Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:16:06 -0700 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 9 #334 - 3 msgs X-Mailer: Mailman v2.0.13.cisto1 MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Errors-To: eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net X-BeenThere: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.13.cisto1 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net X-Subscribed-Address: fma@martialartsresource.com List-Id: Inayan Eskrima / FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Help: Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: Send Eskrima mailing list submissions to eskrima@martialartsresource.net To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net You can reach the person managing the list at eskrima-admin@martialartsresource.net When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Eskrima digest..." <<-------- The Inayan/Eskrima/Kali/Arnis/FMA mailing list -------->> Serving the Internet since June 1994. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). http://InayanEskrima.com/index.cfm See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA list at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. Seminar Oct 5th and new video clip (Steven Lefebvre) 2. Op-Ed: Dulled Minds (Ray Terry) 3. FMA Influence on Star Wars (al sardinas) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: "Steven Lefebvre" To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 10:22:25 +0000 Subject: [Eskrima] Seminar Oct 5th and new video clip Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Hello Everyone, First, check out the cool video clip on the Atienza Kali web site :http://www.atienzakali.com/pages/videogallery2.html This is also a reminder about our upcoming Atienza Kali seminar on Oct 5th, from 12 pm- 5 pm. Material to be covered: AK Islang Kalis (Single sword) and AK Punyal (Knife fighting) with Atienza Kali basics and ADP #1 in conjunction with proper body mechanics Applied in Phase 1 and 2 of AK Mass attack Exercises Introduction to the Atienza Kali Blade Simulator Equipment required 1 training sword 1 training knife comfortable training attire. Location Bujinkan Dojo 250 Commercial st, suite 2008 Manchester, NH, 03101 Cost: $50.0 For more information please contact : Sensei Steven Lefebvre (603) 668-3181, Airyu@hotmail.com Or visit www.Atienzakali.com, www.Bujinkandojo.net _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com --__--__-- Message: 2 From: Ray Terry To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net (Eskrima) Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 08:13:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Eskrima] Op-Ed: Dulled Minds Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Op-Ed Monday, September 23, 2002 Dulled minds It was as dawn struck that darkness descended on our country. Thirty years ago today martial rule began to blight our land, and its legacy remains with us to this day. Not in terms of the economy, or of politics, for Filipinos are more jealous about their freedoms today than they were before. Instead, the most quantifiable legacy of the New Society remains the dull minds of our youth. What is done by one generation is not fully felt until the next; what Marcos began 30 years ago is bearing bitter fruit today. The once honored and dignified profession of teacher is no longer that, degraded and subjected to demoralization by three decades of government interference and bureaucratic timidity. As the generation of prewar teachers retired under Marcos, they were replaced by people who had to live with a system that stifled dissent, punished initiative, subjected teachers to endless political tasks, and in the process, politicized them in the worst way. It is not surprising then that the cowed, timid, bureaucratic creatures created by martial rule should produce students who valued conformity over creativity, who saw fitting in and being part of the gang preferrable to speaking out, who preferred a culture of safe mediocrity to a life of dangerous initiative. Its axiomatic that in dictatorships, the middling and mediocre are the ones who survive; it is inevitable that the products of such people will reflect the worst characteristics of those that molded their minds. Concerned citizens who have been making efforts to study solutions to the crisis in education point to disturbing facts. That, in tests administered to public and private school students alike, the average Filipino student absorbs only half or even less than half of what he is expected to know by a certain age. This isnt even a passing mark, which we all recall is 75 percent. The result is that our graduates from high school or even college are undereducated: they can neither speak nor write English nor Filipino properly; their skills in math are shockingly poor; their knowledge of the sciences rudimentary at best. Yet their numbers are increasing at a constant rate even as their levels of education are declining at a constant rate. Which means the fewer and fewer who excel stand an ever-increasing chance of being drowned out and swamped by their substandard fellow citizens. It is the ravaged condition of our educational system, which has become a battling ground for contending ideologies