In a globalized world, it is meaningless to talk about ‘talk of the town’. Our world has become our town what with modern super tools of instant communication. When Al-Jazeera, the fast rising star of international television launched last Wednesday, there were very good reviews. I’ll quote from just a few of them for readers who want to be tuned in to a world beyond Gregorio Honasan and Atong Ang.
First a caveat. I am the mother of Veronica Pedrosa, who has been pirated by Al-Jazeera from CNN. She now holds fort in Al Jazeera’s Asian headquarters in Kuala Lumpur but it isn’t just because she is my daughter that the Arab broadcasting giant interests me. It’s because I am also a journalist, frustrated by the parochialism of our own media and hobbled with a CNN and BBC fixation as our only windows to the outside world that I have included this item in my column. Besides alternative world media other than those funded and hamstrung by a Western perspective has been discussed in almost every international media conferences I have attended around the world. Why should the West set the media agenda? It would as long as there was no alternative? And setting up an alternative costs money, lots of money only the West had. But now the Emir of Qatar came in from the shadows and decided – yes, indeed why not?
Indeed, there was not a peep about the Al-Jazeera launch date in the Philippines. Worse, I was told that it cannot be viewed from here for months, even a year despite two very large cable networks, Skycable and Destiny. I spoke to Marga Ortigas, their bureau chief in Manila and she says we’ll have to wait – no space. Incredible!
Michael Binyon of London Times wrote the launch was off to an explosive start and predicts it could attract a loyal following around the world.
"It made its name with dramatic pictures of conflict and exclusive scoops: the war against the Taleban, Bin Laden’s tapes, the bombings and US-led attack on Baghdad, the war in Lebanon, the rising anger in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera quickly became the voice of the Arab street, a must-watch station for Arabs and for newsmen around the world – assuming they could follow the Arabic." So the English version was conceived to reach a wider audience, something like 80 million households (except Filipinos) around the world. "I think this is a very important global development. So far the world only has had the choice to listen to the Western perspective of news events via BBC and CNN – now for the first time there will be an alternative.
Not surprisingly all US carriers have decided against carrying this channel, but this will change over time. Once the channel is broadcast here people will get a better understanding of the other side and grow to appreciate it. Serious journalists looking for alternatives are delighted we now have one in Al-Jazeera. "It began with a bang, focusing, naturally, on what had made its name: hard-hitting news from the world’s trouble spots.
More surprises are in store. It has been bruited about that it has a large purse and has recruited some of the biggest names in broadcasting, including the redoubtable, David Frost who has not lost his sting when he interviews world leaders. I am told he can call President Bush if he wanted to. The rumor, unconfirmed is that he will have a one and one interview with Prime Minister Blair Friday night. By the time you read this it would either have happened or not happened. Indeed, as Al-Jazeera publicist has already said, ‘mum’ is the word. We don’t go about telling people what we will do, we just do it. Ok. Ok. But a David Frost interview with the British PM would have been something to watch. David Frost will have a weekly show and the Blair interview is just a kicker.
For such a wide audience, expect differences of opinion on Frost. There will be those familiar with Frost but there will be millions others who have not even heard about Frost. To those who know him he is a dependable and unchanging image on TV even as prime ministers and presidents come and go. But what about in Malaysia, Honduras, or the Maldives, in Finland and Kenya, in Thailand, Lebanon or Uganda?
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MISCELLANY: I was told that the motion for inhibition included a portion of my column last week on my experience sitting next to Leny Carpio Panganiban and Ms. Callejo. Add to his biographical notes that he is an active Catholic lay leader and the only Filipino appointed by the late Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. I would not be surprised if he had his ear close to CBCP. Who’s speaking of pressure?
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Just to correct a Jesuit priest who is also the acknowledged power behind the 1987 Constitution. He criticizes dissenters who hold that since the Philippines is a democratic and republican state, sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them. That may be true he writes, but they are wrong when they claim that sovereignty means that "whatever the people want is supreme and, therefore, since initiative is coming from the people, that settles everything." Who told him that? What all the effort that has gone into fulfilling the requirements of the Constitution for a people’s initiative? Talking about throwing the baby with the bathwater.
The addition of democratic was made by he and colleagues in the Cory concom. It was more in mind of evolving a model in the Philippines from modern states like Switzerland and half of the US rather than reverting to Athenian democracy. If we are expounding a constitution that is people-based then ‘democratic’ takes precedence and assumes a significant nuance other than just an added term to republican. It was an attempt to find the constitutional equivalent of direct action by the people to catch the EDSA spirit. By the way that effort has not ended just because it has been rejected by the Panganiban court and his Catholic cohorts.
People power has not just been incorporated with a republican system but rather made into a principle of government so that people need not resort to revolutions to assert this sovereignty. Moreover, in the case of clashing interpretations such as we have now it is my opinion that the term democratic best interprets the spirit of the People Power constitution and therefore takes precedence to republic.
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I was privileged to have been invited to the "Magic Mozart" concert to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Austria’s musical genius organized by the Austrian Trade Commission in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor. The Salzburg Opera Ensemble came all the way to perform in Manila that evening.
Too few know that the Austrians have been busy imparting their expertise and technology to our country. Did you know that through the years, the Austrian Bridges Consortium has built some 400 modular bridges all over the country? Or that some of the most sophisticated medical equipment in our hospitals come from the Austrian VAMED group. We have come to rely on their expertise in this field that a company has been set up just to service these equipment in a testing and calibration center. Other Austrian companies active in the Philippines were EMCO, Frequentis, Siemens and Wagner Biro. Dr. Walter Hoefle, the Austrian Trade Commissioner, said it was also their way of thanking their Filipino clients.
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My e-mail is cpedrosaster@gmail.com