S1L42 – “Leni and the Android Operating System” Signs that the future has arrived
Mr. Jack Makataruz, are you present?”
“Present, sir!” my punk -hairstyled student sprung to his feet.
“You know, Jack, you give a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘acquired taste’ with that Mohawk hairstyle of yours,” I chided him.
“It’s only called ‘Mohawk’ hairstyle in other countries, sir. Back home in my hometown of Bauko, it’s called Torogi style.”
“Is that a fact?” I said quite amused, “well, here in Baguio most people would call that the ‘demand-a-refund-from-the-barber’ hairstyle,” Class laughs.
“Jack, will you compare for us the difference between our constitutional provision on the right to life from that of the American version.”
“Sir, ours is found in Section 1 of the Bill of Rights which states that ‘no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law’ but I’m not very familiar with the US Constitution. I’m sorry, sir.”
“That’s alright, Jack, I just mistakenly assumed that you would know because you’re sporting the hairstyle of a known Native American Indian tribe….uh…let me look for somebody,” I reshuffled their classcards, “Aah, here! Miss Deema Niwala, I seem to remember seeing in your Facebook a photograph of you taken somewhere in New York.”
“You’re stalking me, sir?”
“I stalk ALL of you, and you should know that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy if you are on social media,” I reeled back, quite surprised that I felt a little embarrased at getting ‘caught’ in a way.
“Yes, sir. Vivares versus STC. It’s okey, sir, I stalk you!”
“You do? Well, don’t mention anything about my weekend cross-dressing then,” the class laughs. They’re having a good time.
“You don’t cross-dress, sir” Deema said, “but I bet my classmates don’t know that you play both the alto and soprano saxophone and that your favorite jazz artist is Kenny G!” The class goes “Kenny G?? Wooh! Wooh! Wooh!” pumping their arms to the beat.
“Thank you for exposing my vulnerable underside, Miss Deema,” I said, faking annoyance, “I do confirm that, class, and before any of you thinks he has discovered a new way to suck up to me, I’ll have you know that I already own all CD’s of Kenny G.”
“How about Kiangan G, sir? Do you have a copy?” Jack from Bauko butted in, and it breaks up the class, sending Deema stomping her feet again. Kiangan G….
I banged the blackboard, “Focus, people. Focus!”
“Miss Deema, since you’ve been to New York, I trust you went out of your way to take a glimpse of the American Declaration of Independence—” I didn’t finish yet.
“No, sir. That exhibit is in the Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. not New york. I passed by Donald Trump’s building if you want to ask me about that,” Deema said.
“No, thank you,” I declined the Trump question offer “Alright, let me revise the premise of the question then. Miss Deema, since you are a smartaleck know-it-all, tell us about the American version of the right to life.”
“Yes, sir. It’s the first formal sentence in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and it goes ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Deema said.
“Excellent. Now tell us which of the two is a grander expression of the right to life, ours or theirs and justify your answer.”
“Sir, I believe the American version is grander because it is unambiguous in identifying the source of the right, which is God. Secondly, it exempts no one from the taking of a life, including the person himself whose life is the subject, when it said the right is unalienable. Lastly, it prohibits any denial of the right by saying the right is self-evident,” the nurse from Tublay said unflinchingly.
“Very good. I want you to note, class, that the American Declaration of Independence is a vast improvement over the Magna Carta, which is considered the first modern constitution. But all the Magna Carta did was to demote the king of England and make him subject to the law like every other citizen. Tell us, how did the rabblerousing American colonists improve on that even more, Miss Deema?”
“Sir, by levelling the field declaring that all men are created equal and ensuring that there would never again be a permanent ruling class where the leaders of society only come from a select few families.”
“Excellent, Miss Deema,” for the first time this semester, I actually picked up a piece of chalk and started writing on the blackboard: on one side I wrote Wessex, Saxon, Danish, Stuarts, Lancaster, York, Tudors… opposite them I wrote Marcos, Aquino, Estrada, Arroyo, Duterte. My class were aghast.
“You know, class, for over a thousand years England’s kings only ever came from no more than eight families. They just kept reusing king’s names like John, Richard, Albert, Henry, George and William. They just added Roman numerals after each name, you know, like William III, Henry VIII, or George XI—can you imagine THAT? George the ELEVENTH?!”
“Sir, kasla Windows ngarud ah…adda Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10…ngem pada pada met lang nga bintana weno ridaw!” Jack intoned.
“Exactly, Jack,” I said as I erased the names of the English kings, “meanwhile, we here in the Philippines have these morons listed on the right.” The class laughs.
“Sometimes, a family would briefly disappear, like the Stuarts before the Stuart Restoration. The Marcoses laid low, for a while, but now they’re back. Political families are like that, they’re like the flu virus that keep coming back every year,” I said.
