HUNGRY FOR WHAT REALLY?

Values Education: Corruption in Education

Early this week I was blown away by the news that the Food for School program of the DepEd purchased a pack of noodles for Php18 last year and would be distributing improved packs next year at a staggering Php54 per pack of noodles. Whoa! There are much better instant noodles in the market and more nutritious at that. This is blatant corruption, so well in good that some Senators are now investigating this uneducated blunder. Unfortunately, the DepEd is very myopic when they came up with this program. Indeed poor health and malnutrition contribute to poor school performance. However, in Philippine education there are far more devastating reasons why students fare poorly in school and it is not primarily because of malnutrition. When the government allocated Php500 million for the program, it was all for good intentions, but unfortunately the department is one of the most corrupt in the country. I can just imagine how many pesos were wasted and stolen for a program that did not serve any purpose at all.

For learning to take place, three things are considered: the learner, the teacher and the instruction. Students arrive in school for formal education bringing with them unstructured learning only. This may include first hand experiences while growing up and exploring the surrounding and those taught by adults other than a school teacher. The importance of the teacher cannot be underestimated. The most important factor for better learning in fact is the teacher. It is nice to remember that one cannot give what one does not have. If the teacher does not know the content of the subject matter, then there will be nothing to teach. Of course, the teacher must also be well-equipped with the tools of the trade – instruction. He must have been trained and equipped with the various fundamental teaching strategies. All these three must come into a complex interplay to make learning successful and produce educated students.

The Food for School program addresses the students. A lot of school age children in the country are, sadly, malnourished. Studies conducted here and abroad have proven how adverse the effect of malnutrition is in knowledge acquisition. The poorer the health status of the learner, the poorer is his academic performance. This is the fact that pushes the DepEd to launch the program. How was the program implemented? To my knowledge, last year, the first graders were given two kilos of rice. I don’t know if all the elementary schools nationwide did something else than just distribute rice. Obviously, a couple kilos of carbohydrates cannot change the nutritional status of the child. This is thinking the first grader child alone consumed every grain of the two kilo rice which I think is impossible to happen. Most of these children have brothers and sisters too that need to be fed. The DepEd does not even know whether the rice was really cooked or was even sold to buy something else. Was there any follow up done? Was the program of distributing rice continued?

If besides the distribution of rice the department also distributed packs of instant noodles, then this is good news only, not better. According to one of the Senators investigating the anomalous noodles, each pack “contains fresh egg”. How can it contain fresh egg when it is packed? Should the label be “enriched with egg” not the former one? However, a fresh egg costs only Php5 at the most, so the good senator was surprised why each pack of instant noodles costs the government Php18 when the same costs only about Php10 in the market. For next year, the department has awarded the same project to the same bidder but this time each pack will cost Php54 already. According to some foolish DepEd officials, each pack costs more because the noodles do not need boiling anymore. The students just have to pour hot water and wallah! There is the cup of hot noodles like magic. How pathetic! First, the rice and now enriched noodles. Both are carbohydrates and Filipino children have never been lacking of carbohydrates. What they need are essential amino acids – protein, protein and protein. Well, the egg might have been the answer.

The Department of Education, however, does not see the bigger picture. The students are not primarily the problem. The problem lies on the teachers and instruction. There are just so many teachers, who are actually teaching, that are not at all competent. In order for a teacher to be competent, one must be good in both instruction and evaluation. Sadly, because most teachers do not know how to teach, they are afraid to fail students lest parents will complain. Most incompetent teachers do not know how to evaluate learning. They just pass students even if the latter are not really able to master the competences that prepare them to the next higher level. There is also the problem of overcrowding. How can a teacher teach well if he has 60 to 70 students to contend with inside a classroom that can only accommodate 45 students maximum? Another problem is the lack of textbooks. The student to textbook ratio is not one to one. How will a student study for his lessons? No wonder when they get to high school, they do not even have a trace amount of study habit? There are more pressing problems in the department and the students are not the major ones. Should the DepEd officials be eating too the fortified noodles to make them more intelligent decision makers?

BAD JOB FOR A BLOWER

Getting Even: Selective Justice

Rodolfo Lozada Jr. can surely afford to post the minimal bail bond needed in a criminal case filed against him. But Lozada’s refusal to post bail drives home one point: there are many individuals who should be behind bars or at least on trial in connection with the broadband network deal between the government and China’s ZTE Corp. So who gets a warrant of arrest first? The whistle-blower.

