screw the status quo. we need change and we need it now. we need not a leader who plays with words and public funds. we need not a leader whose years of service fall under the 'fiction' category. we definitely need not a leader who knows nothing. we require a leader who has conviction, who has the guts to change the seemingly unchangeable. we need... to prepare for 2007. Now.

Monday, December 22, 2003

Ah... I'm home again. After some visits to my grandma and some relatives in Bulacan, I managed to squeeze in some time to roam around the province and nearby Manila in my old red car... with my sistahs, of course! Yup! I've been almost every corner of my realm, visiting old and new places, looking closely to some things which are in need of noticing, observing, and, again, criticizing. Here, now, are some of my brain ooze I collected since Monday...

1. Divisoria is HELL during these days. My cousin Vane brought me there after a series of insisting. Goodness! The place is swarming with people! I can't believe a small place would be filled with an impossible number of people... who could actually still breathe and live through all of it. I will never forget that place- Divisoria Mall basement- it's like entering a cave filled with good cheap stuff. Uhm... actually, it's like going in a cave-tiangge, where people pass by through ceilings, walls and ladders all over... it's the cave-version of Naboo. With only 200 bucks, we were exiting the place with two basket-loads of plastic toys and goodies! But, for those who have weak hearts and weak lungs, do not... i say... do not even think of going there. I almost died there, believe me.

2. 'Tis the time for sharing, for giving, for lacking discipline. If you love driving, then Malolos City is not a place to be nowadays. Get away from this place, if you don't want some 30 minutes being trapped in your car doing nothing but moan about traffic. And what's the cause? Peddlers in the streets. The streets surrounding the Malolos Basilica looks worse than Aladdin's Agrabah. Aside from that, a line of Karatig public utility jeepneys clog the remaining lane that would have kept traffic moving, at least. Yes, it happens here in Malolos City during the holidays. Why? Well, the formula's simple, actually. More street peddlers = more money for the municipal government. But is it really worth the hassle and trouble?

3. The last installment of the Lord of the Rings series, the Return of the King, is the best ever epic movie I've ever seen in my entire life. It even surpasses Braveheart (starring Mel Gibson) that awed me for decades. Every minute of this movie captured my breath, every second captured my soul. To me, sitting there in the theatre, watching the broken Fellowship of the Ring partake in the last battle in Middle Earth, and in the end finally reaching the goal of ending Sauron... ahhh... pure bliss.

Believe me- in that scene in the foot of Mt. Doom where Sam and Frodo took their last stretch to finally destroy the One RIng... when, after their friendship has suffered a seemingly endless series of trials, Sam told Frodo, "If I can't carry it, I will carry you..," tears went rolling down my cheeks. If I'd be a friend to anyone, I'd be Samwise Gamgee.

As the movie neared it's closing, I can't help but think of the past years I devoted to waiting for each sequel of LOTR. "The Fellowship" and "Two Towers" were the two movies, within the time of showing of which many things happened in my life- both good and bad. Now, The Return of the King concludes the three year wait.

Mixed feelings. I am both happy and sad after seing ROTK. Happy for I am still alive to witness such grandeoso movie, sad because I see no more flicks to equal its greatness in the near future. Troy? Maybe.

4. Breaking news from the Bulacan State University. As of December 22, the poor part-time/fulltime teachers of this wretched institution still haven't received their Christmas bonus. I went with the excited Indie there. She was expecting that she'd finally get cash to buy gifts, toys for her children, and to be used for preparations for Christmas. As she went out of the cashier's office with a broken smile, tear-eyed, softly uttering with her cracked voice "Wala eh", shrugging her shoulder... I knew that was it. No happy Christmas for my poor best friend. BSU killed Christmas for my dear friend.

As I treated her to snack in a nearby fastfood chain, I promised her that, in our own little way, she'd get even. The scrooges in the administration building of Bulacan State University shall have their stench be dispersed in the international scene, thus exposing the rotting system to the world. How else can I do it but through the website, of course! (HA HA HA!) This, hopefully, will get the attention of the authorities, specially President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to please please please!!! Have these corrupt officials of BSU be fired from their posts immediately. They make GRAFT AND CORRUPTION seem like tradition and culture in public service. They should be eradicated.

BSU has no heart, and treats their employees like animals. BSU doesn't care if it's teachers die in hunger. BSU doesn't care if it's teachers rot while serving the institution. BSU doesn't care for maintaining the morale of the noblest and most honorable profession, nor for their security, nor their dignity. BSU only cares for one thing- to generate income and to spend it to useless things for contractor's commission. The administrators are selfish, self-serving, good-for-nothing impostors who claim they only want the best for the university, yet in reality, they know nothing more than stuffing their pockets with money. They are the Socratics of the modern times.

To that "Nana Guy" fromt BSU's Cashier's office, who, according to Indie, complains on being rushed to do her work by the poor employees who only want to feed their families in days of desperate need: If you're not happy with your job anymore, then QUIT IT. You can't blame these people for demanding for their pay on time after unfailingly serving the institution that deprives them and takes them for granted! You can't drive them away from your office for demanding for their hard and honestly earned pay!

Tomorrow, Indie's going back to BSU again and, probably, she'd stay there until office closing time to wait for the "biyaya" she's been expecting since first week of December. Yes, she'd be doing that instead of enjoying the Christmas break just like the rest of us. Nobody knows if she'll have that broken smile and shoulders shrugging again in the end of the day. She's been doing just that since the week that has passed. I don't know if she secretly cries every night- for her and for her family's future- feeling ever trapped in this university where she serves. I wish her Merry Christmas... and merry Christmas I pray she'd have. Next year, after finishing her masteral degree studies, I'll take her somewhere where her effort, her talent and skills, and herself would be appreciated. Yes, abroad where universities probably treat their teachers as honorable teachers, not as beggars knocking on the cashier's office's glass windows.


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