Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Inferiority Complex: A Filipino Malady?
by Barth Suretsky
____________ _________ _________ __
The unedited article below was written below by an American friend, Barth Suretsky. This will still be edited but you will get the gist. I find his observations interesting. I hope this will make an impact on the Filipinos who read this article as I greatly lament the worsening situation of our country. - Frank Woolf, Vice President for Development, I-Quest Corporation
6th Floor, World Center, 330 Sen Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City 1200, Philippines
Creators of WorldRoom, Tel: (632) 867 8460Fax: (632) 867 8077
____________ _________ _________ __
My decision to move to Manila was not a precipitous one. I used to work in New York as an outside agent for PAL, and have been coming to the Philippines since August, 1982. I was so impressedwith the country, and with the interesting people I met, some of which have become very close friends to this day, that I asked for and was granted a year's sabbatical from my teaching job in order to live in the Philippines. I arrived here on August 21, 1983, several hours after Ninoy Aquino was shot, andremained here until June of 1984. During that year I visited many parts of the country, from as far north as Laoag to as far south as Zamboanga, and including Palawan. I became deeply immersed in the history and culture of the archipelago, and an avid collector of tribal antiquities from both northern Luzon, and Mindanao.
In subsequent years I visited the Philippines in 1985, 1987, and 1991, before deciding to move here permanently in 1998. I love this country, but not uncritically, and that is the purpose of this article.
First, however, I will say that I would not consider living anywhere else in Asia, no matter how attractive certain aspects of other neighboring countries may be. To begin with, and this is most important, with all its faults, the Philippines is still a democracy, more so than any other nation in Southeast Asia. Despite gross corruption, the legal system generally works, and if ever confronted with having to employ it, I would feel much more safe trusting the courts here than in any other place in the surrounding area. The press here is unquestionably the most unfettered and freewheeling in Asia, and I do not believe that is hyperbole in any way! And if any one thing can be used as a yardstick to measure the extent of thedemocratic process in any given country in the world, it is the extent to which the press is free.
But the Philippines is a flawed democracy nevertheless, and the flaws are deeply rooted in the Philippine psyche. I will elaborate. The basic problem seems to me, after many years of observation, to be a national inferiority complex, a disturbing lack of pride in being Filipino.
Toward the end of April I spent eight days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. I am certainly no expert on Vietnam, but what I saw could not be denied: I saw a country ravaged as no other country has been in this century by thirty years of continuous and incredibly barbaric warfare. When the Vietnam War ended in April, 1975, the country was totally devastated. Yet in the past twenty-five years the nation has healed and rebuilt itself almost miraculously! The countryside has been replanted and reforested. Hanoi and HCMC have been beautifully restored. The opera house in Hanoi is a splended restoration of the original, modeled after the Opera in Paris, and the gorgeous Second Empire theater, on the main square of HCMC is as it was when built by the French a century ago. The streets are tree-lined, clean, and conducive for strolling. Cafes in the French style proliferate on the wide boulevards of HCMC. I am not praising the government of Vietnam, which still has a long way to travel on the road to democracy, but I do praise, and praise unstintingly, the pride of the Vietnamese people. It is due to this pride in being Vietnamese that has enabled its citizenry to undertake the miracle of restoration that I have described above.
When I returned to Manila I became so depressed that I was actually physically ill for days thereafter. Why? Well, let's go back to a period when the Philippines resembled the Vietnam of 1975. It was 1945, the end of World War II, and Manila, as well as many other cities, lay in ruins. (As a matter of fact, it may not be generally known, but Manila was the second most destroyed city in the entire war; only Warsaw was more demolished!)
But to compare Manila in 1970, twenty-five years after the end of the war, with HCMC, twenty-five years after the end of its war, is a sad exercise indeed. Far from restoring the city to its former glory, by 1970 Manila was well on its way to being the most tawdry city in Southeast Asia. And since that time the situation has deteriorated alarmingly. We have a city full of street people, beggars, and squatters. We have a city that floods sections whenever there is a rainstorm, and that loses electricity with every clap of thunder. We have a city full of potholes, and on these unrepaired roads we have a traffic situation second to none in the world for sheer unmanageability. We have rude drivers, taxis that routinely refuse to take passengers because of "many trappic!" The roads are also cursed with pollution-spewing buses in disreputable states of repair, and that ultimate anachronism, the jeepney!
We have an educational system that allows children to attend schools without desks or books to accommodate them. Teachers, even college professors, are paid salaries so disgracefully low that it's a wonder that anyone would want to go into the teaching profession in the first place. We have a war in Mindanao that nobody seems to have a clue how to settle. The only policy to deal with the war seems to be to react to what happens daily, with no long range plan whatever. I could go on and on, but it is an endeavor so filled with futility that it hurts me to go on. It hurts me because, in spite of everything, I love the Philippines.
Maybe it will sound simplistic, but to go back to what I said above, it is my unshakable belief that the fundamental thing wrong with this country is a lack of pride in being Filipino. A friend once remarked to me, laconically: "All Filipinos want to be something else. The poor ones want to be American, and the rich ones all want to be Spaniards. Nobody wants to be Filipino." That statement would appear to be a rather simplistic one, and perhaps it is. However, I know one Filipino who refuses to enter a theater until the national anthem has stopped being played because he doesn't want to honor his own country, and I know another one who thinks that history stopped dead in 1898 when the Spaniards departed! While it is certainly true that these represent extreme examples of national denial, the truth is not a pretty picture. Filipinos tend to worship, almost slavishly, everything foreign. If it comes from Italy or France it has to be better than anything made here. If the idea is American or German it has to be superior to anything that Filipinos can think up for themselves. Foreigners are looked up to and idolized. Foreigners can go anywhere without question.
In my own personal experience I remember attending recently an affair at a major museum here. I had forgotten to bring my invitation. But while Filipinos entering the museum were checked for invitations, I was simply waived through. This sort of thing happens so often here that it just accepted routine. All of these things, the illogical respect given to foreigners simply because they are not Filipinos, the distrust and even disrespect shown to any homegrown merchandise, the neglect of anything Philippine, the rudeness of taxi drivers, the ill-manners shown by many Filipinos are all symptomatic of a lack of self-love, of respect for and love of the country in which they were born, and worst of all, a static mind-set in regard to finding ways to improve the situation.
Most Filipinos, when confronted with evidence of governmental corruption, political chicanery, or gross exploitation on the part of the business community, simply shrug their shoulders, mutter "bahala na," and let it go at that. It is an oversimplification to say this, but it is not without a grain of truth to say that Filipinos feel downtrodden because they allow themselves to feel downtrodden. No pride.
One of the most egregious examples of this lack of pride, this uncaring attitude to their own past or past culture, is the wretched state of surviving architectural landmarks in Manila and elsewhere. During the American period many beautiful and imposing buildings were built, in what we now call the "art deco" style (although, incidentally, that was not a contemporary term; it was coined only in the 1960s). These were beautiful edifices, mostly erected during, or just before, the Commonwealth period. Three, which are still standing, are the Jai Alai Building, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Rizal Stadium. Fortunately, due to the truly noble efforts of my friend John Silva, the Jai Alai Building will now be saved. But unless something is done to the most beautiful and original of these three masterpieces of pre-war Philippine architecture, the Metropolitan Theater, it will disintegrate. The Rizal Stadium is in equally wretched shape. When the wreckers' ball destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and New York City's most magnificent building, Pennsylvania Station, both in 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architectural critic of The New York Times, wrote: "A disposable culture loses the right to call itself a civilization at all!" How right she was! (Fortunately, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station proved to be the sacrificial catalyst that resulted in the creation of New York's Landmark Commission. Would that such a commission be created for Manila...)
Are there historical reasons for this lack of national pride? We can say that until the arrival of the Spaniards there was no sense of a unified archipelago constituted as one country. True. We can also say that the high cultures of other nations in the region seemed, unfortunately, to have bypassed the Philippines; there are no Angkors, no Ayuttayas, no Borobudurs.True. Centuries of contact with the "high cultures" of the Khmers and the Chinese had, except for the proliferation of Song dynasty pottery found throughout the archipelago, no noticeable effect. True. But all that aside, what was here?
To begin with, the ancient rice terraces, now threatened with disintegration, incidentally, was an incrediblefeat of engineering for so-called "primitive" people. As a matter of fact, when I first saw them in 1984, I was almost as awe-stricken as I was when I first laid eyes on the astonishing Inca city of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes. The degree of artistry exhibited by the various tribes of the Cordillera of Luzon is testimony to a remarkable culture, second to none in the Southeast Asian region. As for Mindanao, at the other end of the archipelago, an equally high degree of artistry has been manifest for centuries in woodcarving, weaving and metalwork.
However, the most shocking aspect of this lack of national pride, even identity, endemic in the average Filipino, is the appalling ignorance of the history of the archipelago since unified by Spain and named Filipinas. The remarkable stories concerning the Galleon de Manila, the courageous repulsion of Dutch and British invaders from the 16th through the 18th centuries, even the origins of the independence movement of the late 19th century, are hardly known by the average Filipino in any meaningful way. And thanks to fifty years of American brainwashing, it is few and far between the number of Filipinos who really know - or even care - about the duplicity employed by the Americans andSpaniards to sell out and make meaningless the very independent state that Aguinaldo declared on June 12, 1898. A people without a sense of history is a people doomed to be unaware of their own identity. It is sad to say, but true, that the vast majority of Filipinos fall into this lamentable category. Without a sense of who you are how can you possibly take any pride in who you are?
These are not oversimplifications . On the contrary, these are the root problems of the Philippine inferiority complex referred to above. Until the Filipino takes pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured. If what I have written here can help, even in the smallest way, to make the Filipino aware of just who he is, who he was, and who he can be, I will be one happy expat indeed!
---------
My friend, a VSO volunteer in Mongolia forwarded the above message with this note:
some of you might have heard me in the past say thatthere's a big possibility that in 10 or so years time, mongolia will overtakephilippines in terms of economic growth and development. ..baka nga in 5 yearslang eh. you know they have this overwhelming sense of pride for beingmongolians, sometimes to a fault, that filipinos don't have. so where have oursgone? anyway, please read the article below. i think it's interesting. you may notagree to all the points made here by the author but if it makes us startthinking about them, then i think it's a good one. - margie
this article is from this site: http://stuartxchange.org/InferiorityComplex.html. check it out for comments/reactions to this article.
____________ _________ _________ __
The unedited article below was written below by an American friend, Barth Suretsky. This will still be edited but you will get the gist. I find his observations interesting. I hope this will make an impact on the Filipinos who read this article as I greatly lament the worsening situation of our country. - Frank Woolf, Vice President for Development, I-Quest Corporation
6th Floor, World Center, 330 Sen Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City 1200, Philippines
Creators of WorldRoom, Tel: (632) 867 8460Fax: (632) 867 8077
____________ _________ _________ __
My decision to move to Manila was not a precipitous one. I used to work in New York as an outside agent for PAL, and have been coming to the Philippines since August, 1982. I was so impressedwith the country, and with the interesting people I met, some of which have become very close friends to this day, that I asked for and was granted a year's sabbatical from my teaching job in order to live in the Philippines. I arrived here on August 21, 1983, several hours after Ninoy Aquino was shot, andremained here until June of 1984. During that year I visited many parts of the country, from as far north as Laoag to as far south as Zamboanga, and including Palawan. I became deeply immersed in the history and culture of the archipelago, and an avid collector of tribal antiquities from both northern Luzon, and Mindanao.
In subsequent years I visited the Philippines in 1985, 1987, and 1991, before deciding to move here permanently in 1998. I love this country, but not uncritically, and that is the purpose of this article.
First, however, I will say that I would not consider living anywhere else in Asia, no matter how attractive certain aspects of other neighboring countries may be. To begin with, and this is most important, with all its faults, the Philippines is still a democracy, more so than any other nation in Southeast Asia. Despite gross corruption, the legal system generally works, and if ever confronted with having to employ it, I would feel much more safe trusting the courts here than in any other place in the surrounding area. The press here is unquestionably the most unfettered and freewheeling in Asia, and I do not believe that is hyperbole in any way! And if any one thing can be used as a yardstick to measure the extent of thedemocratic process in any given country in the world, it is the extent to which the press is free.
But the Philippines is a flawed democracy nevertheless, and the flaws are deeply rooted in the Philippine psyche. I will elaborate. The basic problem seems to me, after many years of observation, to be a national inferiority complex, a disturbing lack of pride in being Filipino.
Toward the end of April I spent eight days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City. I am certainly no expert on Vietnam, but what I saw could not be denied: I saw a country ravaged as no other country has been in this century by thirty years of continuous and incredibly barbaric warfare. When the Vietnam War ended in April, 1975, the country was totally devastated. Yet in the past twenty-five years the nation has healed and rebuilt itself almost miraculously! The countryside has been replanted and reforested. Hanoi and HCMC have been beautifully restored. The opera house in Hanoi is a splended restoration of the original, modeled after the Opera in Paris, and the gorgeous Second Empire theater, on the main square of HCMC is as it was when built by the French a century ago. The streets are tree-lined, clean, and conducive for strolling. Cafes in the French style proliferate on the wide boulevards of HCMC. I am not praising the government of Vietnam, which still has a long way to travel on the road to democracy, but I do praise, and praise unstintingly, the pride of the Vietnamese people. It is due to this pride in being Vietnamese that has enabled its citizenry to undertake the miracle of restoration that I have described above.
