We Can Be Anything

What’s good about being famous is that you get a lot of following from all strata in the society. More than fame and fortune, influence is the issue.

What you say, however insane or weird or relatively insignificant that may be, could be of great importance to people who know you.

That is real power.

Spider said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Indeed. Influence is everything. That is why everybody talks about Kris Aquino’s anti-ageing cream, or people don’t mind if Anne Curtis really sings but they buy her album anyway.

The nice part however is when they use this rare kind of influence to good cause, and not otherwise.

A few celebrities have their own fair share of advocacies, which of course, attracts much attention primarily because they are supported by the stars.

Last Tuesday, while I was engrossed in my afternoon dose of tearjerkers, they happened to play this new (maybe-not-so) advocacy campaign of no less than Filipino Black Eyed Peas, Apl.De.Ap aka Allan Pineda Lindo Jr.

In partnership with the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF), the campaign is a fund-raiser aimed at sending less fortunate Filipino children to school.

It comes in a music video format and shows, besides Apl.De.Ap singing the song, a handful of kids, including aetas who express their dreams through a kariton (probably inspired by CNN Hero Efren Penaflorida who also appears in the video) which carries plywood planks painted with headless caricatures of different occupations from which kids had selected and posed for the camera. Yellow balloons also served as a significant motif.

Because it was sung in English and it sounds rappy, I found it a bit hard to understand part of the song. So, I opted to search for the lyrics and here’s what I got:

We Can Be Anything

Apl.De.Ap

You can be a doctor,

You can be a governor,

You can be a professor,

You can be a leader

All you got to do is dream

You can be anything

Get your education

Change you situation

[Refrain]

'cause if I can do a thing, then you can do it

And together we can push it up the mountain

Do it!

So if I can get a thing, then you can get it

And together we can live it,

'cause there is no limit

YEAH !

You can be a hero,

Don't be a zero

You can live the big things

You can do the big things

Get your graduation

Earn your occupation

[Refrain]

Mga kababayan ko

Magsamahn tayo

Mga kababayan ko

Magsamahn tayo

Apl.De.Ap (rap)

I know I can,

I know you can

Let's get together and make a plan

You'll get better like cannon head

Help each other out understand

All of us together inside this land

Working together that's our mater plan

If you believe say YES I CAN !!

If you believe say YES I CAN !!

You can be a leader

You can be a hero

You can be a leader

You can be a hero

[Refrain]

MetroLyrics.com

Jan Allan

It’s 5:45 AM and I will be late. Again. Few horrible minutes.

I am the type of person whose mood for the whole day depends heavily on how my morning turns out.

When I don’t get my coffee, that spells a disaster for me and most importantly to the people who-are-fortunate-enough to revolve around my universe.

What sores better is being late.

I am a young professional now. I have to be this and that, including Time-Conscious.

And rules are rules. The workplace is harsh especially to those who do not follow.

You see I work on a shift basis. I have to be there sharp 6 and leave at 2. I kind of like that arrangement except for the fact that I sometimes find it hard to board any available ride that early.

Good thing Jan Allan is there. He fetches me to work as early as 5AM. Safe and sound.

Most of the time, he passes by as early as 6:15 AM. Advantageously, I could reach work 15 minutes before 6, or even earlier.

But there are days when he doesn’t, for some reasons I don’t know. And that makes me really worried and pissed.

True enough, you appreciate something when it is not around. Just like now.

Where could he be?

THAT JEEPNEY!

end of the world, new perspective

 

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.” – Seneca

It’s barely days before the year ends and here comes end of the world.

Yeah right.

It’s few days to go before we actually welcome the supposedly chaotic year. As foretold, hundreds of disaster would even out the earth and empty it off of people. Earthquakes will shatter the globe to dust and air. People will die of hunger and thirst. It will be judgment day. No one will be spared. You and I will be erased from the face of the planet.

Welcome 2012! Fireworks!

But aside from what has been said about the coming year, what else should we actually look forward to?

According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2012 is the year of the Dragon under the element Water which begins on January 23, 2012 and ends on February 9, 2013.

The Dragon is the fifth sign of the Chinese Zodiac, a creature of myth and legend. In ancient China, the celestial Dragon represents an emperor and power. In the modern milieu, it signifies success and happiness. (http://www.stanssewingsupplies.com/catalogs/store.asp?pid=254835 )

See? What’s there to worry about? If the Chinese who is literally the dragon in terms of economy for the biggest part of history thinks 2012 will be a year of success, the only thing that we should be thinking of is how make our own success. Embrace the year of the dragon.

 

Cliché. We make our own destiny – weave our own webs.

Every time a new year starts, most of us become lunatic about how we should face the next 365 ¼ days.

