best friend *sarcastic whoopee*


One Friend - Dan Seals


Rice lauds GMA: You are US’ best friend
By Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:02:00 11/24/2008

LIMA, PERU (via PLDT)—“You are the US’ best friend,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) here.

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Don't you just hate ass-kissers?

PGMA allied with Bush. No wonder they're both unpopular.

stop child pornography

With respect to the children who are in this but are not even aware of it, I would rather not post about this.

But please, let us fight child pornography.

These sites are posing as art sites, saying that they are not doing anything wrong but post pictures of little girls in bikinis and lingerie doing very suggestive poses.

These sites make it easy for sexual predators to access such pictures, even videos.

It's hideous the way they put up sites like these. It's sick.

A modeling agency does not work like this, if it's a modeling agency for little children.

Stop child pornography, and please, let your voice be heard.

under force and scrutiny


Teenagers - My Chemical Romance


QC cops want to patrol UP
By Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:24am (Mla time) 11/20/2008

MANILA, Philippines – The chief of the Quezon City Police District Wednesday said that policemen should be allowed to patrol the grounds of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, to stop the increasing number of crimes on campus.

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I personally would not let the Philippine National Police into the UP campus.

UP, known for its activism, rallies, and demonstrations, upholds academic freedom and the right to freely express opinions and grievances, especially about and against issues that mostly involves the government. To some degree the UP administration painfully tolerates such actions by the students and the faculty, and all views from right to left are open (but not necessarily accepted).

By letting PNP patrol our campus would hinder our constitutional freedoms, as we will all well be under scrutiny and suspect of the forces assigned to protect us. Having PNP inside the campus would walk on the constitutional rights of the students; everybody will be a suspect. We might as well let them watch us, ID us, and report to intelligence whatever suspicious things they believe to see in us.

I ask: if you are in danger, would you let someone else hold the gun for you? Personally I would rather arm myself than arm someone else, though as a matter of taste I hate guns and the thought of carrying firearms.

Letting PNP forces into the campus is a symbolic action on other state universities and colleges, that if we do it, the PNP will have more reason walk inside other campuses (UP let us, why won't you?).

It does not help either that PNP and the military forces are suspect in the kidnappings (and possibly even killings) of student activists of different state colleges and universities, not just UP. We should not let our guard down especially during this regime of an illegitimate president that blinds herself that no human rights are trampled on in the disappearances and deaths of activists, journalists, and rights advocates.

PNP is under and controlled by the government that we students are very critical of, so much that in voicing opinions students take the fight to the streets. We have seen what the PNP can and does during demonstrations in the metro; one can only imagine what they will do once they try to "secure" UP during rallies (which are generally loud but still peaceful, as nobody gets harmed anyway, except egos at least, of those being criticized).

Should police forces trample on UP students' rights, our pleas for justice will fall on deaf (and undeniably stupid) ears--the justice department being controlled by none other than the puppet who does not understand the concept of freedom.

So let us not put ourselves into those situations where we can be held under scrutiny and force by the Philippine National Police.

Increasing number of crimes within campus is not reason enough to let the PNP loose into our grounds. What we need to do is to reinforce our own police and equip them enough to fight the crime happening within the campus.

play me Manila


Manila - Hotdogs


Playtime is nearly over for me. I need to walk back on reality and focus on getting work done. Real work, not just pretend work.

I'm sharing one of my favorite songs. Manila sounds of the 70s. I need a getter-upper, and having been feeling melancholy and nostalgic at throwing away so much of my stuff, I need to dance! Haha.

Yes, funk, plus a bit of Manila's disco. I tend to believe I am an old soul, and I should have been born a martial law baby. But then, perks of being an Edsa baby are endless too. Possibilities of technology that martial law kids couldn't event imagine when Pacman and Voltes V came out.

Okay, I'm blabbering.

I love this song. Reminds me of old school Manila. When I move to different city, my heart will always be with this metro. Manila is like a first love, you always remember why you fell, even when you realize that the person wasn't so great after all.

I need to go out. Manila I want to have fun tonight!

emptiness


Evening Falls - Enya


I am currently cleaning out my room, my shelves, and our library at home. I am clearing out the space to make more space, for the future, perhaps. Readings, papers, reports, hand outs, reviews, every memorabilia of the one time I spent trying to cram knowledge into my brain.

It's a wonder that my past four years in Diliman equates to one box of trash.

I have difficulty letting go of them. I can't believe that I spent the past few years accumulating what I have accumulated, and still feel empty.

Empty.

It may be that my mind is still empty, even after all those years of studying.

Or that my heart just isn't into it.

Has my life become as meaningless as piles of garbage I have stored over the years?

Forgive me for my nostalgia. I look back at what I was before, and with disdain I look now at what I am. I do not think this is the kind of me I should be, I believe I could have done a lot more or been a lot different than what I do or am now.

I look back and realize how much enthusiasm I put into studying, but gradually it wilted away into emptiness. I go to class half-heartedly, sometimes without even a heart at all.

So now that I'm living my academic life, I'm living it for what? I need a purpose, a light, somehow.

