Pastilan! Living the dog-eat-dog world of a Global Pinoy!

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Written by Adrian Tan, author of The Teenage Textbook (1988), was the guest-of-honour at a recent NTU convocation ceremony. This was his speech to the graduating class of 2008.
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I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.




The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.




I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.




The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.
You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

Interesting news about the trend of young men in Japan. Hahahahaha, check it out!



Japan's young men seek a new path: "By Chico Harlan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, October 24, 2010; 10:35 PM

TOKYO - Something is happening to Japan's young men. Compared with the generation that came before, they are less optimistic, less ambitious and less willing to take risks."

They are less likely to own a car, want a car, or drive fast if they get a car. They are less likely to pursue sex on the first date - or the third. They are, in general, less likely to spend money. They are more likely to spend money on cosmetics.

Japan's young men mystify their girlfriends and their bosses. They confound the advertisers who aim products at them. They've been scrutinized and categorized by social commentators, marketing consultants and the government. And they unnerve just about everybody who makes long-term projections about Japan's flagging birthrate and fading economy. Japan will grow or falter, economists and sociologists say, upon the shoulders of these mild, frugal, sweet-mannered men.

To hear the analysts who study them tell it, Japanese men ages 20 to 34 are staging the most curious of rebellions, rejecting the 70-hour workweeks and purchase-for-status ethos that typified the 1980s economic boom. As the latest class of college graduates struggles to find jobs, a growing number of experts are detecting a problem even broader than unemployment: They see a generation of men who don't know what they want.

Japan earned its fortune a generation ago through the power of office warriors, the so-called salarymen who devoted their careers to one company. They wore dark suits; they joined for rowdy after-hours booze fests with co-workers; they often saw little of their families. These are the fathers of Japan's young men.

But among business leaders and officials, there is a growing understanding that the earlier work-for-fulfillment pattern has broken down. The economy's roar turned into a yawn. Concern about Japan's future replaced giddy national pride. As a result, this generation has lost "the willingness to sacrifice for the company," said Jeff Kingston, author of the recently published book "Contemporary Japan."

Kingston added: "And now as Japan begins to unravel in a sense, young people realize that the previous paradigm doesn't work. But they aren't sure what comes next. They've seen what amounts to a betrayal in Japan."

HumanDHS News: TAKE A LOOK! October 2010: "HumanDHS is a global transdisciplinary fellowship of concerned academics and practitioners who strive to promote dignity and transcend humiliation. We wish to stimulate systemic change, globally and locally, that allows mutual respect and esteem to take root and grow, thus ending humiliating practices and breaking cycles of humiliation throughout the world!"

Trillanes release hits snag: "Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th may have to languish in jail for at least one more month after Congress went on recess Wednesday afternoon without approving a concurrent resolution concurring with a government proclamation granting amnesty to the senator and more than 300 other soldiers.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that the Senate would adopt the resolution on November 8 when it resumed its session.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona 3rd expressed the hope that Trillanes could be free and attend Senate sessions before the year ends.

Malaca�ang also on Wednesday admitted that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was not consulted on the final draft of the proclamation that granted amnesty to all the soldiers who rebelled against the past Arroyo administration."

SM Prestige - How to Become a Prestige Member: "To qualify for SM Prestige membership, you must either be an active SMAC member with an average spending of at least Php 15,000 per month in SM, or be nominated by an SM Retail establishment. Other factors may also be considered before an SM Advantage member or nominee is elevated to Prestige status.�"

Just wondering how many Filipinos are SM Prestige Card Holder? Talk about the economics of disparity in Philippine Society.

There are more than 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide, about 11% of the total population of the Philippines.

Each year, the Philippines sends out more than a million of its nationals to work abroad through its overseas employment program. Others leave to become permanent residents of their country of destination. Overseas Filipinos are typically known to be as doctors, nurses, accountants, IT professionals, engineers & architects, entertainers, technicians, teachers, military servicemen, students, and domestic helpers.

According to estimates by the Central Bank of the Philippines, overseas Filipinos are expected to send back $14.7 billion in remittances to their ancestral homeland in 2007, up from the $13 billion in 2006"

Critics of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Philippine president, have stepped up claims that she has been cashing in on her position, to add to her growing personal wealth.

But Arroyo says she has been falsely accused, and there is no proof she has been plundering state funds.

The accusations come ahead of May's presidential elections, in which a former president - once convicted of plunder himself - is running for office.

