Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Of Hand Coding and Democracy

by Jemimah Grace N. Garcia

A radio broadcaster was killed in Star. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, while two others were fortunate enough to have survived the ambush in Lucena Quezon in April this year. That month marked the 51st among the killed mediamen since 2001 and 87th since ‘democracy’ was restored in 1986.

There has been no stop in the killings of reporters in the line of duty, most of whom are involved in the exposure of graft, corruption or scandals involving local politicians.

If the purpose of the killings is to threaten and intimidate the media, the objective has been met only to a certain extent. The numbers would not have reached this high if the perpetrators have run out of mediamen to silence. The killings would not have continued if reporters have chosen to succumb to fear, or just subscribe to the apathetic’s motto of ‘what you don’t know won’t hurt you.’

Some who would choose to have nothing to do with the climate of impunity in the country would say that these reporters and broadcasters were not killed in the line of duty anyway, or worse, that they were killed because of unprofessionalism. I believe the latter is more convenient to believe since it leaves things as they are and even paints the targeting of press people as a service to the nation.

That's how most of us define democracy anyway. We believe, and we embrace, democracy because it gives us the 'freedom to choose' and the 'freedom to believe' in what we want. A very post-modern way of putting democracy- yes, and a very selfish and apathetic way of putting it, if I may add.

In my Online Journalism class in UP, we have been taught that the Internet, as a new medium, is powerful and far-ranging. It is in fact one of the havens of alternative journalism, which intends to give the public information that they need to know, and not what they want to know. In fact, it is alternative in the sense that the information and analyses we find in the alternative Web sites seldom find their way into the mainstream media. These are the truths that bite and sting. These are the truths that have biases, and these are biases for the masses and the real democratic bases of the country.

However, as rental rates in Internet cafes lowered and blogging became such a craze, the urban areas of the Philippines became hooked with the Net. Even kids as young as 7 years old have their own Friendster accounts or simple blogger.com web logs, or ‘blogs’ as we popularly call them. Subsribing to existing blog hosting sites are much simpler and cheaper and more convenient for maintenance than coding your own.. it also removes the burden of learning the basics of HTML from the user. For as long as he knows how to operate the software or how to navigate through the hosting site, he can and he will have a blog.

I personally had three blogs before “Tinta sa sapot.” They were all very easy and cheap to maintain and update, but it’s also very easy to forget and neglect it. The contents were light and even insignificant (what difference would it make to mankind if a teenager trips on her way to school or gets caught in traffic?), and the feeling of attachment to the whole laborious process of building the site is not there. It is as if alienation sinks in because the process is alienating to begin with.

When I learned hand coding which uses only Notepad and basic knowledge of the HTML, I developed patience and critical thinking. Do I make a table or do I leave it blank? How do I reduce the font? Is the layout okay? For the most part of the completion of the site, it is tempting to give up and just leave the site as amateurish as it started, yet a small part says I should continue and give it the best I have not for the grade but for what I discussed above – for the purpose of having the Web site.

I made it clear from the start that this site is devoted not only to my random thoughts of the world, but more importantly, on articles and works which do not find their way into the mainstream media and which would side with the people.

Hand coding a site is definitely time consuming and tedious, yet the principles it instills on the web master and the journalist also definitely takes a lot of time and effort to wear off. On my part, it also reminds the writer of the purpose for having the Site, if it is to impress friends or if it is to serve. Hand coding gives the writer more time to think of what should be published on the web site, given the limited space and the amount of time spent hand coding the whole thing. This reminds me again of our post-modern and very convenient definition of democracy, which is still being propagated and reinforced through hegemony using the Net. Again, through the Web, we choose what we want, we read what we want and we write what we want. It is simple, cheap and painless after all. Log-in and publish programs and sites such as Friendster, Multiply, Blogger, etc makes it easy for us, after all, to shop and sell the democratic nature of the Web like it is just some fashionable bag or a new-generation Ipod.

Hand coding is not just a mechanism or one way of putting up a Web site, or an on-line journalism site for that matter; it is also a principle which instills discipline patience and dedication to the web master who would not quit because it is clear for whom s/he is hand coding. It makes clear that the freedom and power to blog, the freedom to maintain an Web site is not just the freedom and power to shop or sell ideas, but a freedom and power with great responsibility. Just like in hand coding where your values, parameters, symbols, etc should be flawless and with purpose (or otherwise you just wasted brain cells because it is not easy to hand code), on-line journalism should be objective, purposeful, and meaningful to the masses and to the Filipino people.

A country where there is freedom is where journalists are not killed and activists are not summarily executed. Real freedom is where ideas and sentiments are not for sale or for personal gain. Democracy is where the greatest number of Filipinos are heard and not oppressed. Democracy is where the masses are emancipated, and one way to know if we are on our way to true democracy is to see whether hand coders and all other web authors have gone online not to seek prestige or cheap freedom, but to shake and challenge the status quo.

Web masters, serve the people!

Red - the color of blood and of encompassing change

Butterfly - stingy, swift, learned and ready

I am the RED BUTTERFLY...

...come see me fly