Weird. We get new haircuts, buy new things. And a lot of people still make their new year’s resolutions – only to break them soon enough.

We think the thin gap between December 31^st and January 1^st (on the same hour that Cinderella’s fate changed) will make us a new person with a new perspective.

But we may not even need a new year to be better. Every day is a chance.

That’s why I never dare tried to make any new year’s resolutions (spare composition writing, when you are obliged to do so) because I don’t think they are necessary. And I’m not good at fulfilling promises anyway.

It is enough that you live each day anew, contemplating on what the day has made out of you, and bring that to the next day that will wake you up. That makes the cycle.

After all, New Year is just another day, a measure of time although you change the page of the calendar, or change the whole of it. You still wake up on the same bed and celebrate every sunrise with the same people you wake up with.

But have a happy new year still!

“So little done, so much to do.”

“So little done, so much to do.”- Cecil Rhodes

You won’t live forever. Neither will I. Given what could be a limited life, not all of the things that we want to achieve could be materially possible.

We’ll all die. That shouldn’t even make anybody horrified. While we cannot make reality out of all our dreams, there are things we can do.

After some time thinking and reading other people’s lists, I share with you ten things I want to do before I die:

Send a message in a bottle. You’ve been used too SMS and email for too long. Give it a break.

Watch a lunar eclipse. You don’t have hundreds of years to witness the phenomenon. It happens , well, once in a blue moon.

Sleep under the stars. It’s always stellar.

Do charity, unknown. Nothing material compares to one good, secret deed that does not wait for reward.

Write a poem. Let as many people as possible read it. You’ll be surprised.

Run a marathon. Life is a race. You can win it.

Find yourself an enemy. So someone would remember you when you depart, of course not for your good deeds.

Forgive someone. Well, a clear conscience is as soft as a pillow. You’ll need that in your eternal slumber.

Fall deeply in love -- helplessly and unconditionally. That’s what we are made for. If you believe in destiny, then find your one, true soulmate, and finally

Be happy. You deserve it.

it pours, and it sores

We used to sing the rain away

So in the fields we could run around.

That was when we were kids-

We didn’t know.

But days pass like raindrops racing to the earth.

Though not old,

We have grown.

We fear not the rain-

That which pours from the sky’s cerulean face.

But still we are afraid-

Because the rain is not always water.

Not always from the horrifying dark clouds.

And even if we sing,

We can drive it away not.

It sores even.

you bet

For decades, the government has been trying its very best, employing all possible means and exerting all imaginable efforts to wipe out illegal gambling across the Philippines.

I can see you raise eyebrows.

Even I.

Being at the base of the society, I get to see what social problems really thrive in the household setting. The masses are where the real picture should be captured. It may be ugly for some, but at least it is real.

Most children would opt to stay home and excavate landmines in search of bakal,bote,yero. Most women are violated in one way or another, usually in the way they think they are not.

And most importantly, it is where all that is illegal comes most pervasive.

Papa is such an avid jueteng patron. He bets on the game three times a day and spends maximum of 20pesos on each bet. Not to mention there are two kubradors (collectors) to whom he places his bet.

If you bring that to a total, that’s almost 120pesos a day. Almost half of what he earns as a construction worker. Good thing he doesn’t spend that much when he is away for work.

The amount could have paid my siblings’ fare to school, back and forth, three times. But he reasons out it’s one of the few things he actually rewards himself with, besides alcohol and smoke. My papa is the authority at home. You do as he says.

But we came to accept his vice (or leisure) in the long run.

He loses most of the time. Sometimes, he gets to guess the other of the winning pair. Sometimes, almost there, so close.

While the lottery has a six number combination, jueteng is easier with only two. Any two combinations under the sun from 1 to 38. Interestingly, all the numbers in the series have meanings. The number 18 stands for a lady, of course; 3 is attributed to a butterfly; 32 is for being crazy (like being born out of the calendar) and 33 stands for Jesus (claiming Jesus died at that age).

Papa would often use our birth dates on his bet. Sometimes, the year, the date, the age, anything that makes sense. Sometimes it’s random.

There are also instances when they let a child pick which number on the calendar will win. Assuming the child will be a lucky charm. Poor child, he gambles at an early age without him knowing.

Easy money, it sounds. But not really. I used to suspect why there are too few who would win the raffle for the day. Are they manipulating the results to their advantage? There should be a regulation panel to check.

And then I slapped myself and say, “Hey, it’s illegal. You can’t expect it to be clean or fair. It has been illegal from the very start!”

Silly me.

There are the sad times and there are the good.

Once in a while, papa wins. Usually, the number combination would be my birthday. I’m such a lucky creature, you know. There will be feast at home. Those who wouldn’t mind you on regular days will come and pretend you’re close enough just to realize their just gonna ask for balato. People!