Lozada was arrested yesterday on orders of the Manila Regional Trial Court. The warrant stems from a perjury case filed by Michael Defensor, President Arroyo’s former chief of staff, who was implicated by Lozada in what he described as an effort to stop him from testifying before the Senate on the ZTE deal.

The fate of the other players in that incident explains Lozada’s refusal to post bail. The Malacañang official directly implicated in the effort to keep Lozada quiet, Manuel Gaite, has been promoted from deputy executive secretary to commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing an official at the heart of the Legacy Group scandal. The security escorts who “greeted” Lozada upon his arrival at the NAIA from Hong Kong have disappeared, their reported ties to the Presidential Security Group swept under the rug. Other officials mentioned by Lozada in the attempt to keep him away from the Senate are still with the government.

Beyond that incident upon his arrival, which Lozada suspected was a kidnapping attempt or worse, no one has been prosecuted in connection with the ZTE broadband scandal. Benjamin Abalos, though forced to quit shortly before the end of his tenure as chairman of the Commission on Elections, is enjoying his retirement. Leandro Mendoza, who signed the deal with ZTE executives in Boao, China in the presence of President Arroyo, still has his job. And Romulo Neri, the former director general of the National Economic and Development Authority who initially disclosed a P200-million bribe allegedly offered by Abalos, now manages billions of pesos of the private sector’s pension fund after he invoked executive privilege and learned to keep his mouth shut. Only one man is being punished in connection with a $329-million deal that the government was forced to scrap: Rodolfo Lozada Jr. Michael Defensor is well within his right to want to clear his name, but Lozada’s prosecution is rubbing salt on a festering wound. It is a good example of the selective justice that has come to be associated with this administration.

WET SUMMER, DAMP WEATHER

Nature Fights Back - The Rain

When I was still a child, we lived in a two-storey Spanish inspired house. It had a long wooden staircase that ended up in the second floor landing which also served as a receiving room. It had cabinets full of books, which I do not know where now. The receiving area conveyed visitors to the main living room which was very spacious. It was in this room where I spent most of my childhood days whenever I was not allowed to go down and meet with friends. I remembered running and jumping in the room because its sheer size allowed even all us seven cousins there. This was the ancestral house and my cousins who lived nearby always visited me to play hide and seek upstairs. There were so many rooms with a lot of nooks and crannies that swallowed us up. The second floor was every young child’s enormous playroom. On one side of the living room were windows facing the road and the sea beyond. These were Spanish windows with panes made of capiz shells. I toyed with the panes because they could be slid to and fro. Whenever my Lola saw me doing this, she always got angry. The room and the windows were very memorable for me.

During the monsoon season, which is from June to September, it always rains so hard. Because we lived by the sea, the house got to be buffeted with too much wind, seawater and sand besides the rain. What I remembered vividly well was that whenever there was bad weather then, I just stayed inside the house and played with the rain by the window panes. The rain holds special fascination to me even until now. I always love the rain. When I went to school then and it rained so hard without me bringing any rain gear at all, I just pried a big banana leaf and used it to keep me from being wet. I enjoyed being in the rain to my mother’s utter displeasure. So whenever it rains today, it brings back fun childhood memories. I don’t live in a two-storey house anymore and my sea view is already blocked with a massive two-storey Dutch house. I do not miss the wind, the sand and the sea. Although I still miss the window panes, the rain is more than enough to compensate for my childhood longing of that certain pleasure only a child knows by heart.

It’s still April and it is still summer suppose to be; however, the rain has made its presence felt a lot earlier. Could this be the end of summer? I don’t care. I love the sun but I more than love the rain. Today, I can appreciate so much the rain not only because of the happy childhood memories that come rushing in my mind but more of its practical benefits to man and the environment. Because it is summer and it is too hot, the rain is definitely a welcome respite. Any late afternoon rain that continues until the wee hours of the morning brings a restful night sleep sans the air conditioning system. The Bermuda grass and other flowering plants cannot help but turn yellow to brown during summer. They get sun burned too. They need plenty of watering, but water during this time is a precious commodity. Watering plants is not wasting water. It is not just the priority however. My hometown earns the distinction of being the “Vegetable Basket” of the region. Ours is basically an agricultural community and this is how we earn our keep. Rain and lots of rain is what we need to sustain high value crop production. Thus, rain to me today goes more than just happy childhood memories.

