Robertsons and the Savage Beans

Les Haricots Sauvages
It was not coincidence to have crossed paths with Serge Ducrocq, the rap-influenced frontman of the Swiss ska band, Les Haricots Sauvages. Translating his band's name to literally mean "the savage beans", Ducrocq is an outspoken, flute-learning character who conquered the ill-mannered Manila traffic but not our Fear Factor-caliber delicacy, balut.

Our discussion about music ranged from the inescapable sterility of the majors-run mainstream to the Beans' children's show gig with him on a rabbit costume. We disagreed on some topics, i.e. he was never into the whole Nirvana and Seattle movement, but also found common ground by chanting: " Bang...your...head...to...THIS!!!" of the Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. fame. Remarkably hiphop to the core, he gave a rare impromptu performance of a rap verse in French to a dinner audience of 3 at our very own Dampa seafood market (yours truly was in charge of instrumentation: the proverbial beatbox).

Ducrocq was quick to point out urban nasties like letting your car's headlamps glare on high beam the entire time or blowing horns unneccesarily excessive (in fact, one could get sued for it in Switzerland). And with natural Western tact, he even dissed my Puma Clyde's saying that the brand contributes to Third World exploitation thru cheap labor. "I wear as much Swiss as I can," he mused.

Robertsons
Roughly 3 years back, Converse relaunched its classic Chuck Taylor series with a barrage of teenage potpourri designs and an overwhelming 195% price increase (it nearly tripled). When I first heard of the "hot rods" from then-law student Noel Gascon and curiously surfed the net for it, I was (to be honest) infatuated. Before it hit local stores, they sold for US$30 exclusive of shipping and handling which I already found too steep then. After all, Chuck Taylor's embodied the working class melodrama.

Las Sunday, I was searching for a worthy successor to my EDSA II Chuck's and alas! I found a pair of newly-designed Robertsons sneakers in Landmark. It still had the classic white thread double-stitches of the old Robertsons that I remember were worn by pedicab drivers and construction workers who played streetball (literally) with no more than a Robertsons rubber basketball!

None could have fit better to the ghetto economic principle of form and function vis-a-vis price, i.e. in contrast to the predominant colonial perception that a mere emblem is supposed to make something superior in quality (something I vehemently objected in a Clinton Palanca pseudo-philosophy college lecture).

While there are still industries where our country clearly falls behind in quality and technologically, there are already a few that have major bragging rights for best value and breakthrough.

Khaos Turbo Charger
"Sleeping fish" export technology
Bench
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INQ7.net
DMCI Homes
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Islander slippers