When I returned to Manila I became so depressed that I was actually physically ill for days thereafter. Why? Well, let's go back to a period when the Philippines resembled the Vietnam of 1975. It was 1945, the end of World War II, and Manila, as well as many other cities, lay in ruins. (As a matter of fact, it may not be generally known, but Manila was the second most destroyed city in the entire war; only Warsaw was more demolished!)
But to compare Manila in 1970, twenty-five years after the end of the war, with HCMC, twenty-five years after the end of its war, is a sad exercise indeed. Far from restoring the city to its former glory, by 1970 Manila was well on its way to being the most tawdry city in Southeast Asia. And since that time the situation has deteriorated alarmingly. We have a city full of street people, beggars, and squatters. We have a city that floods sections whenever there is a rainstorm, and that loses electricity with every clap of thunder. We have a city full of potholes, and on these unrepaired roads we have a traffic situation second to none in the world for sheer unmanageability. We have rude drivers, taxis that routinely refuse to take passengers because of "many trappic!" The roads are also cursed with pollution-spewing buses in disreputable states of repair, and that ultimate anachronism, the jeepney!
We have an educational system that allows children to attend schools without desks or books to accommodate them. Teachers, even college professors, are paid salaries so disgracefully low that it's a wonder that anyone would want to go into the teaching profession in the first place. We have a war in Mindanao that nobody seems to have a clue how to settle. The only policy to deal with the war seems to be to react to what happens daily, with no long range plan whatever. I could go on and on, but it is an endeavor so filled with futility that it hurts me to go on. It hurts me because, in spite of everything, I love the Philippines.
Maybe it will sound simplistic, but to go back to what I said above, it is my unshakable belief that the fundamental thing wrong with this country is a lack of pride in being Filipino. A friend once remarked to me, laconically: "All Filipinos want to be something else. The poor ones want to be American, and the rich ones all want to be Spaniards. Nobody wants to be Filipino." That statement would appear to be a rather simplistic one, and perhaps it is. However, I know one Filipino who refuses to enter a theater until the national anthem has stopped being played because he doesn't want to honor his own country, and I know another one who thinks that history stopped dead in 1898 when the Spaniards departed! While it is certainly true that these represent extreme examples of national denial, the truth is not a pretty picture. Filipinos tend to worship, almost slavishly, everything foreign. If it comes from Italy or France it has to be better than anything made here. If the idea is American or German it has to be superior to anything that Filipinos can think up for themselves. Foreigners are looked up to and idolized. Foreigners can go anywhere without question.
In my own personal experience I remember attending recently an affair at a major museum here. I had forgotten to bring my invitation. But while Filipinos entering the museum were checked for invitations, I was simply waived through. This sort of thing happens so often here that it just accepted routine. All of these things, the illogical respect given to foreigners simply because they are not Filipinos, the distrust and even disrespect shown to any homegrown merchandise, the neglect of anything Philippine, the rudeness of taxi drivers, the ill-manners shown by many Filipinos are all symptomatic of a lack of self-love, of respect for and love of the country in which they were born, and worst of all, a static mind-set in regard to finding ways to improve the situation.
Most Filipinos, when confronted with evidence of governmental corruption, political chicanery, or gross exploitation on the part of the business community, simply shrug their shoulders, mutter "bahala na," and let it go at that. It is an oversimplification to say this, but it is not without a grain of truth to say that Filipinos feel downtrodden because they allow themselves to feel downtrodden. No pride.
One of the most egregious examples of this lack of pride, this uncaring attitude to their own past or past culture, is the wretched state of surviving architectural landmarks in Manila and elsewhere. During the American period many beautiful and imposing buildings were built, in what we now call the "art deco" style (although, incidentally, that was not a contemporary term; it was coined only in the 1960s). These were beautiful edifices, mostly erected during, or just before, the Commonwealth period. Three, which are still standing, are the Jai Alai Building, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Rizal Stadium. Fortunately, due to the truly noble efforts of my friend John Silva, the Jai Alai Building will now be saved. But unless something is done to the most beautiful and original of these three masterpieces of pre-war Philippine architecture, the Metropolitan Theater, it will disintegrate. The Rizal Stadium is in equally wretched shape. When the wreckers' ball destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and New York City's most magnificent building, Pennsylvania Station, both in 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architectural critic of The New York Times, wrote: "A disposable culture loses the right to call itself a civilization at all!" How right she was! (Fortunately, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station proved to be the sacrificial catalyst that resulted in the creation of New York's Landmark Commission. Would that such a commission be created for Manila...)
Are there historical reasons for this lack of national pride? We can say that until the arrival of the Spaniards there was no sense of a unified archipelago constituted as one country. True. We can also say that the high cultures of other nations in the region seemed, unfortunately, to have bypassed the Philippines; there are no Angkors, no Ayuttayas, no Borobudurs.True. Centuries of contact with the "high cultures" of the Khmers and the Chinese had, except for the proliferation of Song dynasty pottery found throughout the archipelago, no noticeable effect. True. But all that aside, what was here?
To begin with, the ancient rice terraces, now threatened with disintegration, incidentally, was an incrediblefeat of engineering for so-called "primitive" people. As a matter of fact, when I first saw them in 1984, I was almost as awe-stricken as I was when I first laid eyes on the astonishing Inca city of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes. The degree of artistry exhibited by the various tribes of the Cordillera of Luzon is testimony to a remarkable culture, second to none in the Southeast Asian region. As for Mindanao, at the other end of the archipelago, an equally high degree of artistry has been manifest for centuries in woodcarving, weaving and metalwork.
However, the most shocking aspect of this lack of national pride, even identity, endemic in the average Filipino, is the appalling ignorance of the history of the archipelago since unified by Spain and named Filipinas. The remarkable stories concerning the Galleon de Manila, the courageous repulsion of Dutch and British invaders from the 16th through the 18th centuries, even the origins of the independence movement of the late 19th century, are hardly known by the average Filipino in any meaningful way. And thanks to fifty years of American brainwashing, it is few and far between the number of Filipinos who really know - or even care - about the duplicity employed by the Americans andSpaniards to sell out and make meaningless the very independent state that Aguinaldo declared on June 12, 1898. A people without a sense of history is a people doomed to be unaware of their own identity. It is sad to say, but true, that the vast majority of Filipinos fall into this lamentable category. Without a sense of who you are how can you possibly take any pride in who you are?
These are not oversimplifications . On the contrary, these are the root problems of the Philippine inferiority complex referred to above. Until the Filipino takes pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured. If what I have written here can help, even in the smallest way, to make the Filipino aware of just who he is, who he was, and who he can be, I will be one happy expat indeed!
---------
My friend, a VSO volunteer in Mongolia forwarded the above message with this note:
some of you might have heard me in the past say thatthere's a big possibility that in 10 or so years time, mongolia will overtakephilippines in terms of economic growth and development. ..baka nga in 5 yearslang eh. you know they have this overwhelming sense of pride for beingmongolians, sometimes to a fault, that filipinos don't have. so where have oursgone? anyway, please read the article below. i think it's interesting. you may notagree to all the points made here by the author but if it makes us startthinking about them, then i think it's a good one. - margie
this article is from this site: http://stuartxchange.org/InferiorityComplex.html. check it out for comments/reactions to this article.
How I Survived Kidnapping from UP & Six Economic Theories
By Robina Gokongwei-Pe, UP School of Economics
Sunday, May 25, 2008
(This is the speech of Robina Gokongwei-Pe posted at the UP School of Economics website. Robina was the guest of honor during their Recognition Day last April 25.)
Thank you very much, Prof. Dante Canlas, for your wonderful, wonderful introduction. Dean
Emmanuel de Dios — Dean de Dios was my professor of international trade way back in 1981, and it is not only because he gave me a grade of 1.5 that I agreed to be your guest speaker for today. It is hard for me to remember all my teachers in college, but Dean de Dios was someone I remembered very well, because I couldn’t imagine how one so young could be so brilliant. He was personally chosen by UP President Emerlinda Roman to be one of the speakers at the UP Centennial Lecture Series. He will speak on “Secular Morality and the University” on May 7 (plugging, plugging).
By the way, President Roman says that noted filmmaker Behn Cervantes keeps reminding everyone that it’s pronounced “centennial” with a short “e,” and not “centeeeennial.” Former
Dean Raul Fabella — it’s unfortunate that I missed Dean Fabella in college. I think he was in the US when I was a student. College Secretary Oggie Arcenas — Di ko rin inabutan si Prof. Arcenas, but then he must’ve been still in high school when I was at UPSE. When I saw him, I came to the conclusion that UPSE college secretaries are all boyish-looking because the college secretary during my time, Prof. Cayetano Paderanga, who incidentally taught me Econ 101, had the same features. (During my time, there were two cutie pies — Professsors Vito Inoferio and Cayetano Panderanga.)
Professor Dante Canlas, who taught me Econ 181. He was the only professor man enough to give me a grade of “1” even if I didn’t take his midterm exams. I will tell you about that later.
Professor Solita Monsod — the irrepressible Winnie Monsod with her sexy legs, miniskirt, booming voice, cigarette and iced tea in tow. Prof. Monsod taught us Econ 11 and Econ 101, and she explained everything so clearly it made economics less scary than I thought it would be. One morning during a class in the auditorium, she said, “Hey, who’s been spreading the news that this glass I’m carrying every day to class contains scotch? Of course I don’t bring scotch to class. It’s iced tea!”
Professor Manny Esguerra — Sayang, di ko naging teacher si Prof. Esguerra.
Professor Benjie Sandoval of the College of Business Administration — Benjie is executive director and my barkada at the UP Centennial Commission.
Tita Eden Bautista, former administrative officer at SE 101, who gave me my honorable dismissal in 1981 when I unexpectedly left UP in my senior year. If I need someone to remember where I placed all my things, it has to be Tita Eden. In fact, she is right now holding my handbag for me.
Joaquin Teotico, president of the UPSE Alumni Association; academic personnel, administration personnel, parents and graduates: Good afternoon.
I’m very happy to be back in the university that I never graduated from but wish I had. I am simply one lucky bitch to be speaking on your recognition day. Thank you to the UPSE Student Council, led by Sarah Adan and Jances Parado, for inviting me. In their letter, Sarah and Jances asked me to share my experiences and insights into being an instrument of meaningful change in society. And if could please bring in the concept of economics as an instrument of change and progress.
I gave Dean de Dios a call and said, “Dean, it’s a wonderful topic but I don’t know what I’m supposed to say,” and he told me, “Let’s have lunch with the students and talk about it.”
And so I did, and I met Sarah, Jances, and other student reps Mario Garcia, Nica Maloles and Jelain Reyes, plus Dean Fabella, Professors Arcenas, Monsod and Jack Teotico. I asked the students what they would really, really be interested in. They asked “Can you talk about what’s in store for us after economics?” The faculty said, “How about entrepreneurship?” or “How about matching economic theories with reality?”
And so I decided to put everything together, as chop suey as it may sound. Let me start with economic theories or concepts or terminology, whatever is the right way of calling them.
The first theory is the ubiquitous law of supply and demand. The reason I failed to graduate from UP was that I was kidnapped on the way to school in September 1981, and guess what, right on the day I was supposed to take Prof. Canlas’ exams.
Contrary to the 2000 movie Ping Lacson, Supercop, I was not jogging on the grounds of UP wearing a midriff when I got kidnapped. In the first place I didn’t have the body then to wear that outfit and never will. By the way, the actress who played me in the movie was Angel Locsin, and I hope you didn’t invite me to make this speech because you thought I looked like her. (Of course, deep inside, I wish I did.)
By the way, yes, it was then Lt. Col. and now Senator Ping Lacson who rescued me after seven days in captivity. He literally kicked and broke down the door, just like you see in the movies.
At that time, 1981, the kidnappers demanded P7 million in ransom money. Nowadays, any Tom, Dick and Harry would kidnap you for as low as P300,000. And that’s the law of supply and demand. The price has gone down to P300,000 because there are so many unorganized criminal gangs who are willing to take anything, and the victims are more willing to give since it’s not worth your life trying to haggle if it’s only P300,000.
You must be wondering whether the kidnappers were caught. Which brings me to the second theory: the theory of competitive advantage.
The mastermind was the son of a judge from Cebu. The judge from the lower court found him guilty, but when the case came up to the Supreme Court, the justices acquitted him. It’s only in the Philippines where you see the mastermind of a kidnapping gang get acquitted, and I wonder whether it has to do with his being the son of another judge. That is what you call competitive advantage.
The third theory is cost-benefit analysis. In 1989, we acquired the venerable national daily Manila Times from the Roces family. Sometime in 1998, my editors, who incidentally came from UP, wrote a headline that annoyed then President Joseph Estrada.
The story was about how the government was unwittingly led to sign an anomalous contract with IMPSA, a foreign group. Take note, this was in 1998, so if you’re thinking that this is ZTE, this is not ZTE.
Anyway, I didn’t even know what the story was all about, as my policy was to leave the editors to do their job while I handled the business side. I ended up getting sued by the president of the country, and for several nights, I thought hard about the future of the paper. As an economist would say, “Do a cost-benefit analysis.” The benefit was that it was a well-respected paper with a well-respected staff. However, the cost was that I was sure to die early, thinking about getting sued day in and day out. I didn’t want the staff to deal with a boss suffering from a nervous breakdown, and I didn’t want the readers to think that we were now forced to change the newspaper’s ideals to avoid any more lawsuits, so with a heavy heart, we sold the paper.
