Exercise of Political Power Against the Powerless

Some of them are now in their seventies and 80s. They would have received a P2,000 across-the board increase of their measly Social Security System monthly pension which is as low as P1,200. But the President of the Philippines rejected such hike.

Aquino, in his public statement as quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said he was "heartless to the pensioners" preferring to be kind to those 31 million projected member-pensioners in 2024 or earlier. This is a heartless comment against them who will not live long. This son of an oligarch does not know suffering and deprivation.

Did his economic advisers apply the wrong algorithm or did they simply follow the equation and calculus and extrapolation but came out with the wrong figures? Did they not consider other variables like deaths of present workers enrolled in the system or members quitting because of immigration or going into business?

He swallowed the advice hook, line and sinker of the present crop of SSS managers and functionaries, who will also retire, not as SSS but GSIS members, and given their gargantuan salaries, will receive mind-boggling pensions. These people he appointed are actually depleting the pension funds by giving to themselves P1-M bonuses and other allowances.

He chose to be kind to people in the future, who will outlive him, this intellectual imbecile who should not have been president of his country.

What Aquino did to the pension hike was a violent exercise of mindless power against the powerless--the suffering, ailing, starving retirees who also contributed to the SSS pension fund during their time.

FLASH FICTION

First Sentences:

She was jogging on the pavement across the road, a wisp of a girl in black sneakers, black pants and black sweatshirt, a white cap on her head. For a brief moment, she looked in my direction. Hey, but the face looked familiar: Estrella de la Cruz?  It was not my intention to wave at her, but when I did she waved back and I thought I heard a voice that spoke of angels in the heavens.

Walking-jogging in LA.

Marga Denise Julian in Oscariz, Ramon, Isabela




"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life."--Anne Lamott

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Jack Canfield, co-creator of the best-selling "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series, said that some people aren't as successful as they'd like to be because they haven't decided what they want. "They are living their life by default and not by design."

Canfield is also the author of "The Success Principles: How to Get From Where to Where You Want To Be."

In an interview with a US newspaper last year, Canfield discussed some of the success principles, which include the following:

1, Take 100 percent responsibility for your life.

     This means that you should not blame others--Congress, their parents, their children, their boss, their employees- " for the parts of their lives they don't like."

     Canfield said that about 85 percent of our behavior is habit, and it takes about 100 days to change a habit or behavior. So the key, he said, is to change your behavior for a different outcome.

2. Take Action

     Canefield says that if you take action, you trigger all kinds of things that will eventually carry you to success.

3. Develop Four New Success Habits a Year

Blogger and wife Estelita on a night out in Las Vegas

     Canefield says it takes about three months to change a habit. But, he adds, you have to change one habit at a time.

     The bad habits that need to be broken include: procrastinating; not delivering on documents and promised services; arriving late for meetings and appointments; talking over other's comments instead of listening.

4. Commit to Constant and Never-Ending Improvement

     Canefield says that successful people are extremely curious and commit to learning something new everyday. "They are often voracious readers," he says. "I do something daily called the Hour of Power--20 minutes of meditation, 20 minutes of exercise, and 20 minutes of reading. If you do that basically you are going to be calmer, healthier and more aware when you interact with people."

5. Be a Class Act

     Canefield says that class acts places better than they find them. He enumerates some examples of what to strive for: Maintain dignity and grace under pressure. Counteract meanness, pettiness and vulgarity.

     
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"It is not fashionable to teach college students to develop their spiritual life. Many university educations leave students virtually undeveloped in the most meaningful part of their existence. Indeed, some seriously damage what Christian convictions students may have had."--Oral Roberts, from his address to the first class of Oral Roberts University, September 7, 1965.

"And we should consider everyday lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least a laugh."--Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

AQUINO'S ACT AGAINST PENSIONERS

President Aquino has just delivered a low blow against pensioners especially those who receive less than P10,000. per month. ( A great number has P1,500- P3,000 pension.) He vetoed the bill that would have granted these senior citizens P2,000 across- the-board increase in the monthly pension.

