The Pride of Philippine Infrastructure?

On Hilary Clinton's first time visit in Asia last year, the media (and I, myself) was quick to note that the Philippines wasn't included in her travel plans. The Philippines, together with South Korea and Japan, has a historic security alliance with the United States, and is the most committed (and one of the oldest) American ally in south east Asia. Clinton, however, visited Indonesia where there existed bumpy times between the two countries. Is the Philippines getting increasingly shunned by Western nations?

The Philippines was once poised to be an Asian power. With a promising economy after the Second World War, the Philippines enjoyed one of the highest rates of GDP growth in the world and was second behind Japan in terms of economic and social development. Things went awry during the time of Ferdinand Marcos when he embezzled public funds, giving them to his cronies or even keeping all of them just for himself, and well, Imelda. As of today, the Philippines, still paying the loans wasted and stolen by Marcos, finds it hard to recover from an economic trough as a result of the first People Power and civil unrest.
Once the richest country in south east Asia, the Philippines has continued to lag behind in developments and has now been overtaken by other SEA nations (We're number four now behind 1. Indonesia 2. Thailand and 3. Malaysia ! Vietnam's next, God!).

There are other countries out there that are more economically important to the U.S. than the Philippines, in this case, Indonesia. So it's no wonder why the U.S. (and other prospective investors) is increasingly shunning the Philippines.

Our government has developed a system of political dynasty, which proved to be a bane rather than a boon. Rampant corruption has never left the Philippine government, and with numerous unresolved government scandals of the Arroyo administration, the image of our government and the nation as well continues to be tainted. We badly need a facelift.

A national facelift can come in a variety of ways. The frequent one we're getting is when Manny Pacquiao wins a fight. But this isn't something Filipinos can benefit from economically, unless Manny donates or invest those millions of dollars in creating businesses and jobs. The other one is infrastructure development, and this is the major facelift we need.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) has just recently begun construction of the Manila Bay Tourism City. This is the Philippines' take on the casino fever that is currently sweeping the world.

Park amenities include:

• The so-called Manila Eye – A Ferris wheel larger than the London eye
• A large performing arts stadium
• An Oceanarium larger than that in Rizal Park (I'm tired of Oceanariums! Scrap this please)
• Universal Studios theme park (Please, don't change this into a Super-Inggo/ Pinoy styled theme park)
• Museums (Yahoo!)
• Kidzania (have no idea what's so special about this, aside from it's a kiddie theme park)
• Large theaters
• Various five to seven stars residences
• World class hospitals (May world class doctors naman kaya? Haha. Sorry)
• Casinos
• Sports Complex
• A high speed train that will connect the Tourism City to the Philippine International Airport

Various amenities right, but the center of attraction is the proposed 2,182 ft (665 meters) Pagcor tower that will be the second tallest structure in the world (The name sucks - ang baho. Can't the name be replaced with a famous Filipino hero?).

I have been told that Pagcor tower may not be included in the overall project, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed because if they don't include it, there will not be something of a luring aspect to the Tourism City and the project will be seen as something very ordinary.

The Manila Bay Tourism City aims to compete with gaming Meccas such as those in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore. It will provide 225,000 new jobs and opportunities to Filipinos and will generate US$ 6 billion dollars in revenue. The project is worth US $15 billion and will be completely developed in 10 years with three phases. I've heard that phase two has just started, but I haven't seen any recent construction pictures near the Manila Bay area on the internet.

This could be the "it" facelift the Philippines need. With all the promises of the project Pagcor had said, this again arouses the Filipino's yearning of a better life and a better country. I am hoping that this won't become yet another politician's promise, which ALWAYS just end up being pinned on their ever expanding to-do lists. This project could bring the Philippines back again as the leader in south east Asia, or even better, bring back the good old days when we belonged to the list of the wealthiest countries in the world. Let's not let our hopes down and continue to aspire for a better Philippines.

More references:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagcor_City

Missing Out on a Backyard Sport

The sport I play is not popular. It involves a racket and a shuttle – Badminton. I am so good at it that I once made it to the JVC open badminton competition and I was like the lead player in our varsity back in my early years in high school. There are virtually no badminton aficionados here in the U.S. Oh actually, there are some…in the backyard.

Badminton is considered a backyard sport in the United States. People do not play it as much as they play football, baseball, and basketball. The most easily seen proof that Badminton isn't popular in the States as it is in the Philippines is the lack of professional badminton rackets sold at major sports shops. I remember one time going to a big and popular sports place selling easily bent with colored strings badminton rackets and with a two proudly advertised free plastic shuttles.

