Mai Mislang’s Hippyish Tweets

She’s now called by many names, such as “Twitter Queen”, “Wine Sucks” girl, “spitwriter”, etc., for doltishly sharing insensitive, hippyish tweets online about the wine served by the Vietnamese government, the lack of good looking Vietnamese males and the homicidal streets of Vietnam. “

Mai Mislang, the “hardworking and trusted” speechwriter of President Noynoy Aquino, according to her boss Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, is now the hottest topic in the blogosphere and other social network sites like Facebook, Twitter and Plurk.

Fresh from the nightmare of the August 23 hostage crisis, the Aquino administration has to do a lot of explaining in order to control the damaging tweets posted by one of its communications personnel.

Here are some of the tweets of Mai Mislang:

This cum laude graduate from UP certainly has the right to tweet, but as part of the palace personnel and communications people of the country’s commander-in-chief, she should have been more prudent and more responsible in posting tweets online. She should have considered the fact that she’s one of the ‘select few’ who represented the Philippines in Vietnam. We don’t learn these things in school. We don’t need an ethics teacher to teach us good manners and right conduct. There’s one very important thing that Ms Mislang took for granted during her privileged stay in Vietnam: Common sense.

If those tweets were posted by me or by any ordinary citizen in this country, no one would have ever noticed it. But Ms Mislang is not just a speechwriter for the president. The thing is that she was one of those who escorted the president in his state visit in Vietnam. She tasted the wine that “sucks” in Vietnam. She was so disappointed to know that there were no “good-looking” guys in Vietnam. She was disgusted by the homicidal streets of Vietnam. And she posted her tweets in Vietnam.

Now both the critics and allies of the Aquino administration have their own piece of advice for Aquino’s Twitter addict.

Inquirer’s Conrado de Quiros didn’t mince words in his unkind remarks about Mislang’s silliness:

You’re [Mislang] a silly person visiting Vietnam with your silly boyfriend and you say those silly things in public, they are pretty harmless, or you harm only yourself. You’re a silly public official visiting Vietnam with your serious boss, the President, and you say those silly things in public, they are not harmless, you harm your boss. By now those tweets will have been read by the Vietnamese Embassy and the other Asean embassies. At the time Mislang put them out, P-Noy was telling the other Asean countries to “speak with one voice.” The irony will not be lost on the people in those embassies, not all of whom are silly.

Philippine Star’s Boo Chanco called Mislang “bastos” in his column:

If both my grandmothers were alive today and we told them the Mai Mislang tweets, they would have reacted by exclaiming three words: Bastos. Walang pinagaralan. They wouldn’t care if Mislang was a cum laude graduate of UP or even if she had a PhD in nuclear physics. She would still be bastos… walang pinagaralan.

… Mislang may have had the misfortune of not having been trained well by her parents.

It is simply basic and that makes it so difficult to understand why Mislang did it, to the embarrassment of the whole Filipino nation. When you are a guest in someone’s home, you act like a good guest. You should be respectful. If you are offered something to eat or drink, say thank you. If you do not like what was served, suffer in silence and even swallow it as if it was the most delicious treat in the world. When you are asked how you liked the food, smile sincerely and say it was great.

Journalist and blogger Ellen Tordesillas called Mislang “snooty and ignorant” in her blog:

Will somebody please give Mai Mislang, the “hardworking and trusted” speechwriter of President Aquino, according to her boss Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, a copy of guidelines on social media?

A blogger from Asian Correspondent blogged that Mislang “hates ugly” people:

If Mislang knows what’s good for her, for her president and for her country, she should just resign. That is the only honorable thing to do right now. As long as she is in power — drunk or heady, whatever —   people all over the world will continue pouncing on her. Besides, I’m sure the president can find a better speechwriter and a nicer gal to hang around with during state visits.

Now here are some of the “Mislang” photos circulating on Facebook and other social network sites.

For share only... I didn't photoshop this image, FYI.