Pwede Both?

Nakakatawa at nakakatuwa ang ginawa ng National Press Club ukol sa "mural" na kanilang inpinagawa sa isang grupo ng mga artists. Sa bisperas ng kanilang paglalahad sa sinabing mural, ipinabago nila ang mga nakaguhit dito. Kung tama ang pagkakaalala ko sa balita, binago nila ang sandatang hawak ni Bonifacio, ang mukha ni Ginang Burgos ay binago at napag-isipan pang alisin ang mukha ni Ninoy Aquino sa nasabing mural.

Kawalan ng respeto sa mga artists ang ginawa ng NPC dahil iyon ang buhay ng mga artists, ang kanilang mga kuro-kuro at paraan ng pagpapahiwatig ng isang kamalayan sa mga tao. Kung susundin natin ang yapak ng NPC, dapat na rin nating suotan ng shorts ang Oblation icon sa UP Diliman. Dapat na rin sigurong baguhin ang iba pang likha ng mga artists tulad ng Spolarium ni Luna. Maliban sa respeto sa mga artists, kahiya-hiya din ang ginawang pag-censor ng NPC sa sarili nilang mural na kung tutuusin ay ginawa upang maipahiwatig ang kahalagahan ng malayang pagpapahayag na kanilang ipinaglalaban.

Hindi kaya inabutan din ang mga namamahala ng NPC ng tig-500,000 pesos mula sa Malacanang? 'di kaya'y sadyang kawalang-muwang lamang? o baka naman pwedeng both?

PriceLess!

My brother just received a cake from his patient today. He is a medical doctor in the most jam-packed hospital in the Philippines-the Philippine General Hospital. I wonder what the flavor is? I have just eaten a slice and it looks, feels and tastes great! But what inspires me most is that even if my brother doesn't receive any fees from most of his patients, he still gives his best in doing his job. Lately, I just realized that a doctor doesn't just cure or maintain medications for their patients but they give these patients hope and encouragement. My brother values life, its in his genes and hopefully in the genes of every Filipino doctor. He strives to relieve his patients from their illnesses effectively, and most importantly, in the most cost-efficient way. Patients in the public hospital doesn't pay fees but they must still pay for their medications and admittance fees. My brother sees to it that he does his best and maintains the least cost for his patients. I'm a big fan of his, but I fail to mimic his nobleness. Business is business, I guess. It's not the first time that my brother brought home a cake. Sometimes, his patients that came from the provinces would give him organic fruits-from bananas to pomelos to lanzones. It seems that I get all my vitamins from them. :D What matters most I think is the emotional connections of my brother and his patients. When we met his patients, their smiles seem to show that it's not the cure, but the concern and the help that my brother gives them that they value most.

Paracetamol-3 pesos

Cough Syrup-75 pesos,

Cake Slice that I just ate - PRICELESS. :D

Travelers Guide

Still searching the web for some travel statistics and related articles, another interesting website gave this equally amazing slides. It is a guide for tour guides! Filipino tour guides to be specific. It gives an overview of the cultures that tour guides must consider while..uhhmm..guiding their tourists in the Philippines. Take note of the Chinese slides, it says that Chinese travelers are usually attended by local chinese associations...what an outstanding observation! And read Hong Kong travelers profile carefully...it says, they are meticulous when it comes to using coconut oil in dishes! And I wish our British friends won't take the "odd" slides seriously. Definitely one great set of slides for tour guides. I wonder if other countries have the same traveler profiling for their tour guides? I hope they do. It promotes world peace. :D

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Petition for Her Evilness

Please don't forget to seriously sign up here!

