Confrontation 2

Okay, I haven't exactly done what I promised I'd do in the past. For those who've read my previous blog post about my encounter with the Kaingin Queen, I said then that I would come up with a solution, sit down with the president of the homeowners, and basically woo everyone to become nature-loving advocates allergic to open burning.

It turned out executing the plan wasn't so simple after all. I couldn't get an audience with Attorney Ceniza for the insane reason that I can't chance upon him at his house. He would either be off on a business trip or is busy exploring other dimensions. Needless to say, I won't count on him to help my cause.

The weather is also not an ally in my case. Since the incident, we've had intermittent rains culminating with the heavy downpour brought by Ondoy. Openly voicing out against open burning isn't such a good idea when, for most of the week, the ground is wet and people are reluctant to start fires. Timing is everything, as the cliche goes, and now is definitely not the right time for my message, especially with the news overflowing with flood stories.

So what's the plan now?

Well, I am a very patient and determined person. I'll lay low for a couple of months while I wait for summer. Then I make my move.

Indeed, summer is a very special time. My assumption is that more people are inclined to burn off excess foliage in their yards because the weather features less rainfall. Less rainfall means more brittle vegetation and drier soil. These conditions are ripe for open burning.

By then, I can launch my own information campaign on the perils of open burning by secretly placing fliers on the gates of my unsuspecting neighbors preferably at the dead of night. That will be the first 2010 activity of the one-man organization I shall call "Manang, Undangi Na!: A Citizen's Movement Against Open Burning".

Till next summer then! Now, to get some quotes on risograph printing...

Alcohol

If you look at my photos in Facebook, you'll see a picture of a bottle of beer. Pansit, a former colleague, tagged almost all the residents, and guests, of the Casibang compound in that picture.

Since I'm not a hypocrite, I don't mind being tagged since the picture is meant (if I read Kuya Pansit's intention correctly) to symbolize the inuman sessions and the bonds created in that special place.

With that opening, I think it's time I share my views regarding alcohol. I maybe one of only few people who don't like drinking alcoholic beverages. However, I do drink if the situation warrants it. Thus, I hope people respect the fact that when I do drink with them, I do so because they're special, special enough for me to temporarily forget my aversion to alcohol.

If I remember right, my parents were not exactly close friends of Lucio Tan. They bought only red wine and that was only served during special occasions like Christmas, the Lord's Day, and what not. In recent history, we've had small gatherings at home but alcohol was never served. It could probably be that Papa was banning alcohol from the house - and away from us - or he didn't want to spend money making other people tipsy.

In effect, as far as I know, none of my siblings deliberately seek alcohol when the opportunity finds itself. Also, thanks to our parents' subtle screening, all of us were spared of watching people get down and drunk during our childhood years. Now that I'm older, I can see the value of what they've done and perhaps guess at the motive driving that behavior. A former colleague of mine, Lugay, once shared to the us that she avoided drinking or smoking in front of her siblings because that was a bad example to them. I believe my parents also shared her point of view. I don't want to let my siblings see me drink for the same reason too.

While in Manila, there was this one incident that particularly unnerved me. I asked Palang, another former colleague and a friend, what was in the inuman sessions that was quite appealing. She replied by saying that the main attraction was when people were already drunk and were more open to doing crazy stuff. That was when the fun really starts. As for me, I didn't like the idea of getting drunk just so my friends could see me humiliate myself (luckily, I haven't done anything yet that is juicy enough to be passed down to the next generation).

To cap this post, I advise again my fellow brethren to always drink with caution and moderation or, at most, avoid the alcohol as much as possible. It pains me to see kids younger than my age who revel in the act, knowing full well that they'll suffer the consequences later on. That's no way to live a life. Indeed, it is written that the great JC was a social drinker. But it is never written that he got drunk.

Pokemon, Digimon, And Those Other "Mon-mons"

When I was young, I loved Pokemon. Like any other kid, I loved the cartoons and I loved the characters and I loved the almost perfect world that they inhabited. You could say that I too was engrossed at this Japanese creation, to the point that I almost memorized all the names of those cute creatures (were it not for the fact that the creators kept inventing new ones).

I also liked the other cheap derivatives of the Pokemon phenomenon that followed soon after. For instance, I liked Digimon. I especially liked the parts of the show when the Digimon creatures would transform into badder and more powerful versions of themselves. That was fun to watch.

But, like any other kid, my fascination over this genre faded with time. And now that I'm older and supposedly wiser, I think it's about time I take a more critical look at my childhood obsession.

First, the plot itself revolves around the theme of friendship. The owner and his creature-pets are friends. There are some episodes in Pokemon which clearly espouse the importance of taking care of each other on the basis of friendship (I will not dwell on those anymore). Indeed, there are many scenes where the owner and his or her beloved creatures are happy and are wearing smiles.

