15 years

Whenever my Uncle Larry (Lim) visits, one of the first things he says, without fail, is: “I love your column, Mike. I agree with most of them, but I have to say, they’re always too long.”

Today and next Wednesday, I’m going to entertain you with many short stories and vignettes about, well, the column itself, responding to the questions I get most frequently from friends: how did I get into doing a column in the first place, where do I get my ideas, how long does it take to write one, what kind of responses I get, and, finally, do I feel it’s worthwhile doing the column.

It was in May 1997 when I wrote my first Pinoy Kasi column, so I thought it’d be a good time for reflecting on and taking stock of 15 years of column writing. I thought, too, it’d be a good chance to take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of what’s involved in press work, specifically for the columns.

When I started Pinoy Kasi it was to substitute for Conrad de Quiros, who was on leave doing his book “Dead Aim.” The idea terrified me: Who was I to substitute for a veteran and master writer? The late Gani Yambot was the one who contacted me, and assured me, “Kaya mo yan” (You can do it) and in the years to come, would call from time to time to provide some encouragement.

I did not train in journalism; neither did I have a column before Pinoy Kasi in the Inquirer or in any other paper. (Which is why I love it when people come up and say “I love your _______ columns,” naming one of the two lesser papers instead of the Inquirer.) I did write one, or maybe it was two, guest columns for Margy Holmes, who did have space in the Inquirer at that time and I think that’s why I was contacted to write more.

I decided to take the challenge, in part because Letty Magsanoc said she wanted something about “culture” and the Filipino, a fit with my work as an anthropologist. That first column was probably one of the hardest ones I ever did, trying to explain why I chose “Pinoy Kasi,” a name that took ages as well to pick out.

Youngblood, High Blood

I was first assigned to the space Conrad used (and still uses) on the editorial page. After Conrad returned, I was asked to keep on writing and assigned new space in the letters to the editor page.  I felt like a contortionist, the column running horizontally and vertically depending on the number of letters to be printed, and the ads. In the end, I was assigned to the op-ed page, in this space, alternating with Youngblood and High Blood, which I thought was somewhat symbolic since I was somewhere in between. I have to say, though, that I will join the ranks of the High Blood in a few months, so expect another “taking stock” article.

My column goes lengthwise, which is why it’s longer than the others.  I occasionally do “2-in-1” or “3-in-1” columns but I have to say they’re harder to do, mainly because I don’t want to end up oversimplifying some of the issues I’m tackling.

Through the years, I’ve produced two columns each week, which means at least 102 articles a year. I’m proud to say I’ve missed only one column in those 15 years, and it was not because I didn’t write an article but it didn’t get to the Inquirer because of some technical glitch.

I was devastated when that happened but quickly recovered, amazed at how technologies have been mixed blessings for journalism. When I was a child my father would bring me to the office of the Great China Press in Chinatown and, once, to an English newspaper.  He was a journalist in the 1950s and although he went on to business, kept in touch with former colleagues and press offices.

Noisy and happy

The visits to the press always fascinated me, with all the frantic activity, reporters and photographers rushing in and out. In the English newspaper office, reporters, photographers and editors were constantly in a rush and always seemed to be shouting at each other. But I learned early enough it was noise in the sense of the Tagalog “masaya”—happy, frantic, excited. It was also shouting to get themselves heard, above the din of the typewriters and printing presses.

It was frantic, too, in the Chinese newspaper offices but in a different way.  Articles had to be written out by hand in Chinese, checked by editors, and then sent to typesetters, who would look at the manuscript and pick out each and every Chinese character, pulling out tiny metal blocks that would be put in place into a template for printing. The typesetters worked without their shirts on, in rooms that were hot and stuffy.

Fast forward to a visit I made a few weeks ago with my son to the Inquirer, still full of activity but the word to use now is “humming”—people speaking in generally low voices, mixing with the white noise of air-conditioning and computers. I had to pick up my income tax forms and when my son proclaimed, “Dada, I’m so hungry,” the entire office heard him, and everyone rushed to feed him something. I sighed, “Now everyone’s going to think I’m starving you to death.”  (Salamat, accounting people!)

I’m lucky to have started as an Inquirer columnist in the computer era. Computers have made press work so much easier, especially for those who write in Chinese, with software to pick out characters. Computers make it easy to write and rewrite, and now with laptops, netbooks and tablets, one can write in all kinds of places. Before the kids came along, I practically lived out of a suitcase and learned to do my columns in hotel rooms, barrio classrooms, Internet cafés, even on the beach. Now with the kids, it’s finding ways to answer their questions while writing…and making sure I get hold of the computer before they do.

As for filing a story, Gani assured me that I didn’t have to report to the Inquirer: “Just fax in the articles.” Technologies do create new challenges. During the faxing years, there were battles with printers, fax machines and phone lines. Tin Ang, our ever reliable production assistant, would call: “Garbled lines,” referring to problems in the fax transmission and which meant reading out the missing text, which could be entire paragraphs.

Then we switched to e-mail. We may have moved from GSM to 3G, but so much still depends on service providers. Just today I got my PLDT DSL connection fixed after a month of service calls and return calls.  What a relief it was for me knowing I can send this article quickly.

I’m going to continue with a few more stories next week. Find out about where I get ideas for columns, who sends fan letters, and who sends the most vicious hate letters. I’ll write, too, about how my column got me to become ninong to a death row convict.  Learn about the Sunflower Pink Panther.  And about why I haven’t written lately about Panatag Shoal or Renato Corona. Finally, I’ll share some lessons about life, and about values, from writing Pinoy Kasi.

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