Don't forget to read it first before signing the petition, you might be standing for the other side and be surprised for what you have done. :D

"Board" Exam...the last "Trump"

I was just browsing through government websites for my paper in the graduate studies when I chanced upon this article in The National Statistical Coordination Board website. The author is quite witty for a government employee and creative for a statistician. And surprisingly, the article was written within a government agency and within the current toe-licking administration. Just a question though...why did the stats say that the top fields for boys is engineering and for girls is business...but what I see is more and more...and more nursing students? Maybe it's the question asked on the respondents could have only been what they PREFERRED,which is definitely not the same as what they WILL TAKE in college. :D And take note, boys are better than girls in passing board exams. :D The sad part is, that the figures for board exam passers decreased significantly and specially, as stressed by the author, that of the Teaching profession. :( But nevertheless, I give Dr. Romulo Virola a toast for a very interesting article.

Nursing Capital

I do play with Tarot cards for my friends and family. I don't consider myself a fortune teller or a gifted seer. I read the tarot for fun and "excitement". However, considering the statement of POEA or the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, encouraging elementary students to take up Nursing in college, the Philippines will BE the Nursing Capital of the World. There is no need for me to use the Tarot for further divination. With respect to the current nursing students and pool of nursing graduates, I don't intend to undermine their profession and the knowledge that they contribute to the field of Medicine and Healthcare. I just don't see the need for POEA encouraging students to take up Nursing course in college. And more surprising is that they even targeted ELEMENTARY students in their statement. They are too young to focus on their future professions. I believe that during this period, elementary students, aside from their tasks to master basic literacy and skills such as Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Interaction, must also be allowed to freely observe, discover and explore the community - to assess their own interests and skills vis-a-vis the available community roles that they can assume in the future.(not just to be fathers and mothers). Adults, teachers and parents and NOT the POEA are given that responsibility to guide them and help them along the process.

I am trying to analyze what gave the POEA the idea of giving the simple but very misleading statement. There could be a lot of combination and permutation of ideas but I could only think of one general idea that the government is STILL banking and WILL STILL bank on the remittances of overseas Filipino workers in ten (10) to twenty (20) years for the growth of our country's economy. And this assumes that leaders of POEA have no "links" on any Nursing Testing Centers and Nursing Colleges. It can also be inferred that there is a demand, if not consistent, an increasing demand for Nurses within and definitely OUTSIDE the country. POEA fills up the demand of foreign countries for human capital. It is designed to regulate the exit of Filipinos from the country. And I think, it is the agency's job to protect the country from over exportation of Filipinos because just like other countries, the Philippines have demands for human capital as well. If they intend to continuously increase the export of human capital, they also decrease the supply of human capital in the country as well. This is just within the context of all employment demand. If we focus on their aim to encourage ELEMENTARY students to take up Nursing in college, they are suggesting that we increase our supply of Nurses to meet the future demands of other countries - and I don't think it is a red-alert situation for the country's need and demand for nurses.

There are other community roles/professions that the country needs at present and in the future. We need teachers, doctors, managers and entrepreneurs. It would have been a better statement if they encouraged Elementary students to just focus on their education and try their best to learn the basics that is a requirement to any local and foreign jobs. This is best done by DECS or CHED and not POEA. The professions that I have narrated have important roles in building and developing our economy. At present, elementary students are asked to memorize, understand and recognize the different roles of community helpers, the term used in textbooks and by teachers themselves. Teachers even ask these students to bring "Community Helpers" or "Pamayanan" charts to class. If the government, through POEA and without the intervention of DECS and CHED continuously promote Nursing in the early stages of childhood, it will only increase the possibility of Philippines being the Nursing capital of the World. I can't imagine and I can't find the necessity for every child to be a nurse when they get older. I understand that these children will have their own minds and their own right to choose their paths but to encourage them and instill in their minds to take up nursing early is brainwashing in its sense. Children of this stage have great memory and as described by some, their brains are like sponges that will keep on absorbing consciously and subconsciously. It is by this concept that children are tasked to learn from education. Their innocence and curiosity must not be exploited. But for us to use this concept to promote a particular job, is detrimental or simply inappropriate. I also make use of this concept, in good faith though. When I speak with our customers who are students, I tell them, "Huwag kang mag-Nursing sa college ah." I hope that helps...it's the lesser evil.

