Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors is about to eliminate Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 NBA Western Conference Playoffs. It’s an amazing accomplishment because the Warriors had been crappy even before I moved here in Northern California and the Mavericks are the defending Western Conference Champions.

I have watched the Warriors play the LA Lakers of Kobe and Shaq in Staples Center and the New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings in Oakland Arena and the Warriors then really sucked. The only player who, I thought, was worth watching was Jason Richardson, a 2-time dunk champion. Every time he’s ahead of everybody, you can expect for an acrobatic dunk. Other than him, better save your $60 and watch them on TV.

Since the January 17 trade for Steven Jackson and Al Harrington from the Indiana Pacers, the Warriors was a different team. They became fast and athletic. They play just like the Phoenix Suns and they are fun to watch.

This year is the first time that the Warriors appeared in the NBA playoff games after 13 years of absence and California had seen the biggest-attended NBA game ever in its history last Sunday (TNT). More than 20,000 people went to the home game in Oracle Arena in Oakland. Arata Wata watched the game in a big screen TV in his crib in downtown San Jose, about 1-hour drive south of Oakland.

It’s now 3 to 1 in favor of the Warriors. One more beating of the Mavericks and the Warriors, lead by Baron Davis, will make NBA history: the first time that a No. 8-seeded team, who barely made it to the playoff, would beat a favorite, No. 1-seeded team in the best-of-seven first round format. Considering the standings of the two teams, this will be the biggest postseason upset in NBA history (San Jose Mercury News).

Arata Wata believes that we too can make history. We can turn our society around for the better because we have most of the requirements to be a great nation.

We have this Blog i Arata Wata. A “no holds barred” blog, where we can freely discuss the solutions to our problems, no political intimidations.

Seriously though, here are the facts that I believe will make Pangampong a Ranao great once again.

• Among the Muslim tribes, we are the most educated. Thanks to the Mindanao State University and to late Senator Domocao Alonto for providing us with cheap and quality education. I need some volunteers to do a survey of the educational attainment of every family in Marawi City. Please post the result of your survey in this thread and identify yourself para ka’b’gan ka sa award. Here’s the stats for my family. All 9 siblings are at least college graduate. 1 Medical Doctor, 1 Civil Engineer, 1 CPA, 1 Chemical Engineer and 1 Ph.D in CPA Review.

• Lake Lanao is a “gold mine”. If we can get an equitable share of its revenue and the operations of National Power Corporation, it can replace MSU as the main employer and financial provider for Pilandok. We can re-grow its fish population so we don’t have to import fish from the coastal areas. It can be developed for tourism. As it is, we have the biggest toilet in the world.

• Beautiful place and nice weather. Minus the snow, the Rocky Mountains on the eastern side of Denver looks like the mountains surrounding Lake Lanao. Same with the views of Lake Tahoe and Ithaca in New York State.

• Besides infrequent earth quakes, there are no other natural calamities that hits our place. We’re safe.

• Land is fertile and maybe, we have undiscovered oil deposit simply because we are Muslims. That’s God’s unique way of compensating the Muslims for their stupidity in the modern time.

• We have Maratabat, a culture of shame. It just need a little refinement so it can be used for constructive purposes, like, ip’maratabat so di kapaka comment sa giya Blog I Arata Wata and join the discussions.

• We are for the country what the Chinese is to the world. We are born merchants. We have padagang in almost all mercado and malls in the country.

• Most peaceful among the Muslim groups.

• Good politicians, kurap lang. Our 15 Sultanate Federation (Sapulo ago lima a Panoroganan sa Ranao) is so much more complex than the single-Sultan, absolute-power model of Sulu and Maguindanao.

• Our ka-kalilang is the best in the country. We can make money out of it. We need to preserve it.

• Some speak fluent Arabic. Good source for Middle East Call Centers.

• We are 99% Muslims. We have the most number of ulama compared to the other Muslim tribes. This one, I am not really sure if it’s good or bad. But it’s good that we have the most number of mosques and madrasas.

I can go on and on and on.

We can really be great once again. But we need to change our ways, especially on politics, maratabat and how we treat other people, like the Christians living among us.

We also need this young, strong and very good-looking super-hero, who will cleanse our society of evil people, just like Superman in Gotham City. E, si Batman pala iyon.

Ay sorry, nagmukha siyang Nacho Libre.

Please invite other Pilandoks to visit this site and get involve in the discussions.

Print your favorite page of this blog and post it on the entrance to your internet shop, on student bulletin boards or hand it out. Talk about the contents of ArataWata.Com with your friends.

If you are a student, get cool. Have an Arata Wata Party and talk about how you can help to change our society for the better. I may pay for your pizzas and kakolas. And don't forget to take pictures of you and your friends, send them to me. Your pictures will be posted here.

Let us all do something to improve our society. We owe it to our children and their future to fix the ills of our society today. Our fathers failed us that's why we're in this big mess. Let's not allow our children to say the same thing about us.

Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a social revolution. A peaceful revolution for change.

