The Standpoint

World War C

2020-03-15T16:48:00.002+04:00

This current conundrum that is the COVID-19 knocks at our doorsteps and tests our resolve as a race. It sows fear and panic similar to that famous horror/thriller/sci-fi movie many of us know, World War Z.

It is okay to be afraid. Fear is what has helped humanity survive the various extinction events it faced throughout the centuries. However, it is also important to realize that excessive fear is not helpful. It either drives us to panic, which can potentially lead to anarchy, or cause us to freeze and just ultimately drive us all to inaction. Lack of fear on the other hand is just, well, silly and somewhat irresponsible.

The COVID-19 caused by the SARS-COV-2 strain of the coronavirus has taken us all by surprise. It has spread across the globe faster than we could have all imagined, either through our ignorance or perhaps, even arrogance. Whatever the case maybe, the reality is that it is here and it is wreaking havoc. We have underestimated the virus early on because we have judged it on its ability to kill or spread when compared to the common flu or other well-known diseases that take far more lives per year. I believe we are way past that. The world should already stop judging this virus based on its ability to spread or kill, but rather on its ability to disrupt life as we know it.

There are numerous independent analyses of the numbers with corresponding predictions and what-not that you will see published all over the cyber space. I too am guilty of looking at numbers and stuff and making bold predictions and all, albeit I kept them mostly to myself. Mathematical or statistical modeling is good to enable us to predict things. But we are now at a point where taking actions today, no matter how small, far outweighs the benefits of modelling and predicting tomorrow. Predictions always tend to look at the worst case scenario and such things help more in spreading panic. That is just how it works -- we predict doomsday, never hope. It is important at this point to never be eagerly optimistic nor be overly pessimistic. I remember a passage I have read as a kid that I feel is very relevant now -- “In the eye of the storm, the pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.”

I am very thankful that I am here in the UAE when this whole thing broke out. The leadership here is exceptional. While the rest of the world either dismisses the issue believing it will resolve by itself or blames another country or people for the outbreak, the leaders of the UAE relentlessly monitors the outbreaks, constantly assesses its risks and continuously adjusts the sails. Since the beginning of the outbreak, the UAE is one of the very first countries to send medical supplies to China. Since then, and especially in the past couple of weeks, the UAE have continuously implemented various other actions to protect the UAE, its citizens and residents, and its businesses. The declaration of early school break and the implementation of e-learning platforms to protect the young generation are some of these measures. The UAE have also issued a clarification early on that all cases of COVID-19 inside the UAE will be treated free of cost – regardless of whether the patients have insurance or not. This kind of assurance from the government comes a long way in the midst of uncertainties. Not all countries, even to this day (even some of the most “advanced” and “developed” ones), have done this. Then there is the phased control of borders that started with aggressive screening and detection at ports of entry up to the stoppage of new visa issuance once the pandemic broke out. And last, but not the least, the injection of fiscal stimulus, which is amongst the largest in the world specifically allocated to combating the economic effects of COVID-19. All these were done whilst the rest of the world bickers on who is to blame for the outbreak and while they just take to their congresses or parliaments to begin the discussions, only now, on what to do about the virus. Let me also point out that while all these happen, the UAE still continues to fulfill its humanitarian commitments to the rest of the world as a responsible member-nation of this planet. Never have I seen such political resolve exhibited by any country coupled with an unwavering compassion for its brothers and sisters outside its borders.

This is a shout-out to the entire UAE leadership. May you continue to be the role model on how a truly responsible government should be – a real servant of its people, unfaltering in its commitment to protect its nation’s and peoples’ interests, devoid of the paralyzing self-serving partisan politics, and a true global leader – one that is neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but a vigilant realist, fueled by hope, who never loses sight of its aspirations both for its nation and its people.

While this government does its part, we too, the citizens and residents of this nation should do our part. The government is already giving us all the information and the necessary tools to weather this storm. Let us begin by heeding their advice and refraining from sharing unverified information. There are sufficient information channels made available to us to make informed decisions in relation to our daily movements. There is also an aggressive information campaign on what the government does to assure us that they are on top of the situation and that they continue to react to it in a calm and structured manner. Let us take it and build from it so that we can help in spreading sparks of hope.

The key here for us as individuals is to find the balance between eager optimism and excessive pessimism. The government has taken the lead in showing us how to find this balance and continually provides the necessary guidance to us all on an ongoing basis. Let us be vigilant but live life normally, with the appropriate caution as dictated by the situation. Living our life is what we are the experts of. Leave all other things related to the virus to the experts in their fields -- the predictive modelling to the epidemiologists, the understanding of the behavior of virus to the virologists, the finding of the cure to the pharmacologists. In living our own life carefully and responsibly, we will contribute to overcoming this challenge in our midst.

One may think that one person is far too small to make a difference, but situations like these remind us of the power of one. All that is needed is just one person – “Patient Zero” moving about unchecked and you have a pandemic. Each of us should approach this situation as that one person who believes he/she has an impact. Every little thing we do, collectively, will make a difference. Every single responsible isolation removes one more body out of the equation in the virus transmission formula. Every dirham we spend to support local businesses add up to their coffers, which in turn help a lot of people keep their jobs. Every single message of hope we share contributes to the overall well-being of every single one of us. I know some may say that hope does virtually nothing, but hope is a placebo, and placebo is a mind-blowingly potent cure. Maybe a little bit of hope is all we need.

What we have right here right now is a case of another World War – and I call it “World War C”. C stands for the test on our “compliance” to government-issued guidelines and controls. C for “care” in making sure we exercise caution in our movements as well as in sharing our thoughts. C for “charity” and “compassion” for our fellow human beings, especially those who will or may struggle to make ends meet because of this. That extra dirham you give your delivery guy or your restaurant server, that “hazard pay” to thank them for continually serving us goes a long way in this trying times. C for “common sense” because sometimes, it is just not so common anymore. And last but not the least, C for “comedy” because right now, it is really difficult to be happy about how things are around the world. A little bit of comedy, that bit of smile on someone’s face can make a lot of difference. Studies show that our brains are “idiotic” enough to pump out endorphins just from merely sensing our facial muscles making that “banana-like” shape with our mouths. Endorphins boost the immune system. A strong immune system is exactly what we need to fight this off, or any other bug (at least most of them) for that matter.

Only time will tell if the old adage, “laughter is the best medicine” is true. But this I know is a fact, “if you laugh for no reason, you need medicine.” Still, a little bit of laughter wouldn’t hurt anyone.

In the meantime, let us keep monitoring, let us stay vigilant, and let us all live life as normally as we possibly can.

Stay safe everyone!

Philippine Election 2019: A Case for Migration

2019-05-16T20:31:00.000+04:00

There has been a number of story runs on the media the past couple of days regarding the search keywords ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’ trending HARD soon after the election. Seeing that it involved data analytics and number crunching, which is a passion of mine and is a good part of my day job for the past 17 years, it immediately struck a chord.

I first saw it on Rappler. I read through the article and, as soon as I was done, searched online to see what other agencies ran the story and how they presented it. Using google search tools, I saw the first run of the story is by Davinci Maru of ABS-CBN at 11:47pm on May 13, 2019, entitled “Dismayed at initial poll results, Filipinos search for ‘migrate’ online. Then the Philippine Star soon followed, with a more detailed account of the interview. To give credit where credit is due, of all the story runs, only the Philippine Star article actually provided more useable content, rather than the usual strategy employed by most news outfits of (1) picking a specific quote; (2) creating a hype and blowing it up; and (3) supporting it with a few twitter/FB screenshots from real people; then (4) making it appear as the overall sentiment of the majority of the populace.

According to ABS-CBN, the data in their report is from a certain Isaac Reyes of DataSeer, a data science and analytics training provider. A quick search of the name shows a profile of a “data scientist” who is the Lead Trainer and the proprietor of DataSeer. On his profile, this is how he describes his decade long relationship with data, “I live and breathe it.” Reading through the profile seems to strongly indicate his expertise on the subject of data analytics.

I do not claim to be an expert on the subject, but I have a pretty good grasp of data analysis, having done many business case studies, scenario simulations and business process improvements projects, all involving loads of data analytics. But after reading through the story on the “trending” search keywords being promoted on the mainstream media (of course with their own twists and turns), I cannot help but scratch my head and question my understanding of numbers and analytics. It seemed to me that some data analytics fundamentals have been flouted, purposely or otherwise, in the development of this particular narrative. Either that, or I may really just have gone so dumb to a point that I cannot understand a very simple story that they are trying to tell.

You know how your head hurts when you are certain you know something but your head cannot chuck out the information that you know? Like when you see a face of an actor and you know his name but somehow the name just would not come out? That is exactly how my head hurt the past couple of days. I know I understand data and trends but I cannot seem to wrap my head around the ‘election results’-‘migration’ narrative. So, I decided to dig deeper, analyze the “analysis” and write about it. Please read on. I promise, there will be some really entertaining $#!+ here, especially when you get towards the end. Here goes…

The Beginning

This right here is exactly where it all starts. Our data scientist’s posts on FB relate to data from Google trends that appears to point to the idea that some people in PH do not like the initial election results so much that they are ready to pack up and leave. This was picked up by news outfits who decided to run the story.

The Data

Here is the data that created the hype. Indeed, there was a “massive” spike of interest on searches for ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’ @8:00pm on May 13, 2019, relative to the rest of the week.

The Narrative

Based on the spike on the Google trend data on the keyword ‘migrate’ (showing the spike of interest coinciding with the release of the first election results) and the FB post of the data scientist’s proposition, the media solidified the narrative, which runs along the line of… Filipinos are so dismayed by the preliminary election results that Filipinos have gone straight to the internet and started researching using ‘migrate’ and ‘migration’.

It suggests that people suddenly started researching on ways to get out of the Philippines as soon as possible. Here are a few of the headlines ran by the mainstream media.

So What?

There is data to support the narrative, and numbers do not lie. The analytics can be recreated simply by going to trends.google.com yourself and you can see that there really was a spike in interest for the said keywords. So if the numbers are true and you can recreate the conditions of the study then this is not fake news! So “what is wrong with the narrative?” you ask.

Let me count the ways…

1. The Data Set

The most common mode of failure in data analysis is the use of inappropriate data. Selecting the sample, cleaning up, and grouping the data are always the first things you do before doing any analytics. The sample must be a good representation of the population. Rogue data must be eliminated from the sample to ensure that the trends do not get skewed. Then the data must be organized and grouped to identify trends.

The trouble with the data from Google trends is you do not have visibility on the raw data. Presumably, the data has already been cleaned. Granting that this is the case, the next issue is finding the right search keyword for the study, which in this case is very specific, i.e. “migrate” and “migrating”. Under normal circumstances, this would be okay as an independent data set. However, the claim is that the election has something to do with the spike.

By choosing only ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’ as the search keywords, we only point to a sample population that actually searched for these specific keywords as an independent data set, not as subset of a bigger data that contains related subsets. Therefore, with the current data and the study criteria, we can only see the spike relative to the volume of search during the study period, but we cannot make a correlation whether the search volume that drove up the trend make up 1% or 90% of the population that was actually interested on the election. This bring me to point no. 2.

2. The Correlation

Data analysis, especially when percentage or relative volumes are used instead of actual count, would depend very much on correlation with other data. Had the data been on actual count of search hits, say 2 consistent hits throughout the week then a sudden spike driven by 1,000 search hits on a given period, then from the 1,000 hits we can somehow deduce the relevance of the data against the voting population. Unfortunately, Google trends data do not show counts. Therefore, to tell a proper story, it is vital that a proper correlation is made. Without correlation, the analysis is meaningless. The data presented to us through the media lacked any workable correlation.

Let us try and make some sense of the data then by trying to make some correlation. To do this, we need to first understand assumptions. In this case, the proposition is that maybe, just maybe, the election results have something to do with the spike. We can use this then as our assumption. To use this information in the analysis, we add another keyword to the comparison alongside “migrate” and “migrating”. For this purpose, I chose “Halalan 2019”, just so we are consistent with the hashtag our data scientist used at the time of posting.