And they will drink like there’s no tomorrow.

What’s good about it is that we get to eat as if it’s Christmas.

But easy money is also lost easy. It slips out of your hands that quick.

Life is a game. Indeed, you won’t win unless you play. And when you play, you should be prepared to lose.

Thinking about it, even when papa wins once in a while, he is still a loser. If you count all the bets he had put since day one, the amount could have made a luxury house for us, or a car. The small amount he gets when he wins is too little compared to his investment.

The classic joke would be, nobody becomes rich because of jueteng.

I say not.

And I need not name them. They should know who they are.

You bet.

over the weekend

I don’t know what to write today.

Aside from the fact that it rained so hard over the weekend.

Just lazed around and waited ‘til sundown. TV and fell asleep. The Christmas chill is too conducive not to do anything.

Until the news advisory.

Sendong killed hundreds in Mindanao. The typhoon, more than destroyed properties, claimed the lives of families, mostly children, women and elderly, just days before Christmas.

Still counting, more than 600 corpses have been recovered out of the areas most affected. Over 800 are still missing. Chances are, they may never be seen again.

How would the families who have lost their loved ones even be thankful they are alive?

When Reming and Milenyo devastated our province, most did not have the idea how to start and pick the pieces again. More than the tragedy of losing prized possessions over which we have toiled, most devastating is the tragedy of losing a family. More than losing them is not being able to see even their cold and lifeless remains –not giving them a burial at the least.

For those who have survived, life could go on, although changed tremendously. Maybe that is the process. We learn the hard way, and let go of things and people in the process.

On another perspective, the victims could have done these and that. Perhaps the turnout of events may have been different. They were caught off-guard, though. Disaster strikes like a thief in the darkest of the night.

There are issues to settle about how people and the government must respond to natural calamities. There have been for years. One arm will blame the other. They will react and discuss now. But after months, when there are less remnants to remind us of the tragedy that was, business comes back to normal. Even in the case of the sufferers.

We give out donations-all sorts- and that’s it. We show sympathy. We feel for them. For how long?

Now that the north of Mindanao has stolen the spotlight, we have forgotten the impeachment of our chief justice, we have forgotten about the name Revilla, we have forgotten that our former president is under arrest, some might forget that it’s Christmas.

That’s how it is.

We get reality check once in a while. While our heads in the center of government are throwing each other trash, destroying each other’s reputations, there were millions on the verge of disaster.

See? It makes sense after all. Least we forget, even in Mindanao where civil instability thrives, there lies risk for forces we can’t control-nature’s.

And that power is not in the government, not in people.

The disaster may have ended but the real battles are just beginning. Years forward, I wish the victims still standing on the same ground, only stronger.

soaps: rubbing it in

What makes me lose my temper is watching the news after I have tear-jerked over my favorite teleserye comes dusk.

I would often watch the headlines and shut off the TV when I’ve had enough reason to bring my senses back to the harsh realities of life.

It helps that you watch the news (okay, the headlines) and tell yourself, “Hey wake up. The teleserye will end happily with the larger-than-life set of characters reconciling and living happily ever after just like a fairy tale.”

But these programs fascinate us. We become avid fans and supporters of which. We relate to the characters - their griefs and glories, their love and hatred among and against each other. That’s how it is supposed to be anyway. They mirror, sometimes over magnify the simple realities of human existence. The rule is to be overrealistic. To be severely pathetic.

The major character has to suffer so much, die a couple of times and live again, lose some memory and rekindle them only to find she’s been torn off of loved ones and possessions, of course by no less than the villain of all villains who monologues her evil plans at many points in the episode. There has to be a scene where the pathetic bida gets slapped, and attempts to fight back but pushed away by the envious kontrabida. To top it all, the bida goes to her bed, self-pitious and cries a river.

It’s part of the Filipino culture, maybe, that we connect ourselves with these characters and incidents in their epic triumph over evil lifetime.

We are matiisin in nature. Whatever it is that comes our way, we survive at the end of the day.

What could be more impressive is we find that comic relief amidst everything. Be it disaster or political crisis. I’m reminded of one odd news I heard two days ago which said the president, hours after he was publicly attacked by the Chief Justice (who is being impeached as of press time), still managed to attend the congress’ Christmas party and sing Estudyante Blues - the one song that he sings always.

Stereotypical soap operas may be but they still earn great patronages across all ages and strata in the society. That is another unique characteristic we Filipinos have – to be united for one cause (be it People Power or for Mara to fight Clara back).

On that note, there are still things nice, or even funny about the nation. Thank God.

Chronicles of the unemployed – yet

It’s been a few months after I actually left college with the promise of a bright future and the assurance of none.

