by jun asuncion
To Bulan Observers
We always enjoy constructive discussion or criticism for it leads us to improvement or stimulate our thinking- as opposed to discussion or criticism that is closed, no substance, undifferentiated, egoistic and even sadistic.
On Perfection and the striving for Excellence
I give credit to the arguments presented both by Mr. Geronilla and Mr. Bulan in conjunction with Mr. Geronilla’s posted article Have A Way With Words in as much as we are operating within the context of constructive discussion.
Language is a tool to convey our thoughts and feelings, the very substance of communication. If you can get this substance across with simple English, then why not? This is what Mr. Bulan had in mind, a more practical application of the tool.
But language as a tool becomes an art when one strives to use it to show the beauty of its form; hence, the striving for excellence according to Mr. Oliver Geronilla. This entails sticking to the formal rules. And so, if you can get your substance across in an artistic way, why not?
The next thing is that this tool can become not only as an art but a profession. And here is the crux of the matter, of this discussion.
What’s the signficant difference when a pistol is in the hands of a trained law-enforcer- as in the hands of a criminal? The pistol is in the hands of someone restricted by laws and by profession with respect to his public behaviour and right usage of the pistol (or any other weapon) at any given situation.
This is Oliver’s situation; he carries this responsibility in any given (written) situation for that is his profession and this explains his being particular in expressing himself in perfect English. Why not express (write) the professional way?
But, if I may add something, it’s not totally fitting when he says that he is not striving for perfection but for excellence, for it is by trying to be excellent that we are actually striving for perfection, and also because these two words are just the two sides of the same coin; perfection is that ideal form (the highest state or goal) and excellence is the striving (action) for this ideal form.
But perfection is not equal to impossibility- at least when talking about the language. If you abide by the agreed or standard rules of the American English grammar for instance, you can surely construct a perfect sentence and then a perfect paragraph. Isn’t it so?
Hence, to recognize the error and to correct it is just a proof of our striving for perfection.
Nobody is perfect?
This is a cliche’ and normally by this we mean or understand that everybody makes mistakes or has some flaws in character, judgement or in appearance.
But who’s definition of Perfection is being used in this statement?
We will not go deeper into it it but at least let us mention Aristotle’s definition of perfection (In his book of Metaphysics) which is, that 1. which is complete — which contains all the requisite parts; 2. which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better; 3. which has attained its purpose.
Therefore, if I would look at any normal human being or an apple tree with Aristotle’s definition of perfection, I would say that human being or apple tree is perfect.
If human being could be perfect, why not a sentence or a paragraph?
But, roughly speaking, if you prefer Mr. Bulan’s view of accepting imperfections as along as the argument has a substance, it is also alright for this view has also its philosophical tradition, namely that of another Greek, Empedocles, who maintained that the world is imperfect and that imperfection possesses that pull to completeness and ultimately to perfection as it develops with time, a concept adopted by the Italian esthetics in the baroque period by insisting that perfection is completed in the mind and imagination of the one viewing an art work.
Viewing an art work? How about in reading a comment or article here in BO with such minor lapses in grammar or spelling? Can we really apply here Mr. Empedocles’ view on perfection?
Of Bulan pupils perfecting in their minds the imperfect grammar or spelling they are noticing here in Bulan Observer?
Well, there is a hope. Because if they “notice” such errors, this means they have learned their lessons well at school.
Hence, it is imperative for the language instructors in our schools in Bulan to master the language they are teaching.
The other side of the coin:
A Necessity
“Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.” Karl Marx
Mr. Geronilla is right to say that edition is needed for any printed message. For me alone, an editor would have a very hard job editing “my” English, a language which-before I even had the chance to master it, has been buried deep in time, eaten up by the worms of oblivion when I went back to it for a purpose. I wasn’t sure anymore if I could ever use it to even form some basic phrases. I tried because there was this necessity.
Now, had I let myself be intimidated by English, I wouldn’t have met some good friends from Bulan. Sometimes you just need to do it, don’t wait for perfection for it will never come- at least in my case! That you just go for it. This is the lesson I learned in jazz music. Afraid to play an improvised solo in front of an audience? Forget it, just play! My guitar teacher was right. Perfection is a goal in every artist, even for the ones whom we think are already at the crest of the wave. The way to it is only through practice and deep reflection- this is the only way, again the way to something we cannot after all reach- at least subjectively. For perfection is not only the technical side of the craft, but it involves the question of the longing of our soul for something even better, something new- the will 0′ the wisp.
