Picture of the Year

There is nothing like a good list to get one's juices stirred up. It's great when there are winners or losers. It's organized gossip. Like Time Magazine trying to filter a year of global acts down to one man. Boy howdy, Time takes it on the chin every year for the people the editors did not choose. 

Seventh Runner Up

This, my friends, is an action photo, showing the Number One idol of the Philippines, Representative Colonel Doctor Champion Champion Champion Champion Champion Champion Champion Manny Pacquiao displaying another of his skills: submachine gun shooting.  Not shown in the photo is his aptitude in chicken fighting, betting, boxing, and praying. Or soldering. Or honorary doctoring. Or law making.

It is by definition a good photo because it is of Pacquiao, and our list would be horribly remiss if we did not include this icon of Filipino public service, pride and virtue.

Plus, I don't want no hyper-sensitive Filipino congressman on my case for failing to show allegiance to their dream guy whom I, being Hollywood of origin, mistakenly take to be merely an entertainer, and a very rich one at that.

Sixth Runner Up

Oh, rats! Now Congress is going to be on my case for re-running this mocking photo by Justin Bieber of Manny Pacquiao imitating Michael Jackson's lean.

A guy can't even be a reporter around here without getting his mitt in a wringer.

Congress has a bill in the hopper to declare Justin Bieber "persona non-grata" in the Philippines for mocking National Hero Pacquiao, a guy who has virtually identical credentials to the other National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

Evidently freedom of expression to these congressmen means "you are free to express whatever I find acceptable".

Bizarre. As if their Congressional Act helps the international standing of the Philippines, once again casting the Philippines as a nation of whiners. Who is doing the most damage, Bieber, whom most people find upstanding and kind, or Philippine congressmen with zero comprehension that free expression is what helps a nation grow and stay honest.

Never mind that the poor go poor, the FOI bill languishes, the Divorce Bill suffers and other bills of import get pushed aside for this urgent vendetta. Congress evidently has nothing substantial to do.

But let's get serious.

Fifth Runner Up

This picture was not taken in 2012, obviously, but it was found by JoeAm in 2012 and he was stunned at the portrayal of an American soldier doing a good deed rather than coming off as one of the American sons-of-bitches who blasted Manila to rubble trying to get some rats out.

This is a scene from the WW II Battle for Manila.

You will note the nun in the background bringing a halo to the picture. And the rubble. And in the fore, the serious American soldier carrying a young Filipina who appears to be in shock. The beauty and the beast, eh?

Contrary to what some might lead you to believe, most Americans are genuinely good people. Her military leaders sometimes take brutal choices.

Fourth Runner Up

This picture is of importance because it shows three things: (1) the nations of the world eating all the tuna from the sea, consigning their grandkids to the enjoyment of eating seaweed and salt, (2) a very handsome hunka hunka tuna, and (3) an even more handsome hunka hunka Filipino, the latter doing what 80 percent of all Filipino men are consumed with: (a) laboring for a pittance, and (b) being happy.

For some reason, I love the laboring Philippines. Americans sacrifice their young men on the battlefield and Filipinos do it in the fields and trees and oceans and pedaling bicycles for a lifetime.

Third  Runner Up

I wish Transparency International or Pulse Asia or some other influential rating agency would evaluate all the countries in the world on the scale of Most Photogenic to Least Photogenic.

I don't care where you are in the Philippines, you can wake up, wander around for an hour, and come home with photos, one of which will prove to be absolutely stunning.

This is that photo for 2012, Bohol, obviously, a rice field, obviously, and a home or cottage.

The Philippines has to be in the top ten, eh? There are so many good shots I have largely given up on the camera and taken to simply absorbing the most gorgeous place on earth. And the most poignant. And on occasion the most tragic.

Second Runner Up

Storms rake the Philippines regularly. We'll set aside the earthquakes, volcanoes and coup temperments for now and focus on the wind and rain.

Filipinos deal with storms in phases: (1) preparation if they are lucky enough to hear that a big one is coming, (2) hunkering down during the rain and wind, (3) emerging to a landscape of destruction and too often death, (4) finding relief, (5) surviving, and (6) rebuilding before the next one hits.

This is a picture of relief delivered in the Filipino tradition, the powerful overwhelming the weak to get their handout. I will leave it to you to guess what share of the crowd is genuinely needy and what share is out for a freebie. If I have become a cynic, it is because the local training is exemplary.

This is a picture that says a lot, and leaves too much to the imagination.

First Runner Up

I'm always looking for new photos of President Aquino because he is always popping up in my blogs.

This one is fantastic because it is how he deserves to look for all the good work he is doing to raise the Philippines out of an era of corruption and self dealing into one of honest work and achievement. He is not merely doing traditional acts of governance, he is doing those acts which will remake the Philippine social and governmental framework forever.

Arresting plunderers. Tossing errant Chief Justices. Hammering out a Mindanao agreement. An RH Bill. Anti-Disappearing Bill. POGI Bill (FOI) coming down the pike. I expect Divorce to be delivered, too. These are all modernization acts, acts that CHANGE the Philippines for the good, sometimes done in the face of crusty old men who would hold the Philippines to its backward days forever.

I like the picture because this is how I imagine President Aquino would look upon arriving back in the Philippines after traveling to Norway to get his Nobel Peace Prize.

JoeAm's Favorite Photo of 2012

Yes, it has to be a people shot. Showing the side of the Philippines that the antis simply won't recognize. The heart and dedication and effort of good people in the face of incredible obstacles.

The occasion is the aftermath of typhoon Bopha. I look at the activities from the perspective of the woman on the stretcher who has given her trust, and the safety of her young child, to the men of the rescue unit. Her ride is loud, it is bumpy, it is cold and wet, it is filled with tension. Yet she is calm, for her baby.

I'm sorry, I don't know the men or the situation or the woman.

But I think it does not matter much. The photo is for the thousands and thousands of unnamed good samaratan Filipinos who emerge during or after a tragedy to begin making some sense of it. Some kindness. They dig for the bodies. They rescue those holding onto life by a thread. They put themselves at risk. They labor as only Filipinos can labor. Long hours, sleepless nights, little food and precious little monetary reward. You know, frankly and with cynicism and satire aside, I think Manny Pacquiao is one of these guys, at the core, which is why he is so loved.

Too many congressmen do not appear to be of this style, frankly. Nor some Associate Chief Justices. Nor some governors.

The contrast is stunning.

Jesse Robredo would be there, for sure. In the water. It's the REAL Philippines, y'know? Where people of good heart, and often little wealth and little power, step up to help others in even greater need . . .