EU Whiz: Just like a tattoo

I didn't know that Mindanao Daily Mirror had also covered the EU Whiz held last July; I thought it was only the Mindanao Times, until I stumbled an on-line version of the Mirror's account of the contest:

"UP Mindanao team won the grand championship in the recently concluded EU Whiz ’08 Mind Encounter Kaya Mo To! held at the event center of SM City Davao on July 10.

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"The third round was between Holy Cross of Davao (Jed Bete, Kharren Ray Pala, Arvin Antonio Ortiz, Rolando Pelayo, and coach Teresa Fabiana), UP Mindanao, and Jose Maria College (Gretchen Belleza, Rizz Monique Juan, Earl Evangelio, Annie Rose Labong, and coach Rachel Amad).

"In the end UP Mindanao won, followed by Brokenshire as first runner-up, and AdDU as second runner-up."

The EU Whiz is  one event that will always remind me of 2008. Just like a tattoo, I'll always have it.  (Yuk-wasn't that line from Jordin Sparks' "Tattoo" song?)

It's not that I am  still harboring  a sayang-naman-hindi-kami-nanalo-feeling that I keep remembering that unfateful event. EU Whiz is memorable to me for two reasons:

1. It is my first time to join a quiz bee outside the school.


2. At least I did one thing in 2008 that I can be proud of:  imperiling the UP Min's chance of winning.

We  are desperate to win the contest. We even studied several facts and figures culled from the most unreliable of sources, just to secure that we left no stones unturned. Happenstance decreed otherwise. We lost. But I can say that it was a heroic defeat---at least for me.

While the article detailed how UP Min. won the contest, it forgot to mention how we made the UP Min's road to victory an uphill climb. Yes, making the Iskolar ng Bayan 's lives miserable (only in quiz bee, of course) is something that one can be proud, considering that the people in the audience (from what I heard from my friends who were there) are all rooting for them.

They are deserving indeed. But so are we. Although we know the answers, the  judges know  the UP  studes better. Tsk...Tsk...Tsk...

The moral of the story: Press the buzzer harder. And make sure the light works. Otherwise, the rival team will be called.

Nothing's changed

It has become an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure for the uninitiated) for teachers to require their students to write their New Year’s resolutions when they’re back to school. Even college students are not exempted. Putting another twist, my college teacher required us to write not a New Year’s resolution but our vision for the New Year. I grudgingly obliged. Now we are about to end 2008 and welcome yet another year, I re-read the piece I wrote. I was surprised to know that nothing’s really changed since then. Below is the full text of that piece I wrote as my vision for 2008:

After a long time of not sitting on a pew to receive the Holy Eucharist because partly of my prohibitive class schedule, it was a respite to sit again on one to listen, reflect, and pray. On New Year’s Day, I had had a taste of this respite when I attended the second mass scheduled for that day. It was also a more welcome respite to hear it from Fr. Dondon whose homily was as hefty as his weight. The attendance was relatively scarce, which made me wonder, considering that Catholics, in name and in fact, should be profusely thankful for that day, nay, everyday, for having survived and lived the bliss and the curse; the grace and disgrace of the previous year. Moreover, not only should that day be for devout Catholics to thank God, but also that day should be for Catholics—who profess to be one but seldom or never had practiced it—to contemplate. The attendance’s scarcity was due perhaps to the tired bones from the previous night’s celebration or the hangover from the previous night’s inebriation, or both.

Back to the mass, the priest’s homily was pregnant with insights on how to start the year right. To start the year right, said Fr. Dondon, is to start with a right disposition in life, like Mary, Mother of God who is full of grace, whose disposition in life is crystal clear. I agree with him because, drawing from my own experience, there was never a person who arrived to where he wanted to arrive without an exact destination of where he wanted to go. In the same vein, there was never a person who accomplished something without a sure knowledge of what he wanted to accomplish.

For the previous year, we had seen reforms of every kind, not because of, but despite the socio-politico-economic maladies that bedeviled. That is exactly what I want—an untrammeled search for reforms, for hope, despite the circumstances that might sometimes lead us to loose hope in hoping.

I don’t, however, mean that I want a repeat of 2007 where reforms found their way, not because of, but despite the socio-politico-economic maladies. Nor do I mean to try the same ways of seeking reforms when distressed with another maladies. For, as the timeworn cliché goes, we can’t step twice into the same river.

