em tallada -Dec 12, 2011 12:12pm
I've read this book. There are things na nagyon ko lang natutunan in my 23 years of existence :) teens should read this before entering into a relationship, not only teens pero everyone who wants to be in a relationship and lifetime commitment too. :) two thumbs up for Sir Ronald :)
John Gaufo -Dec 11, 2011 9:43am
na lovestuck ako HAHA two thumbs up!
Dexter -Dec 10, 2011 11:06pm
Salamat po sa Libro na to..Marami akong natutunan about true love ng binasa ko ito..
shiela javier -Dec 10, 2011 1:06am
hai poh tnx sa books nyo nkatulong po sakin ung pass or fail po tnx po tlaga
grace barlas -Dec 9, 2011 10:29am
i really like this book,,, para tlaga to sa mga teenager,,, mraming lessons ang mkukuha sa book na ito,,, thanx kuya:)
abbygail -Dec 7, 2011 8:18pm
the book is so cool!!
arelito alporo -Nov 12, 2011 3:55pm
hi kuya ronald! Thank you very much for being with us with ur wife here in Bayawan city during our Youth Summit last Oct 28-29,2011. your presence inspires really to most of our youth specially those who were attending the seminar. I hope that you can come again and shared again a pieces of your wisdom to us. god Bless And goodluck to your family...advance merry christmas In Christ, Armelito Alporo of bayawan City Negros Oriental
emma concepcion nobleza -Nov 10, 2011 4:13pm
speechless aq ng binasa q ang book na to. tamaan aq samga topics nito and it reallsy fits to us as teenager.thank you sa author natu dahil dito maraming kabataan ang naliliwanagan kung ano talaga ang true love
Heizel Pucate -Nov 2, 2011 1:45pm
i really want this book. i can't find any copies. i got his PASS OR FAIL. but i want this. i really can't find a copy of this book.
Anjenette Timblor -Oct 17, 2011 6:27pm
* like qou pu yong book nyo , qasi mrami aqng na tu2nan about sa ex qoe .. tnx dhil na realize qou na hndi pla cia deserving sa aqin :))
Tara Angelee Daamo -Oct 7, 2011 12:53am
this is really a ncie book! i super like it.. esp ung last chapter which is single-minded.. :) I can relate kasi
kath -Oct 6, 2011 11:49am
this is a nice read.. I would really recommend this to teenagers.. totally inspiring!
Cian Garcia -Sep 21, 2011 12:11pm
Meron po ba nito sa PCBS or National Bookstore?
JeverLy -Sep 17, 2011 8:43pm
ang ganda. napaka informative and interesting. e2, ntapos ko in 1 hour! :D sobrang dami ng natutunan ko :) thanks
regine bacudan -Sep 16, 2011 3:04pm
ang ganda nito grabe bimili po ako nyan .. hehe hinihiram po ngayon ng iba kong mga classmate kasi maganda :) marami kang mapupulot na aral .
Cla Concepcion -Sep 9, 2011 7:47pm
i really like this book kuya ronald. ang daming mga aral :) teenagers should read this :)
kate bacala -Aug 28, 2011 6:06pm
yup i agree for the positive comments ganda ng book thanks sa author u made this book really inspired me specially ky god.... mas lalo syang napalapit sa akin...
arlene javier -Aug 26, 2011 10:49pm
maganda po ang content ng book, very informative. nung nakita ko sya sa pcbs, bigla kong naisip ang mga youth sa church at binili ko. nung nabasa ko, i start praying na mabigyan sana ng copy ang mga youth. now im thinking of a fund raising project pra makabili since ako po ang coordinator nila. God bless po sa inyo esp. sa author.
mhay de leon -Jul 1, 2011 2:50pm
very nice book...! it really inspires youths like me..
Mariner -Jun 28, 2011 5:20am
Hi Pastor Ronald. This book of yours is very inspiring. Personally I like the way you presented it. I am so much inspired that I want to share it with others esp to the youth in our church.. We are planning a youth gathering and I find this material very helpful for us in reaching out the youth. i would like to ask for any suggestions from you on how can we make it successful.. Thank You and God Bless!
Frau -Jun 27, 2011 5:45am
:D pdeng pdeng panregalo mura na, it saves the heart pa
queenie ocumas -Jun 23, 2011 4:57pm
gud day pastor ronald. acctually i barrowed dis book from a friend of mine, because i thought it only containes of trip2 stories or ideas related about love, but i was wrong, u know last week, i was a part of the evangel church here in tgbauan iloilo,with pastora roseneille, i also serve in this church in over 1 month. but then my relation w/ dis church was ruined, because of my relationship w/ my bf, w/c is unbeliever. i was really touch by dis book, because mi story was related w/all the topics in dis book. now i live here with mi grandmother and leave the church. after i have ead this book, i suddenly realixed that everything ive done was wrong. now im ready 2 change mi life and how i live. thank u for creating dis book.. it will make all the readers realixe if w/c is wrong and w/ is ryt.. more power!! EMMANUEL..
Ela Agudo -Jun 10, 2011 10:32pm
I love this book..dami ko natutunan dito ine-encourage ko din ang cousins and friends ko na basahin itong book.. (^_^)
John Michael Gallano -Jun 9, 2011 10:27am
hmm.. di ko pa na basa ito.. pero meron na ako nasa bag ko.. 2days palang ko to na bili.. plan ko na basahin ito.. bigyan ko to nang time. heheeheh OUT OF STOCK ba sa inyo.. punta kayo sa SM - Bacolod and Robinsons Place Bacolod. dami pa dun hehe.. excited na ako ma basa e2!
Mariel Lee -Jun 7, 2011 9:39pm
This is a great book! Sobrang na bless ako at ang dami kong na22nan :D sana mabasa to lahat ng mga singles^^
beverly -Jun 6, 2011 3:55pm
wew super ganda ng nilalaman ng book nakakrelate ako sa mga nakasaad dito sulit na sulit pa kapag binili to tlgang tatamaan ka! sana marami pa kayong magawa na mas maganda pa at as in kapupulutan ng aral more powers ^_^
krisha -Jun 1, 2011 9:49pm
grabe..ang dami kong natutunan. :D sobrang nabless ako
chloee arellano -May 26, 2011 9:33pm
waaaT.T dko pa nababsa ung buk coz i dont get the cahnce to have one naubusan kc nung u-mattend kmi ng youth factor..and its hard to find that buk tlg lging sold out...sana tlga mkhanap aq im sure mganda tlga xa... anyway Godbless po.:;)
Alex Gloria -May 12, 2011 12:13pm
this book is highly recommended to all singles, it helps us a lot about life for tomorrow. thanks kuya ronald.
May Morgan C. Diaz -May 5, 2011 12:35pm
Ang ganda... pinasa-pasa ko yung copy na binili ko... it made me realize that i was just infatuated with the one i thought i was inlove with... Cool ang mga expressions and explanation... Makarelate tlaga ang mga kabataan.. Thank you for the book Kuya Ronald.
princess radzma madag -Apr 22, 2011 1:00pm
ganda tlga!ng book n2 dame mong m22nan bout love hay!!!!!!
Jay-R Yap Reyes -Apr 1, 2011 11:27pm
ganda nung pgkaka-gawa ng book hope merun pang mas maraming type ng ganitong book. nakaka-tulong siya pra s mga kabataan ngaun lalo na kung naguguluhan cla s "love". God bless s author nitong libro at more powers.
sara joy -Mar 29, 2011 3:15pm
ahh ang ganda ng book na toh..tamang tama sa mga kabataan,dami ko ding natutunan,tnx kuya ronald..tnx din sa ptr ko na nagbigay ng book na toh,isang paalala sken ang message ng book na toh,buti nalang nabasa ko agad ang book na to bago ang lahat...Godbless kuya ronald..
Karolina Mata -Mar 27, 2011 6:42am
graveh! ang ganda nung book. Hindi ako nag-expect na ganun pala laman ng book. Habang papauwi ako galing mall, I'm starting to read it, nang mkarating na ako sa house, half na nung book ang nabasa ko, nabitin ako at gusto ko ng tapusin, ang ganda ng topic. After reading that book, parang gusto-gusto kong bumalik sa book store para bumili na naman ng ibang book from this publishing. I'm Karol 19 yrs. old from Cebu. Ask lang po ako, lahat poh ba ng books niyo nasa National Bookstore?
Apple -Mar 24, 2011 5:02pm
Oo nga concise version ng Book ni JOoshua Harris :)This book had change my classmate Life. Addict kasi sa pocket book yung classmate ko, akala sguro nyah pocket book din yun kaya ngka interest syang bumasa. Ang nakakatuwa pa dun ay dala dala ko yung libro sa bag at bago ko lang yun nabili take note di ko pa nabasa...sya ang na una. :D Salamat! at God Bless
micah dela cruz -Mar 24, 2011 3:29pm
the book was really cool! and it's good for the unbelievers :)) esp chapter 2 kc inexplain dun ung love ng GOD for us.ü thankyou Ptr Ronald.ü All for God's glory. God bless.
marivic tomol -Mar 21, 2011 7:18pm
grabe! anganda ng book nato. hesitant pako bilhin kc wla ko extra pro nkita ko plang ung cover, nalike ko na. anganda!! sobra!!! ndi kasya ung comment ko dito. all I can sya ay GOD is LOVE! GOD is GOD of second chances. mura lng guys, pro priceless ung message! :) May our Lord bless you in reading. :)pinahiram ko na nga rin agad ung book. God bless guys!
Rafael Miguel M. Dela Cruz -Mar 20, 2011 4:16pm
nice, I learned a lot from this book... even my classmates wants to barrow my book...
aneja dang -Mar 17, 2011 3:40pm
I read it from cover to cover.. and see.. ive learn!! :) make GOd as the center of your Love.
mark -Feb 27, 2011 2:20pm
pwede po ba humingi ng paalam? kc i would like to use some of the pages na ippose ko sa bulletin namin sa school. thanks!
jerico corpuz -Feb 25, 2011 6:04pm
nakakaaliw xa bsahin..tho hnd ko na ntpos bshin sa sobranq bz..hehe unq ibanq phrse nqa dun sinishare ko sza fb..jeje lab it.. .
Via -Feb 22, 2011 12:30am
I learned a lot from this book. I find interesting reading this kind of book. I thank God coz He gave me an opportunity to read LOVESTRUCK... I am now lovestruck with the Lord...=) I will share it to my colleagues...Love it....
Esther -Jan 13, 2011 5:31pm
I love this book ;))
Csianne Sariel Rudio -Jan 9, 2011 12:53pm
i Promise to foLLow the 6:14 ruLe.
jhay ti -Jan 9, 2011 9:59am
sold out na po ito sa lhat ng bookstore eh . san po nakakabili pa ? repLy po . saLamat !
isabel castolero -Dec 29, 2010 1:32pm
this book is great. i highly recommend it. am actually encouraging my officemates to read it :)
Source: http://www.omflit.com/home/catalog.php?c=11&i=617
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin
The depressing fact in Philippine history is what seems to be our native aversion to the large venture, the big risk, the bold extensive enterprise. The pattern may have been set by the migration. We try to equate the odyssey of the migrating barangays with that of the Pilgrim, Father of America, but a glance of the map suffices to show the differences between the two ventures. One was a voyage across an ocean into an unknown world; the other was a going to and from among neighboring islands. One was a blind leap into space; the other seems, in comparison, a mere crossing of rivers. The nature of the one required organization, a sustained effort, special skills, special tools, the building of large ships. The nature of the other is revealed by its vehicle, the barangay, which is a small rowboat, not a seafaring vessel designed for long distances on the avenues of the ocean.
However far we go back in our history it's the small we find--the nipa hut, the barangay, the petty kingship, the slight tillage, the tingi trade. All our artifacts are miniatures and so is our folk literature, which is mostly proverbs, or dogmas in miniature. About the one big labor we can point to in our remote past are the rice terraces--and even that grandeur shrinks, on scrutiny, into numberless little separate plots into a series of layers added to previous ones, all this being the accumulation of ages of small routine efforts (like a colony of ant hills) rather than one grand labor following one grand design. We could bring in here the nursery diota about the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean, or the peso that's not a peso if it lacks a centavo; but creative labor, alas, has sterner standards, a stricter hierarchy of values. Many little efforts, however perfect each in itself, still cannot equal one single epic creation. A galleryful of even the most charming statuettes is bound to look scant beside a Pieta or Moses by Michelangelo; and you could stack up the best short stories you can think of and still not have enough to outweigh a mountain like War and Peace.
The depressing fact in Philippine history is what seems to be our native aversion to the large venture, the big risk, the bold extensive enterprise. The pattern may have been set by the migration. We try to equate the odyssey of the migrating barangays with that of the Pilgrim, Father of America, but a glance of the map suffices to show the differences between the two ventures. One was a voyage across an ocean into an unknown world; the other was a going to and from among neighboring islands. One was a blind leap into space; the other seems, in comparison, a mere crossing of rivers. The nature of the one required organization, a sustained effort, special skills, special tools, the building of large ships. The nature of the other is revealed by its vehicle, the barangay, which is a small rowboat, not a seafaring vessel designed for long distances on the avenues of the ocean.
The migrations were thus self-limited, never moved far from their point of origin, and clung to the heart of a small known world; the islands clustered round the Malay Peninsula. The movement into the Philippines, for instance, was from points as next-door geographically as Borneo and Sumatra. Since the Philippines is at heart of this region, the movement was toward center, or, one may say, from near to still nearer, rather than to farther out. Just off the small brief circuit of these migrations was another world: the vast mysterious continent of Australia; but there was significantly no movement towards this terra incognita. It must have seemed too perilous, too unfriendly of climate, too big, too hard. So, Australia was conquered not by the fold next door, but by strangers from across two oceans and the other side of the world. They were more enterprising, they have been rewarded. But history has punished the laggard by setting up over them a White Australia with doors closed to the crowded Malay world.
The barangays that came to the Philippines were small both in scope and size. A barangay with a hundred households would already be enormous; some barangays had only 30 families, or less. These, however, could have been the seed of a great society if there had not been in that a fatal aversion to synthesis. The barangay settlements already displayed a Philippine characteristic: the tendency to petrify in isolation instead of consolidating, or to split smaller instead of growing. That within the small area of Manila Bay there should be three different kingdoms (Tondo, Manila and Pasay) may mean that the area wa originally settled by three different barangays that remained distinct, never came together, never fused; or it could mean that a single original settlement; as it grew split into three smaller pieces.