What brought the rain, however, a lot earlier? The weather bureau said that it’s the convergence of different weather systems that made us wetter a month earlier. Experts also have been very vocal about erratic climate change and unpredictable weather changes to be due to global warming. Global warming in return is caused basically by how much we pollute the planet. I am not complaining about the rain. Its coming though is a lot earlier and this must make all of us rethink of how responsible we are for this phenomenon. Do we still have to wait until we drown in a deluge of rain to stop destroying nature and the environment? For sure I will not be thinking of fun childhood memories by that time when I am holding on to dear life because I am drowning in my own foolishness and everyone else’s. It's a hard time ahead.

RAPING NATURE, RIPPING THE FUTURE

Of Mutant Flies, Killer Pigs & Deadly Birds

The world when it is first created is all too beautiful. Wherever man looks are evidences of its pristine beauty. The surrounding is green, and the rivers, the seas and the oceans are sparkling bodies of water. The air is clean. Because of these nature grows in abundance. Plants teeming with fruits provide man with readily available food supply. Crops flourish untamed which provide food to animals. Wherever one toils the land and explores the sea, there is food anywhere. People are healthy although diseases are never unheard of. However, sickness is always attributed to unclean spirit. It is associated with sin. Nobody can think of illnesses as caused by nature, by animal vectors and even by plants. This is because the world seems too beautiful to be responsible of such a problem. However today, man knows better than this.

We all know today that diseases are never caused by unclean spirits or of sins. Some primitive cultures, however, still holds the same belief today. That is why to this group of people diseases are always approached in mystical manner and are treated in less than medical ways. Mortality and morbidity are still high. Modern societies believe otherwise. Diseases are caused by pathogens. These can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, etc. Illnesses may also be of non-pathogenic origin. They can be dietary and traumatic too. These latter two are treated primarily with behavioral modification – change diet and be careful. Diseases of pathogenic origin pose a greater problem though. They are treated primarily using medicines that work against the identified pathogen. Being living though, these pathogens continue to mutate just as man continues his unrelenting search for longer and better life.

In man’s continued search for longevity and progress, he forgets to take good care of nature which was once so beautiful. He never realizes that it is nature that holds one of the keys to a much longer and better life. The human race forgets all and starts destroying the pristine beauty of the surroundings. People started manipulating organisms in the name of scientific pursuit. We are no longer eating foods that are fresh from the farm or from the sea. We are now eating processed foods, and worse, chemically treated stuffs that are both harmful to the body and to the environment. In the name of progress, we started cutting down trees to provide habitable lands to our rapidly growing population. This has displaced so many wild and exotic animals that once thrive peacefully among themselves, untouched by man and his so-called modern civilization. Sadly, we have changed the world, and more sadly, for the worse.

Because of rapid changes in the environment, our behavior and how we interact with our surrounding, this has changed so much the evolution of diseases. Before diseases of pathogenic origin could easily be diagnosed based on patient presentation and his signs and symptoms; today it is very different. There are diseases with overlapping signs and symptoms and there are also diseases of unknown pathogenic origin. This early part of the century sees the emergence of quite perplexing diseases and exotic pathogens seldom heard of last century. AIDS was the scare of the last century. There was only one. Today, every year there seems to be a new disease with a very long name and an equally tongue twisting pathogenic origin – Ebola reston virus causing massive internal bleeds, SARS and the bird flu caused by the avian flu virus and the most recent swine flu caused by another virus yet to be identified. These are the newer diseases of pathogenic origin which may be caused by man’s continued exploitation of his environment.

Where have all these viruses come from? Obviously, as their names tell us, they are not of human origin. Their vectors clearly are not humans first – monkeys, birds and pigs. However, why are they causing the human race now and the world so much trouble? They have mutated. They cause no harm in their original hosts. Because man is never their primary host, these viruses to man are harmful. We are not meant to be their hosts. How come they have been unleashed to the world of man? Why have they not stayed with the monkeys, the birds and the pigs? Simply, it is because man has disturbed them. We started clearing the forests and the monkeys moved closer to us. We disturbed the peace migratory birds enjoyed along their long distance sojourn for winter. We started feeding pigs with whatever science has formulated and started devouring pork grown from drastic maintenance cost cuts. In pursuit of better life, we have made our lives worse.

The moral of all these sad scenarios of people dying of diseases never heard of before is simple and straight forward. We need to bring back clean surroundings again. We have to approximate back nature as it was originally created. This is a big problem. Environmental damage and pollution have become a global concern. Countries have come to good measures on how to stop the continued destruction of Earth – the only home we ever got to live on. Each of us too has to do our own little things of further harming the environment. Recycle whatever can be recycled. Save water because supply is dwindling. Go green and hybrid. Walk instead of ride. Raw instead of fried. There are so many that we can do to help. Unless we do our share, nature will continue to strike back. I don’t want to hear next year of a canine flu virus and die as a result because my poor pet dog thinks of me as just another viral host.