Running a well-respected paper was part of my efforts at being an instrument of meaningful change in society. So much for the effort. I figured, hay naku, magtitindera na lang ako.
Anyway, five years after, the government ended up suing that same foreign group, IMPSA, for leading them to sign that anomalous contract. By that time, I was already leading a less-turbulent life managing our retail group, and I left my sister Lisa to continue with publishing. She was smarter than me. She put up the highly successful Summit Publishing, which includes some staples such as Cosmopolitan and FHM. This is where I can say that when it comes to sex, the demand is always greater than the supply.
The fourth concept is about monopolies and oligopolies. A UP alumnus recently branded our family as oligarchs in the airline industry. In my economics textbook, an oligopoly happens when only a few players dominate the industry and set the price of goods unreasonably high. I do not know how we can be oligarchs if we give opportunities for people to travel more often by providing one-peso fares. Setting the price of goods with one-peso fares? Maybe he wants us to lower it to 50 centavos.
Let me go on to the fifth and sixth concepts, which I believe are the most important because they have to do with what you are going to do after graduation. Specifically, what you think you can do after obtaining an economics degree. In truth, you can do anything you want.
In fact, I asked the student reps over lunch why they majored in economics, and they said it was because they had the impression that you can do anything with an economics degree, and I told them they were right.
In fact, I wonder who among you were like me and decided to major in economics because you wanted something close to business but not take up business administration, and you thought that economics and BA were almost the same. It turns out that they’re related in some ways, but in most ways they’re totally different, and it’s a good thing I didn’t major in BA: I barely passed accounting.
My dad didn’t force me to take up BA after I graduated in high school in 1978 because he said that I would learn business anyway when I entered business, so I should go learn something else. If I had the choice, I would’ve gone into anthropology or veterinary medicine, but then it was uso among the Chinoys at that time that you either majored in pre-med because you were going to be a doctor, or in business because you were going to work in a bank. It seemed that Chinoys were headed to only two professions at that time.
I was the typical Chinoy who just followed where everyone went.
Anyway, back to my fifth and sixth theories — the theory of opportunity costs and the law of diminishing marginal returns. I know that when you start looking for a job, you will do two things — you will compare what each company is offering you, and you will compare your pay with your batchmates. Taking the first job offer that comes your way implies an opportunity cost of losing the chance of making more money. You wouldn’t want to lose that opportunity to make more money, would you?
Six months into the job, either one of two things can happen, or the two may happen at the same time. Either you will be thinking about whether this is the job you really want and you will keep on meditating about it to the consternation of your boss, or another company will try to poach you by offering better pay and benefits, or both.
Now take note that you belong to Generation Y, which the latest issue of The McKinsey Quarterly describes as people “born after 1980 — whose outlook has been shaped by, among other things, the Internet, information overload, and overzealous parents. HR professionals say these workers demand more flexibility, meaningful jobs, professional freedom, higher rewards, and a better work life-life balance than older employees do.
“People in this group see their professional careers as a series of two- to three-year chapters and will readily switch jobs.”
Emphasis on “readily switch jobs.”
So on to theory No. 6, the law of diminishing marginal returns. Being a member of Gen Y, you may have the habit of moving from one job to another, always grabbing the one that will pay more. You have the right not to miss out on these opportunity costs, but take note that if, by the time you’re 30, you show this three-page résumé listing that you had 12 jobs in eight years, you can be sure that you will experience firsthand the law of diminishing marginal returns. On your 13th job interview, you will be worth what your rate was when you were 22. No employer will dare hire you, because he thinks you will just run off again after six months.
Assuming (which, by the way, is an economist’s favorite word) that you decided to become an entrepreneur instead of seeking employment, then bravo, you made the right decision.
Entrepreneurship is a topic that Dean de Dios wanted me to talk about, but I told him that I wasn’t an entrepreneur. I am only managing one of my father’s businesses and using company money, not my money. But Dean said that, in any case, he knows more people who have spent all their fathers’ wealth and run the business into the ground much faster than it took me to build my father’s business. So, thank you for your kind words, Dean.
I am not an entrepreneur — it is my dad who’s an entrepreneur — but let me say something about it. I think the reason few people go into entrepreneurship especially when they come from top-tier schools like UP is that when they want to open their own taho cart, for example, people around them would tease them and say, “Ano ka ba, galing kang UP, magtataho ka lang!”
My answer to that is “E ano?” At least you have something you can call your very own.
You are not beholden to anyone but yourself, and yet you bring joy to society because you give people a product that they like. After all, big businesses started by being small once. Big business didn’t start out big: there’s no such thing.
Let me give you, though, one tip about running a business, and one more economic theory to go with it.
It’s about the theory of market competition. There’s such a thing as fair competitors, and there’s such a thing as desperate competitors. Both are troublesome, but you know fair competition is part of free enterprise. As for desperate competitors, you worry if this country is retrograding.
You were not born yet when the story of my kakambal na ahas who was half-woman, half-snake came out when we opened our second Robinsons Department Store branch in Cebu in 1985. My kakambal was supposed to be the source of our wealth as she laid golden eggs. She was supposed to be hiding under the floor of the fitting rooms, and every time a beautiful woman would enter, the floor would open and she would land right inside the mouth of my kakambal na ahas.
I have no idea who started this incredible story, but I have to tell you that some people believed it and even started staring at my legs to see if there were any signs of snakeskin. A few people still ask me about it, and I have to tell them na naging handbag na ho sa Robinsons Department Store.
Thank goodness there was no Internet yet at that time, or you would start receiving photos of me with a snake’s body and my kakambal na snake with a woman’s legs.
How do you deal with these dirty tricks? Nothing, just keep quiet and let the story fade away. Or better still, make a joke out of it.
And that is what you are going to face on a regular basis once you step out of school.
Someone will be out to kill your product, out to get your job, out to grab your boyfriend.
And if you’re an unlucky bitch, maybe all at the same time! But in the end, you will come out a stronger person, and better still, end up with a much better boyfriend.
Thank you and congratulations!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
(This is the speech of Robina Gokongwei-Pe posted at the UP School of Economics website. Robina was the guest of honor during their Recognition Day last April 25.)
Thank you very much, Prof. Dante Canlas, for your wonderful, wonderful introduction. Dean
Emmanuel de Dios — Dean de Dios was my professor of international trade way back in 1981, and it is not only because he gave me a grade of 1.5 that I agreed to be your guest speaker for today. It is hard for me to remember all my teachers in college, but Dean de Dios was someone I remembered very well, because I couldn’t imagine how one so young could be so brilliant. He was personally chosen by UP President Emerlinda Roman to be one of the speakers at the UP Centennial Lecture Series. He will speak on “Secular Morality and the University” on May 7 (plugging, plugging).
By the way, President Roman says that noted filmmaker Behn Cervantes keeps reminding everyone that it’s pronounced “centennial” with a short “e,” and not “centeeeennial.” Former
Dean Raul Fabella — it’s unfortunate that I missed Dean Fabella in college. I think he was in the US when I was a student. College Secretary Oggie Arcenas — Di ko rin inabutan si Prof. Arcenas, but then he must’ve been still in high school when I was at UPSE. When I saw him, I came to the conclusion that UPSE college secretaries are all boyish-looking because the college secretary during my time, Prof. Cayetano Paderanga, who incidentally taught me Econ 101, had the same features. (During my time, there were two cutie pies — Professsors Vito Inoferio and Cayetano Panderanga.)
Professor Dante Canlas, who taught me Econ 181. He was the only professor man enough to give me a grade of “1” even if I didn’t take his midterm exams. I will tell you about that later.
Professor Solita Monsod — the irrepressible Winnie Monsod with her sexy legs, miniskirt, booming voice, cigarette and iced tea in tow. Prof. Monsod taught us Econ 11 and Econ 101, and she explained everything so clearly it made economics less scary than I thought it would be. One morning during a class in the auditorium, she said, “Hey, who’s been spreading the news that this glass I’m carrying every day to class contains scotch? Of course I don’t bring scotch to class. It’s iced tea!”
Professor Manny Esguerra — Sayang, di ko naging teacher si Prof. Esguerra.
Professor Benjie Sandoval of the College of Business Administration — Benjie is executive director and my barkada at the UP Centennial Commission.
Tita Eden Bautista, former administrative officer at SE 101, who gave me my honorable dismissal in 1981 when I unexpectedly left UP in my senior year. If I need someone to remember where I placed all my things, it has to be Tita Eden. In fact, she is right now holding my handbag for me.
Joaquin Teotico, president of the UPSE Alumni Association; academic personnel, administration personnel, parents and graduates: Good afternoon.
I’m very happy to be back in the university that I never graduated from but wish I had. I am simply one lucky bitch to be speaking on your recognition day. Thank you to the UPSE Student Council, led by Sarah Adan and Jances Parado, for inviting me. In their letter, Sarah and Jances asked me to share my experiences and insights into being an instrument of meaningful change in society. And if could please bring in the concept of economics as an instrument of change and progress.
I gave Dean de Dios a call and said, “Dean, it’s a wonderful topic but I don’t know what I’m supposed to say,” and he told me, “Let’s have lunch with the students and talk about it.”
And so I did, and I met Sarah, Jances, and other student reps Mario Garcia, Nica Maloles and Jelain Reyes, plus Dean Fabella, Professors Arcenas, Monsod and Jack Teotico. I asked the students what they would really, really be interested in. They asked “Can you talk about what’s in store for us after economics?” The faculty said, “How about entrepreneurship?” or “How about matching economic theories with reality?”
And so I decided to put everything together, as chop suey as it may sound. Let me start with economic theories or concepts or terminology, whatever is the right way of calling them.
The first theory is the ubiquitous law of supply and demand. The reason I failed to graduate from UP was that I was kidnapped on the way to school in September 1981, and guess what, right on the day I was supposed to take Prof. Canlas’ exams.
Contrary to the 2000 movie Ping Lacson, Supercop, I was not jogging on the grounds of UP wearing a midriff when I got kidnapped. In the first place I didn’t have the body then to wear that outfit and never will. By the way, the actress who played me in the movie was Angel Locsin, and I hope you didn’t invite me to make this speech because you thought I looked like her. (Of course, deep inside, I wish I did.)
By the way, yes, it was then Lt. Col. and now Senator Ping Lacson who rescued me after seven days in captivity. He literally kicked and broke down the door, just like you see in the movies.
At that time, 1981, the kidnappers demanded P7 million in ransom money. Nowadays, any Tom, Dick and Harry would kidnap you for as low as P300,000. And that’s the law of supply and demand. The price has gone down to P300,000 because there are so many unorganized criminal gangs who are willing to take anything, and the victims are more willing to give since it’s not worth your life trying to haggle if it’s only P300,000.
You must be wondering whether the kidnappers were caught. Which brings me to the second theory: the theory of competitive advantage.
The mastermind was the son of a judge from Cebu. The judge from the lower court found him guilty, but when the case came up to the Supreme Court, the justices acquitted him. It’s only in the Philippines where you see the mastermind of a kidnapping gang get acquitted, and I wonder whether it has to do with his being the son of another judge. That is what you call competitive advantage.
The third theory is cost-benefit analysis. In 1989, we acquired the venerable national daily Manila Times from the Roces family. Sometime in 1998, my editors, who incidentally came from UP, wrote a headline that annoyed then President Joseph Estrada.
The story was about how the government was unwittingly led to sign an anomalous contract with IMPSA, a foreign group. Take note, this was in 1998, so if you’re thinking that this is ZTE, this is not ZTE.
Anyway, I didn’t even know what the story was all about, as my policy was to leave the editors to do their job while I handled the business side. I ended up getting sued by the president of the country, and for several nights, I thought hard about the future of the paper. As an economist would say, “Do a cost-benefit analysis.” The benefit was that it was a well-respected paper with a well-respected staff. However, the cost was that I was sure to die early, thinking about getting sued day in and day out. I didn’t want the staff to deal with a boss suffering from a nervous breakdown, and I didn’t want the readers to think that we were now forced to change the newspaper’s ideals to avoid any more lawsuits, so with a heavy heart, we sold the paper.
Running a well-respected paper was part of my efforts at being an instrument of meaningful change in society. So much for the effort. I figured, hay naku, magtitindera na lang ako.
Anyway, five years after, the government ended up suing that same foreign group, IMPSA, for leading them to sign that anomalous contract. By that time, I was already leading a less-turbulent life managing our retail group, and I left my sister Lisa to continue with publishing. She was smarter than me. She put up the highly successful Summit Publishing, which includes some staples such as Cosmopolitan and FHM. This is where I can say that when it comes to sex, the demand is always greater than the supply.
The fourth concept is about monopolies and oligopolies. A UP alumnus recently branded our family as oligarchs in the airline industry. In my economics textbook, an oligopoly happens when only a few players dominate the industry and set the price of goods unreasonably high. I do not know how we can be oligarchs if we give opportunities for people to travel more often by providing one-peso fares. Setting the price of goods with one-peso fares? Maybe he wants us to lower it to 50 centavos.
Let me go on to the fifth and sixth concepts, which I believe are the most important because they have to do with what you are going to do after graduation. Specifically, what you think you can do after obtaining an economics degree. In truth, you can do anything you want.
