Filipino Values (use them wisely)

Filipinos have always (supposedly) been thought of as people with strong values, values about work and sacrifice. These values have always been a cornerstone to success by most Filipinos — it is a testament that Filipinos here and abroad do well, once they focus on something and work hard on it they will become successful and will succeed. But the sad flip side of it is the tendency to be complacent, as strong as our beliefs are on hard work (masipag) there is a disturbingly set of what I believe are contradicting values (matiisin). While these values are really good for the short term, the risk is if we mistakenly accept these values as norms in our lives.

We have these sayings that epitomize the rationale of these values, sayings such as “pag maiksi ang kumot matutuong bumaluktot” (if the blanket is short, learn to adjust/fit). I actually like this value, but don’t think that I like it for the long-term, I see these sayings as only being interpreted for the short term while your other values of being resourceful and hard-working come into play to get you out of such predicament. Complacency and learning to accept hard-life can be a tragedy in our own lives, it robs you of aspirations and sense of attaining something, it can put you in a box, a mindset of thinking “I can live with it”.

It maybe the reason why the slogan: “Tama na, Sobra na, Palitan na” back in the Marcos days was very effective, that slogan pretty much mobilized people to actually do something. Filipinos must adjust to hard-life, but adjust only in a temporary fashion, they must look beyond this hardship and actually do something — if something is not working, live it with (for now) but work on changing it. I think we Filipinos should take our lives and destiny a little bit more seriously, bad roads, bad jobs, bad officials, bad government — we must learn to work hard to change it, don’t adjust to it for the long term. It starts with our mindset, if there’s one thing we can learn from America’s recent election — it’s that yes we can dream and yes we can make it!

Useless ASEAN

It’s pretty shameful the way ASEAN is reacting (or lack-thereof) to Burma’s disgusting handling of the crisis (refusing aid, humanitarian workers etc… ). It just weakens the image of ASEAN as nothing more than a useless “formal” organization. This was a genuine opportunity for ASEAN to show it’s worth to the international community and to its own people, but I guess they decided to play dumb and let things get worst in Burma — effectively abandoning the burmese people. Which begs the question does the ASEAN organization exists for its leaders or its people? Pathetic.

Links:

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/news/myanmar.crisis/

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/burmese-junta-accused-of-hoarding-food-aid-and-handing-out-rotten-rice-827707.html

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/JE14Ae01.html

List of Shame — Neri, Arroyo, DeVenecia and NAIA3

I just got back from vacation.

What a sad state the Philippines is in, ever always being thought of as being on the brink of prosperity, but never truly being able to get rid itself of bad politics and policies.

Romulo Neri, the current CHED chair and member of the UP Board of Regents, has turned out to be a pathetic lame-duck joke of a skolar-ng-bayan. If this is how UP graduates are supposed to hold themselves to public position, then it’s a real shame. Mr. Neri refuses to shed light on the NBN-ZTE scandal and has hid himself behind the “Exec Privilege” mantra that the Arroyo administration is trumping. What’s keeping him from answering 3 specific questions relating to the NBN-ZTE scandal? No balls, no guts, and no honor — that sums it up. Shame on you, shame on you.

President Arroyo has turned out to be an inept president after all, after all the ballyhooed talk of economic prosperity all these scandals come out. What’s funny is all she can do is prevent investigation from moving forward by preventing her cabinet officials from freely taking the stand. NBN-ZTE, Spratly’s, Telecoms etc… The list goes on and on. The only way to clear things up is to be as transparent as possible, let investigations go on and let the public know of everything, the contracts, the conspirators, everything.

Former House Speaker Jose DeVenecia, what a joke this Trapo is. From being the president’s staunchest ally to being her critic, because of their falling out (a probably collateral damage to the NBN-ZTE scandal) he is now going around saying that he has proof of cheating during the last presidential elections. Hello? Is anyone even remotely thinking that this person is honest? Why did it take a falling-out for him to speak against cheating? If Mr. DeVenecia was an honest politician from the start, he should’ve spoken up against any cheating the moment he found out about it. But I guess he was such in a comfortable position to even rock-the-boat. Lesson to his townspeople, stop voting this Trapo, keep him out of politics forever. Gees!