Philippine society, as though fearing bigness, ever tends to revert the condition of the barangay of the small enclosed society. We don't grow like a seed, we split like an amoeba. The moment a town grows big it become two towns. The moment a province becomes populous it disintegrates into two or three smaller provinces. The excuse offered for divisions i always the alleged difficulty of administering so huge an entity. But Philippines provinces are microscopic compared to an American state like, say, Texas, where the local government isn't heard complaining it can't efficiently handle so vast an area. We, on the other hand, make a confession of character whenever we split up a town or province to avoid having of cope, admitting that, on that scale, we can't be efficient; we are capable only of the small. The decentralization and barrio-autonomy movement expresses our craving to return to the one unit of society we feel adequate to: the barangay, with its 30 to a hundred families. Anything larger intimidates. We would deliberately limit ourselves to the small performance. This attitude, an immemorial one, explains why we're finding it so hard to become a nation, and why our pagan forefathers could not even imagine the task. Not E pluribus, unum is the impulse in our culture but Out of many, fragments. Foreigners had to come and unite our land for us; the labor was far beyond our powers. Great was the King of Sugbu, but he couldn't even control the tiny isle across his bay. Federation is still not even an idea for the tribes of the North; and the Moro sultanates behave like our political parties: they keep splitting off into particles.
Because we cannot unite for the large effort, even the small effort is increasingly beyond us. There is less to learn in our schools, but even this little is protested by our young as too hard. The falling line on the graph of effort is, alas, a recurring pattern in our history. Our artifacts but repeat a refrain of decline and fall, which wouldn't be so sad if there had been a summit decline from, but the evidence is that we start small and end small without ever having scaled any peaks. Used only to the small effort, we are not, as a result, capable of the sustained effort and lose momentum fast. We have a term for it: ningas cogon.
Go to any exhibit of Philippine artifacts and the items that from our "cultural heritage" but confirm three theories about us, which should be stated again.
First: that the Filipino works best on small scale--tiny figurines, small pots, filigree work in gold or silver, decorative arabesques. The deduction here is that we feel adequate to the challenge of the small, but are cowed by the challenge of the big.
Second: that the Filipino chooses to work in soft easy materials--clay, molten metal, tree searching has failed to turn up anything really monumental in hardstone. Even carabao horn, an obvious material for native craftsmen, has not been used to any extent remotely comparable to the use of ivory in the ivory countries. The deduction here is that we feel equal to the materials that yield but evade the challenge of materials that resist.
Third: that having mastered a material, craft or product, we tend to rut in it and don't move on to a next phase, a larger development, based on what we have learned. In fact, we instantly lay down even what mastery we already posses when confronted by a challenge from outside of something more masterly, instead of being provoked to develop by the threat of competition.
Faced by the challenge of Chinese porcelain, the native art of pottery simply declined, though porcelain should have been the next phase for our pottery makers. There was apparently no effort to steal and master the arts of the Chinese. The excuse offered here that we did not have the materials for the techniques for the making of porcelain--unites in glum brotherhood yesterday's pottery makers and today's would be industrialists. The native pot got buried by Chinese porcelain as Philippine tobacco is still being buried by the blue seal.
Our cultural history, rather than a cumulative development, seems mostly a series of dead ends. One reason is a fear of moving on to a more complex phase; another reason is a fear of tools. Native pottery, for instance, somehow never got far enough to grasp the principle of the wheel. Neither did native agriculture ever reach the point of discovering the plow for itself, or even the idea of the draft animal, though the carabao was handy. Wheel and plow had to come from outside because we always stopped short of technology, This stoppage at a certain level is the recurring fate of our arts and crafts.
The santo everybody's collecting now are charming as legacies, depressing as indices, for the art of the santero was a small art, in a not very demanding medium: wood. Having achieved perfection in it, the santero was faced by the challenge of proving he could achieve equal perfection on a larger scale and in more difficult materials: hardstone, marble, bronze. The challenge was not met. Like the pagan potter before him, the santero stuck to his tiny rut, repeating his little perfections over and over. The iron law of life is: Develop or decay. The art of the santero did not advance; so it declined. Instead of moving onto a harder material, it retreated to a material even easier than wool: Plaster--and plaster has wrought the death of relax art.
One could go on and on with this litany.
Philippine movies started 50 years ago and, during the ‘30s, reached a certain level of proficiency, where it stopped and has rutted ever since looking more and more primitive as the rest of the cinema world speeds by on the way to new frontiers. We have to be realistic, say local movie producers we're in this business not to make art but money. But even from the business viewpoint, they're not "realistic" at all. The true businessman ever seeks to increase his market and therefore ever tries to improve his product. Business dies when it resigns itself, as local movies have done, to a limited market.
After more than half a century of writing in English, Philippine Literature in that medium is still identified with the short story. That small literary form is apparently as much as we feel equal to. But by limiting ourselves less and less capable even of the small thing--as the fate of the pagan potter and the Christian santero should have warned us. It' no longer as obvious today that the Filipino writer has mastered the short story form.
It's two decades since the war but what were mere makeshift in postwar days have petrified into institutions like the jeepney, which we all know to be uncomfortable and inadequate, yet cannot get rid of, because the would mean to tackle the problem of modernizing our systems of transportation--a problem we think so huge we hide from it in the comforting smallness of the jeepney. A small solution to a huge problem--do we deceive ourselves into thinking that possible? The jeepney hints that we do, for the jeepney carrier is about as adequate as a spoon to empty a river with.
With the population welling, and land values rising, there should be in our cities, an upward thrust in architecture, but we continue to build small, in our timid two-story fashion. Oh, we have excuses. The land is soft: earthquakes are frequent. But Mexico City, for instance, is on far swampier land and Mexico City is not a two-story town. San Francisco andTokyo are in worse earthquake belts, but San Francisco and Tokyo reach up for the skies. Isn't our architecture another expression of our smallness spirit? To build big would pose problems too big for us. The water pressure, for example, would have to be improved--and it's hard enough to get water on the ground floor flat and frail, our cities indicate our disinclination to make any but the smallest effort possible.
It wouldn't be so bad if our aversion for bigness and our clinging to the small denoted a preference for quality over bulk; but the little things we take forever to do too often turn out to be worse than the mass-produced article. Our couturiers, for instance, grow even limper of wrist when, after waiting months and months for a pin ~a weaver to produce a yard or two of the fabric, they find they have to discard most of the stuff because it's so sloppily done. Foreigners who think of pushing Philippine fabric in the world market give up in despair after experiencing our inability to deliver in quantity. Our proud apologia is that mass production would ruin the "quality" of our products. But Philippine crafts might be roused from the doldrums if forced to come up to mass-production standards.
It's easy enough to quote the West against itself, to cite all those Western artists and writers who rail against the cult of bigness and mass production and the "bitch goddess success"; but the arguments against technological progress, like the arguments against nationalism, are possible only to those who have already gone through that stage so successfully they can now afford to revile it. The rest of us can only crave to be big enough to be able to deplore bigness.
For the present all we seen to be able to do is ignore pagan evidence and blame our inability to sustain the big effort of our colonizers: they crushed our will and spirit, our initiative and originality. But colonialism is not uniquely our ordeal but rather a universal experience. Other nations went under the heel of the conqueror but have not spent the rest of their lives whining. What people were more trod under than the Jews? But each have been a thoroughly crushed nation get up and conquered new worlds instead. The Norman conquest of England was followed by a subjugation very similar to our experience, but what issued from that subjugation were the will to empire and the verve of a new language.
If it be true that we were enervated by the loss of our primordial freedom, culture and institutions, then the native tribes that were never under Spain and didn't lose what we did should be showing a stronger will and spirit, more initiative and originality, a richer culture and greater progress, than the Christian Filipino. Do they? And this favorite apologia of ours gets further blasted when we consider a people who, alongside us, suffered a far greater trampling yet never lost their enterprising spirit. On the contrary, despite centuries of ghettos and programs and repressive measures and racial scorn, the Chinese in the Philippines clambered to the top of economic heap and are still right up there when it comes to the big deal. Shouldn't they have long come to the conclusion (as we say we did) that there's no point in hustling and laboring and amassing wealth only to see it wrested away and oneself punished for rising?
An honest reading of our history should rather force us to admit that it was the colonial years that pushed us toward the larger effort. There was actually an advance in freedom, for the unification of the land, the organization of towns and provinces, and the influx of new ideas, started our liberation from the rule of the petty, whether of clan, locality or custom. Are we not vexed at the hinterlander still bound by primordial terrors and taboos? Do we not say we have to set him "free" through education? Freedom, after all is more than a political condition; and the colonial lowlander--especially a person like, say, Rizal--was surely more of a freeman than the unconquered tribesman up in the hills. As wheel and plow set us free from a bondage to nature, so town and province liberated us from the bounds of the barangay.
The liberation can be seen just by comparing our pagan with our Christian statuary. What was static and stolid in the one becomes, in the other, dynamic motion and expression. It can be read in the rear of architecture. Now, at last, the Filipino attempts the massive--the stone bridge that unites, the irrigation dam that gives increase, the adobe church that identified. If we have a "heritage of greatness it's in these labors and in three epic acts of the colonial period; first, the defense of the land during two centuries of siege; second, the Propaganda Movement; and the third, the Revolution.
The first, a heroic age that profoundly shaped us, began 1600 with the 50-year war with the Dutch and may be said to have drawn to a close with the British invasion of 1762. The War with the Dutch is the most under-rated event in our history, for it was the Great War in our history. It had to be pointed out that the Philippines, a small colony practically abandoned to itself, yet held at bay for half a century the mightiest naval power in the world at the time, though the Dutch sent armada after armada, year after year, to conquer the colony, or by cutting off the galleons that were its links with America, starve the colony to its knees. We rose so gloriously to the challenge the impetus of spirit sent us spilling down to Borneo and the Moluccas and Indo-China, and it seemed for a moment we might create an empire. But the tremendous effort did create an elite vital to our history: the Creole-Tagalog-Pampango principalia - and ruled it together during these centuries of siege, and which would which was the nation in embryo, which defended the land climax its military career with the war of resistance against the British in the 1660's. By then, this elite already deeply felt itself a nation that the government it set up in Bacolor actually defined the captive government in Manila as illegitimate. From her flows the heritage that would flower in Malolos, for centuries of heroic effort had bred, in Tagalog and the Pampango, a habit of leadership, a lordliness of spirit. They had proved themselves capable of the great and sustained enterprise, destiny was theirs. An analyst of our history notes that the sun on our flag has eight rays, each of which stands for a Tagalog or Pampango province, and the Tagalogs and Pampangos at Biak-na-Bato "assumed the representation of the entire country and, therefore, became in fact the Philippines.
From the field of battle this elite would, after the British war, shift to the field of politics, a significant move; and the Propaganda, which began as a Creole campaign against the Peninsulars, would turn into the nationalist movement of Rizal and Del Pilar. This second epic act in our history seemed a further annulment of the timidity. A man like Rizal was a deliberate rebel against the cult of the small; he was so various a magus because he was set on proving that the Filipino could tackle the big thing, the complex job. His novels have epic intentions; his poems sustain the long line and go against Garcia Villa's more characteristically Philippine dictum that poetry is the small intense line.
With the Revolution, our culture is in dichotomy. This epic of 1896 is indeed a great effort--but by a small minority. The Tagalog and Pampango had taken it upon themselves to protest the grievances of the entire archipelago. Moreover, within the movement was a clash between the two strains in our culture--between the propensity for the small activity and the will to something more ambitious. Bonifacio's Katipunan was large in number but small in scope; it was a rattling of bolos; and its post fiasco efforts are little more than amok raids in the manner the Filipino is said to excel in. (An observation about us in the last war was that we fight best not as an army, but in small informal guerrilla outfits; not in pitched battle, but in rapid hit-and-run raids.) On the other hand, there was, in Cavite, an army with officers, engineers, trenches, plans of battle and a complex organization - a Revolution unlike all the little uprisings or mere raids of the past because it had risen above tribe and saw itself as the national destiny. This was the highest we have reached in nationalistic effort. But here again, having reached a certain level of achievement, we stopped. The Revolution is, as we say today, "unfinished."
The trend since the turn of the century, and especially since the war, seems to be back to the tradition of timidity, the heritage of smallness. We seem to be making less and less effort, thinking ever smaller, doing even smaller. The air droops with a feeling of inadequacy. We can't cope; we don't respond; we are not rising to challenges. So tiny a land as ours shouldn't be too hard to connect with transportation - but we get crushed on small jeepneys, get killed on small trains, get drowned in small boats. Larger and more populous cities abroad find it no problem to keep themselves clean - but the simple matter of garbage can create a "crisis" in the small city of Manila. One American remarked that, after seeing Manila's chaos of traffic, he began to appreciate how his city of Los Angeles handles its far, far greater volume of traffic. Is building a roadthat won't break down when it rains no longer within our powers? Is even the building of sidewalks too herculean of task for us?
One writer, as he surveyed the landscape of shortages---no rice, no water, no garbage collectors, no peace, no order---gloomily mumbled that disintegration seems to be creeping upon us and groped for Yeat's terrifying lines:
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold:
Mere anarchy is loosed...
Have our capacities been so diminished by the small efforts we are becoming incapable even to the small things? Our present problems are surely not what might be called colossal or insurmountable--yet we stand helpless before them. As the population swells, those problems will expand and multiply. If they daunt us now, will they crush us then? The prospect is terrifying.
On the Feast of Freedom we may do well to ponder the Parable of the Servants and the Talents. The enterprising servants who increase talents entrusted to them were rewarded by their Lord; but the timid servant who made no effort to double the one talent given to him was deprived of that talent and cast into the outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth:
"For to him who has, more shall be given; but from him who has not, even the little he has shall be taken away."
