Amargoso

Our country is plagued by poverty. As such, many of us are confronted with underemployment and unemployment problems. Malisod maghanap nan trabaho especially that many are now becoming choosy on what type of job they want.

In my hometown, mostly all the new graduates are no longer living there. They somewhat found work in another part of the country or abroad. Actually there was an observation that most of the unemployed kababayan ko are working in the Arab world.

Years ago, I had an observation among my circle of friends that once one felt stressed by their work or are no longer satisfied by their work, they easily change employer, like the way they are changing their outfit. There was one time that an employer had banned jobstreet.com in their office because his company suffered faster employee’s turnover. This is common to workforce in the urban areas while in rural areas, workers fight to teeth to get a regular work.

Many want an easy job with a higher pay. But the many high paying jobs are those who will test your ability exponentially. It may be taxing to a person but it proffers a person a chance to test his limit. There is more growth, professionally or career-wise, in works which requires your initiative and creativity more often.

There is no challenge in a familiar field. This is maybe the reason I accepted my present job. I am no marketing person. Mas nauuna pa yong hiya ko sa akin. But I have to rise above so I can deliver what is expected of me. Uno say mawa sa ako kon dili ako masipog o magpabaga ako nan bayho? I will lose nothing if I muster courage to talk to people. I would get an account instead and that’s an accomplishment personally and professionally. I may be the help they long wanted. There is actually no losing party in the equation.

Only hardworking people get successful in their chosen field because they rise above their limits. Success starts with hardwork. No wonder it’s called hardwork for it isn’t, after all, an easy job. Success breeds another success.

Parehas nan amargoso, you need to eat it more than once to appreciate and love its taste.

Even Parents need Sex Education

There was a big issue at the start of the school year when the Department of Education (DepEd) informed the public that it will incorporate sex education in the curricula of elementary and high school students. A case was filed by a group of parents arguing that said module strips them of their rights of being parents to their children. It further argues that educating children about sex is the responsibility of the parents.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, criticizes the government. Value formation should be the focus of education in the early stages of child development and not promiscuity, the church said. Nobody can argue with that but is the sex education the department is pushing actually teaches sex acts? Education officials denied that. I believe education should provide a holistic development of the child/person. Thus, all areas that will promote and make a person an asset of the society will be tackled in his growing up.

I went to public school during my elementary years; attended a school run by nuns during my secondary education and finally attended a Catholic Diocesan-owned school in college. Never in my early formation was there a comprehensive teaching about reproductive health. But I am certain we never lack value formation lessons and activities in school and in our home.

Surely, we were taught about hygiene particularly the girls. I can only remember my elementary teacher telling my female classmates that it’s important to change their underwear twice daily. And nothing else except of the usual you should take a bath daily, brush your teeth regularly, washing your hands frequently and so forth. Nothing more about sexuality. You face something sexually-related topic when you discuss the reproductive system of the body. But even teachers are ashamed to say the word “vagina” and “penis”.

Students are kind of more aware of how plants and animals reproduce. We even memorized the many terms associated with them so we can get good score during science exams. But not on how children came to earth.

Did we discuss about reproductive health hazards in school? I can’t remember. Did we discuss about AIDS? One time, perhaps, and we even consider HIV as AIDS. Did we learn straight from our teachers’ or parents’ mouth how children were created? Never. Often, we heard them explain, you were created by love of your parents. You were created in the image and likeness of God, the Church taught us.

Of course, we are created by the hand of God and we are the product of our parents love and sex drive. But does loving a person get the woman preggy? This left us wondering. The dad’s sperm-entering-mama’s vagina-and-fertilizing-her-egg explanation left many confused. Many even believe that if their private parts are touched, they are kissed on their lips by the opposite sex, they will get pregnant. They thought of these because they are uninformed.

Many Filipino parents are still ashamed to talk about the realm of sexuality with their children. We learned about sex and the perils of engaging in it early through reading materials found in books, magazines, novels, comics, and internet. We saw a sexual act on TV after sneaking on the x-rated collection of our friends’ parents and plugging it in the VHS player. (Wala kaming TV dati kaya doon sa bahay ng classmate ko kami nanood after we skip our afternoon Home Economics class.)

Children of this generation have more access to vast information sources in the fast evolving media. The internet is host to many of these materials. They also have easy access to the many sex-related DVDs being peddled on the streets. The youth are creative in ferreting sources to satisfy their curiosity. FHM, Cosmopolitan and Playboy Philippines magazines educate the youth.

Sex education in school will not feed nor fire up their curiosity. It will make them well informed of the pros and cons of their sexual actions. It would even help them become more wary of the consequences of early pregnancy. It will even cause them to fear the perils of sexual encounters.

