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Warning: This entry is very ranty, maybe a bit selfish. Please excuse me, a corporate slave has been interrupted from her work. Let me let out some steam, please.
And I thought today would be a peaceful day, you know, since there’s only the real work I have to deal with, no extra-curricular activities. Plus, it’s the weekend, so I look forward to shopping tomorrow with Happy for something to wear for Saturday’s company Christmas party…and then relax on Sunday while capturing this video for work. You know, a nice, normal, quiet weekend — something to recover from the stress of the week.
But other people have other plans. And everyone’s affected.
If you happen to be in the country and you don’t know what’s going on, you are probably not watching the news…so here’s a short version: two grown men — a senator and a general — decided to throw a tantrum because the people won’t hear their side and lock themselves up in a hotel. Oh and they brought friends too! Hey, maybe they listen to us now!
Six hours later…“FINE! I’ll go out now and surrender…but only because I don’t want people to get hurt!” *Ignores all the guests staying in the hotel who had to go out because of what he did, the workers in Makati who got hassled, and all the people who got hassled because of the curfew imposed as a result of this whole shenanigan.* Oh, at least no one got hurt, right? They’re hassled, yes, but they’re not hurt! It’s okay! The Manila Peninsula has a tank smashed up the front entrance that destroyed the hotel entrance and probably their nice ceiling lighting? Cool! But no one’s hurt, right? The place is just badly damaged, but don’t worry, you can fix that! Oh, media people? Sorry we had to use you as human shields, and sorry, we’ll use you as well so some of us can try to go out. You might get arrested, but don’t worry, it’s okay! You’ll get out! Your networks will let you out! Everyone ready? Okai, we go nao! Ktnxbai!
Hay. Sorry for the sarcasm, I’m just annoyed. I’m probably going to take a lot of heat with what I’m about to say, but I’m annoyed because this is my last night of late shift, and I had a lot of stuff to finish tonight, which I couldn’t because I had to go home and I can’t work on it at home because I don’t have a work-issued laptop. Ah, I’ve become such a corporate slave that all I think about is work, work, work.
I guess at some point in the past few years since EDSA Dos, I have become a bit apathetic over these things. It had a point back then, but people keep on overusing the rally power that we had, that it’s become tiring. Remember those rallies in Makati two years ago, the one where entire Ayala was closed to traffic because people decided to rally? Where they left Makati very dirty afterwards, hassling all the workers because all underpasses and overpasses are closed and no bus passes in Ayala so everyone has to walk all the way to Glorietta to ride the MRT? It’s just too much. And now this! It’s tiring, really.
I’m not pro-administration or pro-opposition, but this is just crazy. And selfish. The way they tried to call attention and get the other side to do their bidding and point fingers to blame other people for the misfortune of our country is plain selfish, when in reality everyone is at fault. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you threw away your trash on the street and not look for a garbage can? When was the last time you one-upped your friend because you wanted to get more for yourself? When was the last time I ignored someone who needed my help? When was the last time I thought of someone other than myself? And see how selfish I was a few paragraphs back, when I was talking about how this entire thing disturbed me from work and I hardly even throught of everyone in Makati who is affected and might have been hurt in this entire ordeal?
I’m still proud to be a Filipino, and I still hope for the best in this country. I just hope that the people in position will decide to side with the Filipino people — who they are supposed to be serving, anyway — for once, and not stage things like these that really shows how much they only think of themselves.
Alright, enough ranting. The disgruntled (hee, favorite word at work right now) corporate slave will just sleep and pray everything is normal — as much as it can be — tomorrow.
Keep safe, everyone.
Yesterday was a mixed emotions day. I was happy it was Friday, and I was excited for our quarterly Townhall. I felt bad for someone because of something I did, was excited for receiving something totally unexpected. But what kind of disturbed me the most for myself, was how I didn’t really feel anything about what happened in Glorietta 2.
Okay, I didn’t really feel nothing. I have this defense mechanism where when something really big happens, be it positive or negative, I tend to push the emotions away for a while and then feel it when I’m ready. I store them all up somewhere inside, then digest it when I know it’s “safe” to do so. That is why it takes a while for me to feel really happy or really sad about some things, because I choose not to feel it immediately.
When I heard about the Glorietta 2 explosion yesterday, my guy teammate was more worried than I am about it. Then again, maybe I wasn’t that worried because as far as I know, there was no one I know in that area — only a few people, that is. My brother works in Galleria, I’m in Eastwood, my mom’s at home, my best friend works in Shaw, my other friend is in Bacolod, the other one is in school. So my first initial thought was, Thank God I don’t work in Makati.