Wow...Philippines!

Dreams - these drive men to live, move forward and be happy. Do I have one? Nope. I don’t have one – I have a dozen of them stuck in my head. I remember my first dream. It was 20 years ago when somebody gave me one. It is what we call the “when-I-grow-up” dream, the dream we had to spurt out to move on from being a preparatory student to an elementary student. I wanted to be a doctor back then without even knowing the real responsibilities of being one. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser, I have not reached even the first step of being a doctor. But I have developed dreams on my own or at least dreams of my own formula. Sometimes, the fear of not achieving my dreams clouds my head. But I just flip the idea and think of finding, clearing and walking the path to those dreams.

I am currently working in a family retail bookstore and I have talked to a lot of our customers to this date. And among high school students, majority of them dreams of becoming a nurse or a caregiver. Their claims for the said profession are not about how interesting it is for them or beneficial it is for the country, but they choose and aim for the profession’s enormous monetary gains in the long run. The more striking idea here is that these future leaders’ dreams are spoon-fed - pre-formulated dreams that have no personal connection to the dreamer. Their parents, or the party who will pay for their studies, force them to take up these highly in-demand courses abroad. Quite a lot of elementary students on the other hand, are well trained in dancing and singing skills. Their parents enthusiastically show off their children’s skills to us impromptu. From the sexy “Spaghetti” tune to the slow-rock theme song of “Panday”, these children happily oblige to their parents requests for amusement. The parents will then take all the glory for having such wonderful and talented kids from us, the audience. It is not bad to teach our children how to dance and sing, or to preach about the greener pasture outside, but Filipino parents tend to overemphasize these to their children and ignore the value of intellectual competency and national stability. This is very alarming. If this trend continues, then the Philippines will be the nursing and entertainment supplier of the world. The country’s economy will be in big trouble. There will be shortage or a zero number of skilled workers for manufacturing, retail businesses, science and technology. There will also be a lesser number of entrepreneurs who will help provide opportunities for the remaining skilled workers. Currently, a number of middle managers are also being pirated by foreign countries thus leaving company operations in slow-mo situation. But what disturbs me most is the fact that majority of Filipino youth are not given the chance to live their own dreams, their own dream formula. Without these dreams, they’ll end up unmotivated, unsatisfied and stubborn citizens of this country.

This is not my Filipino dream. I do not see myself dying in an old world country. I am dreaming of a Garci-free Philippines. A full-grown economic tiger Philippines is also a great idea where Filipinos won’t have to leave and live in other civilizations. And I dream of other nationals working here in our country instead. Definitely, a 100% literateP hilippines is one great dream I have for this “little sleeping giant”. With great intellectuals in the country, we won’t have to depend that much on other countries for technology and advancement. We can’t just leave Nationalism behind. We need this social-hormone activated before working on our projects. Nationalism will keep us Filipinos determined in living up our dreams without sacrificing our country’s own. Whew! These are quite a lot of dreams for me. And don’t fret, there’s more in my mind. These dreams keep me motivated. We Filipinos must have our own dreams. Filipino dreams coupled with nationalism will not only satisfy our personal goals and aspirations but will also sustain our country’s development and progress. Someday I hope of seeing our dreams fulfilled no matter how crazy these dreams are. Just hoping to see them is 1% short of achieving them. We may never realize it, but while we are busy doing our jobs and working on our dreams, these seem to be just an arms length away. We need to keep these dreams coming, dreams that aren’t pre-formulated but personalized ones. The more dreams we have (dreams that are backed by nationalism), the more hopes we have for this country. The Philippines is a gifted country. We have all the necessary resources from fruits to gold. We have our annual rainy season that allows us to grow rice. We live in a tropical country where we don’t have to save and plan for the cold winter. Filipinos are given all the necessary elements to live and progress, but there is one thing that we can’t dream of but we all have to give – sipag or hard work. If we all dream and work hard for this country, we can be one of the world’s best. Yes. I dream.

This is to upload my pic. :)