Afraid to make mistakes? Well, who’s not? Again, it takes courage and the will to overcome that which we set as our own limits. Courage can indeed open up new horizons, new possibilities for positive changes. At least you have tried- even you have failed, but definitely you also have learned something during the entire process.
Kein Master ist vom Himmel gefallen as they used to say it in German- or No one is born a master. No one, yes but it seems that for some it doesn’t take long to be one. No matter in which group you may belong, there is no reason not to try to master any craft available here on earth and to try other crafts as well. In this way you don’t waste your precious time.
My back up against the wall
I’ve been writing English for two years now and I’m still glued in the most basic level. There were moments though when I was almost eaten up by my doubts that I almost removed Bulan Observer from the net. But the strong pull to send message to Bulaneños took the upper hand and so BO exists until now.
Now we have grown a little bit, we Bulan netizens. I’m glad about this development.
BO was conceived not as an On-Line Newspaper for flawless plain reporting or write-ups but as a platform where Bulaneños could loosely meet and express their views. That’s the reason why I was not particular about editing comments or contributions. One thing more, it needs a lot of time even- as I’ve mentioned- for my own posted articles alone. It is right that lapses in grammar in written form are not permissible to protect the young mind from being corrupted at least in this subject. I cannot argue against it.
LIFE itself is a flux
But, in essence, all our mistakes here are not intentional, and so,- placed against a greater context,- forgivable. That greater context is LIFE itself. Life allows growth, trials and experimentations; it allows spontaneity of activity, of emotions, fantasy and thinking. In short it is free. And for those who try, they make mistakes. For those who do not try, don’t make a lot of mistakes, just a bigger one.
In BO everybody is welcome to participate in this freedom. We will keep this blog form still for a while since it reflects our philosophy of life as a flux, a continues flowing event. A new message covers the last one; what is gone, is gone; the moment is the most important for here is the chance to be free, to be better than the past.
Like The back Of Our hands
Going back to language, there is no doubt as to the beauty and advantages of having mastered it, so in effect there’s nothing else to write about it. How about just being at the basic level, is there also beauty and advantages left to it?
I think there is: One is forced to be simple and make the most out of one’s limitations. Isn’t it great also? This is very much in line with our goals for our town: To be a different town from the rest aside from its given limitations.
With time, I have observed though that my limitation is becoming my strength for I can – with my simple style- give form to my simple way of thinking. Why make it complicated? My way of thinking has always been between intuitive and analytical, my writing expositional. The focus is primarily on insights and logical argumentation. For this purpose, it suffices an English level for everyone, with the set of vocabulary that we know like the back of our hands. Indeed, I discovered- without suggesting anything in my favor- that many great writers/thinkers whose impact were far-reaching and have changed history (Marx, Einstein…) were so simple in their writing style, without idioms overdrive or distortions, or as we say, without being flowery. I’ve read their works in German.
Language and Thinking
The survival value or goal of communication through language is for two or more persons to make their personal needs or perception be known to others or for them to have common understanding of whatever issue that concerns them.
Hence, verbal and non-verbal forms of communication are of central importance and are present in all human societies and in lower animal forms as well. Language use is the expression of thoughts in man and in lower animals as well. But since man’s thinking is motivated by variety of needs and largely determined by his particular cultural setting, language has grown to be a very complex and specialized phenomenon.
With the increasing speed and specialization in communication technology, the global proliferation of subcultures on internet platforms, miscommunication seems to be increasing also as new words are coined all the time. How would you explain to your grandfather (or even to your wife!) words like Software Engineering, Blogging, Netizens, Netbook? Or Cloud Computing, Buzz Compliant, Green Washing? Many of us “younger” ones do not even know instantly the meaning of these words.
The tyranny of words
But even before the global invasion of these hi-tech neologisms, we even have to continue wrestling with the many idiomatic expressions that come across our reading or listening dasein. If you have to do with westerners you will notice that they just “open fire ” at you with their mother tongue(s) loaded with never-heard idiomatic expressions, words half-eaten but with the velocity of a bmw sports car- without the slightest respect to your language of origin. This is a sign of their assumed superiority or dominance, the expectation being that you should adjust to him- not he to you- if you want to understand him. Very much the same situation during our colonial times when they came and opened fire at us; thereafter, they decreed that we learn their languages, on the condition that we keep our mouth shut.
