Less Blogging

I just noticed that most of my recent blogs didn't concern any news. It's becuase, I opted not to read the online news papers. I did catch some news on tv but I didn't really pay attention. See, I'm trying not to get too involved in current events. When I read the news, there's always this part of me which wants to do more research on the issues by looking for articles online. But more than that, there's the need to follow the developments in the issue.

Reading the news is like watching teleseryes. I just avoid the tv because I really don't like how they report the news. It's as if you are watching a teleserye; dramatic dialogue, forceful delivery, flowery words, and the 'reporting' face. To me, they often appear to be acting – hindi natural.

Back to not reading the news. As I was saying, following the news is like following a teleserye. Thus, it takes time. Which I'm having less and less. 

In short, I cannot spend as much time as I used to when I started this blog. I'm slacking in my other responsibilities – i.e. house chores – because I spend 'too much time' in front of the computer. Just when I found something that I like doing, things get noisy-crazy at home. And it's draining the life-force, that I've been trying so hard to recover, in me again. Buwiset.

Tutor Payday

I tutored Mark last night. The 1-hour went by fast. Except for some spelling words that he still couldn't memorize, the whole session was nothing out of the ordinary. And besides, I was too tired from work that my patience and attention were wearing thin pretty fast. The highlight of the night was the family dinner.

Normally, I don't stay for beyond the 1-hour because I had other places that I needed to go to. But tonight, just when I was about to leave, Mark's parents insisted that I stay. Nakakahiya naman tumangi, so I did. His grandma, my co-worker prepared the meal. We had tinolang manok for dinner. The dinner was really awkward for me. You see, they have the tendency of making kwento in their native dialect. They were speaking in Ilocano, a dialect that I don't understand. All of them were having a lively discussion on something. I was mostly eating my dinner, giving occasional smiles when they were laughing, while composing this blog entry in my head. It was kind of Auntie though to translate in Tagalog some of the stories that they were talking about.

After dinner, Mark's mother gave me the payment for the tutoring. I bid them goodbye and I was off to the nearest bookstore, before heading home. : )

Why We Are Poor

A friend of mine sent an email that tries to explain the difference between rich countries and poor ones, and why the Philippines is poor. I don't know where he got this though. (Note to self: search for the source.) Here's the highlight of that email.

The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country:

This can be shown by countries like India & Egypt, that are more than 2000 years old, but are poor. On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, that 150 years ago were inexpressive, today are developed countries, and are rich.

The difference between poor & rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources. Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture & cattle raising, but it is the second world economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw material from the whole world and exporting manufactured products.

Another example is Switzerland, which does not plant cocoa but has the best chocolate of the world. In its little territory they raise animals and plant the soil during 4 months per year. Not enough, they produce dairy products of the best quality. It is a small country that transmits an image of security, order & labor, which made it the world's strongest, safest place.

Executives from rich countries who communicate with their counterparts in poor countries show that there is no significant intellectual difference. Race or skin color are also not important: immigrants labeled lazy in their countries of origin are the productive power in rich European countries.

What is the difference then?

The difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education & the culture. On analyzing the behavior of the people in rich & developed countries, we find that the great majority follow the following principles in their lives:

1. Ethics, as a basic principle.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect to the laws & rules.
5. Respect to the rights of other citizens.
6. Work loving.
7. Strive for saving & investment.
8. Will of super action.
9. Punctuality.

In poor countries, only a minority follow these basic principles in their daily life. We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel to us.

We are poor because we lack the correct attitude. We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of rich & developed societies.

I agree. But not quite. Here's what I wrote back.

RSS and Meta

This new theme that I'm using allows me to add rss and meta to the sidebar. My only problem is I don't know what to put in the "Enter the RSS feed URL here:" part or what meta is supposed to do. Sigh. I should really find the time to read up on these things. I'm sure WordPress has the answers somewhere. I want to try them but I'm often afraid of clicking anything that might cause this blog to self-destruct.

Technorati: blog, wordpress, rss, meta

On Being A Parent

Today, I am reminded yet again that being a parent is a full-time job. It’s not something that only happens in between your 8-5 job; it’s a 24/7/365 thing. There’s no holiday, no time out. Once you’re a parent, you cannot turn it “off” like an appliance or hit “pause“ when you need a break. You cannot quit it like any other job. You just learn to adapt, to juggle and shuffle everything, as time progresses. There is no escape, even if you think you can.

Being a good parent is a different matter all together.

Tutor

A few months ago, a co-worker of mine asked me if I could tutor her grandson who’s in fifth grade. Since she’s one of the few people who I like at the place where I work, I agreed. I get paid of course. That’s still extra income for me. It started as 2-hour sessions, twice a week. The first few session revealed that Mark maybe in grade 5 but he didn’t posses the basic skills of a fifth grader. I was supposed to tutor him on math only, but 2 hours of math lessons alone is equivalent to pure torture for kids his age.