In fact, I asked the student reps over lunch why they majored in economics, and they said it was because they had the impression that you can do anything with an economics degree, and I told them they were right.
In fact, I wonder who among you were like me and decided to major in economics because you wanted something close to business but not take up business administration, and you thought that economics and BA were almost the same. It turns out that they’re related in some ways, but in most ways they’re totally different, and it’s a good thing I didn’t major in BA: I barely passed accounting.
My dad didn’t force me to take up BA after I graduated in high school in 1978 because he said that I would learn business anyway when I entered business, so I should go learn something else. If I had the choice, I would’ve gone into anthropology or veterinary medicine, but then it was uso among the Chinoys at that time that you either majored in pre-med because you were going to be a doctor, or in business because you were going to work in a bank. It seemed that Chinoys were headed to only two professions at that time.
I was the typical Chinoy who just followed where everyone went.
Anyway, back to my fifth and sixth theories — the theory of opportunity costs and the law of diminishing marginal returns. I know that when you start looking for a job, you will do two things — you will compare what each company is offering you, and you will compare your pay with your batchmates. Taking the first job offer that comes your way implies an opportunity cost of losing the chance of making more money. You wouldn’t want to lose that opportunity to make more money, would you?
Six months into the job, either one of two things can happen, or the two may happen at the same time. Either you will be thinking about whether this is the job you really want and you will keep on meditating about it to the consternation of your boss, or another company will try to poach you by offering better pay and benefits, or both.
Now take note that you belong to Generation Y, which the latest issue of The McKinsey Quarterly describes as people “born after 1980 — whose outlook has been shaped by, among other things, the Internet, information overload, and overzealous parents. HR professionals say these workers demand more flexibility, meaningful jobs, professional freedom, higher rewards, and a better work life-life balance than older employees do.
“People in this group see their professional careers as a series of two- to three-year chapters and will readily switch jobs.”
Emphasis on “readily switch jobs.”
So on to theory No. 6, the law of diminishing marginal returns. Being a member of Gen Y, you may have the habit of moving from one job to another, always grabbing the one that will pay more. You have the right not to miss out on these opportunity costs, but take note that if, by the time you’re 30, you show this three-page résumé listing that you had 12 jobs in eight years, you can be sure that you will experience firsthand the law of diminishing marginal returns. On your 13th job interview, you will be worth what your rate was when you were 22. No employer will dare hire you, because he thinks you will just run off again after six months.
Assuming (which, by the way, is an economist’s favorite word) that you decided to become an entrepreneur instead of seeking employment, then bravo, you made the right decision.
Entrepreneurship is a topic that Dean de Dios wanted me to talk about, but I told him that I wasn’t an entrepreneur. I am only managing one of my father’s businesses and using company money, not my money. But Dean said that, in any case, he knows more people who have spent all their fathers’ wealth and run the business into the ground much faster than it took me to build my father’s business. So, thank you for your kind words, Dean.
I am not an entrepreneur — it is my dad who’s an entrepreneur — but let me say something about it. I think the reason few people go into entrepreneurship especially when they come from top-tier schools like UP is that when they want to open their own taho cart, for example, people around them would tease them and say, “Ano ka ba, galing kang UP, magtataho ka lang!”
My answer to that is “E ano?” At least you have something you can call your very own.
You are not beholden to anyone but yourself, and yet you bring joy to society because you give people a product that they like. After all, big businesses started by being small once. Big business didn’t start out big: there’s no such thing.
Let me give you, though, one tip about running a business, and one more economic theory to go with it.
It’s about the theory of market competition. There’s such a thing as fair competitors, and there’s such a thing as desperate competitors. Both are troublesome, but you know fair competition is part of free enterprise. As for desperate competitors, you worry if this country is retrograding.
You were not born yet when the story of my kakambal na ahas who was half-woman, half-snake came out when we opened our second Robinsons Department Store branch in Cebu in 1985. My kakambal was supposed to be the source of our wealth as she laid golden eggs. She was supposed to be hiding under the floor of the fitting rooms, and every time a beautiful woman would enter, the floor would open and she would land right inside the mouth of my kakambal na ahas.
I have no idea who started this incredible story, but I have to tell you that some people believed it and even started staring at my legs to see if there were any signs of snakeskin. A few people still ask me about it, and I have to tell them na naging handbag na ho sa Robinsons Department Store.
Thank goodness there was no Internet yet at that time, or you would start receiving photos of me with a snake’s body and my kakambal na snake with a woman’s legs.
How do you deal with these dirty tricks? Nothing, just keep quiet and let the story fade away. Or better still, make a joke out of it.
And that is what you are going to face on a regular basis once you step out of school.
Someone will be out to kill your product, out to get your job, out to grab your boyfriend.
And if you’re an unlucky bitch, maybe all at the same time! But in the end, you will come out a stronger person, and better still, end up with a much better boyfriend.
Thank you and congratulations!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Get Rid of These Bad Work Habits
By Anthony Balderrama, CareerBuilder.com writer
Who doesn’t have at least one habit that drives everyone else insane? You might bite your nails, slurp your coffee or tap your pen incessantly. Annoying? Yes. Serious problems? Not really.
In the office, however, some habits can go beyond annoying your co-workers; they can damage your career.
For the sake of your career and your co-workers’ sanity, here’s a list of bad work habits that can harm your career and how you can break them. If you’re guilty of one (or more), it’s time to get them under control.
Bad Habit: Missing deadlines.What you think: "If it’s only a little late, it doesn’t mean anything."
What it really says: Your colleagues and boss can’t count on you.
What to do: Don’t view deadlines as negotiable. Remind yourself that people are counting on you to do your job well, which includes completing tasks on time. Even if you just barely missed the deadline and everything turned out OK, you probably caused your teammates a lot of anxiety and extra work, which they won’t forget.
Bad Habit: Dressing unprofessionally.
What you think: "I’m the office free spirit with a quirky sense of style!"
What it really says: You don’t take the job seriously.
What to do: You don’t have to be a boring dresser to be professional, but you shouldn’t look like you’re about to go clubbing or strutting down a runway. Take a cue from your co-workers to see what’s considered acceptable in the office.
Bad Habit: Not being punctual.
What you think: "As long as I get all my work in, nobody cares."
What it really says: You think your time is more important than everybody else’s.
What to do: Stick to the schedule. Everyone in your office would like to sleep in a little or leave early, but they don’t because people rely on them to be on time.
Bad Habit: Checking your e-mail, playing games, shopping.
What you think: "I’m discreet."
What it really says: You’re not doing your job.
What to do: Keep the fun stuff to a minimum. Most employers don’t mind if you check your e-mail every once in awhile or read your favorite blog for a few minutes in the morning. They begin to care when you minimize that game of Scrabulous every time they walk by your desk. You’re being paid to work, not play.
Bad Habit: Gossiping.
What you think: "I’m just saying what I heard."
What it really says: You can’t be trusted.
What to do: Sure, everybody gossips a little here and there, but it shouldn’t be your livelihood. Eventually you’ll gain a reputation for not keeping anything confidential –whether it’s a personal matter or work-related. Plus, your chattering could end up hurting somebody’s feelings or reputation.
Bad Habit: Being negative.
What you think: "Everybody complains."
What it really says: You’re the person to avoid.
What to do: It’s natural to grumble about work once in awhile. If you gripe and moan when you’re asked to do anything, however, people will not only get annoyed, they’ll wonder why you don’t just quit. Keep in mind that work isn’t always fun; keep the complaints to a minimum.
Bad Habit: Trying to be everybody’s best friend.
What you think: "I’m just sociable."
What it really says: You don’t know how to set boundaries.
What to do: It’s not uncommon for friendships to develop at work, but don’t expect it to happen with everybody. Unless you have reason to do otherwise, treat your superiors, colleagues and subordinates like professionals, not like drinking buddies.
Bad Habit: Burning bridges.
What you think: "I’ll never see them again."
What it really says: You’re not a professional who thinks about the future.
What to do: As much as you dream of telling off your boss or co-workers after you’ve handed in your resignation, restrain yourself. People change jobs, companies merge – someone you dissed in the past may end up being your boss down the road.
Bad Habit: Always being the funny one.
What you think: "People love me."
What it really says: You’re really annoying.
What to do: There’s nothing wrong with being funny – most people do like a good sense of humor. Just remember that not everybody wants to hear your sarcastic quips and "Godfather" impersonations every five minutes.
Bad Habit: Forgetting you have neighbors.
What you think: "I’m not as annoying as they are."
What it really says: You’re inconsiderate.
What to do: Do unto your co-workers as you’d want them to do unto you. Your hour-long conference call on speakerphone is just as irksome to your cube mates as theirs are to you.
Anthony Balderrama is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com. He researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.
Who doesn’t have at least one habit that drives everyone else insane? You might bite your nails, slurp your coffee or tap your pen incessantly. Annoying? Yes. Serious problems? Not really.
In the office, however, some habits can go beyond annoying your co-workers; they can damage your career.
For the sake of your career and your co-workers’ sanity, here’s a list of bad work habits that can harm your career and how you can break them. If you’re guilty of one (or more), it’s time to get them under control.
Bad Habit: Missing deadlines.What you think: "If it’s only a little late, it doesn’t mean anything."
What it really says: Your colleagues and boss can’t count on you.
What to do: Don’t view deadlines as negotiable. Remind yourself that people are counting on you to do your job well, which includes completing tasks on time. Even if you just barely missed the deadline and everything turned out OK, you probably caused your teammates a lot of anxiety and extra work, which they won’t forget.
Bad Habit: Dressing unprofessionally.
What you think: "I’m the office free spirit with a quirky sense of style!"
What it really says: You don’t take the job seriously.
What to do: You don’t have to be a boring dresser to be professional, but you shouldn’t look like you’re about to go clubbing or strutting down a runway. Take a cue from your co-workers to see what’s considered acceptable in the office.
Bad Habit: Not being punctual.
What you think: "As long as I get all my work in, nobody cares."
What it really says: You think your time is more important than everybody else’s.
What to do: Stick to the schedule. Everyone in your office would like to sleep in a little or leave early, but they don’t because people rely on them to be on time.
Bad Habit: Checking your e-mail, playing games, shopping.
What you think: "I’m discreet."
What it really says: You’re not doing your job.
What to do: Keep the fun stuff to a minimum. Most employers don’t mind if you check your e-mail every once in awhile or read your favorite blog for a few minutes in the morning. They begin to care when you minimize that game of Scrabulous every time they walk by your desk. You’re being paid to work, not play.
Bad Habit: Gossiping.
What you think: "I’m just saying what I heard."
What it really says: You can’t be trusted.
What to do: Sure, everybody gossips a little here and there, but it shouldn’t be your livelihood. Eventually you’ll gain a reputation for not keeping anything confidential –whether it’s a personal matter or work-related. Plus, your chattering could end up hurting somebody’s feelings or reputation.
Bad Habit: Being negative.
What you think: "Everybody complains."
What it really says: You’re the person to avoid.
What to do: It’s natural to grumble about work once in awhile. If you gripe and moan when you’re asked to do anything, however, people will not only get annoyed, they’ll wonder why you don’t just quit. Keep in mind that work isn’t always fun; keep the complaints to a minimum.
Bad Habit: Trying to be everybody’s best friend.
What you think: "I’m just sociable."
What it really says: You don’t know how to set boundaries.
What to do: It’s not uncommon for friendships to develop at work, but don’t expect it to happen with everybody. Unless you have reason to do otherwise, treat your superiors, colleagues and subordinates like professionals, not like drinking buddies.
Bad Habit: Burning bridges.
What you think: "I’ll never see them again."
What it really says: You’re not a professional who thinks about the future.
What to do: As much as you dream of telling off your boss or co-workers after you’ve handed in your resignation, restrain yourself. People change jobs, companies merge – someone you dissed in the past may end up being your boss down the road.
Bad Habit: Always being the funny one.
What you think: "People love me."
What it really says: You’re really annoying.
What to do: There’s nothing wrong with being funny – most people do like a good sense of humor. Just remember that not everybody wants to hear your sarcastic quips and "Godfather" impersonations every five minutes.
Bad Habit: Forgetting you have neighbors.
What you think: "I’m not as annoying as they are."
What it really says: You’re inconsiderate.
What to do: Do unto your co-workers as you’d want them to do unto you. Your hour-long conference call on speakerphone is just as irksome to your cube mates as theirs are to you.
Anthony Balderrama is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com. He researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Beware of Garbage Trucks
by David J. Pollay
How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? Unless you're the Terminator, for an instant you're probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important.
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened.
I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly.
So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"
And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you.
When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did."
So this was it: The "Law of the Garbage Truck." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."
I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie "The Sixth Sense," the little boy said, "I see Dead People."
Well, now "I see Garbage Trucks." I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.
One of my favorite football players of all time, Walter Payton, did this every day on the football field. He would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground after being tackled.
He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his best. Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting.
Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day.
What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by?
Here's my bet. You'll be happier.
Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..
Love the people who treat you right.
Forget about the ones who don't.
Believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance, TAKE IT!
If it changes your life, LET IT!
Nobody said it would be easy...
They just promised it would be worth it!
How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? Unless you're the Terminator, for an instant you're probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important.
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened.
I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly.
So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"
And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you.