NAIA3 is such a disappointment, it’s been years since it has been finished and nothing has happened. Inquiries, investigations and repairs that drag too long has kept that airport from being utilized, it’s aging like some stored food. NAIA1 is in such decrepit state compared to other airports that it’s just shameful that we have this unused supposedly advance international airport. It’s so sad and pathetic.

BTW, during my vacation, I stopped by Singapore for a 2 day overnight stay. The country is indeed clean and orderly, miles ahead of our own country. The airport is well organized and the streets are well kept. The Philippines can do this too, maybe what our fellow Pinoys don’t understand is that you don’t need to be rich to be clean, huwag tayong baboy at magtapon sa kalye. It’s ironic that we see well-kept and mapormang pinoys who look sharp yet throw garbage around.. tsk tsk tsk.. you’re just as clean as your surroundings.

Hanggang sa muli….

Opposition Party in the Philippines

Word is out that former president Estrada might run for the country’s top position in 2010. Lacson has already said of his intention for the same position. This presents some issues with the “opposition” groups, as they want to field a single candidate. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has quoted Senate Minority Leader Pimentel Jr. as saying in a text message “The opposition should unite behind one bet even though it looks hard. Cory (Aquino) became the unified opposition bet to defeat Marcos. Otherwise, Erap would probably sacrifice his new tranquility and plunge anew into a tumultuous political life”. No offense to the senator (who’s probably been in the senate too long already) but if Erap is the oppositions best bet, I think the country is really in deep sh!t.

The former president carries too much baggage of the past administration, and I don’t think the country needs to go back to any of the former administrations. We need change, and it must come from fresh faces and not from any of the Trapo conglomerates that are littered with know-it-alls who just rotate from one position to another. If any of them were that excellent public servants that did good on their promises, our country should be in a far better place. Heck! I think a lot of us regular folks could do as good as a job in the senate floor as some of our senators who could still find the time to make sci-fi movies. So who runs under a “United (sic) Opposition” come 2010?

The problem is all we have in the country is the “Administration”, and the “Opposition” group that can consist of one or more political parties. Sadly, in the Philippines these days, a political party is nothing more than a group of politicians who’ve agreed to not disagree during election. All bets are off once the election is over, and it’s open season again. When one mentions Lakas-NUCD, or PMP, or LDP — can anyone relate those names to any basic principles that they stand on? The answer is a quick and resounding No. You associate those parties to whoever was the top politician running under that banner (Lakas – Ramos, PMP – Erap, etc.). The media, in a right call, I think just got sick of all these random party names and decided to just lump everyone in these two categories:  Administration or Opposition.

It is truly disappointing that the old two-party system was changed into the current multi-party system. A system that has witnessed politicians jumping ship at the slightest chance they can with only a whim for a reason. A system that has witnessed politicians creating their own political party, every time they fail to get the nomination. We have seen it happen over and over again. We have seen so-called opposition senators embrace their bitter counterpart overnight; we have seen so-called honorable senators join the same political party they have fiercely fought against even shedding tears in front of a camera. These politicians are the epitome of “kapalmuks” (thick faces) — maybe even worst, people who shamelessly take the multi-party system for granted. People who hide behind fancy political party names yet stand for nothing but getting it elected.

Indeed the venerable political parties of old has gone to the grave, what has replaced them is a shameful circus of political parties with clowns jumping all over the place. They will keep on changing the names of the political parties (K4, ABC, DEDMA, KAPMUKS etc.), trying to keep up with what’s cool at the time, but the faces and names behind them are the same old traditional politicians that suck our country dry, inept and no clue where to take us. Some things never really change, and you can bet that the same set of “Trapos” will always try to get themselves into any government position available, under any political party that will accept them — even if it means going from “Opposition” to “Administration” or vise-versa.

Sadly, ASEAN as a group has no backbone

With what’s happening in Myanmar — the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) doesn’t do anything about it, or if it’s doing anything at all, it’s hardly worth noticing.

When the strongest criticism comes from external groups like the EU (European Union) or the United States, you know that the group doesn’t have the clout to influence it’s members. Just recently the group had to cancel it’s meeting with a United Nations envoy upon the request of Myanmar.

