YearEnder

It's been a long time since I've temporarily stopped posting here in my blog. But i won't let this opportunity just pass away to bid reminisce the Philippines' real big happenings as my official year-ender topic for 2009.

The Philippines did face a lot of tests this year. I hope that the sacrifices and legacies of those who passed away this year would not be in vain like the ICON DEMOCRACY, Cory Aquino and the Executive Minister of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, Eraño G. Manalo. The grieve of the Filipino people was really felt upon these losses. And to all of those who lost their loved ones during the Maguindanao Massacre which was blamed to the oppress of prowess of in-authority. And also to those who lost because of the sunken ships.

The Philippines also faced disastrous typhoons. Because of these typhoons, lots properties, hopes, and lives were taken away.

There are still many more obstacle that the country faced this year. But the Filipinos once again proved their strong will for being able to cope with the pain of the tragedies this year.

Farewell

A mother of the Filipino people for she lived her life serving Juan. A mother of the Philippine democracy for she gave Juan what he was starving for, democratic systems and good governance. She definitely is an icon we are in debt of. But Juan mourned for his kind and loving mother has passed away.

The entire country was emotionally stirred upon the death of a certain Maria Corazon Cojuangco Aquino who has done so much for her beloved country. She did a great role in the Philippine history. Accordingly, she is an icon of democracy.

In the midst of Philippine imprisonment inside the cage of the oppressive dictatorship of the Marcos regime, she seemed to be the light in the dark being a portrait of hope. Through her self-sacrifice, she brought to the democracy to this country, Pearl of the Orient, Philippines.

She showed the true meaning of public service which ended not until the last term of her office as president but until her last breath. She was never infatuated with her high position in the society: she could have the heads of the suspected murderers of her husband but she didn’t.

She was able to unite the Filipinos along EDSA during the people power Revolution in 1986 for one purpose and just recently, she was able to merge the Filipino people the second time around for one purpose again although she was dead. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered along streets to show the depth of gratitude of the Filipino people for the former president. Some said, it was just a lesser cost to wait for couples of hours to see and bid goodbye to her than her martyrdom for her fellow countrymen.

President Cory shall be celebrated as the country’s icon of democracy by the people. She will always remain in the public eye. Her battle is over, she won the victory. To Tita Cory, may you rest in peace with your husband Ninoy.

Goodbye and thank you, Your Excellency.

Fast Tracking

During the days of old, children would really thrive and work hard to be able to go school. They will really sacrifice blood and sweat especially those who were interested. They wanted to obtain good education even desperate. How about you? Do you know what education is for?

Education serves as a passport to a stable job, key to a better life and a key to empowerment. But it seemed that to some students of this generation, education does not mean much. If they knew its value, they would study hard and take the tests with focus and concentration.

Many students, especially those who are from lower sections, take their tests very fast. The tests good for one hour are taken only for more or less 30 minutes. Are these students geniuses? Are they speed readers?
Geniuses? No, they are not. Likewise they aren’t speed readers as well. In fact, they don’t read the questions at all. They don’t also write in shorthand. Teachers say some answer sheets are almost empty.

Education is the key to better lives. A person may be poor for now, but if he gets good education and take it with efforts, definitely, he will not be poor for the rest of his life. After all hard times and sacrifices, there will be a relief especially if you love and value what you are sacrificing for and not just taking it for granted. So if you are taking a test, take your time in answering and review them after.

My mother told me how she was so eager and determined to have a good education. And in every examination, they really beg their teacher for few more time to review their answers. As a result ,in every recognition, she was an honor student and a salutatorian in high school. All efforts and hard works were recognized by the school every after the school year.

If previously, education is really valued by students, why wouldn’t we, the present generation?

Overwhelming

Every before the Apollo rises,
There seemed to call my name with echoes
As I open my eyes and still yawning,
I thank God for the new day of my living.

On the lea, I love to play in there
So fresh are the gifts from nature, our mother
Attractive are the birds with blending colors
Entailing is the sunset on glittering waters.

On the west, the oranged Apollo falls,
Dark covers the sky dome, evening sun rises
Gazing upon the starry skies, so bright
Fascinating voice of nature murmured, “Sleep tight.”

