Let's celebrate! Charice & Gibo as the new Flips

Revised 09 May 2010 at 0800 hours

MANILA - This coming Monday, 10 May, I will celebrate the coming of age of the United States, and coming of age of the Philippines. Both have something to do with thinking positively. With Flips. With Charice and Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro, 2 model Flips.

2 watersheds in history, and they happened in my generation. One is in music, the other in politics. The music is in my spirit, the politics is in my head. One fills, the other fulfills. Both are unexpected; both are true nevertheless.

Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate.)
Celebrate good times, come on!
(It's a celebration.)
Celebrate good times, come on!
(Let's celebrate.)

Both are climate changes. One is the climate of the art of entertainment; the other is the climate of the practice of citizenship. One is American, the other is Filipino. If your heart is in the right place, you can be entertained in both.

I will go out and celebrate! This coming Monday is the birthday of Charice, the Filipina singing superstar, who is the "newly crowned Pop Princess" according to Ryan Brockington (17 March 2010, New York Post). She has dethroned Britney Spears! She has broken the glass ceiling of the American mainstream music industry. Are you listening?

Another way of saying that is: When Charice sang, the American music industry flipped!

I will go out and vote! This coming Monday is the birthday of the Flip, the new Filipino who has made an inspirational flip from tails to heads, from negative to positive - and applying it to the process of voting for President and Vice-President the people who represent positive change in society. Are you paying attention?

Gilberto Teodoro for President, Edu Manzano for Vice President.

Celebrate good times, come on!

So on Monday I shall have 2 different reasons to celebrate in 2 different areas: in the art of influencing people's hearts, and in the art of influencing people's minds. Both are international in content and extent:

(1) The Americans flipping for Charice, the "Next Great Pop Diva" (Us Weekly Magazine)
(2) The Flips, the new Filipinos who Love & Inspire Positively, for the new Philippines.

The American Flips

The American mainstream music industry is a Star Wars universe - you have to prove first that you are a star to be admitted. Thinking positively, Charice didn't do that; she simply aimed her awesome voice at the ceiling and cracked the glass. That is to say, the immovable object gave way to the irresistible force. The Americans flipped! The New York Post said that Charice's "mountain-and-valley vocals are the only reason you will need to fall in love with her sound." This girl's voice has a range that is unbelievable, a stage presence that is out of this world - and courage to match.

GRAE New York called Charice the "Voice of a New Generation." GRAE said, "Industry heavyweights like David Foster have been behind her since the start of her journey and for good reason - the girl can sing!"

Ian Drew, Senior Music Editor of the Us Weekly Magazine, tweeted: "Charice is for sure the Next Great Pop Diva" (06 April 2010, quoted in charicemania.com).

The Filipino Flips

Past history: The word Flip or Flips has been used by Americans as a derisive term referring to Filipinos, probably meaning crazy. Well, we Filipinos are crazy if we debase ourselves by reacting negatively to name-calling. Also, remember, Flips, how our national hero Jose Rizal and his gang of Filipino patriots first behaved when they were referred to condescendingly by the Europeans as Indios, implying that they were barbarians - they got mad, and then they felt ashamed that they were Indios. Then they saw in the 1889 Paris International Exhibition that the American Indians (Indios) were proud of themselves, and from then on Rizal realized that they should also be proud of their own race and thereon referred to their group as Los Indios Bravos (Indian Braves). They were the first Flips.

Present history: Charice is the voice of the new generation of singers in the American market. A Flip. The voice of a new generation of Filipinos is each of those who signed the "MANIFESTO FOR POSITIVE CAMPAIGNING" (facebook.com), the supporters, volunteers and friends who on Monday will be voting as Philippine President former Defense Secretary Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro. All Flips.

I'm reproducing the declaration in full but with the note that I prefer to call it

THE FLIP MANIFESTO

We, the supporters, volunteers and friends of former Defense Secretary Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro, vow to uphold the principles of POSITIVE CAMPAIGNING this election season. These principles shall unite us and guide us through this adventure that has brought us all together, inspire us throughout this journey, and lead us to victory.

