We Need To Change, 25 Years Ago.

I’ve always believed in the Philippines. That’s one of the reasons I came back, I want to be part of the change. I was to contribute. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task. One of the few things I realized since coming back is that change in the Government isn’t enough, the very root of Filipino society must be shaken apart. We absolutely don’t have any love for our country, there’s no REAL pride in our people, and NO, Manny Pacquiao doesn’t count. I guess it’s the result of our colonial years under the Spanish, Japanese and American rule, where we look down on ourselves and have this great notion that all things western-made is great and everything that we can do pales in comparison.

Another thing is that we are selfish, human beings are naturally selfish but Filipinos are on some next level “me me me me me” shit. I rationalized it to the thinking that because it seems so hopeless, that looking to the future isn’t an optional anymore, which leads to this type of mentality. If you’re looking for sacrifice for the greater good, well, don’t bother to look here friends. Granted that any significant change possibly won’t be seen by the current generation, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to improve our situation, and improving our situation can’t be done by changing Presidents, it can’t be done by changing policies or lowering the prices of electricity and food. All those help but our attitude and our philosophy must change, society itself must change, because we are to be blamed. Yes, me, you, all of us are to be blamed for our situation, in our own little way, we have slowly damaged and corrupted our society. By listening to crap ass songs and crap ass shows that hold little intellectual value, by saying don’t take those stupid shows away because it’s the only avenue of happiness that we can afford. That’s bullshit, because by saying that, we again are looking down upon ourselves.

And with that introduction, there are some topics I’d like to tackle for today:

1. Increasing oil prices -

With the past few weeks, one of the major issues in the world is the big increase in oil prices on almost a daily basis. And I believe, currently it’s hitting slightly above the USD 120 mark. And naturally 3rd world countries like ours, the Philippines for my international readers, will be heavily hit. Not only will the increase in oil prices affect our petrol consumption, it also affects prices of goods and services. People will grovel most at the fuel prices increasing on an almost bi-weekly basis. And the reason why it’s terribly bad on our side of the world, is that we lack the proper mass transportation that is available in most metropolitan cities around the world. Cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and the like, because of good mass transportation facilities, there are less cars, because simply, the need isn’t there and add to the fact that car prices are mad expensive. The math is simple, due to less cars, the consumers won’t be affected that much by the increase in fuel, unlike in our situation, our people depend highly on non-efficient consumers of fuel such as the jeepney and the tricycle. Funny how proud we are of our jeepneys, when these things are badly engineered, cause tremendous traffic with their unruly driving and probably are cause for many car accidents on the road. The message is there, WE NEED BETTER MASS TRANSPORTATION. Enough with the “para po, manong”.

2. Kontra Magazine -

Okay, still trying to get this ball rollin’. I kinda have my sections in mind and some concepts written down. Interviews and articles still need to be started on. What I really need now is somebody who can do basic layouts and who’s willing to do it pro-bono. If you’re looking for an opportunity to work on something different and fresh, this is going to something you’ll enjoy, I promise. So layout gurus and artsy folks, hit me up now now now now!!!

3. NBI Clearance -

Related to the bureaucracy and redtape that our government and our professionals are oh-so famous for. Today I went to the Carriedo office to secure my NBI clearance which is something like a police clearance in other countries. I was relatively surprised that despite the shabby structure of their offices, badly placed signs and slightly messy queue structure, I was able to finish within just slightly over an hour’s time. This is the same clearance, that used to take at least a day to finish. I applaud the effort but definitely there are many things that could’ve been done to cut down the time even more. From what I could see, there was definitely an inefficient use of space, the process flow is still kind of messy, even though it helps that there were big ass cardboard signs saying “STEP 1″. Lots of things that can still be improved upon, but props must be given for the effort in improving the system. Oh, automated payment machines were available too, that impressed me a bit.