The Enemy of Sacrifice

We all do a lot of things everyday. And most of it, we do them not just for our self. Mostly for people important to us.  We sweat out the difficult stuffs for their welfare. Sacrifice. That’s the exact word.

Sacrifice is noble. It is a very good deed.  Just like the heroes and the saints who sacrificed their lives for the benefit of many.  The OFWs who work far away from their families and sometimes in a hostile place just to provide the needs of their families. Soldiers who put their lives in danger to protect the country’s sovereignty. Athletes who train hard to achieve honors for their country. And normal people like us who do our day to day job to earn for what our loved ones need.

Each of us is a hero to someone. And these actions are unselfish until we start talking about it. Though the value of sacrifice decreases when we whine or brag. And even at times when we try to sound downplaying what we do but which a disguise to attract more attention to our act.

People do not need to know how hard it is, what was given in exchange of it or how many people benefit from what we are doing. In contrary, humility and silence highlight sacrifice more than anything.

Advocacies...

I Will Never Treat You as an Equal

We always wanted to be treated equally. And we also hear many people calling for it nowadays. Equality, they say. But what does that mean? I’m not sure. Because before, I tried to treat everyone as an equal. When I discuss or argue with women, I treated them as an equal. When I talk with people above my age, again, I treated them as an equal. I did not disrespect them. I just talked with them as how I think they should treat me at that point.. Just a straight forward discussion with a person whom I view as my equal.  But after doing that, people called me ungentlemanly and disrespectful of the elders.

So this is how I understood what people truly like. Equal treatment is not really what we want. What we had always been looking for is a better treatment from others. Not equal but better. But do we get it? No. Not always at least. And we can’t get it unless we stop wanting it. Therefore, we must first give it. 

Rather than seeing others as our equal, we must treat each person we meet every day as someone more special and more important than us. No one or just very few will cry “inequality” or “discrimination” from our actions if we do so. That false sense of entitlement and pride is what primarily gives us that feeling of disappointment and mistreatment from others. But once we stop wanting to be treated better and start focusing on how we address other people, we’ll end up less disappointed. We’ll feel better about ourselves and other people. And when most of us do it, we’ll no longer need to ask to be treated better by others. They will just do it.

Kunwari Maayos ang Lahat. Kunwari Wala Tayong Alam.

Tulad ng kwentong multo, lahat tayong mga Pilipino ay may kwentong patungkol sa korapsyon. Ang korapsyon ay hindi lang ang ginagawa ng mga taong nasa puwesto kundi maging ng bawat isa sa atin na may gampanin subalit hindi ginagawa ng tama at tapat ang tungkulin. 

Wala siguro tayong kilala na walang ibibida sa atin ng mga bagay na tiwali na kanilang naranasan, nasaksihan o naobserbahan. Lalo na sa mga sistema sa gobyerno. Lahat tayo may kwento. Lahat tayo halos ay may alam.  Matindi ang lagayan sa ganito. Yung illegal na pasugalan ay protektado ni ganyan. Si kuwan ang may pakana ng matinding pandaraya dun sa ganito. Malaki ang kick-back si ganire dun sa mga pinatayo niyang buildings at kalsada dun sa ganoon. Anlaki ng patong sa presyo ng ganyan ni kwan.  Masama talaga ang ugali ni ganyan pag hindi nakaharap sa tao, grabe pa kung murahin mga tauhan niya at katulong. Etc, etc.

Kunwari walang mga PR machine. Kunwari walang mga anti-PR machine. Kunwari ay wala rin yung mga binabayaran para magpabango at magpabaho ng pangalan ng mga kandidato. Pero sa dinami dami ng mga bagay na naririnig natin at napagpapasa-pasahan, siguradong hindi lahat ng ito ay totoo. At hindi rin lahat ng ito ay hindi totoo. Tulad ng sabong panlaba, lahat nagsasabing sila ang pinakamagaling magtanggal ng mantsa.  Lahat na lang sila ay pinaka.

Pero bibili ka pa rin. Pipili ka pa rin ng sabong gagamitin mo. Kung napapaputi naman ang labada mo ng nabili mong sabon, napapabango at natatanggal pa ang mantsa, bibilhin mo uli yun panigurado at baka i-endorso mo pa sa kaibigan mo. Pero kung binili mo na nang isang beses at pagkatapos mong gamitin ang brand na ito ay natira pa rin ang mantsa pagkatapos mong kuskusin ng matindi at kung nandun pa rin ang masamang amoy kahit ibabad ng matagal, sigurado akong di mo na bibilhin uli ang sabon na yun at magpapalit ka na ng iba. Nakaka-dala ang maloko ng mga brand ng sabon.

