Hayden Kho Vadis? Katrina Halili, Marshall McLuhan & Peter Drucker

Revised 28 May 0422 hr Manila time

LOVELY. THIS 69-YEAR OLD has downloaded Maria Sharapova, his #1 pinup girl, and enshrined her on his desktop, as you can see. Leaves lots to the imagination. Have you downloaded yet the Hayden Kho / Katrina Halili sex video? I don't have to download – I have lots of imagination. I understand there are DVDs for sale on Manila sidewalks for as low as $1? I don't buy pornography; I'm not that cheap.

Manila, Philippines – The National Bureau of Investigation, NBI has subpoenaed 3 doctors, Dr Hayden Kho, Dr Vicki Belo and Dr Eric Johnston Chua, to shed light on the sex video scandal involving Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili (Jeannette Andrade, 21 May 2009, inquirer.net). Yesterday, the popular sexy actress Halili filed a complaint with the NBI accompanied by Senator Ramon 'Bong' Revilla (Sophia Dedace, 20 May 2009, gmanews.tv), and the names of the 3 are mentioned. Kho and Belo have been lovers off and on, and Belo has been reported to have copies of the video herself (Sophia Dedace, 21 May 2009, gmanews.tv). That needed some explaining. Chua may have been the one who uploaded the video to YouTube himself. This I have to see.

The 3 doctors are all cosmetic surgeons (Tetch Torres & Maila Ager, 20 May 2009, inquirer.net). What was Belo doing with her copies of the sex video: trying to retouch the scenes? Senator Revilla said after the closed-door meeting with NBI officials:

I will make sure that Halili will get justice. The case will be an eye-opener to the country on the proliferation of the so-called sex scandal videos that is already alarming and not entertaining at all.

In his Senate privilege speech on Tuesday, 'Revilla had blasted Kho for filming sexual acts with various women, including Halili, without their consent and knowledge that they were being filmed. The videos subsequently spread like wildfire in cyberspace' (Dedace as cited). Revilla called Kho 'a sex maniac' and 'predator' as a whole, not only referring to the video footage showing Kho and Halili in sexy dance scenes. He asked the Professional Regulation Commission, PRC to act on the complaint and revoke Kho's license (Torres & Ager as cited). In another report, Revilla called Kho a 'pervert' and someone 'insane' (Aurea Calica, 20 May 2009, philstar.com).

Belo defended her lover Kho, saying in a statement read on the StarTalk show last Saturday (Dedace as cited):

The video or videos that came out are nothing new. Those were taped more than a year ago and Hayden already confessed everything to me. He is sorry for what he has done and is trying to make things right.

You think you can right a wrong like that with a confession, and to the wrong person? You might as well confess to the porcelain god. And, taped means videotaped, not videocammed, 2 entirely different things: does she know what she is saying? Nowadays, why buy a very visible videotape when you can buy a hardly noticeable videocam?

Here's the latest news (22 May 2009, gmanews.tv): Hayden Kho has publicly apologized. No, Katrina Halili didn't buy. I don't buy his videos; I don't buy his apology either.

It's the talk of the town, and I want to talk about it some more, to explore the dirt. Do I like the dirt? No, that's why I'm exploring it – to understand where it's coming from, and try to stop it there. No, I didn't download the offending video – it offends me. I'm the father of 8 pretty girls; I have 1 lovely wife, 0 ugly extra-marital affairs. Honest to God. Yes, if you've seen the sexual act once, you've seen it a thousand times. Sure as God made little green apples.

I want to talk about the Internet and try to understand information technology, talk about Marshall McLuhan and try to understand media (the extensions and pretensions of man), talk about Peter Drucker and try to understand management. Like, if Hayden Kho recorded a sexy video and uploaded it on YouTube, that's managing information. If the video included steamy scenes with Katrina Halili or Maricar Reyes without their knowledge and consent, that's managing people – managing to fool them.

That tells me that Hayden Kho, HK, either doesn´t have much imagination, or doesn't want to leave much to the imagination – in either case, he's a screwball. HK differs from Kiko Hilario, KH, who thrives on imagination. It looks like HK is the exact opposite of KH. KH has had cameras too, but never a videocam. I know KH loves stolen shots – I believe HK lusts at them. HK takes photographs and movies for his private viewing, KH for his public showing. HK is a cosmetic surgeon – he operates on the body and makes people look beautiful from the outside. KH is a creative doctor of words and ideas – he operates on the mind and makes people look beautiful from the outside and from the inside.

