Issues

                  Warning: The money that I am referring to is not the cents in your pocket or the money in your wallet. I am referring to the amount of money that is more than enough for one to live in comfort and have a luxurious life.

                  Nowadays people work for money. Sometimes they live with money and die for money. Other says money is the source of all evils and mistakenly made money as the center of their lives thus, making money as their god. But nonetheless, money is also an instrument for doing good. Who doesn’t want to have money? Everybody wants it. You’ll be sarcastic if you said you don’t want it. That is why we worked hard simply to look for money. Unfortunately, there are people who worked hard day and night and yet the money that they’ve earned is not enough to suffice their basic needs. And there are people who are lucky enough that even without working that much and yet money just come and go and enjoy not only their basic necessity but also all their wants in life. How one wish to have that kind of life? Are you envious?

                  You may say, no I am not envied, why should I? After all money is not the most important thing in this world nor it can’t buy everything. The answer may sound sour grapping but there is a truth in it. Yes, it may be true that money can’t buy everything but it can almost buy everything. Let’s face the fact that money can make the world round. It can prolong one’s life. It can make the right wrong and make wrong into right. It can even delayed justice and buy it sometimes. It can make one smells good to other thus, the more money you have, the more friends you have too. It can make one beautiful/handsome especially if one is riding the latest model of BMW, it can make you famous then. And if you have the money, you have more honey to come.

                 When you get sad and you wanted to get away with sadness for a while all you have to do is simply get a plane ticket for Singapore to take your brunch there and in the afternoon you will fly to Paris to have some shopping and stay in a five star hotel for a night. The following day, you will proceed to Vatican City to hear a mass after that you will purchase a ticket again for Las Vegas to watch some shows. The day after, you found yourself in the Caribbean Island for relaxation in a couple of days. Before going home, you pass by Africa to buy some diamonds as part of your jewelry collections and then get back home….. I am sure sadness will not be entertained and will be forgotten. It really pays when you have money, isn’t it?             

                     Professional paranormal believes that there is ghost or disembodied spirit of a dead person wandering in this world. According to experts, these are the spirits that are not settled yet. They are everywhere, they can see us but we cannot see them. The spirit  of our loved one’s who passed away were just around watching over us but we cannot watch over them while reading this article who knows they’re watching over you or sitting beside  you especially when you feel the cold wind like an ice touches your skin deep into the pores and you feel strange alone, they’re with you right now. Are you afraid then? There’s nothing to be afraid of. Ghost is harmless. They could not do anything to harm you by any means. You may be afraid more to those who are alive because they could harm you anytime of the day. Besides, we have not heard any news that someone was being killed, being murdered or being raped by the ghost but we’ve heard that killing, murder and rape are being made by the people that soon to be ghost when their time comes.

                    So, this coming “All Souls day,” we must not forget to visit our loved one’s who passed away to come and visit them in their respective cemetery where they were buried because it’s a special day we intended for them although we remember them in our hearts everyday. These ghost or spirits might be happy seeing his/her family, friends, neighbor gather once again eating, laughing or crying perhaps reminiscing the past… But for those who doesn’t believe in ghost, they may always say that ghost is always been a product of imagination that our mind creates…. How about you, do you believe in ghost?  

                   Calling, calling, do you want to be a call center agent? If you are articulate in English and can enunciate it properly this job is best suit for you. It sounds interesting especially for those who are looking for a job. Isn’t it? What makes it interesting anyway? First, no pleasing personality is required. Whether you look good or not, untidy or clean look, small or tall in height, it doesn’t really matter most as long as you speak in English well. Second, age limit is not that strict even the applicant is 50 years old and above as long as he/she can communicate in English, he/she has the possibility to be hired for the job. Third, regardless of what course you took up in college whether nursing, engineering, accountancy, education, pharmacy, medical technology, nutrition and dietetics, secretarial,  automotive mechanics or even undergraduates is given equal footing during application except if the applicant is really that good in English, he/she has the edge over the other applicants. Fourth, gays, lesbians, singles, married, mistress, separated, annulled, divorced can freely apply. In other words, call centers promotes no gender or status biases among applicants and employers as well. Fifth, those who are comfortable working at night till dawn, you fit for this job. Of course, I am not referring to those GRO’s and prostitutes who loves also to work at night. Lastly, physically handicapped individual who dream to have a descent job and earn better income despite of their physical make up can apply and will be entertained too.