When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did."
So this was it: The "Law of the Garbage Truck." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore."
I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie "The Sixth Sense," the little boy said, "I see Dead People."
Well, now "I see Garbage Trucks." I see the load they're carrying. I see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.
One of my favorite football players of all time, Walter Payton, did this every day on the football field. He would jump up as quickly as he hit the ground after being tackled.
He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his best. Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting.
Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.
The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day.
What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by?
Here's my bet. You'll be happier.
Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so..
Love the people who treat you right.
Forget about the ones who don't.
Believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance, TAKE IT!
If it changes your life, LET IT!
Nobody said it would be easy...
They just promised it would be worth it!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
A Letter To The Young Filipino Generation
Will it be hard for you to believe me if I tell you that we have a beautiful country that is worth dying for? Perhaps you might have heard from the older people that our government is a paradigm of extreme injustice, graft and corruption and lacking of integrity. Perhaps, you have also heard that our education system is mediocre; and, worst, in spite of mediocrity, it continues to deteriorate. Furthermore, you might have also heard that we are once the glory of academic institutions in countries such as Germany and France during our Dr. Jose Rizal's time. Yet, now, most of our mothers and grandmothers are slaves in a foreign land, ripped of self-value—all these just so they can earn money and feed you well.
The state of our country is devastating. I will not keep you from knowing that our own countrymen have a distorted understanding and regard for leadership. I have many times wept because I feel that our countrymen no longer understand the value of a leader. With the kind of people vying for seats in our government, I have often wondered if leadership has really been understood as a call to serve and not a race to positions that satisfy whims. Probably, also, this distorted understanding of leadership gives birth to a distorted regard for a leader. For one, I have realized that terrorism is no longer a stranger to us—for we have always had it in different dimensions; simply masked by varying reasons just so rebellion can be justified. We are a people that have always rebelled. And I doubt if we do so because we are courageous; for probably it is because we have lost the patience and perseverance to respond meaningfully to a desperate
circumstance. We blame and withdraw rather than contribute and support. I grieve at how emotional tantrums remain to be an involuntary response to discontent and weariness. Sometimes, we are too lazy to reflect and to contemplate that we give up on thinking. As a result we act in haste. Best of all, we are too arrogant, too preoccupied to even pray and seek divine wisdom. We contest even the infallibility of the Bible as if we know more or that we can offer a more meaningful and inspiring message.
And for all these, I apologize with deep regret and repentance that my generation, and the generations that have come before me, failed you. We could have given you a meaningful past, a hopeful present and a promising future if only we have worked with the right "lenses".
I encourage you to work with the right lens by choosing to see not the death of our country but the new life we can give her. From this, I realize that we move in parallel with the disciples' response when Christ resurrected. Probably the grief over Christ death was enough to paralyze the disciples' hope for something beautiful and redeeming to still happen. All they saw was death; so, they responded in grief and fear—and lack of faith when Christ, finally, resurrected. I think that our countrymen are going through the same circumstance also. We only see the hopelessness of our country; and, thus we no longer move with spirits willing to conquer.
I beg you to no longer follow our footsteps. Wear the lens that clings to faith and let go of the stubborn refusal to believe that resurrection does come. So, you will neither move towards the most comfortable escape nor refuse movement at all. In effect, you will strive for better solutions and work hard to contribute instead of merely cursing the system, looking for and pointing at faces to blame. In effect, you do not leave the country in disillusion that you deserve a better place—for you understand that a better place is not what you see around you; but, rather what you strive to cultivate inside you. Thus, you will understand that hardship is meant to prune your character and teach you to let go of your comfort zones, which disables you from exploring your greatest potential to conquer and lead. Move in faith; do not give up; do not surrender in understanding that you deserve to fight a good fight. No matter the difficulty of your
circumstance, keep the hope by persevering and enduring. When the bleak circumstance of your country weakens you, remember to focus not just on Christ death; but, rather on Christ's resurrection. It is because He did not just die for you—He resurrected for you so that you would believe and hope amidst the grief and loss. Claim this as His faithfulness to you. He gave you this country; this is your territory, so be steadfast vanguards of it.
Second, as you remember the story of Christ's resurrection, recall all those who do not believe the testimonies of those who have seen Him. This same thing may happen to you, also. My generation, and the generations that have come before me, carry stories of those who have dared to effect meaningful changes in our country. It pains me to tell you that these stories began with beautiful dreams for our country; and yet ended in frustration. Why? When a population did not support their cause, these people began doubting not just their ability to succeed but also the meaning of their cause. This is very much unlikely to the disciples who have kept their stand in spite of opposition. I grieve to admit that most of us failed to keep our stands when our foundations are shaken.
I beg you to no longer follow our footsteps. Wear the lens that will humble you to fervently and sincerely pray for God's purpose for your existence. So, when God finally reveals Himself and His plans for you—you will hold on to it dearly even if the swift tide of discouragement and unpopularity struggle to take it away from you. Then, bravely, you will go into the world; speak, live out and die for the greatest cause He has given you. You will go out into the world and reach out to as many countrymen as you could by inspiring the younger ones and encouraging the older ones. You will strive hard to live a good life not for your own good but for the next generations'— because you understand that this country is in need of heroes to emulate. Soon enough, the burden for excellence and meaning will not just be an output; but your way of life..
Third, as you remember the resurrection of Christ, realize that even after He went up to heaven, He has not forsaken His disciples. As His disciple carried out their tasks, Christ went with them by working with them and fulfilling His promises to them. What makes it easy to discontinue our battles in life is not the realization that we are weak; but, the realization that we are fighting alone. So, we shudder and cringe, bearing the dark just because we are too scared to stand in the light, only to realize that we are standing alone.
They say that if you want to see the future of a country, you should listen to the heart of its youth; for the song that echoes in there shall be the law that will soon rule the land. To my dear young Filipinos, each of you is destined to win. Dare to not give up: keep the faith, live your mission. Claim victory and raise this country to a new life that it deserves.
It is my fervent prayer that your generation would no longer carry our regrets and failures. Death prevails when one stubbornly refuses to hope and witness resurrection. Do not just curse the darkness; dare to light a fire.
Anna Casiding
The state of our country is devastating. I will not keep you from knowing that our own countrymen have a distorted understanding and regard for leadership. I have many times wept because I feel that our countrymen no longer understand the value of a leader. With the kind of people vying for seats in our government, I have often wondered if leadership has really been understood as a call to serve and not a race to positions that satisfy whims. Probably, also, this distorted understanding of leadership gives birth to a distorted regard for a leader. For one, I have realized that terrorism is no longer a stranger to us—for we have always had it in different dimensions; simply masked by varying reasons just so rebellion can be justified. We are a people that have always rebelled. And I doubt if we do so because we are courageous; for probably it is because we have lost the patience and perseverance to respond meaningfully to a desperate
circumstance. We blame and withdraw rather than contribute and support. I grieve at how emotional tantrums remain to be an involuntary response to discontent and weariness. Sometimes, we are too lazy to reflect and to contemplate that we give up on thinking. As a result we act in haste. Best of all, we are too arrogant, too preoccupied to even pray and seek divine wisdom. We contest even the infallibility of the Bible as if we know more or that we can offer a more meaningful and inspiring message.
And for all these, I apologize with deep regret and repentance that my generation, and the generations that have come before me, failed you. We could have given you a meaningful past, a hopeful present and a promising future if only we have worked with the right "lenses".
I encourage you to work with the right lens by choosing to see not the death of our country but the new life we can give her. From this, I realize that we move in parallel with the disciples' response when Christ resurrected. Probably the grief over Christ death was enough to paralyze the disciples' hope for something beautiful and redeeming to still happen. All they saw was death; so, they responded in grief and fear—and lack of faith when Christ, finally, resurrected. I think that our countrymen are going through the same circumstance also. We only see the hopelessness of our country; and, thus we no longer move with spirits willing to conquer.
I beg you to no longer follow our footsteps. Wear the lens that clings to faith and let go of the stubborn refusal to believe that resurrection does come. So, you will neither move towards the most comfortable escape nor refuse movement at all. In effect, you will strive for better solutions and work hard to contribute instead of merely cursing the system, looking for and pointing at faces to blame. In effect, you do not leave the country in disillusion that you deserve a better place—for you understand that a better place is not what you see around you; but, rather what you strive to cultivate inside you. Thus, you will understand that hardship is meant to prune your character and teach you to let go of your comfort zones, which disables you from exploring your greatest potential to conquer and lead. Move in faith; do not give up; do not surrender in understanding that you deserve to fight a good fight. No matter the difficulty of your
circumstance, keep the hope by persevering and enduring. When the bleak circumstance of your country weakens you, remember to focus not just on Christ death; but, rather on Christ's resurrection. It is because He did not just die for you—He resurrected for you so that you would believe and hope amidst the grief and loss. Claim this as His faithfulness to you. He gave you this country; this is your territory, so be steadfast vanguards of it.
Second, as you remember the story of Christ's resurrection, recall all those who do not believe the testimonies of those who have seen Him. This same thing may happen to you, also. My generation, and the generations that have come before me, carry stories of those who have dared to effect meaningful changes in our country. It pains me to tell you that these stories began with beautiful dreams for our country; and yet ended in frustration. Why? When a population did not support their cause, these people began doubting not just their ability to succeed but also the meaning of their cause. This is very much unlikely to the disciples who have kept their stand in spite of opposition. I grieve to admit that most of us failed to keep our stands when our foundations are shaken.
I beg you to no longer follow our footsteps. Wear the lens that will humble you to fervently and sincerely pray for God's purpose for your existence. So, when God finally reveals Himself and His plans for you—you will hold on to it dearly even if the swift tide of discouragement and unpopularity struggle to take it away from you. Then, bravely, you will go into the world; speak, live out and die for the greatest cause He has given you. You will go out into the world and reach out to as many countrymen as you could by inspiring the younger ones and encouraging the older ones. You will strive hard to live a good life not for your own good but for the next generations'— because you understand that this country is in need of heroes to emulate. Soon enough, the burden for excellence and meaning will not just be an output; but your way of life..
Third, as you remember the resurrection of Christ, realize that even after He went up to heaven, He has not forsaken His disciples. As His disciple carried out their tasks, Christ went with them by working with them and fulfilling His promises to them. What makes it easy to discontinue our battles in life is not the realization that we are weak; but, the realization that we are fighting alone. So, we shudder and cringe, bearing the dark just because we are too scared to stand in the light, only to realize that we are standing alone.
They say that if you want to see the future of a country, you should listen to the heart of its youth; for the song that echoes in there shall be the law that will soon rule the land. To my dear young Filipinos, each of you is destined to win. Dare to not give up: keep the faith, live your mission. Claim victory and raise this country to a new life that it deserves.
It is my fervent prayer that your generation would no longer carry our regrets and failures. Death prevails when one stubbornly refuses to hope and witness resurrection. Do not just curse the darkness; dare to light a fire.
Anna Casiding
Saturday, October 06, 2007
THE BETTER SIDE OF THE PHILIPPINES
THE BETTER SIDE OF THE PHILIPPINES
The following was written by INTEL General Manager Robin Martin about the Philippines :
Filipinos (including the press, business people and myself) tend to dwell too much on the negative side, and this affects the perception of foreigners, even the ones who have lived here for a while. The negative perception of the Philippines is way disproportionate to reality when compared to countries like Columbia , Egypt , Middle East, Africa , etc.
Let us all help our country by balancing the negative with the positive especially when we talk to foreigners, whether based here or abroad. Looking back and comparing the Philipp ines today and 1995 (the year I came back), I was struck by how much our country has progressed physically.
Consider the following:
1. The great telecom infrastructure that we have now did not exist in 1995. 1995 was the year the telecom industry was deregulated. Since then billions of dollars have been invested in both fixed line and cellular networks producing a system with over 5,000 kms of fiber optic backbone at a world competitive cost. From a fixed line capacity of about 900,000 in 1995 we now have over 7 million. Cellular phones practically did not exist in 1995; now we have over 11 mi llion line capacity.
2. The MRT, many of the EDSA flyovers (including the Ayala Avenue flyover), the SKYWAY, Rockwell and Glorietta 4, the Fort, NAIA terminal 2 and most of the new skyscrapers were not yet built in 1995.
3. If you drive to the provinces, you will notice that national roads are now of good quality (international quality asphalt roads). I just went to Iba, Zambales last week and I was impressed that even a not so frequently travelled road was of very good quality.
4. Philippine exports have increased by 600% over the past eight years. There are many, many more examples of progress over the last eight years. Philippine mangoes are now exported t o the US and Europe .
Additional tidbits to make our people prouder:
1. INTEL has been in the Philippines for 28 years. The Philippines plant is where Intel's most advanced products are launched, including the Pentium IV. By the end of 2002, Philippine operations became Intel's biggest assembly and testing operations worldwide.
2. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has been operating in Baguio for over 20 years. The Baguio plant is the largest producer of DSP chips in the world. DSP chips are the brains behind cellphones. TI's Baguio plant produces the chip that powers 100% of all NOKIA cellphones and 80% of Erickson cellphones in the world.
3. TOSHIBA laptops are produced in Santa Rosa , Laguna.
4. If you drive a BENZ, BMW, or a VOLVO, there is a good chance that the ABS system in your car was made in the Philippines .