KH uses his imagination to teach people to use their imagination. Like, KH had lots of girl friends too, but he respected them all – KH challenges HK to imagine that!

Why do I have as my desktop background Maria Sharapova in a black polka-dot bikini? I want something left to my imagination. In case you asked, I downloaded it from here: mariasharapova.com. Am I a fan of girl tennis? I am a fan of the girl, Beauty & The Best. With her achievements, I'm impressed. Latest news: Maria has just been knocked out of the Warsaw Open, in the quarterfinals, 21 May 2009 Manila time. I imagine Maria crying her heart out – it happens to the best.

Imagination is crazy, and I'm crazy enough to want to leave much to the imagination. And so, even as I love Google Chrome as my browser (not Firefox or Explorer or Flock or Opera), these are my Search Preferences: English pages and English alone, display 100 results per page, open search results in a new browser window, do not provide query suggestions in the search box – and please, strict filtering (strictly no explicit text and no explicit images). Nothing personal, nothing pornographic.

Am I a fan of Katrina Halili? Yes. She is pretty and sexy and boy, can she act! She is good when she is the woman in a love triangle, the woman scorned. Which gives me a good excuse to put in a few good words about Manila telenovelas today: Many of them are Very Good. How can I say that when I'm not a fan of Joseph 'Erap' Estrada or Fernando Poe Jr, FPJ? They can't act. And Erap and FPJ were not and have never been into telenovelas; I have, as a viewer who watches the characters, contents and conversations in GMA7 TV serial melodramas – sorry, I seldom watch ABS-CBN. I'm one watcher who imagines the screenplay. At least, since Richard Gutierrez and Angel Locsin's fantasy-filling, record-breaking Mulawin (2004). Today, Richard Gutierrez stars with Rhian Ramos in the beautiful, taut, period TV series adaptation of the internationally beloved Zorro. As for Katrina, I loved her when she was Ashley who was always saving Andrei in Lupin, where Lupin was Richard Gutierrez (2007, iGMA.tv). I say, in Lupin, she was a very nice bad girl. I leave that to HK's imagination.

My imagination fails me; I cannot imagine any sex video with him in it being uploaded to YouTube without Hayden Kho's own knowledge and consent, so I will attribute it to him. I think he's that crazy.

Kiko Hilario looks at it another way. He suspects that Hayden Kho doesn't have much imagination. HK can't imagine, or can't fantasize, so he likes to video it and look at it again and again. Or is it all a male ego trip? Well, happy trip, HK! And stay off girls, please.

And HK has all the right to do that, I mean switch on his own videocam in his own room and shoot anything that moves. And even have that video uploaded to YouTube. After all, KH says, this is all about human rights – and human wrongs.

I wouldn't have seen it,' said the very enigmatic Canadian writer-thinker Marshall McLuhan, 'if I hadn't believed it.' I take that to mean that Hayden Kho had those video images in virtual reality first before they ever became video reality. He thought of them, believed in them enough to make them real. Some crazy thought? It's all logical, if wicked this video comes. Kho proposes, YouTube disposes.

If you call it the 'Katrina Halili-Hayden Kho Sex Video Scandal,' you are a party to the crime. Katrina did not make their love affair a scandal; Hayden did. The perfect name is this: 'Hayden Kho Sex Video Scandal.'

Who would have known it was the wrong person, but 'I fell in love,' Katrina told Ricky F Lo of Philippine Star early this year (03 January 2009, reproduced in abs-cbnnews.com). And what did Hayden tell GMA7 about the affair? It was all 'for fun ... no emotional involvement.' So, it was all in his mind – and now in his video. Who was she: Maid of Orleans? What was he: Made of iron? He said it was just a fling. Hayden fooled Kat into believing he was in love with her. 'Niluko na n'ya ako sa matatamis n'yang salita,' Katrina said, 'binaboy pa.' He fooled me with his sweet nothings; not content with that, he went on and treated me as if I were only a pig. The animal.