This is what we get.

As you can see, we have somehow established a meaningful comparison between the volume of people in the Philippines searching for the keywords, ‘migrate’ or ‘migrating’ and those people searching for keywords about the election, i.e. ‘halalan 2019’.

Now we can see clearly (for those with microscopic vision) the significance of the data from the selected sample on the report being promoted by the media (see the red and the blue dots) in relation to the total volume of the search from the population interested with the election using the “halalan 2019” keyword. Simply put, the significance is “insignificant” and that there isn't really any workable relationship between the data sets to establish meaningful correlation. This is why I cannot seem to understand where the statement, “Search terms ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’ are trending HARD in PH right now.” came from. I personally see no HARD trend developing anywhere in those graphs, when all things are put in proper context.

There are also other comparisons that could have been made to put more perspective into the data. Examples could be relative volume compared with the recent Philippine elections in the last decade, to see the then and now. They could have also looked at the historical trend (say from 2004 to date) of the keywords to show the relevance of the data they are presenting in isolation. But they would not, because if they did, it would be clear that the overall interest on these keywords are actually on the decline in itself.

Presenting the graph above, showing historical trend from 2004 to date, will definitely not support the proposition and is definitely not in line with the narrative. So this is definitely a graph/analysis that is not fit for purpose. Which brings me to point no. 3.

3. The Driver

There is always a driver – a purpose, when we do analytics. In business, we do it to support sound and informed decision-making. In debates, we use it to convince the opposition to see things from our vantage point, if not to fully get them to our side of the fence. In quality, we do analytics to find the balance between the cost of quality, the bottom line, and the satisfaction of the customer we serve.

There is always a driver in analytics – an end goal, if you may. The report we generate in analytics is the tool that we use to get to that designed end goal, be it an event, a condition or a call to action. This makes data analytics deliberate. The end result we want to achieve and the action that we want to happen always dictates the way we select our sample population and how we present the data.

This is the HARD truth about data analytics. And the true measure of brilliant data analytics is when the end goal is achieved. Analytics without any driver is an utter waste of time.

On this particular case, we all know that the election is over. The votes have been cast. There is no amount of data analytics that can change the results. There are no more decisions to make nor actions to take with regards to the election. So what is this data analytics report, and the media promoting it, trying to achieve? What is the driver? What is the designed end goal?

This is where the fun part that I promised begins…

4. The Keyword

Let us be naïve for a while and assume that the perceived irregularities I pointed out on the first 3 points do not exist and that the data set is pristine. My next big question would be, “What was the methodology used for arriving at the search keywords, ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’? Yes, it was claimed that the words started showing up on real people’s posts on social media, which prompted the more detailed analysis on the keywords. However, these keywords did not actually trend on Twitter, Facebook, nor Goolge as far as I am aware of. They were never at the top 10 of any trending list between May 10 and May 15. Of the many trending election-related words to pick during the study, ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’ were chosen. There are also other words like, ‘happy’, ‘hopeful’, ‘sad’, scared’, ‘cheating’, etc. that could have been used to at least assess popular sentiment. Even “#halalandayaan2019”, according to coconuts.co, was the no.1 trending topic on Philippine Twitter as of May 14. Why was there no analytics done on that hashtag instead?

I appreciate that choosing keywords for search analytics is more technical than just choosing random words to anyone’s liking. Having said so, if no selection methodology is presented, my first assumption is the selection was ad hoc, arbitrary, whimsical – and “maybe” deliberate.

Now it gets more interesting…

5. The Timing

I always believe that in everything, timing is everything. So, I could not let this minor detail pass. I would like to draw your attention to these two curious screenshots, with particular focus on the highlighted parts…

Yes, you are right! There is no imagining things here. The claim that “people in PH are not liking the preliminary elections results” thus driving the search terms ‘migrate’ and ‘migrating’, was actually made 15 minutes before the results from the first 15 clustered precincts are actually received.

I said in point no.4 that the selection of search words, without a defined selection criteria, “maybe” deliberate. This evidence right here showing the claim was made 15 minutes in advance of the actual data being made public somehow makes what initially seemed as an arbitrary selection appear more of a deliberate one. It is as if there is clairvoyance power at play, which enabled foreseeing the upcoming trending of the “randomly” selected keywords in the very near future.

Could it be a case of local server clocks at Rappler and Facebook as well as the poster’s local system clocks not being synchronized? It may well could be. But in this day and age when clocks (especially computer clocks) are synced through date and time servers around the globe, which in turn are synchronized with each other, I really find it hard to believe that this is the case here.

My Final Thoughts

There has always been that skeptic in me that make me tend to question things. Amongst them include my questioning of how mainstream media presents facts and data. In the past, and up until now, I notice that numbers, data and figures have always been misrepresented, misconstrued or miscalculated by them, intently or otherwise. This started off subtly but this one here is so blatant that it feels like a slap on the face. It is as if the Filipino people do not have brains and are incapable of thoughts and analysis.

Isolating a small subset of data and presenting it as if it is the entire data, and somehow making it subtly (and sometimes, not so) look like a true representation of an entire population is a big insult to the Filipino intellect. Case in point, Rappler claims that freedom of the press is under attack under this administration. However, it is only them that is being restricted, primarily due to the fact that the government sees them as abusing their press privilege. But somehow, they have turned it such that Rappler is the "press" and the perceived baseless attack on Rappler is an attack on the entire press - an isolation of small subset of data and turning it into a true representation of an entire population. However, when you look around, the remaining majority of the press are able to exercise their privilege without much fuss. For cases of self-serving generalization such as this, I take grave personal insult. This is why I suddenly felt the need to exercise my constitutional right to freedom of expression. This is my expression of outrage and dismay.

While we are on the issue of “freedom of expression”, that many claim is under attack and is stifled by the current administration, this I say to you: the fact that the media freely and continuously promotes reports such as this, with very little repercussions, if at all there is any, is a testament that the freedom of expression, and with it, democracy, is very much alive.

Please do not continue to insult the Filipino people. I think we all know what is at play here. Seriously, who are the people who would consider migration as a means of escape from a 'dire' national situation? Those with the financial capacity to migrate! That is the upper class. These lot are surely well traveled and would surely already be aware, more or less, of the migration processes. They would not need to do much research, especially if consultants are used for the migration. Would you have us believe then that the lower class would be the ones that have driven up trend? How many of them even have passports? In dire situations, the lower class' first worry would be where to get the money to buy the basic necessities for the day. Also, common sense would dictate that as part of the migration process, the search hits for 'passport' should also show strong correlation with this data since a passport is a mandatory requirement. But alas, the available data do not show any meaningful correlation to support this.

What about the middle class then? Well, the majority of the middle working class are OFWs whose search hits (for 'migrate' in case they really are on the lookout to migrate) would not even be counted in the data set for searches in the Philippines. So I am pretty sure they are not part of that google data. What about the middle class still in the Philippines? Well, for starters, they should have triggered a surge on the 'passport' keyword search at least. In fact, if you look at the data on 'passport' search hits in the past 12 months, that too is on the decline. There really isn't anything much to work with here to make the narrative credible at the very least.

Amidst these senseless, insignificant data that the media decided to pick up on and publicize, I go back to question on the 'driver'. What is the 'driver' here? Better yet, who is the 'driver' here? What is the end goal? From what I can deduce from the available data, the 'driver' would be to cast doubts on the electoral process. I can also deduce that the 'drivers': (1) are within the Philippines; (2) are a very insignificant fraction of the voting population; (3) already have passports; and (4) have the capacity to migrate. Hmmmmmmm... Esep Esep pa more.

What is the end goal? I suppose for this, we will all just have to wait and see.

To conclude, this is clearly a very blatant disrespect to us thinking Pinoys. I say to the Filipino intellectuals out there and those Filipinos with considerable reach, please use your gifts and powers responsibly. You never know when your opinions will be picked up and used as an instrument for discord rather than for strengthening our nation. For those who cannot, does not want, or simply refuse to aid in the development of our nation, kindly please follow these steps:

open up your browser;
type google.com on the address bar,
type ‘migrate’ as your search word
hit ‘Enter’.

If you need help, contact Mr. Locsin. I heard he is willing to help out disgruntled citizens wanting to pack up and go. Leave the Philippines to patriotic Filipinos who truly care for this nation.

Acts of Kindness

2018-03-31T13:08:00.000+04:00

He was driving home one evening, on a two-lane country road. Work, in this small mid-western community, was almost as slow as his beat-up Pontiac. But he never quit looking. Ever since the Levis factory closed, he'd been unemployed, and with winter raging on, the chill had finally hit home. It was a lonely road. Not very many people had a reason to be on it, unless they were leaving. Most of his friends had already left. They had families to feed and dreams to fulfill. But he stayed on. After all, this was where he buried his mother and father. He was born here and knew the country.

He could go down this road blind, and tell you what was on either side, and with his headlights not working, that came in handy. It was starting to get dark and light snow flurries were coming down. He'd better get a move on. You know, he almost didn't see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill that only fear can put in you. He said, "I'm here to help you m'am. Why don't you wait in the car where it's warm. By the way, my name is Joe."

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough Joe crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down her window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her aid. Joe just smiled as he closed her trunk.

She asked him how much she owed him. Any amount would have been alright with her. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Joe never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Joe added "...and think of me".

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight. A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The cash register was like the telephone of an out of work actor, it didn't ring much.

Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn't erase. The lady noticed that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Joe.

After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to get her change from a hundred dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. She wondered where the lady could be, then she noticed something written on a napkin. There were tears in her eyes, when she read what the lady wrote. It said, "You don't owe me a thing, I've been there too. Someone once helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here's what you do. Don't let the chain of love end with you."

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could she have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, "Everything's gonna be alright, I love you Joe."

-Author Unknown

Desiderata

2018-03-27T17:52:00.000+04:00

The word "desiderata" is the plural form of the word "desideratum", a Latin word which literally means "something desired".

I came accross this beautiful work as a teenager and it has greatly influenced and shaped how I see the world.

***

DESIDERATA

by Max Ehrmann, 1927

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals;

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

***

The Bliss in Surrender

2018-03-22T18:53:00.000+04:00

Surrender is a negative word. It does not exist in any fighter’s book. It is an order, usually almost always the last one, every general wishes to not ever give. In surrender we relinquish all our power, accept we no longer are in control, and we resign to our fate. To surrender is to give up, to concede, to lose. We live in a world where giving up, losing control or simply just losing are frowned upon. To surrender is to show weakness. So we “man” up. We set out to conquer life. We struggle. We survive. Battle-hardened, we march on. No retreat, no surrender.

The reality is nothing in life is ever within our control. The only thing we have some control over is the way we see, feel and react to what life throws at us. We cannot conquer life but we can conquer ourselves. The moment we re-learn to accept and embrace this powerful thought, surrender suddenly finds a different meaning.

Life is a string of surrenders. Our very first experience of it is our first kiss -- that beautiful moment when our hearts raced, that weird, exciting sensation that hijacked all our senses, one that is sometimes depicted to come with a leg lift -- that was surrender. At that moment the lips touched, we did not know what the future held for us. There were no thoughts, no debates, no resistance. We simply surrendered and it was bliss. For the parents amongst us, before bringing up young souls into this world, our heads were filled with so many ideas, sometimes even captured in checklists – stable job, enough money, own house, travel the world, and a million other things. When the reality sank in that we probably need at least 20 or so odd years to get there, we tore up the list and took the plunge. We surrendered and will forever be grateful we did. Surrender is the letting go of fears, inhibitions, and breaking away from pre-conceived notions. It is the recognition of reality over expectations. It is the acceptance that there is only so much we can control. It is in these moments of surrender that we open our doors to let the beauty of life flow in.

