Best of the Week: Dreams, trials, and Interweb blackouts

Concert of the week: Katy Perry’s California Dreams tour

MANILA, Philippines - The SM Mall of Asia concert grounds will be turned into a fantasyland for Katy Perry’s concert, her last for the California Dreams world tour. Tomorrow will be her second performance in the country, after her Hello Katy concert in 2009 where she asked the audience how to say penis in Filipino — trust us, Katy, ask that again tomorrow and we’ll still fall for it.

Advocacy of the week: Stop SOPA!

This Wednesday, Wikipedia blocked its website for 24 hours donning the words “Imagine a world without free knowledge,” in an attempt to fight the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). The two bills aim to fight copyright infringement and piracy of US products overseas by blacklisting “alleged” pirated content, which could block people from accessing them on the Internet. That should be enough to scare everybody into making a stand and protesting the unfair aspects of the bills.

Quarterback of the week: Tim Tebow

Denver Broncos’ quarterback Tim Tebow is famous for his exceptional skills in football and a meme called Tebowing, where people get down on one knee in prayer in unconventional locations. Pretty soon, he will conquer the Philippines the way he conquered American football by opening a children’s hospital in Davao. It may strike you as odd that he would pick our country, but the NFL star was born here during his parents’ Baptist missionary work. He will partner with CURE International to build a 30-bed hospital that is expected to touch down in 2013.

TV event of the week: the Corona-novela

This week saw the start of the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona. Though certainly not our first impeachment trial (former president Estrada, we’re looking at you), if Corona’s prosecutors successfully convict him of betrayal of public trust, violation of the Constitution, and graft and corruption, he will be the first Chief Justice to be impeached in our history. Much like our telenovelas, the case is proving to be every bit as convoluted and controversial, making it difficult to determine who’s playing thebida and the kontrabida. — Cai Subijano