NEVER A SHOOTER NOR A DRIBBLER

Cops Who Can't Shoot

Nearly 90 percent of the 125,000 members of the Philippine National Police failed a firearms proficiency test, according to the National Police Commission. That story would be laughable if it did not have dire consequences for law enforcement. Cops who can’t shoot straight lose out to crooks who can. Cops who can’t shoot straight end up shooting dead both hostage taker and the hostage. Cops who can’t hit their targets end up hitting innocent civilians instead, as in the case of the policemen who shot and killed an overseas Filipino worker on vacation in Manila together with his daughter. Father and daughter had the misfortune of getting in the way of a running gun battle between cops and a gang of suspected criminals in southern Metro Manila. Those cops, who were legitimately pursuing suspected crooks, would have been spared from an ongoing investigation and their possible expulsion from the police force if they could use their firearms properly.

The reason for the poor proficiency in marksmanship in most cases is not due to stupidity or fear of guns, but logistical problems. The starting pay of cops is barely above the minimum wage, and studies have shown that there are PNP members living below the poverty line. Cops can practice marksmanship only if they have the ammunition for it. But the PNP ammo allocation per cop is sufficient chiefly for use when needed. Those who want to improve their shooting skills can do so only if they obtain their own ammunition. And bullets – even reloads – do not come cheap.PNP members who serve as politicians’ aides or bodyguards are usually the ones who manage to practice their marksmanship regularly. As informal members of virtual private armies, their skills are on tap not for the general public but for their political patrons. Other PNP members must make do with what they have, until the government decides to invest in upgrading the skills and equipment of law enforcers.

This is very sad. The fact that any civilized society has at least a crime committed, cops are imperative for its progress. However, if the PNP cannot provide marksmanship training and adequate bullets, what can we expect of our cops? They would be inefficient in their jobs and this inefficiency goes into a bad downtrend cycle. The top guns translate this inefficiency into bad performance rating. Unfortunately, it is only after a good performance rating that one goes up the salary rating scale. Some cops live in the poverty line and when their salary is not more than enough, we can expect these men in uniform to moonlight and even do the contrary. How many cops have we heard that were involved in criminal activities? There have been a lot and I think a lot will still be coming unless the government and PNP have to think faster of the reforms to be made. How many kutong cops have we heard too? There have been so many also. Why are these cops pushed to do something opposite of what they are supposed to do?

To be fair, there are still good cops out there. They are not only good in shooting targets, they have even risked lives to respond to calls of duty. How many cops have we heard being killed or hurt while responding to these calls? Although, there have only been a few, still life has been gallantly put at stake. How many families have we heard crying because they have lost their fathers in a crossfire which is more often dubbed by human right advocates as mere rubouts not ligitimate shootouts? Why are people so noisy when alleged criminals are shoot dead and do not even give a heck when good cops are mercilessly killed by these criminals? Have we grown so tired of the corruption that besieged our own police system? Questions, questions, questions. Unfortunately, there are no clear answers around the bend yet. Ours is as bad an eye sight as those nearly 90 perecent cops who failed in the firearms proficiency test. But at least I'm a shooter, never a dribbler. Huh!

THREE PERSONS, THREE LADIES, THREE SMILES

Little Acts of Kindness Made My Day

They say it is not the big bite that hurts most. It is the smaller ones. They say also that big things come in small packages. Because of what happened today, I would add that small acts of kindness matters as much as the big ones. For several days now, I have asked people to buy me recordable DVDs, DVD+R more specifically. My father brought me DVD-R, so I was not able to use it. My DVD writer is so specific of the type of disk it burns. It only accepts DVD+RW and -RW besides +R. I asked my sister to buy for me, but the salesperson tricked her into believing that DVD+R DL would do much better than +R. I hope the salesperson was only bluffing to close a sale, not that he indeed did not know what he was talking about. Unfortunately, small shops do not know the difference and insist that all DVD writers burn every kind. I needed to transfer some large files to save me precious memories in the hard disk. I did not have any other option, but to buy the disks myself. I went then to the local department store closest to my place. It was still an hour's travel; however, I badly needed the disks.

