PARADOXICAL

Notes to Self: Overcoming the Traumas of April 2026

April 2026, for me, was a whirlwind of activities related to our town fiesta, which was a lot toned down but went as scheduled nonetheless--we couldn't just drop all those little entrepreneurs like a hot potato, could we? I think our leaders made the right decision.

Working behind the scenes (chiefly the documentation side), I had not enough time to take note of current events.

Add to that the misfortune of experiencing the worst cough I ever had -- with three nights of nonstop coughing, disabling sleep. After all sorts of medicines and home remedies--name it--I am thankful to have overcome it. For context, days or weeks prior to this bout of sickness, almost everyone in the office was indisposed for similar reasons--cough, cold, fever, flu, upset stomach... Despite precautionary measures, I still got hit together with four other members of our household, so I was quite upset. I'd rather get tired working than catch illness.

Anyway, here are the things that didn't escape my attention despite not paying attention that much.

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April 2026 was a cruel month because of the US-Israel-vs-Iran war, which has gone unabated so far.

My newsfeed was continuously assailed with posts upon posts about Trump, Netanyahu, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, and names of Iranians I found hard to read and retain.

My mouth tasted sour for a couple days during this period-- acid reflux, most likely due to the stressful times. I hope I was just being paranoid, activated by my tendency to overthink. I would wake up wondering if this or that food, medicine, or staple item would still have the same price when I woke up the next morning or would still be accessible at all in the coming days or months.

Imagine the plight of those who are directly affected the most: the PUV drivers.

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The urge to panic-buy was real, but people, it seemed to me, couldn't afford to do it. All they could do was hope for the best while preparing for the worst.

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People continued to post their meals while dining out. I wonder if that would be their last good meal. As my folks would say in mixed languages, "Puera antocaman. Bari, bari, bari, Apo laki, bai..."

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A ceiling in NAIA collapsed. >>> Imagine the great impression it had on tourists.

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The pope led this year's Via Crucis in Rome by carrying the cross. >>> If a current pope does that himself, you know we are in times of great trouble. Hope his gesture of self-abasement will sort of avert the great punishment that seems to await mankind because of the war.

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Somewhere back home, statues dressed as Koreans were used as guards of a moving statue of the crucified Christ. >>> I don't know whether to laugh or cry or get angry at the anachronistic sight.

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"Performative" was a new word I encountered often. It means "done or expressed insincerely or inauthentically, typically with the intention of impressing others or improving one's own image."

Example: "Is their outrage real or just performative?" I think this just means "pakitang-tao" in Tagalog.

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Fugitive Atong Ang reportedly escaped to Vietnam. He is "madulas," like they say in Tagalog, like a "palos" or eel.

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North Korea suddenly launched its own missiles in the middle of the US-Israel vs Iran war. As someone said, looks like someone is KSP (kulang sa pansin).

It's hard when the world is ruled by nutcases.

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With LPG reaching a maximum of P1,600, people are now into charcoal, firewood, and clay stove. But vendors selling these old-fashioned cooking implements have jacked up the prices themselves. Isn't that too opportunistic as to be called profiteering?

Wow, I wish people would experience wealth and fame like Hollywood superstars do and most especially this successful pioneering vlogger I've read about. During the pandemic, American YouTuber Ryan Higa, a tremendously popular comic content creator, stopped vlogging after getting depressed upon realizing that all that fame and fortune couldn't give him happiness. I hope all of us would experience tremendous wealth and fame and feel that niggling sense of emptiness they bring. As a former writer-editor of travel and luxury features, I certainly did feel it, even absent the fame.

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"Rescue buys" of unsold farm produce dumped by the roadside became a thing.

As were wet-crumpled paper used like charcoal. And energy savings tips.

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The month was also characterized by high heat indices (in the 40s) and the worrisome absence of rain.

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'Bagman' Ramil Madriaga emerged as key witness in VP Sara Duterte's impeachment proceedings. His testimony was quickly disparaged by the Duterte camp as highly unreliable.

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Gossipers claimed President Marcos Jr. has cancer. The latter denied being sick.

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Justin Bieber was bashed for his underwhelming, because low-energy, performance that was paid an astonishing $10-million at Coachella. "His set mainly consisted of him singing tracks he'd searched on a laptop," someone bitched.

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A first in the annals of Filipino music: BINI and another Filipino artist belonging to a K-pop group performed at Coachella, a world-renowned music event aside from Lollapalooza and historically speaking, Woodstock.

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Zaldy Co was finally intercepted in Czech Republic, or so reports said.

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50,000 Chinese illegally got Filipino citizenships through the late registration process. >>> How did this act of treason happen? We may have been already invaded from within without even knowing, no thanks to these...agents of fakery. This is an utter insult to us who had to show at least three valid IDs to legally prove we are resident Filipinos when transacting right in our own land. And worst of all, we had to follow a specific ARTA-approved process in case of minor typographic errors in our papers.

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Another new term I often heard lately: main character. It refers to migrant-residents from the big city who are feeling like artistas and superstars as they come back home in their fashionable clothes.

Yet another one is "face card." "Face card is a Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang word meaning, 'A reference to your face being flawless, so good that it gives you instant clout or respect.'"

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I was today years old when I learned the proper pronunciation of "missile." It is not /'mee-syle/ it turns out, but [ˈmis(ə)l], just like measles.

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Another crazy news: The Strait of Hormuz was declared open, finally, and then it was declared closed again.

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"SB19 drew 100,000 crowd at their concert (at home), rivalling global festival numbers, and resulting in one of the biggest one-day concert crowds for a Filipino act." >>> Wow. But other local acts like Ben&Ben and Cup of Joe are even better, in my not-so-humble opinion.