Many times we find ourselves in the midst of a raging storm. One difficulty pops up after another - a difficult co-worker, a problematic child, an ocean of deliverables, a demanding partner, a spiteful neighbor, a credit card hacked dry right when it is time to pay the bills, and when you think things can’t get any worse, a leaking water pipe or a broken car also comes along. Heck, even a busted bathroom light can tip the scale from normal to coocoo. We get so overwhelmed with the noise and chaos that, as if to preserve us, our survival instincts automatically kick in. We lift our shoulders up and fight on. We are a resilient bunch, and when the choice is “fight” over “flight” in the face of uncertainty and adversity, failure and surrender are just never an option. The downside is it is so easy to get dragged into a constant “fight” mode. And life in a constant state of a quasi-war brings with it a dense fog that obstructs all the beauty that surrounds us.

There is no one to blame but ourselves. The world we created imposed upon us a kind of programming to not fail, to not give up, and to not show weakness in order to make it. We developed valuable competencies essential to getting ahead in a cutthroat environment -- the constant need to be organized, to be thorough down to the last detail, to always make the right decisions, to be always in full and total control, and to always come out on top. This made life so convoluted that we constantly torture ourselves. We overthink every conversion, every option, every decision, and we even overthink every emotion. We live in constant fear of failure, of criticisms, of showing weaknesses, that we practically removed “surrender”, and with it “acceptance”, from our vocabularies. We puny humans have completely forgotten what the mighty dogs have not -- to get that satisfying tummy rub, one must lay down one’s armor, expose one’s vulnerabilities, and surrender.

To surrender, to relinquish our power, to accept we no longer are in control, and to fully resign to our fate is never going to be easy. We will always be filled with doubts but when we surrender our fears and anxiety, we begin to understand the full force of faith. We will always have unmet expectations but when we surrender our expectations, we begin to grasp the value of gratitude. We will always make mistakes but when we surrender our constant need to be right, we begin to experience the power of apology and compromise. We will never be perfect but when we surrender to our flaws and imperfections, we begin the journey to becoming better human beings.

Life is short. If you do an accounting of your life backwards you will realize how life really flashes before our eyes at such a frightening pace. At the time of writing this, 463 is my life in months. The average Filipino male lifespan is 68 years or 816 months. For me personally, 353 months (give or take another hundred or so) is too short to be wasted in complicating it. Life should be as simple as laughing when we are happy, crying when we are sad, grieving when we suffer a loss, and just feeling and living the moment with all our senses unhindered. I suppose, in everything, all we can ever really do is give it our all and leave everything else to divine grace.

The key is in the surrender. The next time a driver cuts you off on the highway on your way to work, surrender your space and give yourself (and the freakin’ a-hole) breathing space so you can both safely get to your destination. When you get to the office and get entangled in a heated discourse with a difficult co-worker, surrender your anger, smile and engage them in a more pleasant conversation. At the grocery store on your way home, surrender your space in the queue to that haggard-looking woman behind you with a small child having a tantrum fit. Surrender your change to the cart man who helped you load your groceries and, if you have some more to spare, surrender them to the beggar at the parking lot without passing any judgement. Then when you reach home and get troubled by a problematic kid, surrender your quiet time to listen and try to get to know them some more. Try these and see how it suddenly transforms this gloomy and pathetic excuse for a habitable planet into an eternal source of beauty and sunshine. It is these small acts of kindness that could sometimes make the difference between paradise and hell.

When all is said and done, at the end of the long hard day, you jump into the shower and surrender to that wonderful sensation of every single drop of water lovingly caressing every inch of your skin. You feel the rush of calm that envelopes your whole being. You sense the energy slowly come seeping back through your veins as you witness the troubles of the day go down the drain. Seriously, when was the last time you had a shower without being rushed? It is one of life’s simplest pleasures that we fail to notice because of the pace at which we live it. Then as you step out of the shower and as you reach for the towel to pat dry the bliss and the calm that blankets you, the damn bathroom light flickers… and dies. You are reminded once again that nothing is ever really under your control. You can start ripping off the shower curtain until the curtain rod gives and then grab that curtain rod and start whacking things to pieces, but no! You found bliss in surrender. So you so simply say, “What the pak?!,” raise an eyebrow in disbelief, laugh a little, then surrender once again cause the damn thing can wait for tomorrow, or the next. You contentedly dressed up, slip under the sheets and, for the day, surrender one last time...

Philippines Withdraws from the ICC

2018-03-14T18:01:00.000+04:00

Woke up today to the news that the Philippines is finally pulling out of the ICC.

The mainstream media, as expected, started looking into the legitimacy of the act while taking the opportunity to once again throw the EJK trash in the equation, still hoping that the shit would stick somewhere, somehow. It's already been 19 months that they have been trying the same approach, with some help from their friends - the political minority, the human rights groups, the UN HR, and lately, the ICC.

To this day, I can't really understand whether it's the local actors using the international, or it is the other way around, to undermine our government. Whatever the case may be, one thing is getting clearer by the day - they are willing to sacrifice all the progress we seem to have made in the past 19 months for whatever they would gain from Duterte's downfall.

Duterte is not perfect and he does not claim to be. And yes, he may be very crass in many ways, especially with his filthy mouth, but his actions show an undying love and care for the common Filipino. Of all past chief executives that sat foot on Malacañang, he is the only one who has wielded such passion to better us as a nation.

The man is old, tired and weary. He could have chosen to retire peacefully and enjoy what remains of his days. Instead, he chose to work, wake up everyday and serve the people that, through his actions prove, he deeply cares for. What does he get from it? Nothing but crap and disrespect. Then the ICC came along and even threatens to take away from the man what's left of his days, using unfounded accusations from the shit that's thrown at him by the very people he tries to serve. Any man would, at some point, say enough is enough. I'm glad today he finally did.

In the bigger scheme of things, the ICC losing us won't even leave a dent to the establishment. We will just be replaced by the next nation that gains their favor. However, for a Filipino who is tired of being at the receiving end of repressive policies, conditional aids, and disrespectful treatment just to belong to these "esteemed" international organizations, this parting of ways means a lot. It represents true freedom where one is no longer scared to do things or say words that are not approved by or in line with these international organizations' policies or beliefs.

I wonder what's next in the pipeline... UN perhaps? For now, I'll eagerly wait to see the official letter formally pulling us out from the ICC.

A Time for Moving On

2018-03-12T19:07:00.000+04:00

Life is a torrent of challenges, mini-battles that constantly put our “fight” or “flight” response to the test at every turn. With every battle we choose to fight, in the end, we always get confronted with this one simple question – At what point does one accept that the fight is over and it is time for moving on?

I believe this is the biggest question that dwells in the mind of Chief Justice Sereno right now. The circus at the Congress that’s bound for a much grander stage – the Senate, sitting as the impeachment court, is at full swing. It is one entertaining spectacle where people of all background weigh in with their own critical views. It has somehow turned every one of us into lawyers, well-versed with the provisions of the constitution, even when the majority of us have not even gazed a single law book in our life.

I have only very basic understanding of the law, enough for me to live a relatively compliant (translation: boring) life. When faced with something I have no deep knowledge of, I simplify using familiar concepts to help me form an opinion. On the law and the Constitution, my simplification is this – law is very similar to religion, you do not have to fully read, memorize and understand every single word of every passage in the Bible to be a Christian. That complex and daunting task is best left to scholars. For me, the concept of law is a much simpler proposition that is closely tied with the “Golden Rule” – it is there to ensure that all men act as agents for the common good, promote a community of fairness and live by each other’s grace.

This may be too extreme an oversimplification but I strongly believe that the current case of Sereno can already be argued outside the bounds of the law. This is no longer a case of what is constitutional or not. It is not even a case of “fair” vs “unjust” or a case of “truth” vs “lie”. Fair, in its purest sense, is something we will never really truly see in our lifetime, nor will our kids in theirs. One man’s lie can sometimes be another man’s truth (and it seems to be a growing trend nowadays with the advent of “fake” news). Life will never be fair nor will it ever be true. We can destroy people, break institutions, redefine “fair” as we rewrite the Constitution, and codify the criteria to explicitly define when “truth” is considered true only to find out that it still does not change a thing. Fair is nothing more than the reciprocation of the good and the bad that we hurl at each other every day. Our truth will always be one that is judged through the indelible impressions we leave on each other’s lives with every personal encounter. These are all anchored on human experiences rather than on written laws. So long as life is a shared experience, all these concepts will always be relative and will always form the bases by which every man will be tried and remembered. In the case of the Chief Justice, I think it is fair to say that “fair” is finally catching up on her and her “truth” has already been spoken. You reap what you sow, so they say.

It has been two straight weeks now that employees of the Supreme Court have gathered on the SC grounds, calling in unison for Sereno to step down. The noise is much louder this week with other judges from the regional courts joining in. This is a far cry from the time of the late Chief Justice Corona when he was fighting a similar battle. Corona, back in his days, enjoyed the support of his peers until the very end. Had he won that impeachment case, he would have been able to get back to work without much complication. The same cannot be said of Sereno. Should Sereno emerge triumphant in this scuffle, the scene of her treading the grounds of the Supreme Court to once again take her rightful seat inside its honored chambers presents an enormous challenge even to the most imaginative of minds. The relationships between Sereno and those that testified against her, for all intents and purposes, have already been severed and will never be the same again. The questions of her integrity will always linger no matter what the provisions of the Constitution say to support her case. The rest of the world can vouch for her integrity, and none of it would matter. Integrity, much like a piece of china, once broken will never be whole again. With these, I cannot see how the Judiciary can function effectively with her at its helm.

Sereno is fighting for “judicial independence” as any Chief Justice rightfully should. However, I think the fight was over the very first time one of her peers testified against her in the congress hearings. It was over when more peers followed suit in succeeding hearings. It was clearly over when Supreme Court employees went out and called for her to step down. Whether we like it or not, the Judiciary is already under the scrutiny of a co-equal, but “external” body. The only true way judicial independence can be preserved is if Sereno steps down, effectively sparing the Judiciary from further scrutiny and possible sanction by an “external” body. To continue fighting this battle is not to fight for “judicial independence” but rather to fight for “personal vindication”.

The people who went against her are the very people that should have been her very bastion to retreat to for her last stand. These are the people, whose voices can speak her “truth” that will act as her shield and her source of strength in these trying times. These are the intimate ones – members of her closest circle, her second home, whose shared experiences with her practically defines her. Had she shared the journey alongside them rather than above them, as implied in the congress testimonies, things could have been different. Had she treated people with a little bit more kindness, even just a bit more than they actually deserve (if she was really high up that horse as some people say), her truth could have been a little bit different. But alas, everything is clear only in hindsight.

Constitutional or not, one thing is clearer than the day of light – she has outlived her usefulness and is no longer needed or wanted where she is at. Had it been otherwise, she would not need to expend so much time, energy and strength to hold on to her post. She would not need to hop from one speaking engagement to another in the hopes of swaying people’s mindset about her and her case (for which, by the way, she got a good dressing-down from a colleague for the “un-justice”-like behavior speaking about a case that is sub judice).

In times that matter, such as the one Sereno is in, when you have invested enough in people and have worked hard to leave a mark where you’ve walked, people would gather in numbers to fight the good fight for you. They would even stand by you in defeat. Sadly, there seems to be no indication of such a move brewing for the embattled Chief Justice. That says a lot about one’s character. Perhaps it is time for her to consider other options. Maybe it is time to accept that the “fight” is over and it is time for moving on. Then again, there is still the “flight” option to Oklahoma to get a medical certificate. What say you, Andy?

32 Years of EDSA People Power

2018-02-25T12:09:00.004+04:00

Please Juan, wake up from deep slumber!

I am a Filipino, and a darn proud one. Yet, I just could not get my head around what we, as a people, do. We seem to be a flock of headless chickens roaming endlessly around a barren and hopeless land. We fight against each other without a clear understanding of what we fight for. People in EDSA now are saying, “We are fighting for democracy!” To which I say, “Of course we are!” We all get it. We fought hard for it and got it 32 years ago, did we not? Where exactly did it take us today?

