on faith...

it's the year of faith and i'm renewing mine. does it matter what one believes? there are many utterances to this question like "religion is not a creed to be believed but a way to live." for me, it matters though. without internal conviction to what you believe, there can be no real faith. "the faith of millions, the credentials of The Catholic Church" is one of the most indispensable books i own. the pages have started turning yellow and falling apart yet all i need to know about my faith is here.

 

foreign aid transparency hub

Folks, I would like to encourage you to regularly visit FAiTH (Foreign Aid Transparency Hub) to check the inflow of pledges and gifts for the typhoon haiyan project. the site also describes the designation of the fund and to whose accountab...ility. the site also gives the public a chance to comment and discuss about the fund. i already posted my first comment. this is a government site. let us make use of this site to voice out our concerns.

on joey ayala's new version of lupang hinirang

i watch avidly TED presentations in north america and this is the first time i learned about TED Diliman if not because of Joey Ayala's presentation. i wouldn't say that he "tampered" the Lupang Hinirang because he did not actually change the melody of the anthem. he did a great job in "CORRECTING" the phrasing of the words to something more intelligible when sung. my late father who is a guitarist and a singer of kundiman was very particular in phrasing and accenting words in a song. i believe this is a very important thing to consider, just like correcting a first draft of an essay or any works that need tweaking for correctness. that is the same thing that Mr. Ayala shared to us. life and society evolves and so is music and song. i believe that changing the word "mamatay" to "magmahal" is not a crime considering the state of our country at present compared to the time when the anthem was conceived. that was the era when filipinos were in the midst of fighting for our country's independence from foreign colonies. thanks joey for creatively pointing out what should have been corrected long time ago.

TED talks are for people who have big and small ideas to share and his presentation is MERELY AN IDEA. there remains no act of trashing the anthem. true to many of us, we have ideas too. the only reason why they are not out there because we are not as brave as mr. ayala. i hope after his presentation, he will, should i say, be compelled more to take this up to the proper government agency. and as you all very well know, there is one constant thing in this world, that is CHANGE and change is something that many of us is struggling to adapt. when new things are thrown to us there is this feeling of the "new" as overtaking our minds and being and thus we resist to shake off the "old". i'm not saying that there is something wrong with the old. i just believe that every chance of transformation is an opportunity to look at what else is there in us. somehow, we have to accept that there will be people out there that can make a change, better change. accept the good change and we will evolve. mr. ayala being on stage with his ideas emphasized the "trying" and that is what everyone must see.

on philippines' emergency relief operations

base on what I have read, it seems that the relief operations are moving in a very slow pace. If I’m not mistaken, there are more foreign military presence in the rescue operations than that from our own government. I may be wrong and I’m not writing this to add to the bashing to the president’s governance, the government itself, senators and other officials but to share what I think are the weak points in the rescue operations and the infrastructure plans especially to natural disaster inflicted regions that should have been done eons ago. On the aftermath of the storm it was already determined that the roads are unpassable therefore what could have been decided at once for alternative measures are by air and sea. Helicopters could drop food supplies and if there is not enough air transport, the government could have requested use of private helicopters from private organizations. Survivors in Ormoc, Tacloban, Leyte, Samar have already lost their houses so at the moment they have nothing to look forward to there which means these survivors must be relocated to a region where all the operations and logistics could be very well performed. It is a huge struggle to disperse medical teams, distribute relief aids, and much more to strategize channels of communication if the survivors are randomly scattered in various areas. These isolated clusters of survivors must be all gathered in or relocated to perhaps in Cebu or Davao. Before the calamity, Yolanda’s coming was already announced so it has been expected that the local government and jurisdictions, to name Department of Health and Department of Social Work, started planning on emergency preparedness, preservation, relief and recovery plans, have assessed susceptibility and determine risks involved and alternative plans. As well, the same plans should be also implemented by local communities of various regions. I trust that all these have been done before the onslaught, but looking at how these are being done, I am starting to doubt that the disaster planning and strategy measures had infact ensued.

according to typhoon statistics, Philippines gets 20 cyclones in a year. I was only 5 years old when Yuling and Sening made a landfall and caused havoc to our country. Forty three years passed since my first experience of Yuling and still our country remains groping in the dark on evacuation centre management. Have there been funds allocated for capital projects like building evacuation shelters not only for flood but also for other disasters like earthquake, equipped with necessities like toilets and water tanks? The answer, I believe, is explicit by the way the past and current calamities are handled and from the stories, photos and dissatisfied comments of Filipinos nationwide. There must be a huge and significant overhaul to be done in order to strengthen the capacity of our government’s response for the sake of its countrymen especially in times of natural disasters. It is certainly is high time for Philippines to experience a momentous change.

