Category Archives: Banaue

Information Piracy

I wanted to use, “How The West Gets Information From Us and Deny Us Access to the Information” as the title for this post but it’s very long so let’s make do with the title above.

Anyways, this topic came to mind when I came across a story about Banaue earthworms at the Wall Street Journal. I wanted to read the whole article but it says:

What a bull. So someone from the Wall Street Journal goes to Banaue to do a story on the rice crisis, gets some information from our Banaue kailiyans, and limits online access to his article to those who can pay WSJ’s subscription fee? Isn’t this information piracy? As someone who believes in free access to information, I say it is. And it is happening silently without our knowledge.

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Project Watch: Tourism Online Database at P97.1 Million

If there is one thing that online communications taught us, it is that you can do things cheaply. So why is the Department of Science and Technology proposing to spend P97.1 million (that’s a little over US$ 2 million) to build a tourism online database?

Granted we do not know the details of this project, but if the goal is to “build an online tourism database for Sagada and Banaue” and to “provide the medium for digital (travel) transactions directly from consumers to service providers” surely they can do it for much much less, say P500,000. Maybe P1 million to be a bit more generous. Boy, do we smell a fish?

From Sunstar Baguio:
Internet link for Sagada, Banaue proposed

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US Tour: Ifugao Music and Dance Ensemble of Banaue

Yo! Is this blog becoming US-centric or what? May Kabunian forbid! Anyway, those of you based in the U.S. might want to check out the Ifugao Music and Dance Ensemble of Banaue if, by any chance, they will perform in a place near you. They will be in the U.S. from Sept 24 to October 30, 2007.

We will post the group’s sked when we get a copy. But here’s a description of the group and what they do:

The seven virtuoso tribal artists, ages 24 to 62, invited to participate in the US tour, have committed themselves to the stewardship of the Ifugao people’s dance, music, tribal arts, and indigenous cultural practices as a dynamic relevant part of contemporary life.

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