Friday, July 20, 2007

MA Extra: Dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock


The Funk of 40,000 Inmates

The Militant got this YouTube link forwarded to him by a San Diego-based member of his militant network. It depicts several orange-suited inmates (plus one who got to dress up like a girl) 8,000 miles across the Pacific re-enacting the dance sequence of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video
(which, according to my Militant knowledge, was filmed here in Los Angeles in an industrial alley along Union Pacific Ave. in The Real Eastside). The inmates belong to Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, which is located in the Philippines' second largest city, in the southern/central part of that country. No sooner than four hours later the Militant sees this video forwarded, IM'ed, blogged or MySpace Bulletined by so many people that it bears some further explanation (because the Militant is all about digging beneath the surface): CPDRC is a minimum-security prison with a mission. According to one of its administrators, the prison's approach to rehabilitation is "discipline, physical fitness, dismantling of the culture of corruption and preemptive decongestion." Wow, they actually teach something to those prisoners there -- what a concept. Those dancin' prisoners of CPDRC have done much more as well, including the "Algorithm March" from Japan (made popular by a children's TV show on NHK), which can be seen here, performed 967 strong.

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