There are so many top list in the cropping up Philippine blogosphere nowadays and it’s a good thing because it allows us to discover the yet un-discovered. It also gives us a different perspective, depending on who’s creating the list and what that list represents.
However, if you regularly visited all these lists, you will see almost the same trend — the same names keep making it on the top, except for several bloggers who wanted to keep their identity a secret (nobody even knows what’s Bryanboy’s real name or if he’s really just 17).
There’s also one other very distinct similarity — not one of these top lists includes Filipina blogger and columnist Michelle Malkin. I just read her on Business Week just now being listed as one of the 14 top earners in the blogosphere.
So, I went over and checked her Wikipedia entry:
Michelle Malkin (née Maglalang) (born October 20, 1970) is an American columnist, blogger, author and political commentator. She is a social and political conservative who makes frequent guest appearances on national syndicated radio programs and on television networks such as MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and C-SPAN. As well as her written blog, she posts regular video blogs. Her syndicated column “appears in nearly 200 newspapers nationwide.”
Malkin was born in Philadelphia to Filipino parents, Dr. Apolo and Rafaela Maglalang. Her maternal grandfather fought under General Douglas MacArthur.[2] She grew up in Absecon, New Jersey, and graduated from Oberlin College. In 1993, she married Jesse Malkin, a Rhodes Scholar and RAND Corporation economist. They have two children.
Clearly, she’s Filipina of Filipino descent. She also blogs about the Philippines and links to other Filipino bloggers. She’s also in Technorati’s Popular 100 list, number 11 to be exact, so I’m pretty sure a lot of people know her.
But why isn’t she on our list?
Malkin? You’re kidding. She’s a Republican bulldog, and half of what she say, I believe, is insincerely felt. She’s trained journalist but probably couldn’t find a job in the liberal media (too much competition) and found herself a nice little career as a conservative journalist.
About her being omitted. Filipinos are not very ethical people. They let emotions and personal preferences get in the way of principle, policies, rules, etc. She’s a Filipino blogger definitely and should be the number one on the list.
Note: I’ve experienced this lack of appreciation for ethics by other Filipinos all my life so I know what I’m talking about. If you guys want to put up a list of Filipino Bloggers and include all bloggers of Filipino descent then you should definitely include Malkin. Who cares if she eventually mocks that list. And please stop rationalizing the omission by saying, “But she doesn’t really mingle with us pinoys. Wah, wah, wah.” For Godsakes! I’ve lives in this country my whole life and there’s nothing that pisses me off more than this cliquish attitude. Cliques are nice, by all means have a barkada but barkadas is not the be all and end all of existence. You all need to deal with other people fairly and ethically. Even if someone pisses you off. Just ask him to go out to the parking lot or something, but don’t bend the rules because you hate him. THis is uneducated, primitive behavior and believe me when I say, I SEE IT EVERY DAY.
which list are you talking about? if it’s pinoy top blogs, isn’t it the case that you have to join voluntarily?
btw, the second anniversary of pinoy top blogs came and went with no comment from its creator =)
BrianB: hinay hinay lang. Even if you’ve had bad experiences, it still is not good to generalize.
And I think that Abe is trying to be fair by posing this entry. So… sino nga ba dapat ang kasama sa listahan?
To BE Filipino means that the person in question feel like he/she belongs to this cultural identity. I know of a handful (including Malkin) who do not really belong to that list, at least in my opinion. It’s not being cliquish. It’s just trying to identify if these people really do fit the definition of FILIPINO.
Yuga was talking about a list, not Pinoy Top Blogs, in which case a link to said list was in order.
Malkin, I believe, is just a regular gal (Filipino or otherwise) who was faced earlier in her career with the prospect of starving as a journalism graduate. I’ve listened to her on YouTube and read her blogs on occasion, and I can’t believe half the things she said or wrote about are heartfelt. She’s found a role in the conservative U.S. media and is filling that role brilliantly (I’ve mentioned she’s kind of a conservative pitbull). Honestly if you listen to her, no person is that stupid or that narrow-minded. It’s a job and it’s making her a lot of money.