However far we go back in our history it's the small we find--the nipa hut, the barangay, the petty kingship, the slight tillage, the tingi trade. All our artifacts are miniatures and so is our folk literature, which is mostly proverbs, or dogmas in miniature. About the one big labor we can point to in our remote past are the rice terraces--and even that grandeur shrinks, on scrutiny, into numberless little separate plots into a series of layers added to previous ones, all this being the accumulation of ages of small routine efforts (like a colony of ant hills) rather than one grand labor following one grand design. We could bring in here the nursery diota about the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean, or the peso that's not a peso if it lacks a centavo; but creative labor, alas, has sterner standards, a stricter hierarchy of values. Many little efforts, however perfect each in itself, still cannot equal one single epic creation. A galleryful of even the most charming statuettes is bound to look scant beside a Pieta or Moses by Michelangelo; and you could stack up the best short stories you can think of and still not have enough to outweigh a mountain like War and Peace.
The depressing fact in Philippine history is what seems to be our native aversion to the large venture, the big risk, the bold extensive enterprise. The pattern may have been set by the migration. We try to equate the odyssey of the migrating barangays with that of the Pilgrim, Father of America, but a glance of the map suffices to show the differences between the two ventures. One was a voyage across an ocean into an unknown world; the other was a going to and from among neighboring islands. One was a blind leap into space; the other seems, in comparison, a mere crossing of rivers. The nature of the one required organization, a sustained effort, special skills, special tools, the building of large ships. The nature of the other is revealed by its vehicle, the barangay, which is a small rowboat, not a seafaring vessel designed for long distances on the avenues of the ocean.
The migrations were thus self-limited, never moved far from their point of origin, and clung to the heart of a small known world; the islands clustered round the Malay Peninsula. The movement into the Philippines, for instance, was from points as next-door geographically as Borneo and Sumatra. Since the Philippines is at heart of this region, the movement was toward center, or, one may say, from near to still nearer, rather than to farther out. Just off the small brief circuit of these migrations was another world: the vast mysterious continent of Australia; but there was significantly no movement towards this terra incognita. It must have seemed too perilous, too unfriendly of climate, too big, too hard. So, Australia was conquered not by the fold next door, but by strangers from across two oceans and the other side of the world. They were more enterprising, they have been rewarded. But history has punished the laggard by setting up over them a White Australia with doors closed to the crowded Malay world.
The barangays that came to the Philippines were small both in scope and size. A barangay with a hundred households would already be enormous; some barangays had only 30 families, or less. These, however, could have been the seed of a great society if there had not been in that a fatal aversion to synthesis. The barangay settlements already displayed a Philippine characteristic: the tendency to petrify in isolation instead of consolidating, or to split smaller instead of growing. That within the small area of Manila Bay there should be three different kingdoms (Tondo, Manila and Pasay) may mean that the area wa originally settled by three different barangays that remained distinct, never came together, never fused; or it could mean that a single original settlement; as it grew split into three smaller pieces.
Philippine society, as though fearing bigness, ever tends to revert the condition of the barangay of the small enclosed society. We don't grow like a seed, we split like an amoeba. The moment a town grows big it become two towns. The moment a province becomes populous it disintegrates into two or three smaller provinces. The excuse offered for divisions i always the alleged difficulty of administering so huge an entity. But Philippines provinces are microscopic compared to an American state like, say, Texas, where the local government isn't heard complaining it can't efficiently handle so vast an area. We, on the other hand, make a confession of character whenever we split up a town or province to avoid having of cope, admitting that, on that scale, we can't be efficient; we are capable only of the small. The decentralization and barrio-autonomy movement expresses our craving to return to the one unit of society we feel adequate to: the barangay, with its 30 to a hundred families. Anything larger intimidates. We would deliberately limit ourselves to the small performance. This attitude, an immemorial one, explains why we're finding it so hard to become a nation, and why our pagan forefathers could not even imagine the task. Not E pluribus, unum is the impulse in our culture but Out of many, fragments. Foreigners had to come and unite our land for us; the labor was far beyond our powers. Great was the King of Sugbu, but he couldn't even control the tiny isle across his bay. Federation is still not even an idea for the tribes of the North; and the Moro sultanates behave like our political parties: they keep splitting off into particles.
Because we cannot unite for the large effort, even the small effort is increasingly beyond us. There is less to learn in our schools, but even this little is protested by our young as too hard. The falling line on the graph of effort is, alas, a recurring pattern in our history. Our artifacts but repeat a refrain of decline and fall, which wouldn't be so sad if there had been a summit decline from, but the evidence is that we start small and end small without ever having scaled any peaks. Used only to the small effort, we are not, as a result, capable of the sustained effort and lose momentum fast. We have a term for it: ningas cogon.
Go to any exhibit of Philippine artifacts and the items that from our "cultural heritage" but confirm three theories about us, which should be stated again.
First: that the Filipino works best on small scale--tiny figurines, small pots, filigree work in gold or silver, decorative arabesques. The deduction here is that we feel adequate to the challenge of the small, but are cowed by the challenge of the big.
Second: that the Filipino chooses to work in soft easy materials--clay, molten metal, tree searching has failed to turn up anything really monumental in hardstone. Even carabao horn, an obvious material for native craftsmen, has not been used to any extent remotely comparable to the use of ivory in the ivory countries. The deduction here is that we feel equal to the materials that yield but evade the challenge of materials that resist.
Third: that having mastered a material, craft or product, we tend to rut in it and don't move on to a next phase, a larger development, based on what we have learned. In fact, we instantly lay down even what mastery we already posses when confronted by a challenge from outside of something more masterly, instead of being provoked to develop by the threat of competition.
Faced by the challenge of Chinese porcelain, the native art of pottery simply declined, though porcelain should have been the next phase for our pottery makers. There was apparently no effort to steal and master the arts of the Chinese. The excuse offered here that we did not have the materials for the techniques for the making of porcelain--unites in glum brotherhood yesterday's pottery makers and today's would be industrialists. The native pot got buried by Chinese porcelain as Philippine tobacco is still being buried by the blue seal.
Our cultural history, rather than a cumulative development, seems mostly a series of dead ends. One reason is a fear of moving on to a more complex phase; another reason is a fear of tools. Native pottery, for instance, somehow never got far enough to grasp the principle of the wheel. Neither did native agriculture ever reach the point of discovering the plow for itself, or even the idea of the draft animal, though the carabao was handy. Wheel and plow had to come from outside because we always stopped short of technology, This stoppage at a certain level is the recurring fate of our arts and crafts.
The santo everybody's collecting now are charming as legacies, depressing as indices, for the art of the santero was a small art, in a not very demanding medium: wood. Having achieved perfection in it, the santero was faced by the challenge of proving he could achieve equal perfection on a larger scale and in more difficult materials: hardstone, marble, bronze. The challenge was not met. Like the pagan potter before him, the santero stuck to his tiny rut, repeating his little perfections over and over. The iron law of life is: Develop or decay. The art of the santero did not advance; so it declined. Instead of moving onto a harder material, it retreated to a material even easier than wool: Plaster--and plaster has wrought the death of relax art.
One could go on and on with this litany.
Philippine movies started 50 years ago and, during the ‘30s, reached a certain level of proficiency, where it stopped and has rutted ever since looking more and more primitive as the rest of the cinema world speeds by on the way to new frontiers. We have to be realistic, say local movie producers we're in this business not to make art but money. But even from the business viewpoint, they're not "realistic" at all. The true businessman ever seeks to increase his market and therefore ever tries to improve his product. Business dies when it resigns itself, as local movies have done, to a limited market.
After more than half a century of writing in English, Philippine Literature in that medium is still identified with the short story. That small literary form is apparently as much as we feel equal to. But by limiting ourselves less and less capable even of the small thing--as the fate of the pagan potter and the Christian santero should have warned us. It' no longer as obvious today that the Filipino writer has mastered the short story form.
It's two decades since the war but what were mere makeshift in postwar days have petrified into institutions like the jeepney, which we all know to be uncomfortable and inadequate, yet cannot get rid of, because the would mean to tackle the problem of modernizing our systems of transportation--a problem we think so huge we hide from it in the comforting smallness of the jeepney. A small solution to a huge problem--do we deceive ourselves into thinking that possible? The jeepney hints that we do, for the jeepney carrier is about as adequate as a spoon to empty a river with.
With the population welling, and land values rising, there should be in our cities, an upward thrust in architecture, but we continue to build small, in our timid two-story fashion. Oh, we have excuses. The land is soft: earthquakes are frequent. But Mexico City, for instance, is on far swampier land and Mexico City is not a two-story town. San Francisco andTokyo are in worse earthquake belts, but San Francisco and Tokyo reach up for the skies. Isn't our architecture another expression of our smallness spirit? To build big would pose problems too big for us. The water pressure, for example, would have to be improved--and it's hard enough to get water on the ground floor flat and frail, our cities indicate our disinclination to make any but the smallest effort possible.
It wouldn't be so bad if our aversion for bigness and our clinging to the small denoted a preference for quality over bulk; but the little things we take forever to do too often turn out to be worse than the mass-produced article. Our couturiers, for instance, grow even limper of wrist when, after waiting months and months for a pin ~a weaver to produce a yard or two of the fabric, they find they have to discard most of the stuff because it's so sloppily done. Foreigners who think of pushing Philippine fabric in the world market give up in despair after experiencing our inability to deliver in quantity. Our proud apologia is that mass production would ruin the "quality" of our products. But Philippine crafts might be roused from the doldrums if forced to come up to mass-production standards.
It's easy enough to quote the West against itself, to cite all those Western artists and writers who rail against the cult of bigness and mass production and the "bitch goddess success"; but the arguments against technological progress, like the arguments against nationalism, are possible only to those who have already gone through that stage so successfully they can now afford to revile it. The rest of us can only crave to be big enough to be able to deplore bigness.
For the present all we seen to be able to do is ignore pagan evidence and blame our inability to sustain the big effort of our colonizers: they crushed our will and spirit, our initiative and originality. But colonialism is not uniquely our ordeal but rather a universal experience. Other nations went under the heel of the conqueror but have not spent the rest of their lives whining. What people were more trod under than the Jews? But each have been a thoroughly crushed nation get up and conquered new worlds instead. The Norman conquest of England was followed by a subjugation very similar to our experience, but what issued from that subjugation were the will to empire and the verve of a new language.
If it be true that we were enervated by the loss of our primordial freedom, culture and institutions, then the native tribes that were never under Spain and didn't lose what we did should be showing a stronger will and spirit, more initiative and originality, a richer culture and greater progress, than the Christian Filipino. Do they? And this favorite apologia of ours gets further blasted when we consider a people who, alongside us, suffered a far greater trampling yet never lost their enterprising spirit. On the contrary, despite centuries of ghettos and programs and repressive measures and racial scorn, the Chinese in the Philippines clambered to the top of economic heap and are still right up there when it comes to the big deal. Shouldn't they have long come to the conclusion (as we say we did) that there's no point in hustling and laboring and amassing wealth only to see it wrested away and oneself punished for rising?
An honest reading of our history should rather force us to admit that it was the colonial years that pushed us toward the larger effort. There was actually an advance in freedom, for the unification of the land, the organization of towns and provinces, and the influx of new ideas, started our liberation from the rule of the petty, whether of clan, locality or custom. Are we not vexed at the hinterlander still bound by primordial terrors and taboos? Do we not say we have to set him "free" through education? Freedom, after all is more than a political condition; and the colonial lowlander--especially a person like, say, Rizal--was surely more of a freeman than the unconquered tribesman up in the hills. As wheel and plow set us free from a bondage to nature, so town and province liberated us from the bounds of the barangay.
The liberation can be seen just by comparing our pagan with our Christian statuary. What was static and stolid in the one becomes, in the other, dynamic motion and expression. It can be read in the rear of architecture. Now, at last, the Filipino attempts the massive--the stone bridge that unites, the irrigation dam that gives increase, the adobe church that identified. If we have a "heritage of greatness it's in these labors and in three epic acts of the colonial period; first, the defense of the land during two centuries of siege; second, the Propaganda Movement; and the third, the Revolution.
The first, a heroic age that profoundly shaped us, began 1600 with the 50-year war with the Dutch and may be said to have drawn to a close with the British invasion of 1762. The War with the Dutch is the most under-rated event in our history, for it was the Great War in our history. It had to be pointed out that the Philippines, a small colony practically abandoned to itself, yet held at bay for half a century the mightiest naval power in the world at the time, though the Dutch sent armada after armada, year after year, to conquer the colony, or by cutting off the galleons that were its links with America, starve the colony to its knees. We rose so gloriously to the challenge the impetus of spirit sent us spilling down to Borneo and the Moluccas and Indo-China, and it seemed for a moment we might create an empire. But the tremendous effort did create an elite vital to our history: the Creole-Tagalog-Pampango principalia - and ruled it together during these centuries of siege, and which would which was the nation in embryo, which defended the land climax its military career with the war of resistance against the British in the 1660's. By then, this elite already deeply felt itself a nation that the government it set up in Bacolor actually defined the captive government in Manila as illegitimate. From her flows the heritage that would flower in Malolos, for centuries of heroic effort had bred, in Tagalog and the Pampango, a habit of leadership, a lordliness of spirit. They had proved themselves capable of the great and sustained enterprise, destiny was theirs. An analyst of our history notes that the sun on our flag has eight rays, each of which stands for a Tagalog or Pampango province, and the Tagalogs and Pampangos at Biak-na-Bato "assumed the representation of the entire country and, therefore, became in fact the Philippines.
From the field of battle this elite would, after the British war, shift to the field of politics, a significant move; and the Propaganda, which began as a Creole campaign against the Peninsulars, would turn into the nationalist movement of Rizal and Del Pilar. This second epic act in our history seemed a further annulment of the timidity. A man like Rizal was a deliberate rebel against the cult of the small; he was so various a magus because he was set on proving that the Filipino could tackle the big thing, the complex job. His novels have epic intentions; his poems sustain the long line and go against Garcia Villa's more characteristically Philippine dictum that poetry is the small intense line.
