TWENTY YEARS AFTER THE PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE 1987 CONSTITUTION, and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines, we ask oursleves — bakit walang pagbabago? Corruption prevails and permeates every level of society. As a result, Filipinos keep looking for HEROES. Heroes that will effect the drastic change the country so desperately needs. We have been looking for the Filipino Obama, long before Obama came into office. Cases in point: Erap in 1998. Arroyo in 2001. And most recently Noynoy, riding the hype of his mother’s death. Had not Cory died, would Noynoy even be considered as a viable candidate? A valid question. Isn’t this pathetic?

Filipinos are personality voters. They are easily swayed by political ads. Personalities. Good looks. But if there is anything this has helped achieve, it is the high level of participation among Filipinos as regard to elections. The Philippines is among the countries in Asia that have the highest voter turn-out in elections ( see www.idea.int/index.cfm). However, while we have achieved this one ingredient to having a good democracy, we still miss a couple more important things to acquire. I call them HATS!

It is not enough that we have democratic institutions in place. HATS supplements this by providing the ideal balance between government and citizens in working towards development of democracy. Philips Shively (1999) has kindly enumerated for me the necessary characteristics that we are looking for in a democratic citizenry, and quite frankly, the Philippines fails a couple of these points:

• High Level of Interest and Information

• Active Participation

• Tolerance

• Support for the Government

High Level of Interest and Information

According to Shively (p. 140, 1999), it is not enough that people participate actively. People may be as active as they want but they will have little effect on what government does because action based on no interest or understanding would be aimless! Democracy not only requires citizens to participate, it also requires those citizens to be well informed.

Furthermore, Shively notes that people who regularly turn out and vote in elections might know little or nothing about the candidates among whom they are choosing; in that case, they would contribute little to the workings of democracy (Shively, p.144, 1999), or even be detrimental to it, in case they vote for the worse candidate.

A classic example is that Filipinos are typically participative in rallies against government policies, but when asked about the particular issue they are opposing (Charter Change, for example), definition just eludes them.

Active Participation

More than just obeying the laws the government lays down, democracy requires that citizens do more than just obey; citizens must take concrete steps to exercise their authority over government, at the very least voting in elections (Shively, p.140, 1999). Moreover, citizens must maintain frequent contact with the government (I texted President Arroyo!) by writing to their representatives, serving on citizen committees, etc.

In the Philippines, among the things we should ask ourselves are these: Did we vote in the most recent presidential and local elections? Did we work in any small or independent way in a campaign for the most recent election?

Good examples of how we may be able to develop active participation is by joining watchdog groups in elections, like PPCRV, or BMPM, and then really participating.

Tolerance

Probably the most difficult of the HATS, tolerance of other people’s opinions is a necessary requirement for a democratic society. According to Shively, “if varied groups are to support their opinions, it is necessary that the people have a reasonable tolerance for diversity; if people could be prevented from setting forth unpopular ideas, then democracy would not function well. Therefore, citizens must be at least minimally tolerant of different races, different religions, different political beliefs, and different opinions that may depart sharply from their own. Citizens in a democracy must be willing to allow these various groups to present their cases freely, otherwise there is a danger that the voters will not be allowed a full range of options from which to choose” (Shively, p.140, 1999).

Questions we must ask ourselves as Filipinos: are you open to having a Muslim man as President? Are you open to having a person you dislike become President? Do you think that leftist organizations should be outlawed? Should the Church be barred from making political opinions?

Support for the Government

Finally, according to Shively, while the three characteristics above are required, democracy also requires that the government maintain authority over the people (Shively, p.140, 1999). What is needed here is a general abstract support for the democratic form of government which can coexist with skepticism about the qualities of individual office holders (Shively, p.144, 1999).

In the Philippines, government is seen as an oppressor rather than a proper authority. Probably one of the reasons Filipinos would get around rules, if they can. If we treat government as an enemy, then we are living in a contradictory society; democracy would never settle here.

Filipinos are continually searching for a Savior, The One, The Anointed One. A Filipino Obama. And if the institutions fail, if the politicians don’t deliver, if the government is corrupt — they complain. They complain. And they complain. Finally fleeing to another country. Little do they know that CHANGE is rooted in responsible citizenship, and they are nowhere near achieving it.

1986: We have changed the government and installed a revolutionary one.

1987: We have changed the Marcos Constitution and made it democratic.

1991: We have changed the structures of local governance and made it more democratic and empowered.

2001: We have deposed a thief from The Office and replaced it with a new one…

Hindi ka nagbantay.

We have changed everything to accommodate DEMOCRACY. The only thing left to change is…

2009: YOU.  It’s your time to change. And when you try to do, remember: HATS.

Ayon sa isang prof sa AB, dalawang klaseng tao lang ang pumapasa sa polsci: yung matalino, tapos yung madiskarte. Malamang, yung ireg, hindi isa sa mga yun. O hindi nga ba? Sabi kasi ni Joed, palaging ireg yung mga tatanga-tanga sa class… eh ayoko namang mag conform sa ganun… mayabang ako eh!

