i did say i was aching to write about Rogue Magazine’s independence day issue, but was overtaken by the NHI’s accusations, Joey Mead’s naked body, and Argee Guevarra’s defense.

suffice it to say that it was as i expected of a high-end P180-peso english “literary lifestyle” magazine, and their notion of the “State of the Nation” — the title of the month’s issue. save for Lourd de Veyra’s literary piece on an imagined exchange between two friends, one in Dubai and another in the Philippines, there is no mention AT ALL of the crises that beset this country.

and while the editor’s piece for the month did talk about the need for heroes, as an introduction to their Honor Roll of Nine Portraits of Philippine Pride, all it talked about was corruption in a general sense, alongside the other “pressing and dangerous problems” that beset the nation: “poverty, health care, human rights, the environment, education, and crime”.

at a time when you have a president like GMA who can wax clean and innocent about corruption and all the other six problems they mention, generalizations are the last things we need. these are also the easiest to wax nationalistic about, the easiest words to use to pretend we are concerned with nation and its state.

when in truth we aren’t.

the Honor Roll is a hodgepodge of middle to upper class ex- and present gov’t officials, academicians and NGO people, some of whom took a stand by saying no to corruption and resigning from gov’t office, others by establishing some NGO or other, and yet others by writing column after column on being Filipino. and while the choices are highly debatable (something that the magazine is open to, given that the editor’s note also asks that readers start sending in their choices for what they imagine will be an annual Honor Roll), what it more importantly reveals is the kind of change and heroism that the magazine asserts as relevant at this point.

it is of change that is superficial, the kind that puts a band-aid on what have been the incurable diseases that beset this country. it’s not systemic nor societal change, not even a change in attitude or perception about the kinds of lives we live, in the context of a nation in crisis.

which brings us back to the fact that this issue of Rogue, while it touts itself as the “State of the Nation” issue, is really just proof that what keeps the upper classes comfy in their beds or computer seats, is their notion of nation. reading through this magazine, it doesn’t seem at all like we live in the same nation, nor that there’s a bigger nation that Rogue is part of. more than anything, it sells itself as a global magazine with philippine interests. that is, philippine upper class interests.

truth be told, those images of Smokey Mountain (for the de Veyra piece) seem trivialized in light of the photojournalistic piece on the Aurora Borealis in Alaska, the long article on the elite life that Steve Psinakis lives (which promotes his autobiography), and the feature on revolution according to Pinoy punk - which did not at all interview the punks on the ground, i.e., the mass following of local punk who are understandably enamored by the notion of anarchy in the midst of their hunger.

or maybe this is the nation for the upper classes. and it’s why they - we - can pretend that things are fine, even in the midst of rising prices and every other crisis related to that. maybe this is why there’s been an influx of foreign concert acts, a rise in the number of glossy magazines, the rise of expensive American and European stores in Greenbelt 5.

because in third world Philippines, there is this tiny pocket of the first world that continues to thrive. and to them, the state of the nation remains within the tiny circles they move in, and the even smaller spaces they inhabit. magazines like Rogue included.

i was aching to write about the independence month issue of Rogue Magazine, for reasons farthest from what has made it controversial the past two days. the National Historical Institute’s historians have pointed a finger at the cover and called it “bastos”. and while i’m a flag-loving Pinay - I bought everything that had a philippine flag on it during the centennial celebrations, never mind that it had Ramos’ “Philippines 2000″ as well - i didn’t think anything of that cover. in fact it was the reason why I even picked up the magazine and thought it was worth buying.

which, according to the press release of Rogue’s editors, was precisely their point. They used the flag on their cover so that their “state of the nation” issue would appeal to younger readers. so yes, this cover understandably achieved its goal:

and while i didn’t find anything offensive by the use of the flag on the woman’s body - it actually looked fantastic and was such a great idea, i wouldn’t go so far as saying that it was a statement on corruption - ang OA naman, and what a stretch. that defensive statement came from cover story writer Argee Guevarra, and if you listen to him wax activist about the criticism of NHI, you’d actually believe that his article was about corruption and the current state of the nation.

when in fact, it isn’t. it’s far from it. what Guevarra wrote is a retrospective on Mead’s life, what she’s dreams of doing for the country (including doing one-hour workshops about going green and organic, and about relationships - how nationalistic! anuba!), and the fact that she loves Loren Legarda and ehem ehem Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - aba, anti-corruption nga.

Guevarra also made it a point to highlight the fact that Mead is in fact a del Pilar, as in Marcelo H. del Pilar, which apparently gave him enough reason to imagine Mead playing the role of Gabriela Silang - another stretch, but go figure.

so really, between Guevarra’s defense and the magazine’s admission that this was just a jab at their market’s fancies, if not their amusement with the sensational, i’m wanting to see how far the NHI will take their charge of “kabastusan”. but then again, it would do them well to first clarify what “bastos” is.

because it is the age of “Pilipinas Kong Mahal” stamped on every Philippine flag hanging all over the metro, a violation of the law as well, but which government spent on in this time of crisis. it’s also the time of Bayan ni Juan, an ABS-CBN anniversary enterprise, of selling their notion of “giving back” to the less fortunate, and asserting their social responsibility by using the philippine flag in various renderings as backdrop (for their TV ads and website), and which begs the question: how much of this is a tax shield? and really, a Lopez company such as this talking about helping others, in this age of high Meralco rates?

that has to be kabastusan in itself, hindi ba?