...So Help Us God

2005-01-03T00:19:00.000-08:00

It’s a title of a book I’m reading right now (Half way na). It’s a compilation of the Inaugural addresses of the Presidents of the Philippines, from former President Emilio Aguinaldo to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, including a brief (if you could call 3-5 pages brief) background of their history and climb to the presidency, statistics of their time (unemployment, GDP, etc), and a depiction of the Inaugural day of each president.

It’s quite nice actually. A good read for those of you who like politics. For me (and coincidentally the author’s same view point) it presents to the reader the goals of each president for the Philippines in his/her Tenure. The Inaugural speech is the first thing that he/she does as President, you could day that the President’s inaugural sets the tone of the presidency, a prelude of things to come so to speak.

You could see the way each president sees our Country’s situation, and coupled with the other president’s points of views, you could at least see how our country had progressed (or not). I would be reserving my comments until I finish the book, but for now I would say that it’s a worthy book to read, especially for us the youth. Since we are the ones who will inherit this country (yeah, it’s cheesy but it’s true). I believe that for us to really move forward as a nation we have to look back in our history, and what better way to do that than to reflect on the how our presidents see our country. So my beloved reader, take some time to read this book. I promise you won’t regret it.

For those interested, you can buy a copy at Powerbooks, in the Filipiana Section.

The New Year!

2005-01-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

It's a New Year, and light of 2005 I thought that I'd start the year by giving my new blog some serious thought (nakagawa na kasi ako dati pero parang just for the sake of having one).

2005.

Another new year for me. Frankly I'm quite excited for this year (and I'm not the only one. In Recent poles conducted by the Social Weather Station, it was ascertained that a majority of Filipinos have a positive outlook for this new year); In February would be the COS day celebration, In a few months time I'll be ending another chapter in my life, College, After that I look forward to being able to go somewhere to go on a vacation and some deep reflection (hopefully somewhere in the Philippines), I’ll be working, taking up a Masters degree, discovering fruitful business opportunities, the list goes on. Heck I might even find the "one," hehe! So much to look forward to, and yet, I should not undermine the bad tidings also in store for this year.

Another year of unhealthy levels of stress (which is known as Distress, thanks to my GENPSYC class!), the seemingly never-ending paper work, the sleepless nights, the lonely-rainy-woe-is-I days, the moments of unforeseen monetary austerity (naubusan ng pera kaya tipid), etc. Although some say that “we’ve seen it all,” we never actually do. We always get knock down by things that we never thought was possible or things that we thought would never affect us. Every time, we somehow get blind-sided by something and it totally changes us, if not some part of us.

But hey, why should I dwell on the “dark clouds” to come for me? It’s the new year! To sum it all up, I believe that this year would be great for me and for the people around me. I can feel it, like the wind blowing through my unimaginably hard-to-style hair, the heat of the sun touching my skin (nasobrahan, kaya naging ganto ako kaitim, and even though I say to myself that I will get whiter, I can’t). This year’s going to be great. To you my dear reader, I pledge to you that when December 31, 2005 comes, I will be ending this year with the same happiness, strength, vitality, hopefulness, and faith as I started the year. And I pray that you will too.

P.S.
I would not want to lose the opportunity of sharing my “views” on current events that continually shape our lives. I hope that you would also take some time to understand and reflect on current events. Just by thinking about it critically and writing or talking about it is sometimes enough for our country.

I can’t help it but be moved by the disaster that had struck our Asian brethren just a few weeks ago. Hundreds of thousands died because of a single strike. None was spared: Men and women, young and old, rich and poor, and especially the children. While watching CNN, I told to myself that I was watching history in the making, history in a sense that this event will be etched in humanity’s worst disasters ever. I could only imagine the pain that the people were going through: Homes thorn down, livelihoods washed away, things that were not so long ago tangible as they were but now are no more but a sad memory. More so were the parents mourning and burying their sons and daughters. I sincerely believe in the phrase that “no parent should bury his/her child.” I think that there could be no greater pain for a parent to bury his/her own child, to think that your child has no yet even grown to realize his/her potential. As I write here, I only think of right now that we could do is to pray for them, To give them strength in times of great pain and to not lose hope amidst insurmountable destruction, and to not lose faith in the Divine.

Twenty Four

...So Help Us God

The New Year!