With the Revolution, our culture is in dichotomy. This epic of 1896 is indeed a great effort--but by a small minority. The Tagalog and Pampango had taken it upon themselves to protest the grievances of the entire archipelago. Moreover, within the movement was a clash between the two strains in our culture--between the propensity for the small activity and the will to something more ambitious. Bonifacio's Katipunan was large in number but small in scope; it was a rattling of bolos; and its post fiasco efforts are little more than amok raids in the manner the Filipino is said to excel in. (An observation about us in the last war was that we fight best not as an army, but in small informal guerrilla outfits; not in pitched battle, but in rapid hit-and-run raids.) On the other hand, there was, in Cavite, an army with officers, engineers, trenches, plans of battle and a complex organization - a Revolution unlike all the little uprisings or mere raids of the past because it had risen above tribe and saw itself as the national destiny. This was the highest we have reached in nationalistic effort. But here again, having reached a certain level of achievement, we stopped. The Revolution is, as we say today, "unfinished."
The trend since the turn of the century, and especially since the war, seems to be back to the tradition of timidity, the heritage of smallness. We seem to be making less and less effort, thinking ever smaller, doing even smaller. The air droops with a feeling of inadequacy. We can't cope; we don't respond; we are not rising to challenges. So tiny a land as ours shouldn't be too hard to connect with transportation - but we get crushed on small jeepneys, get killed on small trains, get drowned in small boats. Larger and more populous cities abroad find it no problem to keep themselves clean - but the simple matter of garbage can create a "crisis" in the small city of Manila. One American remarked that, after seeing Manila's chaos of traffic, he began to appreciate how his city of Los Angeles handles its far, far greater volume of traffic. Is building a roadthat won't break down when it rains no longer within our powers? Is even the building of sidewalks too herculean of task for us?
One writer, as he surveyed the landscape of shortages---no rice, no water, no garbage collectors, no peace, no order---gloomily mumbled that disintegration seems to be creeping upon us and groped for Yeat's terrifying lines:
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold:
Mere anarchy is loosed...
Have our capacities been so diminished by the small efforts we are becoming incapable even to the small things? Our present problems are surely not what might be called colossal or insurmountable--yet we stand helpless before them. As the population swells, those problems will expand and multiply. If they daunt us now, will they crush us then? The prospect is terrifying.
On the Feast of Freedom we may do well to ponder the Parable of the Servants and the Talents. The enterprising servants who increase talents entrusted to them were rewarded by their Lord; but the timid servant who made no effort to double the one talent given to him was deprived of that talent and cast into the outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth:
"For to him who has, more shall be given; but from him who has not, even the little he has shall be taken away."
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Korupsyon, Kahirapan at Kaunlaran
Nahalal bilang pangulo si PNoy bunga ng kaniyang imahe bilang “Mr. Clean” at dahil sa kaniyang pangakong lilinisin mula sa korupsyon ang pamahalaan. Katulad ng kaniyang ina na naluklok sa puwesto matapos patalsikin ng isang diktador, mataas ang public confidence sa pangulo na ibabalik niya ang nawalang integridad sa pamumuno. Ayon sa pinakahuling survey ng Hongkong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) sa taong 2010, ang Pilipinas ang pang-apat sa pinaka-corrupt na bansa sa Timog Silangang Asya (sinundan natin ang Cambodia, Vietnam at ang Indonesia).
Kaakibat ng pangakong pananagutin ang mga nagnanakaw sa gobyerno, kabi-kabila ang pagsasampa ng kaso laban sa mga dating opisyal at malalapit na kaibigan ng administrasyon ni Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo. Maituturing na lamang itong isang pulitikal na ritwal sa tuwing magpapalit ang administrasyon. May pagtanaw din na ito ay isang media ploy upang pagtakpan ang kahinaan ng administrasyon at isisi ang lahat ng problema ng bansa sa nakaraang pamunuan.
Kung maraming nagalak sa proyekto ng pangulo, marami din ang hirap maniwala. Hindi lohikal ang slogan na “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Maganda sa pandinig ngunit mahirap isakatuparan. Malawak ang sakop at galamay ng korupsyon---sa merkado, sa mga pampublikong opisina at maging sa personal na buhay ng mga Filipino. Kung pagsasawata ng korupsyon ang pag-uusapan, matatapos ang termino ng pangulo nang hindi natutupad ang pangalawa niyang layunin—ang sugpuin ang kahirapan.
Ilang pag-aaral na ang isinagawa ukol sa ugnayan ng korupsyon, kahirapan at kaunlaran. Malinaw na hinahadlangan nito ang paglago ng ekonomiya. Ngunit sa kabilang banda, mas malakas ang argumentong ang kahirapan ang sanhi ng korupsyon. Ang pinaka-corrupt na bansa sa buong mundo tulad ng Somalia ay pawang nagdarahop na bansa. Hindi sila naghirap dahil marami silang tiwaling opisyal kundi dahil sa mahinang ekonomiya na siyang nagtutulak sa mga lider-gobyerno upang abusuhin ang kanilang kapangyarihan. Hindi rin hadlang ang mataas na antas ng korupsyon upang umunlad ang ibang bansa Indonesia at China. Ipinakita rin ng mga pananaliksik ang ilang bagay na siyang aakit sa mga tiwaling gawain.
Una, kung may mga likas na kayamanan tulad ng langis at mga kagubatan na maaaring pagkakitaan at pagpiyestahan ng mga baluktot na opisyal ng pamahalaan.
Pangalawa, ang kakulangan at kamahalan ng serbisyong pampubliko ang nagpapalalawak ng mga ilegal na transaksyon.
Pangatlo, ang mababang pasahod sa pampublikong sektor ang umaakit sa mga empleyado ng gobyerno upang pumasok sa mga ilegal na gawain.
Ganundin, ang labis na kontrol ng gobyerno sa ekonomiya ang nagiging dahilan upang gawing “gatasang baka” ng mga pulitiko ang ilang industriya sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng pabor sa ilang mga negosyante.
Maling sabihin na kung walang korupsyon ay uunlad ang bansa. Ang pagsugpo sa kahirapan ay kailangang tingnan at atakihin sa iba’t ibang anggulo. Ang mabagal na pag-unlad ay nagmumula rin sa mga maling polisiyang pang-ekonomiya at magulong sistemang pampulitika. Kung kaya, hindi lamang sa pagpapakulong ng mga tiwaling opisyal dapat matuon ang enerhiya ng Malacanang. Ang pangulo ay hindi lamang tinawag upang magpakulong ng mga tiwaling opisyal. Kailangan ding bigyan-pansin ang pagpapaunlad ng ekonomiya.
Sa pagtahak ng administrasyong Aquino sa itinuturing nitong “matuwid na daan”, kailangang magbantay din ang sambayanan. Baka ang “tuwid” na daan ay maghatid sa atin sa maling patutunguhan.
Kaakibat ng pangakong pananagutin ang mga nagnanakaw sa gobyerno, kabi-kabila ang pagsasampa ng kaso laban sa mga dating opisyal at malalapit na kaibigan ng administrasyon ni Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo. Maituturing na lamang itong isang pulitikal na ritwal sa tuwing magpapalit ang administrasyon. May pagtanaw din na ito ay isang media ploy upang pagtakpan ang kahinaan ng administrasyon at isisi ang lahat ng problema ng bansa sa nakaraang pamunuan.
Kung maraming nagalak sa proyekto ng pangulo, marami din ang hirap maniwala. Hindi lohikal ang slogan na “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Maganda sa pandinig ngunit mahirap isakatuparan. Malawak ang sakop at galamay ng korupsyon---sa merkado, sa mga pampublikong opisina at maging sa personal na buhay ng mga Filipino. Kung pagsasawata ng korupsyon ang pag-uusapan, matatapos ang termino ng pangulo nang hindi natutupad ang pangalawa niyang layunin—ang sugpuin ang kahirapan.
Ilang pag-aaral na ang isinagawa ukol sa ugnayan ng korupsyon, kahirapan at kaunlaran. Malinaw na hinahadlangan nito ang paglago ng ekonomiya. Ngunit sa kabilang banda, mas malakas ang argumentong ang kahirapan ang sanhi ng korupsyon. Ang pinaka-corrupt na bansa sa buong mundo tulad ng Somalia ay pawang nagdarahop na bansa. Hindi sila naghirap dahil marami silang tiwaling opisyal kundi dahil sa mahinang ekonomiya na siyang nagtutulak sa mga lider-gobyerno upang abusuhin ang kanilang kapangyarihan. Hindi rin hadlang ang mataas na antas ng korupsyon upang umunlad ang ibang bansa Indonesia at China. Ipinakita rin ng mga pananaliksik ang ilang bagay na siyang aakit sa mga tiwaling gawain.
Una, kung may mga likas na kayamanan tulad ng langis at mga kagubatan na maaaring pagkakitaan at pagpiyestahan ng mga baluktot na opisyal ng pamahalaan.
Pangalawa, ang kakulangan at kamahalan ng serbisyong pampubliko ang nagpapalalawak ng mga ilegal na transaksyon.
Pangatlo, ang mababang pasahod sa pampublikong sektor ang umaakit sa mga empleyado ng gobyerno upang pumasok sa mga ilegal na gawain.
Ganundin, ang labis na kontrol ng gobyerno sa ekonomiya ang nagiging dahilan upang gawing “gatasang baka” ng mga pulitiko ang ilang industriya sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng pabor sa ilang mga negosyante.
Maling sabihin na kung walang korupsyon ay uunlad ang bansa. Ang pagsugpo sa kahirapan ay kailangang tingnan at atakihin sa iba’t ibang anggulo. Ang mabagal na pag-unlad ay nagmumula rin sa mga maling polisiyang pang-ekonomiya at magulong sistemang pampulitika. Kung kaya, hindi lamang sa pagpapakulong ng mga tiwaling opisyal dapat matuon ang enerhiya ng Malacanang. Ang pangulo ay hindi lamang tinawag upang magpakulong ng mga tiwaling opisyal. Kailangan ding bigyan-pansin ang pagpapaunlad ng ekonomiya.
Sa pagtahak ng administrasyong Aquino sa itinuturing nitong “matuwid na daan”, kailangang magbantay din ang sambayanan. Baka ang “tuwid” na daan ay maghatid sa atin sa maling patutunguhan.
Friday, August 05, 2011
PASS OR FAIL? Test-Taking Tips
Sa tuwing kumukuha ng isang exam ang isang estudyante, sinusubok siya sa dalawang bagay: ang kaniyang kaalaman ukol sa kurso at ang kaniyang “testwiseness” o karunungan sa pagsagot sa exam items. Ito ay ilang tips kung paano maipasa ang anumang exam “with flying colors”.
Know the type of exam you will take. Kung alam mo ang uri ng exam na iyong haharapin, mas madali ang iyong pagre-review. Tanungin ang inyong guro kung ano ang uri ng tanong ang kaniyang ibibigay. Maari ring konsultahin ang mga dating estudyante na dumaan na sa pagsusulit. It is also helpful if you can secure copies of sample exams. Kung walang paraan upang malaman ang uri ng exam, pag-aralan ang karakter ng iyong guro sa pagtuturo at kung paano siya nagbibigay ng tanong. Higit sa lahat, patindihin ang pagre-review.
You must be prepared to take the test. Mahirap mag-concentrate kung mayroon kang nararamdaman sa katawan at maraming iniisip na problema. Mahirap ding ipasa ang exam kung lagi kang absent sa klase. Cramming does not work. Mas mabuting mag-review sa mahabang panahon in small quantities kaysa sagarin ang buong dalawang araw sa pag-aaral ng mga lessons na isang semester na tinalakay sa klase. Kailangang relaxed ang iyong utak bago sumabak sa pagsusulit. Have at least 6 hours of sleep. Siguraduhin din na may laman ang iyong sikmura. Isama sa paghahanda ang panalangin ng paghingi ng karunungan sa Panginoon (Santiago 1:5).
Get rid of the Before-the-Test Worry. Boost your confidence. Malaki ang epekto ng iyong nararamdaman bago mag-exam sa maari mong maging performance. If you feel confident about passing the exam, you will lose some of your anxiety about the test. Pero, huwag ka namang maging overconfident na maaaring humantong sa pagiging careless sa pagsagot sa test. Huwag na huwag male-late sa pagpunta sa test center. Mahirap mag-concentrate kapag hinihingal ka dahil sa pagmamadali. Isa sa kalimitang dahilan ng exam memory loss o mental block ay ang sobrang nerbiyos. Relax.
Make the best use of your time. Lahat ng exam ay under time pressure. I-scan muna ang exam paper at i-assess kung ilang minuto ang ilalaan sa bawat parte. Laging tumingin sa orasan. Unahin ang mga madadaling tanong at ipahuli ang kakain ng mas mahabang oras. Unahin din ang mga items na magbibigay ng malalaking puntos. If all else fails, guess. Siguraduhin lang na walang point deduction sa mga maling sagot (i.e. right minus wrong exams).
Answer the Exam Items Correctly. Read the instructions carefully. Kung kailangang “X” ang imarka, “X” ang imarka. Kung kailangang bilugan ang sagot, bilugan. Maaaring hindi bilangin ang mga tamang sagot dahil sa hindi pagsunod sa instructions. Kung ano ang hinihingi ng tanong, iyon ang dapat na isagot. Lalo na sa objective essay exam kung saan walang lugar ang pambobola. Alam ng mga guro kung ang estudyante ay nagpapaikot-ikot lamang ng argumento. Ayusin din ang inyong penmanship upang hindi na mahirapang basahin ng guro ang iyong papel.
Avoid careless errors. Kung mayroon pang panahon, balikan ang iyong mga sagot at alamin kung may mali sa spelling, grammar o paraan ng pagsagot sa mga items. Maximize the time of the exam. Huwag magmadali at maging over-confident sa sagot. Gamitin ang nalalabing oras upang i-recheck ang mga sagot.
After the exam, give yourself a break. Treat yourself kahit hindi ka masaya sa nangyari (kung alam mong disaster ang performance mo). Sabi nga nila, there’s no use crying over spilt milk. Tapos na iyon at wala ka nang magagawa. Bawi ka na lang sa susunod (kung may next time pa!). Pero mas lalo mong i-treat ang sarili mo if you feel good about yourself after the exam at alam mong nasagot mo nang maayos ang mga tanong! Nonetheless, the most important thing is that you did your best.
