Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2006 12:06:18 -0700 From: eskrima-request@martialartsresource.net Subject: Eskrima digest, Vol 13 #175 - 7 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: Eskrima-FMA discussion forum, the premier FMA forum on the Internet. 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Copyright 1994-2006: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The Internet's premier discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. 2300 members. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Michael G. Inay (1944-2000). See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima/FMA digest at http://MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! Today's Topics: 1. training in Illinois (Tobias T. Gibson) 2. Something to Crow About (California Eskrima) 3. Article about Mindanao - 2 (jay de leon) 4. Eskrima training near Ft Lauderdale (Integrated Martial Arts & Fitness) 5. Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack (Marc Denny) 6. Re: Knife used in self-defense (bgdebuque) 7. Article about Mindanao 3 (jay de leon) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 14:09:17 -0500 (CDT) From: "Tobias T. Gibson" To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] training in Illinois Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Hello. My name is Tobias Gibson, and I have been a student of FMA for about a year and half. I train in the Inosanto blend and Cabelles Serrada Escrima (also some JKD and Silat). I am moving soon to Monmouth, Illinois which is a very small city. It is close to Peoria, the "Quad Cities" of Illinois and Iowa and Macomb, IL. Does anyone on the list know of anyone close to these cities that teaches/trains in the above arts (or other related arts)? Backyard training would be fine. Thank you all for your help. By the way, this list has some of the most interesting commentary and viewpoints on MA and self defense that I have ever read. I look forward to reading and learning more. Thanks again. Tobias Gibson _______________________________________ | Tobias T. Gibson | | Ph.D. Student | | | | Department of Political Science | | One Brookings Way | | Campus Box 1063 | | St. Louis, MO | | 63130-4899 | | | | ttgibson@artsci.wustl.edu | | http://artsci.wustl.edu/~ttgibson | --------------------------------------- "One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson --__--__-- Message: 2 Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 15:43:44 -0700 From: "California Eskrima" To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Something to Crow About Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net ONE OF THE VERY FIRST lines to open "Something to Crow About," the recent musicalized staging of Alejandro Roces' short stories on cockfighting, was, "Any material that showcases the greatness of the Filipino is good material." The musical smorgasbord that would follow tried valiantly to live up to this declaration. As staged by Cecile Guidote Alvarez at the Emilio Aguinaldo College auditorium before an audience that included the Unesco director general himself, Koichiro Matsuura, and other cultural diplomats from all over the world, "Something to Crow About" crammed into its hour-and-a-half run a cockfight, a fiesta, a court hearing, a Santacruzan, an entire town band, some arnis combat, about 15 songs sung by more than 20 characters, a gaggle of dancers and acrobats, and even film footage. The outcome of this gigantic theatrical halo-halo was a bright, sugary perya of a musical that was also busy and inconsequential. Because it had to make way for one song after the other (the synthetic music—billed as a zarzuela but more like two-bit Broadway—and unexpectedly funny lyrics were by Ferdinand Dimadura), the final text was a shallow, bare-bones copy of Roces' stories on cockfighting and their insights into the pecking order and gender arrangements of traditional Filipino society. Unless Roces, a National Artist for Literature, would claim credit for the libretto, for instance, it's safe to assume that Dimadura wasn't breathing the same literary oxygen when he actually dubbed one of his songs "The Road Less Travelled By." Or when he inflicted these lines on the chorus: "He's cocky 'bout his cock he wants me to handle Like the Washington Monument—like it's Cleopatra's needle" In a less inhibited period, Roces' double entendres ("He's a born cocker!," said a character) would sound witty and sophisticated, its winking subtext an invitation to gentle subversion. Here, the endless cock-y wordplay ("I've never seen a man so obsessed with his cock/He'll handle it, he'll fondle it around the clock") never achieved the liberating heights of true bawdiness, only a flat, trivial risibility. Good thing the performers were far bigger than the material. To a man (or woman), the huge cast that included Lionel Guico, Ana Feleo, Joel Trinidad, Liesl Batucan (making a rare foray outside Repertory Philippines), Nazer Salcedo, Bong Embile, Cynthia Culig Guico, Dodo Crisol and Eugene de los Santos were at the top of their form. With national pride at stake, these actors elevated their middling songs and haphazard characters with stout-hearted singing and acting—never mind the production's overmiked sound mix. Overcoming the odds with grit and humor—now, that was the greatness of the Filipino showcased. --__--__-- Message: 3 Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 22:32:52 -0700 (PDT) From: jay de leon To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Article about Mindanao - 2 Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net MINDANAO JOTTINGS: A TALE OF TWO SOLDIERS Part 1 After all these years, I wish I could tell you their real names and true identities. But I have decided to be prudent, for their sake and mine, and keep their identities a secret. The names used are fictitious, but the stories are true. The Sergeant I met Sgt. Bert during a business meeting with the Governor of Cotabato. At that time, he was the head of security for the Governor. When he was introduced to me, he was dressed in civilian clothes, was almost good-looking in a rugged way with a steely gaze. One of my associates later whispered to me, “He’s a killer.” and proceeded to tell me a couple of chilling stories about Sgt. Bert. Sgt. Bert was the Philippine Army equivalent of James Bond, Agent 007. It was not because of his suave conquests of women or his weapon gadgetry. It was because he had a license to kill. He was what I would call a military hit-man. The next time I saw Sgt. Bert, he was in full military green BDU’s. He had driven into my construction camp, saluted smartly and shook my hand with a warm smile. He said he had grown bored with the security detail, had asked for field duty, and was now head of the army detachment camped about a couple of towns away. I was overjoyed with the news. Technically, he was in charge of the safety of my camp. He was equally happy to be back in his old stomping grounds. We developed a friendship over the next months. He was a warm, family man, with a folksy sense of humor. He never asked me for anything, except for a company contribution when his daughter was a contestant in a beauty contest at their town fiesta. The way these beauty contests worked, whoever sold the most tickets to the coronation ball won, so it was mostly a monetary, fund-raising contest. I made sure his daughter won by a landslide. In spite of our busy schedules, we had a few quiet talks together. Over some cold beers, he told me some hair-raising stories. He confirmed his most talked-about exploit. Alone, he had crept several miles into enemy territory during the night, tracked down his prey, a ruthless Muslim killer and leader of a ruthless band, hacked him in the night, and managed to elude numerous pursuers and get back to camp safely. The chilling exclamation point to this whole exploit was the fact that he brought with him the head of his victim in a burlap sack (sako). He told me another story of how he liquidated another Muslim rebel leader. This rebel leader somehow trusted Sgt. Bert. Sgt. Bert requested a face-to-face meeting with the Muslim, just between them, at a neutral location. Sgt. Bert described how he and the Muslim sat down on huge rocks, and started talking. Sgt. Bert’s marksman picked off the Muslim from concealment, with one shot. He confirmed that he had gone out on “Ilaga” sorties, either as a combatant or a trainer. “Ilaga” is an Ilonggo or Visayan word for “rat” and the “Ilagas” were the fierce Christian para-military units who fought against the Muslims. Most of the time, they were led by former soldiers. The regular Philippine Army was routinely accused by Muslims of either training or actually leading or accompanying “Ilaga” units. Sgt. Bert revealed that there had been several assassination attempts on his life. He recounted to me his closest shave. He had spent most of the day at a “sabong” (cockfight) festival, and was on his way home. He was only armed with a .45 and for footwear, was wearing only slippers. He was ambushed by two men on either side of the road, one with an Armalite and one with a automatic handgun. He said the guy with the Armalite fired and somehow missed him. Sgt. Bert drew his .45, fired one shot each at the two assailants, and killed them both on the spot. I do not even remember the last time I saw Sgt. Bert. I believe it was one of those random road checkpoints that he occasionally conducted. Since there were other people and complete strangers on that public road, we only nodded civilly to each other. I do not know what eventually happened to Sgt. Bert. Within a couple of years, I was living a new life in the United States. In one of our conversations, I remember asking him if he was afraid of dying, that eventually his old enemies would catch up with him. He shrugged his shoulders and uttered a common fatalistic line, “If that is the will of God.” Then he smiled his folksy smile, and said. “But they will have to be really good to get me.” Copyright, Jay de Leon 2006 Jay de Leon www.filipinomartialartsmuseum.com --__--__-- Message: 4 From: "Integrated Martial Arts & Fitness" To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 01:37:00 +0000 Subject: [Eskrima] Eskrima training near Ft Lauderdale Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net I have a student staying in Fla.. Ft Lauderdale area, that wants to find a place to train (Eskrima) for the week. Anyone know of a good FMA schol down there. Thanks, Don Edwards www.imafit.com --__--__-- Message: 5 From: "Marc Denny" To: Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 05:36:06 -0700 Subject: [Eskrima] Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net A Howl of Greeting: The rhythm of the seasons is with us and its time for the "Summer Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack". On behalf of the Council of Elders of the Dog Brothers, Dog Brothers Inc. Martial Arts hereby cordially invites you to its "Dog Brothers Summer Gathering of the Pack" at 11:00 AM on Sunday, June 25, 2006 at the RAW Gym in El Segundo to conclude when the fighters are done. Many of you may remember our Gatherings held in the park in Hermosa Beach, which, although they were hosted at considerable expense, were always free to you our friends, our guests. However with a private facility involved we now need to charge admission of $10. We ask that you still consider yourselves to be our friends and our guests. In this context we ask that you respect our wishes in the matter of Video. It is very simple: NO VIDEO CAMERAS, NO DUAL PURPOSE CAMERAS (i.e. with both still photo and video capabilities). THIS MATTER IS OF IMPORTANCE TO US! And, if you see someone videoing, please don't let them abuse our hospitality-please let us know. As always, you may take photographs for personal, non-commercial use PROVIDED you give us a complete set of the ones you take. Thanks to the increasing numbers of you who actually remember and bother to do this! It is very much appreciated! The Magic Words: The MAGIC WORDS: "No judges, no referees, no trophies. One rule only: Be friends at the end of the day. This means our goal is that no one spends the night in the hospital. Our goal is that everyone leaves with the IQ with which they came. No suing no one for no reason for nothing no how no way! Real Contact Stickfighting is Dangerous and only you are responsible for you. Protect yourself at all times. All copyright belongs to Dog Brothers Inc. CA law applies." This matter of accepting the risk applies to those of you in the crowd too. For example, sticks, and fights for that matter, may go flying into the crowd. Parents should consider things like this in deciding whether a child is old enough to bring along and/or deciding on from where to observe the event. For example, sitting on the heavy bags ringing the fighting area is a really risky idea for a child (or adult for that matter). If a stick or a fight comes careening your way-get out of the way! At each Gathering there is a different focus. At this one, we will continue the experiment of starting the knife fights with a handshake and the knives undrawn. The new experiment this time is that we encourage you to fight knife versus stick. (There is the possibility that we may have an electric knife, but this is still up in the air at the moment.) Stick vs. knife has been one of perennial questions of the FMA, so lets do some research! Remember that you may fight with weapons other than a stick if you can find someone willing to go against you. Please consider staff, double stick, and anything else (we had garden hoses last time). In order to more deeply explore certain variables, fighters may agree to "no grappling" rules. In staff fights, the fighters may wear wrestling type ear guards under the fencing masks. There is no charge for fighters but FIGHTERS MUST PRE-REGISTER, even if they have fought before. The Fighter's Registration form can be found on the website. If you are a member of the Dog Brothers tribe an email or phone call will suffice. For all Fighter Registration matters, please contact Cindy at Prettykitty@dogbrothers.com 310-540-6853. You are not pre-registered until your name appears on the list of registered fighters on the website!!! If you have fought before and show up without having pre-registered there will be a $20 fee. We REALLY, REALLY, REALLY don't like having to deal with this on such a busy day so please do both you and us a favor and pre-register. If you haven't fought before and you show up without having pre-registered, you will not be allowed to fight. This will be ruthlessly enforced! As I write (3 weeks out) we already have 24 fighters- so this promises to be a rather large Gathering. "Higher Consciousness through Harder Contact" Crafty Dog Guiding Force of the Dog Brothers --__--__-- Message: 6 Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 10:10:13 -0400 From: bgdebuque To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Re: Knife used in self-defense Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net This incident is maybe also a validation of a position which, to my recollection, Marc has pushed vigorously in his past books - there's a whole lot of difference between the fighting style of a combat veteran and that of a run-of the-mill street thug. >Message: 3 >From: "Marc MacYoung" >To: >Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 10:19:23 -0600 >Subject: [Eskrima] re: Knife used in self-defense >Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net > From: bgdebuque > I guess a pocket knife in hand is worth much much more than a dozen Bowies > in the closet... >I'm often asked by wanna-be knife fighters "What's the best knife for >fighting?" >My answer is always "The one in your hand when you need it" >It's scary how often in these marketing/advertising/agenda driven days of >tactical folders, ultimate fighting styles and tactical equipment that >answer goes flying right over their pointy little heads >M -- __--__-- --__--__-- Message: 7 Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 12:59:54 -0700 (PDT) From: jay de leon To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net