The Agony Of Choice
Whether This or These, our tongue has been a split and twisted since the invasion of the aggressive and dominating Europeans and north Americans, forcing the local inhabitants to adopt their languages and relegate their own behind for they were inferior. The reason why most of us write in English and not in Tagalog for we are “educated,”- educated the western way, not the Filipino way, hence, we are not- as a rule- masters of our own mother languages. For this reason, we suffer this agony of choice, a suffering symptomatic of the lack of cohesive cultural identity.
Too many choices split not only the tongue but also the mind, hinder the mastery of anything we can call “perfectly” our own. I have always dreamed of writing in a mother language, of how it would feel to observe foreigners writing in Tagalog, have often envied a good German friend of mine with whom I write some articles in German, his own mother language. Speaking about language, Germany is a country without too many choices and therefore had produced people like Heine, Goethe, Nietzsche, Kant, Marx, Böll, Grass and all other philosophers and poets that we know. All of them wrote their masterpieces in German, their everyday language!
On Idioms: a cultural invasion
Idioms are great to spice up the language and I wish I possessed this knowledge. Idioms for idiot? Why not. I’ve read that both idiom and idiot came from Greek root “idios” which means “of one’s own” or “private”, that at that time idiot meant someone not interested in public affairs- a key duty in ancient Athens. Huh, If I don’t know these idioms, I should at least be interested in Bulan public affairs!
Roughly speaking, I have a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards idiomatic expressions- or the overly use of them: On the one side, idioms seem to facilitate communication, on the other, they seem to obscure communication as they inject- mentally or even just visually- unwanted associations. But evidently idioms of a foreign language appear illogical to non-native speakers.
Idioms are “figures of speech” whose meaning is derived not from the meaning of collocated words literally but from a group’s consensus or experience of how a phrase should mean whose meaning naturally evolves with time. But basically, idiom is a colloquial language (partly a slang) , hence, is understood only within a particular cultural context.
And there are many of these cultural contexts! But what’s the connection, you may ask. It is because we are- as average language users (as opposed to language super-users, like Mr. Geronilla), are frequently encountering idioms in the English language that are in themselves not originating from the English or American cultures but from other non-English speaking cultures as well. These foreign idioms are translated in English naturally. Take for instance this expression Not hanging noodles on your ears. Originally, this is a Russian expression which means in American idiom Not pulling someone’s leg – or not kidding or fooling someone. It appears that to know all these idioms, it is like seizing the moon by the teeth (has nothing to do with capturing Bulan by the teeth), this time a French expression for attempting the impossible. And what has death to do with Kicking the bucket? And how about these:
To reheat cabbage: to rekindle an old flame (Italian).
When the crayfish sings on the mountain: never (Russian).
Cleaner than a frog’s armpit: to be poor, broke (Spanish).
To think one is the last suck of the mango: to be conceited (South American Spanish).
Onions should grow in your navel: a mild insult (Yiddish).
Brew tea from dirt under another’s fingernails: to learn a bitter lesson (Japanese).
Belch smoke from the seven orifices of the head: to be furious (Chinese).
Don’t be intimidated by just these few examples for there are tens of thousands of them.
It is interesting to note that many academic elite, scholars take pride in using idiomatic expressions to delineate their higher status from others, mostly from the less educated social strata or subgroups, when in fact most idiomatic expressions originated from these subgroups, from the street people, from the ghettos, from the urban working-class, rural folks, from the farmers, fishers…
The How’s and Why’s Of Language
Idioms- along with phonetics and phonology (the study of speech sounds), morphology (word structures), syntax (word combinations, sentences), semantics (actual meaning of words and sentences), pragmatics (role of context)- are subjects of study belonging to the science of linguistics, or psycholinguistics. Here, you go deeper than just learning the rules, spellings, idioms, vocabularies and writing style, a field which is very interesting for it takes into account the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language.
A great authority on this subject is the psycholiguinguist ( and a politica observer) Noam Chomsky, whose concept of generative grammar- his term for syntax- is based on the concept of Universal Grammar, an innate apparatus in every human being and is simply evident in the tremendous speeed the children absorb the language(s) around them, able to form complex sentences right after they have learned the most basic features. This connects us to depth psychology, to Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of the archetype (such as the mother, hero, animus, anima, etc.) which is all about the innate psychological dispositions- or prototypes of human experience as contained in the collective unconscious- in man. But this will bring us too far and too technical so we’d rather stop at this point.
But why do human beings communicate with such distorting and seemingly illogical combination of words as in idiomatic expressions? Indeed, there seems to be a lot of psychology and a lot of Freudian components in each language. Why for instance say Wait till the fat lady sings when one can simply say wait till the final moment? I wouldn’t use it when a lady twice my weight is sitting beside me.
