Well Done PNoy! – Thoughts on SONA 2015

It may not be the best presidential term. It may have been riddled with criticisms and missed opportunities, but, for the most part, it was a good term.

Having lived through 5 presidents (Cory, Ramos, Erap, Gloria and PNoy), PNoy’s term is, by far, the best. He was able to accomplish more than all the 4 past presidents combined. It took 5 presidential terms to finally curb the adverse effects of Marcos’ dictatorship. After the Martial Law, we have spiralled downwards as the poverty of our country was slowly exposed. Corruption remained rampant and people, despite the nationalistic spirit during EDSA Revolution, remained apathetic and impassive – already disillusioned with the state of our government.

I recall how we, as the youth, were constantly urged to be more aware of political affairs; to care more for the country and who we vote and what reforms took place. Yet I will hear many in my generation simply refuse to care, choosing instead to dream of going abroad towards greener pastures. They long to take courses that will secure them a work abroad. Many became nurses and left the country.

But the case is different now. I see more of my generation becoming aware of the current state of our nation. I see more people beginning to care.

And this is because PNoy has given us hope. Hope that there could be a better Philippines.

He has shown us that good governance is possible. That it is possible to rise up in the middle of corruption, criticisms and dissents. He has inspired us that a TUWID NA DAAN is possible.

Oh yes he is not perfect. Yes he has his lapses. There are many things that could have been better. Yolanda and Mampasanao are his recent blunders. But for every blunder he made, there are many other praiseworthy items worth noting. The improved credit ratings due to increased trust by investors, the number of PPP projects which totaled to 50 vs the 6 in the past 3 administrations and the K-12 Program which to me, when given the chance, will put our education at par with the world’s standards (after all, before K-12 we are one of the only two nations not implementing K-12).

He knew it will be a tough job to lead this country coming from the blunders of the past administrations. But he still took the challenge. I can recall how he ascended to presidency right after his mother died. He must have been in grief still at that time when he took on the challenge. It was Mar Roxas who was supposed to be LP’s bet for President. I was all geared to support Mar. But the sudden turn of events saw Noynoy running for President.

I voted for him. And I was not disappointed.

There are many things I still wish would happen like the passage of the FOI Bill but six years is indeed a short time to implement all the good things the country needs. I also know that sometimes, in the pursuit of goodness, there would be certain decisions that will make you unpopular. Decisions that for now, the public may not understand, but when the right time comes everything will be made clear.

PNoy’s term is coming to an end. But his projects and what he accomplished will remain for long. The 2016 Elections is just around the bend. At this point, we should all be diligently doing our research on who the rightful candidates should be.

Instead of criticizing, let us think of solutions. And then determine who’s the leader who can best implement them.

We cannot expect perfection but we should demand excellence. And our next leader should be someone who will do his best – whatever it takes – to serve the country, and not himself.

Indeed you did Mr. President. You did.  -PNoy quoting 2 Tim 4:7
Indeed you did Mr. President. You did.
-PNoy quoting 2 Tim 4:7

Related Articles from around my blog:

PNOY: Lonely at the Top?

Where is PNoy?

Related Articles from around the web:

Aquino’s Legacy: His Final SONA by CNN Philipipnes

SONA 2015: Legacies and Missed Opportunities by Rappler

Full Text of SONA 2015 in English (courtesy of Rappler)

Great Insights of Friends working with the PNoy Administration

aika raffy

D4DR gene mutation. I know I have it.

I don’t really know how to start this blog yet there is something I need to write down. Just to get it off my system. Or to dissect it even further. This won’t be an easy post. It is never easy admitting to the world that you have a character flaw. It is never easy admitting your were mistaken. It is even more difficult discussing your weaknesses. But weaknesses would forever remain such if they are not brought out into the open and discussed. No rational solution can be hoped to be achieved if the problem is never discussed. And such, I, once again, make myself vulnerable in the attempt to solve something or at least throw some light into it.

As I enter the corporate world or the working world and leave the predictable life of a student, I am aghast to note that though I have the skills and personality to survive in any corporate setting, I do not have enough of a willpower to do so. Devoid of any real motivation for working, like sending some siblings to school or helping the family out financially (not that we are well-off (we are not) but I am not obliged to help in any way except voluntarily), I find it very easy to become bored with what I do. When I look at my resume, I find that I have a lot of work experiences but none of them even lasted to a year. Not because I was not performing well, in fact I exceeded expectations, but because I became bored with the job and sought something better. Something more exciting.