Value formation activities and sex education should go hand-in-hand in the early formative years of the children. If we can inculcate strong values on them, I don’t think we are leading them wrongly in their sexual growth.

An informed child will have a sound decision. Sex education will be their guide for an informed take on their sexuality.

Many parents should attend sex education classes. Many of them think the proposed sex education module is about teaching their children how to have sex and how to perform the Kamasutra, a manifestation of how uninformed they are.

Ang dami na ngayon malilibog na mga bata. They are showing it publicly than the generation ahead of them. Look around and you’ll find an ample supply of sex scandals starred by students. Madali lang kasi ngayon sa kanila ang maglandi having internet and cellular phones in their disposal. Dati you need stationeries to write love letters, ngayon pa-jejemon jejemon ka na lang para di mahuli by the suspecting parents.

I believe with sex education in school, they will know and wait at a proper time to engage in sexual activities. Kung makati na talaga at kailangan na ipakamot, well, they at least have the proper knowledge on how to deal with it. It is more worrisome when they are into doing it without receiving proper guidance.

I also believe that with this module in school, children and parents will open up to discussing it at home. This will also give a hint then to the parents on how mature their children are in terms of their sexuality. Parents can always infuse values education and warn them of its hazards while discussing the subject with their children.

Suck it in

The Reproductive Health Bill was not passed by the last congress and proponents of it who won during the last successful first nation-wide automated poll on May 10, 2010 are bent on re-filing it again in the new congress. As expected, the Catholic Church, where I belong, is vehemently and using its influence to stop it for they consider it immoral.

 The newly appointed secretary of health, Secretary Ona, is also supporting the idea being espoused by the bill that Filipinos should have better access to different methods of family planning. He had opined that the government should make available contraceptives for Filipino families. What method of family planning the family will use depends on their choices. The government will not impose a particular family planning method; that is how I read the message of the health secretary. The church is again lambasting it for being contraceptive-minded. The church is promoting natural method of family planning.

I remember a street philosophy or street joke about the Church’s stand. Bakit parang expert yata ang Church sa family planning? Wala naman silang pamilya - asawa at anak. Ika nga nila, expert ka kung nararanasan o napagdadaanan mo ito.  Sabagay, magaling talaga yong father kasi walamng nabubuo sila ni sister. 

I am not against natural family planning but for me family planning is not a function of the church and the government. It is the obligation of the husband and wife. As such, the church and the government are present not to impose what the family must do. They exist to provide these families with good information so they can make better and informed choices and support these choices. For me, a mix of family methods is useful than applying only one. You can incorporate modern methods with traditional practices.

Contraceptive pills should be available to the poor. The poor families should have access to these modern technologies or methods. Ask many poor families if they wanted to have a bigger family and they will shout back that they don’t want it. But they can’t suppress their biological needs. Sipyat lang! Wala gihapon madala sa withdrawal method!

What’s immoral about married couple having responsible and lively sex life? I believe, none. It is, however, immoral for me to see families who can’t afford raising their many children because they don’t have access to contraceptives and can’t suppress their libido for five days or a week. Go to the slam areas in the cities and even in the provinces, you will be faced with this pitiful scenario. Many large families can’t afford to place enough food on their table.

 You see middle-class and upper-class families with few children. Why, because they make informed choices and they can afford and have access to other means besides the natural way.

The Health Department should conduct reproductive health seminars in the barrios. Provide free condoms, pills, etc to the poor families. This way you have given them the first stepping stone in their rise above poverty line. Simply because another unwanted child (unwanted in a sense because it was not planned but a product of a rising libido) would not eat into the existing budget of the family.

The father and the mother would double their income to provide for the new child. Up to how much can the parents find another supplemental income for a growing number of members in their family? You can’t stretch it forever. The chances are limited. We are not superheroes.

Families can’t have a fuck-and-bear-a-child routine forever. Certainly, you can have an exciting sex life without having to bear a child, of course, with proper choice of family planning method.

The Wang-wang Syndrome

I almost got late this week due to the operation conducted by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) along the main highway of Bulua, Cagayan de Oro City. The operation was an offshoot of what I consider the mandate of P-Noy (President Noynoy) as he proclaimed in his inaugural speech that he will not use blaring sirens (wang-wang), as long as it’s not necessary. He even promised to stop at traffic lights.

The speech prompted officials from LTO to confiscate loud sirens installed in private and passenger utility vehicles. The inspection operated by the LTO caused a long queue of vehicles early morning. It irks the passengers for they might get late to school or office.

I can understand this feeling because the law that penalizes and ban the use of these instruments had been passed long time ago. It is Presidential Decree 96, which was passed in January 13, 1973, that ban its use except for Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, hospital ambulances for exercise of their functions or in response to emergency. It also exempts the President of the Republic of the Philippines, his Vice President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House, and the Chief Justice.

