…a blog on random thoughts and ideas… ^__^

political conflicts? rallies?
mumbo-jumbo of who’s right and wrong? it’s not that I dont care…it’s more of
like this article…an article that understands how a young professional like me
feels about what’s happening in our beloved country…

Youngblood : Rallies are not for me


By Mirasol A. Batoy
Inquirer News Service

Editor’s Note: Published on page A11 of the September
13, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

NO, I DO NOT wish to influence anyone into agreeing
with me about anything. I do not aim to call on people to march or not to march
in the streets. I do not intend to meddle in the lives of others. I do not want
to lose sleep over issues that don’t affect me directly. After all, I cannot
even attend to the mountain of demand letters from credit card companies,
pleading that I settle my debts or threatening me with lawsuits.

Credit cards. They are everywhere, and they are haunting every moment of my
day. Collection agents from this and that law office call me on my cell phone as
I am rushing a report. They send me demand letters that drive my parents’ blood
pressure through the roof. They call our company’s human resource department to
report that I have been delinquent.

So I have to write because I need the extra cash to keep the credit card
company from driving me insane. I need all the money I can lay my hands on to
pay my debts. And these past few weeks, I have been thinking
of various sidelines that would bring me added income.

Recently, I watched on TV a “professional rallyist” candidly relating how he
had been hired to march on Edsa highway or Ayala Avenue to push for some
political “causes.” He said he did not have a permanent job, and he welcomed the
opportunity to make some money.

I told myself it looked like a good way to make use of one’s unproductive
time. And I wondered if I could join. I mean, earning P1,000 for carrying
placards and blocking Metro Manila’s major streets didn’t look like a bad idea.

Unfortunately, I have an eight-to-five job and rallies are normally held on
weekdays. Besides I cannot keep myself from telling other demonstrators that my
views are different from theirs and that I do not really believe the current
political crisis can be resolved in the streets. No, it would not be a good
sideline for me. Imagine having a news item in the Inquirer with the headline,
“Professional rallyist mobbed by colleagues”?

How did I get into this financial mess? This is not a simple case of wanton,
mindless swiping of those plastic cards. True, I am one of the millions of
Filipinos whose financial aptitude is way down there. Ironically, I am now
studying for my MBA.

Having a deep passion for business and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, I
enrolled in the course thinking that so long as my heart was in it, everything
would just fall into place. Thus, I didn’t consider the tuition fees, apartment
rental (so I can live near the school and my place of work), books, living
expenses, etc., etc.

I believe having an MBA is an investment, albeit a really costly one.
Applying what I learn to my personal life may be a different matter, but I am
happy that my studies are helping me understand more about business, economics
and international trade.

This is why I think that protesting in the streets and trying to oust the
President through people power, version 4, at this time would not do our economy
any good. Street protests will just make our country look unstable, drive
investors away and eventually make sardines unaffordable to Juan de la Cruz.

Even before Susan Roces gave her two cents’ worth on the current political
crisis some weeks back, a friend of mine who used to work as chief of staff of a
congressman told me that the people’s trust in the President was being eroded.
He said impeachment was too mild a punishment for what she had done, and we
ought to drive her out of the country.

I asked him who would take over the presidency and noted that there seemed to
be nobody among our political leaders who had the moral ascendancy to serve as
head of state.

He said Vice President Noli de Castro could be it — or Susan Roces or a
military junta. He sounded as if he was just tossing names around without much
thought, fixated as he was on getting rid of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was
talking as if ousting the President was all it would take to stop oil prices
from rising, the peso from falling, and investors from pulling out. I suspected
that he was putting up an organization of sorts with people who shared his views
and he wanted me to join to help swell their numbers.

But numbers are my Waterloo. In fact, I am so poor at financial management
that my creditors are running after me. And that is why I need to find extra
work and I do not have time to join rallies.