I feel as if I walked astray. I want to walk back home to myself.

smile


She could be - Christian Bautista


I'm flattered.

Some guy who was hitting on me called me Miss Lightning Smile.

*smiles bashfully*

It made my Monday. Hopefully it carries over through the week.

And I remember my tiger telling me that he can think of a million reasons why he likes my smile, staring with it's mine. Awww.

And I will keep the name. Haha.

adventure!


Dont Worry Baby - Beach Boys


I find myself getting cooped up too much inside the house. My life revolves around UP and the home.

I need a new adventure. I would love to go beach camping (even during this cold season!) and learn wakeboarding. I'm thinking the beaches of Aurora or Quezon, somewhere in the northeast beaches. I would love to surf the Pacific! (It's always the South China Sea... I miss the Pacific...)

I want to camp on the beach and wake up to a Pacific rising sun.



Hmm. I don't know where or when I can go, though. But with a 6-unit class schedule and free days limited to our organization and to my thesis, I think I can squeeze in a beach road trip and relax for one weekend at least. I need to see the sun and feel the sand. I need surf and swim. Lie on the sand with summer tunes like the Beach Boys on the player, ah, bliss.

I love summers. I miss summers, even if they are so hot and humid. Gives me more excuses to shed clothes and go to the beach.



I need to get away from this place. I need something where I don't need to think. Being ass-burned-out doesn't help any in my responsibilities in my academics and extra-curriculars. I think the beach may be just what I need to feel refreshed.

what Filipinos can learn from Obama's message and victory

Everyone around the world has witnessed the historic elections in the United States that won Barack Obama the presidency by a landslide. It was not simply his story and his background and his story that made his victory remarkable, but more importantly the message that he preaches. This is a time when we Filipinos can learn from his message of hope and change, because this time more than ever do we need this hope and change.

Barack Obama hinged his message on the fundamental values of the society. What he brings us is not a change in ideology, but a look back to our basic values within the family and the community.

What is also remarkable with his message is his collectivist idea of a society. He believes that it is not just the government that must do all the work, nor is it just the people who should sacrifice blood and sweat. He believes that government must do its part in providing what the people need to those who have worked hard and earned it, and the people must not expect the government to provide each and every need of the public. We cannot have a dole-out system, but we also cannot have a corrupt government.

His message on education is simple: provide quality education by the government. But it does not stop there. He reiterates that it is not the government that turns off the television sets or puts away the video games, but the parents. It is the parents' role that their children go to school and do their homework, that they are guided everyday, where the parents can work hand-in-hand with educators in providing quality education for the children and their future.

His message on health care is simple: provide quality health care by the government. This means the government should fund health care coverage, lower taxes on medicines, research in cure, and more importantly, invest in prevention. Even then, while health care coverage is important, it us up to the families that they invest in prevention by eating right and balancing their diet. It is not the government that will stop people from smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, or keep children from eating junk food. The government and the public can work hand-in-hand in keeping citizens healthy and in-shape.

His message on economy and taxes is simple: spread the wealth around. The government must make sure that taxes are collected justly and completely not just from the middle class and poor, but from the rich as well. Through this, the poor and middle class will be able to spend more on what they need and thus stimulating consumption in the economy. The government, too, must invest in its small and medium enterprises, where the poor and middle class are encouraged to innovate. More jobs, too, are created through SMEs, that we become not simply a country of labor export, but more importantly a country of enterprise.

His view is starkly different from the basic ideas of an individualistic society that is almost edging on the dog-eat-dog world (or in our case, crab mentality). He brings a message of unity, that society is made up of a social contract where individuals each have their own role but are willing to entrust their own liberties onto others, and together they progress as a society.

He believes that everyone must do their part so that society can progress. Post-Edsa democracy has not taken us anywhere near that progress, but it is always not too late. There is still hope for a nation, as long as we all do our part. This means not taking more than what we need and should, and giving to the best of our abilities. Karl Marx said thus, "from each according to his own ability, to each according to his own need."

In times like these we need to be together and unite against the difficulties and challenges. Our government is marred with scams and scandals amounting to billions of pesos; Barack Obama's message is a reminder to our public officials to use only their power for the good of the many and not in their own selfish agendas. His message is a reminder to the general public that we also must do our part, give what we can, and not selfishly keep to our own and distrust everyone around us.

Obama's victory in the US presidential elections reminds us that there is still hope for change, we only have to be ready, take on our roles, give what we can, and unite as a nation

security


Helplessly Hoping - Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young


I am extremely grateful for my tiger telling my ex to go away. I haven't tried anything much to keep him away, I just told him to leave me alone and to respect me enough to try not to contact me.

But he's still there. Sometimes I ignore it, but so many times it annoys me. It gets to me more than I would want to.

I was scared of what my tiger told him. But if it had to be done for it to stop, then so be it.

He has this way of protecting me, being the tough guy (as what he says, it's like those honey-go-wait-in-the-car moments because I probably don't want to witness it). But to me he's unbelievably tender and sweet. Quite frankly I haven't met someone who is as sweet as him.

With him I find what I want most in a man: security and commitment. Every guy can be passionate or romantic depending on how they show it, but he is someone I feel secure in, and someone who wants to be in the long run with me.