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After 19 long years, "Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was defeated, his far-right populist party losing decisively to Péter Magyar and his center-right, pro-Europe party--with a voter turnout of a post-Communist high of nearly 80%." Congrats to Hungarians?

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Ramon Ang was reportedly set to build a bridge to Boracay Is. from the Panay mainland. The opposition was quite strong because, critics say, it would mean destroying part of the appeal or selling point of the famed resort island: that of a paradise that takes an effort to access. I don't know what to say to this. I wouldn't mind getting there via a nice bridge, though, but the biologist in me would worry about the islet's carrying capacity.

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"‘Overdue’: Ex-CJ Panganiban pushes National Artist honors for Lea Salonga, Cecil Licad, and Lisa Macuja-Elizalde." >>> This is a surprise for me. All along, I have assumed that they are already national artists. But, yes, I agree completely with Panganiban's thoughts.

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Trump badmouthed the pope--apparently over disagreements with the conduct of war or the war per se. Not to be outdone, Vance told the pope to mind his theology. >>> The temerity of these two. A theologian told to mind his theology? Hahaha! Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't give you a license to insult him publicly.

But the worst that Trump ever said is, "A whole civilization will die tonight." It struck me as a sick statement, knowing that the ruling mullahs and tyrants, the IRGC, are not even a representation of the Iranian people.

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The Philippines joined the United States-led Pax Silica coalition on Thursday, April 16, and secured designation as the site for a 4,000-acre industrial zone in the Luzon Economic Corridor, a project Washington says will help wean allied supply chains off Chinese-controlled minerals and manufacturing. >>> This looks great on paper, but why only now when we're supposed to be a long-time ally? And what's in it for us, aside from being an automatic target of Chinese missiles in the future? I hope we are not on the losing end of this deal this time, but whose leg am I pulling? Take note the sad fate of the Philippines: a history of allowing foreign firms to extract its minerals, selling those minerals at a pittance, and ending up with these raw materials coming back to us as metals and finished products that we pay for for an exponential amount, together with badly damaged ecosystems. We're not very smart in handling our assets--or maybe because we lack bargaining power.

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Actor Awra Briguela must have thought he could get away with saying something like aspiring to become "a biological woman." This statement proved way too much to many who understand what DNAs and chromosomes mean, what downright lying to everyone's face means. To assume the identity of a woman is entirely different from claiming to be biologically female even when you are not. That is already an overreach. Turns out the actor was merely joking, or that he eventually realized his big mistake. You can't fool all the people all the time, you know.

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In a random video I saw, actor Cesar Montano revealed that, at 65 years of age, he takes no maintenance meds, and he eats only once a day--no sugar, no processed food, no meat--only black rice and fish and vegetables (saluyot, okra, etc.) mostly. >>> Is eating once a day possible, for someone who works 10 hours straight each day? Serious question.

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Looks like the hit movie "The Devil Wears Prada" was remade. A light spoof of the aloof and exacting "Vogue" editor Anna Wintour, it is a comic film a lot of viewers enjoyed thoroughly and found hard to forget.

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RP's population rate dipped below the replacement rate of 2.something. This is bad for the economy if you do the math.

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The slaughter of Catholics/Christians by militant Islamists in Nigeria continued. I wonder what is so threatening about Catholicism/Christianity that some people get so angry and so insecure with it. When you regard something as small or insignificant, you just dismiss or ignore it, not bomb out of existence. May the blood of the Christian martyrs water the soil upon it was shed, as it has done so historically.

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A guy who vied for Mr. Pampanga 2026 paraded his body with pride despite his embarrassing man boobs, love handles, and baby fat. Of course, this stunt was divisive in terms of opinion, with others seeing "body positivity" in it--a good point, to be fair. I may be biased, but I think it is not a very nice sight to behold. In fact, it is painful to watch. Who's with me? What are beauty contests for again?

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At this point, I was fed up with anything about Duterte and anything about Trump and more so with hateful Iranian tyrants whose downfall I wish would hasten, but I couldn't miss this: On the 26th, "five gunshots were fired within the vicinity of President Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner. The President and First Lady were immediately evacuated."

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"A gunman turned the Teotihuacán pyramids into a scene of chaos on April 20, killing a Canadian tourist and injuring 13 others in a rare shooting at one of the Mexico's most visited landmarks."

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Matty Juniosa, a Filipino waiter based in Glasgow, received his second "Golden Buzzer" in the "Britain’s Got Talent" show after doing a cover of a most difficult song, Aerosmith's "Dream On."

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"Two students from the University of the Philippines (UP) were among 19 people killed during a military operation in Toboso, Negros Occidental, which has sparked intense debate over the circumstances of their deaths."

Of course, cases like this always end up with conflicting narratives: Military account: "The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) maintains that the fatalities occurred during a legitimate armed encounter with the New People's Army (NPA). AFP Chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. stated that Alano was "armed and fighting" during the clash." Versus student/activist account: "The UP Diliman University Student Council and other groups contend that the students were unarmed civilians. They claim the students were in the area for a community immersion to learn about the conditions of local farmers and characterize the incident as 'indiscriminate strafing.'"

A community journalist was also reportedly killed in the same operation.

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A Tagalog signage in Singapore promoting the Tagalog language says, "Kumasta?" Great intention, catastrophic result.

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Comedy always saves the day for me, so more of this please, I pray. But first, let there be peace on earth, but also an end to despots of all kinds.

posted by Resty Odon  # 1:32 PM