Clean Air Act

In our class in Filipino II today, we’ve taken up the text about the Clean Air Act. Our Filipino teacher has emphasized some of the issues about this provision.

Clean Air Act, a legislation designed to regulate and reduce air pollution in the Philippines. This was signed into law through the guts showed by Bukidnon Representative Nerus Acosta. Without her valor, this would have not pass through in the congress because of the objections of some businessmen that are of influence and some politicians in the country.

The Clean Air Act has two objectives: (1) to improve the nation's air quality and (2) to reduce or eliminate certain air pollutants that have been linked to problems for human health or the environment. Though approved, Clean Air Act was outmoded by the Filipino people especially the drivers. The Clean Air Act designates maximum allowable levels of pollutants from automotive and industrial emissions and sets general standards for acceptable levels of pollution in the air. But other vehicles who fail the emission test can still pass through the so called “lagay,” money paid to do cheating.

If we will think of it, this Clean Air Act is for the sake of all Filipinos – our health is too much affected by the dirtiness of air. Call it desperate but those vehicles which would fail the emission test must be phase out for a common good. Every driver has to face this reality. Which would you choose - to lose your sideline in driving or the extinction of humanity in the near future because of air pollution?

Philippine Heritage: The Leading

Open your eyes and be able to see the Philippine heritage. Different festivals and tourist destinations you don’t expect dominate the whole archipelago. So let’s start the tour!

Philippines received various international recognitions for its colorful traditional festivals, world-renowned sites and of course the people.

As we know, Philippines has many traditional festivals good thing to know is that every Filipino joins, watches, and celebrates these festivals as well as the tourists. Examples of these are sinulog, ati-atihan, penagbenga, bangus festival, and more.

Now we go to world renowned sites. Palawan… The cleanest spot in the country with white-sand beaches and glittering crystal-clear bodies of water. Palawan’s very own underground river Tubbataha reef lead in the votation for the new 7 Wonders of Nature/World.

But Bohol will not let go easy for its competitors (for new 7 wonders) with its breath-taking chocolate hills.

Next in line is Cebu City with its prominent trademarks like the Magellan’s Cross. Cebu is also one of the most progressive cities. Actually, there are still many tourist spots like Siargao – surfing capital, Baguio – summer capital, Boracay with its white-sand beaches, Pangasinan’s hundred islands, etc.

The last but not the least is the Filipino people who take care of the Philippine heritage. And as expected, Filipinos take good hospitalization of heir visitors. Our tour is until here…

The numbers of tourists continuously increase because of the rich Philippine heritage. And as they increase, there will be more opportunities for Filipinos to have work. Philippines has indeed become one of the popular tourists’ destinations globally, probably… The leading.

Thanks to the Computer

In the ancient times, people would need to use charcoal in writing, printing presses to circulate the latest news and read very thick and dusted books to research. Now, the world has just transformed into a digital space. A new world where everything seem to roll just in a single click.

Computer is the greatest invention man has ever invented since they learned to use electricity. Today, computers become very useful and helpful to anybody. It is helpful especially to students like because we don't have to read glossaries and indexes of books to answer our assignments, all we need to do is to type what we have to research. Not only that, it is also useful in terms of mass communication; if we are very busy and cannot catch the news in the television, we can read more news on the internet. We can also post our opinions that will be read worldwide through blogs.

Computers can also be fun and entertaining. There are a lot of online games available and many venues to search for our favorite artists and celebrities. we can also download the latest music online, as in we do not have to buy an album.

It is very amazing to think how computer had made our life easier. Thanks to the computer.

Did We Really Lose It?