Know the type of exam you will take. Kung alam mo ang uri ng exam na iyong haharapin, mas madali ang iyong pagre-review. Tanungin ang inyong guro kung ano ang uri ng tanong ang kaniyang ibibigay. Maari ring konsultahin ang mga dating estudyante na dumaan na sa pagsusulit. It is also helpful if you can secure copies of sample exams. Kung walang paraan upang malaman ang uri ng exam, pag-aralan ang karakter ng iyong guro sa pagtuturo at kung paano siya nagbibigay ng tanong. Higit sa lahat, patindihin ang pagre-review.
You must be prepared to take the test. Mahirap mag-concentrate kung mayroon kang nararamdaman sa katawan at maraming iniisip na problema. Mahirap ding ipasa ang exam kung lagi kang absent sa klase. Cramming does not work. Mas mabuting mag-review sa mahabang panahon in small quantities kaysa sagarin ang buong dalawang araw sa pag-aaral ng mga lessons na isang semester na tinalakay sa klase. Kailangang relaxed ang iyong utak bago sumabak sa pagsusulit. Have at least 6 hours of sleep. Siguraduhin din na may laman ang iyong sikmura. Isama sa paghahanda ang panalangin ng paghingi ng karunungan sa Panginoon (Santiago 1:5).
Get rid of the Before-the-Test Worry. Boost your confidence. Malaki ang epekto ng iyong nararamdaman bago mag-exam sa maari mong maging performance. If you feel confident about passing the exam, you will lose some of your anxiety about the test. Pero, huwag ka namang maging overconfident na maaaring humantong sa pagiging careless sa pagsagot sa test. Huwag na huwag male-late sa pagpunta sa test center. Mahirap mag-concentrate kapag hinihingal ka dahil sa pagmamadali. Isa sa kalimitang dahilan ng exam memory loss o mental block ay ang sobrang nerbiyos. Relax.
Make the best use of your time. Lahat ng exam ay under time pressure. I-scan muna ang exam paper at i-assess kung ilang minuto ang ilalaan sa bawat parte. Laging tumingin sa orasan. Unahin ang mga madadaling tanong at ipahuli ang kakain ng mas mahabang oras. Unahin din ang mga items na magbibigay ng malalaking puntos. If all else fails, guess. Siguraduhin lang na walang point deduction sa mga maling sagot (i.e. right minus wrong exams).
Answer the Exam Items Correctly. Read the instructions carefully. Kung kailangang “X” ang imarka, “X” ang imarka. Kung kailangang bilugan ang sagot, bilugan. Maaaring hindi bilangin ang mga tamang sagot dahil sa hindi pagsunod sa instructions. Kung ano ang hinihingi ng tanong, iyon ang dapat na isagot. Lalo na sa objective essay exam kung saan walang lugar ang pambobola. Alam ng mga guro kung ang estudyante ay nagpapaikot-ikot lamang ng argumento. Ayusin din ang inyong penmanship upang hindi na mahirapang basahin ng guro ang iyong papel.
Avoid careless errors. Kung mayroon pang panahon, balikan ang iyong mga sagot at alamin kung may mali sa spelling, grammar o paraan ng pagsagot sa mga items. Maximize the time of the exam. Huwag magmadali at maging over-confident sa sagot. Gamitin ang nalalabing oras upang i-recheck ang mga sagot.
After the exam, give yourself a break. Treat yourself kahit hindi ka masaya sa nangyari (kung alam mong disaster ang performance mo). Sabi nga nila, there’s no use crying over spilt milk. Tapos na iyon at wala ka nang magagawa. Bawi ka na lang sa susunod (kung may next time pa!). Pero mas lalo mong i-treat ang sarili mo if you feel good about yourself after the exam at alam mong nasagot mo nang maayos ang mga tanong! Nonetheless, the most important thing is that you did your best.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Wakasan ang Karahasan sa Pamumuno
Marami ang umalma nang ibinandera ng media ang kaso ng “punching mayor” na si Sara Duterte ng Davao City. Biktima ang Court Sheriff na si Abe Andres nang magkaroon ng demolisyon ng mga bahay sa isang distrito ng siyudad. Nag-init ang sitwasyon nang hindi napagbigyan ang hiling ni Duterte na itigil pansamantala ang demolisyon sa loob ng dalawang oras. Kasalukuyang nagsasagawa ng imbestigasyon ang Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Commission on Human Rights (CHR) at Korte Suprema na maaring humantong sa pagbabayad ng multa, administrative suspension o kaya ay pagpapatalsik sa puwesto ng mayora. May ilan ding nagpahayag na maaring harapin ni Duterte ang isang disbarment case dahil sa paglabag sa code of conduct ng mga abogado.
Ang insidente ay maaring hindi na bago sa marami. Ang ama ng mayora, na kasalukuyang Vice-Mayor ng siyudad na si Rodrigo Duterte ay nagpamalas na ng ganitong uri ng leadership style. Ika nga, like father, like daughter. Wari’y tanggap ng maraming taga-Davao ang ganitong uri ng pamumuno dahil iniluklok nila sa puwesto ang mag-ama.
Buhay na buhay rin ang mga realpolitik na paliwanag sa inasal ng mayora. Para sa Italyanong pilosopo na si Niccolo Machiavelli, kailangang handang gumamit ng dahas ang isang pinuno kung nais niyang mapanatili ang kaniyang kapangyarihan at matamo ang kaniyang mga pulitikal na layunin. Kung kaya, maari na nating palampasin ang panununtok ni Duterte dahil marangal naman ang kaniyang intensyon na tulungan ang mga nagdarahop niyang mga kababayan. Dahil dito, naikapit sa batang Duterte ang imahe ng isang “lady godfather”.
Hindi ito dapat palampasin ng kinauukulan. Katulad ng kaso ni Governor Jocel Baac ng Kalinga na sinaktan rin ang isang radio commentator na si Jerome Tabanganay, hindi dapat ipagkibit-balikat ang mga gawain ng pananakit na maaring sintomas o binhi ng kultura ng karahasan. Kailangang wakasan ang kultura ng “caciquismo”, “bossism” at “sultanismo” na umaalipin sa marami nating kababayan.
Sa kabila ng samu’t saring opinyon sa isyu, may malinaw na katotohanan---ang karahasan ay walang lugar sa lipunang sibil. At ang mga umuugit sa pamahalaan ang dapat na maging modelo at tagapagpanatili nito. Minsang sinabi ni Mahatma Gandhi, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Hindi maaring itago sa ilalim ng basahan ang mga mararahas na asal ng sinumang opisyal ng pamahalaan.
Itinatadhana ng Section 4(c) ng Republic Act 6713, ang batas na nagtatakda ng dapat iasal ng mga naglilingkod sa gobyerno: “Public officials…shall at all times respect the rights of others, and shall refrain from doing acts contrary to law, good morals, good customs, public policy, public order, public safety and public interest…” Malinaw pa sa sikat ng araw na nilabag ni Duterte ang batas na ito.
Usapin din ito ng kakayahan ng institusyon ng pamahalaan na ipatupad ang batas at disiplinahin ang mga opisyal na lumalabag sa kanilang sinumpaang tungkulin. Pinalutang ng isyu ang tensyon sa pagitan ng dalawang puwersang pampulitika ng bansa—ang “astig” at “personalistic” na estilo ng pamamahala ng ilang local chief executives at ang kapasidad ng pambansang pamahalaan na ipatupad ang mga legal na pamantayan.
Public service is public trust. Mas mataas ang pamantayan sa mga lider-gobyerno. Dapat lamang silang maging modelo ng kahinahunan at “pagpipigil sa sarili” (1 Timoteo 3:2).
Friday, June 10, 2011
SI NANAY CITA
Mapagmahal. Masipag. Masarap magluto. Sadyang malinis sa bahay. Masinop at matipid. Madiskarte sa buhay. At higit sa lahat, malalim ang relasyon sa Panginoon.
Noong ako ay nasa elementarya pa lamang, laging sinasabi ng mga kapitbahay namin na ako daw ang pinaka-kamukha niya sa magkakapatid. Pareho kasing malapad ang aming mukha. Pareho ding kulot ang aming buhok. Pakiramdam ko nga, ako ang pinakapaborito niya sa magkakapatid.Sa tuwing may hinihiling ako sa kaniya, mas maliit ang posibilidad na siya ay tatanggi.
Si Nanay ang nagturo sa aming magkakapatid ng mga gawaing-bahay. Mula sa pagbubunot ng sahig, paglalaba ng damit, paglalagay ng hose ng LPG tank, pagsasaing ng bigas, hanggang sa pagluluto ng sinigang na baboy at adobo, binusog niya kami ng kaniyang home management lessons.
Minulat niya rin kami sa kahalagahan ng pagiging masinop sa buhay. Kung paano pahalagahan ang kinitang salapi at lahat ng pinaghirapang bagay. Mapagkakamalan mo nga siyang kuripot dahil sa pagtitipid. Noong kami ay mga musmos pa lamang, pinapagalitan niya kami sa tuwing may mga mumo ng kanin sa labas ng aming pinggan. Mas mapalad daw kami kaysa sa mga taong walang makain. Ang mga damit na puwede pang gamitin, gamitin. Kung kaya pang sulsihan ang mga butas na shorts at pantalon, sulsihan. Hindi rin siya kampante minsan na kumain sa mga mamahaling restaurant. Jolibee at McDo daw ay solb na siya.
Hindi maluho si Nanay. Hindi palabili ng damit, alahas at mamamahaling gamit sa bahay. Ngayon na lamang nang kami ay magkatrabaho. Sa katunayan, ang orasan na binili niya bago pa ako marahil ipinanganak ay naroon pa sa dingding ng aming bahay. Iyon ang naging relo namin sa halos 20 taon. Mahilig din siyang magtago ng mga gamit na alam niyang puwede namang huwag na munang gamitin. Kaya mabibigla ka na lang na iyong regalo na binigay sa kaniya noong isang taon ay bigla na lamang bubulaga sa iyong harapan.
Hindi rin matatawaran ang kaniyang abilidad at diskarte sa buhay. Noong panahong hirap kumita ang aking ama at apat kaming nag-aaral sa haiskul at elementarya, gumawa siya ng paraan upang may baunin kami sa araw-araw. Nagtayo siya ng sari-sari store. Hinding-hindi ko malilimutan ang mga panahong ako ang tagabitbit niya ng kaniyang bayong habang nag-iikot kami sa palengke para mamili. Natutunan ko sa kaniya ang “tried and tested principles” ng pagtawad! Nang mawala ang aming tindahan dahil sa pagkalugi, ibinaling niya ang kaniyang lakas sa pagbebenta ng longasina at tosino. Sinusuyod ang buong lugar namin upang maibenta ang kaniyang pahulugang produkto. Nang matapos ang kaniyang tocino business, sinuong naman niya ang paggawa ng ice candy at ice tubig.
Sobrang sipag ni Nanay. Siya ang babaeng hindi natutuyo ang kamay. Talentado talaga siya sa “paglalaba” ng aming damit, magluto at maghugas ng pinggan. Minsan, ginagawa niya ito nang sabay-sabay. Halos walang kapaguran. May tama siyang timpla sa dami ng sabong ilalagay sa washing machine. Na-perfect niya na rin ang sistema ng pagbabanlaw ng nilabhan. Hindi ko maisip kung paano natagalan ni Nanay na labhan ang mga makakapal naming pantalon noong kami ay nasa haiskul at kolehiyo. Kami na lamang ang taga-buhat ng isasampay. Bagaman napapagod sa gawaing bahay, hindi siya kailanman nagreklamo. Kagalakan niyang tupdin ang kaniyang gawain bilang ina ng tahanan.
Higit sa lahat, si Nanay ang naglapit sa amin sa Panginoon. Matindi ang pagnanais niya na maging seryoso kami sa aming pananampalataya. Noong kami ay mga teenager pa lamang, kinakalampag niya kami sa aming higaan tuwing linggo ng umaga para magsimba. Nariyang magpatugtog nang napakalakas na radyo o kaya naman ay iligpit ang aming unan upang bumangon na sa higaan. Ginawa niya ito upang hindi na lumaki pa ang mga sungay namin sa ulo. Binali niya ang mga sungay na iyon sa matinding panalangin at maayos na pagdidisiplina. Siya ang nagpasimula ng tradisyon sa aming pamilya na manalangin nang sama-sama sa tuwing papasok ang bagong taon.
Nasaksihan rin namin kung paano siya naging mabuting Cristiano sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa. Tuwing Pasko, laging piyesta ang “mood” sa aming tahanan. Hindi puwedeng hindi maghanda dahil hindi matigil ang pagdating ng bisita. Laging inaasahan ng mga bata sa aming lugar na magbibigay siya ng munting regalo. Kahit walang pera, pinipilit niyang magbalot ng mga kendi at laruan para sa kanila. Kasama na dito ang P20 na aginaldo. Puwedeng puwedeng maging DSWD Secretary si Nanay. Laging bukas ang kaniyang puso sa pagtulong sa kapwa, lalo na sa kaniyang mga kapatid at kamag-anak. Minsan, nagawa pa niyang mangutang upang matulungan ang iba.
Si Nanay ang naging modelo ko sa pagpili ng mapapangasawa. Siya rin ang una kong pinagsabihan ng aking plano na manligaw. Sa isip ko, “mother knows best”. Sinuportahan niya ako sa aking desisyon. Basta pagdating daw sa pag-ibig, kailangang unahin si Lord at kailangang seryoso sa aking nararamdaman. Ang kaniyang payo, huwag na huwag magpapaiyak ng babae. Tapat ang Diyos. Tinupad niya ang aking nais. Ibinigay niya sa akin si Gigi.
Walang perpektong ina. Maraming kahinaan si Nanay. Pero natabunan ang lahat ng iyon ng pagsisikap niyang maging mabuting maybahay at ina sa amin. Kung anumang tagumpay ang aking natamo sa kasalukuyan ay bunga ng kaniyang pagmamahal. Purihin ang Panginoon sa kaniyang buhay!
Mahirap makakita ng mabuting asawa, higit sa mamahaling alahas ang kanyang halaga. Iginagalang siya ng kanyang mga anak at pinupuri ng kanyang kabiyak…"Maraming babae na mabuting asawa, ngunit sa kanila'y nakahihigit ka." Magdaraya ang pang-akit at kumukupas ang ganda ngunit ang babaing may takot kay Yahweh ay pupurihin ng balana. Ibunton sa kanya ang lahat ng parangal, karapat-dapat siya sa papuri ng bayan. (Kawikaan 31:10, 29-31)
Mahalin natin nang lubos ang ating mga ina. Mabuhay ang lahat ng Ilaw ng Tahanan!