5. TREND-MICRO, makers of one of the top anti virus software PC-Cillin (I may have mispelled this) develops its "cures" for viruses right here in Eastwood Libis, Quezon City /st1:place> . When a virus breaks in any computer system in the world, they try to find a solution within 45 minutes of finding the virus.
6 . Today a majority of the top ten U.S. Call Center firms in the U.S. have set up operations in the Philippines . This is one area in which I believe we are the best in the world in terms of value for money.
7. America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in Clark answering 90% of AOL's global e-mail inquiries.
8. PROCTOR & GAMBLE has over 400 people right here in Makati (average age 23 years) doing back-up office work to their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing.
9. Among many other things it does for its regional operations network in the Asia-Pacific region here in Manila , CITIBANK also does its global ATM programming locally.
10. This is the first year ever that the Philippines will be exporting cars in quantity courtesy of FORD Philippines. (I have an idea this article was written between 2001 - 2002, so this operation should have been on-going for the last 3 years or so. CYN)
11. The government is shedding off graft and corruption slowly but surely. This is the first time in our history that a former president is in jail a nd facing charges of plunder. Despite all odds, we are still pursuing the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos now enjoyed by his unrepentant heirs.
Next time you travel abroad and meet business associates tell them the good news. A big part of our problem is perception and one of the biggest battles can be won simply by believing and by making others believe. This message is shared by good citizens of the Philippines who persevere to hope and work for our country.
56,000,000 Filipinos speak, read and write in English even if we have our own national language. Speaking a second language takes a certain kind of unique intelligence.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER FILIPINOS!!!
The following was written by INTEL General Manager Robin Martin about the Philippines :
Filipinos (including the press, business people and myself) tend to dwell too much on the negative side, and this affects the perception of foreigners, even the ones who have lived here for a while. The negative perception of the Philippines is way disproportionate to reality when compared to countries like Columbia , Egypt , Middle East, Africa , etc.
Let us all help our country by balancing the negative with the positive especially when we talk to foreigners, whether based here or abroad. Looking back and comparing the Philipp ines today and 1995 (the year I came back), I was struck by how much our country has progressed physically.
Consider the following:
1. The great telecom infrastructure that we have now did not exist in 1995. 1995 was the year the telecom industry was deregulated. Since then billions of dollars have been invested in both fixed line and cellular networks producing a system with over 5,000 kms of fiber optic backbone at a world competitive cost. From a fixed line capacity of about 900,000 in 1995 we now have over 7 million. Cellular phones practically did not exist in 1995; now we have over 11 mi llion line capacity.
2. The MRT, many of the EDSA flyovers (including the Ayala Avenue flyover), the SKYWAY, Rockwell and Glorietta 4, the Fort, NAIA terminal 2 and most of the new skyscrapers were not yet built in 1995.
3. If you drive to the provinces, you will notice that national roads are now of good quality (international quality asphalt roads). I just went to Iba, Zambales last week and I was impressed that even a not so frequently travelled road was of very good quality.
4. Philippine exports have increased by 600% over the past eight years. There are many, many more examples of progress over the last eight years. Philippine mangoes are now exported t o the US and Europe .
Additional tidbits to make our people prouder:
1. INTEL has been in the Philippines for 28 years. The Philippines plant is where Intel's most advanced products are launched, including the Pentium IV. By the end of 2002, Philippine operations became Intel's biggest assembly and testing operations worldwide.
2. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS has been operating in Baguio for over 20 years. The Baguio plant is the largest producer of DSP chips in the world. DSP chips are the brains behind cellphones. TI's Baguio plant produces the chip that powers 100% of all NOKIA cellphones and 80% of Erickson cellphones in the world.
3. TOSHIBA laptops are produced in Santa Rosa , Laguna.
4. If you drive a BENZ, BMW, or a VOLVO, there is a good chance that the ABS system in your car was made in the Philippines .
5. TREND-MICRO, makers of one of the top anti virus software PC-Cillin (I may have mispelled this) develops its "cures" for viruses right here in Eastwood Libis, Quezon City /st1:place> . When a virus breaks in any computer system in the world, they try to find a solution within 45 minutes of finding the virus.
6 . Today a majority of the top ten U.S. Call Center firms in the U.S. have set up operations in the Philippines . This is one area in which I believe we are the best in the world in terms of value for money.
7. America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in Clark answering 90% of AOL's global e-mail inquiries.
8. PROCTOR & GAMBLE has over 400 people right here in Makati (average age 23 years) doing back-up office work to their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing.
9. Among many other things it does for its regional operations network in the Asia-Pacific region here in Manila , CITIBANK also does its global ATM programming locally.
10. This is the first year ever that the Philippines will be exporting cars in quantity courtesy of FORD Philippines. (I have an idea this article was written between 2001 - 2002, so this operation should have been on-going for the last 3 years or so. CYN)
11. The government is shedding off graft and corruption slowly but surely. This is the first time in our history that a former president is in jail a nd facing charges of plunder. Despite all odds, we are still pursuing the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos now enjoyed by his unrepentant heirs.
Next time you travel abroad and meet business associates tell them the good news. A big part of our problem is perception and one of the biggest battles can be won simply by believing and by making others believe. This message is shared by good citizens of the Philippines who persevere to hope and work for our country.
56,000,000 Filipinos speak, read and write in English even if we have our own national language. Speaking a second language takes a certain kind of unique intelligence.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER FILIPINOS!!!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Why Filipinos Are Special by Ed Lapiz
I got this after I sent out the previous post about "the value of Filipinos"
---------------------------------
Why Filipinos Are Special by Ed Lapiz
Filipinos are Brown. Their color is in the center of human racial strains.
This point is not an attempt at racism, but just for many Filipinos to realize that our color should not be a source of or reason for inferiority complex. While we pine for a fair complexion, the white people are religiously tanning themselves, whenever they could, under the sun or some artificial light, just to approximate the Filipino complexion.
Filipinos are a touching people. We have lots of love and are not afraid to show it. We almost inevitably create human chains with our perennial akbay (putting an arm around another shoulder), hawak (hold), yakap (embrace), himas (caressing stroke), kalabit (touch with the tip of the finger), kalong (sitting on someone else's lap), etc.
We are always reaching out, always seeking interconnection.
Filipinos are linguists. Put a Filipino in any city, any town around the world. Give him a few months or even weeks and he will speak the local language there. Filipinos are adept at learning and speaking languages. In fact, it is not uncommon for Filipinos to speak at least three: his dialect, Filipino, and English. Of course, a lot speak an added language, be it Chinese, Spanish or, if he works abroad, the language of his host country.
In addition, Tagalog is not 'sexist.' While many "conscious" and "enlightened" people of today are just by now striving to be "politically correct" with their language and, in the process, bend to absurd depths in coining "gender sensitive" words, Tagalog has, since time immemorial, evolved gender-neutral words like asawa (husband or wife), anak (son or daughter), magulang (father or mother), kapatid (brother or sister), biyenan ( father-in-law or mother-in-law) , manugang (son or daughter-in- law), bayani (hero or heroine), etc. Our languages and dialects are advanced and, indeed, sophisticated! It is no small wonder that Jose Rizal, the quintessential Filipino, spoke some twenty-two languages!
Filipinos are groupists. We love human interaction and company. We always surround ourselves with people and we hover over them, too.
According to Dr. Patricia Licuanan, a psychologist from Ateneo and
At work, we live bayanihan (mutual help); at play, we want a kalaro (playmate) more than laruan (toy). At socials, our invitations are open and it is more common even for guests to invite and bring in other guests. In transit, we do not want to be separated from our group. So what do we do when there is no more space in a vehicle?
Kalung-kalong! (Sit on one another). No one would ever suggest splitting a group and waiting for another vehicle with more space!
Filipinos are weavers. One look at our baskets, mats, clothes, and other crafts will reveal the skill of the Filipino weaver and his inclination to weaving. This art is a metaphor of the Filipino trait.
We are social weavers. We weave theirs into ours that we all become parts of one another. We place a lot of premium on pakikisama (getting along) and pakikipagkapwa (relating). Two of the worst labels, walang pakikipagkapwa (inability to relate), will be avoided by the Filipino at almost any cost.
We love to blend and harmonize with people, we like to include them in our "tribe," in our "family"-and we like to be included in other people's families, too.
Therefore we call our friend's mother nanay or mommy; we call a friend's sister ate (eldest sister), and so on. We even call strangers tia (aunt) or tio (uncle), tatang (grandfather) , etc.
So extensive is our social openness and interrelations that we have specific title for extended relations like hipag (sister-in-law' s spouse), balae (child-in-law' s parents), inaanak (godchild), ninong/ninang (godparents) kinakapatid (godparent's child), etc.
In addition, we have the profound 'ka' institution, loosely translated as "equal to the same kind" as in kasama (of the same company), kaisa (of the same cause), kapanalig (of the same belief), etc. In our social fiber, we treat other people as co-equals.
Filipinos, because of their social "weaving" traditions, make for excellent team workers.
Filipinos are adventurers. We have a tradition of separation. Our myths and legends speak of heroes and heroines who almost always get separated from their families and loved ones and are taken by circumstances to far-away lands where they find wealth or power.
Our Spanish colonial history is filled with separations caused by the reduccion (hamleting), and the forced migration to build towns, churches, fortresses or galleons. American occupation enlarged the space of Filipino wandering, including
Now, Filipinos compose the world's largest population of overseas workers, populating and sometimes "threshing" major capitals, minor towns and even remote villages around the world. Filipino adventurism has made us today's citizens of the world, bringing the bagoong (salty shrimp paste), pansit (sautéed noodles), siopao (meat- filled dough), kare-kare (peanut-flavored dish), dinuguan (innards cooked in pork blood), balut (unhatched duck egg), and adobo (meat vinaigrette) , including the tabo (ladle) and tsinelas (slippers) all over the world.
Filipinos are excellent at adjustments and improvisation, managing to recreate their home, or to feel at home anywhere.
Filipinos have Pakiramdam (deep feeling/discernment ) . We know how to feel what others feel, sometimes even anticipate what they will feel.
Being manhid (dense) is one of the worst labels anyone could get and will therefore, avoid at all cost. We know when a guest is hungry though the insistence on being full is assured.
We can tell if people are lovers even if they are miles apart. We know if a person is offended though he may purposely smile. We know because we feel. In our pakikipagkapwa( relating) , we get not only to wear another man's shoe but also his heart.
We have a superbly developed and honored gift of discernment, making us excellent leaders, counselors, and go-betweens.
Filipinos are very spiritual. We are transcendent. We transcend the physical world, see the unseen and hear the unheard. We have a deep sense of kaba (premonition) and kutob (hunch). A Filipino wife will instinctively feel her husband or child is going astray, whether or not telltale signs present themselves.
Filipino spirituality makes him invoke divine presence or intervention at nearly every bend of his journey. Rightly or wrongly, Filipinos are almost always acknowledging, invoking or driving away spirits into and from their lives. Seemingly trivial or even incoherent events can take on spiritual significance and will be given such space or consideration.
The Filipino has a sophisticated, developed pakiramdam. The Filipino, though becoming more and more modern (hence, materialistic) is still very spiritual in essence. This inherent and deep spirituality makes the Filipino, once correctly Christianized, a major exponent of the faith.
Filipinos are timeless. Despite the nearly half-a-millennium encroachment of the western clock into our lives, Filipinos-unless on very formal or official functions-still measure time not with hours and minutes but with feeling. This style is ingrained deep in our psyche. Our time is diffused, not framed. Our appointments are defined by umaga (morning), tanghali (
Our most exact time reference is probably katanghaliang- tapat (high noon), which still allows many minutes of leeway. That is how Filipino trysts and occasions are timed: there is really no definite time.
A Filipino event has no clear-cut beginning nor ending. We have a fiesta , but there is bisperas (eve), a day after the fiesta is still considered a good time to visit. The Filipino Christmas is not confined to December 25th; it somehow begins months before December and extends up to the first days of January.
Filipino s say good-bye to guests first at the head of the stairs, then down to the descamo (landing), to the entresuelo (mezzanine), to the pintuan (doorway), to the tarangkahan (gate), and if the departing persons are to take public transportation, up to the bus stop or bus station.
In a way, other people's tardiness and extended stays can really be annoying, but this peculiarity is the same charm of Filipinos who, being governed by timelessness, can show how to find more time to be nice, kind, and accommodating than his prompt and exact brothers elsewhere.
Filipinos are Spaceless. As in the concept of time, the Filipino concept of space is not numerical. We will not usually express expanse of space with miles or kilometers but with feelings in how we say malayo (far) or malapit (near).
Alongside with numberlessness, Filipino space is also boundless.
Indigenous culture did not divide land into private lots but kept it open for all to partake of its abundance.
The Filipino has avidly remained "spaceless" in many ways. The interior of the bahay-kubo (hut) can easily become receiving room, sleeping room, kitchen, dining room, chapel, wake parlor, etc.
Depending on the time of the day or the needs of the moment. The same is true with the bahay na bato (stone house). Space just flows into the next space that the divisions between the sala, caida, comedor, or vilada may only be faintly suggested by overhead arches of filigree. In much the same way, Filipino concept of space can be so diffused that one 's party may creep into and actually expropriate the street! A family business like a sari-sari store or talyer may extend to the sidewalk and street. Provincial folks dry palayan (rice grain) on the highways! Religious groups of various persuasions habitually and matter-of-factly commandeer the streets for processions and parades.
