Wikileaks blackout; Phl stuns Singapore; Exhibit on the Spanish Civil War

If you are wondering why you can’t access wikileaks.org or cablegate.org the news is out that both have been removed. It just shows that those in power will not allow any impertinence from those without power who might have ideas about subverting the accepted system that government can also function with secrecy. Pressure was put on amazon.com to shut the page.

Before anyone gets excited whether we will ever know what the exchanges were from Manila and Washington were about, especially the events leading to the May election, I don’t think we shall unless a special team does extra work. Interestingly, in the world map showing which sites the leaks came from, the Philippines was not even dotted. We are so insignificant that more than a thousand cables just do not make us important.

But as it was published in wikileaks.org “the websites can still be accessed via their IP addresses – http://88.80.13.160/ and http://204.236.131.131/, respectively – according to a Wikileaks list of IP address mirrors <http://wikileaks.info/>. Alternatives are also on the mirror site.” So despite the removal of its domain address, it is not entirely lost and the internet savvy will find a way around the suppression unless of course the entire internet is destroyed.

If you are using a Mac, Safari won’t be able to open the page cablegate.wikileaks.org. It will just say that Safari can’t find the server cablegate.wikileaks.org

The “wikileaks” leaks of thousands of embassy cables around the world were not only about American embassies or geopolitics. There were others, including the questionable workings of a bank.

One report said that “unlike the Pentagon Papers which dealt with a single issue, WikiLeaks was an “untraceable mass document leaking.” This is something new to conventional media. Both the Guardian and New York Times have championed it. Instead of singling a particular case it was about what goes on in the whole world today through the prism of “secret exchanges”, not necessarily connected with each other.

The report adds that “they are database leaks suggesting a different kind of whistleblower at work: someone whose goal is not to reveal a single act of abuse (and who may not even be entirely familiar with all of the material being turned over), but rather to open up the inner workings of a closed and complex system, to call the world in to help judge its morality.”

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It may not have merited a front page headline but the story “Philippines stuns Singapore in football” was reported on ABS-CBN as sports story. In a blow by blow report it said “Filipino-British Chris Greatwich struck for the equalizer in injury time as the Philippines rallied to a stunning 1-all draw against fancied Singapore Lions for a rousing start in the Asean Football Federation Suzuki Cup at the My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam Thursday night.

“The keenly-contested match left the Singaporeans reeling in surprise.”

The Lions, 3-time winners of the AFF men’s championship, drew first blood through naturalized Serbian striker Alexsandar Duric’s header in the 64th minute.

 But the Filipino booters, unlike in previous outings, refused to fold and kept up the pressure until they were amply rewarded with the tying marker despite Singapore’s early dominance.

“Now they can see that we are no longer pushovers,” said elated team manager Dan Palami. “Before the game, people here were talking about how many goals they (Singapore) would score against us. Now everybody is taking notice.”

This event is momentous not only in sports. Orion Dumdum, a warrior for constitutional reform should be elated. His first shot was an article on FB Philippine Progress: Shift in Sports, Shift in System as the way forward for the Philippines. He makes the connection between our failure in basketball and the presidential system.

“It’s a real shame because while Filipinos were glued to the NBA Finals at about the same time that the World Cup was just about starting, one unfortunate fact continues to be ignored by basketball-crazy Filipinos: We are never going to excel in sports that require height.

“Unlike most basketball-loving Filipinos, millions of average-height, barely middle-class, or even impoverished Africans and Latin Americans who play and practice soccer can actually dream of one day playing professionally for local or internationally-famous professional teams such as Manchester United (England), Juventus (Italy), Real Madrid (Spain), or Galatasaray (Turkey) – to name a few – and live a life of fame and fortune.

“These are dreams that are feasible as long as whoever plays and practices the sport has the competence, talent, and commitment, because the game-dynamics of soccer simply does not require height. It needs to be said that soccer legend Diego Maradona of Argentina became a soccer superstar with his very Filipino height of 5ft 4.

“In stark contrast to the meritocratic nature of soccer that does not care much about being born with the genes for height, the fixation that Filipinos have for basketball creates so many shattered dreams,” writes Orion.

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As I was reading Helen Graham’s, “The Spanish Civil War” the Instituto Cervantes opened an exhibit, “Corresponsales en la guerra española”. The exhibit is a collection of wartime newspapers and photographs about the lives of journalists in Spain during the Civil War (1936-1939). The Spanish Civil war may have been a Spanish affair but it fired ideas that had the world excited about its implications.

 “The war is viewed as the testing ground for the world war and the final confrontation reached by thousands of volunteers around the world to fight for their ideas. This was also the start of the rise of war photography and photojournalism in the 20th century media.

 Some of the figures in journalism and literature in this exhibit include Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, John Dos Passos, Herbert Matthews, Indro Montanelli, and Mikhail Koltsov, among others.

“Corresponsales en la Guerra de España” features historical interviews, such as that of General Francisco Franco in early August 1936, or of Buenaventura Durruti shortly before his death. But above all, the exhibition is a tribute to the most outstanding representatives of what Hugh Thomas has called “the golden age of foreign correspondents.”

The exhibition opened at the Instituto Cervantes in New York in July 2006 and has since toured 25 cities worldwide.

I regret that I was not able to go to the opening of the exhibit to hear renowned Spanish novelist Ignacio Martínez de Pisón Cavero on the stories of the Spanish Civil War correspondent. I will certainly catch it before it closes.