P.S. Tinapos ko ang sanaysay na ito na may luha ng kagalakan sa aking mga mata.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
MAHAL mo ba talaga si LORD?
Nagsimula ang kuwento sa Hardin ng Getsemane kung saan marubdob na nanalangin si Jesus. Dumating ang mga tauhan ng punong saserdote, kasama si Hudas Iscariote, upang siya ay arestuhin. Sa sobrang galit, tinagpas ni Pedro ang tenga ng isa sa mga nais dumakip sa Panginoon (Marcos 14:47). Pinilit ni Pedro na sumama sa karamihan patungo sa bahay ng punong saserdote nang hindi napapansin. Pero nabigo ang kaniyang plano. May nakakilala sa kaniya. Nang siya ay magipit, itinatwa niyang kilala niya si Jesus. Doon siya naalimpungatan at naalala ang sinabi sa kaniya ng Panginoon na bago tumilaok ang manok sa umaga, itatatwa niya ito nang tatlong beses (Lucas 22:28-30).
Pagmuni-munian natin ang naganap sa buhay ni Apostol Pedro at ang mga bagay na dapat nating isabuhay.
Christians are not called to be “closet disciples”. Dahil marahil sa takot na arestuhin at makulong, hindi niya magawang lumapit sa karamihan habang sinusundan si Hesus papunta sa bahay ng punong saserdote. Hindi siya handa sa anumang parusang maaari niyang danasin kung malaman ng maraming tao na tagasunod siya ni Cristo. Ang tunay na Cristiano ay hindi ikinakahiyang mabansagang Cristiano. Bahagi ng ating pagsunod kay Cristo ang pag-alipusta at paglibak mula sa mga hindi mananampalataya (Mateo 5:11, Juan 15:18-21). Hindi na tayo dapat ma-sorpressa. Nakalulungkot isipin na mas pinahahalagahan ng iba ng kanilang reputasyon higit sa pagtingin sa kanila ng Diyos. Marami ang “bigat na bigat” dalhin ang kanilang Bibliya dahil sa pangambang masabihan na “Holy, Holy” ng kabarkada at kapitbahay. Mayroon ding nagiging allergic sa pagsasambit ng “Praise the Lord” o “Hallellujah” kapag kasama ang kabarkada. Ang sinumang magmakahiya sa Panginoon sa harap ng maraming tao ay ikakahiya rin Niya sa harap ng kaniyang Amang nasa langit (Mateo 10:32-33).
You can easily succumb to these attitudes if you want to follow Jesus “from afar”. Pero hindi iyon ang nais ng Panginoon. Real discipleship is walking with Jesus in an intimate manner. Hindi ka maaaring maging “undercover agent.” Instead, you should be a “city on the hill” (Mateo 5:14). Kailangang mangibabaw sa lahat ng iyong ginagawa ang kabanalan at kabutihan ni Cristo.
We should never wound the heart of God. Sobrang pighati ang naramdaman ni Pedro. Bakit? Dahil naramdaman din niya ang kalungkutan ng Banal na Espiritu na nananahan sa kaniyang puso (Galacia 5:17, Efeso 4:30). Sinaktan niya ang puso ng Panginoon. Hindi siya naging tapat sa kaniyang pangakong hindi niya kailanman iiwan si Jesus habang siya ay nabubuhay (Mateo 26:35, Juan 13:37, Lucas 22:23, Marcos 14:29). Nagsabi pa siya ng sumpa sa kaniyang sarili nang isagot niya sa mga taong nagtanong sa kaniya: "Sumpain man ako ng langit, talagang hindi ko nakikilala ang taong iyan!" (Marcos 14:71).
Napalingon si Jesus kay Pedro. Mabigat ang kahulugan ng titig na iyon. Parang sinasabi sa kanya: “Talaga bang hindi mo ako kilala?” Mas nangibabaw ang lungkot kaniyang puso. Itinuring niya si Pedro na isa sa pinagkakatiwalaan niyang disipulo. Parang isang tabak na itinarak sa kaniyang dibdib ang pagtatwa sa kaniya ng isang malapit na kaibigan.
We should never hurt the heart of our Master who loves us unconditionally. Huwag tayong gagawa ng anumang bagay na alam nating ikakasira ng magandang imahe ng ating Diyos. We should never give Jesus and Christianity a bad name.
Remember that God is a loving and forgiving God. Matapos mamatay sa krus ni Hesus, binalikan niya si Pedro. Nakita niya ito sa dati nitong buhay—ang maging mangingisda. Kung paanong tatlong beses niyang ikinaila ni Pedro si Jesus, tatlong beses din siyang tinanong kung talagang mahal niya ang Panginoon (Juan 21:15-17). Naging madamdamin ang kaniyang tugon: “Nalalaman po ninyo ang lahat ng bagay; nalalaman ninyong iniibig ko kayo”. Muling nagningas ang init ng pagmamahal niya kay Jesus.
Anumang kasalanan ang ating nagawa, tandaan natin na mapagpatawad ang Diyos (1 Juan 1:9, Awit 103:12). He is near to those who are brokenhearted (Awit 34:18). He is a God who restores. Sa kabila ng ating kasalanan, pinili Niyang iligtas tayo (Roma 5:8). Hindi ito bunga ng ating mabuting gawa, kung hindi dahil sa kaniyang purong habag at biyaya (Efeso 2:8-9). Kalooban ng Diyos na talikdan ng lahat ang masama nilang gawi at magkaroon ng personal na relasyon kay Cristo—ang tanging daan tungo sa langit (Juan 3:16; 14:6).
Ito ang pinakadakilang mensahe ng Mahal na Araw.
Kung mahal mo si Lord, isusuko mo ang iyong BUONG buhay sa kaniya. Walang matitira sa iyong sarili. Lahat para sa kaniya. Kung hindi mo pa ito nagagawa, maaari mong nang simulan. Ngayon na.
Pagmuni-munian natin ang naganap sa buhay ni Apostol Pedro at ang mga bagay na dapat nating isabuhay.
Christians are not called to be “closet disciples”. Dahil marahil sa takot na arestuhin at makulong, hindi niya magawang lumapit sa karamihan habang sinusundan si Hesus papunta sa bahay ng punong saserdote. Hindi siya handa sa anumang parusang maaari niyang danasin kung malaman ng maraming tao na tagasunod siya ni Cristo. Ang tunay na Cristiano ay hindi ikinakahiyang mabansagang Cristiano. Bahagi ng ating pagsunod kay Cristo ang pag-alipusta at paglibak mula sa mga hindi mananampalataya (Mateo 5:11, Juan 15:18-21). Hindi na tayo dapat ma-sorpressa. Nakalulungkot isipin na mas pinahahalagahan ng iba ng kanilang reputasyon higit sa pagtingin sa kanila ng Diyos. Marami ang “bigat na bigat” dalhin ang kanilang Bibliya dahil sa pangambang masabihan na “Holy, Holy” ng kabarkada at kapitbahay. Mayroon ding nagiging allergic sa pagsasambit ng “Praise the Lord” o “Hallellujah” kapag kasama ang kabarkada. Ang sinumang magmakahiya sa Panginoon sa harap ng maraming tao ay ikakahiya rin Niya sa harap ng kaniyang Amang nasa langit (Mateo 10:32-33).
You can easily succumb to these attitudes if you want to follow Jesus “from afar”. Pero hindi iyon ang nais ng Panginoon. Real discipleship is walking with Jesus in an intimate manner. Hindi ka maaaring maging “undercover agent.” Instead, you should be a “city on the hill” (Mateo 5:14). Kailangang mangibabaw sa lahat ng iyong ginagawa ang kabanalan at kabutihan ni Cristo.
We should never wound the heart of God. Sobrang pighati ang naramdaman ni Pedro. Bakit? Dahil naramdaman din niya ang kalungkutan ng Banal na Espiritu na nananahan sa kaniyang puso (Galacia 5:17, Efeso 4:30). Sinaktan niya ang puso ng Panginoon. Hindi siya naging tapat sa kaniyang pangakong hindi niya kailanman iiwan si Jesus habang siya ay nabubuhay (Mateo 26:35, Juan 13:37, Lucas 22:23, Marcos 14:29). Nagsabi pa siya ng sumpa sa kaniyang sarili nang isagot niya sa mga taong nagtanong sa kaniya: "Sumpain man ako ng langit, talagang hindi ko nakikilala ang taong iyan!" (Marcos 14:71).
Napalingon si Jesus kay Pedro. Mabigat ang kahulugan ng titig na iyon. Parang sinasabi sa kanya: “Talaga bang hindi mo ako kilala?” Mas nangibabaw ang lungkot kaniyang puso. Itinuring niya si Pedro na isa sa pinagkakatiwalaan niyang disipulo. Parang isang tabak na itinarak sa kaniyang dibdib ang pagtatwa sa kaniya ng isang malapit na kaibigan.
We should never hurt the heart of our Master who loves us unconditionally. Huwag tayong gagawa ng anumang bagay na alam nating ikakasira ng magandang imahe ng ating Diyos. We should never give Jesus and Christianity a bad name.
Remember that God is a loving and forgiving God. Matapos mamatay sa krus ni Hesus, binalikan niya si Pedro. Nakita niya ito sa dati nitong buhay—ang maging mangingisda. Kung paanong tatlong beses niyang ikinaila ni Pedro si Jesus, tatlong beses din siyang tinanong kung talagang mahal niya ang Panginoon (Juan 21:15-17). Naging madamdamin ang kaniyang tugon: “Nalalaman po ninyo ang lahat ng bagay; nalalaman ninyong iniibig ko kayo”. Muling nagningas ang init ng pagmamahal niya kay Jesus.
Anumang kasalanan ang ating nagawa, tandaan natin na mapagpatawad ang Diyos (1 Juan 1:9, Awit 103:12). He is near to those who are brokenhearted (Awit 34:18). He is a God who restores. Sa kabila ng ating kasalanan, pinili Niyang iligtas tayo (Roma 5:8). Hindi ito bunga ng ating mabuting gawa, kung hindi dahil sa kaniyang purong habag at biyaya (Efeso 2:8-9). Kalooban ng Diyos na talikdan ng lahat ang masama nilang gawi at magkaroon ng personal na relasyon kay Cristo—ang tanging daan tungo sa langit (Juan 3:16; 14:6).
Ito ang pinakadakilang mensahe ng Mahal na Araw.
Kung mahal mo si Lord, isusuko mo ang iyong BUONG buhay sa kaniya. Walang matitira sa iyong sarili. Lahat para sa kaniya. Kung hindi mo pa ito nagagawa, maaari mong nang simulan. Ngayon na.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Mga ARAL na itinuro sa atin ni JAN-JAN
Sabihin ninyo nang MORALISTA ang mga kumokondena sa ginawang pagpapasayaw kay Jan-jan sa Willing-Willie noong March 12.
Sabihin ninyong nang KILL-JOY ang mga hindi natuwa sa “entertainment value” (daw) ng macho-dancing ng bata.
Sabihin ninyo nang OA ang mga nagkokomento ukol sa isyu dahil gumagawa sila ng "mountains out of molehills."
Pero may isang hindi mapapasubaliang katotohanan. Bata si Jan-jan. Mura ang isipan. Wala pang muwang. Masunurin sa magulang.
Ano ang itinuturo sa atin ng kaniyang kaso?
Una, ang laban na ito ay hindi lamang para sa kaniya kundi sa lahat ng batang Pinoy. Hindi sila dapat pinaglalaruan at ginagawang instrumento ng matatanda upang magkamal ng “salapi”.
Pangalawa, maraming magulang ang hindi alam ang kanilang responsibilidad na protektahan ang kanilang mga anak. Ito ang ipinahayag ng Commission on Human Rights ukol sa isyu.
"The willingness of Jan-Jan’s parents to expose him, both in private and public, to a humiliating and degrading situation is child abuse. The Commission is also deeply alarmed that the abuse suffered by Jan-Jan was seen on national television and that its videos are being repeatedly watched by the public, including children."
Ito naman ang pahayag ni Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman:
"The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) condemns the emotional abuse and humiliation bestowed on a six-year-old child contestant, during the March 12, 2011 episode of the Willing Willie show aired on TV5.
Iimbestigahin din ng Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) ang kaso:
The Board further emphasizes that whenever children are featured in television programs, producers are mandated to observe legal standards stipulated in R.A. 7610 to avoid “psychological abuse xxx cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment” and “any act by deeds and words which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of the child.”
Sa March 28 episode ng Willing-Willie, hindi kapani-paniwala ang sinabi ng magulang ni Jan-Jan na “macho-dancing” ang gustong-gusto ng bata kaya ito ang kaniyang ginawa. Parang sinasabi ninyo na rin na lahat ng six-year old ay may “instant knowledge” ng ganitong uri ng sayaw. Ginawa iyon ni Jan-Jan dahil may NAGTURO. Period.
Ang tanong ng iba: “Ano ang masama sa macho-dancing? Hindi ba “talent” iyon?” Pero mali ang tanong. Hindi ito usapin ng talento kung hindi “motibo” at “kaakmaan” ng sayaw. Gusto ninyo bang macho-dancing ang sayawin ng mga anak ninyo sa Kiddie Party? Wala na bang ibang sayaw na maaaring ituro sa bata?
Hindi mangmang ang Pinoy. Ang sensual dancing ay sensual dancing. Ayaw kong makita ang susunod na henerasyon ng mga musmos na ang bukambibig kapag nababagot: “Nay, Tay, sayaw naman tayo ng macho-dancing” (with matching tears).
Pangatlo, inilantad ng kaso ang kapangyarihan ng social media. Kung walang Facebook at Youtube, hindi mabubulgar ang “excesses” ng programa (na matagal nang lantad). Naganap ang eksena noong March 12. Makalipas ang isang linggo matapos ilabas ang Youtube Video, umalma ang maraming Pinoy. Naging hinog ang mga emosyon at argumento dahil sa palitan ng opinyon. May malawakang “consensus” na naabuso si Jan-Jan. Itapat mo lang ang higanteng si Bonel Balingit upang takutin ang bata at tuksuhin kung lalaban siya ay isang uri na ng “emotional abuse”.