The German language is also overflowing with such expressions and they even take more grotesque forms in some cases. Expression like In der Not frisst der Teufel Fliegen (literally translated, in dire straits the devil eats flies) which is roughly equivalent to Beggars can’t be choosers. But why the words devil (Teufel) and flies (Fliegen)? In any case, this whole affair with the idioms shows us that language communication does not allow only perfectly constructed sentences but also combination of seemingly unrelated words or “imperfect” sentences. And if you would do a study on the text messages of our young Bulaneños today, then I wish you by now good luck.
——-end———
Bulan Observer 
Dear Jun,
Your wonderful treatise today, backed up by so much philosophical insights educated me.
I think both Oliver and Mr. Bulan are correct.
I admire Oliver, my high school student in KRAMS. He has gone a long, long way. And his English is excellent, if not perfect. I think he is better than me now, at least, in the way he plays with words. He has to be excellent in his use of words because it is his work as a linguist and as a language instructor. There is no room for mediocrity on his part otherwise he can be criticized for the errors he may commit.
I also agree with a lot of Oliver’s ideas.
Mr. Bulan, on the other hand, is also correct. I think language is evolving. I have studied Greek and Latin before, and you will notice that much of what we use now in the English language evolved from many languages all over the world especially from Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and even from the Filipinos. Since language is evolving, it cannot be perfect. What is important is that people understand you. Even the laws can be written in imperfect language, that is why the Supreme Court is there to interpret or construe those unclear laws. There was one case on an issue where a municipality passed an ordinance written in what we jokingly call “carabao english”, but the Supreme Court did not dismiss the case against the municipality simply because the local ordinance was poorly written, but interpreted on the substance of that ordinance and the intention of the local legislators.
I think even Jun will agree with me that here in Bulan, it is disgusting that some people sometimes laugh at others simply because the latter were not able to properly pronounce an English word. Ugali nato ini didi sa Bulan lalo na an mga iba na nakaadal na. So, we’re really trying hard to pronounce English properly, the Bulan way, or be a laughing stock. This is ridiculous that we can only go as far as how we pronounce and yet we never look at the substance of the words, or the ideas conveyed. Take a look at the ubiquitous beauty pageants, the audience prey on candidates with how they deliver, but not at what they say… and once you make a mistake at how you pronounced an English word, lalo na kun binisaya o naipit, there goes the hoots and catcalls. Kairuman san pobre na kandidata. Kanay nato ini kamana na ugali? But try to tell it to Manny Pacquiao, who’s got a Binisaya English…
As a Public Information Officer, I have to inform, to communicate, the best way I can so that people will know about our LGU’s programs and the people whom I work for. That’s it. And then hope that they understood. I may not have perfectly written about it but if people got what I said, then that’s it.
I am always guided by what one of my philosophy teachers told us in class, that if those to whom you communicated can also communicate what you have communicated to them then you have served the purpose of communication, be it in language, in written or spoken from, in sign language, in body language, bahala na. Of course, one has to strive to speak or write with substance, and more people will read or listen to you. When you write, write well. When you speak, speak well.
There are billions of people in the world. Only a few are writers but not all are perfect writers . The language of Shakespeare and writers of olden times have even evolved much. They sound funny now. But it is in the substance and the ideas that they are being read.
I think we can forgive a few lapses, Mr. Bulan says even big mistakes, in the way BO writers have written in your blog. What is important are the ideas. (Good if it will come in great, perfect, excellent English, or German?). That the ideas are coming in many ways and means, as long as there is an exchange, then that’s it. If people believe you for what you have written or expressed, that’s great. If people misunderstood you for what you have expressed, sorry na lang. Try ka next time, baka mapaniwala mo sila! That’s the wisdom of communicating. The beauty comes in how you express your ideas ( which Oliver is gifted with).
Funny, but I always look back when I first wrote here…”assuming, without admitting”. And a torrent of comments came like hailstorm. I learned a lot from there. I’ll be careful next time, of course!
Great blog, Jun!
Tonyboy
Nothing can match the excitement that I felt upon reading Mr. Jun Asuncion’s “reply” on the exchange of ideas that I had with Mr. Bulan. It simply made my day.
Given Mr. Asuncion’s busy schedule, I wonder how he managed to come up with such a well-written piece that touched on many fine points about the nature of language and how we use it for communication purposes. And match that with the observations made by Mr. Gilana. That’s heaven on earth.
