Madonna and Taylor Swift top MTV VMAS

 SOUNDS FAMILIAR - Baby A. Gil - The Philippine Star

September 30, 2026 | 12:00am   

The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) was held last Sept. 27 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It was all smooth sailing as far as the nominees and winners were concerned.

Truth to tell, I do not see how anybody can object to the top winners like Madonna, who won seven Moonman trophies out of 13 nominations, and Taylor Swift, who had 11 nominations and went home with three wins. Bow na lang tayo nang bow.

Nobody also objected to the Best K-pop category. Well, it has already been around for the past few years.  It was first awarded in 2019. Besides, the VMAs was the first award-giving organization to recognize the massive impact that K-pop music was making on popular music on the global stage.

Taylor Swift wins the Video of the Year Award for The Fate of Ophelia, plus Best Direction and the first-ever MTV VMA Artist Director honors.

Best K-pop did draw some flak for supposedly segregating South Korean acts from winning in the VMAs’ major categories at first. But it has proven itself fair and inclusive during the ensuing years. So, instead of K-pop artists feeling sidelined or worst, ostracized, Best K-pop has become an important step towards winning in the VMA’s major categories.

Although there are no Best J-Pop or Best P-Pop at the VMAs, all nationalities are welcome to be nominated and hopefully win. The 2026 harvest includes South Koreans BTS, already a four-time winner in this category, for Swim as Song of the Year. The other one is Lisa for Dream featuring Kentaro Sakaguchi as Best Pop. Lisa, who is for now on the solo trail, is Thai. She is part of the K-pop group Blackpink. Sakaguchi is a Japanese singer and actor.

BLACKPINK’s LISA wins Best Pop for her solo track Dream.

Meanwhile, Madonna retains her rep as queen of the VMAs. She was named Artist of the Year. She won for Best Album for her “Confessions II;” Best Collaboration for Bring Your Love with Sabrina Carpenter; plus, Best Dance, Best Cinematography, Best Choreography and Best Long Form Video for Confessions II, The Film. She also opened the show with a breathtaking eight-minute medley.

Taylor brought home only three Moonmen trophies this time around. These though brought her haul to a total of 33 wins, making her the most awarded artist in the history of the VMAs.

Sienna Spiro takes home the Best New Artist award.

Taylor used to be tied with Beyoncé with 30 Moonmen on the shelf, but she has now surpassed that. She dedicated her wins to the late country star Dolly Parton.

Taylor won the top plum of them all, the Video of the Year Award for The Fate of Ophelia, plus Best Direction for Opalite and most important of all, the first-ever MTV VMA Artist Director honors. This recognition brings to fore Taylor’s talent as a music video director. It would be quite interesting finding out which artists would follow in her footsteps.

Nirvana’s

BORN ON A SUNDAY

 

By Klaus Döring

Yes, in astrology and folklore, Sunday is widely considered a very lucky day to be born. Ruled by the Sun, people born on this day are often called "lucky ducks" who possess natural charm, strong vitality, and a bright, magnetic presence.

 
People born on Sunday are ruled by the Sun. They are naturally confident, creative, and charismatic leaders. They love new experiences, shine in social settings, and possess a bold, optimistic energy, though they can sometimes struggle with pride, short tempers, or finishing long projects.

If the sky is dark and it pours cats and dogs like yesterday and some days earlier, I try my very best to beat the blues. The taxi drivers tried to make detours, the flights were delayed or cancelled due bad weather conditions - yes, it seems the whole world is against us! I am pretty sure, each one of us experienced similar times.

I was born on a Sunday - a so-called "Sunday Child". There are sayings that those people will live a life of great success without problems, worries, and trials. Many years ago, someone told me, those born on Sunday are truly shining stars like the sun. They are never satisfied with anything ordinary. They want to shine with a distinguished brilliance amidst other people. These are highly creative individuals who wish to place themselves in the first pale in every domain of life

Well, is that really so?

I remember very difficult, problematic and questionable times in my life. A cheating taxi driver or cancelled flight have been just peanuts if I compare. In those difficult times I almost lost all my strength to get down to work on all problems. Life's path became narrow. Fears grew: it's enough. Really enough!