Things were different a few years back, when I did not have all these
mounting financial obligations yet. I was privileged to have a piece I had
written published in this section. Fresh out of a shocking one-month stint as a
“congressional staff,” I felt that I had to express my disillusionment in a
widely circulated newspaper so that more people would be aware of what I had
seen: ghost employees, monstrous padding of budgets, humongous personal expenses
charged to the national treasury.

But I was younger then, and I had time to spare. In 2001, I even spent
several nights at the Edsa Shrine to give my minute contribution in saving the
motherland. I say minute because I believe it was the cumulative effort and the
presence of so many people there that really turned the tide. I told myself this
was real freedom in action, democracy at work.

Ahh, democracy. Are we really ready for it? We want our freedom, rights and
liberties, but are we prepared to handle them? Are we mature enough to exercise
them responsibly?

I am not about to propose any other form of government. I do not even know if
anything would work for us. What I am sure of is that if every single Filipino
would strive to improve himself and make his family self-reliant, then we would
have 83 million citizens who don’t need to ask the government for dole-outs.
That’s easier said than done, of course. But we must start somewhere and begin
now.

I am not saying that the government does not play a big role in shaping our
future. But ours is supposed to be a government of the people, by the people,
for the people. Meaning that ultimately we are the most accountable for our own
circumstances. Only after we have developed ourselves as good citizens can we
expect good government.

We should begin by looking at the government as just a product of our
imagination. Then we can stop blaming others for our plight and start working
really hard, instead of waiting to be paid to join demonstrations. Before
pointing a finger at other people, let us first attend to our own backyard.

Mirasol A. Batoy, 27, works as a communication specialist in a
multinational company.

Weird…Im usually looking forward to posting somethin here. But here I am…void of thoughts. Even random ones. Pathetic, huh? ^__^

Nwei I juz would like to share that I survived my week-long audit. There were no flying colors of any sort…it just went…fine. I really am thankful it was over. It wasn’t nice sleeping late for 6 straight days due to meetings, field visits, and preparing reports and then waking up VERY early the next day not knowing what to expect and how to act because you’re representing your company. The fact that the auditor is a foreigner gives an extra challenge….nauubusan din ako ng english! Hahahaha! But what really hit me is this…that was my very FIRST time taking a task seriously. Yes…a first. Eventhough I was employed to quite a number of companies in the past, I never took those responsibilities seriously. As in dead serious. I was just doing what is basically expected back then. But this! This was dead serious. And I did it alone.

You might think that what I’ve done was easy and I won’t argue. Some of you may have been audited numerous times before, I did too. But the difference then from now is that I was afraid…afraid to fail. I never thought I’d feel that way about work. Work for me is the last thing I’d take seriously in my life. Work is just a tool…a means to live life. But it can never be my life. That’s why I was so surprised with myself for taking that work seriously. When I realize it now, I can’t help but smile. It makes me remember a line said by one of the pioneers of the automobile industry…

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do." - Henry Ford

Important! Please read! –>> (Ei guys…found this on the internet…decided to post it on my blog…a good read! –Jonas)

We’re all familiar with the phrase, "what if?". As humans here on Earth, we’ve been faced with countless choices. We have freewill over our decisions. It’s all up to us to choose. But in every decision we make, there’s always ‘those choices’ we didnt take. So sometimes, when we look back, we ask…"what if I chose the other?". That’s one of the questions that may be hard to answer. This post has no point or any reason to prove. This is just a rambling. A simple sharing of a "what if" in my past.

Back in the days when I was still studying, I met someone. Someone that would eventually make a mark. Someone that would eventually make something happen that I would have to decide in a "what if" situation. But that’s getting ahead of the story…^__^

For sake of formality, let’s give her a name. Her name would be Angela. We first knew each other quite in an unusual way. Its ironic because I never thought that ‘unusual’ would be common with our relationship. A common friend introduced us to each other because Angela was having trouble with her PC and I was the known PC geek in my circle of friends at school back then. We hit if off almost immediately notwithstanding the fact that we hadn’t even met each other yet. She had the cutest voice that I ever heard from someone I’m talking over the fone. She’s got a great sense of humor and almost has everything to say about anything we talk about. In other words, we had fun while we talked. From then on, the talks somewhat became a regular thing between us. I could still remember the countless nights we would talk nonstop and be forced to only when we noticed that the sun was comin up.