My initial reaction was, "Pfft". I can forgive those rackets, but as a pro-player, I can say that you can't ascend to the higher playing levels of Badminton with a plastic birdie.

This is the real thing...

...not this. :P

There are also a few badminton clubs available. The nearest badminton club from my area is still a hefty 30 miles. Back in the good old days of intense Badminton play, we would just drive 12 minutes from our home to the nearest Badminton club and challenge random players inside. The result wasn't just the one you get from a good play, but new friendships made!

Looks fun, huh? hahaha

Badminton is a good substitute for the boring hours of repetitive activities inside the gym. You can never know what may happen in a Badminton play. Because of the swift movement of the shuttlecock in just a small court, you are ought to use fast strategies, brain and body coordination, eye contact, and swift feet. In just an hour, you can burn 420 plus calories depending on the level of play. That may seem low compared to an hour on a treadmill, but you aren't tired yet in just an hour worth of Badminton play. It can get very addicting that it takes typical players 2-4 hours to get fully exhausted. That's 1,680 calories burned in a fun play! In addition, by just playing Badminton, one can increase levels of good cholesterol by 13%, helps in regulating blood pressure, improves cardiorespiratory fitness, helps regulate sugar production, improves mood, and many more!

Badminton has a lot of potential to be considered a national sport in the U.S. It just needs the media's attention. Badminton wasn't made this popular in the Philippines if it weren't because of the media. Fat Filipino celebrities shared their stories to the media on how Badminton brought them back to shape, and it instantly spread like a wildfire to the populace yearning for a fit body. If Badminton can enjoy the same media attention such as the NFL and the NBA do, Americans will soon benefit from playing this basic yet intense sport, even just in their own backyard.

PS: I'm appealing to the major sports brands out there! You could make this the new fad.

For The Fatherland

I learned how to love books when I moved here in the U.S. There were no distractions to keep me from reading books as how it was in the Philippines. My first book was Angels and Demons. I guess Dan Brown's stream-lined, fluid, and easy to understand writing style made me love books. From Dan Brown, to Shakespeare, to Palahniuk, I enjoyed the reading experience. However, I have grown tired of their genre. It just suddenly came to me that I wanted to read something more contemporary – something that's happening in our world now. I was reading an article that mentioned North Korea, and then I thought I never really knew something about the country, aside from it is the world's most oppressive country.

I have just finished Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy. It became my window to the daily lives in North Korea. Under the Juche policy, the country is self-reliant, virtually sealing off international trade. With this ideology, the country remains poor and hungry. Despite the negative news we're hearing about the country, love still prevails in this desperate land. I have learned a lot of new information about North Korea because of this book.

It struck me how the country uses a lot of its resources to showcase elaborately its capital city Pyongyang to foreigners, while most of its citizens starve to death. By elaborate, the North Korean government would kick out a resident of Pyongyang if he/she looks thin, ugly or physically deformed just so to keep the capital city "looking perfect" to the eyes of foreigners. The roads are empty since car ownership is not allowed. Electricity doesn't exist in North Korea, except where the backbone of "The Fatherland" is, the military camps. And I really hate it that the regime is spending on nuclear weapons while the majority of the population starves. This is thievery at its best. People can't protest lest they be executed or sent to gulag camps. However, there are some things about North Korea that I think the Philippines could benefit from if it learns how to do it.

The North Korean government effectively uses the power of propaganda to lead (or fool) its citizens into supporting their endeavors. I don't know if the North Koreans are just gullible people, but I have never seen the Philippines using propaganda to gather support from the people. I think it will benefit from using it. Or is propaganda unique just in communist countries?

The satellite images at night show the saddening disparity between the divided Koreas. The South is teeming with prosperity, while the North is stuck frozen in darkness and in time. I am just really hoping for the best in Korea. I couldn't even say "two countries" because I believe the North and South are and should be one. I want to see in the earliest time in the future the historic reunification of Korea. Geez, that'll be like East and West Germany my grand-parents were telling me before. I have only been to Incheon International Airport in South Korea but just from there, I could already feel how wealthy the South is. I hope in the future the North could partake with this kind of wealth. With united people and not to mention an additional land, there will be a more prosperous and happy Korea!

Last Day in High School Surprise

Can you still remember your last day in high school – the emotions, the events, whatever happened that day? You must have felt really sad because of the thought that you weren't going to see your buddies anymore, after being with them for four years or even more. But what about those people who do not have a permanent home, those who move constantly, those who transferred from one high school to the other on their senior year? What did they feel on their last day in high school?

