Tuesday, August 23, 2005

What I have learned from TFC...

Okay, this thing they call "Bora" back in the Philippines just popped up when I was watching TFC (The Filipino Channel, powered by ABS-CBN) at a friend's place last Saturday night. I have not watched any Filipino shows for the past 3 years since I last went back to Manila for holidays. There is an actual TV show called "Bora" that happens to be quite popular.

When I heard "Bora" and that a lot of Filipinos go there, I was like "Sheesh, are Filipinos that rich that they could afford it?" I was so clueless! My filipino friends here gave me an odd look and said, "Bora? You don't know what Bora is?" I was like, "Duh, no!" They gave me an incredulous look and said, "Boracay!"

I was like "WTF?" And here I thought it was this Bora... as in the French Polynesian Island! This is the place where people spend up to $A5000 for just 3 nights! Can you just imagine my disbelief when I thought this was the "Bora" filipinos were referring to and frequent?

Sheesh...

***

Nothing against Boracay, mind you. I was there a while back and have enjoyed my stay. But then, we are going back to a time when it was a small paradise in the middle of all this clear blue water, when the place did not have a lot of tourists, and when the place was not laden with pedophiles. I liked it better back then.

***

It was also during the TFC marathon that I found out there is "Pinoy Big Brother." Hahahahaha! What a riot!

I thought it was actually cool that the Filipinos have finally jumped the bandwagon and decided to let the voyeur in all of us come out and play. Then, I saw the housemates. I couldn't be more fake than that! Are people meant to believe that ordinary Filipinos are like that? Whatever happened to just getting average Jane and Joe participate in a show where they can win money, a house and lot, and a car? Surely these people they chose to be "housemates" don't really need it! The fun of watching Big Brother is that you get to see people from all walks of life battle it out in the biggest psychological experiment ever!

I guess it all has to do with the anti-"jologs" system that filos seem so dead set to follow. Honestly! Tsk tsk tsk...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Been in boracay 3 times last year. visited both in and off season and if your the kind of person who hates sharing the beautiful beaches with some other visitors then going off season is the best time since it makes you feel that you are visiting an unspoilt island.

Sigh, "jologs." You can say all the sophisticated social commentary on this attitude but it all just boils down to another form of crab mentality.

jactinglim said...

My fave reality show is still Joe Schmoe :D

Jaz said...

i've tried watching the first instalment of that Pinoy Big Bother...uh, i meant, Brother, and *sigh* I shouldn't have bothered switching my channels to it.

Jayce Cortez Jacinto said...

"Pinoy Reality TV"??? What an absolute misnomer that is! I saw the pre-hoopla whatchamacallits and it's DEFINITELY far from reality! Everything's so prepared and premeditated. They have this sexy actress and I think another character who's already plotting on getting it on with the rest of the house! And they haven't even started yet! How UNreal can that get? Yeah. We're definitely learning a lot from Pinoy TV...all the HOW NOT TO's. :c)