I left at about 9:30 a.m. so I arrived quite early, at around 10:30 a.m. There were only a few people upstairs where the electronic supplies were located. Since it was still early, I ventured nearer the earthenware and decided to buy my mom ceramic soup bowls. We already had some but they were not microwaveable. I looked around and had difficulty deciding which to buy. There were too many colors and shapes besides the usual round off-white bowls. I left the display and proceeded to buy the DVD disks. I got closer to the shelf and the saleslady saw me right away. She asked me what I needed and politely started a comparison of the different recordable DVDs available. She was knowledgeable of what she was talking. She even went to the extent of recommending to me the better brands. I believed her not because she was kind enough to point them to me, but because I really knew which worked better than the others. I bought all 11 that were available of the brand I liked and she gave me the case for free. I was so happy with what she did and thanked her for the effort she extended to me.

After I paid, I went to the home furnishing section and looked for some curtains to go with what we already had in the dining area. My mom wanted brightly colored drapes with circular patterns to break the drabness of lacy whites that were already hanging there. I found some; however, I seldom open sealed products not unless a salesperson is available for permission. As I was curiously examining some of the curtains, a saleslady approached me and gamely added that she would open the sealed plastic bags for me to be able to appreciate more the length and style. I did not know that there were several ways of fastening a curtain. She offered to get some more samples, but I told her I was not very sure of the way the curtains would be fastened. I was not so familiar with the style. Instead of leaving me, she further offered to show me how it would be fixed to the curtain rod. She already knew I did not have the intention of buying anything anymore, but the effort she extended to me, again, made me so happy. I thanked her for everything and she responded with a nice smile.

I went back to the soup bowl display and after quite sometime decided on the squarish purple bowl with a grainy black finish. I was intrigued by the contemporary design. I intended to pair them with some yellow plates I saw, but I would buy the plates later next month. My mom was complaining too that we have to get a new casserole, so I bought a stainless 20cm one. As I was lining up at the cashier's, a problem ensued when the cashier inadvertently scanned another bar code for some coffee mugs of a customer ahead of me. A saleslady offered to bring my items to another cashier. She went to two but decided that we had to look for one with only a few customers in line. We found one by the sporting goods. She left without me being able to thank her for the kindness; however, she came back after a while bringing with her some papers. She said that we needed them to cushion the ceramic soup bowls against each other or else they might be broken while traveling. She was not only kind, she was also practical and prudent. I smiled simply but my heart was so overwhelmed by the kindness I got from three simple salesladies.

Today is such a happy day for me. It has brought back my confidence on people that indeed a few are still good. There are still a few good people out there. There are still kind, patient and prudent people among us. I do not want to believe that the salesladies were doing it because of customer courtesy. No. Simply they were good because they were made to grow as one and not because they were trained to be one. They showed kindness and patience with me not because I was a customer but because I was a person. I was at first quite embarrassed by the attention I got. I was dressed casually, so it should not have been my appearance. Maybe it was they way I treated and spoke to them. In all three ladies I approached each with a smile because each deserved one after hours of standing. I got one in return from each lady and I had three nice smiles to sleep tonight. I spoke in a well-modulated voice, so it might have been the voice too. More than soft spoken, I spoke of sensible things too to all three ladies. I smiled and spoke to them softly not because I expected them to do the same to me. I did both because they deserved them as much as I did. We were actually just people interacting among each other like real people should do. I was not the customer nor were the ladies the sales persons. We were simply...persons and it made me so happy to be one.

ORAL INTERCOURSE WITH TY

Conversation with My Student

I am humbled by how you admire me. Your respect posts a greater challenge to me to do much better. This is what I want you to realize though. I am just human so I have imperfections too. I hope that what you have for me is not blind admiration. I hope you will appreciate too my mistakes because for sure you will also learn from them. By now you are quite familiar with my eccentricities and peculiar mood changes. I got some not so admirable manners which I tried very hard to control. It has been in fact an exercise of patience and per-severance. I am not embarrassed when some-times I get out of control and everything just becomes haywire. Sometimes I find it good to let out pent up emotions, pains and frustrations. I hope I do not sound so banal now.