                     Indeed, as an agent you are expected to be the source of information of any products and other sellable things which the foreigner wants to know about or buy something without going to the malls anymore and shops. Thus, it is your work to endorse the product being assigned to you and promote it through the use of technology such computers, phones and other gadgets and persuade if not convince your client to purchase the products and if you can close a deal and sold it out, the best thing is a commission will be given aside from the monthly salary that you are receiving. Oppppssss! Those who thinks that this job is so easy, I bet your notion is wrong because not just articulation is needed for this kind of job but a good condition of your auditory system is much necessary too and a long patience as well coz your dealing with different types of foreign nationalities having different personalities. There are personalities that are dominant, arrogant, bossy and demanding although not all. As an agent definitely, you can encounter them as you through with your job just be ready with their insult or shout at you when the costumers got mad when you did not get what they mean.

                    Apply now if you can take the challenge especially those individual who took up a very expensive courses such nursing and engineering who plans to work in abroad sadly, there is a global recession happening , US, Europe, Australia undergone economic crisis, you might not be accommodated there as of the moment while the crisis is on going. As for the mean time why don’t you apply as a call center agent who knows you will be hired, seemingly a call center agent is better than no job at all. Come to think of it?                            

                    It’s semestral break once again, one of the most awaited moment for the students in the tertiary level. It’s time for them to get rid of reading too many chapters of their books in preparation of the written quiz for the next day or oral quiz given that made sometimes the beating of their heart fast especially when their name is called. It’s time for them to stop for a while making or copying assignments perhaps and doing projects in their different subjects and submit it on time. It’s time for them not to see in a couple weeks their most loved teachers at the same time their terror and most hated teachers too that probably gave them so much pressure inside the classroom. Most of all, it’s time for them to get up late in bed in the morning coz they don’t have to be in a hurry for their 7:30 class. Thus, it’s time for them to be relaxed academically for the mean time, going home to their provinces and perhaps enjoy the short vacation. Well, aside missing their classmates and friends, the sad thing is their daily, weekly or monthly allowances would be cut off temporarily.

                     Moreover, semestral break is also a break for the parents from paying the tuition fees of their sons/daughters, giving allowances or any form of financial obligations that has something to do with the education of their children. Thus, in economic terms, students are one of those most expensive expenses of the parents and the ROI otherwise known as the return of investment is not yet sure to come for all we know sending children to school and finish the coarse that they take up is a gamble too.

                     Nevertheless, semestral break is a break too for the college teachers. It gives them a break to a daily classroom routine from Monday to Friday facing the different personalities of their students that inspire them to teach and somehow perspire them and gave them a headache sometimes if not all the times. It allows them to deviate from the usual stuffs such checking and recording bundles of papers and other paper works.

                     So, what can I say? Congratulation students for you were able to survive the academic and non-academic challenges for this semester……………Have fun!                  

                   Aside from communication, what’s in the text? A person from the different walks of life seems to have fun with text. Everywhere I go, I see a lot of people text. It seems that texting take an active part of the everyday life of most Filipinos if not all. I could just imagine how uncomfortable or uneasy life in a day if one left his/her cell phone at home or lost it.

                   I wonder what’s the psychology of text that even a very ordinary person like the sidewalk vendors, a taxi and a jeepney dispatchers and others do have their cell phones and could afford texting for the whole day despite of the fact that they are not earning that much for all we know how difficult life then here in the Philippines. It’s none of my business anyway mine is just an observation how texting manipulate the mind of a person.