I have met people like them in my school, where people constantly move from one state to the other in search of stability and contentedness in life. Allow yourself to imagine that you are me just for this time. Imagine yourself going to school. You sit on a nearby bench and you are just observing people around the vast quad. While waiting for the bell to ring, you observe and see people who look lost, some of them walking with straight faces looking composed, others are just sitting on a bench just like you.

Not my photograph.

You do this every morning waiting for the first period bell. You see the same people standing by the door waiting for the bell to ring, the same Asian girl sitting on the bench reading a book, the same Latino who is texting, the same tall white guy who looks lost but is apparently trying to look as composed as he can. You are not wondering why you see them almost always like this every morning hanging out on their usual spots, as you have the same situation like theirs – new in a big school, on their senior year. They hang out in each of their usual spots because they have become comfortable with it. You have, too, from your very first day to sit on that bench, observing people with their friends, laughing and talking about their day as if there's no tomorrow. Of course, you felt envious. You wish you had been with your friends back in your old school, laughing with them, talking about your day. But that could never happen now, because you are in reality. As the months pass, you got to know the people you observed. Just as I thought, we all have the same sentiment – what's the worth of making friends with everybody? It is the last year in high school. As much as you wanted to make friends with the other seniors or the people around, you have no time to catch up with their 13 years of friendship experiences together as a group, or as a clique, or as a decathlon team, or even as a gang. It is as if they are in a car fit for just say five people, and as much as they are calling you to hop inside with them to join the fun ride, you feel you don't want to go because squeezing in a 6th person or sitting on someone else's lap is going to be uncomfortable. And it
could spoil the otherwise fun ride because everyone is making adjustments for you to be comfortable with them inside. So why bother, right?

Not my photograph

Taking you out from me now, my case is a little bit different from those new seniors I met. They are from America, born and raised here, while I was not. I emigrated together with my family here two years ago, and the adjustment processes were painful. I have already attended two high schools in two years of my stay here. How uncomfortable. So I was not just adjusting to the school, I was still adjusting to the culture in the U.S. as well. I did not join any clubs because for some reason I had become apathetic. However, as the final day approached, something surprised me, and it was one big surprise I could never forget in my entire life.

It was the final week. Every senior was preparing for their finals, while others just do not care and can't wait to get out of high school. I felt like those people, too. I wanted to start anew in college.

But when the very last day was coming, I felt inexplicably sad to the point that I wrote parting letters to some people.

She told me she almost tear up when she finished reading it.

I had the hug of my life from this girl.

I had the hug of my life from this girl.

Then we took our picture, May 21,2010

Then we took our picture, May 21,2010

They were not farewell letters a friend would tell a friend if they have been in school together for 13 years, but a letter telling them my thanks for making the effort of befriending a new guy in school – me. And that effort was fantastical. It's because even though the car was made to fit only five people, another space was magically created for me to sit comfortably with them and join the fun ride. Magic happens inexplicably; I felt comfortable with their presence for some reason I could not explain.

I also felt sad because even though I had not talked much to my teachers, just the thought of parting with the last set of high school teachers who increased my knowledge and contributed to my being a whole lot made me sentimental, to the point that I asked for their pictures with me.

Monsieur Arigan, once a college professor at University of Southern California, not just teaches his students French, but to acquire it.

I will be forever thankful to this highly respectable man. Merci monsieur pour l'année scolaire memorable.

Caption: She made me love math, a thing I thought I would never learn to do until I met her

This surprised me. On my very first day in Rancho High, I thought that I wasn't going to miss high school.

Now, wow, I am going to miss it. Even though I have been sad for most of my last school year, didn't join any clubs, didn't have that much friends and only acquaintances, they have become part of my life that I will forever cherish and experiences I would be able to look back on while sitting on my rocking chair at the porch after 70 years and telling them to my future grandchildren (I hope I live that long!). After a bumpy ride on the Last Year Train, I came out refreshed, full of hope, and because of the experiences I have gone through, I have never become readier than I am now to face other challenges ahead, even if it is transferring from one college to the other.

… The good you will do will be forgotten tomorrow,

Do Good Anyway….

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,

Be Honest And Frank Anyway…

…Give the world the best you have

And you'll get kicked in the teeth,

Give The World The Best You've Got Anyway…

… What you spent years may be destroyed overnight,

Build Anyway…

Excerpts from an ode called

Anyway. it can be found on the wall of a children's home

in Calcutta, India where Mother Teresa served.