Go and read on what’s happening in Myanmar and then reflect what ASEAN is supposed to stand for. Is ASEAN purely an economic group that would turn it’s shoulders away from “negative” things happening within it’s rank?

Philippine Elections and the Electorate

How can the Philippines shoot for First World country status if we can’t even get elections in order? I mean seriously guys, let’s slap our officials who make those statements about First world status, and take away whatever they’re smoking. Every time there is an election we get all these conflicting stories of cheating, election hot spots, and takes-forever-manual-balloting. It’s the 21st century, it shouldn’t take forever to know who wins, and worst, it shouldn’t be this darn hard to make sure everyone plays by the election rules.

Elections might be something we Filipinos take too lightly — at our expense. As Thomas Jefferson said “The government you elect is government you deserve”. In taking elections not-too-seriously we end up giving a lot more of time, taxes, our future, our children’s future, and ourselves. Let’s follow the path here… a Filipino decides not to think about candidates too seriously and just votes whoever is popular or convenient (even if the candidate is a certified Trapo*), without any notion of if this candidate is competent and honest, this elected official then will spend the first part of his/her term “recovering the cost of the campaign”, and the middle part “enriching himself and the family/friends”, and the latter part of the term “saving up for the next campaign”. This cycle only leaves the Filipinos in poor status, with probably nothing more than a big waiting shed with the disgusting marketing advertisement “built during the term of honorary blah-blah-blah”.

It’s disgusting, totally disgusting. We must demand more from our elected officials, but before we can do that, we (the electorate) must demand more from ourselves:

1. Stop electing “Trapos” (Traditional Politicians); these are politicians who’ve already made a career in politics doing nothing personally or collectively. Think about it, if these Trapos are so good at what they do, then why the freaking hell are we still a poor nation? Answer — They’ve made themselves rich at your own gullible expense! You think that’s funny? That’s our tax money!
2. Stop electing non-performing politicians, these can be actors/actresses/or even new politicians who’ve done nothing but warm the seats of our supposedly hollowed government halls. If your senator can only come up with a bill that declares a day a holiday because for one of our athletes — then I’m sorry, back to the civilian life they go. If your senator still even has time to go make movies or TV shows — then I’m sorry, back to the civilian life they go.
3. Stop electing entrenched families (kaanak inc) in their local posts (mayor, governors). This is one great example of change is definitely good. If a well-known family has been running the show for more than 2 terms – with no major improvements but still keeps winning, there is definitely something wrong — with the electorate of that town/province.
4. Look around you, is your town really better off now? Is your mayor/governor driving in a Hummer while the mountain in your province is being depleted of its resources (trees, taxes etc.)? Helloooo — is there anything in between your ears that’ll at least spark something like: “hmmm this looks funny, how can he/she afford that lifestyle in a public officials salary?”… Please think for your own sake.
5. Lastly, think before you vote, are you thinking short term like “I know this guy and if I vote him he’ll be a good help to me”. Short term. Don’t vote because you’re a friend or acquaintance of someone. Don’t vote because you will benefit directly. If everyone votes this way we’re never going to take off, we must not forget that good governance is for everyone not only for those who know someone, everyone gets taxed so everyone must be the beneficiary.

Desperate Housewives derogatory comment against Philippine Med Schools

Caught this circulating in the Philippine online communities this morning. Apparently in the last episode of the TV Show Desperate Housewives Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, made a derogatory comment against the quality of Philippine Medical Schools.

The line was: “Can I just check those Diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some Med school in the Philippines.”

Do you find it funny or offensive? It should be noted that Susan is a borderline loony/psycho in the show. I am not a fan of the show and haven’t been watching it, so I can’t say if the character is known to blurt out discriminating comments — if so, then she might be playing in character then(?)

The question is, why did the writers choose the Philippines? Is this because the writers have read news about the quality of the Med Schools? Certainly the top medical schools in the Philippines can hold their own against the rest of the world, or have we become the victim of our own tragedies (Nursing Exam leak fiasco). I certainly hope it’s not the latter because it will be unfair to our quality medical professionals who graduated from the these schools.

