A few days ago, I was reading Roger Ebert's blog about 'Kinatay", a Filipino film which competed at this year's prestigious Cannes film festival.  He mentioned the film was unwatchable, so much so that he apologized for calling Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" the worst film in the festival's history.

It's not just Roger who dislikes the movie.  Several prominent critics from the Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and Variety have noted how bad they felt the movie is.  Of course everyone has their own opinion on what makes a film good or bad, but what is truly worrying about the the movie is how it was jeered at its reception and eventual awarding (more on that later).

Philippine news in the last day or so has been consumed by a supposed furor over a supposed "scandalous" sex video, containing intimate moments between Katrina Halili and Hayden Kho, a popular sex starlet and a plastic surgeon respectively.

Read that last sentence again.  Now ask yourself these two questions.

• Is this news worthy?
• Does it concern the nation?

Filipinos are known for being humorous.  We can find light-hearted solace in the most depressing of situations.  It's how most of our brethren, the impoverished and down-trodden, get by to survive life's daily travails.  Despite this, we are also the most thin-skinned when anything remotely Filipino related is made fun of or criticized.

The latest incredulous example is the Alec Baldwin's supposed "slur" on our nation.  According to this report, he has, "joined the ranks of internationally recognized celebrities who have maligned Filipinos."

Baldwin said in an interview on the "Late Show with David Letterman" last May 12 how he thought of getting, or buying, himself a Filipina bride.

"I think about getting a Filipino mail-order bride at this point or a Russian one, I don't care, I'm 51," Baldwin told host David Letterman.

Oh, the outrage!  Wait 'til the Russian consulate sends its complaints over the slurring of their people as well!