manofhopesinlife-blog

[manofhopesinlife-blog]

“You can be the hero. You can get the gold. Breaking all the records they thought never could be broke.”

                                  Breaking Impossibilities

            I believe in impossibilities. I commit failures. I create disappointments. But I can still “break records they thought never could be broke.” These twenty two words completely define who I am as a person. I may plummet at a lowest point, but this doesn’t stop me from reaching the highest peaks. 

           It is a joint feeling of strange and bliss as The Script’s song entitled Hall of Fame depicts my personality and viewpoint in life. One of the lines that perfectly suit the totality of my being is this “You can go the distance. You can run the mile. You can walk straight through hell with a smile.”

          As a pursuer of dreams, I always aspire to be the greatest that I could be despite the hindrances that obstruct my way. I was not born to wait for lucks, but I was born to find it. As stated in the poem Invictus, “we are the master of our fates, and the captain of our souls.” With these matters, it simply showed how perseverance grown upon my body. Also, I always used to ask myself the question, ‘how will I know such things if I will never even try.’ Yes, there’s a huge probability of not earning victory in taking tries, but no one in this world achieved triumph without using the concept of trying. As a person, I firmly believe that we must learn to take risks and challenges for us to accomplish records that we want to break.

           Other people may see this blog post as a way of blowing my own trumpet. But I wrote this blog to show my persistence on reaching the hall of fame. This hall doesn’t necessarily refer to popularity, but it symbolizes success. The world may give me millions of impossibilities, but it will always provide billions of possibilities to break all of these. With a mixture of dedication, patience and persistence, I could be the greatest. I could be the best. I could be the King Kong banging on their chests.

[manofhopesinlife-blog]

EMC: FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE?

Limitless. This is the most adequate word to define the stand of social networking sites in today’s generation. Social media is one of the things in this world that doesn’t require certain limitation in terms of age, gender and social stability. Prior to some researches and people’s perception, it serves as a ground to easily communicate with individuals that you want to get along with.

Electronic mediated/intermediated communication (EMC) is simply the use of technology in communication. This tool of communication has various impacts in oneself and even in the society. Some are good, some are bad.

EASIER, THE BETTER?

Admit it or not, intermediated communication is much easier than usual communication types. Majority of the information that we know are the ones that we have seen, read and browsed on our respective social networking accounts. Students typically use the internet as source for their various school works, businessman usually promote and sell their products online, and even television and radio programs used social media to get a vast support and sympathy from the masses. These are just few representations of social media as a legit provider of more accessible communication nowadays. Also, it somehow paves a way for building relationships among individuals. In a Philippine context, this plays a vital role among Overseas and Filipino Workers (OFW). Through the internet, they are given the chance to communicate with people they longingly want to be with. Social media is the only room for them to relieve all the exhaustion, homesick and pain they are going through. By some means, it still molds communication between people as interaction still takes place.  

EASIER, THE WORSE?

Social media acts like a bestfriend to each and everyone of us as it serves as a room for sharing our thoughts and expressing our emotions. Due to some burst of emotions, other people tend to post offensive thoughts leading to cross boundaries that devalue human ethics. Intermediated communication may be a ground for various cyber crimes if users don’t know how to use it properly. Social media reaches every single part of the globe and one wrong click may be spread out to every social media user. Other than that, I personally believe that intermediated communication doesn’t promote a healthy relationship among individuals. You cannot perfectly show your love to a person by just sending him/her heart emojis or virtual GIFS. Posting rants are not enough to express wrath and disappointments. This only means that we cannot visualize and feel the real emotion behind screens and keyboards. Unlike in face-face communication wherein we can see, feel, hear and even smell an individual’s real persona through verbal and non verbal actions. Face-face communication promotes better understanding among individuals which is a fundamental key in building a well-rounded relationship.

Everyone has their freedom of expression but everyone must also know certain limitations. If we know how to respect boundaries, there’s a huge chance for us to be able to achieve appropriate and effective communicative skills either in person or in screens.

Let us all bear in our minds that everything that we post on social media reflects to our own mark. As Lisa Horn said, how do you want to be known? 

