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Understanding the self (033018)

Why spend another semester or fifty-four hours just to understanding oneself?  Don’t you understand yourself?  If you in fail this particular subject, does it mean that you are a stranger to yourself?

These issues are certain to crop up when taking this particular subject.

We need to understand ourselves, not because there is a grade attached to it, but rather because we need to answer the riddle of Plato, of that of “knowing oneself”.  Knowing oneself seems to be a basic issue but an individual unable to hurdle such a riddle is destined to a life of contradiction.  A person who doesn’t know where he wants to go and similar to a scenario of playing basketball without a ring or playing darts without a dart board.

Such a person would always be at war with himself and he would most certainly be wasting his time because he would always be ambivalent with what he wants.

If you do not know yourself, you would be consigned to a wasted life.  You might be venturing to an enterprise that would cost you a lot and at the tail end of the race, a realization comes that such is now worthless  because you do not want it at the first place. 

If you do not know yourself, you mimic a lost soul that doesn’t know where he is headed, where he came from and why is he going in such a direction?  One is consigned in chasing things that are deemed important but are discarded later on since there is always a change of what is deemed valuable.

And yes, the quest for knowing oneself at an early stage of one’s life is important.  Similar to answering the riddle of knowing oneself, things are simpler, things are easier and values are rational when there is a basic understanding of oneself.

Take the case of Duterte.  The man is a walking contradiction.  He wants to be loved, he wants to be recognized, he wants to be admired, and yet everything that he does is the exact opposite of what he wants.

He wants to be taken seriously, and yet he jokes most of the time.  When he becomes offensive and gutter language takes the center of attraction, he will just say that he was just joking.  His jokes are inappropriate and somehow, becomes his blanket excuses for his un-presidential behavior.

When one does not know himself, he is always at war with himself.  Ambivalence becomes his middle name, and claims of poor jokes becomes his refuge for excusing himself.

No president will ever admit openly that he has killed a person, and yet, Duterte openly claims such.  And why is this?  The man is bothered unconsciously by his conscience and like a fallen catholic, wants to confess and seeks absolution from anyone willing to listen and willing to award such a symbolic absolution.

I tell you, the man is lost, the man is directionless, the man is a contradiction and the man seeks forgiveness above all else.  The man simply does not understand himself.   

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Lenten Break (033118)

The Lenten break arrived a little bit early this year, usually the season happens around April, but since the basis a lunar calendar instead of the usual solar calendar, the break, as I said arrived earlier.

I tried driving around the city during this break and believe you me, there was virtually no traffic.  Almost everyone who is not important or needed in the city, left the city, to spend their Lenten break somewhere else.  I got to savor, the absence of traffic, because in case the government have not figured it out, lesser people means lesser traffic.  That is why if you want to lighten the traffic, you lessen the people on the road by reducing their reason of being on the road.

Driving around the city was a breeze.  How I wish that such a situation could last a little bit longer, unfortunately, such is not the case.  By tomorrow, there will be a massive influx of people who would be trekking back to Manila, to begin another grind of a workweek.  Somehow, people would be lesser since the start of summer is upon us, and students which is 50% of the reason why there is a colossal traffic in the city, would commence with their summer break.

But seriously, if you are really bent on reducing traffic, you reduce people on the road.  The world doesn’t have to coincide with the 8 to 5/9 to 6 schedule.  Business hours could be adjusted.  School schedules could be adjusted, to lessen the number of people on the road.  They say that the Philippines is losing 2 billion pesos a day because of traffic, I say that such could be reduced when we adjust the schedule of students in the city.  Just in the city only, it doesn’t have to be in the entire Philippines scenario.  An adjustment of school schedule in the capital would lead to a billion pesos a day savings for the country.

School doesn’t have to open at 7 am.  They could open at 5 am.  I could move as early as 4 am but for other consideration, a 5 am school schedule would suffice.  An earlier start means an earlier end of classes, freeing the road for other industries later on, leading a more manageable traffic flow.

The Lenten season is supposed to be a time of reflection on the ultimate sacrifice of the savior.  With the current rate of hedonism happening in the country, the reason for reflection is lost – cheapening and further devaluing the holy week.