that prefer our schools turned into brainwashing centers for the promotion of their political views, instead of centers for the inculcation of basic education, which this country desperately needs, that is at the core of the many crises facing our country. Politically, an undereducated country is one susceptible to the worst blandishments of populist crooks, the intimidation by adventurist military men, the machinations of traditional dynasties. Morally, a country of halfwits is one that cannot distinguish between the fleeting pleasures of the body and higher, finer considerations of a developed sense of morality and taste. Economically, a nation of undereducated citizens is one condemned to a basic service economy without the chance of developing higher skilled workers and more important industries than singing cooks and waiters. Education -- the lack of it -- is what will fatally weaken our Republic, and keep us mired in a society in which the rich may remain richer, but will get dumber and end up just as dumb as the poor -- who outnumber the rich and will eventually drown them out. For the poor, a dumb society is one that will condemn them to greater poverty and hopelessness than theyve ever seen before. The question to ask of everyone, rich or poor, in politics or in civil society, soldier, priest, politician, citizen, is: if a generation has resulted in the miserable nearly subhuman standing of our young people, do we have the will and the sense of a commonality of purpose, to begin righting the wrongs, so that in another 30 years, we will at least be where we were in 1972? Because that is the most anyone can hope to achieve. To turn back the clock in 60 years so that, by 2032, the country will be back where it was before Marcos imposed martial law. That is the challenge facing our country. This is the last chance for those who belong to the baby boomer generation, the last properly educated generation of Filipinos, to ensure that even if Generation X is a lost cause, perhaps Generation Y may be salvaged and who knows, those who will be known as Generation Z will at least be able to reach the level of education and refinement of their grandparents. Readin, Ritin, Rithmitic are the things our country needs. And a healthy dose of the sciences. Anything else is a luxury that can wait until college. The emergency is that dire; the need that desperate. And anyone who disagrees has not met the deplorably undereducated young our schools produce. --__--__-- Message: 3 From: "al sardinas" To: Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 11:42:32 -0400 Subject: [Eskrima] FMA Influence on Star Wars Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net One of our Filipino students in the Garimot System, Christopher, has forwarded this interesting article regarding the influence of the FMA's on the design of the curved lightsaber used in Star Wars. It's from the Homing Beacon, the Star Wars.com Newsletter. # 69 Thursday, September 19, 2002. Enjoy! "Count Dooku clearly does things his own way, but his ideology is not the only thing that sets him apart. His lightsaber handle design is unique among the Jedi weapons fans have seen to date in the saga. The distinctive curved lightsaber first appeared in early sketches of the new Sith enemy, and this direction was later expanded with the help of Art Department Assistant Roel Robles, who brought in some of his own cultural roots to the design table. "I started bringing in my arsenal of various Filipino swords, spears, and knives to give the Art Department a different feel than what we had before. At one point, we had a room full of artists playing with these deadly balisong (butterfly) knives before a meeting," he recalls. Robles' collection included a wide variety of blade types, but his favored weapon was the barong, which featured a curved handle to prevent weapon slippage during combat. "It looks cool, sharp and deadly," he says. At one Art Department meeting, Design Director Doug Chiang had Robles lay out his weapons for George Lucas to inspect. "George picked out the barong, which I was really happy about not only because it was my favorite blade, but also since it was a Filipino blade, it had cultural and historical bonds. I am proud to say I was able to put a small part of my Filipino heritage into the film," says Robles. As further inspiration to his fellow Art Department members, Robles arranged a demonstration of escrima, a Filipino martial arts employing multiple bladed weapons. He and a friend, Jonathan Soriben ("one of the best Filipino martial arts masters that I know," he says) reserved the basketball court at the Skywalker Ranch fitness center and went at it with sticks rather than knives. "So as not to scare anyone," Robles clarifies. "When Dermot Power came up from London to work with the team, Iain McCaig encouraged me to set up a demonstration. Iain and Dermot were designing the Sith at the time, and were very impressed. They began to do more work on the Sith with escrima in mind," says Robles. " Respectfully, Al Sardinas Student of Garimot System of Arnis --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2002: Ray Terry and http://MartialArtsResource.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember 9-11! End of Eskrima Digest