                   Moreover, every time I took a ride going to school and back home after office hours, I always see students, office workers, laborers, moms, dads, maids, young and old in general hold their cell phones and text. In the malls, shoppers do text while buying for something. In a coffee shop, friends bond together talking, laughing out loud at the same time texting. In an internet café same scenario would usually be seen texting while facing and operating the computer. Thus, I could see a lot of emotions with those people that I’ve met in my day to day living who engaged themselves in text. The transparency of their facial expressions made me observed the different emotions. I could see a happy face, a smiling face, a worried face, a frowning face and sometimes a teary eyed face. It’s amazing how text affects the feeling of one. Have you experienced it?

                  Simple messages like “magandang morning”, “gud nyt”, “how r u”, “kumain k n ba”, “i miss u”, “i luv u”, “i like u”, “take care coz i care”, “i tink of u” are some of the messages the made one smile and gave the feeling of joy and excitement to some. On the other hand, if one have not received any text in a day from their text mate, one start wondering what happen to him/her? And instantly made speculations such maybe she/he is mad at me, maybe she/he is busy with his/her other text mates, maybe something wrong happen, maybe she/he is having a date and doesn’t want to be disturbed, maybe she/he doesn’t like me anymore, and other maybes that made one paranoid and torturing himself/herself psychologically then get sad and lonely. If no one would text you in a day the usual line that I often heard is “nobody loves me”. But once you heard a beep from your cell phone at the back of your mind, you’re hoping that someone that you’ve waited for text you, if not one could be disappointed especially if one miss call him/her and the answering machine would tell him/her “the number you dialed is out of coverage area or cannot be reached”. What a feeling it gave?

                  Nevertheless, you could have an instant boyfriend/girlfriend in text. Married ones could make themselves singles. You could be beautiful/handsome in a text thus, one could even use any gender as one wishes too. In addition, one could make themselves younger/older in text. As you text every day, slowly you created an image into his/her mind that he /she wants too that’s the wonder of text. But beware, do not just be fooled by the words that you have read in the text coz you might get frustrated if you see your text mate in person which is far beyond from your imagination. Somehow, text sets us apart from what is reality and sometimes gives us false hope. Thus, mind conditioning came in where the psychology of texting is here………..            

                Last September 14, 2008, I watched one of my favorite shows of the ABS-CBN entitled “Rated K” hosted by Korina Sanchez which is aired out in the television every Sunday at 6:30 p.m. But that particular night I was shocked with what I saw in one of their episode entitled “Batang MILF”. MILF is popularly known as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an extremist group found in Mindanao. All the while I thought that all members of the said group are all in the right age or old enough to decide for themselves but my thinking was proven wrong when I saw Korina interviewed two very young children who both members of the group. Korina calls them Walid Ander who is 15 years old and Abdullah who is 12 years, these two young individuals are one of those MILF children who undergone trainings as the video aired out for national television. I filled with mixed emotions at that time when I saw the video. I felt pity, sad, sorry, angry, and confused when Walid said during the interview that he dreamed also that someday he wants to be a professional and Abdullah on the other hand said that he is willing to die for what he believed in.

                Upon seeing their innocence and hearing their words, I felt pity on them because at that early age, these children are supposed to carry pen, paper, book and play in school and be taught the basic foundation of learning and yet they were in the mountains and trained to carry deadly weapons such 45 caliber, M16 and a high powered arms like RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) use during wars and usually operated by an adult only.

                 I felt sad too because these two young children are trained to kill and willing to be killed for the said ideology being inculcated into their young minds. I don’t know if I am using the correct term “ideology”. Moreover, I felt sorry for I can’t do something for the situations of these children who were brain washed by the olds except to include them in my prayers. I felt angry somehow to the parents when Abdullah said that it was his father who encouraged and trained him. Ideally, I perceived parents are supposed to be the one who would send their children in school. Encourage and direct at the same time guide their sons/daughters to come up with their dreams and help these dreams come true but it’s not with what I saw. I just really don’t know of what is the psychology of these parents who loved to see their children participating in the bloody battles and trained their children to be the future killers. I don’t know if they are in the right line of thinking. Thus, I don’t want to point my fingers of who should be blamed for the said situation. Rather, I felt confused of who should take care of helping these young to become an asset instead of a liability.