People are in and around the beach, welcoming and savoring the start of the summer, forgetting the principal reason of the Lenten season.  By any other definition, that is hedonism by any other name.  But for this exercise, let us christened the yearly phenomenon as Lenten Hedonism.

Let us all drink, eat and fornicate, for tomorrow, we are all going to die and we might as well take advantage of the opportunity today and as often as we can.  Because the opportunity might not present itself again tomorrow.

Death is certain, the opportunity is not.  And while there is nothing wrong with this philosophy, there is something wrong with our hypocrisy.  Let us all call spade a spade and just come out in the open.  Let us not sugar coat our collective hypocrisy any longer.

From this day forward, it is Lenten Hedonism for the Philippines.

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Grandparents (033018)

My second son and youngest son will never experience the joy of having grandparents.  In their limited constellation of exposure to relatives, the role of grandparents is lacking.  They have tons of uncles, aunties, cousins and in-laws to go around but having a grandfather or a grandmother wouldn’t be one of them.

On the side of my wife, her parents died early, and on my side, my parents also died with a very limited exposure to my offspring’s.  They knew that they have grandparents, but the requisites of bonding are not one of them.

Commercially, there are Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and Grandparents day.  While I suspect the creation of such specific days and I suspect that they are just created to sustain a commercial underpinning, to get people to spend their limited incomes on days that are supposed to be inexpensive and should be celebrated all year round, a mall inspired celebration is just a ploy to get people in the mall and for them to spend their money.

While there is nothing wrong with this ploy, this scheme however, cheapens the original intend of the commercially initiated occasion.

Just like Christmas Day, Easter Sunday and Valentine’s Day – the commercial inclination ruins the very rationale of the intended celebration. 

My personal regret, is that my parents cannot be around their grandchildren since they already moved on.  The supposed transmission of culture is not complete, and I am a poor carrier of traditions.

Somehow, somewhere, I lost something from this equation.  And the biggest irony of all is that I just learned from the eldest daughter that she is now expecting a child and that me and my wife are soon to be transformed as grandparents ourselves.  This is just great.  This is just another failure in my many lists of regrets.

A young man like me, all forty-seven of summers, soon to become a grandfather?  We have failure and regrets all written at the start of a chapter.  A colossal tragedy all waiting to happen at the slightest provocation.

A simple denial would have been sufficient, but another role to play?  This is not included in my repertoire above average skills.  I am doomed to fail and comedy story that is waiting to evolved as a tragedy.  Considering that I am not liked as a father, I am certain to be hated as a grandfather.

My wife would surely fill whatever role that I would surely fare badly upon and that is my only consolation.  I do not want this role but life goes on, and this role is pressed upon my unwanted and ungiven consent.

                                                                          

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Driving Cars (032818)

Having car in the Philippines denotes that you are not poor.  In a country that is predominantly poor (or officially classified as a third world country), a possession of one means that in an economic race – one’s station is in the middle and is largely considered as a middle class.

I only had my first car when I was already in my 40’s.  Though I already own a string of motorcycles (a White Honda Bravo, a Green Yamaha Mio, A Red Kawasaki Rouser, another Black Yamaha Mio and current Red Honda Beat), my first car is an AT Silver Toyota Vios.

I have a lot of history with this car, aside from being my first car, symbolically, this signals that I am not getting behind the economic race but more importantly, functionally – I get to ferry my entire family where they are needed.

This car was bought on credit and after paying off this car, this will not be for resale, in fact, I would purchase another car for my wife which in turn would be given in time to our youngest son.  The Toyota Vios would be given to my second son.  And in my retirement years, I would be buying a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV).  For the record, this is still to happen in the future, I still have to pay the first car for another year, but hopefully, this long-term plan would come to fruition.

To date, I have already driven 8 variety of cars, all automatic transmissions since I do not know how to drive a manual transmission.  Aside from the Toyota Vios, I have already driven a Toyota Yaris, a Toyota Wigo, a Honda City, a Hyundai Accent, a Mitsubishi Mirage, a Nissan X-Trail, a Mitsubishi Montero and very recently, a Toyota Fortuner.