We recognize, we believe, we affirm:

- that we have chosen our CANDIDATE because he represents what is best and excellent in all of us, because he champions our greatness rather than our mediocrity, because he is a visionary of means and not just a dreamer of ends, because we recognize the potential in him just as we recognize the potential in ourselves;

- that our VOTE is sacred. We do not take our vote for granted, for we are aware that millions around the world do not enjoy the privilege of electing their own leaders, and therefore do not have a say in mapping out their own destiny. Our vote ennobles us, reminds us that we can choose, we can decide and we can exercise our freedom to evolve our democracy to greater heights, as we give our full support to leaders who can serve the highest ideals of democracy;

- that this is a CAMPAIGN that does not stop with our candidate, nor does it end on Election Day. It is a deeper movement, a paradigm shift, that calls for the raising of awareness of every Filipino, the enlightenment of our entire race, so that we may pull ourselves out of a culture (steeped) in negativity and divisiveness, and enjoy the benefits of higher consciousness;

- that we align with POSITIVITY rather than negativity. We focus on our country's innate wealth, rather than endemic poverty; we choose to be balanced, rather than extreme; we see opportunities in every problem; we are constructive and not destructive; we would rather defend than attack; we do not manipulate or persuade, but we educate; we do not struggle, but we strive; we see the long view rather than the immediate. We choose our words carefully, because through thought, act, deed and speech we convey our compassion, our sincerity and our tolerance, and our capacity to heal our wounded nation;

- that we are in this endeavor because we love our COUNTRY, and we are eager to find our true place in the world. Our sense of country is not limited to just our islands, but to the Filipinos found in every corner of the globe, for the influence of the Filipino is actually planetary. Our sense of "what is Filipino" goes beyond region, dialect and citizenship, and deeper into what we can do for our country, more than what it can do for us, what we can do for the world, than what the world can do for us;

- that the ENVIRONMENT is the most pressing underlying factor behind the exigency of our present cause; that we are the Green Team; that we support Life and never exploit Life; that we shall always consider the preservation of our natural resources, the cleanliness of our surroundings, and the love of Nature in every exercise of our campaign, for it is our positive mindset which is needed to save our planet from irreversible destruction;

- that GOD, or a Higher Power, inspires us in all these things; that the victory of a President is not just prescribed by the number of votes garnered or the efficiency of his campaign, but by the guiding hand of destiny and invisible forces we cannot fully explain; and so we fully align ourselves with this Power, which is embodied in Truth, in Justice, and in Peace, because this is what prevails, and we shall, absolutely, prevail.

SO HELP US GOD.

That's a huge dream they're dreaming. But I have no problem with that, because I'm a dreamer myself, aside from being an incurable romantic and a cockeyed optimist.

What they started is more than a positivity campaign in selecting, campaigning and voting for the next President of the Philippines, the most capable being Gilberto Teodoro, and the only one conducting a sensible rounding up of votes.

The campaign for the new Filipino does not end with the elections on 10 May, and it covers science (environment) as well as faith (belief in God or a Higher Power). I'm not one of the original thinkers or signers of the Flip Manifesto, so I'm glad it includes the use of both reason and belief, what is logical and what is beyond logic, in the declaration of what needs to be done for the Philippines to move forward and gain her place among the great nations of the world - never mind her tiny size.

Charice is tiny if it comes to that, 5 feet short, not tall, but that had not deterred her from dreaming big, and not only one but many big dreams. Without knowing it, she had been thinking positively. Then, in 2005 when she lost big, placing only 3rd place in the 1-million-peso singing contest called Little Big Star of ABS-CBN, the largest TV network in the Philippines, she stopped dreaming. She had suffered enough humiliation, ridicule, jeering, mocking, verbal abuse. They told her to her face or behind her back: She didn't have good looks; she didn't have star quality; she didn't have enough talent; she didn't have a bright future in the entertainment industry. She forgave them all, but she was finished with dreaming big. But Mommy Raquel, a dreamer herself, did not allow her daughter to give up on her dreams.

And look at where Charice is now - on top of the world of music! She is bigger in name than all the female singers of the Philippines combined. And she's only 18.

The story of Charice and Mommy Raquel, a mother and daughter team, teaches us to dream big, expect obstacles and obstructions along the way, help each other out, never ever stop dreaming, have the courage to do what must be done.

I'm 69 but I haven't stopped dreaming, and dreaming big. Let the old ones teach the young ones to dream big and never stop dreaming. The young have the idealism that we the old no longer have, and remember that the future belongs to them.

Charice, who turns 18 on Monday, embodies the Flip, the new Filipino who thinks positively and never resorts to thinking negatively about somebody or something.

Long live the Flips!