Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Ironic, isn't it?

1. When you are in a hurry, there will be a lot of things/occurences that will delay you. But if you have lots of time and even if you still intentionally want to be late you will still arrive on time.

2. When you are looking for something you could not find it but when you dont need it anymore thus you stop hunting for it out of the blue that thing will pop up to you

3. You bring an umbrella everyday but it does not rain but the one time you will forget it, it will rain.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Where are they going?

A new school year is nearing; by this time several high school graduates had already made their choice of what course to take and what school to attend. And recently, the most popular course is Nursing.

Slots for the said course in some schools have been close as early as March due to an overwhelming number of applicants. Since there is a large demand, schools offering Nursing sprouted like mushrooms in the metropolis.

If you would ask those students why they have chosen to be a future nurse, the answers may vary but it is not surprising if they believe that nursing is the channel for them to land a good-paying job abroad.

The sudden influx of job opportunities abroad for nurses has resulted for more students to aspire to work abroad. According to an article published at Manila Standard Today the United States alone needs one million nurses by 2010, while in Europe, about 20,000 nursing slots are available.

The nursing phenomenon does not limit to undergraduate students but college graduates as well. News of doctors and other professionals studying nursing is not new anymore. From 2000-2004 around 6,000 Filipino doctors were reported to be taking up Nursing.

Statistics from Philippine Overseas Employment Administration stated that from 1996 to 2002, 16, 124 nurses were deployed abroad. But other countries’ gain is our country’s big loss. The exodus of nurses and doctors resulted to the shortage of nurses and doctors especially in the rural areas. An alarming statistical figure stated that there is only one government nurse per nine barangays and ,worse, one nurse per 16, 723 Filipinos

How could we expect for this country to be “cured” from its “illness” if the people will leave it unaided? Who will take care of the Filipinos if almost all capable health workers have flown out to somewhere but here?

But can we really blame them if they seek greener pastures? What they earn abroad pales in comparison to what they receive here in the country. These people also have their own families to support and, unfortunately, the prospect of having a stable life in the Philippines is bleak. To be idealistic in this country is one tough road to take. Sad but true.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Message Sent

Ten years ago the cell phone was something for the rich and well off only. Back then beepers were the “in” thing, along with tamagotchis. Mobile phones were so large that its only difference with a landline phone is that a cell phone is handy but still bulky (it’s like bringing a landline with you). And as far as I remember, cell phones back then were all on post-paid basis so owners expect bills as expensive as their electric bills arriving in their doorstep every month.
Five years ago, the cell phone phenomenon started to take over the country. I remember during my early days in high school when a classmate showed his cell phone. (I can’t remember exactly whether it was Nokia 5110 or 3310 but what I’m sure is that it was the model that was then considered “sosyal.”) We were quite amazed, and soon enough some classmates jumped the bandwagon and started buying their own cell phones. There were “competitions” as to who will get the higher score in Snake and debates on how the game Logic is played (up to now I still don’t know how to play that game). I did not have a cell phone until I entered college but I was not out of the loop back then since I always borrowed the “family cell phone”, which I just use at home. Forwarding jokes and quotations was very predominant and of course I had my share of “text mates” (which today I think is just a waste of load).

Almost every one now owns a cell phone. Every week, a new model is released making your cell phone look so obsolete. Now, a cell phone is not just for calls and text messages but you can now use it to take pictures, listen to music, record voice or video clips, and many more. The ring tones were upgraded from monotones to polytones and now real music. Ring tones are not limited to music only, since I’ve also heard a Mike Enriquez and an “I see dead people” ring tone. Cell phone crimes have climbed the ladder too. Theft cases have risen from snatchings to hold ups. There was even a report that a student was killed because he refused to give his cell phone to a robber. There is also what you call “text scams” where someone will text you saying that you have won a huge amount of money, the catch being, you have to pay first before you receive and a lot of people have fallen to that ploy. And of course, there are the “sex scandals” being passed from phone to phone. From college students to celebrities the choices are endless. No wonder the bold film industry is already dead here because why pay if you could have your pornography right in your hands?

There are about 30 million phone users in the Philippines, and they send an average of 400 million text messages a day (and that figure was before the “unlimited texting”). Well, China sends more text messages than us, but you have to consider their population. No wonder the telecom companies are one of the richest corporations in the country. I’ve read in Philippine Daily Inquirer that Smart has 20.8 million subscribers, Globe has 13.62 subscribers and the newbie Sun has about 2 million. The total is 36.42 million subscribers or 42.8 percent of the country’s 85 million population. According also to a Philippine Daily Inquirer article, in the first half of 2005 Filipinos spent 165.8 billion pesos for telecommunication services. Ironically, we are a country that is having an economic crisis.

Many explanations were made why we Filipinos are cell phone-crazy people but it all boils down to the fact that we love staying connected in an instant. If you’re alone and bored, just text someone and you will not feel alone anymore. Text messages became so popular because most of us are shy and is have troubles expressing ourselves. With text messaging, we are more comfortable speaking out what’s on our mind.