Pero parang wala tayong kadala-dala pagdating sa gobyerno kaya patuloy na naihahalal ang mga tao na binoto na natin noon, o kaya naman ay ang kanilang mga kadikit na may pare parehong likaw ng bituka, pare parehong polisiyang sinuportahan, at pare parehong pangit na kinahantungan ng bayan na kanilang pinagsilibihan na ng matagal na panahon. Na-uto na nila tayo minsan pero binago lang ng konti ang script ng commercial nila, nagpapauto na tayo uli. Na kesyo may karanasan na sila kesa sa iba. Na kesyo pag nanalo ang kalaban nilang isa ay mas kawawa tayo kaya sila na lang piliin. At yun din ang sabi ng kalaban nila patungkol sa kanila. Samantalang yung mga mas ok na “brand” na mas mura, mas tapat at mas epektibo sana ay di na natin napapansin dahil sa masyado tayong nagpapaniwala sa propaganda ng iba.

Mas nahahatak tayo sa iba’t iba pang pamBOBOla na hinahayaan nating bumenta.  At dahil dito, nakakalimutan natin ang mga “alam” nating mga kwento at personal na karanasan ng mga korapsyon at kahirapang dulot ng mga iniluklok nating mga tao. Kaya sila uli ang iboboto. Sila uli ang iluluklok sa posisyon. At pagkatapos may madadagdag na naman sa kwento natin na mga karanasan patungkol sa korapsyon. May ipapasa na naman tayong blind item o direktang mga salita laban sa mga nakaupo sa puwesto.

Eh kung wag na lang tayo magkwento? Magkunwari na lang tayo pare parehong walang alam. Magkunwari na lang tayong maayos ang lahat. Magkunwari na lang tayong mga tanga, tutal mukha na rin naman talaga tayong tanga at di marunong madala.

Understanding in the Middle of a Hundred

My previous posts made me realize that…

Writing gets me into thinking.

Thinking gets me into asking.

Asking gets me into finding answers.

Finding answers gets me into understanding.

Understanding gets me into opening my mind to other answers.

Opening my mind to other answers gets me into asking.

Asking gets me into thinking.

Thinking gets me into writing.

…and this is my 100^th post.  And the cycle goes on.

Ninety9 for 99

 

 Will You Ever Learn cover by Ninety9

July 2009

For my 99th post, here's a tribute to my former band Ninety9 (Ken, Jeff, Lawrence, Rogie). Please bear with the quality of the video, not to mention the quality of my singing.  

Good times here. Enjoy. :)

3 Things Which Decrease The More You Think About Them

I'm always occupied into thinking about anything. To the point that it gets in my way of doing something.  That causes a lot of perception about me being lazy. But the truth is I work hard. But only in the mind. Oh no, I'm not doing an excuse. I'm just trying to think of some ways that will make my work easier. But most of the time, it's taking the same length of time for me to think of a better  way compared with by doing it the way it is usually done. So I think I must also think of ways to improve my way of thinking about improving  my ways. What do you think?

Think

We think about a lot of stuffs. We all want to improve. And when we want to be better at something, we put a lot of thinking about it. We try to figure out how we can be ahead of ourselves. But there are things that gets better the less we are concerned about them. The more we burden ourselves to think about them, the more we get worse on it. Like these things:

1.   Maturity - I had been overestimating my maturity. And I cannot be the only one.  A lot of us do. And the more we talk and think about our maturity, the more it appears that we lack it. Maturity happens without us thinking about it. It is one thing that we don't need to tell other people that we have it. Especially the real mature ones. They can sense it from afar. How? I don't know. Better ask them.


2.   Discrimination - The more we are concerned about discrimination, the more we commit it. Discrimination, and the avoidance of it, makes people more sensitive to color, race, ethnicity, gender, etc. I discussed it longer on this post.


3.   Honesty - It is either you are honest or not. If you are thinking about "being honest", then most probably you are not. You are just it. But if you are dishonest, you can start to do it now. Don't think about being honest. Just be.




I think I just jeopardized myself on this post. I am talking about not to think about these things but then I just wrote about them. And it probably made you think about them also.I'm sorry. It could be a sign of my immaturity again, honestly.

Best Gift Ever

3/1/13

Dear TIG,

Did you know that the best birthday gift I have ever received in my entire life is my birth itself? 

To my mom, thank you.

Love,
Rogie