Sa kinasamaang palad, naging ireg ako. Haha! Dahil mas nag-enjoy ako maging tamad kaysa mag-aral. Mas masarap naman talaga eh. Anyway. BOBO NGA BA ANG IREG? Eto ah: Stereotype lang yun! Tss, naniwala ka naman dun. (Matalino ako eh, sorry.) So bakit napagkakamalang bobo ang ireg? Ilang rason:

Una: walang contact sa regular students. Kaya hindi na-uupdate kung may quiz, assignments, o papers na ipapasa the following meeting, o di kaya ay hindi madadamay sa GM tuwing may make-up class. MALAS MO.

Pangalawa:  Dahil madalas, may naibagsak na subject ang ireg na kailangang i-take ulit kaya napagkakamalang bobo. MALAS MO.

Pangatlo: Wala silang kaibigan sa classroom kundi mga ibang ireg din, kaya yun, walang katext, walang kakopyanahan, walang tagabigay sa kanya ng readings at handouts. MALAS MO.

Ano ngayon ang dapat mong gawin kung ireg ka? Eh di yung ginagawa ko!

Number one: Fifth year ka na! Taena, diyos ka na diyan sa college  mo — use that to your advantage! May karapatan kang mag-angas at mag-coerce ng mga tao para makuha mo ang kailangan mo. Parang ganito:

Me (text): Mr. president, kelan ba panunuorin yung vid? Kelangan ko na mapanuod, ayoko mag-cram. Kung pwede, mag set kayo ng time para panuorin ng buong class, text mo ko tas pupunta ako sa school kahit sobrang busy ko sa office ngayon [isang kasinungalingan]. Kung di, isend mo sa email ko yung softcopy ng vid ngayong gabi, gusto ko kasi matapos na bukas to.

Class President: sige po, itetext ko po kayo. Pasensya na po.

— this worked wonders.

Number two: Makipag-kaibigan sa mga gago sa class, sa mga matalino sa class, sa presidente ng class, sa mga babae sa class. Huwag i-isolate ang sarili mo. Underhanded ka na nga kasi hindi kayo pareho ng schedule, di mo pa sila kaiibiganin, di ba? Sila ang mga anchor mo sa pagpasa sa class na kinasasalihan mo. Sila ang hihiraman mo ng notes, kokopyahan mo sa exam, at mag-uupdate sayo (kung naging close na kayo) sa mga pangyayari sa class.

Numebr three: MAG-ARAL. Nakakahiya ka naman kung bobobo-bobo ka pa sa class, ireg ka na nga! Pinanindigan mo talaga yung stereotype ah! Ano ka, walking cliche?! Kailangan mong ipakita na bilang upperclassmen, mas matalino ka sa mga ito. Pramis, titingalain ka ng mga yun. Ako pa, eh ako highest sa class. ^ ^ (Ang yabang ko!).

So, yun lang. I’m rewriting the stereotype of ireg!

Several years ago, a few quarters after the inauguration of Gloria Arroyo as the president of the Philippines, I can vividly remember her declaring in one of her State of the Nation Addresses that “we are back on the international map!“. It was with a hint of pride when she declared this, as she lured investment confidence back into the country. I, on the other hand, imagined how on earth countries could be “erased” from the “international map”, whether they were deliberately ignored by other countries, or simply put away as inconspicuous, or to be more apt, irrelevant. I was in third year high school.

Several years passed and I took up the course of Political Science in the University of Santo Tomas, and my political instincts grew to a more than average sense (it made me read daily broadsheets, watch international news particularly CNN, take interest in global politics and economic phenomena). Two years ago, the Philippines caught the attention of the world as its economy grew to a phenomenal 7.3 percent, when it used to average between 3 to 4 percent annually. This was incredible, and everyone was frantic about the outlook for the country known as the “Sick Man of Asia”. The Peso which averaged 56 to a dollar a couple of years back, was performing incredibly, rising against the greenback and finally reaching a seven-year high of 40 to a dollar. Finally, international credit rators S&P and Moody’s upgraded the countrys economic outlook from “negative” to “stable”, which means that the country is safe for investors to put their money on, and which eventually made the country lower its interest rates.

Speculators were a little bit skeptic however, considering the history of political instability the country has had to deal with over the years, and predicted that the economic performance would heavily depend on whether the country could sustain the political atmosphere at the moment which was quiet. I was watching CNN that night, and I remember the Philippines being shown to have a “low pressure” atmosphere and would be experiencing rain for the next five days. I find the CNN forecasts more accurate than the local weathermen.

In a sense, we really were on the international map! Foreign analysts taking interest with the Philippine Stock Exchange Index, Manila being on the headline of the Washington Post, the Economist, and the Wall Street Journal (reporting on the improving economic performance of the country), and finally, CNN forecasting the country’s weather over the next five days! Phew.

And then we fell apart again. Thanks to radical senator Trillanes who staged a coup again (amidst the economic growth; he was charged with economic sabotage later on), and then came the Food Crisis of 2007-2008 where the Philippines got especially hit being the world’s largest rice importer. Of course, there is to blame the politicking in the country with its domestic political quarrels about constitutional reform and a possible term extension of government officials masquerading behind it. We were slowly erasing ourselves from the international map — because foreigners don’t give a damn about our domestic politics and how we always like to do our laundry in front of the whole world. We were falling from grace. We fell from grace, yet again.