photo courtesy of newsinfo.inquirer.net

diverting energy to helping. . . .

slowly, in my mind, all that is happening back home on how the relief and rescue operations are beginning to give light. there will always be two sides of the story and it is a must for us that we hear both sides for reasons that are up to ...you to decide. it looks so bad and grim, but eventually things will move on and the survivors will be given the necessary help they needed. just like one art...icle i read, which is also true to life, "things get worse before they get better". i've been doing some reading around as well on how other countries fared well on their calamity operations and found out that haiti and india and other countries had the same problems in logistics and implementation. we carry a variety of sentiments towards our government and its jurisdictions and the system itself. we have all the right to rant and rage. i read peque gallaga's sentiments and that of Marvin Xanth Geronimo from Tacloban, the spat between korina sanchez and andrew cooper, and Karl Gaspar's status who mentioned that somehow their operation in their compound in tacloban are operating smoothly. i read rappler, interaksiyon and other media that i think give responsible and unbiased reportings. most of all, i read john crowley's write up "stop catastrophizing relief effors in the philippines" which explains how "scaremongering" is undermining delivery of supplies. i suggest that you read this one to somehow take you to the other side of the story. i, too, shared my own rant and rage and that is all i could do. but it is very exhausting. it is very tiresome to read all the bashings, the anger and all the pessimisms around. more so, it is so exhausting to write the disappointments i have and have now decided to divert my energy to helping.


Read "Stop Catastrophizing Relief Efforts in the Philippines" | TIME.com ideas.time.com

what's burning in your candles?

mine is a prayer for my departed loved ones. - - - - dear God who is ever compassionate and generous with your gifts, look down upon the suffering souls in purgatory. i am praying that you purify them of their sins and fulfill their fervent desires that they may be made worthy to observe you in your glory. may they be united with you and hear those blessed words which will take them to their heavenly home. let perpetual light shine upon them and may our departed loved ones, my father, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin and departed family members of my friends and extended families, rest in peace. amen - - -

 

para sa Lideratong Bumababoy sa Pilipinas

Isinisiksik pa rin ang mga ganid na sarili 
Sa luklukang hindi akma sa inyong kaluluwang ulikba
Ipinaglalantaran ang animo’y banal na hangarin
Sa mata ng inaakalang mangmang na mamamayan

Sala-salabat na katuwiran ang hindi na maituwid
ng bulaang dila at ganid na tangka
maraming buhay na ang nabinbin at tinalangka
dahil sa malaon ng panahon ng taggutom at dusa

sapat na ang pagpapakasasa sa maringal na piging 
ang ganid na pangungulimbat at balighong pamumuno 
handa na ang sibat na titistis sa makapat niyong laman
at tutuhog sa katawang mapangubkob sa buhay ng aba.

On Devina DeDiva’s Racial Slur: Let Us All Calm Down

You all must have already heard. The derogatory and disparaging comments of Devina DeDiva against Megan Young and the Filipino race caused rage and annoyance to many. Her thoughts and words were hateful beyond imagination. I am not a huge fan of beauty pageants but knowing that another Filipina garnered the crown makes me truly proud of my native roots. I was on the bus on my way to work when I read about Ms. Devida’s ill and racist thoughts. I felt what I need to feel. Unpleasant emotions started to brew up inside me. And like everyone else I was shocked, disgusted and most of all offended. I wanted to rant at that very minute but I couldn’t. I was on a public transit.

Ms. DeDiva’s photos, at a glance, can be inferred to as a seriously disturbed person. We can perhaps swiftly conclude as well that her childhood life might have been inflicted by a host of negative events which haunt her to this day. But we cannot instantaneously assess a person’s character through photos and through words posted on Facebook. I believe that we, as well, do not want to be judged or assessed the same way, right? The thought I have about her is that, one, she is what she is, she believes what she believes and she wants to say what she wants to say. Second, Ms. DeDiva has her own interpretation of freedom of speech and she’s acting out on her own context. At this point, nothing and no one can change her views and perspectives at a flick of a finger. Perhaps the flurry of attention she gets at this point pleases her. She may be one of the people who crave for social attention and that was her way of getting one.