My benchmark is my own Toyota Vios.  I judge and measure cars according to the standard set by my own car.  And I must confess, except for Toyota Fortuner, I held my Toyota Vios above the other enumerated vehicles.

Toyota Fortuner was above my Toyota Vios because it was really such a muscle car.  One’s manhood is literally elevated with this SUV.  Maybe my Toyota Vios was aging and maybe I was riding a brand-new SUV and the comparison is simply a no contest.  But my current attainable vehicle is a Toyota Fortuner. 

The feel, upgraded accessories, the elevation, the power, the size…based in my limited test driven cars, Toyota Fortuner is tops.  The king of the hill, the attainable dream ride.

Some might even argue that the Toyota Fortuner is a wrong choice for being a SUV, while the other were cars, my estimation however remains the same, my conclusions concrete (for now).

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Daily grind (040118)

Today is April 1, 2018, some history buff would say that today is also considered as an April’s fool’s day.  Meaning, people would be pranking other people because historically, such have been the tradition even during the medieval times.  The prank however was brutal, people were killed and downright executed on this day but as the tradition was watered down, no more deaths rule was implemented, though people were still being consciously fooled.

Based on the lunar calendar, today was also an Easter Sunday.  

For the Catholics, the implication was that he is risen and the act of human salvation from sin is complete.  Mankind is now saved from the clutches of sin and people are now out of the darkness.

But more than anything else, people by tomorrow, would be trekking back to their daily grind.  Work will have to continue (though there is another long weekend because of National Heroes Day) and people need to be productive again.  The difficulty here lies when people have lost their momentum of daily grind and have to re-start their mindset, coming off a long vacation and travelling back from the province.

And once you have groove, once you are over the hump, there is another long weekend, breaking again the momentum of actually working.  Traffic would be light by virtue of the start of the summer where majority of classes are suspended and only irregular students would have to undergo a summer class, either for students who are behind or trying to advance and or catch up with their projective graduation dates.

This thought or idea have been forwarded before, but we really need to lessen our holidays, comparatively speaking, we have one of the most number of official holidays in the planet.  We are festive, we celebrate so many days, and we even suspend work and classes just to celebrate these days.

Our productivity is already affected, we need to shape up, catch up and work more to produce more.  Be it in the business of manufacturing goods or providing services, we as a country needs to carry our load and soldier on for productivity.

Besides, every time there is a holiday, there is an upswing or increase in the number of crimes being committed.  Check any DILG or PNP data, and they will show and confirm that after every holiday (regardless of rationale for such), there is increased number of crimes being committed.

The solution really is quite obvious, lesser celebration, lesser crime and this in turn leads to increased productivity.  Unfortunately, the culture is quite soft is not downright damaged in this issue.  People want the perpetuation of the status quo, people want to retain the unproductive calendar and the continuation of laziness via the celebration of so many holidays.

Someone really needs to break this cycle or the status quo would continue to damage the next generation of Filipinos – believing that in order to properly celebrate any occasion, disruption of whatever calendared work ought to be suspended or delayed.

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Blackhole (032718)

A giant of science died recently, in the person of Stephen Hawking (March 14, 2018).  His worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, gave an abbreviated and simplified tale of time and space from the perspective of physics.  By profession, he was a theoretical physicist but his contribution far exceeded his field of expertise.

From a cameo appearance (on non-appearance) in the sitcom series of “The Big-Bang Theory” to the animated series of “The Simpsons”, Stephen Hawking gave birth to giant ideas and brought them to the level of the masses and that of the non-scientific minds. 

Collectively, there was a trend of do-it-yourself (DIY) practice in almost every field of human endeavor, that trend could even be attributed to his genius.

Statistically he should have died in his twenties, if not in his thirties, but fortunately, he ended up being blessed with a long scientific life (all of 76 summers).

Among the many ideas attributed to him, Stephen Hawking articulated the possibilities and realities of blackholes.  Of what they are, of what they could be, of how they could be and what they mean in the vast expanse of the universe.  Just recently, someone postulated (or mused) that our universe may be located inside and blackhole and we have just not realized it yet.  Now that is an intriguing thought.