I am a firm believer of the idea that the greatest gift our forefathers left us is democracy. There are still societies to this day whose people who do not even know that people can now choose their leaders. We are given something many people can still only dream of. Yet there are those who say democracy failed us. Others just perennially blame the failure to the government. I think it is more a case of us failing democracy and a corrupt government (or series of governments) just simply capitalized on our failure.

Democracy is a very powerful tool. It empowers both the conformist mind and the maverick mind. Together, these components make for a brilliant, peaceful and progressive society. Democracy protects the conformists who respect the laws and the rights of the collective. Democracy allows for the mavericks to challenge the laws so they can be fashioned to better serve and protect the rights of the collective. The key here is the “collective”. Democracy only works when people, with the same mindset, the same vision for the future, and the same genuine concern for the collective join together as one to promote what they truly believe is best for the greater community.

The Filipino’s show of strength 32 years ago, at the hollowed grounds of EDSA was a thing of beauty regardless of where you stand in that debate. The detractors of EDSA would argue that the numbers that showed up in that historic event are not even a true representation of the Filipino majority. On the other hand, the proponents of EDSA would argue that it was a legitimate triumph of democracy over a dictatorial regime. Whether the driver behind the EDSA people power is a real and genuine concern for the welfare of the Filipino people or a selfish attempt to hand over (or perhaps shift) the power to a limited few, whether the numbers that showed up that time was a true representation of the Filipino majority or not, one thing is clear – there is strength in numbers and power in unity. In EDSA 32 years ago, a substantial number of the collective, seemingly united in mind and intent to find something different, showed up in numbers and put that power to the test. The “collective” won and they wrote history. EDSA was the “renaissance” of the Filipino mind – the awakening that to me, no matter how beautiful that event may be, will always be one I shall remember as the one that made us and broke us at the same time. We found strength in unity, and use it we did – over and over and over.

I was a mere 7 year old boy when EDSA happened. I cannot claim that I have seen nor have felt the effects of the Marcos era. This is why I cannot relate to the younger generations that go out to the street and profess at the evils and horrors of that time. Some of these youths are even more passionate than the generations that actually lived in those times. They believe so strongly on what they have read and what they were told that they so willingly pick up the baton and declare themselves the new generation of democracy fighters. But do they really understand what this “democracy” they are fighting for is? I look at these young ones and cannot help but think that these young souls are either misguided or manipulated. I am inclined to believe it is more of the latter.

In order to truly learn from the past, one has to look at both sides of the story. In studying both sides of the story, one must also keep in mind that history is always written by winners. Mindful of this truth, a true student of history would need to look beyond history books or biographies or autobiographies. To accept the facts written in these journals, without even asking what rigorous testing methods these written data were subjected to for them to be considered as facts, is no different than directly looking at the event through the lens of the winners. To focus solely on one side of a story is no different from indoctrination – and indoctrination, if we have learned anything at all in history, is a very dangerous thing. Sadly, this is what is happening right now. There are elements so bent at feeding the younger generations “facts” from our history, comparing them to any incumbent government, and drawing parallels to the “facts” written in our history.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones where my formal education is supplemented by education at home. Open-minded discussions and debates were always welcome when I was growing up, even between the young and the old. Of course there is that thin line between open discussion and “pangangatwiran sa matatanda” and it almost always ends up as the latter for me. For those transgressions, I get a major reprimand (at least until I came of age). Call it what you will – fake, phony, pretentious, or a straight up dictatorship at the very core of society – the family, I believe this turned me in to the thinking man that I am today, or at least I would like to think so. Now that I am older, and hopefully know better, I begin to question the way we currently educate our young. Are we really teaching our children to become critical free-thinkers, or are we in fact indoctrinating them? Do the materials we use in formal education really promote critical thinking, or do they serve “facts” and “information” on a silver platter for the kids to take in, memorize and master with no questions asked?

Facts are important in any decision-making. The problem we currently face is not the lack of facts, but rather the skewed perception of facts. A fact is a universal truth. An inch being equal to 2.54 cm is a fact. The force of gravity, the speed of light, the weightlessness of space, these are facts. Marcos a “dictator” or Ninoy a “hero” are labels. They are not facts. A label is what we use to classify things, events and people. Labels are perceptions of truths based on either personal or handed-down experiences. Sadly, labels are a free but powerful commodity that is irresponsibly thrown around nowadays. The day we accept labels a facts is the day we surrender our right to critically think for ourselves. The day we accept labels as facts is the day we become mere tools and servants to propaganda artist. Do not get me wrong, I am not in any way proposing that Marcos is a hero and Ninoy is not as heroic as he is portrayed to be. I am merely suggesting that in this day and age where information flows untethered and unregulated, we have to be very careful not to mix up labels and facts. Facts are tools for progress and evolution. Labels are, well, something else.

After the EDSA people power in 1986, we were suddenly elevated to the international spotlight. We were the first nation in history to ever conduct a bloodless “coup” and successfully topple a “dictator”. There were already so many coup that happened before our EDSA revolution. Most of them, bloody. This is expected since by definition of a coup or a revolution, any incumbent government is expected to fight any violent takeover, where bloodshed is almost always expected. There is one peculiar thing about the EDSA Revolution that turned it into the bloodless coup that it is now famously known for – Marcos did not give the order to engage. Had he given the order to his loyalists to engage, the history of the bloodless coup we, and the rest of the world, know would be a completely different story. If one is to rely on mere definitions alone, one can write an article for EDSA Revolution in a completely different light:

Today, the Philippine Government was illegally taken over (i.e. the coup) by protesters and President Marcos (i.e. the dictator) did not fight the hostile takeover in order to protect human lives.

Of course such a headline is so wrong in many ways. But had that been the headline that spread across the world that day, the result of the war of perceptions could have been completely different. After all, the generations now (with very strong opinions of that period in our history) can only rely on what is written about that period. I do not wish to change history nor do I wish to go into a lengthy debate that the pro and the anti-Marcos will surely be entangled in for many, many, years to come. What I am merely trying to point out is history can be bent and molded easily by just a mere creative phrasing of a few words. The reality too is that the majority of the information readily available to us, common men, tends to only show one side of the story. And in each story, a label is thrown here and there, free of charge. We just have this automatic need, a systemic urge to label just about anything. Then when the labels resonate to a good number of people, it suddenly turns into a fact. This is very true with most our history books and very much true with the articles from the mainstream media as well. Sadly though, our current education system uses these very same materials to educate our next generations about our history. I have been at the receiving end of such education and I have experienced first-hand how that famous event in our history is depicted in the classrooms. This clearly explains why we now have the youths that go to EDSA every year to “remember” – and remember they do, with so much resolve and passion that it almost looks like they were direct victims of that phase in our history.

You need not look very far to understand exactly how what is written today shapes the history that will be read and reread tomorrow for and by the next generations to come. Here is a recent report that has been spreading around the globe just a few days ago.

Source: https://www.rappler.com/nation/196525-united-states-intelligence-agencies-duterte-regional-threat

Now here is the actual wording of the Intelligence Report as pointed out by Mr. Bobby Tiglao.

Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/us-intelligence-estimate-praises-duterte/382088/

There is nothing in the intelligence report that explicitly or implicitly states that Duterte is indeed a threat to democracy. Maybe there are other damning documents that independent investigative journalists out there are not sharing with us (perhaps confidential or classified reports directly from the source?). But as of the time of writing this, I have yet to see an actual report that says exactly what the mainstream news headlines are currently spreading.

Now this is an academic example of how history is written. Two different sides of a story, shown from two different viewpoints, driven by two different interpretations, thrown out to the public domain for “discussion”. Then the discussion is steered by those who make the louder noise. The side that gains more traction and grows the greater following wins by numbers. This is followed by calls to action (or actions) necessary to make the winning viewpoint a reality. The “reality” happens. The victor then writes the history according to their own "true" accounts, with the matching labels of course. True accounts become facts and the rest, they say, is history. This has been the modus operandi from long before we were all here – one that has been widely popularized during the Vietnam War, and sadly one that is still being used to this day to great effects.

We have already established that there is power in numbers. We have also established that Information is power. You combine these two elements and you have a powerful weapon that can shape the world. He who controls information and he who has the ability to reach a larger number with his “information” wins – and ultimately writes history . This gave rise to social media. Unlike history books and the mainstream sources, social media is one that is really actually owned and written by the collective, at least until the traditional “owners” and promoters of information catch up on social media. This rise of the social media, for me at least, is like the EDSA Revolution – but a more powerful and a much more inclusive one. Unlike EDSA with the physical and logistical challenges, the social media revolution does not need money, plane/bus tickets, food distribution networks, streamer & placard printing, etc. What one needs to be included is just an internet connection, a keyboard, and a mouse and you are good to go. Sadly though, this too may end up just like the original EDSA Revolution. The signs are already showing. We already have two clearly divided sides, the pro-Duterte and the anti-Duterte, and neither is willing to listen to what the other has to say regardless if the other really does make sense. Both sides are using all available tools to bang their own drums. Both sides are bent on writing their own version of history seen in their own sets of eyes. We do not know yet which side will win on this one, but this I can tell you with finality – one of them will definitely win. Question is can we, as a collective, really claim victory?

As curious beings we are naturally attracted towards where the noise is strong. Our opinion space is very noisy at the minute. This is a very good thing. This means there is much more engagement and much less indifference. Like what I have always said, The Filipino nationalism is at its highest it has ever been in recent years. The challenge is which side’s beating drum do we follow? Do we follow the pro-government, or do we follow the anti-government? Do we follow the pro-DDS, or the anti-DDS? Do we follow the Yellows, or do we follow the other colors? Do we follow this label or the other label? I say we wake up from this deep slumber and follow neither. We choose a side, any side, and we lose. We will look back to today, 30, 40, 50, 60 years from now and realize once again that much like the EDSA 32 years ago, we have not made progress – We gained nothing.

It is time to wake up and put an end to this nonsense. We must break away from our usual programming. We must no longer allow any of these sides to win us over and use us. We are Philippines, we are the voice, and we are the government. We do not need any of those sides to represent us. We must not allow ourselves to be used as a number in their tug of war for power. We have, for 32 years now, tried to do things the exact same way over and over and over – on this day every single year we go out in numbers, we condemn the ills of the current government, flag our current leaders as creeping dictators, attempt to overthrow our current government and claim another victory for democracy. Every single time democracy wins, we lose. We remain as unprogressive, as poor, and as divided as we have always been. It has been 32 years of doing the very same thing and expecting a different result every single time. To put it bluntly, it has been 32 years of pure and utter stupidity.

This EDSA, I really hope we all decide for ourselves to do things differently. Let us go out in large numbers, as the real government, and tell those we elected as administrators of our government what policies work for us and what policies we do not approve of. Let us go out in numbers not with the goal of overthrowing a government. This EDSA our goal should be to try and unite in support of (or against) the policies, ideologies and principles rather than the groups, parties or people. Let us go out there and provide this government direction and support rather than try to destroy it. We give this one a try and maybe, just maybe, this EDSA will really finally fulfill its true potential as a true display of peaceful “People Power Revolution” towards real, meaningful and tangible progress.

Let us keep the memories of EDSA alive and let us learn from our past, this time, for real.

Impeachment Complaint Filed vs Duterte

2017-03-16T18:01:00.000+04:00

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/16/rodrigo-duterte-impeachment-papers-filed-in-philippine-congress

The impeachment complaint filed by the opposition lawmaker Gary Alejano in the House of Representatives today, May 16, 2016, is the glue that pieced together what seemed in the past as dispersed efforts to destabilize the current administration.

The opposition would vehemently deny that this is an act of destabilization. Most of them would say that their mere intention is enlighten the public and to ensure that the truth is known to all Filipinos.