                Is it the family? What if the family is economically deprived thus, could hardly eat three times a day, cannot send their children to school, cannot provide medicine if their children get sick, parents don’t have any permanent job or no fixed income and other sufferings, how could the said family takes care of their children properly? How can these children of the rebel group recognize and appreciate good if they do not experience that life is good itself.            

                Is it the government? Government is another institution that is expected to take care of the young. How could the government then help these young if the basic services that they should give to the people like infrastructure, health, education etc. could hardly reach to the far flung area that needed it most thus, the budget of the said services goes into the pocket of some greedy politicians. How could these young children of the rebel group know that there is government if they themselves have not see and felt the government? How about the church that is supposed to strengthen the spiritual aspect of the people but it seems, the institution itself is engaged already in politics. The school that that is supposedly the second home of the child and the teachers are supposedly the second parents of the child too, how can they help the young if the standard of teaching is deteriorating?                  

               This realization of mine gave me a deep thought and I asked myself, Are there any hope for these children that are trained to be the future killers to be saved and live a normal life? What do you think readers? Can you still see light for these young? Do you think you too have the responsibility? If you think you have, what can you do? Try to ponder on it…..       

                     Webster dictionary defines beauty as the quality in a person or thing that gives intense aesthetic pleasure. Some says beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What is beautiful to me might not be beautiful to you. Thus, we have different standards of beauty.

                     With the fast changing world, who would really think that those physical features that are inborn could possibly be changed at this point in time such gender, skin color, shape of the nose, size of the eyes and others. If one has the means almost everything that she/he wants to happen to attain physical beauty is possible.

                    Apparently, physical beauty nowadays is given more emphasis especially in the field of media such advertisement in the television, magazines, internet commercials and others in promoting products thus be sold to public. Skinny women/men are seen to be more sexy than fat women/men as portrayed by media using different models in the world of fashion. Having long and well shape noses are seen to be more beautiful than those individuals who have flat noses as seen in the different “teleseryes” and movies. Having white complexion too is seen to be more attractive than those who have dark complexion. Thus, much emphasis of physical beauty paved the creation of the different beauty products such soap that whitens skin, glutathione, extraderm, ponds and others. Belo’s and Calayan”s clinic are some of the popular clinic in the Philippines that enhances physical beauty endorsed by well known showbiz celebrities.             

                     Seemingly, some individuals who are not physically gifted are engrossed to avail the services of such beauty clinic without further a do, thus, physical beauty will be enjoyed. Who doesn’t want to be beautiful anyway?

                     Personally, I don’t go for physical renovations if there is such term. But I am not against of those individuals who undergone surgeries for their own satisfaction. Anyway, enjoying artificial beauty is a personal choice. As a matter of fact, I appreciate the braveness of those individuals who went through operations for the sake of beauty. And I do encourage too to those individuals who can afford to enjoy artificial beauty especially if they are agonizing every time they looked at themselves in the mirror. If they think, it gives them satisfaction and happiness and make them more confident in dealing with other people, why not do it if they have the means. Famous line from Claire dele Fuente, popular singer during 80’s says nowadays “it’s a sin if you have the money and you remain ugly”. It sounds funny but there is a little truth in it.

                  On the other hand, physical beauty somehow is helpful in looking for a job. If you are intelligent and graduated with flying colors and yet you are not physically blessed, you might have the difficulty of finding a job especially if the company that you are applying is particular not with the grades alone but also with the physical appearance of their employees. A certain applicant cannot tell to the one who is in charge of hiring during the interview and said talk to my brain because I am intelligent never mind my face. Funny and shallow reasons for some but there are instances that it really happens. If you were to ask, would you undergone the process of attaining artificial beauty?                         

