Grace Poe’s son and his new shoes

A netizen posted a picture of Grace Poe’s son, Brian, wearing his new shoes in Facebook. “The problem with Grace and Brian, is that since they cannot come up with a more credible explanation as to where Brian got the money to purchase such an expensive shoes, they are coming up with lies which even a grade schooler would find too incredible.”

And with prevarication fast becoming the favorite pastime of Poe (Didn’t she lie on her citizenship and residency issues?), I am now wont to believe she was again lying when she declared she is no experienced thief.”

Didn’t her adoptive mother Susan Rocess say “Ang sinungaling ay kapatid ng magnanakaw.”

It is said that shoes in dreams represent a hankering for possessions. Tsk. Tsk. Remember Imelda’s shoes, thousands of them left in Malacanang in their hurry to escape an angry people. Imelda and her shoes became the symbol of the Marcoses’ excesses. According to reports, Brian’s shoes cost almost a million pesos.

Shoes do have a mythical meaning. They represent dreams. Remember the story of Cinderella who found her prince when she left her shoe in her hurry to get out of the ball before midnight. Lucky the prince was able to find her again through the shoe that was left behind. And of course, we have our Filipino Cinderella Imelda. Who collected thousands of shoes. She is the First Lady who had left “thousands” of shoes in Malacañang and that was the story that caught the world’s attention.

Grace Poe’s son has now removed the post from Facebook but the damage is done. It is not so much its cost (there is a dispute about how much it really costs with those who know about Nike shoes saying) it is a 2011 Limited Edition Nike Mag 10 Back to the Future Marty McFly shoes.) Those who claim to know say such a pair would have cost $19,999.99 on eBay.

Grace Poe, the presidential candidate who is rumored to be President Noynoy’s secret candidate claims it is only P10,000. I don’t think that is the issue. As Facebook users say “it is the flaunting” that was indecent. Would we have known that if we did not have social media?

The story broke out while the justices of the Supreme Court are deciding if his mother is fit to be president of 100 million Filipinos, most of whom have no jobs and children with barely food to eat. But Grace Poe, the presidential candidate, is not apologetic about her son Brian. “Huwag nilang isali and pamilya ko.” Another retorted “Kainggit naman. Gusto ko din nun.” Are we condemned to repeat the Marcos story again?

MISCELLANY: Not to a group of activists who are launching a book “Marcos Martial Never Again” at the Ateneo Ampitheater at the Rockwell Center. Those who wish to attend should RSVP at filipinosforabetterphilippines@

* * * This has been panned for many years so I don’t know whether the announcement that Imelda’s jewellery collection will be finally auctioned. According to jewelry experts it is worth at least £14.5 million. It will be sold at auction. It was once compared to the jewelry collection of Elizabeth Taylor.

“According to the auctioneers, it includes a barrelshaped diamond worth at least £3.5 million and a Cartier diamond tiara many times more valuable than the previous estimate of £20,700- £34,500.”

“Andrew de Castro of the Presidential Commission for Good Government, an agency tasked to recover the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth, said it hoped to hold the exhibit and auction before the end of President Benigno Aquino’s term in June.

A portion of the collection seized at the presidential palace when the Marcoses fled is still being contested in court. Other items were seized in Hawaii and at Manila’s airport.

“The jewellery confiscated from the Marcoses remain a singular manifestation of the misguided priorities of the Marcos presidency during his reign,” commission chairman Richard Amurao said.

* * * And here is marevelous news from the Czechoslovakian embassy which sent this press release to this column.

“The story of a traveling salesman walking to find himself transformed into a monstrous verminous bug – Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis – is now available in Bikol language. One of the seminal works of world fiction of the 20th century, it was published under the title The Awakening of Gregor Samsa ( An Pagkagimata ni Gregor

Samsa) as a part of a larger program to promote the world and Philippine literature to native Bikolano readers.

Its translator, Kristian Sendon Cordero, considers the

“translation of Kafka in the Bikol language as a living proof that literature remains to be the best bridge between cultures,“

and adds that “indeed, the story of Gregor Samsa has allowed our local languages to metamorphose into a language that can awaken us from our darkest nights, our deepest slumber.”

While widely available in the Philippines in English translation, Kafka´s The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung in original German) was translated into Filipino only last year courtesy of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. This year opens with the book’s launching in the Bikol language. This translation will surely open new opportunities for the Bikol language to continue to relate with the world of literature and its translator, Kristian Sendon Cordero, who is committed to bring more world writers to Bikol, follows the footsteps of his Bikolnon predecessors like Francisco Gainza, Sali Imperial Sr., Wilmer Tria, Frank Penones Jr., who have impressively navigated the treacherous seas of translation.

Franz Kafka, born into a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Czech capital city of Prague, is an author of dozens of short stories and a few unfinished novels which were mostly published after his premature death at the age of 40. All of his works became part of world literary heritage and Kafka become one of the most prominent names among writers of so-called German literature of Prague – those who have been born there but lived elsewhere, such as poet Rainer Maria Rilke; those who settled there for a long period time and made Prague with its mysteries and Gothic charm a topic of their writing, such as Gustav Meyrink in his famous novel The Golem, and avid reporter “Egon Erwin Kisch.

“Though Franz Kafka wrote all his famous works in German, he spoke and wrote Czech and lived virtually all his life in his hometown Prague. He was and still is an integral part of Czech cultural and literary life “said Czech Ambassador to the Philippines Jaroslav Olša Jr. at the book launching at Ateneo de Naga university last weekend.”

Salamat Mr. Ambassador.