A quote from Cassius in the great Julius Caesar play of W. Shakespeare reminds me of what I could say to Gloria’s close allies, and I quote, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." Cassius, a nobleman, spoke to Brutus in that play and persuades him that in the best interests of the public, Julius Caesar must be stopped from becoming monarch of Rome. Brutus is aware of Caesar's intentions. He is torn between his love to his friend Caesar but felt compelled about his duty to the Republic. This has been interpreted to mean that fate is not what drives men to their decisions and actions, but rather the human condition.

I would not disagree when the public that Gloria has done enough damage to the government and its Filipino people. Most importantly, I cannot throw my cards agreeing that she relegate her government through the mob psychology-manipulating ploy of the oppositions and other gang of individuals masquerading as patriots.

Wake up countrymen, the only way to put to stop the vicious cycle of marching toward the street when we become discontent is when we start honoring our law. Our constitution must start getting its respect. We cannot just allow Gloria to ignore the suffering of our poor nation.

Let us be wise. Be a responsible electorate. We should all stop using the starving, already heated masses to represent your vested intentions. And when we are back to our senses, please, just please, stop her from acquiring another legislative immunity. What must drive the Filipino people and legislators must not be anyone’s fate but the human condition of the Filipino people.

I have a friend who was so in love with his girl friend and suddenly lost it all. I think when women meet single guys (including those that are not so single), the first impression drawn would be that the guy is trying to get laid. A big mistake – generally.

I don’t know. But the dictate of the so-called norms is that the guys please the woman. I have known in my short existence as a bachelor that there are different types of women. There are those who are really a princess. She would not do anything until she is pleased and would demand that the world spins around her and she, definitely, in the center.

I like women who are simple but never the simple minded. With the way MTV and urban-pop culture influence our lifestyle, simple chicks may soon become extinct. I have once said to myself that these simple ladies have already been taken by the ravenous male species prowling out there. More women are becoming demanding, wanting more and expecting too much.

So why would simple women become that so hot and in demand in the market of who-you-want-to-be-with? The mainstream guys would find giving up 100% of their time to please a princess a little easier said than done. If the fear of commitment would be an understatement, what else is not?

When you date a simple girl, she will look great even if she is not wearing a Gucci dress or blatantly carrying a Prada bag. Most of the simple girls I knew are devoid of fist clinching attitudes. They know when to smile and are usually predictable.

It’s like you being sweet to her and she is charming with you then the next minute, she suddenly took a twist or wrong turn into the road of unpredictability. Who would want that? I ran from women who can swing their mood faster than they change their shoes.

I don’t know about you but I lack any ability to handle a lady gone nutty or those who are having their days. I usually zap into silence and lurk into what I think to be my comfort zone by being the stupid non-speaking spanked-dog thrown in the alley.

I have some great women friends who until now are not in a decent relationship. They are not ugly neither physically challenged. In fact, some of them look even enthralling and sexy. They just lack what I call women’s skills in keeping a guy. It’s all about being open minded.

I don’t think that there is a legitimate heterosexual guy who is looking forward into a serious relationship that would like a complicated woman. Ok, quit the clichés about love is about acceptance, no matter how complicated she becomes. No. Serious relationship begins when both are comfortable being together and that her companionship makes the guy exultant. Make it vice versa if you want.

A complicated woman will soon find his man even more complicated. It is like a sport of retaliation where the guy escapes from the relationship hastily. Most of the time, the guy ends up single again while the girl sobbing. But in the prying eyes of the woman’s friends, man is the hegemonic adversary in the woman’s short-lived relationship.

For some other guys, it maybe true that getting laid is what matters most initially but in the end, it is all about “Am I going to marry this woman who is good in bed but is a high-maintenance?”

No love can grow without the aid of what they call pleasant companionship. It is all about what is essential in a woman’s beauty is those that you do not see. Looks will fade. Her ability to seduce a man will soon retard. But a woman’s capability to handle his guy by being positive and supportive, her ability to see and understand the roller-coaster-ride kind of life would define the qualities of a woman that I call – perfect!

The Philippines is ailing, almost lifeless to witness hope that soon we will become a great nation. What is deplorable about our nation is we are not even close being a novice with political turmoil. We already endured a long history of political mayhem, we even had more serious disarray than this but never in the history of the Philippines had that political unrest caused unimaginable degree of economic impact to the nation - specifically to the poorest of the poor. The Filipino people turned out to become poorer and much less reasonable. Our country is already a splitting nation and death as a nation is already knocking at our doorstep.