I sung my tiger to sleep last night. It felt magical, in a way, to be together but still not be together. If we are like this now, I wonder how we will be in several months. We would go crazy.

Everyday I fall more and more in love with him, if it is possible to happen.

I love you Jeremiah. Everyday is a day less until we will finally be together. Till then, I am here waiting.

hungry for fundamental change

From Inquirer.net:

RP 5th in world hunger survey

First posted 04:47:26 (Mla time) November 05, 2008
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines ranks No. 5 in the world when it comes to citizens who have had “little or no food at all” in the past year, a global survey on hunger said.

Gallup International asked over 58,000 people from 55 countries this question: “Have there been times in the last 12 months when you and/or your family have not had enough to eat?”

Gallup, a Zurich-based international group, conducted the interviews between June and September for its World Food Survey.

Four in 10 Filipinos or 40 percent said they “often or sometimes” lacked food in the past year, according to Gallup International-Voice of the People 2008.

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It struck me that in a country where three of our richest businessmen (need I mention? Tan, Ayala, and Sy) make it to the the Forbes list of richest dollar-billionaires in the world, 2 out of 5 Filipinos are hungry. The graph of social and economic hierarchy in our country is one with the top getting higher and higher and the bottom wider and wider.

This is why the PNP euro-carrying police case and the Bolante fertilizer scam irks the hell out of us ordinary citizens. Programs that should help drive the poor out of poverty are being milked by crooks, and short-term solutions will only get us through till the next elections, if the politicians are lucky enough that we don't find any corruption in it.

Just think: the 728-million-peso fertilizer scam would already feed 9.71 million Filipinos for a day, if we give them a 25-peso meal three times a day. According to August 2007 figures, there are 11.6 million Filipinos in Metro Manila. With that amount, you can feed 84% of Metro Manila's population, which is roughly the current poverty level (pegged at 80 percent).

This only factors in the fertilizer scam. The NBN-ZTE scandal is another matter to be discussed (in which case, what had happened to the star witness Lozada?). And this is not only issues within one administration. Every year we get something explosive for corruption in every administration. Need I mention former president Estrada's Boracay mansion?

In a larger perspective, these scandals undermine the Filipinos' rights to live comfortably in their own country. Nay, they seek survival not comfort. One can just imagine how miserable it is to be a Filipino, but yet we still strive from day to day, with hope for a better life and a better future. Many parents believe that if they can't have a better life, at least their children will. We need to provide them with opportunities that come with hope, that doors and windows are open for the millions of Filipinos.

We need a revolutionary change, a structural change, in our society. We need a change in ideology, and end the elite political government that will eventually starve the people to death unless we do something about it.

It is with hope that we do our part in nation-building. The first step is to demolish the old constructs and create a strong foundation for our country to build on.

a leader, a beacon of hope

I was ecstatic at the thought: President Barack Obama.

From my excitement people would think I had voted too, but I'm not American.

I am glad with the idea that with the election of Obama, America has come to its senses. As what the president-elect said in his acceptance speech, this is the dawn of new American leadership.

It's cool to be American again, and in our eyes as foreigners we see that the essence of being American is restored as well as its good relations with other contries. Everyone I know is happy with the results of the election. We followed the news faithfully, and felt anticipation at the announcing of his win. We had goosebumps upon watching his speech.

And my faith in democracy and America is restored.

I still hope that one day we may have the kind of leader who will step up just like Obama. I know he's not messianic, and no leader will be able to cure the ills of the Filipino society. But we need a leader who says no to traditional politics here. We need a leader who will listen to the people and provide the basic needs of citizens. We need a leader who will uphold our rights, but still have the initiative to ask of us our responsibilities. We need a leader who will look forward to the future, not downward to his pockets. We need a leader who will unite the nation.

Obama's election shone a beacon of hope for us, that even here in a poverty-stricken Philippines, we might be able to find someone who's story is just like any other ordinary Filipino citizen, but with enough leadership to take us to a new era in Philippine history.

the hope for change

This moved me to tears.




Everywhere there is hope. It begins with one vote and one voice.

horrible

I find that the haven I went to did worse for me than it should. So many skeletons still getting unearthed.

I had a lousy week. I realize whenever I'm here why I hate this place.

Too many things being talked about, issues within and outside the family that should be kept where they were before: in the past. Doubt, hatred, fear, annoyance. Just some of the feelings I've been getting in this place.

I often wonder how it is that someone could be so selfish and so full of hate that anyone would not be spared from the wrath of her tongue and the pain of her words. How is it that someone can be this way?

I've lived in this place during my childhood and too often it haunts me. I think it's not the house, really, but the people who live in it. A particular one at the very least.

I am not an emotional mess as I have dealt with these things before, and mostly I turned out fine, thanks to my parents. I have been told to be careful not to be like her, and it's quite difficult when it comes natural. But seeing her that way makes me rethink the things I do and the way I look at others. It's not so easy to echo my parents. I feel as if her character is what my parents are trying to mold and take out of me.

I need a breather.

Having old ghosts brought up again can make for a horrible experience.

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