Let’s stop this dumbing down of our country!!!
Posted by emperorbananaketchup on May 24, 2009
As I have posted in my previous column, our good ol’ Department of Finance has gone through and amended Order 17-09 calling for taxation of all reading materials imported into this country last April 27.
Vlog posted by Youtube subscriber Komikero
Please sign up here: No to the Philippine Book Blockade!!!
(I’m #833 on the petition list)
My humble bookshelf
Let us not flag with our determination just because some silly “sex video” scandal is presently occupying so much print and blog space (see related post) over here. Remember, we are not just talking about millions of Filipinos who find themselves immediately denied access to the latest Dan Brown, Stephanie Meyer or J. K. Rowling titles no thanks to the shortsightedness of some government officials who definitely must know better.
We are talking about the slow, painful death of reading in this country.
If you ever try catching a US TV show or movie in, let’s say, Japan, Thailand or India, you may notice that they generally provide subtitles for their respective local audiences. It is also the same way whenever Star Movies would broadcast French films on their “French Kiss” time slot (Fridays, 9:00 pm TWN/PHL). As a matter of preference, when I catch Japanese anime, I prefer subtitles to dubs (whether it be in English or even Tagalog).
It is sad to hear that reading is becoming a dying art over here…it is even getting more and more difficult to bump casually into friends whose libraries carry more than just the abovementioned Brown, Meyer and Rowling (no offense, though, to Harry Potter and Twilight fans). I have always considered myself a voracious reader ever since I first got turned to Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew by a couple of elementary-school classmates. Not long after, I discovered Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the works of Enid Blyton… and my reading habits have never been the same again.
By the time I discovered fantasy in college (while roasting my ass in the sun as required by ROTC), instead of J. R. R. Tolkien or Robert E. Howard, I went straight for Michael Moorcock’s baroque, atmopspheric tales. Later, I would go for Fritz Leiber which has since turned me on to H. P. Lovecraft. I just felt that I didn’t have the patience for Tolkien’s somewhat simplistic pastoral take on the genre (even if I have seen all 3 Lord of the Rings films) or Howard’s muscle-headed prose of the adventures of the mighty-thewed Conan.
As per UNESCO Senior Legal Officer John Donaldson’s statement in the UNACOM (Unesco Action Commission) position re the taxation of imported books in this country, “The Philippines, as a Party to the Florence Agreement, must respect the principle…that treaties in force are binding upon the parties and must be performed in good faith…it(the Philippines) will be in breach of its obligations under the Agreement“
We should not be bowed int0 complacency or apathy in the face of the inevitable. We don’t need publicity-hound starlets or attention-craving do-nothing senators to let our voices be heard.
By the way, thanks Mr. Quezon for including my blogsite on your list.
Philippine politics
Pinoy culture
adventuresofabeautyqueen said
I’m a book lover and buy so many that I have stacks of unread material at home. Books were my best friends growing up when my classmates ostracized me. They helped keep me sane and normal. I hope and pray they don’t tax books, imported or otherwise. Instead they should promote reading, diba!? Maybe they should instead look into the business practice of some bookstores that demand something like 60% of the gross sales of your book. So an author/publisher gets only 40% of what they worked hard for. Maybe local authors can be given a better deal. I think that’s a more worthy cause. And it it’s taxes they need, they should make a job of raising funds by looking into their own backyard and weeding out corruption.
Better than taxes would be this – everyone who buys an imported book donates P5 (which is built into the cost of the book) to a fund that specifically goes to a reading program for children and adults.
Just wondering, does this tax proposal include imported 2nd hand books? What about donated books?
emperorbananaketchup said
AFAIK…it even includes 2nd hand and donated books (sigh!)
adventuresofabeautyqueen said
oh no!!! but it’s still just a proposed tax thingy right? we can still fight it yeah? but how do you tax donated books? what if you bought 500 2nd hand books for, lets say, $1. Would they tax it according to the money you paid for it or according to the percieved value of the books?
emperorbananaketchup said
I’m not sure really, but then even donated books would have to be vetted through Customs.