Discovery of the Day

Discovery of the day: one part skim milk + one part brewed coffee + 2 sachets artifical sweetener tastes just like Starbucks Coffee.

What if they had Friendster,Facebook, Tweeter, etc ages ago?

I’m probably one of the ten people in the world who has neither a facebook nor friendster account – during college when people who ask for my friendster account and I reply that I don’t have one, they get this incredulous look on their faces along with the follow-up question ‘why’. I used to reply that I’m too much of a snob to bother with friendster; then the much simpler I don’t want one. The reason I haven’t any of these is two is that they don’t really appeal much to me. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m great with good ol’e-mail and YM. But I did wonder if friendster or facebook or tweeter had been here ages ago, would certain people make use of them and how? Well, came across a hilarious one:

kids are the darnest things

Haven’t blogged for ages as I’m so very busy these days and it wasn’t with a smile that I blogged about the aftermath of typhoon Ondoy. That really got me into deep thinking and I think that I even earned a wrinkle for it (damn). So, to cheer people up a bit:

and who could forget Harry and Charlie

this one is really cute (lols)

everyone knows about the marshmallow test, but it’s plain cute! (and I seriously doubt I’d pass this particular test too)

blood… ( I never tire of this one, this kid’s awfully cute)

By the way, Happy birthday, Cherry Pie!

Proud to be a Filipino

The typhoon has really woken up people, both ways, and though there are a number of people who has chosen to take advantage of the relief measures, a staggering majority chose the opposite, and let me just say, I have never been more proud to be a Filipino than I am these days.

How often has it been said that the People’s Power Revolution (other countries tried to emulate a similar bloodless revolution and failed) was a day when ordinary people did extraordinary things? Having been born in 1983, this was something I missed and what a thing to miss it was.

But like any other social science student, I delved into details about the rule of former President Marcos, perhaps viewing him with more understanding than most as both of my parents’ own families believed in this regime and the this leader. But even looking up to Ferdinand Marcos senior as I did, the personal recounts and video footages and books depicting nuns, students, parents and civilians from all walks of life singing peace songs and handing rosaries and roses to soldiers heavily armed for combat and astride military tanks along EDSA was something that, deep inside, I understood, and made my insides ache. That was truly a day when ordinary people did extraordinary things – people giving roses for guns, soldiers laying down arms for the people, a dictator stepping down to prevent EDSA from turning red with blood.

EDSA II happened while I was a college freshman and unlike most people, I (along with a handful of select people) saw it coming and keenly observed and discussed the political power plays and the direction that the country was heading. Perhaps 2001 just isn’t the same as 1986, perhaps the twenty-first century truly is a different world altogether, but (and unlike even the said handful of select people) EDSA II just didn’t quite measure up to the spirit of the original EDSA revolution for me and this time around both family and friends were participants to EDSA II.

What does make me feel the way I did when I studied the original EDSA revolution was the rescue and relief efforts have seen around me these past few days. Friends wading in several feet of water to rescue friends, classmates ‘adopting’ classmates whose houses had been severely damaged, people braving flood, gushing wind and rain for mere acquaintances, kids parting with beloved toys and clothes to give comfort to others they haven’t even met. These past few days, several hundreds of ordinary people did extraordinary things. Like I said, I have never been more proud to be a Filipino.

As for the government, well, this government continue to live up to its image of corruption, greed and all-around selfishness, the kind that you can’t believe. I was, still am, severely effin’ frustrated with the fact that throughout Saturday you couldn’t see any movement from the government; no BJMP trucks or amphibian vehicles transporting those stranded and rescuing those in danger (dictator that he may have been in his later rule, but military vehicle were then used to transport stranded students and military personnel braved the strongest of storms to rescue civilians). Worst for me was the announcement from the NDCC that they were abandoning rescue efforts and diverting whatever little was left of their resources for relief operations! What kind of people would let those fighting just to survive to die?

And as for Mr. Teodoro’s statement that this latest typhoon took them by surprise and so everything they were doing were all spur of the moment, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Isn’t keeping an eye out exactly for these kinds of things the whole function of the National Disaster Coordinating Council? Shouldn’t preventive measures, evacuation plans and a host of other contingency plans be at the ready at a moments notice? After all, it didn’t rain cats and dogs out of nowhere; we knew Ondoy was coming, the rain was fairly moderate – it wasn’t like months’ worth of rain fell inside an hour. Those in charge could have predicted the water level increase and put in motion relocation plans and issued announcements. Help should have been sent to those deemed would be in most danger. But no, we were told by NDCC to please not use our phones because phonelines are clogged – and there we were, trying to get in touch with loved ones who were outside the protection of our houses, worrying sick for their safety, looking for ways to get to them or get them home. I wish Mr. Teodoro could have had a confrontation with my grandmother then, who had been conducting a headcount of all of her grandchildren in the city via telephone; she’d put him in his place.

I was so very fortunate that none of my family members had been in harm’s way, that my cousins and aunts didn’t have their houses flooded or their safety otherwise threatened. It would have been easy to pretend that it was just a rainy Saturday, but the news told us otherwise, and the city that the front steps of our house overlooked had turned into a river of murky brown water, visible in the middle of which was around three feet of wall and the roof of three-storey school building.

But like most, we incurred losses. I lost a distant grandmother because (and no matter how many times the government deny it, we all know it happened) a water dam was unceremoniously opened to let water out – into the village nearby which, for thirty years, has never seen flooding. Water and mud and muck buried cars, houses and friends, relatives and loved ones.

So, to all Filipinos who read this particular post, please absorb the points and come summer next year, please remember that it is our choice who we put into Office to lead us, help us and stand by us. Remember that the impact of typhoons like Ondoy could have been dramatically lessened, that people could have been saved, that our government, economically poor as it is, should have been about protecting and serving the Filipinos. Come election day on summer, think about what our people endured, and how, next time, it could be our sister, or brother, or parents, or loved ones, making up the death toll.