It is not uncommon to close a street to accommodate private functions, Filipinos eat. sleep, chat, socialize, quarrel, even urinate, nearly everywhere or just anywhere!
"Spacelessness, " in the face of modern, especially urban life, can be unlawful and may really be counter-productive. On the other hand, Filipino spacelessness, when viewed from his context, is just another manifestation of his spiritually and communal values. Adapted well to today's context, which may mean unstoppable urbanization, Filipino spacelessness may even be the answer and counter balance to humanity's greed, selfishness and isolation.
So what makes the Filipino special? We are brown, spiritual, timeless, spaceless, linguists, groupists, weavers, adventurers.
Seldom do all these profound qualities find personification in a people. Filipinos should allow - and should be allowed to contribute their special traits to the world-wide community of men- but first, we should know and like ourselves.
Friday, September 07, 2007
A Day Without Filipinos
I placed this in "Inspirated" rather than in "Laughing Stock" because I think it's something that should inspire Filipinos - and because we've already laughed at ourselves too much, or put ourselves down too much.
Hurrah for the Global Filipino! :)
____________________________
A Day Without Filipinos
Let's imagine then, not just California , but the entire world, waking up one day to discover Filipinos have disappeared. I'm talking here about the six or seven million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe .
Let's not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared; in fact, it becomes academic whether it's a day or a week. Just imagine a world without Filipinos.
Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and realizing, goodness, there's so much of housework that has to be handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what's this strange language they're babbling in?
It's not just the children that are affected. The problems are even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much of the critical services they need. When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.
Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists!
Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won't take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious. Patients are told to follow their doctors' written orders and, if they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new complaints. The web sites aren't working because of missing Filipino web designers and web site managers.
Service establishments throughout the world -- restaurants, supermarkets, hotels -- all close down because of their missing key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia , hotels complain about the missing bands and singers.
In the United States , many commercial establishments have to close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.
The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another crisis: They're running out of supplies of oil for their ships because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for the oil industry.
Frantic presidents and prime ministers call on the United Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but Kofi Annan says he can't do that because the UN system itself is on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as their regional offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services, especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.
Annan also explains that he can't convene UN meetings because the airports in New York , Washington and other major US cities have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check passengers and their baggage.
Annan calls on the World Bank and international private foundations for assistance but they're crippled, too, because their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen. Funds can't be remitted and projects can't run without the technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.
An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day activities, as well as missionaries in the front lines of remote posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.
As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: the world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared. It isn't just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there's much less laughter now that the Filipinos aren't around, both the laughter of the Filipinos and those they served.
I know, I know, I'm exaggerating the contributions of Filipinos to the world but I'm doing what the producers of "A Day without Mexicans" had in mind: using a bit of hyperbole to shake people up.
As their blurb for the film goes: "How do you make the invisible, visible? Make them invisible."
As I wrote this column, I did realize I was doing this not so much for the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Singaporeans and Americans who don't appreciate us enough, than for us, who as Filipinos, are pretty good at putting ourselves down, at making ourselves invisible.
Fr. Jess E. Briones, SVD
Superior Delegatus Argentina
Oficina: Calle Mansilla 3865
Residencia: Calle Paraguay 3901 - Tel.: 4824-0270 ext 43
celular: (011) 15-5024-0751
Hurrah for the Global Filipino! :)
____________________________
A Day Without Filipinos
Let's imagine then, not just California , but the entire world, waking up one day to discover Filipinos have disappeared. I'm talking here about the six or seven million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe .
Let's not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared; in fact, it becomes academic whether it's a day or a week. Just imagine a world without Filipinos.
Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and realizing, goodness, there's so much of housework that has to be handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what's this strange language they're babbling in?
It's not just the children that are affected. The problems are even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much of the critical services they need. When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.
Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists!
Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won't take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious. Patients are told to follow their doctors' written orders and, if they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new complaints. The web sites aren't working because of missing Filipino web designers and web site managers.
Service establishments throughout the world -- restaurants, supermarkets, hotels -- all close down because of their missing key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia , hotels complain about the missing bands and singers.
In the United States , many commercial establishments have to close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.
The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another crisis: They're running out of supplies of oil for their ships because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for the oil industry.
Frantic presidents and prime ministers call on the United Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but Kofi Annan says he can't do that because the UN system itself is on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as their regional offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services, especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.
Annan also explains that he can't convene UN meetings because the airports in New York , Washington and other major US cities have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check passengers and their baggage.
Annan calls on the World Bank and international private foundations for assistance but they're crippled, too, because their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen. Funds can't be remitted and projects can't run without the technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.
An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day activities, as well as missionaries in the front lines of remote posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.
As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: the world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared. It isn't just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there's much less laughter now that the Filipinos aren't around, both the laughter of the Filipinos and those they served.
I know, I know, I'm exaggerating the contributions of Filipinos to the world but I'm doing what the producers of "A Day without Mexicans" had in mind: using a bit of hyperbole to shake people up.
As their blurb for the film goes: "How do you make the invisible, visible? Make them invisible."
As I wrote this column, I did realize I was doing this not so much for the Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Singaporeans and Americans who don't appreciate us enough, than for us, who as Filipinos, are pretty good at putting ourselves down, at making ourselves invisible.
Fr. Jess E. Briones, SVD
Superior Delegatus Argentina
Oficina: Calle Mansilla 3865
Residencia: Calle Paraguay 3901 - Tel.: 4824-0270 ext 43
celular: (011) 15-5024-0751
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Where Is God When It Hurts?
Where Is God When It Hurts?
A sermon given on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the shootings.
Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 05:31PM
We gather here still trying to make sense of what happened in Blacksburg, still trying to process the unprocessable. We come together in this place, as a Christian community, partly because we know of no better place to bring our questions and our grief and partly because we don't know where else to turn. As the apostle Peter once said to Jesus, at a moment of confusion and doubt, "Lord, to whom else can we go?"
In considering how to begin today, I found myself following two different threads. The first thread is what I would like to say, the words I wish I could say. The second thread is the truth.
I wish I could say that the pain you feel will disappear, vanish, never to return. I'm sure you've heard comments like these from parents and others: "Things will get better." "You'll get past this." "This too shall pass." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and it's true that what you feel now you will not always feel. Yet it's also true that what happened on April 16, 2007, will stay with
you forever. You are a different person because of that day, because of one troubled young man's actions.
I remember one year when three of my friends died. In my thirties then, I had little experience with death. In the midst of my grief, I came across these lines from George Herbert that gave me solace: "Grief melts away / Like snow in May / As if there were no such cold thing." I clung to that hope even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. Indeed, the grief did melt away, but like snow it also came back, in fierce and unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, some fragment of memory of my friends.
So I cannot say what I want to say, that this too shall pass. Instead, I point to the pain you feel, and will continue to feel, as a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an auto accident. For the first few hours as I lay strapped to a body board, medical workers refused to give me pain medication because they needed my response. The doctor kept probing, moving my limbs, asking, "Does this hurt? Do you feel that?" The correct answer, the answer both he and I desperately wanted, was, "Yes. It hurts. I can feel it." Each sensation gave proof that my spinal cord had not been severed. Pain offered proof of life, of connection—a sign that my body remained whole.
Love and Pain
In grief, love and pain converge. Cho felt no grief as he gunned down your classmates because he felt no love for them. You feel grief because you did have a connection. Some of you had closer ties to the victims, but all of you belong to a body to which they too belonged. When that body suffers, you suffer. Remember that as you cope with the pain. Don't try to numb it. Instead, acknowledge it as a perception of life and of love.
Medical students will tell you that in a deep wound, two kinds of tissue must heal: the connective tissue beneath the surface and the outer, protective layer of skin. If the protective tissue heals too quickly, the connective tissue will not heal properly, leading to complications later on. The reason this church and other ministries on campus offer counseling and hold services like this one is to help
the deep, connective tissue heal. Only later will the protective layer of tissue grow back in the form of a scar.
We gather here as Christians, and as such we aspire to follow a man who came from God 2,000 years ago. Read through the Gospels, and you'll find only one scene in which someone addresses Jesus directly as God: "My Lord and my God!" Do you know who said that? It was doubting Thomas, the disciple stuck in grief, the last holdout against believing the incredible news of the Resurrection.
In a tender scene, Jesus appeared to Thomas in his newly transformed body, obliterating Thomas's doubts. What prompted that outburst of belief, however—"My Lord and my God!"—was the presence of Jesus' scars. "Feel my hands," Jesus told him. "Touch my side." In a flash of revelation, Thomas saw the wonder of Almighty God, the Lord of the universe, stooping to take on our pain.
God doesn't exempt even himself from pain. God joined us and shared our human condition, including its great grief. Thomas recognized in that pattern the most foundational truth of the universe: that God is love. To love means to hurt, to grieve. Pain is a mark of life.
The Jews, schooled in the Old Testament, had a saying: "Where Messiah is, there is no misery." After Jesus, you could change that saying to: "Where misery is, there is the Messiah." "Blessed are the poor," Jesus said, "and those who hunger and thirst, and those who mourn, and those who are persecuted." Jesus voluntarily embraced every one of these hurts.
So where is God when it hurts? We know where God is because he came to earth and showed us his face. You need only follow Jesus around and note how he responded to the tragedies of his day: with compassion—which simply means "to suffer with"—and with comfort and healing.
I would also like to answer the question why? Why this campus rather than Virginia Commonwealth or William and Mary? Why these 33 people? I cannot tell you, and I encourage you to resist anyone who offers a confident answer. God himself did not answer that question for Job, nor did Jesus answer why questions. We have hints, but no one knows the full answer. What we do know, with full confidence, is how God feels. We know how God looks on the campus of Virginia Tech right now because God gave us a face, a face that was streaked with tears. Where misery is, there is the Messiah.
Not everyone will find that answer sufficient. When we hurt, sometimes we want revenge. We want a more decisive answer. Frederick Buechner said, "I am not the Almighty God, but if I were, maybe I would in mercy either heal the unutterable pain of the world or in mercy kick the world to pieces in its pain." God did neither. He sent Jesus. God joined our world in all its unutterable pain in order to set in motion a slower, less dramatic solution, one that involves us.
One day a man said to me, "You wrote a book called Where Is God When It Hurts, right?" Yes. "Well, I don't have much time to read. Can you just answer that question for me in a sentence or two?" I thought for a second and said, "I guess I'd have to answer that with another question: 'Where is the church when it hurts?'"
The eyes of the world are trained on this campus. You've seen satellite trucks parked around town, reporters prowling the grounds of your school. Last fall, I visited Amish country near the site of the Nickel Mines school shootings. As happened here, reporters from every major country swarmed the hills of Pennsylvania, looking for an angle. They came to report on evil and instead ended up reporting on the church. The Amish were ot asking, "Where is God when it hurts?" They knew where God was. With their long history of persecution, the Amish weren't for a minute surprised by an outbreak of evil. They rallied together, embraced the killer's family, ministered to each other, and healed wounds by relying on a sense of community strengthened over centuries.
Something similar has taken place here in Blacksburg. You have shown outrage against the evil deed, yes, but you've also shown sympathy and sadness for the family of the one who committed it. Cho, too, has a memorial on this campus.
Life Matters
The future lies ahead, and you're just awakening to the fact that you are an independent moral being. Until now, other people have been running your life. Your parents told you what to do and made decisions for you. Teachers ordered you around in grammar school, and the pattern continued in high school and even into college. You now inhabit a kind of halfway house on the way to adulthood, waiting for the real life of career and perhaps marriage and children to begin.
What happened in Blacksburg on April 16 demonstrates beyond all doubt that your life—the decisions you make, the kind of person you are—matters now. There are 28 students and 5 faculty members who have no future in this world.
That reality came starkly home to me nine weeks ago today when I was driving on a winding road in Colorado. Suddenly, I missed a curve and my Ford Explorer slipped off the pavement and started tumbling side to side at 60 miles per hour. An ambulance appeared, and I spent the next seven hours strapped to a body board, with duct tape across my head to keep it from moving. A cat scan showed that a vertebra high on my neck had been shattered, and sharp bone fragments were poking out next to a major artery. The hospital had a jet to fly me to Denver for emergency surgery.
I had one arm free, with a cell phone and little battery time left. I spent those tense hours calling people close to me, knowing it might be the last time I would ever hear their voices. It was an odd sensation to lie there helpless, aware that though I was fully conscious, at any moment I could die.
Samuel Johnson said when a man is about to be hanged, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully. " When you're strapped to a body board after a serious accident, it concentrates the mind. When you survive a massacre at Virginia Tech, it concentrates the mind. I realized how much of my life focused on trivial things. During those seven hours, I didn't think about how many books I had sold or what kind of car I drove (it was being towed to a junkyard anyway). All that mattered boiled down to four questions. Whom do I love? Whom will I miss? What have I done with my life? And am I ready for what's next? Ever since that day, I've tried to live with those questions at the forefront.
I would like to promise you a long, pain-free life, but I cannot. God has not promised us that. Rather, the Christian view of the world reduces everything to this formula: The world is good. The world has fallen. The world will be redeemed. Creation, the Fall, redemption—that's the Christian story in a nutshell.
You know that the world is good. Look around you at the blaze of spring in the hills of Virginia. Look around you at the friends you love. Though overwhelmed with grief right now, you will learn to laugh again, to play again, to climb up mountains and kayak down rivers again, to love, to rear children. The world is good.
