Glaring Lights

From What the eyes cannot see

by Al John Chiong

Dark gray skies that blankets all under heaven
Stings from the cold breeze that are around me
Buzzing sounds of people moving there and then
It sure seems like it’s the same bad movie

I frantically dash looking for a sanctuary
With my washed up esteem as I carry through
Thinking I could never cope with this voyage-
A trek not worth of its mission’s crew

Stifled from infinite daunting tasks
A long list of things unravel its ugly face
That even forever cannot dare to outlast
As taunts from misery continue to dance with grace

Worry ruptures immense screams out of me
While keeping serenity that emanates the outside
But craving for hours that be
Where I get to finally dictate the route of my life’s tide

Exhaustion creeps as the hour strikes twelve
I am back to reality as I pack up to leave my plight
And my spirit starts to rejuvenate
As I make my way through the glaring lights of the night

Calamity Struck – Hard!

On September 26, 2009 – the worst rain fall (a whole month’s worth of it) in decades was experienced by Metro Manila in just less than 24 hours. This led to hundreds of people dead and hundreds of millions worth of damage to real and personal property. The result was a city in chaos at its finest. Cars were tumbled over each other, strong currents pushed aside everything in its path, thick mud was everywhere, people trapped by gushing waters – stranded on the rooftops of their homes. And more importantly the biggest whiplash is the pain, the suffering, the unspeakable horror that most people in Manila had to go through.

How can such a disaster even happen to the most developed cities of the Philippines? How come the PAG-ASA was not able to foresee the amount of rain this typhoon “Ondoy” was about to bring? How come a day before this tragedy the international stage saw that there would be massive floods that will unfold, yet we did not heed?

There are so many “How” questions more than the “Why’s” to this tale. Because aside from the fact that we already know the answer to most of the “Why’s”, it just looks like no one seems to care at all. This was an obvious brew of poor city planning and lack of social/environmental awareness. People would always debate that it’s only natural that we become reactive to the things that are improbable – but wake up! Typhoons are not shrouded by uncertainty, it is not something we cannot prepare for, and lastly, this was never new to us!

The Philippines has come to a point that majority of the population just do not care anymore. We are in this false state of being infallible, sheer apathy against the country we were taught to love and swear to fight for. But where are we now? Apparently, 90% of people I know would want to work abroad in a heartbeat and close to 75% would want to migrate somewhere else with their family and relatives – isn’t this an indication enough that our country sucks big time? I even heard the daughter of the former President Cory Aquino, Kris Aquino say, “Bilib talaga ako sa mga Pilipino, kapag merong kalamidad tulad nitong si Ondoy, ay talagang nag tutulungan tayo.” But is this how we truly measure our values and strength of character now as a nation? That we have to wait for natural and man made catastrophes for us to stand up to the plate? Then when all is said and done, we go back to our lazy-ass selves?

If there is one message that all of these misfortunes would want to tell us, it is that we are not seeking for ways to improve but we just keep moving forward. Kaizen, as the Japanese would coin it, is advocating for the continuous hunger for the need of improvement. Sadly, Filipinos as we are, we dubbed this as “Kasi eh…” or “because uhmmm…” which connotes a cheap excuse and a refusal to accept responsibility. As a nation, we continue to find the easy way out and end up learning nothing because our fate as a Filipino is only as good as the efforts we put into it – which in this case, sad to say, isn’t much.

Pea Brain!

How important a role is it to represent a business entity?
Much more on the task of running it?
Have you stumbled upon dumb and dumber somewhere?

Apparently they are out there – a million and one of them just waiting to ruin someone’s happy day. These people are the ones we know that are on Santa’s naughty list year on year. They never seem to run out of ways to start or fuel a stressful situation that, if they were a tiny bit smarter, would have never occurred in the first place!

Maybe its lack of training, mentoring or performance tracking but whatever it is, if you are in your right mind – you should execute the job you’re paid for in a manner that meets the norm. Or is the new norm waaaaay below standard now?

These airheads come with different faces, names (and sizes, mind you!) – Anywhere from assholes to zipless!

But from the book I read about body language, it warns us of grumpy people that have been exuding dissatisfaction/negative energy most of their lives. This can be seen by their down-mouthed expression, an expression similar to a bulldog’s face. If you just take the time to notice, there are a couple of them especially the ones sitting all day long behind a government office counter. (The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease: 2004)

Smarts, they say – is nurtured thru time and experience.

Intelligence on the other hand is mostly hereditary as the brain faculties play a big part in thinking and processing thought as seen by tests made by scientists thru an FMRI.

But more than any of these two, the experts conclude that the brain works just like any other muscle in your body. If you want to get the most of out if, you need to keep using it or you’ll lose it! Brain power is built through continuous firing of neurons in the cerebrum; this is its way of strengthening itself. But hey, this blog is not about “How to improve your Brain Power – for Idiots.” This blog is for all the idiots in the world to know that they are idiots (first and foremost). And they will continue to be idiots until someone, or hopefully themselves, do something rational about it.

Anyhow, unintelligible people are permanently weaved in the DNA of our society, its part of the entire system of functionality in which we revolve around day to day. I personally cannot think of a world that doesn’t have them, it would seem so odd and utopia-like.