You find me, I think, as a confidant. You have no second thoughts sharing with me what you feel about people and their emotions. I am humbled by your gesture. You trust me with your inmost thoughts. Rest assured your secrets will forever be secrets with me. You confide to me maybe because I have something to share with you about what you have shared to me. This is plain and simple give and take. This is how I look at friendship, a matter of give and take. This whole idea speaks of how respectful you are. I am not trying to insinuate that I have to be respected. I know I have to earn it; therefore, I work for it. I know you are not just trying to please me. I know you are sincere with how you look up to me as good example. I am very much flattered. I do not know how to thank you. The letter and the card I gave you are not enough to show and tell you how much I appreciate your actions. You are one of the few reasons which made me persevere in teaching. I know I have not taught you how to be intelligent all alone. I know for a fact that I have taught you more how to be educated. It please me so much that in you I have not failed as a teacher. In you, I have seen my crowning glory as one pedagogue.

You have seen others fail along the way in their search for the real meaning of life. I hope they have not blamed anybody but themselves alone. We have human weaknesses because of our very nature. We are sinners. We are culpable to sin. But please let us all realize that sinning has always been an option. It has never been pushed or has been forced to us obtrusively. We were first given the chance. Shall I bite or shall I not bite the apple? I do not mean to push the issue of you becoming like the next candidate for sainthood. I am sorry. I just want you to realize that your fate has been all too well-planned already. All you have to do is to take hold and control your destiny. Bring yourself to the ultimate quest in life which is ironically…eternal life of fullness and grace.

ORAL INTERCOURSE WITH JP

Conversation with My Student

After we had the talk in Talisay, you changed and I was not quite prepared for the change. I knew before that something was not right, but after Talisay I thought you have retreated back instead of moving on. Have I put you in an embarrassing position? I hope I have not because that was not my intention. Were you sorely affected by what I told you, or did my note come in bad taste? I did both not to put you in a very compromising situation. I did both to help you. I am sorry but it was not my intention to further hurt you. After Talisay, you became more withdrawn. You became more to yourself which was very much unlike you. Have I made you sadder than before? I want to apologize because this is not what I intend to happen. I think there was something wrong with how I approached things and the situation. Maybe I came too strong and you felt both threatened and helpless.

If indeed my observations before Talisay were valid and you now want to change because you heard from me, do not ever think that mine was an imposition upon you. I never meant it to be that way. Do not drastically change yourself. You cannot do it overnight. You are today conducting yourself in a manner not quite normal for a guy your age. It is as if you have grown old suddenly. You’ve lost the fun in your life now. I don’t want it that way. I don't think we understand each other. I was not very clear to you. Do not think that we thought of you as somebody bad because you have done this or that. No! In fact you are still one of the best students I ever had!

How you have been acting lately was something new to us all. It seemed as if you were no longer the student I knew before. I appreciated your effort to shy away from alcohol and too much X-rated movies. Both will bring you nowhere. I salute and respect you on this aspect. It needs a lot of control, patience and sacrifice. I support you in this pursuit and I am very sorry now to have introduced you to Mia. I am sure though I have not introduced you to alcohol. Although I drink socially, I am not into killing myself with too much booze. It burns the liver. I find it funny, therefore, when you have the impression that I do consume alcohol a lot. No, I do not. It all depends on the crowd, as I have told you through the text message.

Have you been all in grand charade before? Maybe you are actually trying to be just the real you this time. Maybe you have not actually changed for the better because what you have been from first year to third year has been one big pretense - a sham. You did things before to please the people around you, your classmates maybe, just to be with the in crowd. If in fact this is what was before, then you are indeed a very cunning guy. You have fooled me into believing that you are one strong and cold bad boy. This speaks so much of how smart you are. Only a few people can pull successfully such a grand charade.

Do not ever think that I doubted your goodness. I have always believed that you were and still now a good person. I am choosy when it comes to people I associate with. I only go with smart, well-mannered and good-looking people. You are all three. You are more than intelligent in fact. You are to me, educated. You’ve got the manners and you look good too! You even dress better than I did when I was your age. All three things make you the "man". You are in the class of JR and CJ. Remember that you are one of the Men Entice and you will forever be remembered as one.

So then younger bro, cheer up and be happy. You have been so serious with life lately. I don't like the drastic change, although I appreciate your effort to change. It's just so sudden; I am not prepared for it. I'm sorry, but you come as fake to me because I have always known you as the JP that I knew before – hard, hot and always in heat.

