Tuesday, May 5

On self reliance

Message 1: Kit, may sked ka na para sa enrollment? (Do you have the schedule for the enrollment?)

Message 2: Pila na da simo ya class card? (How many class cards have you kept with you?)

Message 3: Simpon kuha class card simo? (Would we get our class cards all together from you?)

Message 4: Ara na ya mga class card? (Are the class cards there?)

Message 5: Ano requirements mag-transfer? (What are the requirements of transferring/)

For chrissake, tigilan ninyo ako.

I had been trained (luckily) to be self reliant, from our home, to my grade school, to my secondary years. I was trained not to rely on anyone. I was urged to use my instinct, my initiative, my own will in making my decisions, and to move by myself. Up to now, my training continues. Since I am living far from home (about 80 kilometers), I learned that reliance on people for your food, housing, assignments, projects, requirements, do not work well in my system. So I end up being relied upon to (ginasaligan in Hiligaynon). Which I totally don’t dig.

Due to the unfortunate scandal (if what others call it) involving our curriculum internal officers, there was a complete re shuffling of the first year classroom officers. And, as the tide turned, I was elected as chairperson of our section. Pak.

Well, I clearly do not want to be THE chairperson. But since, parang walang direction sa buhay ang mga tao sa section namin, I decided, what the heck, sige na lang.

Now, I feel that there is nothing that I can do for them. *Waving a white flag.

Some are just too superficial. To the point that you have really shallow arguments every single time! Ay naku, nakakasakit sa ulo.

Some, well, super negators. Mga re-incarnation ata ni Che Guevarra at Mussolini. Putok ang fuse box mo pag sila ang katapat mo.

Some are the local versions of Moymoy Palaboy. From the name itself, ‘Moymoy’, baw, daw moymoy gid man sa kilid. They don’t even know how to process their clearances for putridsake. They don’t even know how to get forms, talk to the professors, everything.

But in general, most are lacking of self-reliance. Super wala.

Maybe it was also my fault. I always say, okay, I never deny a request.

Or is it the training?

That’s why I have texted them all, group message in SMS this:

1D, good morning. Due to the messages I had received, I will give you all an advice. Self-reliance is the key to success in college. Please, do your transactions for the enrollment and get your class cards from our respective professors. Please see for yourself the enrollment schedule and flow. I do not know the schedule and what-to-do because I am not the registrar. I am not your keeper. Learn to work individually. Madamo nga salamat.

That message was sent in three parts.

I know it is my responsibility to inform them, but they don’t need to squeeze the information out of me. I have told them earlier on that I do not live in the university and that I will just inform them of the schedules and dates if I can see and IF I know the date. If they are so impatient then why don’t they see for themselves if there is a post on the bulletin board? Now that is using some brains. Instead of wasting load on texting me, ‘Te, when ang enrollment ta?’, why don’t they just go here.

They would say, ‘Magasto sa plite, kanugon lang.’ (Fare is costly, it’ll be such a waste.). Well excuse me, you are a student at a university, therefore, it is your PERSONAL obligation to transact PERSONALLY your PERSONAL needs in terms of PERSONAL matters AND this includes ENROLLMENT. Besides, I go back to school PERSONALLY to know the 5 W’s. I do not text someone na, ‘Hoy, ya class cards ta ara na?’ (Hey, are our class cards there?). I go to school. I rely on myself.

People here are just simply childish, immature, and insufficiently equipped.

Kulang sa training at kulang nang concept of self-reliance.

As the saying goes. You can never teach people to rely on themselves. They’ll just have to wake up one day and realize that.

I hope that day comes. /KP

Monday, May 4

So What

12:49 pm

May 03, 2009

Msg 1 from Arbiz*: Daug si Pacquiao asta lang round 2 (Pacquiao won, it lasted only ‘till two rounds).

Msg 2 from Erraine*: Nanu man. Daw agi si Hatton. Eww. (What the hell, Hatton seems to be gay. Eww).

Msg 3 from Bisay*: Go Filipinos! Pinoy talo ang Britons. (Filipinos defeated the Brits).

*names of the senders are modified. Some contents are also modified since the writer erased the messages after he has received it. But it is somewhat close.

So what if Pacquiao won over Hatton?

So what if Mr. Manny won another suitcase (probably two suitcases) full of money?