About Pinoy Top Blogs. seriously, who cares about it? The winners get a lot of traffic because of it but other than being a business tool, it doesn’t really serve as an accurate map of Filipinos on the blogosphere, does it?
sorry that’s “forced earlier in her career to face the prospect”
I do agree on what AnP said both on that Malkin’s blog doesnt really require her to write about being Filipino and this cultural identity.
I am a Filipino and even grew up in the Philippines but to be honest I don’t feel like culturally Filipino and it is even funny that I felt more at home or fit-in in a foreign country which I am living presently now.
I think there is nothing wrong about it coz people have different identities (culturally or whatever) no matter if we are of the same race or not.
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
BrianB, what gets on my damn nerves is people such as yourself, who must, and do, write in general terms..
describing Filipinos as unethical. And yet, if I can find just one Filipino who is ethical, your statement would already be shot down.
Indeed, it is not right for anyone, to use discriminating language in order to further their own agenda.
To say that this specific person, Malkin, is unethical, may be the correct statement, and more appropriate for this situation, but to castigate an entire race, in a commentary, it’s as if you know each and every Filipino who has ever lived.
This definition could be any person that is unruly…
Not necessarily that of a Filipino.
I’ve seen Malkin on television, and the sad thing about having neocons as bloggers, or any political extremist as pundits, is that they cannot back off even when they know they’re wrong. They have to pander to their audience’s political leanings lest they be ostracized for having a separate opinion…
Nick,
You think I’m just ranting? I’m talking about professors, bosses, colleagues, TV hosts, intellectuals, columnists. Once I actually angered a famous columnists in one of our broadsheets. He didn’t mention my name but he lambasted me with way too much specific information thrown in (e.g, my alma mater, the magazines I’ve published in, my province, and even rhymed my name with a pseudonym he created). I wrote a letter back to the paper, sent it to the editor in chief, the section editor, the columnist himself. And what happened. Nothing. I even had a lawyer call them.
You think I’m generalizing. Well, I am. Of course I’m generalizing. Nick I apologize but your statement (And yet, if I can find just one Filipino who is ethical, your statement would already be shot down.) doesn’t make any sense. We’re not talking about Newtonian laws here. This is a social observation. Of course there will be exceptions. Pag social observation na tinatawag majority lang nang tao ganyan eh ano na yan valid na generalization na yan. Di ba?
And problema sa iba eh pag foreigner ang nag kokoment sa filipino valid ang comment na yun at mas accepatble pa kesa kung pinoy na nakatira dito at matalino din ang magbigay nang observation.
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
A social observation need not be general in order for it to be valid.
The validity of the statement comes from the statement not whether or not that person is a foreigner.
My rebuttal, as you can read, mentions nothing about who you are, but is focused on what you said.
Whether you were a foreigner or not, I take exception not on who says it, but what that person said.
Of course, there is a need for social observations, but it need not castigate the majority, in order to further your agenda.
We get it. There is corruption, there are ethical problems, there are problems even with crime, and poverty..
But these are not exclusive Filipino problems, by which your comment makes it sound to be.
This is the responsibility that we must take upon ourselves. Not self censorship, but self responsibility.
To say that we need to improve our ethics in general would be more responsible than saying that Filipinos are unethical. Both are social commentaries, only one is a responsible commentary.
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
But with regards to Malkin, it doesn’t matter really whether you think she should be on the list.
Most top lists need scripts to be installed into the respective blog in order for tracking to work.
So, it is not our choice, but the choice of Mrs. Malkin herself to join any of these lists.
To join or not to join, that is the question.
He, I’m not as polite as you, nor do I want to be. Politeness, if I may make another general observation, is the friend of the corrupt elite.
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
I didn’t say polite, I said responsible.
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
Again, you can make that generalization, it doesn’t make it any more valid.
Politeness shouldn’t even be your focus with regards to the corrupt elite, because it isn’t the politeness that leads to that corruption in the first place, nor is it the extraction of that politeness that leads to the end of corruption.