If you have ideas on how to solve our problems, please send them to Arata Wata so we can discuss them. At least, post your comments on the issues. You don’t have to be a good writer. I am not. Basta sabot'n bo so pamikiran ka na kapakay d'n.

The Candidates

One of the Anonys have requested that I post a discussion about who’s the right candidate to vote in the 2nd congressional district. I think, that’s a good idea but we have to be careful not to make Blog I Arata Wata a political tool of any of the candidates.

I don’t have the list of the candidates and I can not give opinions on who are the right ones to vote. Arata Wata is a NRP, Non-Resident Pilandok.

We are not choosing between good and bad politicians. Honeylove said, they are all thieves and crooks. I agree. It’s more of voting for the lesser evil really.

Antona a Ini

Assallam Wallaikhom.
Peace.

Giya na k'na oba a regular website a pamisita kaon bo, pagilay sa manga tuladan a manga tataid a babai, odi na m'batiya sa manga estorya a manga artista, mapasad na lagid o bitowan'n a pagawa-an ka bad'n.
Stay a while.

Daa a kailay ngka saya a lom'lkas a kaolit a babai odi na dimamagarka odi na di m'lob lobd odi na di kakaromai.
No pornography.

Giyaya na blog. Lagid aya o kambangka sa Banggolo. Pang p'd ka ko di m'banka na pagestorya-an ka langon a miya sowa sowa o manga siringan ka. Antona a i ini s'da iran isako gagawii, pira i minibayad kiran sa mga boto iran, ino siran di panga ooliti, blah, blah, blah... Bapiya kapamrak!
This is a blog.

Kapakay a isorat ka so estorya ngka sa bapiya antona a a basa: m'ranao, englis, tagalog, bisaya, arab, insek. Ogaid na da n'da a pakabatiya sa insek. S'kabo i di bitiyarai sa ginawangka lagid i Tomaroy ago si Alandag.
Use any language to post your comments.

Langon a estorya ago sakit a Ranao ago so kaompiya iron na pag estorya-an tano sii sa giya a blog i Arata Wata.
Welcome.

Click here for Welcome Video.

Moro ain't cool

Moro is the name given by the Spaniards to mostly dark-skin people, like the Malays and the Moors who ruled Spain for 800 years and who happen to be Muslims. It’s not purely a religious category. One Mexican brother told me that they too were called Moros by the Spaniards. There’s nothing wrong with that.

The problem is in the Philippines, the word Moro is used to derogate a Muslim. It's like the “N” word for African-Americans.

It's not uncommon to read the phrase “A good Moro is a dead Moro” in the country's leading newspaper editorials. And in public elementary schools in Christian areas, pupils play Moro-Moro. It’s about a beautiful Muslim princess rescued by a Christian prince from the savagery of the Moros.

First of all, our Muslim lawmakers, if they know why they are in the Congress, should criminalize the playing of Moro-Moro especially in public institutions because it teaches hatred. Not good for national reconciliation and integration.

Why use a stupid name that most of us hate and even our Christian friends don’t want to use because they don't want to offend us? When the media talk about Adel Tamano, do they say, “Si Adel, ‘yong Moro na spoke person ng opposition...”? And did your Christian friends ever called you Moro in your face?

Most likely, our ancestors didn’t even know that they were called Moros. The word was never mentioned in our Sarsila, Darang'n or bayok.

It’s very unfortunate that Muslim leaders of the 1960’s adopted the name Moro. The more respectable name is Muslim that’s why Malacanang created the Office of Muslim Affairs NOT Office of Moro Affairs.

Why can’t we just be called simply Muslims or Filipino Muslims, like the Bosnian Muslims?

Arata Wata does not like to be called a Moro. It ain't cool.

Exchange Rate

In this thread, we will track the "going rate" for the May, 2007 local election in Ranao. We will not mention names. We're just interested in the peso amount.

After the election and depending on the number of inputs we get, we will create a spreadsheet showing the approximate cost of the election and do financial analysis, like, what if all the political money were invested in Ranao local economy or used to buy carabaos for the local farmers.

So please post your "price". If you haven't received it yet, just let us know how much was promised. That's good enough.

This information will not be available in the National Statistics Office.

Ulama in Politics

Do you like the Ulama to run the government of Ranao? Arata Wata says, NO. Without exceptions, the Ulama politicians have failed miserably. Even the lucky ones who did not have to buy people's vote acted like the traditional politicians. Worst in some cases.

What do you think?

Christmas Light

Lake Lanao supplies most of the electric power in Mindanao. But the municipalities around the lake and the City of Marawi don't have stable power supply. Lagid kon o Christmas light so ka pata patay o solo sa Ranao. Lanao del Sur is always the first to black out before the other provinces. What an irony!

Arata Wata is wondering why this is happening. Ino manga day oto, da-ani?

Same old, same old

It's election time again in Ranao and it's "same old, same old". Politicians are buying and voters are selling to the highest bidder. For the next 3 years after the May 2007 election, elected politicians will simply pocket government money and the only thing Pilandok and Padol can do is talk about it in Banggolo over a cup of coffe and apang.

But who's to be blamed? The politicians, the voters, the central government, or the Ulama? And what can we do to stop this political circus?