nasarapan ba tayo sa hotdog ni sam?

September this year will mark 100 years since the execution of Makaryo Sakay and the beginning of the end for what the Americans called "the Philippine Insurrection" but is more properly remembered as the Filipino-American Bloody Date-Rape. An ugly example of bullying, it has been conveniently forgetten by both sides, which is seen in the relatively few books and fewer movies about this non-event. Even its eerie reproduction in today's Mesopotamia fails to jog what has been thoroughly repressed: they keep referring to Iraq as a second Vietnam and fail to note that Vietnam was a second Philippines. The Empire was born on our soil and in return we made them bleed for a decade. And so we were punished with forgetfulness so thorough that both the New Yorker and her caregiver don't even know the reasons why, once upon a time, their ancestors were shooting each other in the jungle. But why care for history, dead and dry, when our countries are such good buddies now. They take our smart young people and we get their coffee and trans-fat. Hating kapatid?