The mobile phone business is still not showing signs of waning. The cell phone is now a part of our lives. The competition between the telecom companies is stiffer than ever. Mobile phone services has became more affordable especially with the introduction of “loads in sachet”, that is electronic loading which has became a common fixture in sari-sari stores, canteens and even the sidewalks. While almost everything has become more expensive, the prices of telecom services have been dropping. In these trying times where the country is in an economic turmoil, an affordable way of getting connected is what we need since a cell phone is no longer considered a luxury but a necessity.

Monday, April 17, 2006

How I spent the Holy Week Break

Excuse the lack of creativity of my title, just could not think of a "catchy" one.It actually reminds me of my elementary days where the first activity every first day of class (and after the Christmas break too) is "My Summer (Christmas) Vacation". Actually this is the first time I had a class after the lenten season (my first summer class was after the lenten season) so this is something new to me, but I'm not complaining, because I love being at school this summer than bore myself at home. Basically,I spent more time on tv even if there is no regular programming because well I had a great time following the marathon of Gilmore Girls and 7th heaven.Yup.I stay tuned from start to finish (on thursday 9 ep marathon of gilmore girls then 6 ep and 12 ep marathon for 7th heaven). Even though, I've already seen the episodes shown I still watched because well its FUN to relieve those episodes.I also watched Maalala Mo Kaya on ABS CBN,I love the story of the girl (fatima) who is sick yet her faith unwaivered and the young actress who played Fatima was excellent.I also watched the "tagalized" tv special on St. Rita, I thought I will get bored watching it but I was wrong,the show was engaging. My parents also listened to Radio Veritas, a Catholic radio station, it the programs were very sacred then I heard MIKE ENRIQUEZ! I dont really like Mike and was annoyed with what he is saying because he was too preachy (plus keeps saying kapuso every start of a sentence which was really annoying and my brother even commented "paano na yung mga kapamilya, hindi na niya pagdadasal" wow,network war on holy week). I attended one mass only and had a first rosary with all 6 of us present. I also ate a lot but there were no meat although I did have lots of chichirias. To sum it up, it was uneventful break but definitely not boring.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Short term memory

I was appaled in one of last night's news. IBON foundation conducted a survey about who they want to be the next president if ever Gloria is ousted and guess who came on top? ERAP!!! what are they THINKIN? have they forgotten what he have done? I dont like Gloria too but that does not mean that ERAP is already redeemed. I'm so disgusted how some of the Filipino people are suffering from "amnesia", how could they easily forget that only a few years ago we ousted this president because of all the anomalies and other negative stuff he have done? They want to oust gloria but want erap back? the future is doomed!!!!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Miss and Hit

The new Heraldo Filipino Editorial Board was released last Monday (april 4) and sadly I did not make it. I was really disappointed since I really wanted to be an editor. I blew it. I knew I did mediocre on the EB exams and messed up the panel interview so I somehow sensed that I may not make it, still I crossed my fingers that maybe I could still pass. But my hunch was right,unfortunately. Life goes on and I fully support the new EB, I could still try next year anyway.

On the other side, I was chosen as the Editor in Chief for our class' laboratory paper El CaviteƱo (our summer subjects is all about News Writing and Newspaper Management). It will be one big challenge for me. We only have less than 6 weeks to produce that paper. I hope I could manage our paper well. This is the first time I will lead such big task. I will really work hard for this. I want our paper to be a success. Wish me luck!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Mathematically Challenged

I received my grades last week and in general my grades were good except for one. The highest grade in DLSU-D is 4.00 then 3.75,3.50, 3.25 and so on and we are under Absolute Grading system which is hard but challenging. As much as possible I dont want to get a grade of 1.75 down to 1.00 (and of course 0.00 but thats already given) unfortunatley I had another 1.75 for Elementary Statistics. "Another" because it's the second time I received a 1.75 first was on the second semester of my freshman on the subject......you guess it right..... College Algebra! I don't hate Math I just hate not being good at it! Math could have been an easy subject for me coz it does not involves complex terms, if you know how to solve a problem and knows the correct process you are surely to have great grades! I really envy people who are good with Math. But I am not really dumb at Math since I was able to maintain being a consistent honor student in high school despite difficulty with Math.(But during my 2nd year in highschool I was almost disqualified at the honors' list since I almost did not make the grade cut off for Math which is 85, I got 84.7, thank God it was rounded off.). My problem is that I had poor retention in Math and I do not review my notes that much except when there is exams already.I admit it's my fault why I'm mediocre at Math. However I'm still good at some aspects of math like probability,permutation among others , its too bad that for the other aspects of Statistics I was awful. I'm also good with Math that involves money hehehe. Oh well, good Elem Stat is my last Math subject! Ironically, I was awarded Best in math during my highschool graduation, what a joke! I was awarded with that award because of the following reasons:

1. My school gave two awards for each category one for each section and almost all of the people who were good at Math were in the other section (we have no honor section, we are mixed up) thus the other section faced stiffer competition while my section not that much.
2. My math teacher during my final year taught us the same topic (counting techniques) for two grading period and since I was good with those topics I received good grades
3. And according to my math teacher I was the nicest in my class.Well,since a lot of my classmates dislike her they tend to be unruly on her.

Still, I do not deserve it and you know what, I failed to bag the award I was hoping to get instead I received the award that I would never thought of getting. Oh well.....