What I certainly mean is to search for reforms, not from without but from within; or as the Bishops put it, a "Cha-Cha"—Character Change. If in the previous year/s, we tried to push for amendments/revisions in our Constitution in order to solve our problems, maybe it’s time to put into practice the wisdom enshrined in it. Rather than change its basic principles so that they may suit our actions or correct our vices, maybe it’s time to change our actions and correct our vices so that they may be in accordance with the Constitution’s principles. There simply are things we can’t legislate nor impose. If we were disappointed in the previous year/s to find no alternatives because we were looking for reform from without, maybe it’s time to try looking for reform from within. We might be surprised to see how many alternatives we have from within. But when, in our lifetime, everything else fails and every step of the way is blocked, and neither reform from without nor reform from within is effective, have faith, be hopeful; faith is hope. And in hope we were saved. “SPE SALVI facti sumus.” (Mindanao Times, 12/21/08)

Prophecy fulfilled

[caption id="attachment_186" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="RAZED. Taj Mahal Hotel was one of the targets of the recent carnage led which was led by an Islamist group suspected to have a link with Al-Qaeda. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)"][/caption]

On October 18, 2008, Selig Harrison, director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a Senior Scholar at Woordrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, wrote an article in Newsweek that sounded like an early warning. A key passage read:

Unless Washington broadens its counterterrorism strategy and forces Islamabad to crack down, the Islamists could end up wreaking havoc not only in Pakistan but also in India—eight times larger, a rising global power with growing ties to the United States and a huge and restive Muslim minority."

And havoc they wreaked.

On November 27, 2008, more than a month later when the article came out, news of terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India came out.

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For the timeline of the recent carnage, read Timeline-Attack on Mumbai.

For an account that the Pakistani militant that attacked Mumbai , India's financial capital, has a link with Al-Qaeda, read Follow the 8 links to Al-Qaeda by Maria A. Ressa, ABS-CBN's VP for News and Current Affairs, who is also the author of Seeds or Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia .

For excellent analyses on on the "whys" of the attack, read The Fire Needs to Be Put  Out by Fareed Zakaria and The Problem is Politics by Shekhar Gupta.

Time for smart government

Gone are the days when debates over the role (if at all) of the government vis-à-vis the economy centered on whether markets need big or small government intervention. With the whiplash of global economic crisis expected to hit badly by 2009, arguing if there’s a necessity—nay, urgency— for government interventions is simply not advisable. Economists of different persuasions believe that governments should. Why? Because as those who have gone through Economics 101 (Principles of Economics) with the assistance of Prof. Gregory Mankiw’s textbook know, Principle No.7 says that “The government can sometimes improve market outcomes.”

Now isn’t the time to cry over spilled milk either. Rather, it’s time to think of ways how we can get out of this—alive and kicking. Prof. Cielito Habito, for instance, argued that there is a way out of crisis if only the government acts smartly.

Register now or else...

[caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="Photo courtesy of Hon. Mabel Sunga Acosta"][/caption]

There is a differing opinion over whether the 2010 elections will be held considering that Cha-cha moves are under way in the House of Representatives. But I do still invest a dash of  belief that the 2010 elections will be held as scheduled, thanks to the efforts of some Senators and other concerned sectors---civil society, religious sectors, international NGOs, etc. Which is why I encourage those who are not yet registered but are already qualified to vote to register now or else...you will not see the change you want in this country.

As the great Gandhi said: Be the change you want to be. Unless you want this country to be doomed eternally, do not let your vote go to waste. In the words of Conrado de Quiros:

...the wasted vote is the one you withhold from the candidate you deem deserving because “he is not going to win anyway.” That is a self-fulfilling prophecy, guaranteeing doom -- and not just for your candidate. The only thing worse than being disempowered is having the power and not knowing you do. Or worse, knowing you do and abdicating it. The vote is a great power, and it is something we hold in our hands. The victory of candidates is not written in the stars, it is written in our hearts. The victory of candidates is not foreordained, it is decided by us. We do not vote for candidates, they do not win. We vote for candidates, they win.

Even if the candidate you believe in is not a popular one, what of it? Voting is not just something you do for a candidate, it is something you do for yourself. Or to yourself. Elections are a test of character, but it is not just a test of character for the candidate, it is a test of character for the voter, too. It’s not just the candidate who’s on trial in elections, it is you, too. When you vote, you do not just decide the kind of life you want for the nation, you decide what kind of life you want for yourself. You can choose either the life of a lemming and throw yourself off a cliff because everybody is doing so or the life of a human being and act as reason and conviction tell you to.

At the end of the day, you do not just have to live with the candidate you have inflicted on the nation, you have to live with yourself and the wound you have inflicted on yourself. You can’t be true to yourself, you can’t be true to the nation. Stop complaining about this country going nowhere. There is no vote that is wasted on a candidate you believe is fit to run this country, whether he wins or not. You do not win when you vote a fool or a tyrant to office because he or she is the “strong candidate,” you lose -- even if he or she wins. Above all when he or she wins. And you do not lose when you vote for a candidate as your conscience bids, you win -- even if he or she loses. Above all if he or she loses: It is but the beginning of struggle.

The “wasted vote” is a stupid concept. You keep worrying about it, you’re wasting your time, your energy and your life.

It's entirely up to us voters. Register now!