In a State of Emergency
Seriously, I've heard this uttered so many times by our president, I am starting to feel apathetic about this whole thing. But seeing the massive amount of people walking towards Paseo this afternoon made me think twice about it.
I was smack right in the middle of Ayala, just about to cross to the other side of the street, when Cory and her allies marched towards the Ninoy Aquino monument in Paseo de Roxas. My first instinct was, should I stay for a while and say a prayer with them? The rational side of my brain told me not to. It was just too risky and besides I had some business to do somewhere else.
Walking away from the crowd, I felt sorry I didn't have my camera with me. Damn! It's one of those days when you feel you're the most unlucky person in the world. I should have known to bring it with me today... I knew fully well I was to witness this rally... we have been forewarned.
Oh well...sometimes shit happens.
Leyte and Philippine Politics
Yesterday, it was Ormoc. Now, it is Leyte. Tomorrow, where will tragedy strike?I was just watching the footage of Leyte's St. Bernard 2 days before it was stricken with the tragedy that we as a nation, are now facing. Lush green vegetation covered an entire area that has now become a pile of mud with dead bodies buried six feet under. How could we have allowed this to happen to our lands?We have seen this happen before. We have long recognized the fact that we have been unprepared to face a number of calamities. But what have we done about it? In the greater scheme of things, it is not always how we react to certain situations that happen, but it is on what we have done before things could happen. A lot of things, a lot of deaths could have been prevented. Proactive. We all know what that means. We all know what that takes. But almost always, we all know we are too busy to help other people save their lives.Leyte - we knew it was going to happen. It would probably take some time and an extremely huge amount of rainfall to make this mudslide happen...but it COULD happen. And it DID HAPPEN. The likelihood of it happening was probably at 50%. Risk? Probably. What was the mitigation plan? What was the contigency plan? NONE. ZERO. NIL.Why? Only 1/3 of that land is populated. How many votes does that translate to? Only a few. So there my friends is your answer. Where the votes count, the money goes. That is the spirit of Philippine politics.Pardon my sarcasm but truly, I am equally amazed and annoyed about the state of our nation. First, we have taxpayers who DO NOT enjoy the benefits of their taxes, as much as the masses and non-taxpayers do. Second, we have a government who is tolerating squatters and people who are sucking out the funds coming from the taxes of hardworking people, in exchange for VOTES. Third, we have people pointing fingers in the face of tragedy. Fourth, we have athletes who make money just a little bit above the minimum wage. Fifth, we have engineering works that are not coordinated leaving roads drilled, closed, drilled closed, drilled, closed all year long. And lastly, we have substandard roads in our central business districts where most of the taxes are filed and paid.Indeed. Only in the Philippines.But despite all that, I love being a Filipino. Today, I hope this will be the last tragedy we will allow to devastate our lands. Tommorow, I pray that we will continue to rise up to the challenge and make a difference.
Happy Heart's Day!
Love is in the air...flowers and chocolates everywhere...
and cars are in the street... TRAFFIC!!!
Take care and enjoy your day!
Painting shelves ain't no easy job
I hired a cleaning lady to help me do some general cleaning in my condo yesterday. While helping her move stuff around the kitchen, I couldn't stand the stench coming from the side where the stockroom is located. It smelled of moist boxes that have not dried up for quite sometime and for lack of a proper exhause in that area, the stench seems to be stuck within its walls. You know how it's like with stock room... as you stay longer in one place, more stuff gets added and then it gets filled up with unnecessary garbage that may not be totally rotten, but somehow useless.
So today I hired a carpenter to tear down the wall separating the kitchen and the stockroom. In a way, I liked it because it meant extending my kitchen a little bit more, giving me more space for my new kitchen gadgets and some more space to use with other culinary equipment that are yet to come. Since the wood are still pretty much useful, I decided to have him create some shelves and other stuff that I can use to showcase my DVDs! Ha! That's what you call recycling! I just love it!!! whoever coined that term - I saved more than 2k bucks on shelves and other useful stuff that were made out of the now defunct stockroom wall.
To get things moving a little quicker, I decided to help out with the painting. I've always been amazed with paint and rollers everytime I go to my dad's construction site when I was a kid. Seeing the paint and roller that the carpenter/handyman had with him, I asked if I could help him paint the shelves he just crafted for my DVDs. A realization came over me today as I was doing it - Painting shelves ain't no easy job after all. But the smell of paint was quite addicting in a way - it reminded me of HOME! Now I'm feeling a wee bit nostalgic - I miss my dad!
now...i'm off to give him a quick call! til my next post!
Experiencing Ortigas at its finest... and sadly ugliest face at night
Today was not my typical workday. First off, it was my first time to report to Ortigas. I had to take some sort of training to get this prestigious access to our SAP boxes, which I'm really not sure I will be using. Anyway, it was really cool - the office I mean. And its proximity to Megamall and Shangri-la Mall was just great! I feel so lucky I don't have to go there everyday or else I would end up empty-handed midway through the month out of shopping! (Boy, do I love to shop!)It was my first time to experience working in Ortigas since the 4 years I have been working here in Manila and it was really great! I enjoyed the night, especially talking to my friend Ria over dinner about all things bright and beautiful...about how life has been really good to us... and how we dream of being able to reach that loftier plane of existence in all aspects - spiritual, mental and physical.After coaching ourselves and planning our short and long term goals, we decided to stop by Toby's to check out nice exercise equipment. I kind of like the boxing bag - I've always wanted to have one in my own home and now that I have pretty much a huge enough place to have a mini gym at home, I think I can finally get my own punching bag and...maybe throw in a stationary bike with that..if someone would give that to me for free, I won't dare say no! hahaha!Anyway, so much for my goals. I did a little window shopping here and there, checked out Clarity - this is a step towards the fulfillment of my goal to undergo microdermabrasion in the next few weeks. I'm still not decided (I still have unfounded fears on the procedure) but their rates were relatively ok compared to the popular C and B group... so I just might go there for my treatment - although I'm pretty much willing to give B a shot (despite being outrageously expensive!) if and only if I get the guarantee that my scars are really going to go away. hehe!It was really nice malling in Shang. Shopping and of course - finishing up my steak! hahahaha! I felt so at home. Its one of the malls I really love going to, although there's rarely something that I can afford to buy... which, in hindsight, is a good thing that way I get to keep my purse tucked away! hehehhe!On my way home though it was a different story. Everything I saw at the Shang, people having wine and dressed so fashionably, wearing all these glittery accessories and jewelry...reality bit me on my way home. Snuck right at the back of the prestigious Shangrila Mall, along Shaw blvd and under the flyover was the complete opposite of what I saw... there were a dozen or two kids between 3-19 years old(my guess), sniffing rugby and trying to do all these pranks in the street. It was really scary being inside the cab, stalled in terrible traffic and these guys (who are obviously high on drugs or something) flashing their asses at every passers by in that street. More than the fear though, pity came over me when I saw an infant, with the mother carrying him around, in the street, while she joins her troops of rugby sniffers.My pity turned to anger at how we can ignore these kids, sniffing rugby in the middle of a busy street, so blatantly showing to the public that they're invincible... What kind of future do we expect from these young people? How do we expect our country to rise up to these challenging times when we are cultivating the next generation of criminals? Sad sad reality. Sometimes, it really does sting a bit when reality bites you...