But after some time (like today), I felt selfish for that thought. Here I am again, thinking about myself in a time where other people are hurt, other people lost their loved ones and other people are in trauma for having to witness such event. I am relieved that I wasn’t there, that no one I know got hurt…but I can’t help but feel like I should be feeling something else for the people affected other than sympathy.
I know that might not make any sense, but forgive me for thinking aloud. This thing made me realize again how short life can be — how a person can be alive one day and gone the next. While I still believe that a person will not die unless it’s his time to die (and God only knows when that is), I now feel sad for the people who had to go in a way like this. :(
All I can do right now is pray. My prayers are with all the people and families affected by this tragedy. Keep safe everyone.
Because every human life matters, and everyone deserves to be free. Let’s all help stand up for our brothers and sisters in Burma.
Take part in this action for a Free Burma!
1. Publish a posting (Bulletin Board, Forum, Blog, Social Network, Static Website…) on the 4th of October with the header: “Free Burma!”
2. Tag it if you can with “Free Burma”
3. Choose a grafic from our Grafics page and
4. Link to www.free-burma.org there your readers will find some informations about the campaign and Burma and a participant list which you can join. Even if you’re a webmaster of a bulletin board or social network you will find a special Group List to join.
5. Add our Petition Widget to your blog/website.
6. Feel free to write any additional text you want.
If you have no website or blog we need you even more: Please help us to spread the word across the internet, tell your neighbours, friends or kids and first of all: Sign our list of participants!
After finishing a draft of a layout last night, I tuned in at the TV for some last-minute news before I go to sleep. Mind you, I don’t watch the news a lot so this is a big thing for me. Anyway, I caught a news segment on the Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) program of the Department of Education for high school students. ARH aims to teach high school students of how the reproductive system works, the various diseases that can happen in the reproductive system and how to avoid them. In simpler terms, ARH = sex education.
Of course, being in a “conservative” and highly “religious” country, there is much debate happening around this particular program — obviously it’s the Church against the pro-ARH people (I’m sorry for the lack of terms). That is expected, especially here where people debate about whether they’d show a certain kind of movie but end up showing it after all the hullaballoos. Anyway, from the news last night, the program has been shelved and there is still much discussion going on especially on the contents of the module.
My mom asked me last night what I think about it, and I told her exactly what I thought (and I think I came off a bit strong ^^; ). Now, I know how important educating teenagers about sex is. I’ve always believed that armed with proper knowledge about things, a person will be able to more or less make the right decisions in life. The same goes with having proper education about our reproductive system and how things work in our physical bodies; if you know how your body works and what happens, you will be able to take care of it better and avoid whatever would cause harm to them. So to be honest, I really think there’s nothing wrong about educating Filipino high school students about sex.
(More…)
This morning during our last breakfast with Papa for his visit here in the country in Tropical Hut, my high school friend Chris arrived with some of his officemates from Teletech to eat breakfast. Because of his arrival, my mom, dad and I got to talking and then I stated one of my observations again: You’re getting older if you are starting to attend weddings instead of debuts.
Which is true, right? I mean, from fourth year high school up to smack in the middle of college, one of the most common events that everyone dresses up for and goes to are debuts of their female friends/classmates. After that, the next event would have to be weddings of their friends/classmates, and it wouldn’t be after a few more years (unless someone gets married right after college).
It’s just sad because I realized that I’ve heard more of baptisms from some of my friends instead of weddings. I wasn’t invited (I’m not a loner during high school, but I guess in some way I’m kinda socially inept. Haha, that’s the worst word I can use. I have personal issues during high school, things that I have noticed recently, but let’s reserve that for another entry), but I’ve heard some news from my friends who are more in touch. Of course, the age-range for my batch/generation/whatever you want to call us is way to young to get married (19-22). But it’s even way younger than the age we should be having children. You know?
I’m not condemning those people who I know that already have children at such a young age. I just feel sad that there seems to be more young women that I know that have children but are not married yet.
And then I watched in The Buzz earlier, before we left for the airport…and they were talking about Aleck Bovick being three months pregnant, I think…and they’re not even married. They are in a relationship, but you know, no wedding yet. The worst thing about that is, it feels and sounds okay.
That’s just…well, sad. Like I said, I’m not condemning the women who have children outside marriage or are pregnant right now or whatever case similar, I know that children are God’s gift and all…I just feel sad about the fact that it feels and sounds okay to the society that a couple in a relationship and who are probably headed for marriage would decide to “make love” before getting married with the excuse of “we’re headed toward that anyway” hanging over their heads. Wouldn’t it have been more magical if it happened the night after the wedding?
I’m sorry if this post offended anyone in any way. I’m just sharing my sentiments. Peace. :)