Amidst all this things, I still watched my favorite news channel and waited for the weatherman to come to the bit and show the Philippines being smothered by yet anonther tropical cyclone being shown on the satelite. Instead, The Philippines was reduced to just “Manila” in the CNN weather highlights showing the highs and lows of temperature. The CNN weatherman used to talk about the Philippine archipelago in detail and how wet or dry we were going to be in the coming days.

Yesterday, as I flicked the channel to CNN just in time to see the weather highlights, there came the map of India, and they were talking about how dry and hot it was there. Next came the map of Japan, and the weatherman reported how average the weather is over there in Tokyo. Next came the map of Southeast Asia, with the Philippines smack right in the middle of it all, and I could see a big low pressure area hovering over the island of Luzon, over Manila. I expected the weatherman to cover this atmospheric phenomenon, which was odd because the Philippines was supposedly in the middle of summer. But he talked about the weather in China and how nice it was there (China is perfomring well in the global financial crisis), mentioned a few lines about Jakarta (Indonesia is expected to be least affected in the region by the Global Recession because of its heavy reliance on local industry and local demand for it), and did not mention Manila.

It is very wet this summer, and we could not even become so much as precipitate in CNN.

Here is the rule: once you are tagged, you are supposed to list down ten silly or naughty things you did as a KID. Then you Tag TEN people as you post! =) You cannot tag me. Enjoy!

*****

Okay, these things happened when I was below the age of seven.

#10. I played with body powder and covered the whole room with it. Imagine the reaction of my mother who came home from work — she made me eat Jhonson’s & Jhonson’s baby powder that night.

#9. I put Vicks Vaporub directly on my eyes. Out of curiosity. I ran to my yaya, shouting “bulaaag na kooo!!!!”

#8. I ate Vicks Vaporub. Apparently, this was a regular activity of mine. My older siblings never stopped me when they saw me doing this. I thought it was normal.

#7. I claimed to have seen 2 dwendes: one blue, one red. I was barely three, and they just had to believe whatever crap I said. Why the subject came up, I have no idea. “Nakakita ka ng dwende?” “Oo.” “Ano kulay?” to which I answered the only two colors I liked: “Red. Blue.” My lola who is superstitiuous, had to send an albularyo all the way from Bicol just to have me looked at! The crazy albularyo indeed said I have seen two dwendes, something she had seen in her tawas.

#6. I claimed to have eaten a live grasshopper. My uncle from the province caught me one from the garden, and let me hold it for a while. When he turned back, he saw I no longer had the green insect, so he asked, “Nasan na yung tipaklong? Kinain mo?” To which I innocently answered “Oo.” My lola got angry and made me drink hot water to “drown” and kill the grasshopper inside my body, which in fact never was there.

#5. I shot a loud air rifle near my ear. “Malakas ba to?” I said, curious whether the gun packed a loud BANG! I held it close to my ears, and then pulled the trigger… BANG!!! I screamed and ran to my yaya, yelling “Bingi na koooo!”

#4. I gathered all the rubber eraser dirt and put them all on my classmates’ heads. You know how you get these thin, long gray rubber rubbush after erasing all the pencil markings you made on a paper? I took the generosity of gathering all my classmates’ eraser rubbish, and secretly put them on some of my classmates’ heads. Teacher Carol caught me and transfered me to another seat.

#3. I stuck gum and drew on the back of my classmate’s uniform. I was five years old, in kindergarden. Teacher Carol caught me (again), which earned me another letter to be handed to my mother.

#2. I peed on another kid in school. I was six years old and went out of the classroom to go to the bathroom. When I got there, I opened a cubicle but there was a younger boy peeing in it. He shouted at me: “Putang ina mo!” (I was taken aback, he was only 4 years old.) And then he turned around, and splashed pee on my left leg. I shouted at him, “Putang ina mo din!”, then I opened my zipper, blocked the exit of the cubicle, and unleashed my bursting bladder in his shorts, his uniform, his legs — all over him.

#1. I peed on my siblings in bed. It was naptime in the afternoon, and we were supposed to sleep, but we couldn’t, so we decided to have our very own afternoon show. My brother and sister were lying down in bed, and I was standing up over them, they were trying to make me dance (being the youngest and easiest to bully). “Wag kayo tatawa!” I said. “Sige, hinde kami tatawa,” my sister answered. I threatened them, “Pag tumawa kayo, iihian ko kayo!” And then I danced. And then they laughed. And then they were shocked as I drew out my penis and sprayed them and the bed with my yellow pee.

In these last days of Senior life (at least for some), I give my kudos to those who have successfully completed the Political Science course, always bearing in mind the academic excellence by which these people have led their lives as polsci majors in the university *cough, cough.

I therefore TAG the “Counter boys” for their religious patronage of Counter Strike every break time, crunch time, anytime and yet still manage to scrape passing marks in most of their subjects. CS however, is now replaced by Left4Dead. I had much fun with these friends (albeit me being the kulelat in both games).