I started becoming awkward and jerky. I struggled against almost everybody around me. I was reluctant to go against other's good ideas. I felt driven into a corner. People with indifference, arrogance and unqualified comments passed my way. Yes, also here in the Philippines... . Suddenly everything can become a problem and our voices  bellow and our groans are getting louder and louder too.

But hey, I learned something. Admittedly groans can lighten our burden! For even a short moment only, I did feel how my inner life - and inside pressure eased off. A short moment only... Suddenly more trials and problems overwhelmed us and our families and friends: illnesses, death, bankruptcy, "war at the working place", efforts giving us a bad name, destroying the reputation, intrigues... .

"You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me", (Psalm 23:5). Really? Amazing! We don't know about more and new spitefulness through my next "enemy on duty" in future.  Actually I also don't want to know it, because negativism blocks life and its future plans.

But I know Psalm 23. I read it, every time, if I am having a problem. Not if I meet again a detouring taxi or, if my flight is delayed.... .

Psalm 23 should be printed in each and every one's heart, mind and soul. Psalm 23 was my confirmation saying... .

+++

You can email me, if you wish: doringklaus@gmail.com, or follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn  or X - Twitter or visit one of my websites www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com . 

Is it being ‘performative’?

“Men are from Mars, women are from Venus.”

“Girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.”  

The first was popularized by the counselor John Gray in 1992 to express the differences between the two sexes. The second is a schoolyard rhyme used by young girls to shoo away the taunts of their male classmates.

Be it innately biological or socially constructed, at this age, young boys are less likely to bare their emotions, as they would rather bare their teeth. Boys are indeed rougher, more rambunctious, more loud and mischievous: no wonder the term boisterous sounds like it has the word “boy” built into it. And it carries on through high school and into the early years of college. But when these boys, now young men, are exposed to the culture of higher learning in academia; they come to realize the aesthetic aspects of life that are far more entertaining than the drivel they were used to in their youth.

Art, culture, music, film, literature—all these things suddenly become a more dominant dimension in their lives. It usually occurs at the point in late adolescent development when they become more interested in things other than themselves. The development of a boy to a young man begins in the crucible of genuine life experiences, compounded by the beauty and truth these experiences reveal. And this beauty and truth is reflected and further extended in the art and aesthetic around them.

These young men begin to read, to listen, to seek, and to curate what they seek. They begin to think more deeply, to contemplate. The general anxiety of achievement that hangs before most young men no doubt helps fuel this attitude. They begin to pay attention to what they wear, and to how the outside can more accurately reflect the inside. Their tastes move beyond mere chorizo and chicken (though we still indulge) and they take their first sip of bitter coffee or grassy-tasting tea. And they seem to like it.

All of a sudden, they realize that the outside is more conducive to genuine experiences than the inside. They go out more, and they either revel in nature and sport or in the quiet solitude of a cafe they have chosen to gatekeep from others. Young men, be they the brusque and highly masculine or the quaint and intellectual, seek to enrich their “experiencing” as most men do. That’s why—for the most part— we like classical literature, traditional or Greco-Roman aesthetics, and/or dream of pursuits of grandeur that give our life meaning beyond our boyish compulsions.

Why would one ever hate that?

There is a popular and persisting notion that the only thing that truly motivates the male animal is carnal desire. From that, another notion springs forth: that men only act “cultured” to attract women. These men have been called performative. I do not deny their existence. But when a label like that is thrown into a crowd, the explosion usually maims innocent bystanders, too. And when people started calling them “performative,” seemingly all men became more anxious to explore their aesthetic sensibilities. At least in public. Now that that label has died down in relevance, I invite my fellow young men to go out and enjoy their aesthetic pursuits in peace.

Sartre called this “the Gaze”; be it the gaze of women, the gaze of other men, or the gaze of society. This “gaze” casts a shadow of doubt and anxiety that threatens the freedom and autonomy of an individual and leads them to live their life in bad faith. That they shouldn’t be themselves, but be someone else more socially acceptable. And there is nothing more performative, in my mind, than that. Authenticity is a golden apple at this time of our lives, but we must keep reaching for it. And in reaching for it, we must live freely and authentically for it. For when you perform a character, all the praise and adulation goes to that character, not to you, not to who you truly are. Just as fans can come to hate a character and adore its actor, in “performance,” you furnish a pagan idol for worship that only looks like you, but isn’t actually you.

