Flattered?

“Ang ganda nga niya eh. Ang tangos ng ilong niya, parang may lahi.” – Jay complimenting my niece.

“Ang cute nga niya eh, para akong may Korean na anak” –Mom to Bea

“Mukha kang taga Middle East. Ang ganda kaya ng race nila.” –A friend to me.

We are all guilty of inferiority complex and we all believe that other races are superior to ours evident in how we compliment our fellows and how we feel when the compliment is directed at us.

I am guilty of it and I don’t feel proud about it.

Can’t we just compliment our fellow Filipinos by saying that they look beautiful period. I long for the time when it would be the norm that Filipinos would use adjectives instead to express their liking for an aesthetically pleasing face.

“I like how Noah looks because his sleepy eyes are always mysteriously expressive. I never know what he thinks from his eyes except that he avoids mine especially when we have more than 30 seconds of eye contact. I also like his particularly small mouth that when he leaves open reveal his perfect teeth and I am guilty of thinking what it would feel like to kiss him.”

Okay, well not everyone can produce such words to another individual they mean to compliment especially when they do not know the person much. Plus the fact that a person gets more beautiful the more we get to know them.

I do appreciate compliments like, “Ang ganda ng face niya.” Simple. No bullshit. The person may be being very up to the point or maybe having a difficulty in being intricate but at least that person didn't associate beauty to a foreign face. Maybe it’s just that, sometimes we associate beauty to foreign races because it is the surest way of being persuasive so that the compliment can be accepted easily. Because they have that misconception that ideal beauty is anything but Filipino beauty. Colonial mentality will always be deep-seated in our system and it’s just sad.

Kids? Pshh.

“They are mere kids.”

They are just kids so we must not punish them. They are just kids so we let them slide every time they commit a mistake denying the very fact that the act of letting them slide confuses the child’s perception of the morally correct, of the rightful standards and of the proper way of treating other people. Not correcting the wrongful action of the child is denial of that child to improve himself and to mature psychologically. We rob the child of what could have been an opportunity for them to rise up after a fall. We rob the child of redeeming himself after committing a forgivable mistake. We rob the child of wisdom.

 They steal something, we don’t lecture them. Why, no we won’t. They lie, we don’t correct them. Absolutely no. They throw or waste their food, we just laugh at them. We do not at the slightest attempt try to inculcate values upon them. It would be unthinkable. It’s not accepted, not in this house. That would merit corporal punishment and in this house you’d get 20 to life if you as much tell your nieces that stealing from others is wrong, that saying bad words is unbecoming, that being lazy of household chores is unfair to all members of the family who are doing their assigned responsibilities. Because ladies and gentlemen, in this house we put a premium on emotions. This house believes that emotions control us and guide our decision-making. Feelings come first before truth and facts.

 I never heard of a judge who acquitted a molester just because he felt pity towards the disabled perpetuator. The molester has to face the consequences regardless of the fact that he had needs, regardless of the fact that he was oblivious of the law.

Maybe that’s why here in the country, certain politicians want to push for a law that would impose a heavier punishment to minors who have committed crimes because once they get out, after being rehabilitated or sometimes just an overnight stay at the children’s desk, syndicates use them as instruments to exact crimes all over again. Because, hey. What have they got to lose? They are just minors right.

“They are just kids.” Yes and Lucipher was once an angel.

Words to the Unwise

“Stop being stubborn okay. Please go to Church.” Such lovingly hurtful words from a Methodist.

“Why so?”  I ask, even if I am fully aware of the answer having been a former Born Again Christian Church goer.

“Because it will help improve your relationship with GOD.”  There it is. I hear the obvious answer again and surprisingly I’m more and more tolerant of being preached upon.

“I know. I will try.” I tell him in the hopes of convincing myself even of the slightest possibility.

 “You must rely on your own strength. Believe that you are the best.” An atheist tells me. It was lovingly convenient words. Words that scared more than it reassured me.

The light at the end of the tunnel gets dimmer and dimmer by the day and all I do is bathe in the darkness.

Fruits of Taking an IS Elective

Posing with a co-member of the African Union

 The delegate of the Democratic Republic of Algeria would like to commend the Model United Nations Simulation dated October 15, 2012 for Gender Law and Politics: Women's Rights Finals as it succeeded in tackling the current status of Women’s Access to Universal Health Care by participating UN countries and coming up with a consensus document that would address the said issues on a local, regional and global scale.