To split a country constitutes a major disagreement between opposing factions. Nevertheless, to distinguish a death or rebirth of a nation requires an even more than understanding of the results and measurable outcome of how these are affecting the majority. Historically, other nations underwent worst political turmoil as well – killing each other before they became an imposing nation. Democratic super powers like USA, France, Great Britain, and etc. during their time were in great mayhem of domestic struggle as well – all tasted the bitterness of civil wars.


A Functional Democracy is an Operative Catalyst in Building a Nation

Although many might disagree, I always see that democracy, democratic governance that is based on a country’s culture and economic modalities, is an operative catalyst in building a nation. Despite the passionate debate on how much credit the democracy can claim for prospering a democratic country, various theories have been put forth, all of them controversial. It has been argued that, “it is not democracy that causes economic prosperity, but rather the other way around: prosperous nations will tend to become democracies.”

One great example is the Philippines, a bastion of democracy in South East Asia. It is saddening to see how the Filipino people suffer excessive misery due to poverty. Forget the GNP and GDP as the economic indicators, forget the inflation rate, forget other socio-economic indicators that determines the ability of the people to buy goods that we always hear during SONA or read in press releases, what is more important to know now is how capable are the Filipino people to live conveniently. How many Filipinos, regardless of the supposedly “class-less society” in the Philippines, are now more capable to bring decent food into their tables and provide the most basic necessities in order to live?

Chaotic Version of Democracy

The problem in the Philippines is that the kind of democracy we practice is at its crudest form, almost dysfunctional. Our democracy becomes the very cause of political chaos not because of the system per se but the very people who promulgate chaotic version of democracy.

When a democratic country, combined with the sense of political valuing of its people is based on greed and selfishness, liberty and freedom are naturally taken out of context. The democracy is then subjected to an open abuse. It becomes ultimately problematic because the distribution and ownership of freedom becomes unilateral, no party would want to have less freedom thereby causing a great imbalance.

The point is the Filipino people are less likely to give, unwilling to concede personal advantages in order to achieve equilibrium in the exercise of roles in a democratic society. The results are an endless protest, sometimes superfluous and mostly devoid of legitimate patriotic intentions. Then the exercise of democracy is no longer positive, it becomes detrimental to the society, affecting the economy of the nation.

The Price to Pay in Democracy

Many political scientists believe that democracy has a high price to pay. Sarah Mitchell in their article entitled “Evolution of Democracy-War Dynamics” have proposed that, “democratization tends to follow war, that democratization decreases the systemic amount of war, and that the substantive and pacific impact of democracy on war increases over time.” All Kantian thinkers on political science declared that democracy lessens the possibility of war between “democratic countries” but there is very scant information whether a nation has to undergo a civil war before they reach a functional democracy.

Splitting a nation is tantamount as engaging in civil war except that maybe, arm conflict at this time, Heaven forbids, is still far fetch considering the current lack of support from other sectors of the Philippine society.

In “The Democratic Peace and a Sequential, Reciprocal, Causal Arrow Hypothesis” article of Karen Rasler and William R. Thompson of Indiana University, they explained that, “One of the democratic peace puzzles is the question of whether and to what extent the democracy peace relationship underestimates the possibility that peace precedes democracy: the reversed causal arrow hypothesis. From a war making–state-making perspective, democratization needs to be viewed as a partial function of external threat and domestic power concentration.” Almost as a predecessor to attaining democracy, it seems that war is in the offing.

Then the question should be, is civil war the answer to end this dilemma? That do we need to kill each other first to achieve the golden age of Philippine democracy? I believe that what must be answered first is “where do we stand in the brink of splitting our nation?” To see the Philippines divided over many issues is not something unsullied.

If you will take a quick historical tour, our nation is one of those countries in the world that have fought each other over many political differences that could have been resolved in a “more mature” democratic settings. Although the Philippines have reaped international admiration for toppling the dictatorship during the mid 80’s peacefully by exercising the power of the people, nothing remarkable enough to call our country prosperous have happened next. Have we become more civil and united and in tackling more vital issues to help build our nation? No. It is because the Filipinos have a very peculiar political attitude each brought by our degraded values with regard to self-interest, lack of discipline and poverty-related mind-set. The Filipino people have become, unfortunately – a malevolent race.


The Death of the Philippine Nation

In every death comes resurrection, at least which is a Christian way of looking at life.