I also TAG the “party people” who at times of political crisis amidst academic crunch time choose to remain political. These are the people who craft the political dynamics within the college, always active in their own party affiliations. And yet, at the end of the day, no matter how tight competition was in the elections, nothing is ever personal.

I should also TAG the freaks of nature, who are simply phenomenal creatures who always scrape grades of 1, 1.25 and such in whatever subject. This is not normal. At least for Political Science. Kudos to you gods.

We must not forget to TAG the crammers, whose “tomorrows” are always synonymous to “deadlines”. These are the people who live at the edge of things who submit hot, fresh-from-the-printer papers at the 11th hour — and still manage to get good marks.

Next, I TAG the bokadors, who are master speakers and essay writers who can always talk or write about nothing and make it sound like something. Grade: 90.

I TAG the timeless people… whom you can count on to arrive at least thirty minutes late in class. The more audacious ones come during the last thirty minutes of class.

I also TAG the smokers, who think critically and consistently even under tremendous pressure — with the help of the (stress relief) stick.

A fair amount of TAGGING needs to be awarded to the Debarristers, who after being sentenced to life-outside-the-university, still remained inside the university. Kudos, people.

I TAG, the Immortals, who after being stamped debarred (embarrassingly) on their clearance for two terms, still exist within the major.

Finally, I TAG you. Yes, you, Political Science major, who after four, five, or who knows how many years, have survived, will survive, and are still surviving the perils brought to you by your perilous course.

No one in polsci ever leaves unscathed, but not without learning.

Congratulations, survivors! It’s party time. Now bring out the booze.

Just about two days ago, I had a nice little conversasion with a good classmate of mine.

Me: Woe to those who are self-righteous for they have earned their “merit”. Woe to those who have lost their idealism for they are already dead and defeated. Let not the dead corrupt the living, and it’s an easy trap to fall into. Indeed, cynicism is the best weapon of evil, often veiled as realism. There are many good people in the world, and yes, bad people. This shouldn’t be the reason to be hopeless. Let not your minds be corrupted with this deadness. PRESERVE your idealsm — and even a small group of people can change society.

Him: Bullshit. It won’t earn you MONEY, people! Get education and get a good business running. Shut the political thinking etc, the PRESIDENT and GLOBALIZATION won’t hear you.

Me: Puro ka pera, pare. Some people don’t actually live for it, believe it or not. No offense.

Him: ‘Wag mo suweldohan si Dr. Co and Atty. Bong. Do you think you would have learned what transcendentalism and Eminent Domain is?

Me: Hay, pare. Had you any idea what those professors are earning in UST compared to their counterparts in other universities… they have actually been offered higher salary abroad, only, they turned them down had they not been academicians. You misunderstood. Some people don’t live for money.

Him: You don’t live for it, it just makes your life worthwhile rather than computing for the formula to change the Philippines. Who will listen? Who? Wait and strike WHEN the iron is already hot.

Me: If at first an idea seems not credible, then there is no hope for it. Wala pang naihahain na solusyon, tinitira mo na agad na imposible.

Him: You will realize my point when you get to have your first born child in  your own family.

Me: I understand that. You’re one of the best classmates I know, just don’t adhere to pessimism.

Him: I don’t adhere to pessimism. If I adhere to pessimism, then I wouldn’t be studying and hoping to be a successful lawyer in this impoverished country. It’s just not feasible to talk when you are only each other’s audience.

Me: No, not each other’s audience… I really meant to send that message to a select group of friends I know and trust. I know there’s a brand of cynicism going around the batch today, and knowing what (influential) professionals we’ll become someday, I don’t want my friends carrying that trash in mind when they work. It influences more people than you know. =C

Him: If you’re talking about [person], he was just drowned by emotions; he just got tired for a minute… nothing wrong with that. Jordan gets out of hand due to fatigue, but after a rest, he comes to his senses.

Me: It was all over his blog (pessimism, cynicism).

Him: Exactly. It’s our pathetic classmates who are one of the reasons why he wrote that on the night Ma’am Z and Ronna spoke and got humiliated by our EXCLUSIVE CLAIM of having thesis (in lieu of attending retreat). Listen and understand the details first before reacting people. We just shitted ourselves in the deans office by claiming sole ownership in the ENTIRE AB STUDENTRY of having thesis that’s why we can’t attend the retreat.

Me: Um, galit ka?

Him. No. I’m ashamed.

Me: Ok. Can I play defensive? Hehe. Sasama talaga dapat ako sa retreat, and I was poised to pay, until Friday when I learned that my members can’t attend due to thesis work. I decided not to come because those two can’t work without me. Not to brag, but I think I’m the glue that sticks both together. Hehe.

Him: Ok, taena ka. Akala ko sasama ka, ngayon ko lang nalaman, sa’yo pa nanggaling na di ka pala sasama. Hehe.

Me: Ako din eh, ngayon ko lang nalaman na di ako makakasama! Hehe! By the way, yung Tienchi na pinainom mo sa’ken nung Marriage class, ano ba ‘yun? SEDATIVE? Nakatulog ako!

