Curtains for Thaksin? and V for Vendetta

Yellow is the color of protest in Bangkok.

The Nation begins a running account: The end may be near.

Also: Thaksin waffles on stepping aside.

I just saw V for Vendetta tonight. The movie is based on a highly acclaimed graphic novel (fans of the graphic novel can’t stand the movie, as one of them told me just tonight; one of the co-creators of the graphic novel declined any participation or even identification with the film). There’s also a blog on the movie, with links to trailers and reviews. However, a central theme, Anarchism, seems to have been sanitized out of the movie.

My reaction to the movie was quite similar to Caffeine Spark’s. A review in Rolling Stone describes the movie as something “that sticks with you.” James Wolcott adopts the cerebral approach:

To say that I found the domino montage as thrilling a coup de cinema as I’ve seen since DePalma first displayed his slashing mastery of crosscutting is to sound cryptic, but to be unelliptical I’d have to explain too much and wreck your fun. And make no mistake V for Vendetta is fun, dangerous fun, percussive with brutality and laced with ironic ambiguity and satirical slapstick (a Benny Hill homage, no less!). But gives the movie its rebel power is the moral seriousness that drives the action, emotion, and allegory. That’s what I didn’t expect from the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), this angry, summoning Tom Paine moral dispatch that puts our pundits, politicians, and cable news hosts to shame. V for Vendetta instills force into the very essence of four-letter words like hate, love, and (especially) fear, and releases that force like a fist. Off come the masks, and the faces are revealed.

Poster 1

Some juicy quotes from the film:

V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

V: People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.

Sutler: What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, seen on every television… I want want everyone to remember, why they need us!

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Manuel L. Quezon III.

34 thoughts on “Curtains for Thaksin? and V for Vendetta

  1. Wonder if Gloria is feeling jittery?

    I bet she will be holding boodles and picnic parties with the military…

    She’ll be using them as her sword of Damocles.

    Not a good political tack but definitely an advantage for the anti-Arroyo forces (civilian and military). Gloria is giving them a tool of PASSION to strike back at her with double PASSION.

    Hah! That should keep her busy as a bee from governing.

  2. Wasn’t it Jean-Claude Duvalier–the ex-Dictator of Haiti–who was ousted before Marcos also in 1986?

    Maybe, just maybe, Thaksin is GLUE-RIA’s cue.

  3. GLUE-RIA – is way beyond COMPARE to THAKSIN,

    Thaksin KNOWS Reality and Thaksin tells the “TRUTH”

    no matter how painful it is, what THAKSIN says to

    GLUE-RIA last SEA GAMES is the TRUTH.

    The FILIPINO People does NOT CHEAT, ONLY GMA !!!

  4. perhaps someone should help Thaksin out…how do you translate “we are prepared to lose our freedoms and our rights just to move this country forward” in Thai?

  5. There is something powerful about the Cory shade of yellow. I don’t know what it is.

    A Vietnamese friend, a face-reader who predicted Cory would become president at a time when nobody thought it possible, was the first to tell me that there was something powerful about the color yellow.

    Look at rallies where there are a lot of red and yellow banners and protesters wear red or yellow clothes. Doesn’t yellow stand out more? And isn’t yellow less upsetting or unsettling than red? Forget the ideological association with the colors. Just look at it in terms of its psychological effects and the association of red with blood and anger etc. What do you associate with yellow? What do you associate with, for example, the blue of Marcos? BTW, Gloria has no color to identify with, yet.

    Anyway, among Malays, yellow is the royal color.

    I don’t know maybe there’s a psychological or scientific explanation for it.

  6. Fascinating what’s happening to Gloria and Thaksin. Amazingly so very similar. Thaksin has the edge, though.

    He has had enough lead time to view events here and learn from the successes and failures of both the Gloria and anti-Gloria forces. Let’s see if he is a good learner.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if both heads of state are now close phone pals.

  7. Boodle fights!
    Yes, gluemac, boodle fights!
    Do boodle fights with all the service units, in all the camps, for all the meals, all the time.

    The soldiers will welcome the extra scrap of meat that your presence will warrant the cooking and serving of.

    You may be insincere.
    But who cares?
    A good meal is… well a meal with some meat in it.

    Here’s why:
    Before the Asian financial crisis (those were good times for the economy, mind you), some guests spent some time at the Scout Rangers Camp..

    A soldier’s meal, without fail, consisted of a mountain of rice + a dollop of some boiled leafy greens. -Whereas the guests were fed hearty home cooked fare with viands like adobo and/or fish. The disparity between the meals served the guests and those served to those soldiers was disheartening..

    Sigue, gluemac.
    Assuage some of your guilt by visiting these poor boys who will die for you at your bidding.

    Feed them some meat..
    -Before you sick-em on us..

  8. Phil, But Thaksin has a moral lead while Gloria is in a moral climb but DOWNwards – Thaksin has said he is prepared to quit but Gloria ever the glue, will never quit.

    What a disgusting leech she is!

