The Wandering Savant

I just had have a love affair with aphorisms, more particularly on the ones that start with the hypothetical word "if". Wanting to create a kind of intellectual upheaval among my peers, I posted one in the online community facebook.com.  True enough, it sparked so much interest when I had it posted in our work chat. I asked, "If Manuel L. Quezon were alive today, still, would he rather have the Philippines run like hell by Filipinos or like heaven by the Americans?" The question stemmed from his quite nationalistic pronouncements, that he would rather "have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heavens by the Americans, because however a bad Filipino government might be, we can always change it"--quite hopefully. 

CONFRONTATION WITH GREED In this age of rising food cost and rising cost of fuel,  where making a living seems to be the hardest of chores, how can we effectively fight the evils of our time? Fighting greed is one tough act especially if one is fighting against the financial powerhouses of our time. 

'Tis the season to be jolly, 'tis the season of beauty pageants, once again. The recently concluded BB Pilippinas 2011 showed that we do have so much potentials. We just have to develop them.  I am not so much beholden to international  beauty pageants as avenues of showcasing our best and brightest. There are a lot of endeavors that we can focus on, however, I could not also denigrate the importance of these beauty contests. Training a candidate to represent the country is not an easy task. And I think that BB Pilpinas has a lot of things to address in as far as the conduct of the search. 

I have no idea, whether I have given this piece a correct title or not. But I guess the title is apt in a way considering the kind of dazed state that we are in right now. Dawning of a new day, Bantayan Island I welcome this month of April with renewed hope and vigor. I hope the same holds true for the rest of us, though we had to leave the month of March with the tingling memories of such tragic events as  earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown in Japan and the more recent execution of the three Filipinos in China. 

(This is an exposition of my liberty. I don't know what's going to happen next.) Wasting an opportunity, for me, is worse than plunder. Plunder is just money lost while wasting an opportunity means lossing the future of the next generation.  The much-vaunted 1986 EDSA Revolution, which everyone thought was the final salvation from the evils of the Marcos administration, tossed Ninoy Aquino's "housewife" Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino to the seat of power. As the head of a revolutionary government, the then president was bequeathed with vast amount of power that she could have used to change the course of our destiny as a nation. Amidst that power, the then president lay powerless. What an irony!

With so much reluctance, I am publishing this piece. I am reluctant because the article contains matters pertaining to the metaphysical aspects of life, which tend to be controversial. But I would rather be stoned than cower in the dark. Over the past week we have seen how  nature unleashed its fury. It created a sudden upheaval in the earths tectonic plates causing an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that sent harrowing waves of sea-water into the island nation of Japan, virtually clearing away everything on its path like grains of sand.

I would like to share, with you this picture of the Rizal Blvd., in Dumaguete by one of the best photographers in the country today, Mr. Hersley Ven Casero.

Journalists plan pullout as rebellion in Libya collapses LA Times's award-winning photographer, Luis Sinco, filed this report about the situation in Benghazi as he was packing to leave for Egypt. The much vaunted Libyan rebellion collapses and Libyan leader Muamar al Gadaffi is poised to regain foothold of his civil war-torn country.

Nothing really pisses me off big time other than the waste of time and energy. I am amazed at how much time and effort we invest on insignificant endeavors rather then directing our energy on things that really matter. What's the matter with us? What has gone terribly wrong with us. Have we just become a massive collection of degenerates?

           ...Baguio Escapades... Baguio City has kept most of its charms despite the onslaught of urbanization. It is the the regional center for the Cordillera Administrative Region. Famous for its flowers and the annual Panagbenga Festival, Baguio is also considered as the educational center of the north with the presence of such educational institutions as St Louis University, UP Baguio among others. The ambience of the city makes a conducive learning environment for students, writers and scholars.

"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs; If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and tear them into pieces."--Matthew 7:6 (NIV) Not a few days ago, I remember reading an article by a balikbayan describing his last visit to Subic (SBMA). The article was a boring litany of what Subic has been as a booming free-port to what it has become become--a seemingly wretched place. Like the author, I am reminded of the the passage above every time I think of my own travel. In my case it is Banaue  and its once renown Rice Terraces, in the province of Ifugao. 

That same night in Vigan, we had to embarked on another journey, this time to Baguio then finally, Sagada.  The travel would last four hours and would have us traversing several provinces before reaching Baguio City. After reaching Baguio City, that was around 2:00 AM, we took time to rest and eat. We had to take another bus ride to Sagada. We arrived at 1:00 in the afternoon. And, so the adventure began.

As promised, I would now be posting the account of our trip to Ilocos and Cordillera. This is the first part of the said trip. Based on our flight schedule, we had to leave Cebu on February 22nd at around 6:30 in the morning aboard a Cebu Pacific flight to Manila. In Manila, we had to board another flight, this time a Philippine Airlines flight, to Laoag City. Both flights were smooth and stress-free owing to the fair weather condition. It was in Laoag where we had to start the actual sight-seeing. Lucky for us , we found a tricycle driver who offered to tour us around Laoag and Vigan using his friend's van, which we had to rent for Php 3,000.00 (that is P1,000.00 for each of us). ARRIVAL PICTURES                                                                              ...

About a week ago, I, together with two colleagues embarked on arduous journey to explore Ilocos and the Cordillera regions, or at least their main points of interests. Now, I am beset with an enormous task of piecing together the highlights of the said trip. This task is enormous in a sense that I had to keep the balance among several factors to make this piece an interesting read. One such task is to keep this as informative as possible while sparing the readers the boring details of logistics and itinerary. So I decided to just focus on the itinerary alone leaving other details on a separate section. The whole trip, from February 22-27, spanned a total of 6 days. There are a lot of stories to tell and a lot of observations to share. Since discussing all of those places I just one article would be too boring, I intend to post the articles by installments. That’s something to look forward to. Isn’t it? So, here is how it’s going to be divided. February  22 nd 2011: Il...

I think I'll be doing myself a great favor if I post these pictures taken during our Dumaguete and Siquijor escapades. There are just so many of them. So here they are.  Day 1 The long but not-so-painful wait at the Cebu South Bus Terminal ...and this one too... we didn't have much pictures when inside the bus enroute to Lilo-an Santander but we have these.... ...just mocking around... ...but prior to that, let me show you this... ...a resort in Lilo-an Santander...the souther part of Cebu boasts of very good beaches.... ...in the "city by the bay"... ...the renowned Rizal Boulevard with people doing their morning walk... we had to stay at the guest house of the university where I used to study... FOUNDATION UNIVERSITY ...yes, that's a mac.. they only use macs... ...inside BALAY SA ALUMNI...that is a framed photo of Vicente Sinco, the founder... ...at the university beside the sea... ...random pics inside Silliman University.....