“Or STD, sir, ‘sexually-transmitted disease’ agsubli-subli met lang didjay!” Jack chimed in.
“I’ll take your word for it, Jack” I said, “but I like your analogy with Windows. For many decades since 1980, you could not run any programs on your laptop unless you had Windows operating system—your WordStar, Lotus spreadsheet, Photoshop, later on your Word, Adobe, Office, Corel—all of these ran only with Windows preinstalled. It’s called a monopoly. What’s the solution to breaking up a monopoly?”
“Competition, sir” Deema butted in, “Apple came out with Lion OS and the iPad and iPhone and put computing power in the hands of Generation X.”
“Right. Now I’ll have you know, class, that didn’t come easy. US consumers had to go to court—” I didn’t finish, Deema was uncontainable.
“I’ll continue, sir! I’ll continue! That’s what I learned a lot about in New York…there were these five WOMEN LAWYERS,” Deema shouted the last two words so loud I thought veins in her neck would burst, “they instituted a consumers class-action Anti-trust suit against both Microsoft and Apple to force them to unbundle their software at the point of purchase.”
Her classmates started chanting rhythmically in unison “Brain bleed! Brain bleed! Brain bleed!”” I laughed.
“There you go, you can hear your classmates demanding for a layman’s explanation”
“Oh, okey, sir. See when you buy a new laptop, it comes pre-installed with a licensed Windows or if it’s an Apple Macbook a licensed Mac O/S. It includes everything including a search engine, that’s why the early independent search engines like Netscape and Eudora couldn’t compete.”
“Whenever there’s a monopoly, innovation is suppressed,” I chimed in.
“Right, sir, so in 1988 the New York Federal District Court ordered Microsoft and Apple to break up—unbundle—their software, meaning Microsoft can keep its Internet Explorer and Apple can keep Safari but they both have to ensure that their operating systems will run third party search engines, too “
“And that marked the birth of what, Miss Deema…?”
“Yahoo and Google, sir!” Deema gushed, “and then much later on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Ang saya saya…!”
“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” I said, starting to worry that I might not be able to reconnect the discussion with political families and dynasties.
“Unfortunately class, greed is irrepressible. So the Big Tech companies retaliated. After losing that antitrust suit, if you buy a new laptop, you still get a preloaded Windows but they’ll only install a ‘home’ or ‘basic’ edition now. The same thing with Apple. To enjoy the full features of the program that used to come free, you now need to ‘update’ or ‘upgrade’ ANYTIME they say so.” The class went “Aaaaaaw…!”
“But something came along to liberate the slaves, sir!” Deema butted in again.
“What is that, Miss Deema?”
“A freeware open-software developed in ASIA shoved it up the noses of Microsoft and Apple, sir. This one was truly inclusive, it ran across all platforms, Windows, OS and was compatible with all devices and gadgets, Samsung, Vivo, Oppo, Huawei, Cherry, LG, Lenovo, Sony—it was so versatile so creativity and innovation exploded phenomenally. Now we have thousands of smart apps all powered by—”
“ANDROID!!!” the whole class shouted out gleefully.
“Hehehe…!” I laughed, totally amused at my millennial youth, then I saw my chance to reconnect and wrap up.
“You see class, it is retrogressive to hang on to only a limited circle of recycled names and recycled systems. If you want creativity and innovation to crash barriers and go through the roof, you need to go for something new, liberating and inclusive. Whether it’s technology or politics, it’s the same principle. You have to be willing to let go of the Microsofts and Apples of this world, and be daring enough to welcome a new name like ANDROID!”
Deema jumped up again, “Me! Me! Me! Me, sir! I’LL FINISH!!!” PLEASE?”
“Alright, Miss Deema, wrap up the lesson.”
“If we want real freedom, creativity space and innovation motivation, we need to let go of the Marcoses and Dutertes of this world. WE NEED TO BE BOLD AND DARING TO WELCOME A NEW NAME—ONE, TWO, THREE!”
“LENI ROBREDO!!!” My Alpha Section class shouted all at the same time.
“Hehehe…class dismissed,” I said.
Deema walked up to my lectern grinning from ear to ear, “Thank you so much, Professor!” She looked like she wanted to give me a grateful hug, or a friendly buss. I used body language to discourage it.
“Don’t mention it, Deema, go cook lugaw!” I said.
She spun around, ran to rejoin Hannah, Kata, Joanna, Cabo, Juan, Jack and all her other classmates and they started walking together pumping their arms in the air and chanting, “LENI! LENI! LENI!”
The hallway was already dim and quiet when I walked out alone to my car.
About the Author
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”
About Images: Some of the images used in the articles are from the posts in Atty. Joel Rodriguez Dizon’s Facebook account, and/or Facebook groups and pages he manages or/and member of.