| Monday, August 25, 2003 |
| mobile blogging, pedro almodova, friendster and piracy |
In my haste, I forgot to put the link to my moblog in yesterday's post. It's at Phlog.
***
I was reading the newspaper yesterday when I got to my favorite section (movie guide) and found out that my favorite director's (Pedro Almodovar) newest movie, Talk to Her, will be shown in regular cinemas starting Wednesday, August 27! Ohmy. I cannot wait!
Pedro Almodovar has been my favorite ever since I saw his 1999 movie, Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother). Watch his latest movie in regular cinemas starting Wednesday when you can!
***
If you have Friendster, add me! Use my email address, hazpafis@yahoo.com. I'm especially calling my batchmates from Miriam College High School Batch 98.
***
On to a more serious topic, which is piracy.
Yesterday, I was so peeved at my brother when he tried to justify buying pirated products by saying it's practical. Why buy a DVD worth P1000 when you can buy it for P80? Um, because it's illegal. When it comes to buying pirated products, I think Filipinos have got their priorities all screwed up. I mean, my brother even had the gall to berate me that I was being impractical when I buy original products. Um, that's not impractical, that's what you call legal!
We complain about politicians and government officials who steal from us, who take the money we pay for taxes and use it for their own consumption. But let me tell you this: when you buy these pirated products, aren't you doing the same thing? You may argue that it just goes to artists and big movie companies and productions/recording outfits, in short to the people who make them. Yes that's true. The profits they make from selling all these original products goes to paying the artists, managers, producers, production assistants, presidents and, in case you don't know, even the littlest person in that company. And yet these little people are starving. You know why? Because they don't get the money that they deserve and were promised. Because ordinary consumers don't buy the original products. And one more thing: these original products, they pay taxes. Taxes that we need to provide us with better lives.
You know, I used to think that Filipinos were good. That they actually cared about their fellowmen. But when I see people still patronizing these products, I see them for what they are: selfish. Yes that's right. Selfish. Because you, the pirate consumer, don't care what your purchase will do to our country. You only care that you were able to save a couple of hundred pesos. Will that still be how you'll think when our country goes down the drain? If you want to be practical, then buy something else, like food or clothes, something you really cannot live without.
You know, I also hate it when I see foreign CDs I like priced at more than P400 and DVDs at more than P500. Right now, I have at least 5 foreign CDs that I want to buy and around a hundred videos waiting for me to purchase them. That only can cost me around P10,000 at least. But I don't succumb to buying pirated products. Because I know it's illegal, I know it's wrong.
Normally, I'd end a post like this with "I'm not trying to make you feel guilty" but that's not the case with this. Because I want you, the pirate consumer, to feel guilty. Guilty about buying products like this and being a burden to this country. You should feel guilty because you are not doing anything for the progress of this country.
BE A SOLUTION, not a problem. |
posted by Jax @ 12:34:00 AM   |
|
|
|