Pang-apat, hindi dapat pinalalampas ang “iresponsableng” mga TV hosts/shows na umaabuso sa kanilang karapatan. Notorious si Willie at ang kaniyang programa sa paglikha ng “kultura ng panlilimos”. Tinatakam nila ang mga tao ng pera kaya nagkakandarapa sila (at nagkaka-stampede pa) sa pagpila sa kaniyang programa. Isinulat ng batikang manunulat na si F. Sionil Jose sa kaniyang librong, "Why we are Poor” (Termites in the Sala, Heroes in the Attic) ang kaniyang kalungkutan sa bagay na ito.
Media are largely to blame, especially the talk show host on television and some editors of entertainment and features section. They pander to the crassest tastes. Indeed, we have willfully relegated our sterling heroes in the attic where they are conveniently forgotten - while on our TV screens, are anointed with honors, we show them off like heirlooms that adorn our living rooms, not realizing they are actually the termites that will eventually bring our house down.
Hindi nagkaroon ng 400,000 hits ang Youtube Video ni Janjan dahil sinusuportahan ng marami ang Willing-Willie, kundi dahil INABUSO ng mga matatanda ang bata! Balikan natin ang sinasabi ng Panginoon sa Mateo 18:6:
Ngunit ang sinumang maging katitisuran sa isa sa mga maliliit na ito na sumasampalataya sa akin ay mabuti pang talian ng malaking gilingang bato ang kaniyang leeg at itapon sa dagat.
Huwag nating ibulid sa kasamaan ang mga musmos. Ingatan sila, protektahan at palakihin sa tamang uri ng pamumuhay.
Sabihin ninyong nang KILL-JOY ang mga hindi natuwa sa “entertainment value” (daw) ng macho-dancing ng bata.
Sabihin ninyo nang OA ang mga nagkokomento ukol sa isyu dahil gumagawa sila ng "mountains out of molehills."
Pero may isang hindi mapapasubaliang katotohanan. Bata si Jan-jan. Mura ang isipan. Wala pang muwang. Masunurin sa magulang.
Una, ang laban na ito ay hindi lamang para sa kaniya kundi sa lahat ng batang Pinoy. Hindi sila dapat pinaglalaruan at ginagawang instrumento ng matatanda upang magkamal ng “salapi”.
Pangalawa, maraming magulang ang hindi alam ang kanilang responsibilidad na protektahan ang kanilang mga anak. Ito ang ipinahayag ng Commission on Human Rights ukol sa isyu.
"The willingness of Jan-Jan’s parents to expose him, both in private and public, to a humiliating and degrading situation is child abuse. The Commission is also deeply alarmed that the abuse suffered by Jan-Jan was seen on national television and that its videos are being repeatedly watched by the public, including children."
Ito naman ang pahayag ni Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman:
"The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) condemns the emotional abuse and humiliation bestowed on a six-year-old child contestant, during the March 12, 2011 episode of the Willing Willie show aired on TV5.
Iimbestigahin din ng Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) ang kaso:
The Board further emphasizes that whenever children are featured in television programs, producers are mandated to observe legal standards stipulated in R.A. 7610 to avoid “psychological abuse xxx cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment” and “any act by deeds and words which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of the child.”
Sa March 28 episode ng Willing-Willie, hindi kapani-paniwala ang sinabi ng magulang ni Jan-Jan na “macho-dancing” ang gustong-gusto ng bata kaya ito ang kaniyang ginawa. Parang sinasabi ninyo na rin na lahat ng six-year old ay may “instant knowledge” ng ganitong uri ng sayaw. Ginawa iyon ni Jan-Jan dahil may NAGTURO. Period.
Ang tanong ng iba: “Ano ang masama sa macho-dancing? Hindi ba “talent” iyon?” Pero mali ang tanong. Hindi ito usapin ng talento kung hindi “motibo” at “kaakmaan” ng sayaw. Gusto ninyo bang macho-dancing ang sayawin ng mga anak ninyo sa Kiddie Party? Wala na bang ibang sayaw na maaaring ituro sa bata?
Hindi mangmang ang Pinoy. Ang sensual dancing ay sensual dancing. Ayaw kong makita ang susunod na henerasyon ng mga musmos na ang bukambibig kapag nababagot: “Nay, Tay, sayaw naman tayo ng macho-dancing” (with matching tears).
Pangatlo, inilantad ng kaso ang kapangyarihan ng social media. Kung walang Facebook at Youtube, hindi mabubulgar ang “excesses” ng programa (na matagal nang lantad). Naganap ang eksena noong March 12. Makalipas ang isang linggo matapos ilabas ang Youtube Video, umalma ang maraming Pinoy. Naging hinog ang mga emosyon at argumento dahil sa palitan ng opinyon. May malawakang “consensus” na naabuso si Jan-Jan. Itapat mo lang ang higanteng si Bonel Balingit upang takutin ang bata at tuksuhin kung lalaban siya ay isang uri na ng “emotional abuse”.
Pang-apat, hindi dapat pinalalampas ang “iresponsableng” mga TV hosts/shows na umaabuso sa kanilang karapatan. Notorious si Willie at ang kaniyang programa sa paglikha ng “kultura ng panlilimos”. Tinatakam nila ang mga tao ng pera kaya nagkakandarapa sila (at nagkaka-stampede pa) sa pagpila sa kaniyang programa. Isinulat ng batikang manunulat na si F. Sionil Jose sa kaniyang librong, "Why we are Poor” (Termites in the Sala, Heroes in the Attic) ang kaniyang kalungkutan sa bagay na ito.
Media are largely to blame, especially the talk show host on television and some editors of entertainment and features section. They pander to the crassest tastes. Indeed, we have willfully relegated our sterling heroes in the attic where they are conveniently forgotten - while on our TV screens, are anointed with honors, we show them off like heirlooms that adorn our living rooms, not realizing they are actually the termites that will eventually bring our house down.
Hindi nagkaroon ng 400,000 hits ang Youtube Video ni Janjan dahil sinusuportahan ng marami ang Willing-Willie, kundi dahil INABUSO ng mga matatanda ang bata! Balikan natin ang sinasabi ng Panginoon sa Mateo 18:6:
Ngunit ang sinumang maging katitisuran sa isa sa mga maliliit na ito na sumasampalataya sa akin ay mabuti pang talian ng malaking gilingang bato ang kaniyang leeg at itapon sa dagat.
Huwag nating ibulid sa kasamaan ang mga musmos. Ingatan sila, protektahan at palakihin sa tamang uri ng pamumuhay.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
HOW TO MOVE ON: C.P.R.
Sa loob ng apat na taon, inakala ni Julia na papunta na sa kasalan ang kaniyang relasyon sa kaniyang BF. Nagbago ang ihip ng hangin nang maramdaman niyang unti-unting nawawala ang init ng pagmamahal sa kaniya ng kaniyang partner. Wala nang matatamis na SMS messages at dumadalang na ang pakikipag-date. Pinilit niya itong hindi pansinin (i.e. baka busy lang talaga). Hanggang sa matanggap niya ang pangungusap ng kaniyang BF na sadyang “tuyo” na ang kaniyang damdamin para sa kaniya. Lumipas ang ilang linggo na walang komunikasyon. Walang maibigay na dahilan ang lalake sa pagkawala ng romantic spark. Walang maisip si Julia na kaniyang nagawa upang iwan siya ng kaniyang BF. She is now battling with depression.
Kapag break-ups na ang pinag-usapan, walang masaya. MASAKIT. As in MASAKIT. Ikaw ba naman ang mag-invest ng emosyon, panahon at salapi sa iyong minamahal at biglang maglalaho ang lahat. Kahit sabihin pang ginawa mo ang lahat ng iyon “out of love”, may lakas kang binuhos doon. Feeling mo, nalugi ka at "naglaho" ang kalahati ng iyong buhay.
Kung member ka ng PC- Pighati Club, you need C.P.R..
CRY. Madaling sabihin na kalimutan na ang lahat at magsimula muli. As if walang nangyari sa ilang taon na kayo ay nagkasama. Magpakatotoo ka brother/sister. Hindi masamang umiyak. Iyak lang. Kung kailangang humagulgol, hagulgol (huwag naman habang sakay ng MRT, jeep o bus). May cathartic effect ang pagluha. Ilabas ang lahat ng mabigat na emosyon. Pero sa iyong paghihinagpis, ipanalangin mo na samahan ka ni Lord. He is near to the brokenhearted at mapapagaan Niya ang iyong mga kabigatan (Psalm 34:18, Matthew 11:28). Puwede mong sabihin sa kaniya: “Lord, alam mong labis akong nalulungkot. Puwede mo ba akong yakapin?” In His presence, you can find comfort and peace.
PONDER ON WHAT HAPPENED. Habang kinakalma ang iyong kalooban, pag-isipan ang ilang bagay sa iyong buhay. Have a time of reflection. Isuko ang lahat ng galit at emosyon sa Panginoon. Madalas iniisip natin na wala tayong kasalanan sa isang natapos na relasyon. Hindi makakabuting ibunton ang lahat ng sisi sa iyong partner. Lalo ka lang magkaka-high blood. Kung wala kang ginawang masama para hiwalayan ka, maaaring may mali ka pa rin. Kasi pumili ka ng maling tao. Be ready to accept your shortcomings. Have a firm resolve not to repeat your blunders. Ganundin, tingnan ang lahat ng pagsubok sa buhay bilang magagandang aral. Remember that all things can work together for those who love God (Romans 8:28).
REBOUND. Decide to move on. Ang pagbangon mula sa mapait na karanasan ay isang desisyon. May panahon ng pagluluksa. May panahon din ng pagsisimula. Huwag sirain ang iyong buhay dahil lamang sa isang “glitch” sa isang episode ng iyong personal na telenovela. Warning: sa panahon ng emotional recovery, huwag agad tatalon sa isang relasyon. A recuperating heart is susceptible to emotional mistakes. You can make a happy ending lalo na kung si Lord ang director ng iyong buhay. Kaya Niyang bigyan ka ng partner na mag-aalaga sa iyong puso. As you wait for Mister/Miss Right, be the RIGHT person. Gamitin ang iyong mapait na karanasan upang tulungan ang iba. Ika nga ni Henri Nouwen, we are all "wounded healers".
Kapag break-ups na ang pinag-usapan, walang masaya. MASAKIT. As in MASAKIT. Ikaw ba naman ang mag-invest ng emosyon, panahon at salapi sa iyong minamahal at biglang maglalaho ang lahat. Kahit sabihin pang ginawa mo ang lahat ng iyon “out of love”, may lakas kang binuhos doon. Feeling mo, nalugi ka at "naglaho" ang kalahati ng iyong buhay.
Kung member ka ng PC- Pighati Club, you need C.P.R..
CRY. Madaling sabihin na kalimutan na ang lahat at magsimula muli. As if walang nangyari sa ilang taon na kayo ay nagkasama. Magpakatotoo ka brother/sister. Hindi masamang umiyak. Iyak lang. Kung kailangang humagulgol, hagulgol (huwag naman habang sakay ng MRT, jeep o bus). May cathartic effect ang pagluha. Ilabas ang lahat ng mabigat na emosyon. Pero sa iyong paghihinagpis, ipanalangin mo na samahan ka ni Lord. He is near to the brokenhearted at mapapagaan Niya ang iyong mga kabigatan (Psalm 34:18, Matthew 11:28). Puwede mong sabihin sa kaniya: “Lord, alam mong labis akong nalulungkot. Puwede mo ba akong yakapin?” In His presence, you can find comfort and peace.
PONDER ON WHAT HAPPENED. Habang kinakalma ang iyong kalooban, pag-isipan ang ilang bagay sa iyong buhay. Have a time of reflection. Isuko ang lahat ng galit at emosyon sa Panginoon. Madalas iniisip natin na wala tayong kasalanan sa isang natapos na relasyon. Hindi makakabuting ibunton ang lahat ng sisi sa iyong partner. Lalo ka lang magkaka-high blood. Kung wala kang ginawang masama para hiwalayan ka, maaaring may mali ka pa rin. Kasi pumili ka ng maling tao. Be ready to accept your shortcomings. Have a firm resolve not to repeat your blunders. Ganundin, tingnan ang lahat ng pagsubok sa buhay bilang magagandang aral. Remember that all things can work together for those who love God (Romans 8:28).
REBOUND. Decide to move on. Ang pagbangon mula sa mapait na karanasan ay isang desisyon. May panahon ng pagluluksa. May panahon din ng pagsisimula. Huwag sirain ang iyong buhay dahil lamang sa isang “glitch” sa isang episode ng iyong personal na telenovela. Warning: sa panahon ng emotional recovery, huwag agad tatalon sa isang relasyon. A recuperating heart is susceptible to emotional mistakes. You can make a happy ending lalo na kung si Lord ang director ng iyong buhay. Kaya Niyang bigyan ka ng partner na mag-aalaga sa iyong puso. As you wait for Mister/Miss Right, be the RIGHT person. Gamitin ang iyong mapait na karanasan upang tulungan ang iba. Ika nga ni Henri Nouwen, we are all "wounded healers".
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
SPREAD THE LOVE
Ito ang buwan na nagkukulay pula ang sanlibutan (i.e. pulang damit, pulang sapatos at marami pang pula), bumabango ang paligid dahil sa halimuyak ng mga bulaklak at maraming nagkakaroon ng “sweet tooth” dahil sa paglipana ng Toblerone, Hershey’s, Truffles at Chocnut/Haney bilang panregalo. Kapansin-pansin ang pagtaas ng benta ng romantic cards at love merchandise. Hindi rin mapapsubalian ang “intimate moments” ng maraming magsing-irog. Punong-puno ang reservations ng mga hotels at motels, ganundin ang mga Love-a-Palooza events.
Kaya para sa mga walang “significant other” na nakakasaksi sa lahat ng ito, maituturing na SAD ang Valentine’s Day (Single Awareness Day).
Bakit nga ba may Valentine’s Day? Kailangan ba talagang i-celebrate ang araw na ito? O tanggalin na lamang sa kalendaryo?
