LEFT OF CENTER: Prelude To A Blogonovela

I realized, my attraction to Gorbachev had everything to do with his reform efforts--Glasnost and Perestroika--than the regime he represented.

All the signs were present and apparent: the US and the Soviet Union were in an unprecedented diplomatic relationship since the beginning of the Cold War, Thatcher seemed grinning as Free Market Forces were giving the OPEC a “good sweating” having lost price control of the world’s most important and sensitive commodity, crude oil, while Nynex was trading increasingly higher volumes of oil than they did Idaho potatoes; Corazon Aquino had just been installed to the seat after a revolution ousted one of Southeast Asia’s longest serving dictator; the CPP was becoming unfashionable and the likes of Satur Ocampo were beginning to consider bringing their battles from the streets and the boondocks to the house of representatives.

I remember, for the first time I was eating apples in July, (not Christmas) of 1986. Trade liberalization was the buzzword during the first year of Cory's administration.

Leftism was losing ground. But then I was just catching up. ‘twas 1986. I was twelve.
Communism as I knew it then appealed to me both as a political ideology I could embrace and as a symbolism to my growing personal rebellion as a teen-ager. I even considered getting tattooed on the forehead with the vastness of the Soviet Union’s political boundaries much more like the distinctive Gorby birthmark (but when I found out it hurts, I backed out and instead bought a poster.)

When I found out how painful having a tattoo would be, I instead bought a poster of the map of Soviet Union.

Can’t blame me, I was into an “awakening” then and a personal insurgency raged inside me. Later on, I found out after maturing a little bit and after reading volumes of political books and editorials including those of The New Yorker, the Philippines Free Press and IHT, that my own ideology was socialist in its attributes, not necessarily communist; and that the very act of advocating my political and ideological beliefs was in fact, a very democratic exercise.

Brace yourself for journey as I revisit the last 2 and a half decades of my life in retrospect--where I went wrong, what I did right and maybe, just maybe, I will have a better understanding of what I am today. Meet the people and get to know the events and the ideas that prevailed during my time that shaped me to the person I am today: my beliefs, dreams, ideals, frustrations, insecurities, exasperations, angst, heroes and all.

Left Of Center by Suzanne Vega of Luka fame. Out of the OST Pretty In Pink

And as I go along telling the story of my life, this blog will feature some of the best music of the past three decades that have become the soundtrack of my life.

Finally, truth can be told.