Thursday, May 21, 2015

Brigada Eskwela and Asthma

PNP personnels fixing broken desks
When I was in my grade school I used to skip the firs week of school because I  knew (and my parents knew too) that the first days of classes would be spent cleaning the school grounds and the classrooms. The pupils were asked to bring cleaning implements: brooms, dustpan, coconut husk and sandpapers. I most especially dreaded the sand papers.

We sand paper books to erase names written on their sides and desks to remove names and other graffiti. There was so much dust that I usually ended up with asthma attacks. 

BFP firemen flushing a pathway.
Pre-classes preparations were the task of the teachers and the pupils then but now thanks to DepEd's Brigada Eskwela , the preparations now involve stakeholders from the parents, Private Organizations and Companies, NGO's, alumnis, LGUs and government agencies like the PNP, BFP, etc.


Parents doing their share.
Brigada Eskwela is an offshoot Republic Act 8525 or the Adapt-A-School Program. An act that gives opprtunity for privatte sector companies to contribute in improving the public education systm in the country. 

In an effort to bring the Adopt-A-School Program to the community level, DepEd launhed the National Schools Maintenance Week in May 2003 which is now known as the Brigada Eskwela. (Brigada Manual)








Tuesday, May 05, 2015

What do non-bonsai people think about bonsai hobbyists?

 One of the members of the FB group Bonsai Hobbyist of the Philippines (BHP) asked this question and I ,again, collated the members' answers and added some comments of my own. 

1. They are crazy

This is the most common thinking of non-bonsai people because most bonsai hobbyist/artists/owner have this special relationship with their trees that to common folks seems to defy sanity. The bonsaists spend a lot of time looking at it from many angles, clipping branches and removing leaves here and there, and sometimes even talking with the trees.

But I think the craziest thing is that many if not most bonsai hobbyist go out at night, with their flash lights, to check on their materials/trees. 

Imagine yourself looking out your window, there's your neighbor in the middle of the night with a flashlight beaming on his/her bonsai, eyes and nose almost touching the trunks and branches, checking under and over, as if looking for something valuable, a jewelry or an evidence of a murder, etc. I mean...


2. They are in love with their trees

The husband must keep in mind the first commandment: "Thous shall not have no other wife than the wife." 

Anything that takes away a husband's attention from his wife is an object of jealousy. I mean anything. This is understandable and normal to a married person. Jealousy is a basic instinct both for the male and female of the specie. This instinct or emotion is a product of evolutionary processes that aims to preserve the unity of a family and the continuity of the species. Ok, ok, enough of the Darwinian blah,blah, blah

Many members of the BHP, at least in the beginning of their bonsai life, had to deal with a jealous wife. The wife could not understand how her husband could focus his energy on watering trees 2-3 times everyday. I mean before they even greet their wives or enter the door of the house, they first get their water hose or lagaderas to water their trees. Then they spend a lot of hours grooming the trees, clipping branches and leaves  which the husbands do not do to their wives. 

I do not clip my wife's nails or groom her hair and I doubt it if any husband does that, but it is understandable for the wife to feel resentment at seeing her husband clipping a damned tree and not her nails and grooming the tree and not her hair. Of course most wives prefer have manicurists and pedicurists but still the mis-focused attention is what makes them jealous. They do the housework, cook food, do laundry, they deserve better...better than the bonsai's.

Of course after a period of time, the wife realizes the benefits of bonsai to her husband. 

1. The husband started losing interest with vices and going out with boys.
2. Great stress management.
3. Once the bonsai revealed its beauty, the wife starts to appreciate them too.
4. Some husbands have additional source of income.
5. The wife then becomes a bonsai hobbyists. too. I hope.

3. They are gay

I have no problem with this but to some BHP member, they think this is defamatory or something. If your sure of your sexuality no problemo. 

4. They are torturing the trees!

This is also how my friends describe what I'm doing with my bonsai, cutting them here and there, wiring and then bending the branches, defoliating the leaves, sometimes removing bark, etc. By the way this called training.

Since trees are living organisms its is only reasonable to think that they feel or at least they react to these training methods in a way that many people could empathize with. There are times that I feel that way too. But one must look at this philosophically. 

Training is a difficult and even a torturous process. It is the process of removing, redirecting, learning, retaining and maintaining. It is refining, managing the crude, the base and the wild nature and then turning them into something beautiful and usable. It is a process of change.

Training a tree is similar to educating a human being.  It's unthinkable to cut fingers here and there or amputate a deformed arm or a leg  because we don't grow them back. Though physical beautification or enhancement is being done through cosmetic surgery it does not capture the real essence of bonsai training.