Whatever the case, read on the following link for more information:

http://radiantview.com/blog/2007/10/02/the-tv-showdesperate-housewives-insults-filipino-doctors-in-america/

If you think this is offensive, there is also an online petition against this — demanding public apology from ABC:

http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/

How do you measure Good Taste when it comes to opinion?

As I think more about what the controversy regarding Ms Malu Fernandez’s article brought about, the more puzzled I am with the apparent split between some of the professional journalists, and Bloggers. I recommend reading: “Freedom is not a one-way street”, a very interesting take on this matter with several supporting links.

The more it’s hard to accept why the incident with the article written by Ms Fernandez won’t die. As most Pinoy Bloggers notice, there seems to be more and more article popping up claiming that Ms Fernandez is a victim of an unfair reaction to a columnist’s article.

So when do we measure human reaction, and when did it become a norm that professional journalist can be “creative” for their audience and hurl “acerbic wit” into their own fashion for their readers, yet amateurs, non-professionals, or readers with comments can’t enjoy the same latitude? They can hurl insults disguised under freedom of speech, yet be too sensitive to comments and reactions? Do you weigh in the stone you throw out and expect that the stone hurled back at you matches the size and weight?

Let’s all be open minded about this. We can’t measure good taste; we can’t expect someone to throw insults and then be offended if the replies become a little too heated for their “taste”. The same people who supposedly triumph freedom of speech in protecting Ms. Fernandez’s article have the gal to question the reaction of people reading it. It’s pathetic I know – but hey it’s their opinion. Just remember: if you can’t handle the heat, don’t throw yourself into the fire.

I think, to truly put this controversy past us all, we should start with respecting each other’s opinion and reactions – maybe we should try to read and understand them rather than measuring them and completely missing the point. Now, whether this leads to positive action – we can only hope. Time to heal. Mabuhay!

Another Filipino columnist who knows nothing about OFWs?

What’s this? Just when we think we can rest for a bit after the Malu Fernandez controversy and her apology. Out comes a columnist (Mr. Geronimo L. Sy) from The Manila Times with an article trying to put a positive spin on the article Ms. Fernandez wrote. It just sickens me, read the full article:

http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/aug/30/yehey/opinion/20070830opi3.html

Now to start, let me quote a piece from the article:

 

“With these lines, Malu offended our sensibilities, went against political correctness and doomed herself to public condemnation.
Our sensibilities say that to travel for leisure is a privilege and a luxury. Millions of our countrymen brave foreign shores in search of the proverbial three meals a day. Hence to vacation in Bora or, rather and, Greece in one break is something we whisper a prayer for and count our blessings. How can Malu be so ungrateful, we ask not out of envy?”

This guy is totally clueless, totally missing the point, it’s as if the offense made was that she traveled for leisure? Who cares if someone travels for leisure? I actually think traveling and seeing places for leisure is not only good for the mind but the soul as well. What Bloggers have pointed out are the condescending comments she made against OFWs. It’s also not about being ungrateful, but being inconsiderate. Here’s more from the article:

 

“She flaunted political correctness when she dared to be true to herself and called OFWs for who they are: A noisy lot intruding into personal space sacred to others in small places like economy seats. At least she is honest with her thoughts. She could have injected the value of empathy understanding that it is beyond the OFWs themselves and largely attributable to socio-economic factors like education and professional attainment. She may perhaps have been trying to be cute about it or simply reflected the elite mentality.”

Let me point out one clear-cut line I find offending: “called OFWs for who they are: A noisy lot intruding into personal space sacred to others in small places like economy seats.” — If both these writers fly more often, they might be surprised to find out that intruding into personal space is not a monopoly of OFWs. Even worst, generalizing that ALL OFWs are people like this seriously puts into question who this author is, and what experience he has with OFWs. The author even ends the article trying to put a positive spin on how he sees things with the line: “Let us hate the ugliness of the OFWs in us, enough to do something about it.” I don’t know what the author is thinking when he used OFWs again here, specially the “ugliness of OFWs in us” part. Does he equate OFWs to things negative? I’m sorry but this is not self-reflection or look ourselves in the mirror kind-of-thing.