[manofhopesinlife-blog]

SUGAT NG KAHAPON, NAGDURUGO PA RIN NGAYON

Isa sa mga pinakamaiinit na isyu ngayon sa ating lipunan ay ang pagpapalibing kay dating Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos sa libingan ng mga bayani. Samu’t saring opinyon ang mga nagsisilabasan ukol sa nasabing isyu. May mga ilan na sang ayon sa pagpapalibing sa dating Pangulo sa libingan ng mga bayani, ngunit ang ilan naman ay tila hindi pa nakakalimutan ang mga sugat ng nakaraan.

Bilang pagbabalik tanaw sa nakaraan, taong 1972 nang nagsimulang mamuno si dating Pangulong Marcos sa Pilipinas. Aminin man natin o hindi, may mga malalaki din syang naiambag sa ating lipunan na hanggang ngayon ay ating napapakinabangan. Ilan dito ay ang cultural center of the Philippines at iba pa. Ngunit sa kabila ng mga ito ay triple naman ang pagdaralita na dinanas at hinarap ng mga Pilipino noon sa kanyang palad. Una sa lahat ay nawalan ng kalayaan ang mga Pilipino na ipahayag ang kanilang mga nararamdaman, nabaon sa utang ang Pilipinas at ang sandaliang pag-angat nito ay unti-unti ding bumagsak. Maraming Pilipino ang nawalan ng oportunidad na mabuhay pa na ang gusto lamang ay para sa kapayapaan at kabutihan ng Pilipinas. Dahil dito, nasa 3,257 ang namatay, samantalang nasa 40,000 naman ang tinorture at 60,000 ang ikinulong sa ilalim ng Marcos regime. Isang halimbawa ay si Archimedes Trajano na isang estudyante noon sa MAPUA. Ayon sa ilang mga pananaliksik, nagsasalita noon si Imee Marcos bilang lider ng Kabataang Barangay dahil siya ang pinakamakapangyarihang kabataan ng panahong iyon. Dahil dito, kwinestyon ni Archimedes ang kakayahan niyang mamuno ng mga kabataan at ang mga akusasyon laban sa kanyang ama. Dahil dito ay sapilitan siyang pinalabas sa nasabing forum at kinalaunan ay nakitang binawian ng buhay.

Makatapos ang tatlumpung taon sa pagkakaroon ng panibagong administrasyon ay nagkaroon ng mainit na diskusyon ang senado at korte suprema ukol sa nasabing isyu. Hanggang nitong Nobyembre ay tuluyan na ngang iprinoklama ang pagpapalibing kay Pangulong Marcos sa libingan ng bayani. Bilang isang millennial na umaasa sa isang mas maunlad at mapayapang lipunan, tila ang pangyayaring ito ay nagging sanhi lamang ng pagkakagulo ng mga Pilipino. Sang ayon ako na hindi makatarungan ang pagpapalibing kay Pangulong Marcos sa libingan ng bayani sapagkat ang kahit sinuman ay walang karapatang magdesisyon kung mabubuhay pa ang isang tao o hindi.  Kahit umikot ikot man ang mundo, hindi mabubura sa puso’t isipan ng ilang Pilipino ang masamang tatak na kanyang iminarka sa kanilang puso. Ang pagpapalibing sa kanya sa libingan ng mga bayani ay hudyat ng pagbabalik ng lahat ng mga sugat ng nakaraan, pagkakawala ng kalayaan at katarungan na hanggang ngayon ay isinisigaw pa din ng karamihan.

Hindi ko ito isinusulat dahil lamang hindi ako sang ayon sa desisyon na ito. Isinulat ko ito upang mamulat ang ilang Pilipino na may katarungan pang hindi naabot, may mga puso pang hanggang ngayon ay umiiyak at may mga boses pang dapat pakinggan ng lipunan. Ang opinyon na ito ay hindi naglalahad ng paglalabas ng sama ng loob, bagkus ito ay sumisimbolo sa pag-asa. Pag-asa na ang katarungan at katotohanan ay syang mananaig, pag-asang ang kalayaang ipinaglaban ay hindi masasayang at pag-asa na tayo bilang mamamayan, ay magkakaisa tungo sa mas sentralisadong lipunan.