If they were my colleagues or my graduate school classmates, I would definitely have a whale of a time engaging in a “scholarly talk” with them. Alas, we’re not; and to top it all, we’re miles apart making it all the more impossible for me to see how they[’d] put across their message with the help of oculesics and kinesics.
But BO offers a unique platform where I can use my imagination in decoding their ideas—segmentally and suprasegmentally. I haven’t met Mr. Asuncion in person yet, but I gather, through his writing style, that his flair for exposition is one of those skills that level-headed discussants and effective facilitators of academic talks like colloquia want to possess or learn to cultivate.
Mr. Gilana, the teacher who made me love words more than anything else in this world, was a task master; he was even called SLI’s martinet! Could you imagine more or less fifty students memorizing an abridged English-English dictionary just to get a good score on the daily spelling quiz that he gave us? Hard to imagine, but true. And I was a willing victim!
So, I giggled when I read one of his recent articles hoping (or should I say “asking”?) not to be judged simply because of some words he might have misspelled. Well, I spotted some superficial errors (e.g., rarety instead of rarity), but those lapses are indeed “forgivable” and should never be misconstrued as blunders beyond repair.
I don’t know whether he’s still teaching or not anymore, but I know how good he is in effecting behavioral change in the classroom.
Truth be told, I’m still hesitant whether to write a commentary about Mr. Asuncion’s “treatise” (as my good teacher called it) or not as I might end up turning in a concept paper on language use and usage vis-à-vis communication—a topic that might be shunned by those who want to have “easy reading.”
Perhaps I should wait for a few more inputs from our readers and see how they’d influence the overall content of my commentary which I think will be anchored on George Oswell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty Four” and William Safire’s NYT columns.
PS.
Jun,
How about reading this sentence again?
“Whether I write for dailies or for (and with) political columnists like Dr. W. Scott Thompson, or even for BO, excellence is always what I have in my mind, not perfection.”
The key word is the adverb “always.” You might want to consider how that adverb affects the overall tone and meaning of the sentence.
Oliver Geronilla
and there goes another blunder 🙂 🙂
….a blunder beyond repair–> blunderS beyond repair
BO as Blunder Observer? We’ll, it’s better in many ways than Blaming Observer!
For any “dedicated” Bulan observer, I’ll find a way soon that he or she finds direct access to Bulan Observer so that editing/correcting will be easier.
On “…excellence is always what I have in my mind, not perfection.”
The adverbial word always in your sentence (an intensifier of the verb “is” [“to be”]) means to me constancy, at any time or any event, as in the phrase “always the same”.
But it’s a constancy that connotes in my mind movement against time, a constancy that’s therefore far from passivity but in a dynamic flux because it requires energy to sustain and maintain this state of excellence for without this energy the whole thing collapses. Ergo, excellence is an activity, a striving against collapse. With that in mind, perfection is just around the corner.
And writing is a complex, hence, such an energy-consuming mental activity for it requires taking into considerations many factors at the same time, the reason why, inspite of our mastery of any language, we just cannot avoid commiting petty grammatical blunders, typographical errors and more frequently- as in my case- visual inaccuracy when it comes to errors in spelling, and last but not least, the circumstances within and without you as you write, the time constraints, etc.
Indeed, the tyranny of words/writing and the agony of choice (of language,words, style, themes, etc..)
Still, Blunder here, Blunder there, just write down your ideas and share!
Have a nice day!
jun asuncion
Bravo to Jun Asuncion’s “This Or These: The Tyranny Of Words And The Agony Of Choice.” Well-written ini na essay niya. Kaso, an hapot ko, will this kind of content, which is too academic, bagay sa reader san Bulan Observer? Or is this article intended only to a particular “intellectual” reader?
Awat na ako didi sa New York City (since 1992), and being a wide reader, I could say na ini na article ni Jun pang-Academic book na.
Mr. Jess Guim,
I suppose it’s written for all and sundry.
The content is definitely academic, but I think it’s not solely written for the literati or for the cognoscenti.
Readership and readability are some of the major things that we should always bear in mind every time we write; and I reckon that Mr. Asuncion knows these points.
Or, is it psychographics that you’re worried about?