A story like this won’t continue on without any sudden turn of events. There was. Fate decided to give a little twist to our simple and fun-driven lives. Angela transferred to my school. It was a little weird for me because I was so used to talkin to her over the fone that I couldn’t imagine that I would be seeing her physically…ever. Anyway, although we go to the same school now doesn’t mean that we immediately saw each other. It could have been a pretty good story by now. A little "and they lived happily ever after" and it would have been a good ending. Alas, it wasn’t supposed to be a good one. You see, Angela had a steady boyfriend. I had a steady girlfriend. So, it was kind of complicated for me. Why complicated? Lemme explain…

Over the months that we’ve been talkin, there was an unwritten development of our relationship. U know…from casual friends to close friends. Not casual anymore because we’ve been comfortable talkin about anything from trivial to not so serious to dead serious topics. But not too close either to officially make it a ‘romantic’ relationship. Yes we were able to finally meet but not on a regular basis (at least she wasn’t a stranger on campus). And yes…she was openly talkin to me about her relationship with her bf then. All the happy moments (which was rare) and the problems they encounter (our topic almost every other night). One might say that they are treading on thin ice…or simply put, their relationship was crumbling. I could have played the role of the bestfriend…giving advice and such. Unfortunately, my relationship with my gf back then wasn’t really that good either. We found solice thru each other, Angela and I. A neutral ground where we can go to and openly discuss things that were on our minds.

At last, the inevitable happened. She broke up with now her x-bf. She was a wreck. She had noone to turn to that would understand her, not even her family. She had only me…and there was I, not really good at giving comforting words, but still tried my best to make her smile and forget. That was during those times that it suddenly hit me, without any warning whatsoever. I cared for her. I cared for her more than a friend or bestfriend cared. It wasn’t clear if it was love. Love is a strong word. I just knew that something in me changed about the way I see her then. It was as if silently pledging that somehow, I won’t let her feel that kind of sadness anymore for as long as I was in her life. Call me conceited but I think she also needed me in her life. What convinced me that my assumption wasn’t completely false were the looks Im getting from her. And the changes on the way she talks to me. Its as if she’s afraid that I, too, would suddenly disappear. I would have to constantly assure her that Im not going to leave her, just to make her smile and not worry anymore.

It was the perfect situation for any guy! Just play the hero or a knight in shining armor, things would just fit to the right places to establish a romantic relationship with her. It could have been simple, even for me. But it was complicated. You see, I still had a gf. That was the icing of the cake. That was the "what if" situation. I had two choices. A…i could dump my cheating gf and court Angela. Or B…I could work things out with my gf and continue being the "friend" to our heroine. I chose the latter. When I assessed myself, it all came down to the conclusion that I still loved my gf. What I felt for Angela was simply pity and care. It wouldn’t be a good foundation of a positive relationship. Or so I thought back then.

Ironically, a month after I made that decision, my gf dumped me for another guy (typical). While Angela found someone else. We still remain good friends up to this day but sometimes I can’t help thinking…."what if?" ^__^

Wow! Got this great news on the internet!!!

Lets juz say that Sun’s network capacity was given a boost…mawawalan na nang saysay ang prepaid offers ng ibang network due to the fact that Sun is giving it on an unlimited basis. Furthermore, postpaid subscribers of other networks would realize that they’re not getting the value for their money due to the fact that they are being charged for EVERY transaction they do with their mobile phones. Whereas with Sun, you’re only charged for transactions made to other networks. I can attest to this because I’m a Sun postpaid subscriber.

The news says it would be completed over the next month, so its kinda exciting to experience better signal, better call completion rate, and better value for your money!

(di halata na Im a big fan of SUN, huh? ^____^)