I could recall my frustrated-hopeless-angry-desperate-lonely-pessimistic state on my way to my first job. And a mysterious ray of light would done upon me. Tinggg…Now I am happy.

But it wasn’t easy. It was tough knocking on company’s doors and saying it over and over again that you are worth even just their consideration and time.

Nothing is harder than telling them you’re actually qualified and graduated from a prestigious university and that you are equipped with the skills and qualities of a to-be-professional.

Much more challenging is finding a position that would fit you especially when you earned a not-so-well-decided course. It’s risky to be underemployed and it’s more to assume roles larger than you. But it’s part of the process.

And so you try and try and try.

Read anything posted on doors, walls, newspapers, name it. And among the choices (assuming there are any), gather your nerves and give it a shot. Who knows there might be a glimpse of miracle along the way.

Sounds easy.

But not always, because you see the calendar is changing page, and there you still are – hanging. You wait for the call. That one important call. And fall asleep waiting.

You ask for help from people who seem to know the process so well and tell you it’s gonna be fine. And you are haphazard, doubtful, but you smiled anyway.

You hear advice. And you thought that’s it. You won the lottery!

It’s a day before contract signing and you tell everybody and hear the worst of feedback. You doubt and delay and let the chance pass by.

You see, it’s been you and your being cautious-coward.

Bet on another chance. Maybe, just maybe you’ll get it this time. Maybe.

And after all that has been said and done, all those nerve- cracking interviews, you almost mastered the art of answering questions. Trashed resumes.

One day, you’ll find out you’ve tried and you are tired. You want to quit.

And you get the next best thing - try it again.

Sooner or later you’ll have no choice but to say yes. Not because there is no other choice but because you are in a position where you will appreciate anything because you have been tired of blaming yourself and the universe. Somehow that makes you happy.

Something to begin with

I have always believed in that each person is capable of being a writer. We all tell a story, that’s why.

Sometimes it’s the first thing you do in the morning even before you brush your teeth. Admit it or not, we all gossip. Even men do. Trust me. And I see nothing wrong.

Call it human nature – the urge to interact, to socialize, or simply talk.

Even the deaf and the mute, who aren’t born with the physical capacity to utter words and letters, can talk in their own peculiar way. I have seen it and hands down, I got humbled in any way possible.

Back in the olden days of my being a high school writer-wannabe, I would often think I know less and I am not a writer and I am so on and so forth. That my style is mediocre. That I have a relatively poor wordbank. That I don’t even know what supercalifragilexpialidocious means (fortunately there’s Google to help me out). That I will be belittled for the little that I know.

Yeah I know it’s too melodramatic.

Now let me continue. Would you please?

On a lighter note, I have found renewed spirit to write. Thanks to the many things that life had faced me with - both ups and downs, north and south (I am not trying to write myself a bio, don’t get me wrong).

Thanks to whoever-you-are-who-may-have-read-might-read-might-not read me. Gracias.

And so I am writing this blog. Hell cares if nobody’s reading. (besides me of course). Probably out of the billions of sapiens in the world and the 90plus millions in my homeland, there will be one of them once in a while who’ll click on this blog and accidentally pass by and go.

But let me talk. Let me speak.

Criticize. I beg you.

Now let’s get this started. Although this isn’t my first post, categorically.

Now why the yellow umbrella –  simply because it’s vibrant, bright.

Under the rain. I have a fascination with life’s contradictions.

Yellow sparkles in black.

It’s what I want to be. There are bespoke reasons to feel better.

Who cares if you carry a yellow umbrella anyway.

tintang asul

wala ka nang maisulat.
pagod.
sa kaaasa.
sa kawalang-pag-asa.

marami ka nang naisulat,
mga papel na binahiran
ng pag-ibig
at nagsiliparan,
tangay,
tangay,
tangay ng mga lumipad na panaginip.

mga halik na dumampi
sa piling pahin ang buhay,
hanggang matuyo ka
at wala ka nang maisulat-
wala.

singkog

nagdadalagan ka na naman na daing tunong

garing awto

sa katahawan nin kalsadang aspaltado-

halaba,

halawig.

an saimung padudumanan-

sain?

masain ka?

duman sa dai nn nakakamidbid saimo?

tibaad ika mawara

sa madiklom na siudad.

an mga harong daa duman

arug sa trentang puon nin niyog

an langkaw.

makatakot.

pero may mina nin bulawan daa

duman sa mansyon kan mga naghahadok sa telepono

minsan matanga.

pangako iyan duman.

saro ka man sa mga nagsusugal.

maghiling ka sana ugaring sa babalyuhan mo-

sa tutungtungan mo-

tibaad an sensilyo sa kalsada

makasingkog.

*para sa mga nagsisikap

*para sa mga pangaturugan nin gimata

*para sa mga turog asin nagtuturugturugan.