Oliver Geronilla
Oliver:
When we write, we don’t only look at the aspects of psychographic variables, or attributes that relate to personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles. We should look also on the demographic variables, which pertain to age and gender attributes of readers. Likewise, we have to look into firmographic variables, which point to industry, seniority and functional area where the article is intended to. Most important of all, we must focus on the writing’s effects on behavioral variables, which measure the content’s usage rate or loyalty that it may create after reading it. You’re lucky, you and Jun Asuncion, probably studied journalism school, so, you know the psychographic variables in writing. Apply these variables to Bulan Observer, so, you’ll have more readerships in the future.
Jess Guim, New York City
Jess:
Your advice reinforces my point that “writing is an art that requires discipline.” So, we’re on the same page when it comes to that.
Thanks for joining the “discussion” here at BO. An article from you that promotes all the variables you mentioned will definitely be appreciated. How about turning in one? That’ll grace BO’s electronic pages and will perhaps increase our readership.
Oliver Geronilla
Oliver:
Thanks for the invitation. Yes, I’ll continue sharing some of my contributions to “Bulan Observer.” I write only as a hobby, while I’m watching a TV show or listening to a music. In short, I write to give value to the time that I’m wasting while entertaining myself in music or TV. Right now, I’m watching the first night of the “American Idol.”
I actually sent one article to Jun Asuncion yesterday. He’s probably busy, and have not read it yet. Or maybe, I’m afraid, he rejected it already. It’s a reprint of my article that I’ve posted already in my own blog, “Experts Write About.”
Jess Guim, New York City
Jess, we don’t reject any article written with sincerity- no matter how simple!
It’s coming out tomorrow.
Kind regards,
jun asuncion
were—-> we’re
Thank you Tonyboy, Oliver and Jess for your words. Indeed, the primary goal of communication is understanding, the rest (modes used) is secondary.
So we write little things here to help clarify an issue, not to make it more obscure. For if things, -(simple things that we talk about here) get more obscure after each discussion, then communication has failed.
I think the key to better communication is sincerity and simplicity:
Sincerity leads you to simplicity in thinking and action (for there is nothing to conceal), and simplicity in action (in writing, talking, etc.) sends out a message of sincerity in your thinking.
Election time is such a great opportunity to apply these two criteria by observing the campaigning candidates and by “listening” how their eyes and body talk,- the
oculesics and kinesics (eye, face and body movements) that Oliver was referring to, not to forget the importance also of the Vocalics- of how something is said (intonation, intensity, etc.).
To know about haptics, or touch, and especially olfactics, or the scent, of the candidates is an option left to the most courageous of the voters.
Unsolicited advice: Based on our criteria of simplicty and sincerity, don’t vote a candidate who:
– keeps on squinting the eyes or perpetually rolling them in all directions;
– wears sunglasses day and night
– dances involuntary (without music), hands quivering
– terribly loud or terribly silent
– sings out of tune
– avoids handshakes, or shake hands the same person twice or more.
For the scent (the olfactics) of the candidate, well your nose knows why you don’t vote him/her!
—–
On Writing and Readership
It’s a good point raised here by Jess Guim about the nature of readership of Bulan Observer.
As for me, I just write to share my views and concerns for political issues or just follow the flow of any discussion here in Bulan Observer and offer my standpoint and/or unite seemingly opposing ideas, or at least arrive to a point where everyone’s point of view gets respected and integrated in the whole corpus of debate. I don’t discriminate between intellectual or non-intellectual, educated-non (or less) educated readership.
I write with the assumption that any reader- from Bulan or from the rest of the internet world has the freedom to decide to read or even not read; With Bulan in mind, I write with the assumption that Bulan people are intelligent and self-educating people, self-education being a privilege now for anyone who has access to internet either at home, at schools, public libraries or even internet cafes- and Bulan Observer is an electronic platform, hence, by its very nature already limited to the group of readership with access to today’s technology. And who are these people in Bulan who visit extra an internet cafe to read Bulan Observer? I think they are the people who already have at least the basic education, maybe poor and no computers at home, yet interested to know or to share their opinions on topics that we are sometimes discussing here- like the English language, politics, updates of events from the local government, etc.
But then again, we have defined from the beginning that BO is not limited to political events but also for just about any topic that touches Bulan life and culture- about the arts and sciences, literature, music, cooking, gardening, etc., so practically anything that educates us- intellectually and/or practically. The reason why we are constantly looking or welcoming everybody in BO to write anything about his/her passion or profession. So in effect, there will always be an audience to any topic here in Bulan Observer.
So we don’t worry much about these parameters (psychographic, demographic, firmographic) that Jess has mentioned. We just write and share- and correct our blunder when we notice them anytime.
Thanks again for all the positive inputs!
jun asuncion