I know, and I have been told, that I would never last in a routinary job like an office job. I need something that changes constantly and that puts me into pressures that would thrill me. I crave excitement and adventure all the time that a static job would bore me to death.

I am seriously alarmed and aghast to find the prediction coming true. I lose excitement easily. When I was working in the call center, the novelty was great for me. I had so much fun in the beginning. As days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and the work became repetitive since I’ve mastered almost all of it, I became despondent. I shifted to medical transcription which was really working out all right but the pay and the company policies were questionable and I was forced to get out. I pursued freelance writing which was taxing deadlines piled one on top of the other. But after those weeks were done, I am left with a void. I can go ahead and accept new job offers and enter the same cycle but I dare not. No one wants to suffer another bout of low blood incidents and skin as pale as the Twilight vampires.

And the more alarming thing to all of these, is that I have no plans as to what I want to do next. Yes, I have thought of several options. I know I could really teach college (there have been hints of offers) and I know I could apply at any company I so desire (I am never at a lack for self-confidence and smooth words) but the drive to really make something happen is missing. There is no push, no internal motivation. I lament and I cry that I am like this. My bestfriend said that I have always been a structured person. Back in our high school days, she has known me to always have a plan – even if the first plan backfired, I have a spare. I have also always been full of goals. Goals to accomplish.

But I guess, the shifting around of those goals has left me somewhat goal-less. The goals all appear to be like shadows of a dream I once had that somehow I’ve lost the will to attain.

I know I have the D4DR mutation (see D4DR article). I need higher levels of dopamine than the rest. I understand that now. So what do I do? Seek out adventures on my own. Create my own thrills? My mom said I shouldn’t waste life sulking around the house, waiting for opportunities to present themselves. Indeed, I musn’t. She urges me to go out there, find some employment, not because I need to earn money badly but because I need the social company. Indeed I cannot lock myself up inside the house, under the pretense of freelance writing and with the internet as my social companion. Freelance writing is good. Writing, as I said countless of times, will always be my passion. Online social communities are nice. It is always great to meet real people virtually, whether they be clients or colleagues. Yet, I know that there is also more to life than just living a seemingly virtual existence.

So what are my plans now? Now that I have finally attained that long worked for diploma, where do I go from here? When I first “technically” graduated – that is when I finished all my subjects and have been free to get a full-time job, there were a lot of doors open for me. There were so many paths I could choose. Now that I have officially graduated – no more snags with the thesis – there are more doors than ever. But the doors are shrouded by a mist, a mist that only internal motivation and drive can lift up.

I know, subconciously, I have been sort of blaming a withering spiritual relationship for all of this. I keep thinking, if I fix this spiritual humdrum I am in, then I am sure the internal drive will return. But even with fixing that relationship, I am lacking motivation. Humbug! What has happened to me?

I must shake myself from this stupor. Get out there and start again. I am young. I am capable. And I know I can do it.

Besides, people with the D4DR mutation are more prone to psychological and psychiatric disorders when the dopamine levels they need are not met properly.

I don’t really know how to start this blog yet there is something I need to write down. Just to get it off my system. Or to dissect it even further. This won’t be an easy post. It is never easy admitting to the world that you have a character flaw. It is never easy admitting your were mistaken. It is even more difficult discussing your weaknesses. But weaknesses would forever remain such if they are not brought out into the open and discussed. No rational solution can be hoped to be achieved if the problem is never discussed. And such, I, once again, make myself vulnerable in the attempt to solve something or at least throw some light into it.

 

As I enter the corporate world or the working world and leave the predictable life of a student, I am aghast to note that though I have the skills and personality to survive in any corporate setting, I do not have enough of a willpower to do so. Devoid of any real motivation for working, like sending some siblings to school or helping the family out financially (not that we are well-off (we are not) but I am not obliged to help in any way except voluntarily), I find it very easy to become bored with what I do. When I look at my resume, I find that I have a lot of work experiences but none of them even lasted to a year. Not because I was not performing well, in fact I exceeded expectations, but because I became bored with the job and sought something better. Something more exciting.

I know, and I have been told, that I would never last in a routinary job like an office job. I need something that changes constantly and that puts me into pressures that would thrill me. I crave excitement and adventure all the time that a static job would bore me to death.