To put things into perspective, let me define what “destabilization” really means. Oxford defines destabilization as, “The process of upsetting the stability of a region or system, especially of government.” With this internationally accepted definition, I can only conclude that impeachment, although considered as part of the democratic process and embedded within the laws of our land, is nothing more than a legal and organized form of destabilization.

It is clear from the very beginning that, even before the then president-elect Rodrigo Duterte was declared the overwhelming winner of the 2016 Presidential elections, the only goal of the opposition, i.e. the Liberal Party along with its horde of followers, is to destabilize the Duterte administration. They have done so in so many ways, under the guise of the “public’s right to be informed of the kind of President we have”. From the constant linking of Duterte to the DDS despite lack of concrete evidence presented or brought to courts, the allegations on the hidden ill-gotten wealth that we are yet to see proofs of, to the tagging of all killings that happen in the country as “extra-judicial” and state-sanctioned. The list is endless.

No credit was ever accorded to any of the good things that the Duterte administration brought to the nation. All that we hear from the opposition are the negatives and all that the media intently covered were the statements and the sentiments of the opposition.

Despite all these, the President’s approval rating remained high, and so is the confidence of the Filipino people on his administration. The failures of the previous administrations to address the most basic needs of the nation have fueled the common Filipino’s flame of hope on the Duterte administration burning bright. We finally have a President who tirelessly works, despite all the destabilization efforts, for the betterment of our nation. This is the flame that the opposition has been, and still is, trying so hard to extinguish.

The past nine months of constant efforts in undermining the government has not borne any fruits. In my humble opinion, all efforts have been so unfruitful that I somehow smell as sense of desperation from the opposition. This is apparent with the overdrive in the destabilization efforts in the past few days. The old methodologies seem not enough to bring down the old man anymore – from De Lima, to Trillanes, to the opposition lawmakers ensuring the noises about the “DDS” and the “extra-judicial killings” constantly fill the chambers of the House despite the apparent lack of any probative value. None of these are able to impact any credible or lasting effect on the President. Even with the help of the pro-opposition media in intensifying the voice of dissent, relentlessly and generously giving airtime to the anti-Duterte witnesses and their handlers to further hurl accusations at the Duterte administration, despite the use of various artistic means to author up news that look, sound, and feel like the opposition’s voice is the true voice of the entire Filipino people, they couldn’t solve their problem that is Duterte.

The nation has grown tired of the tirades and now refuses to believe the anti-Duterte witnesses, who have repeatedly shot themselves on the foot by delivering inconsistent statements or admitting to having lied under oath. With the local stage tired of the circus, the opposition figured something new and more creative had to be done. They needed a new and bigger audience. The ICC, the UN and the EU have given them just that, with a little help from the international federation for liberal political parties.

The next thing you know, Matobato’s lawyer is on his way to Hague to file a case against Duterte for “crimes against humanity”. But they need more than just a testimony from a self-confessed criminal to make a statement. They needed a bigger voice, a name much bigger than Senator De Lima. That came in the form of no other than the Vice President, Leni Robredo herself. Just last night, she leaked a disgraceful video that she intends to show the world through the United Nations.

Watching the Vice-President’s smiling face on TV as she paints a grim picture of the Philippines sent chills to my spine. I could just not make sense of such "grim statistics", if they were indeed true, being delivered with all smiles. Is she actually happy to report about it? The image of our society she was trying to portray through her lens is completely different than what the people on the ground actually see and feel. Is she really that disconnected from the reality to claim that Filipinos are now more afraid, hopeless and helpless as compared to the previous administration? Is she really that disconnected from the government that her view and assessment of the current situation in the Philippines is so different from the view of the government and the rest of the wider nation?

Now, if what she really said are true and the new allegations she’s presented on the video are real, and if what she holds inside her is a genuine concern for the welfare of our nation and its people, is speaking to the entire world, destroying the image of our society really helping the nation? Is providing reasons, founded on erroneous and distorted facts, to inspire outside elements to interfere in our own internal affairs really the morally upright thing to do? To me such an act is no different than a family, where the mother and father could not agree on the method of disciplining the kids and the mother goes on and airs out her dirty linen in public and incites the public to participate and have a stake in the family’s affair.

Before the hangover of watching the tasteless and disgraceful video has passed, everything started unfolding clearly. The video was the signal that set things in motion. Just a few hours after the release of the controversial video came the news that the EU lawmakers are discussing and will be taking a vote today to call for an independent probe on Duterte and for the release of De Lima. And before one could even react, another news breaks about the opposition lawmaker, Rep. Alejano, the ‘mistah’ of Trillanes and a participant of the failed Oakwood mutiny who was sentenced for treason but pardoned by former President Aquino, officially filed an impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives.

For what was made to appear as seemingly isolated and uncoordinated acts of undermining the administration to all converge in such a manner, at such an opportune moment, with such an impeccable timing, only a fool would believe that these are all just a mere coincidence and not a destabilization plot in motion.

Now what really scares me in all these is the author of the impeachment complaint went ahead in filing it despite his acceptance that it is an “uphill battle” and it will be a big challenge to win. This to me only means one thing – IMPEACHMENT IS NOT THE END GAME FOR THE OPPOSITION. If that is not enough to convince you, perhaps the statement below from the author of the complaint himself would drop some hint as to what they envision to happen:

“…we still believe that impeachment would be fought not only inside the halls of Congress but also outside. There’s the church, schools, civil society and the many Filipinos who did not vote and do not support and not in favour of the policies under President Duterte.”

This is clearer than a sunshiny day. This is a call for another EDSA People Power. If we are to really learn from our history, the past two EDSA revolutions have brought us exactly to where we are now – a wrong that the current administration is trying to undo. This is exactly the same blueprint: Impeachment Complaint + call to EDSA, like they have done with Estrada. Question now though is, “Is EDSA the end game?” It could may well be. But considering the numbers they managed to pull off during the last EDSA anniversary celebrations, I think this particular call to EDSA is more of a tool that an end game. Every Filipino who takes to the streets, regardless of what he/she actually stands for, eventually adds to the number that can be, and will be, used to add to the numbers of “civil unrest”. This can then be used to encourage international intervention. But then again, if we are to learn from history, just revisit what happened to all the nations that have clamored for international intervention and got them.

If the impeachment complaint filed by the honorable lawmaker is a testament to anything, it is of these two things: (1) Democracy in our country is very much alive, contrary to the claims of the opposition; and (2) that we have not really learned anything from history. I really do hope time proves me wrong on the latter.

This is a very volatile time, and it is not the time to stay in the middle of the road in this ongoing rage. We are going to get hit one way or another, so better choose a side and stand up for what you believe in. Between a leader who is crude, unconventional and lobbies for the death penalty (including the crimes that his opponents accuse him of) and a leader who opposes the death penalty, petitions for human rights especially for suspected criminals and paints a grim picture of her own country to the international community while wearing a big smile, the choice is simple.

In an unstable political scene such as ours, where political power can shift in an instant, the true sincerity of a leader can be measured by what he/she is fighting for and what he/she stands to lose and gain when the political power shifts. In the case of Duterte, he’s got everything to lose (even his life if the death penalty passes) and nothing to gain. In the case of Leni, she’s got everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Duterte is my President. If this political fiasco is eventually turned into a numbers game, this is my +1 for DU30.

#Impeachment

#WeArePhilippines

#DU30+1
#LeniResign

Obstruction of Persecution

2016-12-04T17:54:00.000+04:00

There is something fundamentally wrong with the state of affairs in our country right now that makes it awfully hard for anyone to be neutral. I personally have tried for so long to remain objective in interpreting the news. I have always believed that no matter how flawed our justice system may be, we should always put our trust in our government and in our institutions to somehow work for us, the people. After all, if we just simply say the institutions are corrupt and we no longer honor them, we condemn our society to eternal chaos. A flawed system is better than no system at all. And so for lack of clear strategy to address fundamental system flaws, every administration for years has maintained the status quo in order not to rock the boat.

The rise of Duterte to power has rocked the boat and has disrupted the status quo. Flaws within the systems are exposed. Social classes are challenged. Power and influence struggles ensued. Simply put, Pandora’s Box was opened. As expected, this impending, if not already ongoing, drastic change has brought our nation dangerously close to anarchy. The play of partisan politics is now at its height and its machineries are hard at work to capture the bigger slice of the supporter’s pie that is the masses. After all, in any mobocracy, the side that holds popular support and that yaps the loudest wins.

I cannot help but ask, “Why the hell did this president open Pandora’s Box and not follow the footsteps of those wise leaders before him?” I say “wise leaders before him” because for lack of a clear strategy, it is almost always prudent and wise not to rock the boat. For him to have challenged the status quo, he better have a clear strategy to address its fundamental weaknesses. And although we are not privy to his strategy in reforming the existing social norms, unlike his “wise” predecessors, he is the only president in the Philippines’ modern-day history who made a promise on his life to rid the nation of drugs, criminality and corruption. The strategy may not be apparent or crystal clear, but the focus and intent are and the actions are swift. He is also the only president in recent years who has made a lot of improvements in the lives of the common Filipino in his first 100 days of office. These, for me, were reasons enough to give my conditional support to this administration.

Yes, his war on drugs and criminality may be bloody and questionable at times, if not always. Yes, the institutions around him may not be at their purest. Yes, the laws he bases his rules of engagement from may not be as perfect as we would want. But at least there is action. And that is all I need from a leader – a clear and uncompromising bias for action. As for the constituency, if you are afraid of getting caught in the crossfire, the only commonsensical option is to “stay away” from the crosshairs.

I believe in a very simple rule in life, “do not get entangled in any legal affairs and you wouldn’t have to worry about being the subject of any legal proceeding.” Yes, you might still end up being a collateral damage, but its probability is proportional to the distance you put between yourself and your involvement with any legal matter. If that is difficult to understand, let me put it in simpler terms. If you don’t want to get burned, stay away from and do not play with, you guessed it – FIRE. Following that simple rule drastically decreases the probability of you becoming a collateral damage in any fire accident. If you somehow get scorched, logic only dictates that you somehow got dangerously close to it.

On the curious case of Senator de Lima, she may not be the source of fire. But the clear truth is there is fire – a damn big one! And judging by the tremendous amount of heat she seems to attract, logical thinking can only infer that she has gone dangerously too close to it. However, that is not at all the troubling part. What’s troubling is how she reacts to the situation. Any sane thinking person, unless you have the brain of a moth, would, by instinct, move away from the fire. I refuse to believe that she is dumb. She is brilliant, but the very dangerous kind.

As a lawmaker and as a member of the current government, she should be the very first person to encourage the populace to abide by the law. Advocating otherwise defeats the very purpose of being a lawmaker. Having said that, no matter how flawed the system maybe, the moment she got into the legal debacle of being linked to drugs, she should have been first to welcome being the subject of due process instead of discrediting the established laws and institutions to arbitrarily clear her name. If I were a brilliant lawyer, as many people believe de Lima is, I would not be scared of facing off with anyone, even in an uneven playing field, if I know that the truth is on my side. Discrediting the government (that funnily, she is a part of) and encouraging citizens to go against the president (again, funnily a part of the very same government she is a part of) is not only interestingly very odd but also shamelessly very selfish of any sitting senator or public official.