Him: Inantok at nakatulog din ako gago.

Me: Eh nag OD ka kasi eh. Geh bro, tulog na’ko masakit na mata ko. Nite.

END

Gah! Here is my first non-crap post after so many days, I have to admit that I had intended to write about so many things (the cold weather, the Black Nazarene, the Sto. Nino), but upon opening this page where I compose, words just failed me. The best explanation could be that of the exams week and I had been preoccupied with studies, and yet another one could be emo: I was uninspired! Ugh.

Today, I am elated, thus inspired to write because I got the article I had been looking for after days of searching: Contradictions and Limits of a Developmental State: With Illustrations from the South Korean Case by Eun Mee Kim. Only seventeen pages to read and report for tomorrow! Thank God.

For helping me locate the article, I thank the following persons, Lawrence de Guzman and his UP connections, Carlos Romulo for the info, Marj Perez and her boyfriend for bagging the prized article, Brent Lee for searching his school’s library and sending me the PDF, Cherrie Pastores for her reference, Chester Diego for alumni networking, Michael Rico and Tey Panlaqui, and the beautiful librarian at the UST library’s Science section for helping me with JSTOR.

Now, if anyone needs any scholarly article to be found under the subject of humanities and social science, especially if you are a Political Science major (we could most likely be using the same references), feel free to message me here! I will gladly send you a PDF version.

And now, I will take a bath. Tah tah.

P.S. it’s ma’s birthday today. Also my friends’ basketball game against Sociology (versus Political Science) — hope they win.

“Each time you write something and you send it out into the world and it becomes public, obviously everybody is free to do with it what he pleases, and this is as it should be. I do not have any quarrel with this. You should not try to hold your hand now on whatever may happen to what you have been thinking for yourself. You should rather try to learn from what other people do with it.”

- Hannah Arendt (Remarks to the American Society of Christian Ethics, 1973)

This will probably be my last entry for the year 2008, being in Baguio. I am in a “coffee shop” in front of our hotel, and I have not had the chance to go online every hour (unlike in Manila) because you don’t really go to Baguio to go online, do you?

I spent a million pesos on souvenirs for friends, food, load, and more food… and shirts. Now, I have no more money. Let’s keep that a secret because my mom will go ballistic at how much I could spend in a day.

Yesterday, we had the chance to “dine” with Gloria Arroyo who sat in the table next to us. Also, I went to ukay and got some cool eyeglasses, geeky. Anyway, I got 

to go back to the hotel for dinner. Shucks. will post more… hopefully.

For quite some time now, there have been rumors that the social networking site (SNS) called Friendster is dead. Now however, rumors become reality as incontrovertible facts of Friendster’s death is made official: IT IS DEAD. There.

 While Friendster can be hailed as one of the first SNS’s that appeared on the web, it has over the years failed to keep with the pace of technology and the insatiable thirst of young people to get something new. If it should still exist today, it should be somewhere within the piles of old obituaries. SNS history has three ages: the “Ice Age“, the “Melt Age“, and the “Sunny Age“. (All coined by me!). Today in the Sunny Age of SNS, Friendster has successfully remained frozen with very few changes to its “natural state”, preserving much of what it was originally during the Ice Age –which is quite a feat considering the amount of technology and new features available on the web. For this feat, we should Congratulate Friendster. Congratulations Friendster! Okay, enough.

The problem with Friendster is that in today’s fast changing society driven by technology, it is very easy to be labeled “primitive“, and Friendster, with all its access to that technology, has failed to ulitilize technology’s potential and has thus been appropriated such title. Among these technology and features that were not utilized are texting, minigames, microblogging and importation of blogs, auto contact generation, visual text confirmation for security, and a lot more. More importantly, it has failed to catch the attention of the youth who are the major driving force of the internet market.

In stark contrast to Friendster, other SNS’s have incorporated texting as a major security feature to ensure that all accounts have actual people accountable to them (not autos or bots). Before being able to register completely, it would send a confirmation code to your mobile phone which you should subsequently type to confirm registration.
Another simple yet effective security measure is the visual text confirmation in which one is required to retype the obscured letters shown in an image. This is done to ensure actual human activity — only actual people can recognize the letters in the image; robots or other automated programs will not be able to bypass this “checkpoint” since they will not be able to “see” images.

Speaking of security, Friendster has been a celebrated host to quite a number of bugs, glitches, viruses, poseurs, and hackers, the most recent of which is a problem encountered by 99% of its users when they either involuntarily sent or received unsolicited comments from hacked users promoting pornography. A few weeks before that, Friendster temporarily lost its database “due to power outage” in the area in California where it is based. Friendster has also proven to have weak filters and protection against pornography, especially external infiltration, hence, the aforementioned.

Other features that are missed by Friendster which caused its boredom image are minigames applications as well as microblogs and the universality of blogging (by means of importation from one blog platform to another; Friendster although it offers a blog platform, does not allow importation or exportation of blog entries from platform to platform). This expansion from a mere SNS to a multiplicity of functions is key to keep people visiting the site. As acknowledged by a friend, “Facebook is more than just a networking site. I can play games (with my friends)! It’s a corny-fun way to waste your time.” Although it may sound very unproductive, “wasting time” is a multi-billion dollar industry mainly powered by students who consider it their second life apart from studying.

