Just a short reflection.
I'm uploading files to multiply.com when I noticed that most frames are crowded. Hey, wait a minute, these aren't pictures of demonstrations and rallies!
It's a Filipino trait, people crowd to fit into a picture frame. Smiles in their faces, each poses and tries to block the people behind them. Its quite fun, foreigners should try it too! We Filipinos tend to find ways to immortalize the moment in an image. We are very sentimental people and we attach ourselves to many things!
I remember Dexter Cuevas, my famous friend who was notorious for his cut-and-paste smile in every picture we take in the aspirantate. You can really see and feel the joy of his smile! Check your pics, do you wear them too?
Friday, February 1, 2008
Friday, December 21, 2007
Highway Woes
I came home this week for my holiday vacation. I finally had a very nice, long, and warm sleep. When I woke up later the morning after, I was met by some dark news.
One tricycle was traversing the South Road bringing workers to a factory near our home when it met an accident. A speeding mini-bus, a speed devil, slammed into the tricycle's rear side killing all the passengers including the driver. In just a matter of seconds, around six lives were ended, and to think those workers were breadwinners for their families.
The whole barangay that morning was gloomy. It was sad to note that the holidays for these families are tainted with death caused by recklessness. It was also a reminder that we can never know when our time to go comes.
Accidents like these, unfortunately, happen all the time in the highway. And it seems that people never learn anything and that human lives are payable by burial expenses. Does the government even know about this or are they keeping deaf? Is the law really that useless that such disorder prevails the roads?
Drivers ought to drive defensively. Transport people however are too concerned about money over life, safety, and time.
Over the years, how many lives were lost in car accidents, in hit-and-run? Even for animals, dog and cat carcasses lie on the highway after some mad driver drove in frenzy. Is human and animal life really disposable? Why won't people make a bold move to stop these? Is this part of the evil that is in us that keeps us from acting?
Drivers with no sense of time is also a problem, for the public transportation at least. If you are riding jeepneys and multicabs, you'll know what I mean. They'll stop at every street corner waiting for some inexistent passenger.
Service. It's a lost word. Few have it, but everyone needs it. I'll stop grumbling now.
One tricycle was traversing the South Road bringing workers to a factory near our home when it met an accident. A speeding mini-bus, a speed devil, slammed into the tricycle's rear side killing all the passengers including the driver. In just a matter of seconds, around six lives were ended, and to think those workers were breadwinners for their families.
The whole barangay that morning was gloomy. It was sad to note that the holidays for these families are tainted with death caused by recklessness. It was also a reminder that we can never know when our time to go comes.
Accidents like these, unfortunately, happen all the time in the highway. And it seems that people never learn anything and that human lives are payable by burial expenses. Does the government even know about this or are they keeping deaf? Is the law really that useless that such disorder prevails the roads?
Drivers ought to drive defensively. Transport people however are too concerned about money over life, safety, and time.
Over the years, how many lives were lost in car accidents, in hit-and-run? Even for animals, dog and cat carcasses lie on the highway after some mad driver drove in frenzy. Is human and animal life really disposable? Why won't people make a bold move to stop these? Is this part of the evil that is in us that keeps us from acting?
Drivers with no sense of time is also a problem, for the public transportation at least. If you are riding jeepneys and multicabs, you'll know what I mean. They'll stop at every street corner waiting for some inexistent passenger.
Service. It's a lost word. Few have it, but everyone needs it. I'll stop grumbling now.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Saints and Souls
For the other side of the word, it's halloween time. For another part, it would just be another boring/busy/uneventful/exciting day. But for the Philippines and the Filipinos, it's All Saint's/Soul's Day.
Why the slash? Like many things in the Philippines, both events are confused or mixed by the common Filipino. Anyway, as most of us here in the Philippines are Catholic Christians, we celebrate these days the traditional way.
Catholic teaching guides that November 1 be held as the day for all the Saints, the day after, November 2 will be for all the Souls. Filipino's on the other hand celebrate both on November first. I don't know exactly how it all started, but theories have it that people think cemeteries go too crowded on the 2nd so they go there on the 1st, a practice which later became a tradition. Who really knows?
Public cemeteries look like picnic grounds (on the extreme side - amusement parks). Interestingly, the people gone before us become bonds that keep together the living. These days become days of reunion, reflection, and (extended) family bonding. It's a time when one's great grandfather is visted by his dozen sons and daughters, their own sons and daughters, and their own sons and daughters (so on and so forth until the you can't see the tombstone amidst the heads that gather round). That's how we remember our dead, we celebrate together as a family. I forgot to mention that great granpa's brothers and sisters and cousins and their families might be coming too!
We deeply believe in the afterlife and the promises held by it. We believe that we continue to exist after we have left the material world and that our continuing communion through prayer strengthen and help us in this short sojourn. As Christ has died and risen, we believe we will also die and rise. But while we are living, we live and exist with the help of the prayers of our dead loved ones as we too pray for them. That is how God's family relate to one another.
Today, we remember, the good and the bad. We remember loved ones, lost and found. We remember the times, happy and sad. As a people, Filipinos find strength in the memory of a loved one, build strength among the living, and foster strength for the generations to come.
Why the slash? Like many things in the Philippines, both events are confused or mixed by the common Filipino. Anyway, as most of us here in the Philippines are Catholic Christians, we celebrate these days the traditional way.
Catholic teaching guides that November 1 be held as the day for all the Saints, the day after, November 2 will be for all the Souls. Filipino's on the other hand celebrate both on November first. I don't know exactly how it all started, but theories have it that people think cemeteries go too crowded on the 2nd so they go there on the 1st, a practice which later became a tradition. Who really knows?
Public cemeteries look like picnic grounds (on the extreme side - amusement parks). Interestingly, the people gone before us become bonds that keep together the living. These days become days of reunion, reflection, and (extended) family bonding. It's a time when one's great grandfather is visted by his dozen sons and daughters, their own sons and daughters, and their own sons and daughters (so on and so forth until the you can't see the tombstone amidst the heads that gather round). That's how we remember our dead, we celebrate together as a family. I forgot to mention that great granpa's brothers and sisters and cousins and their families might be coming too!
We deeply believe in the afterlife and the promises held by it. We believe that we continue to exist after we have left the material world and that our continuing communion through prayer strengthen and help us in this short sojourn. As Christ has died and risen, we believe we will also die and rise. But while we are living, we live and exist with the help of the prayers of our dead loved ones as we too pray for them. That is how God's family relate to one another.
Today, we remember, the good and the bad. We remember loved ones, lost and found. We remember the times, happy and sad. As a people, Filipinos find strength in the memory of a loved one, build strength among the living, and foster strength for the generations to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)