Read your favorite book, order your favorite coffee, play your guitar or violin wherever you want to, speak your mind freely on things you believe in. Be moral, be ethical, of course. But in the space between the good and the bad, you have the freedom to seek the experiences that will build you up to who you will be one day. To perform a character is to build a facade, a facade that one day might not be stable enough for you to stand on. In Montaigne’s own words, “I shall see to it, if I can, that my death makes no statement that my life has not made already.”

Don’t worry, you are not “performative.” You’re just a dude, we all are.

#culture#Issachar Bacang#masculinity#performativeness

 

HATE SPEECH

By

 Mindanao Daily News

 -

September 29, 2026

0

162

Any form of communication in speech, writing, or behavior that attacks, demeans, or uses discriminatory language against a person or group based on protected characteristics.

According to the United Nations, these characteristics include:
• Religion
• Ethnicity and nationality
• Race and color
• Descent
• Gender and sexual identity
• Disability or other identity factors
In common language, “hate speech” refers to offensive discourse targeting a group or an individual based on inherent characteristics (such as race, religion or gender) and that may threaten social peace.

Generally, however, hate speech is any form of expression through which speakers intend to vilify, humiliate, or incite hatred against a group or a class of persons on the basis of race, religion, skin color, sexual identity, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, or national origin.

Besides fake news, hate speech is the second big problem in social media.

Hate speech promotes hatred or violence against individuals or groups based on certain attributes. It is not protected by freedom of expression and can be lawfully prevented and punished.

Speech that is simply offensive but poses no risk to others is generally NOT considered a human rights violation. Hate Speech becomes a human rights violation if it incites discrimination, hostility or violence towards a person or a group defined by their race, religion, ethnicity or other factors.

Hate speech is any form of incitement, spreading or justification of hate and violence against an individual or a group of people based on certain attributes, such as race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, beliefs or health condition.

What can be considered hate speech? There is a fine line between what can and cannot be considered hate speech. Therefore, it is important to carefully distinguish hate speech from other insulting, unpopular or extreme views and expressions. For example, a statement can be contrary to the majority’s opinion, considered offensive and feel hateful, but it might not exactly incite hatred or violence. Read more about how to recognise hate speech.

It has been long overdue, but finally German lawmakers have approved a controversial law that would impose high fines on social media companies like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube for failing to swiftly delete posts deemed to exhibit hate speech.

Under the new legislation, social media companies have 24 hours to remove posts that obviously violate German law and have been reported by other users. In cases that are more ambiguous, Facebook and other sites have seven days to deal with the offending post. If they don’t comply with the new legislation, the companies could face a fine of up to 50 million Euro ($57.1 million).

Skeptics criticize, however, that under the new rules social media managers are the ones who have to decide whether content complies with German law. They also worry that freedom of speech will suffer since, in their opinion, companies are likely to delete many posts just to be on the safe side and avoid fines.

It’s indeed a Landmark legislation in Europe and should be adopted worldwide.

In addition to the strict new rules about deletion, the law forces networks to reveal the identity of those behind the hateful posts and to offer users “an easily recognizable, directly reachable, and constantly available” complaint process for “prosecutable content,” which includes libel, slander, defamation, incitement to commit a crime, hate speech against a particular social group, and threats.

The UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech refers to the working definition as: “any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion.”

Hate Speech not only affects the dignity and human rights of the individual directly targeted, but also of persons belonging to the same minority or group as those directly targeted.

Marianne Zantua:says

"Als Filipina-Deutsche schlage ich die perfekte Brücke zwischen zwei Welten. Ich verstehe die herzliche, hilfsbereite Kultur und die versteckten Inselparadiese der Philippinen – und ich verstehe die deutsche Gründlichkeit, Organisation und Rechtssicherheit. Bei mir bekommst du beides: Herz und System."

English version:

"Being Filipina-German is my strength. I bring you the warm heart and hidden gems of the Philippines, with the German standard of organization, punctuality, and security. With me, you get both – heart and system."

Shared post from Marianne Zantua

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