  9. at least Thaksin is willing to call a snap election so his mandate can be reaffirmed. SO unlike GMA who is clinging to position at all cost, even if her legitimacy is questioned by the majority, including those who are not actively campaigning for her ouster. Let’s not even mention how UNpopular she is.

  10. adb and jade,
    The latest news is that Thaksin is also waffling..ala Gloria. First he says he won’t step down, then he says he will. Now he says he won’t because he still has to complete his mission.

  11. manolo, why is it that the capitals like manila & bangkok react differently from the country side?
    it’s good that there is a king in thialand whom the people listen too & not a catholic church.
    having leaved there, i know that the thias take their nationalissim seriously.
    they are a proud country that has never been invaded.
    thaksin made a big no no by selling off that telecom company to a non thia interest.
    manolo, if they are a parlament, why don’t they make a no-confidence vote on him?

  12. i wonder if there are any pinoy consultants in the crowds of bangkok?
    if other countries/states export terrorisim.we might be doing “event organizers” but only on national levels.

  13. joselu, because what people don’t understand about the parliamentary system is that the no-confidence vote is the snap election. a p.m. who believes he needs a fresh mandate asks the head of state to dissolve parliament, so fresh elections can be held; the election will then result in a vote of confidence or no confidence. if the p.m. and allies win, a fresh government can be formed.

    of course if thailand were using the constitution proposed by lakas, you couldn’t have a snap election 1.5 years or so into a new p.m.’s term or 1.5. years before it expired…

  14. joselu, sleeping, with #13 & #14 i’m sure the both of you are not part of luli’s internet brigade or you would have been fired by now.

  15. The thai parliament didn’t make a vote of no confidence because thaksin controls the parliament. It’s like our house of representatives which is controlled by Gloria, so no impeachment.

    The difference is that Thaksin is still confident he’s (he’s going to get the majority MPs) going to win in the elections. I think Gloria knows that she’s not going to win in an election (general suffrage).

  16. sleeping, do you think the exporters are now importing water??? for their production? what a pity no wonder productions by multiantional companies are setting foothold in china and india.

    Going back to parliamentary system. I think recent dvelopment in thailand will put down the argument by our own government in trying to convince us to change into parliamentary sysytem.Sabi nila sa parliamentary system hindi mo na kailangan mag people power to chnage the pm. the parliament need only to proceed with the vote of no confidence and the pm can be changed anytime. well this argument is belied by what thailand is doing right now to oust takshin.

  17. thai people is beating us in showing the world that no leader must make fool out of their constituents becasue it is with the people where real power rests. mga duwag na ata ngayon ang mga pilipino.

  18. No, Joselu.
    That’s hardly my point.

    Hindi pagalingan ng Ingles ang pamantayan ng usapin dito.
    Lamang, salungat sa pangkaraniwang karanasan ang makakita ng taong paiba-iba at pabagu-bago ang antas ng kahusayan sa pamamahayag.

    Tuloy, nagiging pala-isipan kung iisa lang nga ba ang taong nagsusulat at naghahayag sa ngalan ni “Joselu”.
    Tagalog man o Ingles, sa iisang tao, general experience shows that style and fluency hardly ever changes.

    So the question, I’m asking is:
    Is that really just YOU, Joselu?

    Baka kasi hindi nyo alam..
    There seem to be two of you using the same nom de guerre as there seem to be two distinct levels of lucidness and articulation (one good, the other so-so) under one given name.

    Kataka-taka at nakagugulo lang kasi sa usapan eh, di baga?

  19. Just a follow up on the International interests..

    I’ve been living in Europe for more than 30 years and loving every minute of it.

    People who have met me know that I am almost more French than the average French person; so culturally attached am I to France that I’ve become “extremely” nationalistic or patriotic French.

    Who would i be quoting here..

  20. And this is freedom in action?

    10) If you’re an employer or a manager, invite all your subordinates to join you. Offer to “treat” them after the flash protest, if you can afford it. Hey, it’s Friday after pay day. So you can have your regular “gimmick” after this.

    Under threat or treats the employees must do what the employer says? (It is an implied threat..)

  21. cvj, it’s so funny that you would ever take me for a luli brigade, heheheh

    thanks manolo,pardon my ignornce, so why does not thaksin ask the head of goverment & desolve parlament for fresh election? if i understood it right the system is supposed to have less complications then the presidential system.
    i think only the kings intervention will put some order to things.

  22. pahabol manolo, so it’s all because thaksin is still w/in the 1.5 years of being pm so a vote of no confi. can’t be done. so this can present a problem also for us under that system.if anyone wants to attack the pm that will be the best time to do it.but manolo, is there still a way around that?

  23. pigs eye, ok, i’ll be fair & answer your entry,i have a way of writing that is a signiture all by it’s self to others people inis, hehehe

  24. hey mlq!

    not a big fan of graffiti except for that british grafitti artist with a cult following and whose name escapes me now.
    anyways, am i to expect some sectors to do that “circle v” too after drawing parallelisms between that movie and the present situation here? just asking. hehehe. have a nice day!

  25. V for Vendetta…

    personal revenge and political revolution…
    Count of Monte Cristo and anarchistic acts of terror…

    El Filibusterismo

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