As the sessions progressed, I noticed that he’s not the type who’s really into studying to say the least. His mind often wandered as revealed by his playing with the pencil, or doodling on the papers. Then Mark’s mom asked me to shorten the 2-hour tutoring to 1 hour. And then later, my tutoring became an on-call arrangement.

Auntie, my co-worker, called this afternon, saying that I need not tutor Mark today.

Da Vinci Kodigo

Recently, Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, has been getting a lot of attention. It’s not only because the movie version of the book is coming out soon but because he is being sued by two other authors.

According to this article, Brown allegedly got his idea from a 1982 book “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” which was written by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. Brown, in his defense, says that he has not even heard of the book when he wrote “The Da Vinci Code” a few years ago. Both books involve the storyline wherein… Hm. Just read the book.

Part of me thinks that Brown may have gotten his ideas from the Holy Blood book. I think it’s important to establish how and when he got the idea? Can you really consider it crime if Brown just heard the story from somebody else or he read a short, short summary of the other book? The way I see it, if the “idea/storyline” is really huge and important in terms of its potential theological (as well as historical) implications, then no single entity can claim full ownership of that “idea/storyline” (Unless the Roman Catholic Church comes out with a news stating the *real* story of the historical Christ. But I doubt this.)

The other part of me thinks this.

Charter Change, Part 2

Here’s a twist to the so-called “people’s initiative” proposed by the League of Provinces of the Philippines, among other LGU groups such as League of Cities of the Philippines, the League of Municipalities, and The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines. (I didn’t know that they had leagues for almost every local government position. Let’s just collectively call them League of Extraordinary Government Officials or LEGO.)

Going back to the issue, Senator Santiago and Senator Arroyo (on separate instances I assume) said in this news article that there’s a 1997 ruling by the Supreme Court declaring any “people’s initiative” to amend the 1987 Constitution is illegal, stating that “there is no law” or that “the law is inadequate” involving people’s initiative to amend the constitution.

Oh, I see.

Charter Change

In this news article, it’s the governors who want a piece of nasty political crisis cake. They are now suggesting cha-cha or charter change. They only need 3% of the registered voters for a plebiscite to be introduced. The League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) claims that the ‘their people’ will support this “people’s initiative” move because they are fed up with the political crisis. Also, they are suggesting a shift from the present bicameral system to a unicameral (or parliamentary) form of government.

The way I see it, charter change is the way to go mainly because of the 2 reasons.

Mac

This is a special day.

I’m using a MacBook Pro! Yes, they are the Mac laptops powered by Intel Core Duo chips! It claims that they’re 4x faster than their predecessors. Cool huh? However, I just found out that even though they’re using Intel chips, you can’t still use programs that you normally use for PC. Intel is not equal to PC.
Oh well. I guess I won’t be buying this baby anytime soon.

Technorati: macbook pro, mac, intel core duo

Fight Against Smugglers

Here’s a news article that sort of gave me mixed sentiments. The 168 Mall in Binondo was recently raided for allegedly being a haven for smugglers. Gloria described it to visiting businessmen and officials from Washington as “the biggest raid in the history of the Philippines.” The obtained goods were mostly from China. Duh.

There’s are two sides to every story.

Slow Justice: UN style

Apparently, our justice system isn’t entirely unique in terms of the length of time in resolving cases. In this news article, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died in a United Nations cell. Milosevic was charged with ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ for his participation in the Balkan Wars during the 1990s.

Of course, many were sort-of thankful for the death of the former Yugoslav president. Somehow, ‘justice’ was served to the relatives of those who were massacred during the war. On the other hand, there were others who felt that that Milosevic ‘escaped’ his sentencing. “It is not fair that the bastard died in a dream while others died in pain,” said 43-year-old Belgrade resident Duska in this report.

Families and supporters are blaiming The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (or ICTY) for neglecting the Milosevic’s medical needs and for dragging the case for so long. The Hague-based tribunal denies the allegations, saying that they ‘took proper care’ of all its detainees. (I wonder if it’s the same care that our police show to detainees as well?)

It is interesting to note though that a week before Milosevic’s death, another detainee died in the detention center.

Milosevic’s death followed an embarrassment earlier in the week when it was announced that former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic had committed suicide in the detention center.

In addition to this, two other detainees died in their custody a few years back.

Hm. So how exactly does the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) take care of their detainees?

Technorati: the hague, milosevic, icty, balkan wars

Try and Try

It’s been a while since I blogged on anything political. I got tired for a while. And responsibilities got in the way. SSDD. But I’m the mood right now so might as well write something. Also, I’ve noticed that my ’short, short commentaries’ more often than not turned out pretty long. By my standards, at least.