I don’t want to make this “The 100 and 1 Things Friendster Failed to do That’s Why it Died” entry, but I am sure that would also be accurate. The fact remains that Friendster is dead, and while you might still keep an account there, I suggest that deleting it would be most appropriate, don’t even save for sentimental purposes (your other “friends” there would have accounts on other SNS’s anyway). The best way to handle the burden of sentimentality is NOT to dispose of your sentiment, but to dispose of the OBJECT of your sentiment immediately. Believe me, it works. IF still not convinced, let me tell you a secret: 90% of all accounts in friendster are INACTIVE. Meaning, these accounts have not been logged into for more than three months, or either these have been logged into but not have not had any activity like sending messages, comments, updating profiles, uploading photos etc.

It’s not a question of WHY leave Friendster, but rather, it’s more of WHY NOT leave Friendster, an SNS that has continuously failed to give you quality service you deserve, has abused your account by neglecting security, has disrespected your privacy (oh those relentless emails depsite the fact that you disabled that mailing function!) and has been outpaced by other better SNS’s in terms of service, features, security, and network. I am not killing Friendster; it is already dead. You have already paid enough respects to its funeral by staying on, but now delete, delete that Friendster account. Three.Two.One.Click!

Today, I had the funniest epiphany when I read a text message from a friend who always had the habit if putting “GBU! MMLU!” at the end of each of his messages. I never bothered to ask what those letters meant, but just amused myself by guessing what they could have meant: goodbye? Nah. Gandang gabi? Nah. Mumumwah? Ech. Besides, I was embarrassed to ask about what seemed like a normal texting gesture. Nevertheless. This morning came another text message:

“  Good Morning!

Behind every circumstance is GOD’S PURPOSE.

At times, what we consider TRIALS

are simply the HAND of GOD

rearranging our lives to be more FUITFUL!

 

GBU! (“,) MMLU!  “

More than the message, what roused my curiosity was that “signature” at the end of the message (I always  receive these godly messages from the guy, I don’t know why they do that). Funnily enough, a certain girl popped into my head: the daughter of Eddie Gil! Eddie Wig Gil, who was the ex-presidential candidate deemed incapable of running the campaign by COMELEC back in 2004!

 This daughter had a “novelty song” which contained the lyrics, “I love you mama, I love you papa, God Bless you, Mama Mary loves you!” Hence the signature GBU!MMLU! The song had a comical tune with it, to match the simple lyrics. I burst out laughing, because the Gil family actually sang it together on national TV (unaware that they were being used as clowns; they were so proud). Anyway, I almost fell over, holding my phone and laughing silently as I woke up today. Sometimes, God has a funny way of giving you a shot of realization.

Good day everyone. GBU!MMLU! (HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

May good news ako sayo!

Bibigyan kita ng roundtrip ticket papuntang Europe! All expense paid for. Libre lahat — day tour, transfers, hotel accommodations. Ah, tapos pwede ka magsama ng isang tao, girlfriend mo. Ayos, masarap di ba?

Kaso eh, sa sampung eroplanong maaari mong masakyan, isa dun, magka-crash landing sa dagat. Isa lang naman eh.  Kung di mo naman masakyan yung eroplanong yun, eh di okey buhay ka. Ano, risk mo ba?

Kung ako, di na’ko sasakay.

Ganyan ang condom — 90% effective lang. Kung matsambahan mo yung isang 10%, buhay kang bata ka!

Nanunood kasi ako ng MTV ngayon, yung 2008 Music Summit, at ang theme nila eh AIDS Awareness and condom usage (sponsored kasi ng Frenzy condoms). Isang malaking kahibangang at kalokohan.

Una sa lahat, ang paggamit ng condom ay hindi AIDS awareness! Lalong lalo na ang pag promote ng sex sa kabataan! Marami-rami rin sigurong kaluluwa ang pananagutan ni Mark Abaya nung sinagaw niya:

“Do you love having sex? I love having sex! But use condoms! Yeah it sucks using one, but it helps prevent AIDS!”

Kung maaari kang makabuntins gamit ang condom, lalong mas posibleng magkaron o mag transfer ng HIV! Kung nakakalusot ang sperm cell sa condom, lalong mas nakakalusot ang HIV, isang virus na higit namas maliit pa sa sperm cell. Itanong mo sa mga totoong experto.

Pangalawa, obvious naman na ang AIDS ay nakukuha sa sex. So bakit ka kukuha ng condom para makipag sex? Ang pinaka mabisang solution — wag ka makipag sex! Same goes for pregnancy. Masyado parin mabigat ang risk. Sasakay ka pa ba?

So, sa madaling salita, condoms promote sex and therefore promote AIDS! Condoms corrupt and pollute the minds of the youth, conditioning their minds that premarital sex is absolutely normal. Hubaran ang BUTAS na katotohanan ng condom, at ipagbunyi ang totoong pagmamahalan: naghihintay. Kung di ka pa kasal pero di ka na rin virgin, di pa naman huli ang lahat eh, ititigil mo lang naman eh.