So what if his mom is in the United States when he was fighting?

So what if Gloria did not watch the fight?

So what if Martin sang the National Anthem? (By the way,Mr. Nievera is a great singer.)

So what if Mayweather Sr. insulted Pacquiao?

So what if there are live telecasts everywhere in the country?

So what if Pacquiao won over Hatton?

So what?

Ladies and gentlemen we Filipinos are united this time, every time, Sir Manny is in a match. United for petty entertainment and petty gambling. For a few minutes (his match doesn’t usually exceed an hour) we stop everything, we wait, we watch what we call ‘the fight of Filipino pride’. I am not against Sir Manny, neither against the sport. I am against the die hard, dying, deceased, and almost 50-50 fans of this addicting entertainment.

It seems to fascinate me that most Filipinos agree to stop their jobs, turn off their computers, turn off their faucets, and stop watching the other television in the other room for a few minutes in order to watch him punch a foreigner. When well in fact, few did help commemorate the cause for earth Day (which for me is more important than a fight of one person).

I wonder why Manny binds the Filipino closer and more intimate. Maybe that’s why he ran for congressman last election for he thought he could unite a congressional district. He may unite the nation for a good ten minutes when he’s inside the ring but he could never unite General Santos City for four years, the people surely knew that. That’s why he did not win.

I am not blaming Mr. Pacman for being a great athlete, I am blaming the Filipinos who have been obsessed by this no-cause games. To wit, my father just forgot his work and just laid up on the couch to watch Manny. I mean, tatay usually isn’t the type of person who stops work for petty things, but this time, he did. Maybe what Manny does is not a petty thing. He stops a country’s market economy!

What’s wrong about the picture is that the Filipino people don’t clearly see ‘what to see’ and ‘what to observe’. We don’t observe earth day, Earth Week, EDSA Commemoration, the triumph of a cultural performing group abroad, the research of a UP professor, the natural habitats of rare species and the invention of a Filipino. But we observe the so-called ‘racist’ (as we culturally egotistic Filipinos tag it) scripts and lines of tv sitcoms in the US, the inhumane boxing matches, the dirty impetuous statements of politicians, the every dirty politics of our country, the superstars and their star spelunk life, and the what we call ‘trouble with the minority’.

We don’t even realize the even bigger problem that faces us. Instead we turn to petty quarrels, petty suicidal attempts of people who are clearly not in capacity to help our country and ourselves, and stupid pun jokes on shows. We lack the sense of realization. We don’t realize that the problems we see are much, much shallow compared to the world is facing (and what we should also face). Parang wala lang A H1N1 sa mundo kaninang umaga.

We are bothered about the scripts of some sitcom. Its just pun joke ladies and gentlemen. They put it there to give justice to what the character is. Then if you put some unwanted meaning to it then, people would see it on your side and there comes the endless argument of the non-existing racism.

We are packing up boxing matches and abandoning arnis de mano bouts. We are queuing for concerts of Akon, Rhianna, and Secondhand Serenade, when we forgot Joey Ayala, Pinikpikan, and other traditional artists. We seek thrills in the roller coasters; we forgot the games of our country. We ogle reading Harry Potter’s adventures and watch Lily Moscovich’s show, when we threw away the collections of poems in Karay-a, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Iklocano, and Bikolano. We moved with hip-hop, crumping, and jazz, when we stepped over ethnic, traditional, and rural dances.

We flock to malls, instead of museums and art galleries. Very sad.

We lost ourselves to modernism.

To another culture.

You say that the problem is the government, well, think again. Look in yourself if you had done those things, and ask yourself,

Did I even bother to think before I watched?

Did I even bother to think before I reacted?

Did I even bother to think before I do some things?

Did I even bother to think before I flicked the switch from news to buzz?

Did I even bother to think before I judged my fellow Filipinos?

Did I even bother to think before I threw another stone at the government?

Did I even bother to think before?

Did I even bother to think?

Did I even bother?

Did I?

Think Filipinos think.

*and think before reacting to this post. This is just one commentary. Mostly personal, none political. Thank you.

Warning for Math


Indeed the mind is beautiful. Math can do wonders and make your brain bend more on the psychological side.

Thanks to Nang Adel for letting me borrow her cd. /KP