Marshall McLuhan says, 'Publication is a self-invasion of privacy.' Except that in the case of Hayden Kho, he revels in it at the expense of another person's privacy. There oughta be a law!

Peter Drucker says, 'Knowledge during the last few decades (he is writing in 1968) has become the central capital, the cost center, and the crucial resource of the economy' (I've written about this; see my 'Birth of Hope,' americanchronicle.com). 40 years later, Drucker has been proven right. Sex is carnal knowledge; the video of sexcapades without knowledge or consent of any of the parties involved is knowledge just the same – it becomes a crucial resource to the sick mind.

The video is the thing; YouTube merely broadcasts it for all the world to watch. That's the power – and potential danger – of the Internet; it has the greatest multiplier effect of all. Be a/ware of the Internet!

The Internet is a giant library. The 2 main differences between the Internet and your library of books are size and source. The US Library of Congress is a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean compared to the World Wide Web (Internet). In the library, the sources of books, journals, magazines and such are publishers, those who can afford to gather and pay writers, editors, designers, layout artists, and owners of printing presses. In the Internet, yes, the sources are publishers too – but in the World Wide Web, Anybody can be a Publisher.

Precisely, Hayden Kho is not just Anybody; he is Somebody, a well-known, charismatic cosmetic surgeon, same as Vicki Belo, a millionaire and publicly known to be his lover. And Katrina Halili is not just Anybody; she is Somebody, a well-known, character actress in Philippine TV melodramas. Something to be proud of, nothing to be ashamed of. Except after Kho.

Kiko Hilario is a publisher; he publishes his ideas through his blogs, a dozen of them. Welcome to my blogs! Imagination required. Try 'The Islander Journeys,' franciscohilario.blogspot.com. He has also authored 3 books. If Hayden Kho distributes copies of his video, he is a publisher. A video published on YouTube is literally an open book. To him who uploaded and them who downloaded the Kho sex video, I imagine some people saying: Welcome to pornography! No imagination required.

What's the difference between Hayden Kho and Kiko Hilario as publishers, aside from books? Looks. HK has the good looks girls can't help falling in love with; KH has the looks that you either hate or love; there are no two ways about it. At the very least, you can't help but notice.

What about motivation for publishing? KH lusts for ideas that last. HK lusts for other than ideas, for treasures that moth and rust consume, for which thieves break in and steal, to borrow from Matthew 6: 19-20 (NRSV). Where you lust, lies your heart also.

We do have a problem, a major problem. McLuhan says, 'The medium is the message.' That is why governments cannot really control publishing in the Internet, although China can always try. Even if pornographic, the use of the Internet is an exercise of free speech, one of the fundamental rights of man. The Internet is the most powerful medium yet for the exercise of that right. The Internet is both medium and message; the Internet draws attention to itself – once you understand what it can do, it is irresistible. The Internet is an irresistible force even if you are an immovable object. Perfect for ego-trippers.

If governments can't really control the publishing of carnal knowledge or related acts in the Internet, where does ultimate control lie? Where it has always lain: Conscience, yours and mine.

Conscience,' says WordNet, is 'motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions' (wordnetweb.princeton.edu). Where does conscience come from? Reason or faith – it's your choice. In fact, it's your choice whether you accept that there is conscience or there is none. Either you have it or you don't.

In Kat's fall, we've seen all. Even if Kho didn't upload the video; even if we didn't download the video.

Now, to summarize: The story of Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili written by Hayden Kho and that continues to unfold is the story of
(1) a Korean doctor who videotaped his sex escapades with a Filipina sexy actress, and more
(2) love
(3) lust
(4) betrayal
(5) human rights
(6) freedom of speech
(7) conscience.

I thought she was crazy to fall in love with the boyfriend of a friend, or someone who in a very real sense was owned by someone else. After all, that love affair had been public knowledge for a long time.

To love is a human right. But not to lust. You eat of the forbidden fruit – God forbid! You tempt someone to eat of the forbidden fruit – for God's sake! We men think we are God's gift to women. We take the goods that the gods provide and make a video.

In the Old Testament times, it was Eve who lusted at the forbidden fruit. In our story in these continuing New Testament times, it is Adam who lusts. Be careful what you lust for, you might get it!

There, but for the grace of God, go I. God. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Even if it's only a freely downloadable sex video.