I write this with a very composed and objective mind and I write this neither to attack Ms. DeDiva nor take her side nor to express my rage, but because most of the comments I read were, in a way, disconcerting too. I very well understand the theory of cause and effect. Hostile words are hurtful hence anger. As human beings, we were normally taken to that effect and because anger tends to cloud the reasonable processes of the mind, people become disposed to express views without thinking about it judiciously. The kind of dialogue and comments that are currently being thrown to Ms. DeDiva, in my opinion and with such certainty can cause more hate and divide and can result into more mouths foaming, cursing. It also encourages more to build an environment conducive to the spread of ill and racist views.

Let us calm down.

We have to learn how to calm down. While Ms. DeDiva currently basks with the attention she wanted, everyone else suffer from physiological distress caused by her racial slur. We subject ourselves more to become her victim instead of freeing our minds of it. Love begets love. Hate begets hate. We are under her abusive behaviour and we are accepting the abuse by being abusive as well by way of exchanging views in a hateful manner. Kill the spite with kindness. If we want light, let us spread light. If we want goodness, let us encourage goodness. This seems to be a tough thing to do especially amidst hurt. I always believe though, that no matter how displeasing a person is in her words and actions, still that person should be helped and offered some healing and rehabilitation. Let us not punish and instead do our best to instil love with the kind of love that our one true God has taught us. Here is something from Adele Horin’s word of Sydney Morning Herald which we can ponder upon. “One person challenging a racist comment in a calm and measured way in a train, bus, at a party, at work can have a profound influence on all those who witness it.“ -30-

realuyo's "umbrella city"

bino realuyo is a fil-am novelist, poet, community organizer & adult educator. just one of the people i admire for his works and ideologies. i read his "umbrella city" in a breeze. bino narrated the teeming world of 1970s Manila brilliantly to life without being overly dramatic and sentimental. a light but a great read!


 

walk to work

back to my summer regimen! after dropping girls to camp i start my 2 km trek to work by foot with my sensible shoes of course! i do it for many reasons, one of which is to get to see what's in those short and long renaissance stretches of roads in toronto which i couldn't see when i'm on a bus or subway. there is so much to see out there like the unusual facade of buildings, eateries and shops which munchkins and i haven't visited yet, gardens which have bloomed or yet to bloom and the best perk is to see the walk about of cute dogs with their owners. the first random observation is enough to keep my thoughts awake which works perfectly hand in hand with a brisk morning. the second wave is for ideas to come in and to sense whether or not those can alter my perspectives. third wave is to simply make most of the walk and feel the cool morning air. Keeps me fit…. mind and body! peace and giggles everyone!

gratitude for being 48...

today is the day to give due respect and gratitude for gifts brought by the passage of time. let this 48th birthday be an honour of who i am, of my growth, of my flaws, of the decisions i made. my heart goes to the hearts that made my life richer and fuller, that shaped me in many ways more than i realize, that helped me see the beauty of living in everyday blessing, that made me known that my humble words are caring. my deeds inspiring. and foremost, my heart goes to the heart of God for his calm direction and safe correction.

i am celebrating and at the same time. . . . giving.     190413

moyes' me before you

the story brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, what do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart? they had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose. the story is deceptively simple at heart. have a read!

the pitter patter of freezing rain. . .

the pitter patter of freezing rain nudged me off my bed this gloomy wednesday morning. i listened to it and, for a minute, i found the sound pleasing, the next it spells grief. but that unpleasant feeling was drowned by the many younger days i’ve enjoyed being outside in the rain, although today, it’s a different kind of rain. the continuous patter was a cue to animate myself as usual. and though sloppy, cold and damp, i gather that the day will stay blessed with today so close to the weekend. i thought of my last weekend which could’ve wrapped up nicely had there been no migraine and when all my bodily functions worked as it should! munchkins were totally bummed out to see me in pjs during the hours i should be taking them out for a swim as promised. fed them though with comfort food, watched some funny flicks and snuggled lots! i anticipated tasks fulfilled this week but my monday ended up, the second time, in the cardiac care. i was out though in time to be with my mom and girls for dinner. is there anything i need to change for the rest of the week in terms of the way i see life’s significance or approach? i guess i just need to see how it goes and where it flows. no musts for complicated strategies. i will just embrace, accept, create and believe. to my fellow torontonians out there. . . stay dry, don’t slip and enjoy catching snowflakes on your tongue!