So, like bonsai training our crude or wild natures/behaviors are pruned and defoliated through the painful process of behavioral modification called education and religion. 

Bonsai is metaphorical, if you really think about it.

5. They have nothing better to do

I guess that's why its called a hobby. Anyway, seriously, I had a visitor who told me that he'd rather plant vegetables than bonsais. I understand the bit of sarcasm in his voice because I can't eat my bonsai. But I love gardening and I did try planting vegetables in our lot but the soil--mostly compacted fillings-- is not fit for that kind of gardening. 

I guess no one can understand a bonsai hobbyist unless he or she becomes one.

Monday, May 04, 2015

People who contributed to Manny Pacquiao's lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I am a Manny Pacquiao fan and like many people around the world and would have loved to see Pacquiao knock down Mayweather on the mat but the fight didn't turn out that way. Instead, using unorthodox tactics Mayweather out danced and outrun Manny Pacquiao winning the bout the other way around, by not boxing. 

I am not an anal expert (or an analyst) but I do have something to say about the fight.

Boxing fans were disappointed because they were expecting explosive pound for pound, fist to fist, gladiator like contest instead what they saw was a hugging contest. Knowing Mayweather and based on most of his fights, he would use his head instead of his fists to win. He feared Pacquiao's speed and punching power so he would not go into a fist fight instead he would his defensive and evasive skills to keep Pacquiao off and using his longer reach would try to land punches and score, nitpicking. This is what Mayweather employed vs. Pacquiao and it worked superbly.  

Manny fought the way he knew, by throwing punches and combinations. He tried his best to corner Mayweather but Floyd was slippery as an eel. 


Though the fight left a bad taste in the mouth, it could not be denied that Mayweather showed outstanding defensive skills that neutralized Manny's fighting style but bored the audience to death.

Anyway, for fun,  I'm enumerating 10 people who contributed to Manny's lost.


10. Mommy Dinosia's prayers failed


Mommy D's prayer is powerful and combined with middle finger pointed at Pacquiao's opponent, the cosmic energy emitted is enough to create a psychic imbalance to create confusion and headache to an opposing boxer.

It seemed Mommy D's cosmic battery was not charged to the fullest. The reason...number 9.







9. Mommy Dionisia's cosmic energy was sucked off by her boyfriend.

Now, I love Mommy D. She's been a good mother to Manny. She went through a lot to raise Pacquiao and his siblings. She has a wonderful sense of humor, self deprecating at times but honest and spontaneous. But this boyfriend thing is bad. Manny loved her mother so much that he tolerated this relationship but it sucked off Mommy D's cosmic energy and she lost focus on praying and directing cosmic energies against Mayweather.

8. Chavit

What do you think? Me, I'm not talking...










 7. Lito Camo's songs

I first heard Lito Camo on radio during the 90's. His earlier songs were Eraserheads rip offs that then later degenerated to novelty songs with double entendre and nonsensical lyrics. He wrote Manny's song but I like the "Eye of the Tiger" better, feral and fierce: mabangis. His new theme song sounded like a marxists, anti fascists a la EDSA Revolution theme...

5. Wrong Jesus


Let's see...

Is it okay to box and then preach?

No, the Bible mentioned running a marathon as a metaphor for our spiritual journey but not boxing. 

Basketball, volleyball, football etc. are all contact sports and their aim is to out wit, out play the opponent by putting a ball in a goal etc.

But boxing is a different contact sports in that its aim is specifically to physically abuse the opponent. It feeds on a person's  animal instinct and this is evident in fights were boxers instintively bite their opponents.

The scripture does not justify this sport though the scripture does mention stoning adulteress to death.

4. The Reverends

Mind you, I am happy that Manny became a born again Christian and a powerful endorser of the movement but then again these reverends should have made Manny realized that boxing and the Bible don't mix. They should have convinced him to stop fighting the day he received the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior and Lord of his life. 

“Manny Pacquiao is THE purpose-driven boxer! His huge heart for God energizes his heart for everything else - his family, his country, his sport, the street kids, and all his fans,” said Pastor Rick Warren.

My ass...   

3. Kim Henares
Need I explain?














2. Floyd Mayweather Senior


This guy sure knew what he was doing. He didn't care what other people say about his tactics yet it won fights consistently: box by not boxing. Philosophical indeed, he has deconstructed boxing!









1. President PNOY



Oil price hike, OFW on death row, Mamasapo Incident, Joblessness, Inflation, Deflation, no love-life, pollution, etc. These are all the president's doing and Manny's lost to Mayweather is also PNoy's fault. 

Why?

Because he didn't do anything! That's why.







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