                     Postmodernism in a Stanford Encyclopedia definition, can be described as a set of critical, strategic, and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition and hyper reality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity and historical progress.

                    In other materials, Postmodernism is a concept that is applied to a wide-ranging set of development or in various discipline or areas of study such as art, philosophy, architecture, music, film, literature, sociology, communication, fashion, technology, etc. Postmodernism sometimes abbreviated “promo” was originally a reaction to modernism. Largely, influenced by the disillusionment induced “by the second world war”, postmodernism tends to refer to a cultural, intellectual or artistic state lacking a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle and embodying extreme complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, diversity and interconnectedness.

                   Throughout the volatile period of the second world war, many have influences this concept, widening perspective on how to deal and solve problems that arises through globalization. Eventually, the important development propelled the minds of the latest generation are more vigilant and critical of the updates in their surrounding and as a result of this curiosity they are faced with the new twist of events that they needed to be reinforced with the new and fresh concept. Seemingly, society before the development of postmodernism follows what is universally accepted, they saw roaring progress in economy and soaring development in lifestyle brought by modernization tools and integrated in their daily routine. Thus, society’s mentality is fixated.

                  By the time postmodernism was introduced in the era of new technology, society becomes exhausted with the pointless meaning of existence and the value of freedom that they wanted fresh ideals and approach. The strategic and aesthetic playfulness of the concept offers different views and impact that it became soon accepted. It gives good ground for confronting complex issues that present in the various disciplines. Moreover, it tends to condition the minds of the people to disregard what is universally accepted within the framework. Apparently, it attracts liberals and radicals in accepting alternatives in solving dilemmas in other ways. Thus, society’s mentality is not fixated anymore.

                  The profound truth of this post modern age is that society’s sensible mind finds its way to understanding especially to the public who seems to be confused and bother which is reliable and which is not. One point is that this is a good development in the upgraded educational system in our generation particularly on some progressive individuals whose creativity resulted in the birth of postmodernism concept and that this may have a distinction for some personal improvement of the lives of the people who are eager to change the dogmatic norms in the environment.   

                               Man is never been satisfied and contented. There are many questions in his mind that needs to be answered, many doubts that needs to be clarified, many misconceptions that needs to be corrected and sometimes there are questions that remains to b questions forever, that is why man never stops searching for truth no matter how far and  long it takes, how heavy the difficulty was/is, no matter what degradation he subject himself to, he will still continue the journey of searching and in doing so, he can be more organized and systematic in finding ways.

                      Nevertheless, expect that not everybody will go to accept the results of your endeavor if it is to be presented to an individual, community or society considering that they have already established set of beliefs/norms that are highly followed and the difficulty to replace the old beliefs/norms with the new ones will be encountered.

                   Likewise, in any field of discipline, there will always be an individual, researchers or group of experts usually come up with new assumptions or theories that requires the reconstruction of prior assumptions and the reevaluation of prior facts. In doing so, expect that experts will encounter problem for convincing the established community for the acceptance of new theories/assumptions, thus strong resistance will be shown.

                     Moreover, a shift in professional commitments to share assumptions takes place when an anomaly “subverts the existing tradition of scientific practice”. These shifts are what Kuhn describes as scientific revolutions. The tradition shattering complements to the tradition bound activity of normal science is predicted on the assumption that scientific community knows what the world is like. Scientist then takes great pains in defending the new assumption. But when the shift takes place, a scientist world is qualitatively transformed and quantitatively enriched by fundamental novelties of either facts or theories.

                     Initially, a new paradigm is beneficial and it offers a promise of success since it gives a better, clearer and a more systematic study in any fields of specialization that brings good contributions to society itself. Thus, coming up with the scientific revolution can be understood as a collaborative, interest based efforts to resolve an unanswered questions, conflicts or doubts. Indeed, scientist have to remember that a paradigm is limited in scope and if paradigm consist of basic and incontrovertible assumptions about the nature of discipline, what questions then are left to ask?