Downloading 'Hello Garci?'

LIKE millions of Filipinos did the past week, I downloaded the "Hello Garci?" ring tone from the http://www.txtpower.org website on Tuesday. As everyone knows by now, unless they have been kidnapped in Iraq for the past several months like just released overseas Filipino worker Roberto Tarangoy, the ring tone is based on the alleged wiretapped cell phone conversation between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Election Commissioner Virgilio Garciliano, in which they are supposedly heard discussing the presidential election returns in May 2004.

The trademark nasal tone of President Arroyo is clearly audible in the clip from the recording, as is her accent from the province of Pampanga, which we have all heard imitated hilariously by the standup comedian Ate Glow. (By the way, what's happened to our 'ate' [elder sister]? She's disappeared from our TV screens.)

The "Hello Garci?" ring tone that I downloaded is set to a popular dance beat, and we hear the President saying, "Hello, Garci?" twice, followed by her asking if she's still leading by one million votes. The first time I played the ring tone in our newsroom of non-Filipinos it caught the attention of almost everyone, who wondered who this voice belonged to. When I explained it to them, they all laughed at the ability of Filipinos to poke fun at themselves.

Yet the reality of alleged vote rigging and payoffs from "jueteng" numbers racket lords is surely nothing to laugh about. President Arroyo has finally caved in and said that she will comment on the recordings -- but, incredibly, not now! If not now, when? Perhaps the President and her advisors are hoping that the Filipino people will have gradual amnesia if they manage to hold out for long enough and not admit to any wrongdoing.

But I have a sneaky suspicion that this tactic of refusing to answer head-on the accusations of jueteng payola and vote rigging will ultimately not work. Many news stories this past week both in print and on television have literally crowed about how Filipinos in general are suffering from "people power fatigue" and are thus not ready to come out to the streets this time round. Maybe so, but I still think that if proven that the president rigged the election results, Filipinos of all political persuasions will call for her resignation or impeachment.

Why is Garciliano still in hiding if he has nothing to hide? He should heed opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel's call to come forward and turn state witness.

And what's the deal with Makati Rep. Teddy Boy Locsin? As a newspaper publisher and magazine editor in chief, one would think that he would defend freedom of expression and the right of the public to know what officials it elected into office are doing. Instead, he has been an idiotic and obstructionist defender of President Arroyo by constantly harping on his belief that it is illegal to both possess and publicly disseminate the wiretapped recordings of the President and Garcillano. The hunger of the public to know what is going on and the explosion of the Internet have made his attempts at stopping people from listening to the tapes both futile and anachronistic. Instead of always trying to show off, perhaps Teddy Boy would do better going back to hosting TV talk shows!

But back to that "Hello Garci?" ring tone. I was initially going to download it to my desktop computer, a Mac, but then stopped, as I had no way of then transferring it to my cell phone. Luckily, I have a Nokia 9300 phone with built-in Internet access, so I just downloaded it directly onto my phone. The problem arose when a friend of mine wanted me to send him the ring tone via Bluetooth. Now as you all know, Bluetooth is a wireless technology used to move data without wires between two enabled devices. The problem is that my friend's cell phone was a Sony-Ericsson and they don't like talking to Nokias. Needless to say, we failed in our attempt at transferring the ring tone, which shouldn't be the case.

It is clear that our expectations of technology and its user-friendliness surpass what is currently on offer. I think it's a plot by cell phone and computer manufacturers to keep us constantly buying new products. And how about printing the many photos we take with our cell phone cameras? There is supposedly a way of transferring them to laptop computers, but I haven't met anyone who knows how. More promising are Bluetooth enabled printers to which one should be able to transfer pictures directly to from a cell phone. I saw an HP one recently, but that means I would need to buy another printer just so that I can print pictures from my cell phone. Maybe next year.

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My next column will appear July 10, as I will be away on vacation. Comments or questions? E-mail me at rasheed@arabnews.com.