'She was half naked'

“She was half naked”.

Those were the first words that 7-year old Abigail used to describe Miley Cyrus A.K.A Hannah Montana. She did not talk about the songs, the crowds or the special effects. She simply kept repeating the fact that Hannah Montana was “half-naked” on stage.

As an adult, I presumed that it was an exaggeration or that the poor girl must have reacted to some costume number. Then I saw the front-page photo Miley Cyrus in the STAR dressed up or “undressed” with nothing more than a lacy black bra, bottoms that simulated a garter belt and leggings cut out to look like black stockings.

Technically speaking, Abigail was right. Hannah Montana was in fact “ half naked”.

I have no desire to spark a debate over artistic expression or be run out of town by Miley Cyrus fans, because that is not my issue. The question that concerns me is where does artistic content end and concert promoters responsibility begin.

It seems that a seven-year old has more sense than the 40 or 50 plus year old concert organizers who thought nothing of the fact that in the Philippines, Miley Cyrus fans are largely impressionable children who relate to the “Hannah Montana” character and not the clumsy half baked - trying to be sexy evolution of Miley Cyrus.

The few people I asked about the concert expressed disappointment largely focused on the fact that the concert was all about promoting the new image and latest album of Miley Cyrus. As a result, the singer did not sing many of her locally popular songs.

I don’t know if the organizers were asked for inputs or even did a “run-through” or review of how the concert was going to go in terms of songs, costumes and special effects. But after what the pre-teens saw at the Miley Cyrus concert, we now have all the reasons to rethink, review and maybe even legislate guidelines for concerts the same way we have ratings for movies.

To begin with, Filipino event organizers who bring in foreign talents particularly those from the US should have more say and involvement in both planning and presentation. I have noticed for sometime how speakers as well as entertainers from the US are clueless or were never briefed about the Philippine audience and local color.

Organizers always make it a point to teach their “talent” how to say “Magandang Gabi”, “Mahal kita”, “Maganda ka”.

However, they forget to teach them the things that matter, like we are highly literate, up to date in global events and personalities and more Filipinos have cellphones, Ipods, and probably a higher concentration of genuine signature bags such as Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Channel in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.

So in the case of the Miley Cyrus Concert, the organizers did everyone a great disservice by failing to protect pre-teen sensitivities and promoting the more popular and loved image of Hannah Montana.

As an afterthought, if the MTRCB has rules about sexually explicit scenes as well as rules about content and minors, then someone should also legislate guidelines concerning concerts, costumes and age ratings.

If concert promoters can’t be bothered to think of the welfare of minors or pre-teens and teens, then we should keep children from being exposed or victimized to unexpected scenes, conduct and language. Such regulations should also disallow the practice of issuing waivers that allows children, pre-teens or minors to go about unaccompanied by their parents or an adult. After all if cinema and TV have ratings, shouldn’t concerts have too?

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Yesterday, we decided to go shopping in Quiapo. My wife was looking for beads and I was looking for camera equipment. Previously we have taken the Pasig River ferry down to Escolta to save the stress of traffic and trying to find a parking spot. We also wanted to take a daughter so she could get to see Malacanang from the water. We have often recommend this trip to friends as it is not only much more pleasant than traveling by car, but you also get to see a completely different side of Manila. Yes, the river is polluted but the boat is air-conditioned so your nose does not suffer. Once you get downtown, Quipao is only a short tricycle drive away. A quick Google search on schedules failed to give us any information, so we just drove to the Mandaluyong ferry station yesterday morning prepared to have to wait for the next ferry. To our great disappointment, there was just a sign on the terminal door saying Closed. Some standers by informed us that Malacanang had closed down the ferry some months ago due to contract renewal.

Apart from the fact that this put a huge dent in our plans for the day, we once again saw how public transport does not achieve all it could in our country. To be truly useful, public transport needs to be predictable, reasonably punctual, offer good value for money and you should be able to access the information you need easily.  Who knows why the ferry service was really closed down but I would assume they were not making enough money. But that is no great surprise, as it was so unknown to many who do go down to Manila regularly and end up taking their cars adding to the general congestion in the city. Even if you did know about it, why wasn’t there an easy way to find out schedules and costs? In this day and age, surely a website with at least a working phone number to call would have been a worthwhile investment? At least, we would have been saved a trip to the ferry service yesterday and maybe if one had been set up earlier, it would have helped save the service from extinction!

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