You know, too, that the world has fallen. Here at Virginia Tech, you know that as acutely as anyone on this planet.
I ask you also to trust that the world, your world, will be redeemed. This is not the world God wants or is satisfied with. God has promised a time when evil will be defeated, when events like the shootings at Nickel Mines and Columbine and Virginia Tech will come to an end. More, God has promised that even the scars we accumulate on this fallen planet will be redeemed, as Jesus demonstrated to Thomas.
I once was part of a small group with a Christian leader whose name you would likely recognize. He went through a hard time as his adult children got into trouble, bringing him sleepless nights and expensive attorney fees. Worse, my friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nothing in his life seemed to work out. "I have no problem believing in a good God," he said to us one night. "My question is, 'What is God good for?'" We listened to his complaints
and tried various responses, but he batted them all away.
A few weeks later, I came across a little phrase by Dallas Willard: "For those who love God, nothing irredeemable can happen to you." I went back to my friend. "What about that?" I asked. "Is God good for that promise?"
I would like to promise you an end to pain and grief, a guarantee that you will never again hurt as you hurt now. I cannot. I can, however, stand behind the promise that the apostle Paul made in Romans 8, that all things can be redeemed, can work together for your good. In another passage, Paul spells out some of the things he encountered, which included beatings, imprisonment, and shipwreck. As he looked back, he could see that somehow God had redeemed even those crisis events in his life. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," Paul concluded. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:37-39). God's love is the foundational truth of the universe.
Clinging to Hope
Trust a God who can redeem what now seems unredeemable. Ten days before the shootings on this campus, Christians around the world remembered the darkest day of human history, the day in which evil human beings violently rose up against God's Son and murdered the only truly innocent human being who has ever lived. We remember that day not as Dark Friday, Tragic Friday, or Disaster Friday—but rather as Good Friday. That awful day led to the salvation of the world and to Easter, an echo in advance of God's bright promise to make all things new.
Honor the grief you feel. The pain is a way of honoring those who died, your friends and classmates and professors. It represents life and love. The pain will fade over time, but it will never fully disappear.
Do not attempt healing alone. The real healing, of deep connective tissue, takes place in community. Where is God when it hurts? Where God's people are. Where misery is, there is the Messiah, and on this earth, the Messiah takes form in the shape of his church. That's what the body of Christ means.
Finally, cling to the hope that nothing that happens, not even this terrible tragedy, is irredeemable. We serve a God who has vowed to make all things new. J. R. R. Tolkien once spoke of "joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief." You know well the poignancy of grief. As healing progresses, may you know, too, that joy, a foretaste of the world redeemed.
A sermon given on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the shootings.
Philip Yancey | posted 6/06/2007 05:31PM
We gather here still trying to make sense of what happened in Blacksburg, still trying to process the unprocessable. We come together in this place, as a Christian community, partly because we know of no better place to bring our questions and our grief and partly because we don't know where else to turn. As the apostle Peter once said to Jesus, at a moment of confusion and doubt, "Lord, to whom else can we go?"
In considering how to begin today, I found myself following two different threads. The first thread is what I would like to say, the words I wish I could say. The second thread is the truth.
I wish I could say that the pain you feel will disappear, vanish, never to return. I'm sure you've heard comments like these from parents and others: "Things will get better." "You'll get past this." "This too shall pass." Those who offer such comfort mean well, and it's true that what you feel now you will not always feel. Yet it's also true that what happened on April 16, 2007, will stay with
you forever. You are a different person because of that day, because of one troubled young man's actions.
I remember one year when three of my friends died. In my thirties then, I had little experience with death. In the midst of my grief, I came across these lines from George Herbert that gave me solace: "Grief melts away / Like snow in May / As if there were no such cold thing." I clung to that hope even as grief smothered me like an avalanche. Indeed, the grief did melt away, but like snow it also came back, in fierce and unexpected ways, triggered by a sound, a smell, some fragment of memory of my friends.
So I cannot say what I want to say, that this too shall pass. Instead, I point to the pain you feel, and will continue to feel, as a sign of life and love. I'm wearing a neck brace because I broke my neck in an auto accident. For the first few hours as I lay strapped to a body board, medical workers refused to give me pain medication because they needed my response. The doctor kept probing, moving my limbs, asking, "Does this hurt? Do you feel that?" The correct answer, the answer both he and I desperately wanted, was, "Yes. It hurts. I can feel it." Each sensation gave proof that my spinal cord had not been severed. Pain offered proof of life, of connection—a sign that my body remained whole.
Love and Pain
In grief, love and pain converge. Cho felt no grief as he gunned down your classmates because he felt no love for them. You feel grief because you did have a connection. Some of you had closer ties to the victims, but all of you belong to a body to which they too belonged. When that body suffers, you suffer. Remember that as you cope with the pain. Don't try to numb it. Instead, acknowledge it as a perception of life and of love.
Medical students will tell you that in a deep wound, two kinds of tissue must heal: the connective tissue beneath the surface and the outer, protective layer of skin. If the protective tissue heals too quickly, the connective tissue will not heal properly, leading to complications later on. The reason this church and other ministries on campus offer counseling and hold services like this one is to help
the deep, connective tissue heal. Only later will the protective layer of tissue grow back in the form of a scar.
We gather here as Christians, and as such we aspire to follow a man who came from God 2,000 years ago. Read through the Gospels, and you'll find only one scene in which someone addresses Jesus directly as God: "My Lord and my God!" Do you know who said that? It was doubting Thomas, the disciple stuck in grief, the last holdout against believing the incredible news of the Resurrection.
In a tender scene, Jesus appeared to Thomas in his newly transformed body, obliterating Thomas's doubts. What prompted that outburst of belief, however—"My Lord and my God!"—was the presence of Jesus' scars. "Feel my hands," Jesus told him. "Touch my side." In a flash of revelation, Thomas saw the wonder of Almighty God, the Lord of the universe, stooping to take on our pain.
God doesn't exempt even himself from pain. God joined us and shared our human condition, including its great grief. Thomas recognized in that pattern the most foundational truth of the universe: that God is love. To love means to hurt, to grieve. Pain is a mark of life.
The Jews, schooled in the Old Testament, had a saying: "Where Messiah is, there is no misery." After Jesus, you could change that saying to: "Where misery is, there is the Messiah." "Blessed are the poor," Jesus said, "and those who hunger and thirst, and those who mourn, and those who are persecuted." Jesus voluntarily embraced every one of these hurts.
So where is God when it hurts? We know where God is because he came to earth and showed us his face. You need only follow Jesus around and note how he responded to the tragedies of his day: with compassion—which simply means "to suffer with"—and with comfort and healing.
I would also like to answer the question why? Why this campus rather than Virginia Commonwealth or William and Mary? Why these 33 people? I cannot tell you, and I encourage you to resist anyone who offers a confident answer. God himself did not answer that question for Job, nor did Jesus answer why questions. We have hints, but no one knows the full answer. What we do know, with full confidence, is how God feels. We know how God looks on the campus of Virginia Tech right now because God gave us a face, a face that was streaked with tears. Where misery is, there is the Messiah.
Not everyone will find that answer sufficient. When we hurt, sometimes we want revenge. We want a more decisive answer. Frederick Buechner said, "I am not the Almighty God, but if I were, maybe I would in mercy either heal the unutterable pain of the world or in mercy kick the world to pieces in its pain." God did neither. He sent Jesus. God joined our world in all its unutterable pain in order to set in motion a slower, less dramatic solution, one that involves us.
One day a man said to me, "You wrote a book called Where Is God When It Hurts, right?" Yes. "Well, I don't have much time to read. Can you just answer that question for me in a sentence or two?" I thought for a second and said, "I guess I'd have to answer that with another question: 'Where is the church when it hurts?'"
The eyes of the world are trained on this campus. You've seen satellite trucks parked around town, reporters prowling the grounds of your school. Last fall, I visited Amish country near the site of the Nickel Mines school shootings. As happened here, reporters from every major country swarmed the hills of Pennsylvania, looking for an angle. They came to report on evil and instead ended up reporting on the church. The Amish were ot asking, "Where is God when it hurts?" They knew where God was. With their long history of persecution, the Amish weren't for a minute surprised by an outbreak of evil. They rallied together, embraced the killer's family, ministered to each other, and healed wounds by relying on a sense of community strengthened over centuries.
Something similar has taken place here in Blacksburg. You have shown outrage against the evil deed, yes, but you've also shown sympathy and sadness for the family of the one who committed it. Cho, too, has a memorial on this campus.
Life Matters
The future lies ahead, and you're just awakening to the fact that you are an independent moral being. Until now, other people have been running your life. Your parents told you what to do and made decisions for you. Teachers ordered you around in grammar school, and the pattern continued in high school and even into college. You now inhabit a kind of halfway house on the way to adulthood, waiting for the real life of career and perhaps marriage and children to begin.
What happened in Blacksburg on April 16 demonstrates beyond all doubt that your life—the decisions you make, the kind of person you are—matters now. There are 28 students and 5 faculty members who have no future in this world.
That reality came starkly home to me nine weeks ago today when I was driving on a winding road in Colorado. Suddenly, I missed a curve and my Ford Explorer slipped off the pavement and started tumbling side to side at 60 miles per hour. An ambulance appeared, and I spent the next seven hours strapped to a body board, with duct tape across my head to keep it from moving. A cat scan showed that a vertebra high on my neck had been shattered, and sharp bone fragments were poking out next to a major artery. The hospital had a jet to fly me to Denver for emergency surgery.
I had one arm free, with a cell phone and little battery time left. I spent those tense hours calling people close to me, knowing it might be the last time I would ever hear their voices. It was an odd sensation to lie there helpless, aware that though I was fully conscious, at any moment I could die.
Samuel Johnson said when a man is about to be hanged, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully. " When you're strapped to a body board after a serious accident, it concentrates the mind. When you survive a massacre at Virginia Tech, it concentrates the mind. I realized how much of my life focused on trivial things. During those seven hours, I didn't think about how many books I had sold or what kind of car I drove (it was being towed to a junkyard anyway). All that mattered boiled down to four questions. Whom do I love? Whom will I miss? What have I done with my life? And am I ready for what's next? Ever since that day, I've tried to live with those questions at the forefront.
I would like to promise you a long, pain-free life, but I cannot. God has not promised us that. Rather, the Christian view of the world reduces everything to this formula: The world is good. The world has fallen. The world will be redeemed. Creation, the Fall, redemption—that's the Christian story in a nutshell.
You know that the world is good. Look around you at the blaze of spring in the hills of Virginia. Look around you at the friends you love. Though overwhelmed with grief right now, you will learn to laugh again, to play again, to climb up mountains and kayak down rivers again, to love, to rear children. The world is good.
You know, too, that the world has fallen. Here at Virginia Tech, you know that as acutely as anyone on this planet.
I ask you also to trust that the world, your world, will be redeemed. This is not the world God wants or is satisfied with. God has promised a time when evil will be defeated, when events like the shootings at Nickel Mines and Columbine and Virginia Tech will come to an end. More, God has promised that even the scars we accumulate on this fallen planet will be redeemed, as Jesus demonstrated to Thomas.
I once was part of a small group with a Christian leader whose name you would likely recognize. He went through a hard time as his adult children got into trouble, bringing him sleepless nights and expensive attorney fees. Worse, my friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nothing in his life seemed to work out. "I have no problem believing in a good God," he said to us one night. "My question is, 'What is God good for?'" We listened to his complaints
and tried various responses, but he batted them all away.
A few weeks later, I came across a little phrase by Dallas Willard: "For those who love God, nothing irredeemable can happen to you." I went back to my friend. "What about that?" I asked. "Is God good for that promise?"
I would like to promise you an end to pain and grief, a guarantee that you will never again hurt as you hurt now. I cannot. I can, however, stand behind the promise that the apostle Paul made in Romans 8, that all things can be redeemed, can work together for your good. In another passage, Paul spells out some of the things he encountered, which included beatings, imprisonment, and shipwreck. As he looked back, he could see that somehow God had redeemed even those crisis events in his life. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," Paul concluded. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:37-39). God's love is the foundational truth of the universe.
Clinging to Hope
Trust a God who can redeem what now seems unredeemable. Ten days before the shootings on this campus, Christians around the world remembered the darkest day of human history, the day in which evil human beings violently rose up against God's Son and murdered the only truly innocent human being who has ever lived. We remember that day not as Dark Friday, Tragic Friday, or Disaster Friday—but rather as Good Friday. That awful day led to the salvation of the world and to Easter, an echo in advance of God's bright promise to make all things new.
Honor the grief you feel. The pain is a way of honoring those who died, your friends and classmates and professors. It represents life and love. The pain will fade over time, but it will never fully disappear.
Do not attempt healing alone. The real healing, of deep connective tissue, takes place in community. Where is God when it hurts? Where God's people are. Where misery is, there is the Messiah, and on this earth, the Messiah takes form in the shape of his church. That's what the body of Christ means.
Finally, cling to the hope that nothing that happens, not even this terrible tragedy, is irredeemable. We serve a God who has vowed to make all things new. J. R. R. Tolkien once spoke of "joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief." You know well the poignancy of grief. As healing progresses, may you know, too, that joy, a foretaste of the world redeemed.
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