SEX IS FREE, BULAD SADLY IS NOT

The Global Economic Recession Tomorrow

I don't know when the global recession started. What I am definite about is that everyone is affected up to the most lowly citizen of the world. According to Maslow, a person has several needs. The most basic of man's need is food, water, shelter and sex, although not necessarily in this order. Some people have it the other way around. Not unless one still lives in a primitive civilization, food, water and shelter are no longer free. However, if one plants vegetables and crops or grows animals and hunts the wild, food can still be freely obtained. If he is equally resourceful as he is hard working, potable water can be made available from even a murky river. Shelter can still be free if one so desires to live in simple abode. Sex has always been for free not unless one's taste borders on exotic, wild and deviant. After securing his basic needs, man now needs security. Security needs are complex interplay of mind and relationship. It is for free, but to some security comes with a high price tag. A person cannot move up the ladder of needs not unless the previous ones are satisfied. It is clear, therefore, for one to live in satisfaction one must have the capacity (i.e. money) to buy his basic needs and acquire security.

This morning I asked my mom to go to the market to buy some of our needs - food mostly. I gave her Php400 (roughly US$8). She asked if she has to buy some fish. I said no. Fish just cost so much locally. What I asked her to buy, if possible, are the following: a kilo of ground pork, some vegetables (bitter gourd and aubergine), my favorite dried fish, season fruit and fish (her choice protein source) if there would still be left of the money. I consented to her desire to buy fish. After all, she's still my mother. About 30 minutes after, she came home and right away told me there wasn't any good dried fish available. A new supply will arrive tomorrow, so I still have to take three more meals before I get to eat my favorite dried fish. Besides the dried fish, which was really a bad news, she came home with the following: a kilo of ground pork, some vegetables (bitter gourd, aubergine, squash, green onions, and potatoes), a kilo of fish, two feet of bananas and a dozen anthuriums. At first look, it may not be too bad at all. The Php400 I gave her seemed to go a long way.

There are only my mom and I to eat three square meals a day. What she brought home today from the market may last for five days or even a week. Not bad really for just US$8. What about a family of five mouths to feed? How long will Php400 last? Three days? Even a couple only. This is thinking that the family is earning something in a month's time or even in a day, which sadly most Filipino families are. Remember that my mom was still able to bring home bananas and anthuriums. She loves flowers - fresh flowers in the living room, dining room and even in the kitchen. We can still afford this luxury, but most poor families would rather buy food instead of flowers. What my mom was able to buy would have been much more several years ago when there was still no global economic crisis. They said the prices of basic commodities are dictated by how much each barrel of crude oil costs in the global market. Since there is global recession, obviously, the price of almost everything skyrocketed. When prices of basic commodities go up, this may mean tightening the budget to some, but hunger to most families. We are luckier because there are only two of us to feed plus two dogs and a lazy cat.

Man to be able to satisfy his social and esteem needs, he must satisfy first his basic and security needs. When he can barely eat two decent meals in a day, he doesn't care anymore how secure he is. He may even risks his life just to earn that precious money to buy food which his hungry stomach is grumbling for. Good judgment may elude him and he may even steal from others just to be able to buy food. In the act of stealing, he may hurt others and jeopardize his future. He forgets anymore to secure not merely his physical self but his future, his life. Assuming he does not steal but exist on a survival level, he cannot even come to think of making deep and productive relationships with people around him. He shies himself away from the crowd. He feels he does not belong, and because of this, he has a very poor self image. There are so many who are stuck in the survival level. Only a few of us really are self-reliant. No wonder there are so many Filipinos that are less competitive, less assertive and less optimistic. This has what global recession brought us. The ever increasing prices of basic commodities is just the tip of the problem. The bigger dilemma is yet to come.

When my mom left for the market this morning, I was in the middle of my exercise. I worked out at home. I have come to a better perspective about myself that I need to exercise to trim down and be healthy because I would like to believe that I have both my basic and security needs all satisfied. It would not even be presumptuous if I say that I have my social needs secured too. I am all able to think of wasting time sweating it out because I do not have to think anymore of what to eat next (except for the dried fish of course). I am physically secure at home with my ever reliable Doberman. Because of what I have done and what I am doing, I have a circle of friends I can always rely on. I am quite good with teaching and the affirmation I get speaks of this. What I am more worried though is not myself but how have others been affected by this economic downtrend. If my premise is correct, I cannot imagine how much impact will this crisis have on the younger generation of Filipinos. We have always been known to be timid, less assertive, non-competitive and pessimistic. Although education and a lot of NGOs are working hand in hand to correct not just the image but this sad reality, still I am very pessimistic of the whole thing - talking about being Filipino. When my mother this morning brought home a lot out of US$8 except my favorite bulad, I did not forget that a lot has already been fed up with the lowly and smelly dried fish.