However, this seemingly nice anime espousing friendship contradicts its message on the face of its most recognizable plot device: the battle between the monsters.

In real life, I don't go around looking for fights. And I don't goad my friends into hurting themselves by fighting battles for me. Friends are there to support me and, if they want, protect me. But coercing them to fight and risk their lives is not what a friend does to his friends.

But this is what those stories of "Mon-mons" are all about: the owners pit their so-called pet-creature "friends" against other pet-creatures. Such blatantly "not-friend" behavior is tolerated in the Pokemon world but it is exactly what you see in dogfights, horse fights, and cockfights which are illegal in most places. One easily sees the similarities between a pet-creature owner and a real-life animal owner who takes care of his prized possessions.

There is also the case of an unfair hierarchy that governs the conduct of both owner and pet-creature. In these "Mon-mon" worlds, we see that the creatures themselves are very powerful, to a point that they can exist even without their human counterparts. But they readily subject themselves to the misguided intentions of their hapless owners who, in turn, abuse the potential powers of their pet-creatures in egoistic duels. It is difficult to swallow that the ones perceived to be vulnerable and unnecessary are the ones lording over the fitter monsters, a realization which criticizes the existence of friendship in an arrangement where one party is deemed superior to the other.

Truth be told, the genre of Pokemon does have its fair share of questions when it comes to moral judgment. For instance, if all these creatures have body parts which can be used as weapons, does it follow that they can only find their purpose by fighting other creatures? Or do they have a higher purpose which their owners do not want them to discover? And so on and so forth.

As a final word, perhaps, if another anime of this genre shows itself in the future, I will be very, very wary. I may not know what the effects of this show are on children but I will tell them to watch this kind of anime with caution and with a real-life pet beside them.

For more (belated) Pokemon bashing, here you go.

For Want Of A Diploma

I now remember why I did not get my diploma over a year ago.

I stopped by the Registrar's office last Friday to finally get one. And no, I wasn't struck by a sudden case of nostalgia; the diploma was simply one of the requirements for my new job.

At first, I was in high spirits. I was visiting Ateneo de Davao after all, my alma mater. I greeted Sir Bong cheerfully (to digress, Sir Bong is an ex-seminarian of the Alexian Brothers) and asked how I could get my diploma.

But my happy face disappeared a few minutes later. When Sir Bong returned to me after retrieving my files, he handed to me a "Diploma Clearance" form which I had to complete. Completing it entailed gathering the signatures of the Dean, the Division Head, the Librarian, and the Cashier. I protested, saying that I already completed a similar form before my graduation. Sir Bong promptly showed me my accomplished "Graduation Clearance", a strikingly similar form which had all the signatures of all the signatories indicated in the Diploma Clearance Form. After that moment, memories of college life - running around the campus, waiting in line, wasting countless hours and energy just to get several stupid signatures - rushed to my head. I promptly crumpled the form when no one was looking and threw it in the trash bin.

Even now, I honestly don't know what got into me that afternoon. Maybe, I was just so pissed off, knowing that I had to endure for one more time an unpleasant facet of my college life. Or maybe, I just got frustrated at what I perceived to be another inefficient redundancy in the process. For instance, the Graduation Clearance form was meant to clear students for graduation and the Diploma Clearance form was there to make sure students didn't have any pending dues with the school. These two purposes can in fact be accomplished with just one form, such that any student who wishes to graduate must also show that he has no pending dues or debts with the school.

Unless someone explains to me with perfect clarity and flawless logic the need for two separate forms, I will have to stick with my "One Form" idea.

But what upsets me the most is that such an obvious (and inconvenient) flaw in the process is even present in an institution which prides itself for its tradition in excellence. I had the same problem last year; I didn't get my diploma because I had to go after all those signatories. Now, a year later, I still had to do the same thing!

What should I do now? There is no escaping the current status quo: I still need my diploma. So now I'm thinking of hiring my brother to do the getting-my-diploma job for me. Outsourcing stress is already a booming industry, anyway; I might as well enjoy its benefits.

Two Things

Just two things.

First, don't go to Robinsons Cybergate Davao to have lunch if you don't have money in your wallet. That's because they don't have ATM machines in the vicinity. If you're wondering why, then I don't have the answer. Probably, the lack of ATM machines is an essential factor in an ongoing social experiment to test for solutions on how to curb consumerist tendencies.

Second, be wary of the security guards of SSS, especially if you are carrying a bag that needs to be checked. I know they are nice people. But I had the bad luck of noticing one guard insert his rod (you know, the one they use to check the contents of your bag) inside his pants. Near the groin. And he was pushing it in and out as if he was scratching his balls. You get the picture.