In any civilized society, a government official that somehow gets tainted while being in office would normally resign or take a leave of absence and focus all his/her time, effort and resources into clearing his/her name. In some societies, the disgraced official would even take his/her own life to atone for the “dishonor.” Only in the Philippines would an incumbent official go on social media when an accused, demonize the accuser(s), and then discredit the existing laws and institutions to clear his/her name. This seems to be the very clear approach that Senator De Lima has decided to take. In doing so, she has set a very dangerous precedent. As a law professional, she knows the flaws of the law and she is learned in the ways and the means at manipulating them. If she succeeds in exploiting these flaws through technicalities and through popular vote, she practically would be setting the blueprint for all lawbreakers and potential lawbreakers to circumvent the law. Here are only a few dumb ways I can think of:

If she gets away with her petition for writ of habeas data, any person accused of doing any illegal activity gets a constitutional-right to petition for the writ of habeas data citing “persecution by the government” to stop all the elements of the law from investigating the person and getting personal information that would incriminate him/her. In any illegal activity, there is no such thing as professional or personal data. Hiding behind your right to protection of “personal data” is a guaranteed way of circumventing the law. Any person “allegedly” involved in illegal activities is innocent until proven guilty. By default, any innocent person is, and should be, protected from persecution. One need only shout, “persecution!” and all data collection against him/her stops, effectively killing any and all investigations that may otherwise find him/her guilty.
If she gets away with “obstruction of justice” by again citing “persecution by the government” and then twisting legal words to warp “obstruction of justice” into “obstruction of persecution,” any criminal accomplice or potential criminal accomplice can also claim that he/she or his/her partner in crime is being persecuted by the government. Those persons can then get away with not honoring the summons of any institutions because they would have a basis to say that it is not “obstructing justice” but rather “obstructing persecution.”
If she gets away with giving an “advice” to a person to effectively break the law, any criminal mastermind can then say that he/she did not order anyone under him to conduct any illegal activities. The mastermind can say he/she merely “advised” his/her employees (staff, aide, personnel or whatever you want to call it) on the profitability of the illegal business. They had freewill and by choosing to act on the advice does not make the adviser culpable. The criminal mastermind can then be acquitted of any and all culpability related to practically any illegal activity.

Now you could argue that the points I just presented are utterly absurd, stupid and dumb to the highest degree. You can argue that none of these things are arbitrary and that there are clearly written laws that classifies what fits where. You can further reason that judges and lawyers very well versed with these laws and can interpret these things better than most of us so that these laws cannot be used arbitrarily. And the funny thing is, you would be so right and I would totally and completely agree with you. But I will also again point you back to where I started off. If a lawmaker who is the supposed “expert” on the law distorts the very same law and its terminologies the way it is distorted now, if a lawmaker discredits the established institutions that are supposed to interpret and implement the law for the benefit of every citizen, if a lawmaker incites the dishonoring of the government itself, then where do we go from here? Who do we turn to? Do we still turn to the institutions, to the president, to the Senate, to the Congress, or in this case straight to De Lima? From the looks of it, based on all her statements and press conferences, she seems to be the only person who is in the side of what is “lawful, just and true” and everyone else just lies and fabricates lies.

I think it is about time that she, if she’s not willing to resign, should at least take a leave of office and clear her name first before she completely divides this nation, drive it to a constitutional crisis by burning down the credibility of its institutions and its officials, and throwing it in a complete and total ochlocracy. Is she being persecuted? She may or may not be. Is she guilty of the allegations? She may or may not be. That is not for her or for you and me to judge in as much as it is not up to a murderer to say whether he/she is guilty or not. Let the system, no matter how flawed it may be, do its job and make the proper determination. That is what is called the rule of law. She of all people should know this. If she can determine and declare that she is innocent without the courts doing so, then we have to let a murderer declare and determine his own innocence as well without taking the murderer to court. Otherwise, we are all guilty of what she and her allies call “double-speak.”

As far as the records are concerned, there are already an astonishing number of people with sworn testimonies tagging her in the drug trade. Are they factual or just pure fabrications? Again, that is for the courts to decide. If she truly is on the side of what is true and right, then I don’t think she would have any trouble providing evidence to prove her innocence. So far, all there is are her blanket denials in her official statements, press releases and privilege speeches, as well as her constant branding of everyone else not on her side as liars. She should face the music and take it head on like any true scholar of the law would.

You ask, “What then of the government that ‘acts with impunity’?” Well, give me a government that acts with impunity and I will embrace it anytime if its end goal is to protect the future of its next generations. I will choose it over and over again over another government that allow its individual members to brazenly bend and break the law for their own protection and benefit, whether it is "to clear their own name" or to further their own political or economic agenda. This choice is firmly rooted on that simple rule that I stated earlier – widen the distance between you and illegal activities and you would not have to worry about the repercussions of a government that ‘acts with impunity’ because you will be a part of the majority that it tries to protect. We are still a nation largely made up of good-hearted and law-abiding citizens of our country and of this world. We should not be scared of a government that cracks down on drugs, criminality and corruption even if it is done with so-called “impunity” if it aims to protect those of us that respect the law.

Personally, I feel as a citizen that my rights are now more protected than ever compared to previous administrations. But I am a conformist, at least generally, so it is only rational for me to feel this way. Had I been a maverick who loves to challenge the law and makes a habit of circumventing regulations for my own gains or benefit, it would only be sane for me to be scared of a government that cracks down on any illegal activities – regardless of the methodologies it employs to influence the result that it wants for the good of the many.

Are we regressing to a government whose principal policy supports the mindset of an “end that justifies the means”? I suppose one could see it that way. I choose to see it as a progression from previous governments whose principal policy is that of futility, inaction and indifference.

This is, quite honestly, the best government the law-abiding Filipinos has ever had in the past couple of decades. This is a government worth rallying to and this is me openly voicing my support to this President, my president. I love Philippines and I support my government!

As for Senator de Lima, I really could not care less if you are innocent or guilty. You bend the law to its breaking point as you wage war to clear your name at the expense of throwing this nation to the darkest depths of chaos and lawlessness, with "human rights" as your sword and "women's rights" as your shield. This nation is bigger than you and the Filipino people is more important that your name. Do you really want to serve this nation and its people? If you do, spare the nation, resign and clear your name first before you ride your white horse to fight evil. This is my unsolicited "advice" to you – #DELIMARESIGN

This is my standpoint and I firmly stand by my “advice.”

Freedom of Speech

2016-10-30T18:19:00.002+04:00

"DE LIMA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT LICENSE TO RUIN CREDIBILITY"(sic). I could not agree more! I would just like to understand though whether this statement is really unadulterated or is it just another attempt at bending “morality” where it is convenient.

I seem to remember not long ago the same senator effectively smearing the credibility of some of her colleagues in the government and its institutions, all the while exercising her constitutional right to “Freedom of Speech.” I have heard claims coming from this Senator about how sure she is that President Duterte is behind DDS and EJK. In fact, she is so sure that she’s even gone to great lengths of humoring international media with interviews and clamoring for international intervention on our domestic affairs, including imposing sanctions on our nation, all because of the ongoing “government-inspired” EJK. I have also heard her say, and she is definitely sure about it too, about DOJ fabricating lies and stories against her. Then there are also statements from her destroying the credibility of witnesses against her, long before they can even be heard. According to her, some have even been tortured to say things against her -- even before they can ever speak. All these have resulted to the smearing of our credibility as a sovereign nation spoken under the premise of "Freedom of Speech" and amplified so greatly and sensationally by no other than the media.

This is not to take sides. The administration has also done its fair share of abusing “Freedom of Speech,” all too conveniently to their advantage, again with the help of the media. What I am simply just trying to point out here is that freedom of speech is indeed not a license to ruin anyone’s credibility. Anyone who advocates this, especially at the national and international stage, should “PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH!”

As for the media outlets, it is becoming more and more obvious that you are always there wherever there is news that presents an opportunity to be sensationalized. This story is a proof, particularly in the Philippines, that you have outlived your relevance to the society. The media has been relegated to nothing more than an established institution trying so hard to keep up with what’s trending on social media to maintain its perceived relevance. The model of “yellow press,” that has arguably played a major role in the Spanish-American War as well as all the other modern-day conflicts like the middle-eastern wars, has now come back biting the media in the ass. You have played the “sensationalism” card to practically every news article you publish to build up hype and controversy so it sells more. It has been the model followed for more than a century now. Well, guess what? Social Media has beaten you in your own game. If you really want to maintain relevance, stop playing “yellow journalism” and stop jumping in on the social media bandwagon – social media is our space, not yours!

There is just too much good news out there that is getting buried in all the noise, due mainly to the media over-sensationalizing irrelevant issues. Go out there and check the pulse of the Filipino community first hand. The Filipino expat workforce feels better supported and more at peace. There are no more incidents of “laglag bala,” no more incidents of ransacked “balik-bayan boxes,” no more cumbersome requirements of OEC for OFWs returning to their job sites. “Bayanihan” is very much alive. Local and national governments, including the public, are more proactive and cooperative during calamity preparations. More relief goods are being distributed at times of calamities even before international relief aids reach our shores. More and more Filipinos are saying that the streets are safer. The number of petty crimes has gone down according to the data from PNP. Filipino employees in the tens of thousands have already been regularized in recent weeks. The businesses are booming. More and more investments are being pledged. People in the business community remain very hopeful and positive in the Philippines and the economic environment it provides. Filipinos feel more empowered, are more hopeful and are voluntarily embracing a more disciplined and dignified way of life. More and more parents are taking responsibility, forcibly or otherwise, on the upbringing and of the future of their children. Even the younger generations are now finding inspiration and hope for a better tomorrow. Most importantly, illegal drugs no longer litter our streets. With all these things that take center stage on the social media airwaves, I cannot help but ask, where the hell are all these in actual media reports? Does the media really honestly believe that this report, "DE LIMA: FREEDOM OF SPEECH NOT LICENSE TO RUIN CREDIBILITY" actually deserves more airtime than all accomplishments the government, collectively, has achieved in the last 100 days or so? If you do, then you deserve a Pulitzer Prize in recognition of your embodiment of the ideals of “yellow journalism,” made famous by the great Joseph Pulitzer himself.

Nowadays, you really cannot tell which reports to believe or not. But at least in the Philippines, one thing is very clear -- change is happening. The government is cleaning, or at least appears to be cleaning, its own backyard of corruption. The law enforcement is weeding its own ranks of scalawags. Heck, even the drug rings are clearing their own houses of loose assets viewed as potential liabilities – a cleaning project that compounds the numbers reported as extra-judicial killings. Do these changes really point towards a better Philippines, or a far worse one? Will it usher a new era of peace and development in our country, or will it completely completely suck us in to a black hole of total and utter insignificance? Only time will tell. We have to give these changes time to unfold, if we want to truly see where they take us. Until then, we can never truly know. But this I know for sure -- any time and effort put into spring cleaning can only result to something good. Many Filipinos would swear that they already feel the benefits of it and it’s only just begun. Maybe it is time media does a spring cleaning of its own. And maybe, just maybe, it gets back to the path of relevance.

#WeArePhilippines

2016-10-24T18:14:00.000+04:00

Recently, we have seen a lot of political disorder in the Philippines that has literally divided, and continue to divide, our nation. Majority of the government officials, who the Filipino people have chosen to represent their best interests, have misused the trust and the authority that the people have given them to further their individual (and that of their party’s) political interest. This observation is not only directed at one person or one political party. Parties and individuals have been hell-bent on criticizing anyone who sits on the other side of the fence. Privilege speeches and press conferences, under the guise of “at the interest of the Filipino people” have been used to either discredit another official or to defend a “personal attack” directed at them by a member of the opposition. This has fueled the nation’s divide and has distracted the Filipino people’s sight away from the positive things that currently unfolds right in front of us. Our focus has drifted away from the accomplishments driven, silently in the background, by the very political parties and personalities that have been at each other’s necks from day one. All we see are the negatives of the other side.

I have said time and time again in all my discussions with family, friends, and acquaintances both locally and internationally, the Filipino Nationalism is currently at the highest it’s ever been in quite a long time. This is very visible on the streets, on the news, and on the social media. It is very far from the stance of the Filipinos in recent memory, where a huge majority of us just chose to be indifferent to the Philippines’ affairs. We are now more vocal in support of our chosen side. We are now more critical of the words and the actions of those who oppose our chosen side – too critical, in fact, that we end up putting words into the mouths of those who do not go along our personal and political views. We make assumptions, draw up conclusions based on assumptions, then declare beyond reasonable doubt, devoid of any sensibility or logical explanation, that the other side is nothing but pure evil.