Anyways.

In this news article, an ‘intelligence’ report says that the attempt to overthrow Gloria last Feb. 24 was a mere ‘dry run’ for the real thing. Aba, at kelangan pa pala ng practice? Isn’t that weird, if not dumb?

Here’s why I think so.

Johari Window and Nohari Window

I recently received a link from a friend – his Johari and Nohari Windows.

Similar to a concept in psychology (the name of which I cannot recall right now), the idea behind those windows is to discover what characteristics/personalities best describe the participant. It involves a window divided into for areas – known to self, not known to self, known to others and not known to others. Johari makes use of positive words while the Nohari makes use of negative words.

So, did I participate in his windows?

On Lying

Lying is bad. It’s not bad bad but it’s bad. I don’t have to elaborate on why it is bad. It just is.

Why do people lie? I think, essentially, it’s because sometimes a person thinks he/she knows better. The person feels that by witholding information – either full or partial – he/she has power over the person being lied to.

I hate lying. (But it doesn’t mean that I don’t either.) I hate it when I’m being lied to.

But even though we know that it’s bad, we do it anyway.

Technorati: blog, reflection, on lying

Racism over Homosexuality: My Take on the Recent Oscar Awards

The list of the winners can be found here. In general, it seemed that the theme for the Oscar nominated films these year involved sociopolitical issues

What surprised me though was Crash winning the best picture award. I thought Brokeback Mountain was going to bring home the Oscar for Best Picture. Except for Crash which I could only vaguely remember now, I haven’t seen any of the movies yet. I will try to see the other films nominated for Best Picture. Perhaps, Brokeback Mountain was a bit too overhyped. Also, I was expecting Felicity Huffman to win the best actess award, but Reese Witherspoon got the award instead. I enjoyed Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin’s presentation as well as Reese’s acceptance speech, which I think was heartfelt, dramatic and yet entertainingly honest.

Update + Continuation:
First, there’s something wrong with WordPress again. Sigh. For some reason, the buttons on top appear to be in ‘code mode,’ meaning that clicking a button produces the ‘tags’ instead of the seeing the formated effect on the text. So know, I’m typing the html tags as I type the text. I have logged out and logged back in, and I’m still encountering the same thing. I’m hating WordPress right now.

Anyhow, back to my Oscar Awards thoughts.

Near Blog-Death Experience

Well, it’s not really a near death experience per se. Just a few minutes ago, after logging in to my WordPress account, a line at the top my ‘Dashboard’ told me that I didn’t have any blog post yet. My first reaction was Huh? I just checked it a few hours ago. How can that be? So I went to the ‘Manage’ page where my entries were supposed to be listed – it was empty. EMPTY!!! My heart sank to the floor. That’s impossible! I told myself in shock and disbelief. Then I opened Internet Explorer, thinking that there must be something wrong with Firefox, and ‘visited’ my blog. It was also empty and there was a messenge saying “What you’re looking for is not here.” Shet! Shet! Shet!

I almost cried.

State of Emergency Lifted

GMA lifts the state of emergency. Yay!

The peso continues to rally against the dollar. P51.22 = $1

Coincidence? Maybe. It got me thinking though. If the announcement of PP 1017 was so bad, as many had thought or continues to think, then why is the peso performing so well these days? This article explains it a bit.

The way I see it, I think that the public has over-reacted to PP 1017. Myself included. Most people perceived it to be another Martial Law. Warrantless arrests, curtailment of free speech, military activies here and there, rallies and demonstrations by various sectors. But overall, I think it wasn’t as violent as and as prolonged as it was during the time of Marcos. I had seen enough documentaries on tv and back during my student days. What happened the past few days was nothing close compared to what happened over twenty years ago.

Sure, the legality and the implementation of the proclamation are still questionable. Heck, the whole existence of this administration is questionable. Either way, the markets – both local and foreign – perceived all the recent events to be somewhat good. At least in terms of business and profits.

But what will it mean for the rest of us common folks? Perhaps, we’ll see in a couple of days when hearings on the proclamation and the destabilization charges begin.

Technorati: proclamation 1017, state of emergency, peso

I Realized That I’m Gay

Rustom Padilla tells fellow Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Edition housemate, Keanna Reeves. Rustom together with 2 other PBBce contestant are facing a possible eviction on Satarday’s episode. So just in case that he gets evicted, he wanted Keanna – well, the viewers really (they do know they’re being watched don’t they?) – to know that he is gay. He adds that that was the main reason he joined PBBce.

The rumor of him being gay began when he and then-partner Carmina Villaroel separated. Neither Rustom nor Carmina ever confirmed the rumor. But eventually, the rumor died down. Rustom disappeared from the limelight, and Carmina moved on with Zoren.

I’m not laughing at him being gay. But I found this funny.