Indeed, politeness is a friend to the decent, but is not needed for any social commentary.
But then again, you overlooked one thing, I didn’t say polite, I said responsibility.
Responsibility leads to credibility in social commentary, what trust can we have in your statements, when they aren’t even valid?
Twitter: filipinovoices
says:
But going back to Malkin, some maybe even most will not agree with her extreme rhetoric that she usually utters, but the decision is not with us with regards to having her on the top lists.
Because these things are voluntary.
Only lists that don’t need the participation of the owner can have that say. lists such as ratified.org, may be such a list that is within the purview of this discussion.
You’re a funny guy. You’re like the Catholic Church. Yeah, you say you believe in freedom of speech but then you turn it around by saying people should be responsible for what they say. “Freedom with responsibility.”
Are you this kind of guy, Nick? Does your brain work this way? When I said polite, I wasn’t quoting you. You are polite. That is an accusation. Freedom of Speech doesn’t go with responsibility, Nick. No one is responsible if no one gets punished. Philippine politicians are very good examples of that.
And don’t lecture me, friend. You’re a sixty-year-old man. You don’t like what I said just say so. Don’t presume to teach me how to speak or act. And I mean it. I’d rather you make a general statement too.
I mean , You’re NOT a 60-year-old man
And can anyone tell me what the heck does this mean?
“A social observation need not be general in order for it to be valid.”
Michelle Malkin once retorted to a guest that called her Asian that “I’m not Asian, I’m American.”
I guess that says it all. If she doesn’t even identify herself with her general ethnicity, I don’t think she wants to identify herself with her specific ethnicity either.
So the point is moot. She doesn’t want to be identified as Filipino, and would probably be pissed if we put her on the list, so why argue about it?
Re BrianB on Filipinos being unethical: yes, we are unethical bastards, and that’s why we are poor. The Philippines and the Filipinos will go nowhere because they are such. Forever and ever amen.
Happy now?
BrianB may have a valid point in saying that Filipinos are generally “unethical” but the discussion is getting too off-topic and out-of-hand already. Frankly I think the insinuation that Michelle Malkin was not included in these lists because of “cliquishness” and ultimately because of Filipinos’ “lack of ethics” is quite a long stretch of imagination. I believe it’s simply because of ignorance; I think only a few local bloggers are interested enough in U.S. politics to read Malkin’s blog and know that she actually has Filipino roots. Heck, I was only aware of this issue only know and it seems Yuga only learned of it recently, as well, and to think he’s already in the loop. I think BrianB erred in attributing malice to Malkin’s exclusion in these lists and should apologize for it.
That said, if the only criteria for being called a Filipino blogger is that the blogger has significant Filipino ancestry (maybe at least 1/2?) or is a Filipino citizen, then that blogger should be classified as such and included in these lists. Malkin falls under this definition and should be included, unless she opts out.
Twitter: marhgil
says:
on a lighter side… try googling michelle malkin and see the results. i think i saw a michelle malkin scandal picture on their image search preview results. hahaha!
[...] this is something amusing. After reading the numerous comments on Yugatech’s blog about Michelle Malkin, I tried googling her because I really don’t know anything about her. To my surprise, look at [...]
I’ve known of her existence for a long time. I own a list if that qualifies as the kind of ‘list’ Abe meant, but Michelle isn’t there. Why? It’s a user-submitted list. If Michelle doesn’t want in, I couldn’t care less. If you don’t want in, fine by me! That doesn’t make you any less Filipino, or by BrianB’s scandalous contention, ‘unethical’.
Nice pictures of Michelle Malkin.. astounding.
Michelle Malkin is a Republican and is therefore a believer in assimilation rather than in diversity of culture in a melting pot. The moment you get that US citizenship, you are no longer what you were, Asian, African…you are an American without hyphen.
Even before her popular blog, Filipinos in the US expressed their disgust in forums to this plain looking lady who has nothing but contempt for her third world country.