In a political showground however, rebirth is a possibility but only after undergoing sinister human sufferings first. At the rate our political situation is going, it is not very far for the nation to meet death.

What else is good left for the people? The government is already engrossed with defending their seats from the bickering and nasty political warfare of their enemies. The very essence of governance now lies between who is more powerful and who is more “cunning” in evading public prosecution for their respective plunders and heists. The civil society has found a new, more exciting and thrilling hobby – joining the oppositions in rallying the poor masses to the streets, particularly not sure whether it is driven by their libertarian patriotism and love of the county or otherwise.

The poorest of the poor have become more succumbed to the false pretense of the politicians as champions of their cause. The number of street children and vagrants have increased tremendously that even the NGO’s taking care of these kind of people are now incapable to handle such increase, yet the government have done so little to even better the lives of these deprived members of our society. The unemployment rate has continuously walked up high its peak. While the rest of the countryside remains to be poor, under developed and neglected because their “representatives” are much busier lately in pondering whether to vote against or for the impeachment process.

The judicial system is even less helpful to indict the corrupt and the criminals to keep our society from hotshot frauds and hoodlums. Instead of dancing against or with the administration to help protect or undermine important faces, the legislators seems to be less occupied in promulgating laws that will aid in building our nation.

Should there be death waiting at the end of the rainbow for the Filipino people, one thing is for sure. It is brought by the collective contribution of everyone in our country. Death becomes us because of our sheer interest with personal favors even if it becomes utterly unfair to other people, because of our disrespect to constitution and value of fair judgment, because of the commercialism of our mass media that promotes further instability brought by their irresponsible reporting, because of our lack of discipline to obey simple traffic rules and keeping our surrounding free of litters, because of our lack of taste in mode of entertainment.

The Philippines may be one of the countries in the world with a high literacy rate but also has a very poor understanding of what is morally beneficial and wrong. Take for example the basis of the people in supporting candidates during elections. The popular and the bad-boy with mass appeal tend to be the champions, never mind if they are incapable, never mind if they have moral flaws, never mind if they do not know the basic difference of running a government or a Sunday cock derby.

Building a Nation: The Rebirth of the Filipino People

What is required in building a nation? What rebirth then? Rebirth is about changing even the smallest aspect of our lifestyle, sense of valuing and moral judgment. Rebirth means a radical shift of our already corrupted attitude about governance. Rebirth is such a profound word that might be excessively difficult for many of the Filipinos if not impossible to mold out to. Rebirth is about instilling each self with a basic discipline and a more stringent, dedicated will to become more productive citizens of the Philippine nation.

What makes nation? I believe, its citizens. The discipline and their communal interest to better each other’s lives constitute a good nation. Ironically, the Philippines is the stronghold of Christian faith, where we are supposed to be more tolerant, where we are supposed to be less judgmental, where we are supposed to be more helpful and charitable. Look at our nation? A nation full of scum, full of cheaters and liars, what happened to our being religious and prayerful people?

A nation becomes a nation because of its moral strength. A nation becomes one because it upholds the law and sees it in black and white and not because he is an Uncle or a contributor or because I owe him back. No nation has been or will ever be spared from political turmoil. Even the greatest of the greatest, every one will be subjected to open opposition, that is the basic component of a democracy. No nation has become perfect but there are nations that have great determination to rise and become imposing that they are now the countries where every Filipino aspires to work for.

Loyal Opposition in a Democratic Culture

There is an opposition for all reason. Although the concept of a "loyal opposition" is one of the key aspects of democratic culture, this is an especially difficult cultural shift to achieve like the Philippines where transitions of power have historically taken place through a very divisive modality like a people power. This crude exercise of democracy does not necessarily means it is wrong but because the Filipino attitude of being revengeful and self-centered especially when it comes to unseating someone from power made unity even harder than landing on planet Mars, it is even becoming counter productive.

Loyal opposition tells us that all sides in a democracy share a common commitment to uphold the nation’s welfare. Political competitors may disagree, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge the legitimate and important roles that each play - something that many Filipino politicians would not just relent.

What is very unfortunate in Philippine democracy is our inability to concede to the election winners and the ability of whoever is in the position to rig votes. These are two main recipes for political chaos and blunder in democracy.

Never since the Philippines elected their presidents after the Marcos regime that no electoral protest were ensued after every proclamation. It has never occurred in the political history of our country since the 1986 revolution that the losers conceded defeat.

What Then?