My guess is one or both of the following is true about the author:
1. Someone born with a silver spoon, with taste of true economic hardship such a distant fiction.
2. The only “personal” experience/knowledge this fellow has comes from reading articles written by the likes of Ms. Malu Fernandez, OR meeting one truly rotten OFW that he concludes all OFWs are like that (A genius eh?)

Now if the author is trying to do some self-reflection to try and point to us that we just overreact, why pinpoint OFWs in particular? Why not just say “Filipinos’ bad traits” or something to that effect. So maybe we should “hate the ugliness of our own hypocrisy and bad traits..” instead, though I am not really a fan of the word “hate”. I am sure at every economic level there are bad apples — this is not only exclusive to OFWs or the poor. Don’t tell me that all rich or “sosyals” are examples of good manners — if this is how the author sees things I think he should go out and mingle some more. If we use the same yardstick the author used to conclude on OFWs, and make our conclusions that all columnists think like him — I’m sure we’ll ruffle some feathers or maybe worst.

If all we have are journalists such as this who seem to think that good writing is stereotyping OFWs and shaping them into something negative, a malaise to the Filipinos, maybe Bloggers should take the cudgels, or in a lighter note elucidate, and be the ones to call this out as nothing more than bigotry. Mr. Sy, write something better.

Additional blog/info here: http://cmfr-phil.blogspot.com/2007/08/malus-back.html

UPDATE (Sep 4 2007):

Reading the blog entry ““Freedom of Speech” isn’t a one-way street… from Taroogs.WordPress.com, I learned of another article from the Manila Standard written by Mr. Emil Jurado that appears to try and explain the Malu Fernandez controversy as a sad tragedy on the practice of “Freedom of Speech”, especially since what she wrote (as he claimed) is the truth(sic).

Read the article here: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=emilJurado_aug31_2007

A quote from the article:

“I think Malu was simply writing what she thought and sensed. That’s freedom of the press. And what she wrote was just the truth. Everybody knows that.”

I don’t think the truth about OFWs is that they are all a bunch of noisy and manner less people who don’t know how to conduct themselves in public. It’s a pity, I used to find Emil Jurado’s article very interesting and balanced, but it seems his view on this has taken a rather disturbing slant. As I’ve tried to point out, there will always be people with bad manners rich or poor, I have encountered people in flights (Well-dressed and looking real “sosyal”) disregard attendant’s requests and instructions up until they were forced to do so. I do not imply that Mr. Jurado’s personal experience with OFWs is a lie, but rather he can’t conclude that all migrant workers behave that way. Now, if Mr. Jurado’s experience happened to be with someone rich and influential, will he conclude the same way he did? It’s like a bad statistical sampling study; it’s just not fair to say all migrant workers are like that because of perception.

The rules of manners don’t only apply to migrant workers; they apply to everyone, so please let’s not make any distinction when it comes to educating people what’s wrong or right.

UP Admissions

I came about this interesting blog regarding the UP admission system (Equity vs. Excellence):

http://crazyadventure.wordpress.com/2007/08/04/up-admissions-debate-equity-or-excellence/

I think the equity scheme is the better choice if I have to select between two evils (Equity or Excellence? Ideally – why not just admit everyone who passes). A lot of people may comment they deserve to study in UP because they are smart and bright, and that’s a good point to stand on. Though with the limited public funding of UP, providing students from various provinces a shot at studying in a tier-1 university is a worthy use of that resource. Ateneo, DLSU, UST (and others) are also great institutions that can certainly accommodate the smart folks who couldn’t get into UP because of the equity system, they can get in and have scholarships in those universities.

Think about the barriers for someone who studied in a province, who is smart and dedicated, but may not belong to the top of their class, and not economically situated to be able to study in a high quality private institution (sadly quality education is very costly). Some students of UP get scholarship/stipends based on their economic status, they don’t need to be top of their class to maintain that, they only need to attain above-average grades to stay in the university and keep their stipend. Can you say the same for private universities? Will they give a chance to a smart-but-not-valedictorian-caliber student and receive full scholarship?

Equity in gaining entrance doesn’t mean the student can just coast through college though, once you’re in UP you’re like everyone else, the equity scheme gives you a chance, then it gets thrown out the window once you’re in. That for me is a fair enough break for students benefiting this system.