Hindi magkasundo ang mga historians sa tunay na pinagmulan ng tradisyon. Ayon sa Catholic Encyclopedia, may tatlong santong Valentino na naging martir sa ika-14 ng Pebrero. Isang kuwento ang nagsasabing isang Obispo si Valentino na nagdaos ng mga sikretong kasal ng mga sundalong Romano at kanilang mga nobya noong panahong ipinagbawal ni Emperador Claudius II ang pag-aasawa. Nahirapan kasi ang Imperyo Roma na makakuha ng mga sundalo dahil ayaw ng mga kalalakihan na iwan ang kanilang mga mahal sa buhay. Sa isa pang kuwento, idineklara raw ni Pope Gelasius noong 469 A.D. ang ika-14 ng Pebrero bilang araw ni San Valentino upang kalabanin ang Feast of Lupercalis/Lupercalia, isang fertility festival na isinasagawa tuwing ika-15 ng Pebrero.
Ano pa man ang kasaysayan ng pagdiriwang—pagano o Cristiano man ang pinagmulan—gamitin natin ang pagkakataon upang ipakita sa lahat ang pag-ibig ng Diyos (1 John 4:7-8). Kung malusog ka, donate ka ng dugo sa Red Cross. Bigyan mo ng appreciation notes o flowers ang iyong boss, guro, kaibigan o mahal sa buhay. Pagpahingahin mo si nanay sa paghugugas ng pinggan at paglalaba ng damit. Ikaw naman ang gumawa ng gawaing bahay. This can also be an opportune time to settle conflicts with your enemies.
Hindi lamang tayo dapat nakatuon sa “romantic element” ng Valentine’s Day. Hindi kailangang mamigay ng “condom” sa Valentine's Day kung ang pagtingin sa pag-ibig ay hindi nakatuon sa pisikal na pagniniiig ng katawan. Sex is not the end-all and be-all of a serious, committed relationship! Mas dapat nating pahalagahan ang pagtuunan ng pansin ang pagpapakita ng katapatan at kalinisan ng kalooban. Sa mga singles, celebrate your independence and offer the prime years of your lives for the greater glory of God.
Lagi nating balikan ang naganap sa Krus ng Kalbaryo—kung saan ipinakita ng Diyos ang pinakadakilang pag-ibig sa lahat. He showed himself as the greatest lover of all by giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). We are missing the greatest message of the season if our love is not founded on the real source of it.
This Love Month, palitan ang Facebook Status: In a Relationship (With Jesus).
Kaya para sa mga walang “significant other” na nakakasaksi sa lahat ng ito, maituturing na SAD ang Valentine’s Day (Single Awareness Day).
Bakit nga ba may Valentine’s Day? Kailangan ba talagang i-celebrate ang araw na ito? O tanggalin na lamang sa kalendaryo?
Hindi magkasundo ang mga historians sa tunay na pinagmulan ng tradisyon. Ayon sa Catholic Encyclopedia, may tatlong santong Valentino na naging martir sa ika-14 ng Pebrero. Isang kuwento ang nagsasabing isang Obispo si Valentino na nagdaos ng mga sikretong kasal ng mga sundalong Romano at kanilang mga nobya noong panahong ipinagbawal ni Emperador Claudius II ang pag-aasawa. Nahirapan kasi ang Imperyo Roma na makakuha ng mga sundalo dahil ayaw ng mga kalalakihan na iwan ang kanilang mga mahal sa buhay. Sa isa pang kuwento, idineklara raw ni Pope Gelasius noong 469 A.D. ang ika-14 ng Pebrero bilang araw ni San Valentino upang kalabanin ang Feast of Lupercalis/Lupercalia, isang fertility festival na isinasagawa tuwing ika-15 ng Pebrero.
Ano pa man ang kasaysayan ng pagdiriwang—pagano o Cristiano man ang pinagmulan—gamitin natin ang pagkakataon upang ipakita sa lahat ang pag-ibig ng Diyos (1 John 4:7-8). Kung malusog ka, donate ka ng dugo sa Red Cross. Bigyan mo ng appreciation notes o flowers ang iyong boss, guro, kaibigan o mahal sa buhay. Pagpahingahin mo si nanay sa paghugugas ng pinggan at paglalaba ng damit. Ikaw naman ang gumawa ng gawaing bahay. This can also be an opportune time to settle conflicts with your enemies.
Hindi lamang tayo dapat nakatuon sa “romantic element” ng Valentine’s Day. Hindi kailangang mamigay ng “condom” sa Valentine's Day kung ang pagtingin sa pag-ibig ay hindi nakatuon sa pisikal na pagniniiig ng katawan. Sex is not the end-all and be-all of a serious, committed relationship! Mas dapat nating pahalagahan ang pagtuunan ng pansin ang pagpapakita ng katapatan at kalinisan ng kalooban. Sa mga singles, celebrate your independence and offer the prime years of your lives for the greater glory of God.
Lagi nating balikan ang naganap sa Krus ng Kalbaryo—kung saan ipinakita ng Diyos ang pinakadakilang pag-ibig sa lahat. He showed himself as the greatest lover of all by giving His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). We are missing the greatest message of the season if our love is not founded on the real source of it.
This Love Month, palitan ang Facebook Status: In a Relationship (With Jesus).
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Finally a new Constitution in 2011? by Fr. Joaquin Bernas
WILL WE have a new Constitution before 2011 ends?
But before that, let me just again say that I have never claimed that the 1987 Constitution is perfect. It is the Constitution, warts and all, which the Filipino people overwhelmingly ratified after we emerged from the dark era of martial rule. But no matter what the circumstances of its birth are, no constitution is ever perfect. A constitution, although more enduring than statutes, is always a work in progress. Even the US Constitution, the oldest in the world, is a work in progress. Ours is, and one of these days, it will have to yield to change. Is 2011 the year?
I don’t think it matters constitutionally that the President does not consider constitutional change a matter of urgency. If you look at the text of the Constitution, you will see that the President is not given a role in the amendatory process. He will have a decisive role only if Congress is willing supinely to follow his dictation. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was for constitutional change, but her wanting it brought her nowhere. Now she is where the decision to change or not to change matters.
Having said that, let us first look at what has happened to attempts at constitutional change so far. Next month the Constitution will complete its 24th year. Through all these years it has remained untouched. It has lasted unchanged longer than either the 1935 Constitution or the 1973 Constitution. The 1935 Constitution underwent change almost immediately after its birth, first, by giving suffrage to women, and a little later by moving from a unicameral National Assembly to a bicameral Congress. As to the 1973 Constitution, it was not what the Constitutional Convention of 1971-1972 had intended and, during its brief lifetime, it underwent several major changes.
If the 1987 Constitution has resisted change to this date, it is not because it is a perfect Constitution nor is it for want of attempts to change it. Almost every year attempts at constitutional change have been made. None has succeeded.
In my view, one major obstacle to attempts to revise the 1987 Constitution is structural. It has a built-in unintended obstacle to change. And I do not know how this can be overcome this year.
In many respects the 1987 Constitution consists of significant borrowings from the 1935 Constitution. Unfortunately, however, the provision on the amendatory process is a carbon copy of the provision in the 1973 Constitution. Year after year since 1987 this has been the major obstacle to change. Why so?
The text says: “Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or (2) a constitutional convention. . . . The Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its Members, call a constitutional convention, or by a majority vote of all its Members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.”
The provision is one formulated for a unicameral legislative body but it is now meant to work for a bicameral Congress. This was not a tactical product designed by an evil genius. It is merely the result of oversight. But the oversight has spawned major problems.
First, must Senate and House come together in joint session before they can do anything that can lead to charter change? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on this question: Congress could not begin to work on constitutional change unless they first came together in joint session. The 1987 Constitution is non-committal.
Second, since the text of the Constitution is not clear about requiring a joint session, can Congress work on constitutional change analogously to the way it works on ordinary legislation, that is where they are and as they are? I have always maintained that Congress can, but this is by no means a settled matter. There are those who believe that the importance of Charter change demands a joint session.
Third, should Congress decide to come together in joint session, must Senate and House vote separately or may they vote jointly? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on the need for separate voting; the present Constitution is silent about this. But I am sure that the Senate will not agree to a joint voting where their number can be buried in an avalanche of House votes, an avalanche of votes which can mean the abolition of the Senate! How will this issue be settled? Howsoever the matter might be settled by agreement of the majority of both houses, someone in the minority will run to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.
What about a constitutional convention? But the business of calling a constitutional convention is fraught with the same problems. Should Congress choose to call a constitutional convention, must the two houses be in joint session? And if in joint session, should they vote separately?
Briefly, constitutional change in 2011 or later can happen only if the members of Congress can agree to work in harmony and if the Supreme Court will not throw a monkey wrench on how Congress decides to do it. Can the members of Congress rise above self-interest and work together harmoniously? Or are we waiting for an extra-constitutional change?
Source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110117-314896/Finally-a-new-Constitution-in-2011
But before that, let me just again say that I have never claimed that the 1987 Constitution is perfect. It is the Constitution, warts and all, which the Filipino people overwhelmingly ratified after we emerged from the dark era of martial rule. But no matter what the circumstances of its birth are, no constitution is ever perfect. A constitution, although more enduring than statutes, is always a work in progress. Even the US Constitution, the oldest in the world, is a work in progress. Ours is, and one of these days, it will have to yield to change. Is 2011 the year?
I don’t think it matters constitutionally that the President does not consider constitutional change a matter of urgency. If you look at the text of the Constitution, you will see that the President is not given a role in the amendatory process. He will have a decisive role only if Congress is willing supinely to follow his dictation. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was for constitutional change, but her wanting it brought her nowhere. Now she is where the decision to change or not to change matters.
Having said that, let us first look at what has happened to attempts at constitutional change so far. Next month the Constitution will complete its 24th year. Through all these years it has remained untouched. It has lasted unchanged longer than either the 1935 Constitution or the 1973 Constitution. The 1935 Constitution underwent change almost immediately after its birth, first, by giving suffrage to women, and a little later by moving from a unicameral National Assembly to a bicameral Congress. As to the 1973 Constitution, it was not what the Constitutional Convention of 1971-1972 had intended and, during its brief lifetime, it underwent several major changes.
If the 1987 Constitution has resisted change to this date, it is not because it is a perfect Constitution nor is it for want of attempts to change it. Almost every year attempts at constitutional change have been made. None has succeeded.
In my view, one major obstacle to attempts to revise the 1987 Constitution is structural. It has a built-in unintended obstacle to change. And I do not know how this can be overcome this year.
In many respects the 1987 Constitution consists of significant borrowings from the 1935 Constitution. Unfortunately, however, the provision on the amendatory process is a carbon copy of the provision in the 1973 Constitution. Year after year since 1987 this has been the major obstacle to change. Why so?
The text says: “Any amendment to, or revision of, this Constitution may be proposed by: (1) The Congress, upon a vote of three-fourths of all its Members; or (2) a constitutional convention. . . . The Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of all its Members, call a constitutional convention, or by a majority vote of all its Members, submit to the electorate the question of calling such a convention.”
The provision is one formulated for a unicameral legislative body but it is now meant to work for a bicameral Congress. This was not a tactical product designed by an evil genius. It is merely the result of oversight. But the oversight has spawned major problems.
First, must Senate and House come together in joint session before they can do anything that can lead to charter change? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on this question: Congress could not begin to work on constitutional change unless they first came together in joint session. The 1987 Constitution is non-committal.
Second, since the text of the Constitution is not clear about requiring a joint session, can Congress work on constitutional change analogously to the way it works on ordinary legislation, that is where they are and as they are? I have always maintained that Congress can, but this is by no means a settled matter. There are those who believe that the importance of Charter change demands a joint session.
Third, should Congress decide to come together in joint session, must Senate and House vote separately or may they vote jointly? The 1935 Constitution was very clear on the need for separate voting; the present Constitution is silent about this. But I am sure that the Senate will not agree to a joint voting where their number can be buried in an avalanche of House votes, an avalanche of votes which can mean the abolition of the Senate! How will this issue be settled? Howsoever the matter might be settled by agreement of the majority of both houses, someone in the minority will run to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision.
What about a constitutional convention? But the business of calling a constitutional convention is fraught with the same problems. Should Congress choose to call a constitutional convention, must the two houses be in joint session? And if in joint session, should they vote separately?
Briefly, constitutional change in 2011 or later can happen only if the members of Congress can agree to work in harmony and if the Supreme Court will not throw a monkey wrench on how Congress decides to do it. Can the members of Congress rise above self-interest and work together harmoniously? Or are we waiting for an extra-constitutional change?
Source: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110117-314896/Finally-a-new-Constitution-in-2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
NEW YEAR ATTITUDES
FORGET the Baggage of the Past
* Philippians 3:13-14-My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
* Isaiah 43:18-19- But the LORD says, "Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already---you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.
Be FRESH
* Ephesians 4:24 - And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness.
* Matthew 9:16-17- No one puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; else the wineskins burst, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.
Look FORWARD
* Habakkuk 2:2-3-And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.
* Psalm 37:5-6-Give yourself to the LORD; trust in him, and he will help you; he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.
Have FAITH
* Mark 11:23-24- For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said. Therefore I say to you, All things, whatever you ask, praying, believe that you shall receive them, and it will be to you.
Receive God’s FAVOR
* Deuteronomy 28:1-2-And it will be, if you shall listen carefully to the voice of Jehovah your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you today, Jehovah your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, if you will listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.
* Philippians 3:13-14-My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
* Isaiah 43:18-19- But the LORD says, "Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already---you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.
Be FRESH
* Ephesians 4:24 - And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness.
* Matthew 9:16-17- No one puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; else the wineskins burst, and the wine runs out, and the wineskins perish. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved together.
Look FORWARD
* Habakkuk 2:2-3-And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.
* Psalm 37:5-6-Give yourself to the LORD; trust in him, and he will help you; he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.
Have FAITH
* Mark 11:23-24- For truly I say to you that whoever shall say to this mountain, Be moved and be cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he said shall occur, he shall have whatever he said. Therefore I say to you, All things, whatever you ask, praying, believe that you shall receive them, and it will be to you.
Receive God’s FAVOR
* Deuteronomy 28:1-2-And it will be, if you shall listen carefully to the voice of Jehovah your God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command you today, Jehovah your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, if you will listen to the voice of Jehovah your God.
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