Not a good day...

...to be Kim Jong-il.

In the Washington Post :

U.N. Votes To Impose Sanctions On N. Korea

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 14 -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Saturday to condemn North Korea and impose stiff sanctions on the communist government in response to its suspected nuclear test. More.

It's not enough that the whole world is breathing down your neck. To make matters worse:

South Korean Approved as U.N. Secretary General

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 13 -- The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon on Friday as the next U.N. secretary general. More.

Mo' power, mo' problems. Welcome to the world of nuclear powers.

A boatload of stars with mean Irish accents...

...that basically sums up my first impression of The Departed, which stars Jack Nicholson, et. al. Okay, I know that's an understatement. There's Leonardo "I'm from a family of criminals trying to do The Right Thing" Di Caprio, Matt "I look so clean-cut but I'm one sinister fellow" Damon, Martin "this is my first gig since The West Wing, and I still sound like Jed Bartlett" Sheen, Mark "one profanity a second" Wahlberg, and Alec "the best-looking but now looking extremely middle-aged" Baldwin.

Oh, yeah, and for some reason, they just had to put in an African-American actor-- Anthony Anderson. The name of the cop (state trooper!) he plays in the movie? BROWN. How's that for in-your-face irony?

Here's a synopsis of the movie, which is directed by Martin Scorsese and is a remake of the hit Hong Kong movie Internal Affairs.

Since I have yet to watch the original-- those who've watched it say it is awesome-- I won't make any comparisons. By itself, it's a pretty entertaining movie, if violence and blood being splattered all around is your thing.

(An aside. This is, by my count, the third movie Scorsese and Di Caprio have done together. Is this Di Caprio's way of distancing himself from his cheesy role as Titanic's boyish lead? Is he trying to say, "yeah, I am now a bad-ass dude who can do violent action movies and look credible doing it"? His next movie is Blood Diamond, another violent flick. My prediction? Di Caprio will not appear clean-shaven in his next few roles. He wants everyone to know that he is a MAN. My suggestion? Get a new voice box. You'll ALWAYS sound like a little boy.)

Another thing. The music in the movie kicks ass. I was expecting more U2, but I guess Bono and company are too busy saving the world to write songs for another bloody Scorsese project. If they do put all the songs here in their OST, it should be worth buying.

Overall, they do manage to sell you with their accents. Jack Nicholson, of course, steals the show as one real bad-ass. Nobody does it like Jack. If you only need one reason to watch this movie, he's IT.

A little ranting is good for the soul...

...and if you get published in a newspaper while you're at it, so much the better.

In page 14 of the October 4 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, my letter to the editor (based on this rather long blog of mine), sent during the (electricity-less) weekend after Typhoon Milenyo hit:

Can’t we avoid tragedies caused by typhoons?

IT DOESN’T take a genius to know that at least once a year, we will be hit by a tropical storm so strong it’s going to cause disasters and power outages in various places around the country.

Take Bicol, for example. In 1988, the region was hit by a storm that was so forceful the whole area went without electricity for months. In 1993, Typhoon “Sisang” hit Bicol and the region had no power for two weeks. After Typhoon “Milenyo,” Bicol might spend another Christmas in darkness. The reason for all these? Toppled power lines. Were these fixed in the past? Yes. Was something done to prevent similar episodes from happening? No.

So each time a powerful typhoon blows across our region, my fellow Bicolanos hear the same old refrains: “Be patient; don’t complain; everyone else doesn’t have electricity; you’re better off, because at least you have a roof over your head; prayer and national solidarity will get us through this crisis.”

Give me a break.

Patience, they say, is a virtue. In our case, however, it is a virtue that has been abused, time and again, by idiots who claim to be the best leaders we can have. Natural calamities have become so commonplace in this country you’d think by now we’d know what to do to cushion their impact.

When will enough be enough? How many people have to die, how many Filipinos have to lose their homes, how many floods do we have to put up with, how many “power-less” days must we live through before something is really done to prevent these from happening?

“An ounce of prevention,” the saying goes, “is worth a pound of cure.” It’s a lesson that our leaders, apparently, have yet to learn.