So kids, keep love real. True love waits.

Kahit may condom ka pa.

Last Thursday, my Spanish professor died.

And his parting words?

“Mag quiz na tayo ngay-on, dahil next week, baka wala na ako dito.”

Exactly one week after he said that, he stopped breathing. He suffered stroke in the faculty room, and was rushed to the hospital but was never revived. It was 7:00pm and the line was running flat for an hour.

Professor Obusan’s accent  somehow reminded me of the countryside (not that I have any province), of Batangas, and of dead presidents. From what his stories told us, he could have been eighty, eighty-five, ninety. We never asked. Nevertheless, he had a very sharp memory. We could have pried open his head and discovered fresh pictures of World War II, or the maiden Imelda, or Quirino being sworn in as president. I tried to test this memory by vouching present for my friend, Downybearded who was running late. The old man’s memory was sharper than your shaving blade, and DB was marked absent.

There was a time in AB that an oldly man arrives promptly at 7:30am, walks in the building and opens the door to room 104 — to find four students barely awake, drinking coffee from McDonalds. The old man who fondly calls himself “retiree”, walks to the professor’s table and places his things on top of it, looks at the “class” and says, “Oh, buenas dias! Wala pa baga ang iba ninyong kaklase? Babalik ako ng, ah, 8:30…” and exits again, probably to retreat to the faculty room.

Now however, it seems we will be waiting for 8:30 for a lifetime, and that door will never show that lined face again, whatever the time.

Goodbye, professor Obusan. Your lessons are kept at heart, as are your stories.

Para usted nosotros oramos:

Padre Nuestro, Ave Maria, El Gloria.

Puedele descansa en la paz.

Amen.

Enough of those cliche “beauty pageant wishes” this Christmas season: “World Peace!”. We all know that’s impossible. Heck, the End of the World will be heralded by a ethno-politico-religous war! Today, however, when I ask kids what they want for Christmas, I get answers like “love in the family”, or “Totoong diwa ng Pasko”, or “Peace in Mindanao”! Hang on — backtrack —Peace in Mindanao?! Since when have children been losing their sincerity at such a young age? Mind you these are seven, eight, nine year old kids! At that age, I was wishing for remote control cars, a piano, and a giant crocodile toy for Christmas – and never have I thought of things as noble as peace in Mindanao =.= (Children, this isn’t recitation so you may give not-so-ideal answers, ok?). 

So this time around, for the first time, let’s go realist. My wish list, is thus:

#10. Charter Change. Revise the Philippine Constitution! Particularly that provision providing for the qualification of Philippine president (improve the standard!); also add a parliamentary form of government, and another provision further institutionalizing political parties, oh and make that political parties in a biparty system. Hah.

#9. Clean Water. Pockets of Paranaque have been waterless for decades now (water truck deliveries have become the norm therein), and hopes of being connected to Maynilad pipes have been bleak, until recently when the roads have seen side excavations, hopefully to place water pipes there. 

#8. Cheaper Public Transport Fare. The jeepneys have already reduced their fares, and the student fare now costs P6.00 minimum. That is why FX’s should also bring their minimum down to P10 from P15, and ideally my trip from BF to Manila should cost P30 maybe even P25, not P35. Gasoline and diesel have dropped P22 since the oil crisis of 2008, but FX drivers and operators have refused to come down since. Start ringing the LTFRB.

#7. Paved Roads. With Asphalt. Come on, that shouldn’t be very hard to make, is it, congressman? With sixty million pesos in your Pork Barell, one kilometer of smooth, black road is just like your Ford Expedition, or your Chrysler, or your house bright with Christmas lights on every inch. Oh, there’s a spot you missed… ay, pundi lang pala. I am just tired of running over those road bumps and holes in it, one would think we are really a poor country in the level of Somalia. Somalia! (We do have funds for those roads!). One kilometer lang!

#6. Lollipop Lights. Mayor Lim, please fix those lollipop lights by former Mayor Atienza along Roxas Blvd! I know how hard you are trying to imitate your predecessor in city beautification, but trust me, repair those lollipops and you will revamp your image as a killjoy old man. You overdid yourself in Nagtahan bridge and Baywalk, by the way (ask Mayor Atienza for tips; he is an architect after all).

#5. Refurbish the City Hall. City Hall with a captial “C” and a captial “H”. It is supposed to be the epitome of the Philippines’ local governance, and somehow, it still looks dilapidated in its 73 years of existence. With a few new paint jobs, new tiles, new bathrooms (and probably a new mayor), City Hall will be a beauty once again, a building that would not only resemble a casket (it does from above), but would also symbolize good governance.

#4. Fewer Jeepneys on the Road. Let’s face it: there is a surplus of jeepneys in Metro Manila, and 90% of the time, if not 95% of the time, they are the cause of heavy traffic. If there weren’t a surplus, jeeps wouldn’t be queueing in the middle of the road looking for passengers every hour of the day. It may sound elitist, but I am just being a realist. Jeepneys are the most sluggish man-made machines out there: they are big, long, and slow, and use junk for spare parts. And we are overrun! The Land Transportaion Franchising and Regulatory Board should reduce the number of jeepneys allowed to operate in a week. (Don’t get me wrong, I ride jeeps everyday going to school too).