What is more miserable is these losers take their battle to the masses, to the chambers of the judiciary and loudly under their immunity and privilege in the legislative branch. All are in sheer abandon of colluding to promote further chaos and confusion. What do we get? We get nothing but a vicious cycle of political bickering and faultfinding. We get a splitting of a nation.

So as to whether a splitting of a nation means death or rebirth, come on, it is a rudimentary principle that there will never be rebirth without death. Death is already at hand and rebirth may even be unattainable at this time – unless we collectively become radically new Filipinos leaving those spiteful political attitudes and lack of personal discipline, rebirth will never see its chance in our sorry grimy horizons. If this fail to happen, can we all blame it to the elusive miracle?

The role of physical look in our interpersonal relationships is often misunderstood. The human tendency to judge the other person greatly depends on initial impression, so our perspective between beauty and traits seems to be confusing at times. I’ve heard it all the time, what matters most is the beauty within. Or is it, really?

In a life of a “single” person, meeting the opposite sex may neither be exhilarating or may not be a very rewarding exploit. It depends on who is talking. But to those who are gifted with good looks, something that may just be elusive from others, they’d pick the former without batting an eyelash.

So you’d say physical looks do not carry that much bearing. I agree but how about the rest of the acquaintances we deal everyday? Would we say the same? I doubt it. Isn’t it true that our treatment to a person would vary and greatly depend on his or her physical look? If you see a punk-looking dirty ragged guy in a bank, do you expect the rest of the staff to see him as a filthy rich customer? The issue at case is the initial impression.

I think to say that what is inside is more important than beauty makes it an inch away from lip service and double speak. This is only applicable to people who would have the chance to get to know the other person well before someone can honestly declare “what is beauty if the mind is empty.”

If good looks were not the measure of getting attention, cosmetics, plastic surgeons and signature clothes and shoes would close shops. Then the showbiz would no longer include “star appeal” as equally valuable criteria in making a star. Then the media through our becoming distasteful ordinary entertainment will no longer spoof and portray persons who look stupid and dork in demeaning situations.

We began our judgment not after but during meeting the person. Judgment and validation occurs, most of the time, at the first encounter - during the crucial first impression. This is the reason why many have mistakenly misconstrued a lot of people.

How many times have we passed judgment on a certain person because of the physical attributes? I’ve heard it a hundred times, she “looks” mean or he just “seem” to be an airhead or a jerk. Constantly, we have heard people say that she looks like an angel only to find out she’s hellish than hell afterwards and vice versa.

If you look into the “Top 10 List of Man’s Stupid Outlook”, this pre-judgmental attitude using the physical look as the basis should be up that list occupying the top 3 position.

I admit that this happens to many, not only to those “nobles” of our society including the wannabes, but this pre-judgmental attitude may be something we are all familiar. I am far from being able to understand why.

For now, I just let my self get contented with the fact that at the end of the day, at least, physical attractiveness is just a component of the whole outlook of our personality.

I found myself musing again over the works of William Shakespeare. Do you remember the play King Richard III when the evil Richard finally confronts his conscience? He had this terrible dream where the ghosts of those he killed haunted him during his brutal desire to get the kingship. I find it funny imagining those ghosts talking to him led by Prince Edward, son of Henry VI and followed by others in the order in which they were murdered. The ghosts cursed him and wished Richard to die as well. It could be just another scary flick. Instead of feeling remorse, Richard blamed his “coward conscience” after he was startled by asking for his horse only to find out afterwards it was only a dream. What a sinister character moron.

I always sought this thought. I believe that one day, there will be a point in our life when we will be confronted by our offense to our fellow beings like the ghost that haunted King Richard. Unlike him, we might not have murdered anyone.

Little did we know that in our small capacity to hurt other’s feelings, by over-doing things that matters to us most even if we know we are already trampling on others and by being over zealous to guard our own benefits, we become like King Richard. The very ill feelings, wrong doings and unfair treatment to others will be the ghost that will haunt us. That very same selfishness will haunt us and together we cross our fingers that it will not boomerang at our face.

In my young age, I’m no longer foreign to see people hurt each other due to trivial things because of even more petty and trivial reasons. Not to mention because of selfish meanings.

What makes me wonder is how could a person sleep at night when he is completely aware that someone, especially those who are disadvantaged and incapable of defending themselves, are offended, hurt and taken advantage because he is stronger, has more guts and enjoys a great deal of power.