I am seriously alarmed and aghast to find the prediction coming true. I lose excitement easily. When I was working in the call center, the novelty was great for me. I had so much fun in the beginning. As days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and the work became repetitive since I’ve mastered almost all of it, I became despondent. I shifted to medical transcription which was really working out all right but the pay and the company policies were questionable and I was forced to get out. I pursued freelance writing which was taxing deadlines piled one on top of the other. But after those weeks were done, I am left with a void. I can go ahead and accept new job offers and enter the same cycle but I dare not. No one wants to suffer another bout of low blood incidents and skin as pale as the Twilight vampires.

And the more alarming thing to all of these, is that I have no plans as to what I want to do next. Yes, I have thought of several options. I know I could really teach college (there have been hints of offers) and I know I could apply at any company I so desire (I am never at a lack for self-confidence and smooth words) but the drive to really make something happen is missing. There is no push, no internal motivation. I lament and I cry that I am like this. My bestfriend said that I have always been a structured person. Back in our high school days, she has known me to always have a plan – even if the first plan backfired, I have a spare. I have also always been full of goals. Goals to accomplish.

But I guess, the shifting around of those goals has left me somewhat goal-less. The goals all appear to be like shadows of a dream I once had that somehow I’ve lost the will to attain.

I know I have the D4DR mutation (see previous article). I need higher levels of dopamine than the rest. I understand that now. So what do I do? Seek out adventures on my own. Create my own thrills? My mom said I shouldn’t waste life sulking around the house, waiting for opportunities to present themselves. Indeed, I musn’t. She urges me to go out there, find some employment, not because I need to earn money badly but because I need the social company. Indeed I cannot lock myself up inside the house, under the pretense of freelance writing and with the internet as my social companion. Freelance writing is good. Writing, as I said countless of times, will always be my passion. Online social communities are nice. It is always great to meet real people virtually, whether they be clients or colleagues. Yet, I know that there is also more to life than just living a seemingly virtual existence.

So what are my plans now? Now that I have finally attained that long worked for diploma, where do I go from here? When I first “technically” graduated – that is when I finished all my subjects and have been free to get a full-time job, there were a lot of doors open for me. There were so many paths I could choose. Now that I have officially graduated – no more snags with the thesis – there are more doors than ever. But the doors are shrouded by a mist, a mist that only internal motivation and drive can lift up.

I know, subconciously, I have been sort of blaming a withering spiritual relationship for all of this. I keep thinking, if I fix this spiritual humdrum I am in, then I am sure the internal drive will return. But even with fixing that relationship, I am lacking motivation. Humbug! What has happened to me?

I must shake myself from this stupor. Get out there and start again. I am young. I am capable. And I know I can do it.

Besides, people with the D4DR mutation are more prone to psychological and psychiatric disorders when the dopamine levels they need are not met properly.

who am I?

I asked my friend, who I thought new me already since I share basically my thoughts with him, about who he thinks I am. He keeps on telling me that he thought he had me all figured out then I would suddenly surprise him with a new facet of my personality.

So I asked him: what is it about me that you have already figure out?

I wish I haven’t asked. 

He said I am eager to please and am easily impressed. He said I have insight that was advanced for my years yet I am still childish and hardheaded. He said I am rebellious because I want my points heard. He said I was smart, eloquent and loyal to a fault. And I thought he was my like my living personal blog. I’m afraid I must be mistaken. Or maybe I cannot now see who I am? 

I emailed him. Demanded an explanation of why he thought I was such. I mean where did he pick those up? There were still a lot of other qualities mentioned. I guess I’ll post them when he has actually stated why they are what they are. 

In any case, one point of his caught my mind as I was again travelling home this morning with the morning breeze blowing against my face. He said I tend to avoid conflicts that’s why I was eager to please. At first I begged to disagree. I don’t like messy fights but I do not back down from conflicts. Just this evening, I emailed our  Program Manager and gave him a piece of my mind about the new AHT ratings they suddenly implemented in the middle of the month, catching everyone by surprise because they didn’t b0ther to give a preliminary explanation about the new rating system. 