Subject: [Eskrima] Article about Mindanao 3 Reply-To: eskrima@martialartsresource.net As I mentioned in Part 1, this is a true story. All the events, places and characters including political figures and institutions are real. Only the Lieutenant's name is fictitious. MINDANAO JOTTINGS: A TALE OF TWO SOLDIERS Part 2 The Lieutenant A mutual friend introduced me to Lieutenant Rudy. Lieutenant Rudy was the head of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) forces that maintained peace and order in Cotabato City. Normally, a city had its police department to maintain peace and order. If a city’s police department was deemed inept or corrupt, the Philippine Constabulary would be ordered to take over the city’s police function, with the police department now reporting to the PC Commander. In the case of Cotabato City, it was probably a case of the city police being both inept and corrupt. At the time I lived in Cotabato City, the political situation in the city was volatile. Cotabato City had just elected its first Christian mayor, Mayor Teodoro V. Juliano, who had unseated the powerful Muslim incumbent Mayor Datu Mando Sinsuat. His political enemies had sworn that Mayor Juliano would not survive his term. Mayor Juliano moved about the city in a long convoy full of armed men. He rode in a custom-built, armor-plated vehicle that looked like the forerunner of the humvee. In front was a driver and two armed bodyguards. He sat in the middle row flanked by two bodyguards. Behind him sat another row of bodyguards. Directly behind his vehicle was an armored car with a mounted machine gun. His security consisted of regular military soldiers, city police, his own security detail and free-lance gunslingers, called “djangos” in Cotabato City. On top of that, there was always the possibility of another Muslim versus Christian conflagration, and open fighting could break out again. Lieutenant Rudy had his hands full. But we found time to have a few leisurely lunches. He would come to lunch in full battle gear, with grenades hanging from his uniform while we dined at the restaurant of the plush Imperial Hotel II. We would discuss politics, history, careers, business, money and delectable women. I found Lieutenant Rudy to be intelligent, sophisticated and articulate. He was after all, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the Philippine equivalent of West Point, and was now a commissioned officer of the Philippine military, attached to the Philippine Constabulary branch with a very visible assignment. Aside from the military uniform and the grenades, and an occasional digression into military life, for me it was just like lunching with another business associate. Less than a year into our relationship, I was out in the field, by the roadside. An army convoy approached, and in the lead jeep was Lt. Rudy. He was probably keeping an eye out for me, and as soon as he espied me, he ordered the convoy to halt, stopping right at their side of the highway. He alighted from the jeep, and we walked to a shady part of the road. The conversation went something like this. Lt. Rudy “Hi. Have you heard the news?” Jay “No. What’s going on?” “I have been reassigned. Just next province, to Davao. Just for a while.” “Why? What happened?” “President Marcos caved in to some politicians who wanted me out of Cotabato Province.” “Why do they want you out?” “Have you heard of the (name of Cotabato barrio) Massacre that happened a couple of years ago?” “No. That was before I got here.” “Well, I ordered it.” Briefly, he told me the story. Before being PC commander of Cotabato City, he was an army operational officer in Cotabato Province. One day, one of his patrols got fired upon in an outlying Muslim barrio in Cotabato. The patrol took cover, radioed the camp and waited for reinforcements. Lt. Rudy came personally with heavy reinforcements. By the time Lt. Rudy arrived, the armed men had fled from the barrio. All that was left were old men, women and children. Lt Rudy then ordered the barrio inhabitants massacred. I remember him saying, “We killed every living thing in that barrio—old men, women, children, and animals.” “So what will happen to you now?” “Nothing. I will just sit it out in Davao for a while. If it was up to Marcos, he would give me a medal for the massacre. But he has to play ball with these Muslim politicians.” We said our goodbyes, shook hands and the convoy moved on through the construction site. That was the last I saw of Lt. Rudy, and I have no idea what eventually happened to him. Within a year, I was back in Manila, and within a couple of years, I started life anew in a new land, the United States. Occasionally I think about him—a dashing military officer, educated, intelligent, resourceful, articulate, passionate, ambitious and patriotic. I always wonder though if he ever asked forgiveness for, or even noticed, the blood of innocent people on his hands. Copyright Jay de Leon 2006 Jay de Leon www.filipinomartialartsmuseum.com --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Eskrima mailing list Eskrima@martialartsresource.net http://martialartsresource.net/mailman/listinfo/eskrima http://eskrima-fma.net Old digest issues @ ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com/pub/eskrima Copyright 1994-2006: Ray Terry, MartialArtsResource.com, Sudlud.com Standard disclaimers apply. Remember September 11. End of Eskrima Digest