The Plagiarist

Short and simple yet direct and bold for the meantime, here's something I posted on the Friendster Bulletin Board. Initially I thought of writing a longer article about PLAGIARISM, but eventually I decided: "What for? Such plagiarists don't deserve a waste of my ink!" Thus, this article should suffice.

I couldn't do anything anyway, but to CURSE them bloody PLAGIARISTS! Like leeches and mosquitoes, you suck the very lifeblood of writers like me. Like leeches and mosquitoes, anyway, you'll soon be squashed in the end with just a simple slap of the palm.

The Message
Several friends have already posted their grave concerns about the proliferation of plagiarized works. In fact, one friend in the Philippines, Vayie de Leon, informed me that the testimonial I wrote of her has been plagiarized! Ha-ha-ha! Unbelievable! Even simple testimonials these plagiarists couldn't spare.

I have not an iota of respect for plagiarists, but I pity them for their foolery. To quote my best friend, fellow writer Rain Paggao:

"What does profit a plagiarist if he gains the word but loses the command of his own pen?"

Personally, I've been seeing some of my original articles being posted here and there on the Internet without properly acknowledging me. Of course, I feel disrespected, or should I say, I feel being sucked of my lifeblood—my literary works—but they can never suck dry my well of literary ink!

If only I could put a curse on my works:

Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue and cut thy fingers in sleep. Whoever steals even bits of these may bite thy tongue!

But I couldn't do anything. Sometimes I get flattered, sometimes I am disgusted; but mostly, I get annoyed in a humorous way; for no decent writer (if a writer he may be called at all) will ever commit the gravest mortal sin in the literary world—PLAGIARISM.

The plagiarist, like cheap paper, burns or crumbles in the end; the author--the true child of knowledge--like breeze, lingers on...comforting, soothing, reminding everyone that something usually unseen yet certainly felt is far more important: dignity.