Reality is even relatives of local politicians are using it to evade traffic and as opined by a newspaper columnist, used wang-wang so as not to be late in her emergency shopping.

As pointed out in the preceding paragraph, the law had been in-placed four decades ago. It only gets so much attention because it’s the president who himself declared that he is not using it even he is privileged to do so. The LTO should have conducted inspection and apprehended erring public long time ago.

Wang-wang should not have been part of the inaugural speech of the president. It’s a little deed but had become a problem because many people exploited it. Big problem is an aggregate of little ones. It has been ignored for so long by the authority.

In the provinces, you hear wang-wang only when there are emergencies or when public officials want to announced their presence.

I am glad that P-Noy is setting a good tone to every Filipino. We can do our share in nation-building by following what we consider petty things in the daily grind of our lives i.e. following simple traffic rules, disposing properly our garbage, etc. These are the little things that had been advocated by the losing Senator-candidate Atty. Lacson.

Let us help the government by doing little things in our community and let the government attend to the bigger problem of our country. Hand-in-hand, government and its people working together, there is no reason why we can’t achieve our dream of  being a progressive country where everybody has food to eat and so on.

I have heard and read beautiful things about our country in the past. Story has it that we were considered next to Japan during the Quirino administration. Story has it that people in Singapore had once dreamt of living in the Philippines because our country is progressive than theirs. But it was once upon a time; it’s a reverse reality now. Filipinos are migrating to Singapore. One decade ago, we were even considered the Tiger Economy of Asia during the Ramos administration.

Today, with the Aquino administration, there is no other way than progress for our country. Hope corruption will diminish. The transport regulatory agencies should also be cleaned. We heard first-hand experiences of corruption in LTO and LTFRB from people who do business with them.

Unlad Mahal kong Pilipinas!

 ____________

 THE WANG-WANG JOKES:

Reporter          : Mr. President, mukhang tahimik ngayon ang kapatid nyong si Kris.

P-Noy              : Di mo ba narinig ang speech ko? Wala nang wang-wang!”

____________

Miriam             : Mr. President, ako ba covered ng order nyo na walang wang-wang?

P-Noy              : Ah hindi. Weng-weng naman ang sa iyo, eh.

Aquino Inauguration highlights P-noy Time

It is a common pretext for late comers. When one is late with his appointment or meeting, it is so easy to excuse oneself by saying, Filipino time. Filipino Time is never on-time, never on-the-dot, never on target. That is how many Filipinos consider it.

For me, however, Filipino Time is on-time. You are not a true Filipino if you can’t deliver your promise on-time, if you can’t be present at your meeting at an agreed time. You are not a true Filipino, if you waste other people’s time. Ang bawat segundo ay mahalaga kaya huwag nating sasayangin ang oras ng ibang tao sa kakahintay sa atin.

I don’t really know but it has been instilled in my system not to be late. I better be absent than late. Nagsimula akong magtrabaho in 2001 and I can’t hardly remember when and how many times I got late for work. Malamang pinakamataas na yong limang beses. Nahihiya ako na mahuli sa pasukan o opisina. Mas OK pa makita sa Daily Time Record (DTR) ko that I was absent kaysa makita ko doon ang red markings. I usually file a half-day leave kung magkaganoon man.

When I was beginning, my daily work starts at 7 o’clock in the morning. I reside nine kilometers from work and have to commute daily to work utilizing tricycle, a common ride in our town in the province of Surigao del Sur. I don’t own a motorcycle which is a convenience for Tagon-ons who works in Tandag City. But I was never late and it is my tyros usually get late for that schedule knowing that many of them stayed at boarding houses blocks away from the school.

On the other hand, politicians who believe they are VIPs come oftentimes late to their meetings. They justify using wang-wang (blaring sirens) to escape traffic to catch their meetings, signs that they were too lazy to get up early for the appointment.

Gratefully, P-Noy (President Noynoy) wanted wang-wang out. P-Noy also showed the world and the Filipino people the true meaning of Filipino Time by setting an example. He did that during his inauguration at the Quirino Grandstand. P-Noy arrived earlier than the expected time prompting the organizer to insert fillers (musical numbers) so as to follow the 12 noon traditional oath-taking of the president.

How to be on-time? Rev. Fr. Florio R. Falcon, the former school president of Saint Theresa College, had this to say. Be present at the meeting place 10 minutes before the agreed time. Going there earlier than 10 minutes, you will be wasting your time. But don’t let the person wait for you more than 10 minutes from your agreed time, you will be wasting his time. With a 10-minute margin, you can always be on-time. That’s a Filipino Time.