No. I do not back down from conflicts. I face them when they are there. But I guess if it can be avoided I do avoid it. I was never the one who created conflicts or willingly throw myself into them. I prefer maintaining a rather neutral standpoint if I could. I realize that as much as I am assertive and outspoken in certain things, I am quite meek and reserved in some. For example, if a jeepney has taken a peso more from my fare, I do not really complain. If I have money to spare I just let it go thinking that the driver could probably use a spare and I wasn’t aggravated that much. Of course, for other people, like my sister, she finds this terribly annoying. She asks for her change and discount down to the last cent. I guess it’s really different for everyone – their outlook on what right should be asserted on and what should right could be forgo. 

I am curious as to how he will defend the other traits he said defined me. He got some of them right. But some, I think, are wrong. But then he said it was all based on our conversations. Maybe I am turning into someone I do not know? 

Being the introspective person that I am, I do not think so. More than anyone else, even my blogs, it is me who knows who I am.

So who am I?

I'm Spiderman... :D
I'm Spiderman... 😀

Blogging about Me

I realized that my entries as of late are mostly philosophical in nature. They start off as observations or recounts of my daily adventures then branch out into musings and opinions on the country’s present situation.

Well, for a change I’ve decided to write something about myself.

For starters, I wonder what people really think or perceive about me. Not that I really care or that their sentiments would greatly affect me, but then, I still wonder. A conversation with a friend from work made me wonder as such. Here was how the conversation went:

Me: Inaantok ako, sobra.

Friend: Baka buntis ka.

Me: Ano yun parthenogenesis*? *scientific term for immaculate conception

Friend: Oo.

Me: Ayoko nun. Walang thrill.

Silence.

Friend: Wow. First time.

Maybe because we’ve only discussed philosophical things before that conversation took place, and as such the reason for my friend’s surprise. But then I know that a lot of people would be really surprised by my comment. Walang thrill pala ha?

I know a lot of people view me as reserved, conservative or maybe even prude. I know they think of me as a goody-two-shoes type of person – especially the people at work. I do not smoke, though I drink. I do not commit abuses at work and I do not malign my customers. I seldom do. I also tend to appear sweet and innocent, I guess.

And it made me think of how many people out there, who I consider my friends, really know me for who I am. Not just the me they think of, or the me, that is apparently the Mary Sunshine to the community, but also the me who is reckless and wild. Not that I am THAT reckless and wild, but then I hope you get my point.

I’ve read in another person’s blog how he viewed himself as being socially challenged due to his perception that he is lacking in friends. He surmised how anyone ever texts him anymore. I am then led to wonder if I myself am lacking in real friendships. Not that I am socially challenged – I’m afraid I’m too outgoing to be such. I can strike up a conversation with anyone I chose to – bring up a topic out of thin air. Yet I admit I also don’t have regular textmates – people who send me text messages on a daily basis, that is, conversational text messages and not forwarded quotes and jokes. But then again, I was never a text person.

Yet, I am a firm believer that the friends I’ve accumulated over the years – friends from elementary, high school, college and all the other branches of society connected with these stages of my education – are there to remain my friends for life despite the lack of communication for years now. It is true that we might not be as close as we once were, but I believe that upon meeting again, years of silence would be breached by a simple smile, a simple hello and hours of non-stop talk about each other’s current lives. I further believe that when I am in dire need, then I can always approach any of them and they would always be willing to help to the best that they can. I mean, I would be willing to help them and I believe the same is true the other way around.

Maybe I am idealistic. I haven’t really tried any of the scenarios above. As my life keeps moving on to its different stages, and as I keep on changing scenarios and environments with each stage of life, I’ve been on the non-stop process of creating friends in each new environment and leaving them behind when I move on to the next environment. Some of them, I still maintain occasional communication, some of them I haven’t spoken to for years. But then I always seem to strike up a conversation once I meet a friend from my past and if he or she gets to remain in my current sphere, then good and fine for we are able to resume our friendship. If not, then we get to be just like two good old friends, meeting up then parting ways again.

So perhaps I am indeed a social creature – a social being who can always create friends wherever she is and who have no qualms moving on to a different sphere to forge more friendships. Yet I know that I am also a solitary and fiercely independent person deep down and as such, that might be the reason why I have no difficulties leaving friendships behind.

Yet for all the friends that I have, and for the large number of people connected to me in all the various networking sites I’m a member of, I remain sad that only a few ever finds themselves amongst the pages of my blog. Maybe I should do unto others what I want others to do unto me – and that is visit their blog sites, and comment on them. Maybe. No promises here.