Imelda "I'm Evil" Marcos

(I tried posting this a couple of days ago, but the internet was being mean)

July 4, 2007
I met Imelda. The internet is being incredibly slow right now, so I can't really put up the picture or video (it's CRAZY), but I will try later. If you want to see one of the pictures, check out my facebook profile. If you don't have facebook, you'll just have to wait.

It was pretty surreal. The first week I was here, I bought a documentary made by a Filipina-American entitled Imelda. Her speech at this concert (she's the one who founded the Philippine High School of the Arts) was verbatim some of the things she said in the interviews in the doc. She had some new gems, however; here are some of my favs:

"I am allergic to pangit" -- "pangit" means "ugly"
"You can't be 32% beautiful..."
"If you have 1,000 bullets in a gun, then you have only 999 bullets. Marcos never killed anyone. He never used his power; he just made his power felt." (or something like that, but for her to say that Marcos never killed or had anyone killed is just FUCKING CRAZY).
"Marcos was the father of the Philippines. He was going to rule with the firm hand of a father over a house. I asked Marcos, what, my role, as First Lady would be. He told me, 'Imelda, you will make it a home.'" UGH.

She went on for a while about truth, beauty and love. I would just say she was delusional and insane but then that would excuse her in some way from all of the horrible things she has done in her life.

She's known for having a huge shoe collection, but she was really part of an evil partnership that ruined an entire country. AND there are still tons of people who love her. It's complicated.

Anyway. I am glad I got to meet her. I didn't clap or stand up after her speech. I was in the 2nd row. BUT. I did ask to be in picture with her. I wanted to prove she was real.