Blackholes are literal holes in the universe where the gravitational pull is so great that even light cannot escape.  And surprisingly, blackholes are expanding, eating and devouring stars in the process.  Just imagine a gravitational pull where even light cannot escape?  And imagine that such a hole is ever expanding, consuming stars, planets and eventually galaxies in the near future.  Our solar system may be near an undiscovered blackhole somewhere or an ever expanding blackhole somewhere.

Some theoretical physicists are even postulating that at the rate the universe is expanding and at the rate that the thousands (is not millions) of blackholes are expanding, the universe might be eaten by a blackhole.

Upon closer studies of blackholes, it was also attributed to Mr. Hawking that there are hundreds, if not thousands of blackholes in our galaxy alone.  Ever expanding blackholes might even fuse with other blackholes creating a bigger blackhole that is now capable of consuming more stars and heavenly bodies.

Mr. Hawking is also attributed to had discovered that blackholes also give out a radiation, and this radiation is now named after him, this is now called the “Hawking Radiation Effect”.  Now what is the implication of this? Though there is a massive gravitational force inside the blackhole, there are struggles beneath it (or inside it) and these struggles are producing a radiation effect.

Considering that Stephen Hawking suffers from a medical condition that renders him an invalid, his contribution to science, physics and pop culture in general is beyond measure.  When Albert Einstein died, the world needed another face to symbolize intellect.  After Einstein, Hawking took that role. I would postulate that somehow, somewhere, somehow, there is a vacancy in this role of symbolism.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, I am certain that someone would fit the role nicely in the near future.  That is if the blackhole that does not get him first and trap him perpetually with his massive gravitational pull.

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Martial Law (032418)

When Martial Law was first declared on Mindanao last year because of the Maute aggression, the justification for the so called Martial Law was already shaky in terms of legal basis.  The only justification were rebellion, invasion and lawlessness.

All three were possible justification were not crystal clear and solid hence the declaration was questioned before the Supreme Court.  Surprisingly, the Supreme Court agreed with Executive contention and they simply said that it was a clear case of executive prerogative.

When the Maute group was inevitable repelled and its leaders finally killed by the military, and extension for another year was sought by the executive department up to this date, the Supreme Court have not yet made a ruling on the legality of the Martial Law extension.

Considering that there is an impeachment trial that would commence in the Senate, and with the Chief Justice as the main subject of the imminent impeachment trial, the ruling on the legality of the Martial Law extension in Mindanao would be superseded by the impeachment process.  In my personal estimation, the impeachment trial would have to dealt with first before any ruling on the legality of the Martial Law extension would come out.

And by the time that such ruling would come out, the duration of the extension is already consumed, making the petition for the legality of such an extension moot and academic.

With the integrity and independence of the legislature already compromised, the next target is the judiciary.  A successful impeachment on the Chief Justice would serve notice that no one is untouchable and safe from bullying from this administration.  Just bend to the perverted will of the Chief Executive and there would be less trouble for everyone who matters in the government.

Even the opposition, will have to take notice, since the PDAF mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles is admitted to the Witness Protection Program of the Justice Department and more controversial names would surely surface for potential prosecution.  And guess what? These names would predominantly contain the names of known opposition leaders.  A classic case of a legal blackmail.  Temper your opposition or suffer the legal harassment.

From the Marcos burial, to the China territorial sell-out, to the ICC withdrawal, and Martial law in Mindanao, these are all red flags of a looming and an impending dictatorship in the republic. 

Duterte have his millions of followers, but just like any political reality, what goes up – must come down.  Sooner or later, dissatisfaction with this current administration would multiply exponentially, and there would be an ugly reckoning for the republic.

The bigger question now is this, are we strong enough to survive a Duterte fallout?   Will this fallout unite us or further divide us?  This problem could be simplified by a removal of a head of state for health reasons or death, but we all know that such is just wishful thinking.

Duterte is already toying with the notion of changing the constitution, of shifting the government from presidential to a federal form of government.  His minions are already hard at work and from all indications are making headways.  There are dark clouds on the horizon and they appear to man-made and designed to benefit the current administration.