I think all conscience is coward. It is coward in a sense that it won’t push the person bravely to surrender and recompense his dissolute demeanor toward other people. It depends on the person being afflicted whether he would admit his defeat to the prompting of his “coward conscience”.

Walking along the Session Road in Baguio City on the first day of the year 2008 became a little bit less smile-triggering, somehow diminished my already high-level enthusiasm brought by the holiday season.

I bet I am just one of the zillions, who-for some reason, are putting up on their minds about things they wished would be improved. Why not? New year brings hope. The problem is, mine is only hope. What I see around me is the inability of the many to really realized that our country is becoming less and less likely to be better. No, I don’t think so. Then you would go, wow, what a great way to start 2008 with cynicism. Sure. Whatever.

I certainly do not wish to start with my own list of complaints, I just find that incredibly surprising. I also think that Filipino, whether they are the business people or those bureaucrats regulating the economic policies of this country, are just simply nasty, greedy and cruel. The day of reckoning shall come too…Now that is my 2008 so called less conventional, non-optimistic way of looking at it. I am not angry, this is not an explosion of angst as well as it usually gets tiring in the long run, it is just a quick observation that in this country, those who are poor are becoming worst while the wealthy are just getting fatter.

An American married to a Filipina had a dismal experience with one of the clinics in Manila. His wife and daughter were processing travel documents for Saudi Arabia when the wife was found unfit to travel causing much delay to obtain the visa.

Dr. Jade Israel of Christian E. Cangco Medical Clinic & Laboratory located in Makati City informed that the wife has a terrifying infectious disease that compromised her decency as a woman and declared her unfit to travel. Allegedly, Cangco Clinic conveyed that the disease is incurable and so when the woman inquired about her options, it was mentioned that 1,500 USD would be paid by the clinic as a penalty should they issue a certificate despite the positive result, leaving the woman wondering about the significance of this information to her case.

Allegedly, the clinic was being very careful not to directly imply to pay the fine in exchange of the “fit to travel” certificate. When she finally indicated her intention to seek a second opinion, the said doctor insisted that a second opinion was not allowed and that she was the final authority for declaring if the woman was fit or unfit to travel.

The Filipina was devastated. She immediately informed her husband about the result then went back to Iloilo to consult with her long-time OB/Gyn doctor and related what was told by the said clinic. The OB/Gyn doctor was surprised and immediately doubted the diagnosis based on the history of the patient. The woman’s doctor immediately contacted Dr.Israel and inquired why the patient was denied the opportunity to seek a second opinion, Dr.Israel claimed that there is a doctor in San Lazaro Hospital who provides second opinion for the GAMCO-accredited clinics on certain occasions but it is not applicable to her case. The woman’s doctor performed another independent blood test and it turned out negative but arranged anyway with the doctor in San Lazaro Hospital to see the woman for another testing.

The husband was forced to fly to the Philippines upon learning that his wife had been in a minor car accident while driving back to their home as a result of her severe emotional distress. He then immediately went to San Lazaro Hospital with his wife to take the same test withoutnotifying Cangco Clinic, the lab result turned out negative as well. The doctor in San Lazaro prepared a certification addressed to Cangco Clinic that she is negative and was never exposed to such a disease.

The results from San Lazaro Hospital and Iloilo Specialist Hospital challenged the outcome of the test done in the said clinic but allegedly, Dr. Israel was unrelenting about the mistake. Then they both agreed that his wife would take the same test again only if there would be two blood samples to be sent to two different GAMCO-accredited clinics, the results turned out negative as well. The clinic finally certified her “fit to travel” although the cost to the couple had already been damaging specially the psychological disturbance caused by the mistake. Dr. Christian Cangco, the Medical Director of the said clinic, promised that the examining physician will be dealt strongly and a reprimand will be instigated.

When Dr. Israel was notified about the issue through a phone conversation and was requested to provide her side of the story, she indicated that the matter would be handled by Dr. Cangco and declined to comment further. Dr. Cangco explained, through the phone, that their clinic reversed the result and indicated that the travel of the patient “was not delayed anyway and that she was able to proceed to Saudi Arabia after receiving the certificate.”

Israel also explained their laboratory equipment were just recently purchased and assured that their clinic is certified by ISO 9001 and TUV. When asked if he is aware of any direct or indirect solicitation in return of releasing medical certificates despite the failing laboratory results, he strongly commented that he does not condone any solicitation. He assured that this does not happen in Cangco Clinic.