#3. Higher Tax on Smokes. 40% of smokers live in Asia, much of whom are in China and India. But this should not take away the spotlight on the Filipino addiction: most of Filipino smokers are youth (I am one myself, hehe). What I am saying is that the only way I, or many of my peers (who don’t earn money anyway) will stop smoking is when prices of smokes become extorbitantly high that our allowances would not allow us to buy them. Make smoking a luxury (we can’t afford), that way, buying it would really make people guilty because it would entail spending so much money, and government earns revenues while people live a more healthy life.

#2. More Criminals Put to Jail. And kept there. Seriously. Foreign confidence in the Philippines will never improve if small fries are the ones only ever chucked in prison. Although I acknowledge that Estrada’s granting of pardon did help unify the nation somehow (it erased the EDSA 2 and  ”EDSA 3″ rift), criminals like him should be kept in jail regardless of age, political importance, or political clout. Put ex-COMELEC chair Benjamin Abalos in jail, for example, and watch investor confidence sky rocket in the Philippines.

#1. Cheaper Texting! Who wouldn’t be agreeable to that? (The service providers, I suppose). 70 centavos per text would be nice; I would also like the service providers to eliminate network bias (more expensive text / calls to other networks). I do appreciate however their promos of unlimited texts for 24 hours or whichever denomination/day available, and the lmited unlimited calls at night.

That makes my round of Christmas wishes. They are not idealist because they are attainable. No mushy wishes of world peace or more love or peace in Mindanao! (Not that the latter is impossible, no). It’s just that these are virtually attainable and can be made at an arms reach, in the decision of a few or more of a couple of individuals (Except for number 10).

SO everybody, I hope your wishes come true, I hope mine does in a couple of years, but I’m sure peace in Mindanao will not come in less than 10 years (or more). Merry Christmas!

5:00 PM. It was one of those precious thirty-minute break periods in a twelve-hour stay in school, and, being sleepless, friends and I decided to grab some siomai at Asturias Street just outside the university. Three pieces for tweleve pesos. I gave a twenty peso bill, and received coins for change. “Perfect,” I thought, “yosi and candy for these.” I rushed to buy a menthol candy to extinguish my tongue which was burning from the chilli sauce of the siomai, and then bought menthol smokes, lighting it as we walked out of the place we were eating in.

5:10 PM. “Teka pare gusto ko mag isaw,” Downybearded said, and we walked back to the isaw corner of the street. I didn’t care; I was still enjoying my menthol stick. I watched as Downybearded took one isaw on kebab, while two girl classmates walked past and we exchanged cheeky greetings.

“Yuck, isaw,” said Veronica in a sarcastic tone, parroted by Lourdes who said the same. “Mukhang isaw ilong mo,” I told Lourdes, who replied with “mukhang isaw bibig mo.” Eventually, the two girls bought something quite as disgusting — isaw.

5:15 PM. The guys were all chewing isaw while I enjoyed my stick of menthol, puffing white smoke up into the air. It was almost burned out. Then, a little boy of nine or ten years of age approached us, asking for money. We all refused to give, what with our tight budget spent regularly on photocopies of photocopies of photocopies of study materials. The little boy, with that permanent grin on his face, slightly pestered the girls for money. I quickly turned away to face a different side before he approached me, knowing him as more than just a “little boy of nine or ten years of age”.

The boy turned to me. “Kuya,” he said grinning while gesturing his right hand for alms. “Wala,” I said, because I really had nothing to give. And then, his right hand traveled to where it should never have found itself — down there. Several things happened at once: my brain went into autopilot, my eyes locked its bloodshot glare to a targetted head, as my left hand twitched and my right suddenly found itself colliding with the boy’s grinning face. WHAM! it went.

My menthol stick flew away, missing the boy’s face. “T*ng i*a, wag kang manghihipo, p*ta!” my mouth ejaculated. The grin was gone on the boy’s face, replaced by shock and some humiliation, as he looked at my friends and Downybearded, and quickly walked away. People were staring, and a vendor was heard in apparent approval saying “Hayan kasi!” To let the commotion die down, I walked to the stall beside the isaw one and bought peanuts which I started to chew.

Lourdes was too surprised I could do such a thing, and kept taunting “Mario! Ang puso mo!” Actually, that was just my reflex, and unfortunately, my hands are not the softest, most affectionate hands there are (sometimes I think they are made of hardwood). It was also unfortunate that the same force was exerted whenever I punch my pals in playful fights which is painful according to Downybearded and Flox. And another fact is that the boy has been doing such acts for quite some time now and is being tolerated, until tonight.

Anyway, Lawrence, the brain’s cerebral cortex or frontal lobe did not cave-in, and Teddy, no blood was spilt. Serial toucher yun, maniwala kayo. Err, let’s just hope that he does realize a lot of things from this experience.