remembered I promised a friend to attend her spaghetti party.Oh no! I almost forgot! So I was hesitant to pursue watching Avatar since dinner and videoke after was the plan.

It’s already the start of the holidays, parties here and there, friends did not arrive to the spag party. And since I’ll be going home the next day and surely my suitor will miss me (haha!), so I excused myself for the videoke session. Three friends already watched the movie during the day and they were raving bout it. Worth your time and money, they said. Hmmm…I really need to see it for myself then.

9:45PM. There was already a line in Cinema 3 in NCCC for AVATAR. Young and Young once. It’s a good sign. We got a good seat at the center and after sitting, two kids sat beside us. When the story started to unfold, I was in awe. I can relate to the struggle of the Na’vi, fighting for Pandora and the rich resources they have that the Earth people desperately needs. This is what I have been writing about ancestral domain struggle of indigenous peoples and I am watching it on the big screen!

The time is set on 2154 wherein Earthlings has already used up the resources and is now on the look-out for another sources. Pandora, a moon roughly the same size as Earth contains minerals worth $20 Million per kilo! That’s a lot of money so a corporation is set to conquer it at all costs!

At first they have tried “peaceful” means to ‘subjugate’ the Na’vi’s by ‘educating’ them, teaching them English (reminds me of American's benevolent assimilation..hhmm..). But they could not let them say yes for their project to extract the precious minerals. To do it, they found another brilliant military strategy. By the aid of science, they were able to clone and create mind-controlled avatars that resembles the Na’vi’s in every way.

Here comes Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington), a paralyzed ex-Marine who tried to fill his brothers’ shoes and wanted to make his own mark; took his brother’s avatar and was encouraged by Col. Miles Quaritch to study the ways of the “savages” and help them to gather information to make a direct and ‘easy’ strategy of extracting the minerals.


Sam Worthington as Jake Sully


In the end, after taking all the necessary lessons to learn the Navi’s ways, Jake learned they are not ‘savages” at all. He fell in love with Neytiri (the daughter of the Navi’s head chief) and was in dilemma to pursue his promise to Col. Quatrich (and Quatrich's promise of new legs for him) and for the Earth people or to fight for The People of Pandora. He was already accepted to the tribe and he's in quandary. Is destroying Pandora will be worth for the new legs? Can he betray The People? The information he gave was used. He betrayed the Na' vis. He regretted it and to repay their good deeds, he led the Navi armies during Col. Quatrich's attack. He even hunt the great dragon and led other Na 'vi hunters for the war.

Good thing, Jake is being supported by other good-natured scientists and pilot (played by Michelle Rodriguez, a Fil-Am actress).


Jake and Neytiri


The minerals is located at the heart of Pandora, under the oldest and ‘Tree of Souls’ that is the source of life of all life forms in the forest. Dr. Grace Agustine, the head researcher and writer of a book about the Na’vis understood the interrelationships of lifeforms in Pandora and tried to stop Parker Selfriedge (Giovanni Ribisi), the corporate guy from destroying the forest. But greed and profit is strong. Military were deployed and attacked the area. But the Na’ vi’s never stop fighting. The Na Vi’s organized the other tribes and fought hard. So many lives were lost. But through The People, The Na’Vi’s strong resistance and unity of tribes and even animals to be affected by the destruction, they won.

Despite the three-hour rolling, there are no boring scenes. The filming of the movie itself was delayed since James Cameron, the director waited for the technology to be perfected. He wanted to use a photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion-capture animation technology. The film also used the newly developed stereoscopic camera. And the output is really excellent. The illuminating tree where Eywa (the Na’Vi goddess) and the ancestors reside is spellbinding. It showed a more enhanced cinematography.

"It's this form of pure creation where if you want to move a tree or a mountain or the sky or change the time of day, you have complete control over the elements."
—James Cameron on virtual filmmaking

The movie has an overt message against extractive industries that caused global climate change. Jame Cameron is an environmentalist and he said in an interview that “industrialist society’ has destroyed societies faster than we are able to identify species. He also referred to the war that United States had waged to Iraq, Vietnam and its colonial period to emphasize the fact that humans have a "terrible history" of "entitlement" in which we "take what we need" from nature and indigenous peoples "and don't give back." (Yahoo Movies interview)


The movie is also a reflection of the struggle of the indigenous peoples and rural communities in the hinterlands of Mindanao. Mining and other ‘development projects” is lnked with militarization and human rights violations; pitting lumads against lumads. The movie also showed the military and corporations cooperation to pursue the destruction. In our case here in Mindanao, this current administration is guilty of using the military in “protecting the interests of the investors”- Oplan Bantay Laya, Investment Defense Force, EastMinCom-AFP, 10th Infantry Division-AFP, and Task Force Gantangan.

I’m thankful for James Cameron- for the visual treat and for mainstreaming social issues like global climate change, human rights violations and indigenous peoples issues on land and mineral resources ownership.

AVATAR is an activist’s dream movie. I strongly recommend it for kids and the kids at heart.

It's Christmas season again.



A time to rejuvenate, to spend time with our loved ones and to celebrate the birth of Christ, our redeemer.

And I'm back in my hometown, together with my sister, my aunts and cousins. Enjoying the holidays and babysitting in between! ('0')

I hope you have a wonderful time also with your family. Don't overeat to avoid the bulges. A blessed 2010 for all of us.


See you next year friends!