The constant bellowing left and right on whose side best represents the interests of our nation has resulted to not just a divide amongst us. This has brought the focus of the entire international community to us. The louder our shouts get against the side that opposes our views, the more leverage the international community has to getting involved in our own domestic affairs. We even come to a point where some of our elected officials encourage the international community to meddle in our affairs. Do we really truly believe that the international community knows much more about what is best for our people? Are we really a bunch of imbeciles who need outside intervention to sort out our own issues? When are we, as a people, going to decide that enough is enough? When are we going to finally use our voices, or our silence, to influence a better future for our coming generations? Do we wait until we become the next Iraq, the next Syria or the next Yemen? Do we wait for international forces to come and take control of our land because we refuse to take the responsibility of shaping our own future as a people into our own hands?

We, as responsible citizens of this nation, must make a stand today. Regardless of where you stand in this debate, we have to accept the fact that this government is the only government in past decades that has truly given, at least for the majority of us, the greatest fighting chance at a better, more lasting change. The same government that is made up of the very same fiercely opposing sides is hard at work in making sure that we realize our true potential as a people, without any undue sacrifices of freedom or of life. At the current divided state of our government, it still makes gargantuan strides towards a better Philippines. The streets are much safer, the corruption is much less, and the focus on every man’s rights has never been as active and as passionate. If we can make steady progress with a divided government, just try and imagine what a collective government can do.

Change does not happen overnight. It will take time before our leaders can come to their senses and learn to work cordially in pursuit of a common goal. Let us not forget that even the government itself, along with its institutions, is currently undergoing a transformation – a transformation away from a traditional political institution model to a more commonsensical and more connected representation of the people. Let us play our part to support the change towards our nation’s new awakening.

This is a challenging but a very hopeful time for us. The forces that divide our nation are boundless, both domestic and foreign. How we react to every post we read, to every press conference we hear, and to the news reports published by media outlets, will either make us or break us. Let us not be blinded by our emotions or our individual sense of self-righteousness. Instead, let us channel our energy into something more meaningful and productive. Yes, we may be an economically poor country as was pointed out by some prominent members of our society. We are a so called “Third World Country” and our people are branded as “Third Country Nationals” for whose and whatever purposes it serves. But this does not mean that we are not capable of greatness. It is only our mindset that binds us to our current predicament. We are the rightful owners of a land rich in natural resources. We are a people of great technical, both hard and soft, skills that can compete at the international stage against anyone from any developed nation. We are capable of breaking through the economic barrier to become a developed and prosperous nation. But we can only do so as one, armed with the right attitude and an undying optimism.

While we wait for the president to develop a less foul-mouthed and more diplomatic vocabulary, or for our government officials to stop using their offices to discredit our other officials or our established institutions and its processes, or for the media (both locally and internationally) to start focusing more on broadcasting news “in service of the public” rather than the economics of the broadcasting business, let us do our part in uplifting our nation as a whole – our people first and foremost, then our government and our established institutions and its processes. Let us not dignify any negativity we read or hear against our chosen standpoint by jumping on the social media bandwagon and coming up with our most logical, most witty or most vile defense and see how many others agree or disagree. This only helps sow seeds of hatred and further fuel the current divide. You can have as many likes for your posts in defense of your chosen side but it still does not automatically make your views right. Your posts can garner hate response in the millions and it will not automatically make your views wrong. Life is not a popularity contest.

There is nothing wrong in being vocal when we see a potential abuse in power or authority. It is our duty to each other and to our children to use our voice and to raise a red flag so that we may rally others to be more vigilant. But in doing so, let us not stray from its main purpose – to serve the best interest of our nation. Raising a red flag on the killings while saying, with conviction, that President Duterte is behind it and calling him a murderer is a direct attack against the president of our land. Verbalizing our disgust on the proliferation of drugs and corruption while saying, again with conviction, that Senator de Lima is behind it and tagging her as the “Bilibid Queen” is a direct attack against a senator of our land. People discrediting the trustworthiness of our institutions by saying that evidences, testimonies and allegations are “sure fabrications” before our courts can even begin to hear the merits of them is a direct attack against an institution of our land. Branding our own as a “Dutertard” or “Yellowtard” in public forums, depending on where we stand, is a direct attack against a citizen of our land. An attack, both foreign and domestic, against any of our people or any of our institutions is an attack not just against a side you either support or detest, but against every Filipino. Any attack we throw at any people or institution that puts them in a bad light puts our whole nation in a bad light.

Instead of being divisive and blindly supporting only one side, let us, for a change, try and support a revolution of calm. Let us try and bring order and sobriety in the ongoing chaos. There is, and will always be, the other side of the coin. It is the both sides that makes it and gives it its value. There is value in opposing opinions. If we can only focus more on the accomplishments of both sides rather than fixate on their failures, then maybe we can learn to appreciate what our government does for our people, despite its current limited resources. If only we could follow an old and simple mantra, “If you can’t say anything nice, do not say anything at all” then maybe we can give the dust a chance to settle so that we may once again find harmony in disagreements. Let us, as a people, carry a message of hope and bring positivity back to our nation. This is a very hopeful time. It is a time to unite. Let us stop messages of hate and disrespect. If we cannot propose better solutions to our ongoing problems, let us not criticize the groups or the people who try to solve them. If we cannot say a good word about our government or our fellow citizens but really have that itch to have our opinions heard, at least choose kinder words and voice them out with dignity with respect.

Each of our little voices holds a tremendous amount of power and influence. Let us use this voice to support our government, not any political personality or party. Yes, we may not fully agree with some of the rhetoric or some of the policies or some of the methodologies of our government, but we finally have a government that tries. It is time that we rally behind our government and exercise our true power as a people. The political divide in the government will always be there. We should clamor for calm in the midst of heated debates while our chosen officials discuss differences in stance and approach in solving the challenges we face as a nation. Let us stay watchful during the discussions as with any debate or heated argument, there will always be a politician or a party who will try and demonstrate how better and more capable they are than the other -- sometimes even by discrediting or demolishing the opposition. They manipulate us to support their cause and become their advocates. The more supporters they have, the more powerful they become. This is the politics that politicians play. After all, this is how they build their case and their support base for the next election campaign. We must be mindful of these maneuverings and put a stop to them. We must refuse to take part in their numbers game. Let us make a clear and unmistakable statement that we do not support political figures or political parties, we only support one government. Once elected, public officials should really only have two distinct choices: (1) be a part of a government that works, or (2) resign. Being part of one government that works does not mean that they just blindly follow one leader. One government that works means having different people within the government with differing opinions who can calmly disagree and yet come up collectively with a way forward without resorting to discrediting or demolishing another.

It is time we put things in perspective here. We are Filipinos. The Philippine government exists and works for the Filipino people. This effectively makes us the boss of our own destiny and the government, effectively, our servant. If we, the bosses, argue amongst ourselves, disrespect one another and, in the process, elevate one elected official and/or party over another, we relinquish our power to the will of that elected official and/or party we choose to support. Let us put an end to this cycle. Let us stop the senseless bickering. We Are Filipinos. We are one. We want one Government. Let our voices be heard. #WeArePhilippines

Halloween Laugh Trip

2013-10-27T14:32:00.000+04:00

A bald man with a wooden leg gets invited to a Halloween Party. He doesn't know what costume to wear to hide his head and his leg, So he writes to a costume company to explain his problem.

A few days later he received a parcel with the following note:

Dear Sir,

Please find enclosed a pirate's outfit. The spotted handkerchief will cover your bald head and, with your wooden leg, you will be just right as a pirate.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

The man thinks this is terrible because they have emphasized his wooden leg and so he writes a letter of complaint. A week goes by and he receives another parcel and a note, which says:

Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed a monk's costume. The long robe will cover your wooden leg and, with your bald head, you should really look the part.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

Now the man is really upset since they have gone from emphasizing his wooden leg to emphasizing his bald head, so again he writes the Company another nasty letter of complaint.

The next day he gets a small parcel and a note, which reads:

Dear Sir,

We have TRIED our very BEST. Please find enclosed a bottle of molasses and a bag of crushed nuts. Pour the molasses over your bald head, pat on crushed nuts, stick your Wooden Leg up your ass and go as a caramel apple.

Very truly yours,
Acme Costume Co.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

How Will You Be Remembered?

2013-10-23T18:28:00.001+04:00

Someday, you will only be a memory to some people. Have you ever thought about how you will be remembered?

In 1888, a wealthy businessman woke up one day to read his obituary on a French newspaper. The words were, "Le marchand de la mort est mort" which means, "The merchant of death is dead". The papers went on to say that the man who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday. He, of course, was still very much alive at the time. This came as a wake up call to the man whose name is tagged to some of the most amazing yet horrible armament inventions of our time. Upon his death, 18 years later after reading his obituary, his family and friends were surprised to find out what he has written on his will. The man allocated 94% of his total assets to the formation of what is now regarded as one of the most respected foundations in the world. The man is Dr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, the man behind the Nobel Peace Prize and the inventor of the dynamite.

Legacy, how one will be remembered, can change a man. On our deathbeds, wealth, power, influence, possessions - none of these matter. Although he would not be able to read it, what matters to a dying man are the words that will be written in his obituary and on his tombstone. Show me an obituary that says, "he was found dead in his Ferrari parked beside his mansion in his 250 acre estate" and I will show you a poor man. Find an epitaph that reads, "Here lies a man who lived a full life. He is survived by his poker mates, golf buddies and his social wingman" and you have found a lonely man. Dr. Nobel surely did not want the legacy of being remembered as the Grim Reaper. He used his wealth, power, influence and possessions to change the legacy that he will leave behind. The rest, as they say, is history.

As the famous Latin saying goes, "Quod in omni vita facimus in aeternum resonat" - what we do in life echoes in eternity. It says WHAT WE DO and not WHAT WE HAVE. The material things we leave when we go to the after life are nothing but monuments to remember us by. Much like real monuments, they will eventually be eroded by time.

We live in a society so hooked up in assigning sentimental value to things associated to precious moments -- a society that sometimes forget to live in the very moment it tries to capture. Case in point, we like taking photographs of precious life events so we have something to look back to 10 years from now. Every second of the moment captured in stills. Then we look at those photographs 10 years after and we realize we were so busy capturing the moment and it is as if we were not there. Sometimes we even only get remembered as the person who took the photograph, that is if the photograph is ever seen again. Fact of the matter is, most of these photographs end up in an unlabeled box up in the attic, or stuck in a memory card lying around with other tiny electronics and we don't even know if it still works or if it has anything in it. Memories turned to monuments forgotten.

What is it with materials things that we tend to give it more value as a vessel of precious memories? The answer is simple. Our brains are programmed to believe that only those we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell are the only things that are real. So logic dictates that it only makes sense to put our trust in "REAL" things to hold our precious memories. We give what science sees as a "subjective, conscious experience" (i.e. emotion) a physical form so that it can become "real" in the form that we are familiar with. And so love becomes synonymous to ring, stability becomes precious possessions, happiness becomes a favorite hangout place, and so on and so forth.

Materialistic as it may seem, this is how our initial memory engraving process go. Ever wondered why you find it is so difficult to throw that old stroller of your first-born? Or perhaps why it is so difficult to throw an old braided bracelet given by our very first best friend? Yep, they have been memory-engraved - items of high sentimental value. Every experience, every memory, every emotion is memorialized into tangible things that our physical senses can easily relate to.

This is how people remember until your precious ring is stolen, or your assets are taken away by the bank, or your happy place is torn down. Once the physical vessels holding our precious memories are taken away, only then we realize that the memories we hold dear are the people themselves. It is not the ring, but the person that made us feel loved. It is not the precious possessions, but the person that provided us strength in our moments of weakness. It is not the favorite hangout place, but the person we are with that made the hangout place our happy place. The very same person who can turn the ring from a symbol of love to a symbol of pain when he/she leaves. The very same person who can make you feel neglected despite all the earthly possessions he/she brings, making all the possessions a symbol of insecurity. It is also the very same person who can disrespect you in what you have come to know as your happy place, turning it into a dreaded sinkhole that you would not even want to step foot into. Memories are people.