In the everyday classes, students go to school – trying to be catalysts for change, learning every aspect of our community and of our environment, and of course molding their futures. Every student is trying to ignore all the noise and the uncontrolled crowd from the morning until the afternoon.
Every morning everybody is in hurry because nobody wants to be embarrassed because of being late. And then somebody will hit you but nobody says sorry. During snack time, they wouldn’t mind the slogans and the reminders of the school administrators concerning the proper waste disposal instead they will just throw their garbage in a corner, without thinking how would it affect everybody especially the janitor and the janitress. Still others, don’t care the teacher they meet as if the teacher is just at their age, they will not greet and will walk faster to escape from the teacher that may ask for help for the things she’s bringing.
This has been a regular happening everyday in a school. What is going on? Have everyone lost their good manners or they really don’t have it since before?
Before students are not like this, they really possess the good manners and right conducts for everybody around them. Everybody is afraid to be punished with the physical discipline because of their foolishness. However, this way of discipline was already abolished to protect the welfare of the students. And this become the reason why students ignorant about the value of good manners and abusive because they weren’t afraid anymore of the physical punishment.
Students of this generation, you, with more equipped instructional materials and facilities, shouldn’t wait for the physical punishment to be legalized again before you change from being ignorant.
It just seemed that you go to school to learn English, Math, and Science! How about learning to possess the good manners and right conducts?

Success and Failure

Life is like a wheel, it is the wheel of fortune. Sometimes you are up there sometimes you’re down there… a wheel that could affect you in just one turn, just depending on your determination and to what are you willing to do and to sacrifice. And only then you become successful.

Success is the attainment of wealth, favor, or eminence; it is the favorable or desired outcome. Because of that, man has the instinct to always aim for something better than what he has achieved. We just can’t prevent that sometimes we fall, a tragedy that may cause great pain and depression. To others, failure is a disaster that could end one’s life. If this is how we consider failure, we won’t be successful.

If we dream of something we aren’t sure we’ll be able to achieve it, so we must know that failure is the partner of success and we should be ready to accept defeat cheerfully, be fearless and always positive, and of course work hard for it. After all, success is pleasurable to taste and it would be more pleasurable if you know by yourself that you are the one who worked hard for it.

Gang Bang

“For the sake of brotherhood.” This is usually the theme of many gangs. Nowadays, we severally hear news that gang bangers are involved in many riots around the nation.

Joining of students into gang bangs has become a serious problem in many places and so our school. As we know these gang bangers make illegal and unjust things. How do they affect the school?

Our school has pin-pointed some of these gangsters and had them expelled. The school administrators had been so strict in keeping these kind of people out of the school campus because not only reputation of the school is affected by them but also the welfare of other students who are serious in their studies. If students will be exposed to gangsters, they might be influenced by the bad habits and vices of these. These gangsters are also threats to the security of any innocent people because anybody can be a victim of hazing not only to students inside the campus but also to the out-of-school youth.

Although it is said that the school holds the responsibility of helping make each students’ future brighter, it still depends on the self discipline of each student. It is just either they will wait and keep up the struggle in school or they will hang-out with their bad-influence friends.

Therefore, joining into gang bangs gives no benefit at all, pain and immorality rather. Then, why join gang bang?

Let’s Do Our Part, Now!

It has been a hundred and eleven years since the Philippine independence was declared by notable Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. A hundred and eleven years since the Philippine flag was first raised in Kawit, Cavite. A hundred and eleven years since the Filipino people have rejoiced the freedom that they long waited for. What is really the significance of Philippine Independence Day to us Filipinos of today?

Blood and even lives were the capital of our freedom. Our heroes have set aside their own welfare for the freedom that they have always wanted. Now, as we embrace this new millennium, where improvements are rapid, we, the youth must face the challenge as to that of our heroes. It is a challenge of becoming responsible for the future of our country – as we are the expected hope.

A reform must happen, the improvement of Philippines. We must start a new era for our own country. It must be an era that would bring back the enthusiasm of every Filipino to pursue to a new kind of living that would lift us from the poverty we’re anguishing. We can’t deny that Philippines was left behind as other countries continue to be more successful. We must work together and help each other to reach a common goal.

We, the present youth are the new faces of hope. We are in charge of the noble responsibility that our heroes left us – we must not let expectations to fade. The torch of this new generation has just been lighted, lets keep it burning.

As we enjoy freedom, we must also look back to what our heroes have done all these years of independence and make them our inspirations to attain a higher goal. They have just done their part and its time to do ours – to study hard. After all, Dr. Jose Rizal was not yet wrong when he once said, “The youth are the hope of the fatherland”, was he?