LIQUID DREAMS AND WET MEMORIES

How Much I Have Forgotten the Sea

Being 38 has its toll on me. I felt tired and frustrated with work. I was so challenged this year with my work that I have even decided to resign and look for another. I know 38 is not that old yet, but I am roughly half way through life. Men's life expectancy is getting shorter that I think 70 is even an exaggeration. However, I am tired and frustrated with my work, because of my own fault. I cannot blame both to others. I have to modify some of my work behavior and relationship with peers and colleagues, even to my employers. When 2009 started, I promised to change. I worked on being "meaner" this time as the principal to both my teachers and my students. I also became more open with my thoughts, and sadly voiced them out as condescending opinions. I don't care. I was just tired of being the good boy, which I am not. Because I put on some weight last year, I also promise to lose some this year. It maybe a little late because I have just started this April after school closed. I'm on my first week of exercise and sensible eating. Today, I took a swim in the sea to cool down.

I live by the sea. It is just a stone's throw from the house. When I was still young and everything was pristinely beautiful, the sea was where I spend most of my day. At about 8 in the morning and whenever it was high tide, my friends and I were already in the water, paddling ourselves like hell. I learned how to swim earlier in life. Most of us did, so one could just imagine how much fun we had then. We always ate lunch in the sand and continued our beach frolic and swim until sun down. By 4 in the afternoon, we were all sun burned, not just tanned. Today I sport a sun kissed bronze skin, courtesy of my hay days at sea. Our beach fun did not just stop with swimming. Whenever there were fisherman's boats around, definitely the owner would have a hard time looking for his boat afterwards. I could row boat before and I can still do it equally as well today. These memories came rushing back to my mind as I spent an hour this morning at sea.

My purpose of swimming this morning was to cool down after exercise and help me with my sore muscles. It cannot be denied that sea water offers healing wonders too, not just fun. I do a lot of cooling down as I do warm ups whenever I exercise. I always feel less sore whenever I do both well. However, the cool sea water does more magic to my sore muscles. Today, I felt quite sore with my abdominals although I did only a few reps of sit ups yesterday. This is good news of course. Another good news is in my quads, trices, biceps and pecs. At least I am in for a good start. I think I have to do more reps for my delts. I did not feel any tightness there. My traps also were quite sore. I am happy with the way I am doing. I always believe in less pain, not the overkill. I do not bulk that much nor do I want to. I just would like to trim down and live healthy. This is why I seldom suffer too much muscle pain after working out. A nice, long dip in the sea usually cools me and relaxes my tight muscles. I could not, however, resist the temptation to do several lapses of freestyle swim this morning. The feeling was different. I just missed the sea. I haven't been to the beach for almost two years. I was so excited swimming, feeling so carefree and relaxed.

I also got to clear my mind whenever I am at the beach or in the sea swimming. When I still used to mountain bike before, I usually made the shore my last stop. If I did not decide to take a dip to cool myself, I just sat there, rest to catch my breath. While sitting, looking afar, I usually got a clearer view of everything that has happened so far in my life. I was able to reflect on the lapses I have failed to do and the good deeds I have done. It is also by the sea that I got to come up with the most rational decisions in life. There is just something with the calm of the waves and the breeze of the wind that soothes my mind. That same magic by the sea worked again to me this morning. Looking afar, not at the zenith, but the green mountains that hover over my place, I felt relieved of the days' problems. I felt an unexplained peace in my heart as I bobbed my head up and down the water line. I remembered some of the things I still have to do that have been bothering me for quite a time. I did not feel the pressure though. Instead, everything just fell in the right place and I got out of the water knowing what would be the next best thing to do to help me pass by the day.

It is downright shameful living by the sea and not able to enjoy it for almost two years. I am indeed embarrassed and I cannot feign work as an excuse. Now that I have refocused my life and have been trying to straighten out everything, I see the sea again. It was there, it is there and it will forever be there. Only that I refused to see it. I have forgotten the magic the sea brings to my life. I have been so engrossed with work and troubled with life lately, but if only I have run to the sea for some moments of peace, I would not have reached my wit's end. I forget that the sea can remind me of my happy childhood memories. It can vividly bring back to my mind long lost childhood friends who I no longer know where. The sea can bring physical healing. Whatever has pained me for a time would have been healed by the warm lapping waves of the sea against the body. My troubled mind would have been soothed by the hypnotic calm of sea ripples and gentle breeze. How foolish of me to have forgotten all these! Today is Earth Day. I think it was all the sea that beacons me back to him. I am reminded all today of the mysteries of life and how they unravel to us in as simple as the sea, and as mundane as the racing waves.