We are all someone's memory, a past, a present or a future. How you will be remembered when your time is over all depends on how you make people feel while you are here. Dr. Alfred Nobel, the inventor of the dynamite, once known as the bringer of death was remembered as a bringer of peace and hope. He is a real-life testament of the power we all have to impact change, if we decide to do so, so that we can be remembered exactly how we want to be remembered no matter how the society sees us and how we see ourselves right at this very moment. The only real question here is how do you want to be remembered?

Me? If I end up being remembered at all, I want to be remembered as a tiny speck of dust in the universe. A tiny speck of dust that touched the lives of those it met along the way as it roamed the earth aimlessly. In the end, when the curtains fall, I can live with "Here lies the dust that made the universe complete".

And if I get lucky, I would not mind at all being remembered as the dust in a Ferrari. Brrroom!!! Brrrooom!!!

Buying an Hour of Daddy's Time

2013-10-22T18:19:00.001+04:00

The man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door.

“Daddy, may I ask you a question?

“Yeah, sure, what is it?” – replied the man.

“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?”

“That’s none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?” – the man said angrily.

“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” – pleaded the little boy.

“If you must know, I make $20 an hour.”

“Oh,” the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I borrow $10 please?”

The father was furious. “If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you’re being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don’t have time for such childish games.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy’s questioning. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money.

After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10 and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door.

“Are you asleep son?” – he asked

“No daddy, I’m awake.” – replied the boy

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier.” – said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here’s that $10 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, beaming. “Oh, thank you daddy!” – he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills. The man, seeing the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.

“Why did you want more money if you already had some?” – the father grumbled.

“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.” – the little boy replied. “Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”

The father was crushed and he put his arms around his little son.

The Miracle of $1.11, A True Story

2013-10-22T18:16:00.003+04:00

Tess was a precocious eight year old when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment complex next month because Daddy didn’t have the money for the doctor bills and our house. Only a very costly surgery could save him now and it was looking like there was no-one to loan them the money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother with whispered desperation, “Only a miracle can save him now.”

Tess went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured all the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall’s Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door. She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good.

Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it!

“And what do you want?” the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen in ages,” he said without waiting for a reply to his question.

“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. “He’s really, really sick… and I want to buy a miracle.”

“I beg your pardon?” said the pharmacist.

“His name is Andrew and he has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”

“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the pharmacist said, softening a little. “Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. Just tell me how much it costs.”

The pharmacist’s brother was a well dressed man. He stooped down and asked the little girl, “What kind of a miracle does you brother need?”

“I don’t know,” Tess replied with her eyes welling up. “I just know he’s really sick and Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”

“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago. “One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered barely audibly. “And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to.

“Well, what a coincidence,” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents – the exact price of a miracle for little brothers.” He took her money in one hand and with the other hand he grasped her mitten and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”

That well dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon, specialising in neuro-surgery. The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well. Mom and Dad were happily talking about the chain of events that had led them to this place.

“That surgery,” her Mom whispered. “was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost?”

Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost… one dollar and eleven cents … plus the faith of a little child.

The World is a Wonderful Place

2013-10-22T18:14:00.001+04:00

A true story, happened in 1892 at Stanford University:

An 18-year-old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. He and a friend decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education.

They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck and the boys began to work to make the concert a success.

The big day arrived. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1600, plus a cheque for the balance $400. They promised to honour the cheque at the soonest possible.

“No,” said Paderewski. “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the cheque, returned the $1600 and told the two boys: “Here’s the $1600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left”. The boys were surprised, and thanked him profusely.

It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being.

Why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. And most of us only think “If I help them, what would happen to me?” The truly great people think, “If I don’t help them, what will happen to them?” They don’t do it expecting something in return. They do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were more than 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them. Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help.

The head there was a man called Herbert Hoover — who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of foodgrains to feed the starving Polish people.

A calamity was averted. Paderewski was relieved. He decided to go across to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, “You shouldn’t be thanking me Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college. I was one of them.”

The world is a wonderful place. What goes around comes around!

A Box of Kisses

2013-10-22T18:11:00.002+04:00

Some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.” He was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was empty.

He yelled at her, “Don’t you know that when you give someone a present, there’s supposed to be something inside it?”

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and said,”Oh, Daddy, it is not empty. I blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy.”

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness.
It is told that the man kept that gold box by his bed for years and whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there.

In a very real sense, each of us as humans have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, friends, family and God. There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.

How the Poor Live

2013-10-22T18:10:00.003+04:00

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

If a Dog Was Your Teacher

2013-10-22T18:10:00.000+04:00

If a dog was your teacher,
these are some of the lessons you might learn…

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face,
to be pure ecstasy

When it’s in your best interest,
practice obedience
Let others know when they’ve invaded your territory
Take naps and stretch before rising
Run romp and play daily

Thrive on attention and let people touch you
Avoid biting, when a simple growl will do
On warm days stop to lie on your back on the grass
On hot days drink lots of water and lay under a shady tree
When you’re happy dance around and wag your entire body

No matter how often you’re scolded,
don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout,
run right back and make friends

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk
Eat with gusto and enthusiasm
Stop when you have had enough
Be loyal
Never pretend to be something you’re not

If what you want lies buried,
dig until you find it
When someone is having a bad day,
be silent….
…sit close by
…and nuzzle them gently.

Lesson from the Hedgehogs

2013-10-22T18:06:00.001+04:00

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold.

The hedgehogs, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After awhile, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their companions in order to receive the heat that came from the others. This way they were able to survive.

The Problem with Dandelions

2013-10-22T17:53:00.001+04:00

A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him.

Finally he wrote to the Department of Agriculture. He enumerated all the things he had tried and closed his letter with the question: "What shall I do now?"

In due course, the reply came: "We suggest you learn to love them."

The Sense of Goose

2013-10-22T17:51:00.000+04:00

by Dr. Harry Clarke Noyes

ARCS NEWS, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1992

fall, when

you see Geese

heading South for

the Winter, flying along

in V formation, you might

consider what science has dis‐

covered as to why they fly that way:

as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an

uplift for the bird immediately following. By

flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least

71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

People who share a common direction and sense of community

can get where they are going more quickly and easily

because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

When

a goose falls

out of formation,

it suddenly feels the drag

and resistance of trying to go it alone

and quickly gets back into formation to take

advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front.

If we have as much sense as a goose,

we will stay in formation

with those who are headed the same way we are.

When

the Head Goose

gets tired, it rotates back

in the wing and another goose flies point.

It is sensible to take turns doing demanding jobs

with people or with geese flying South.

Geese

honk frombehind to

encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

What do we say when we honk from behind?

Finally,

and this is important,

when a goose gets sick, or is

wounded by gunshots and falls out

of formation, two other geese fall out with that

goose and follow it down to lend help and protection.

They stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly, or until

it dies. Only then do they launch out on their own, or with another formation

to catch up with their group.

IF WE HAVE THE SENSE OF A GOOSE,

WE WILL STAND BY EACH OTHER

LIKE THAT.

(from materials provided by Bonnie J. Collins, EdM, LCSW‐R)

The Law of the Garbage Truck

2013-10-22T17:42:00.000+04:00

By David J. Pollay

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck'.

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally, just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The Pretty One

2013-10-22T17:37:00.000+04:00

By Roger Dean Kiser

It had been a very long night. Our black cocker spaniel ‘Precious’ was having a difficult delivery. I lay on the floor beside her large four-foot square cage, watching her every movement. Watching and waiting, just in case I had to rush her to the veterinarian.

After six hours the puppies started to appear. The first-born was black and white. The second and third puppies were tan and brown in color. The fourth and fifth were also spotted black and white. “One, two, three, four, five,” I counted to myself as I walked down the hallway to wake my wife, Judy, and tell her that everything was fine.

As we walked back down the hallway and into the spare bedroom, I noticed a sixth puppy had been born and was now laying all by itself over to the side of the cage. I picked up the small puppy and laid it on top of the large pile of puppies, who were whining and trying to nurse on the mother. Precious immediately pushed the small puppy away from rest of the group. She refused to recognize it as a member of her family.

“Something’s wrong,” said Judy.

I reached over and picked up the puppy. My heart sank inside my chest when I saw the little puppy had a cleft lip and palate and could not close its little mouth. I decided right there and then that if there was any way to save this animal I was going to give it my best shot.

I took the puppy to the vet and was told nothing could be done unless we were willing to spend about a thousand dollars to try and correct the defect. He told us that the puppy would die mainly because it could not suckle. After returning home, Judy and I decided that we could not afford to spend that kind of money without getting some type of assurance from the vet that the puppy had a chance to live. However, that did not stop me from purchasing a syringe and feeding the puppy by hand. Which I did every day and night, every two hours, for more than ten days. The little puppy survived and learned to eat on his own as long as it was soft canned food.

The fifth week I placed an ad in the newspaper, and within a week we had people interested in all of the pups, except the one with the deformity. Late one afternoon I went to the store to pick up a few groceries. Upon returning I happened to see the old retired schoolteacher, who lived across the street from us, waving at me. She had read in the paper that we had puppies and was wondering if she might get one from us for her grandson and his family. I told her all the puppies had found homes, but I would keep my eyes open for anyone else who might have an available cocker spaniel. I also mentioned that if someone should change their mind, I would let her know. Within days, all but one of the puppies had been picked up by their new families. This left me with one brown and tan cocker as well as the smaller puppy with the cleft lip and palate.

Two days passed without me hearing anything from the gentleman who had been promised the tan and brown pup. I telephoned the schoolteacher and told her I had one puppy left and that she was welcome to come and look at it. She advised me that she was going to pick up her grandson and would come over at about eight o’clock that evening.

That night at around seven-thirty, Judy and I were eating supper when we heard a knock on the front door. When I opened the door, the man who had wanted the tan and brown pup was standing there. We walked inside, took care of the adoption details and I handed him the puppy. Judy and I did not know what we would do or say when the teacher showed up with her grandson. At exactly eight o’clock the doorbell rang. I opened the door, and there was the schoolteacher with her grandson standing behind her. I explained to her the man had come for the puppy after all, and there were no puppies left. “I’m sorry, Jeffery. They found homes for all the puppies,” she told her grandson.

Just at that moment, the small puppy left in the bedroom began to yelp.

“My puppy! My puppy!” yelled the little boy as he ran out from behind his grandmother.

I just about fell over when I saw that the small child also had a cleft lip and palate. The boy ran past me as fast as he could, down the hallway to where the puppy was still yelping. When the three of us made it to the bedroom, the small boy was holding the puppy in his arms. He looked up at his grandmother and said, “Look, Grandma. They found homes for all the puppies except the pretty one, and he looks just like me.”

The schoolteacher turned to us, “Is this puppy available?”

“Yes,” I answered. “That puppy is available.”

The little boy, who was now hugging the puppy, chimed in, “My grandma told me these kind of puppies are real expensive and that I have to take real good care of it.”

The lady opened her purse, but I reached over and pushed her hand back down into her purse so that she would not pull her wallet out. “How much do you think this puppy is worth?” I asked the boy. “About a dollar?” “No. This puppy is very, very expensive,” he replied.

“More than a dollar?” I asked.

“I’m afraid so,” said his grandmother.

The boy stood there pressing the small puppy against his cheek. “We could not possibly take less than two dollars for this puppy,” Judy said, squeezing my hand. “Like you said, it’s the pretty one.”

The schoolteacher took out two dollars and handed it to the young boy.

“It’s your dog now, Jeffery. You pay the man.”

Still holding the puppy tightly, the boy proudly handed me the money. Any worries I’d had about the puppy’s future were gone.

The image of the little boy and his matching pup stays with me still. I think it must be a wonderful feeling for any young person to look at themselves in the mirror and see nothing, except “the pretty one.”