With mounting food and medical costs expect the pensioners to suffer more during Aquino's final months in office. Unless, both chambers override the veto; but that's a long shot and time is running out.

Maybe, the next President will be more generous to these senior citizens, some of whom are now in their late seventies.

This, in the context that Aquino's watch has been tainted with massive corruption and lawmakers steal from state coffers with impunity.

One of the robber barons, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, the only solon in the Upper Chamber who did not approve the bill when it reached the Senate, is facing corruption charges but has posted bail to this non-bailable offense.

Enrile's  girlfriend ,Gigi Reyes, whom he allegedly used to siphon off the public money is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodian Center.

The powerful Enrile was sired by a Manila rich man who immigrated to Cagayan and became a member of Congress, with the Ilokana Petra Purruganan. Known then as Juanito Purruganan, he grew up in Gonzaga town, went to Manila and looked for the father who abandoned him. The rest is history.


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"Hell is a state of mind--ye never said a truer word."--C.S. Lewis, "The Great Divorce."

"Why should all believers receive and exercise the gift of tongues? When we speak in tongues we are saying things in a spiritual language our enemy Satan cannot understand...when we pray in tongues, we are assured that we are praying as we should because the Holy Spirit is praying through us." Joyce Meyer    

'BLACK DAHLIA AND WHITE ROSES' AND ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S GREAT PASSIONS

Perusing a collection of 11 short stories with the same title (one of the short stories) by Joyce Carol Oates. The New York Times says in the jacket: "This collection could be used as a master class in the art of pure, suspenseful storytelling."
***A another perusing, of Ernest Hemingway's writings on two of America's greatest passions--hunting and fishing. So far, the Nobel Prize-winning author, has the greatest hold on me with respect to description of places. He was detailed, graphic, movable like a photographer recording the terrain of the setting of his stories and essays. It is as if I have gone to these places--these mountains, these streams, these hunting grounds. Ernest Hemingway's powerful narratives take your breath away.

On the back cover of the hard-bound brown book, the Washington Post says, "Hemingway at his purest... artfully spare, gracefully descriptive, and faithful to his professional commitment."

On the same back cover, the Chicago Tribune extols: " Hemingway's best writing on fishing. It is what Hemingway loved most."

The blogger recommends these books to Ilokano writers in the Philippines so they may learn what writing truly means. Sometimes, or, rather, you must be involved all the time in the times and settings of your narrative. Not just a process of the imagination. Sad to say, Ilokano writings, not all, don't reflect even just a hint of where the action of their stories takes place.

The blogger as provincial chief of a government agency in Ilocos Sur, Philippines
receiving a certificate of appreciation from the mayor of  Tagudin town.

A YEAR OLDER

We humans left 2015. How did we mark the passing of 365 days or so, that either made or broke us?
In the Philippines,we made noise, a lot of noise: exploding firecrackers, firing guns where stray bullets killed some, shouting to kingdom come, beating drums, cans.
No doubt about it. It was merry-making to the max.
Bidding goodbye to the Old Year is as enthusiastic as welcoming the New Year. The same bravado and energy.
We discarded the old year as if it was old clothes and we hope to have new clothes the coming year.
What lessons did we learn in the past year that we should apply to our separate lives this year?
Do away with the same bad habits?
The same ritual, the same comfort zone?
We move forward or we go back to the old bad, despicable year?
There could not be a third choice?

The Padsan River in Laoag City, Philippines

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The blogger has just gone past the accumulated years of his old man on earth who died poor.
I bleed each time I remember the allawagi, the carpenter--him who sired 11 children, two of whom died in infancy.
Him who did not wear new clothes, shoes as far as I remember.
Him with toothless smiles in his last 25 or so years.
Remembering is a perfect blade that cuts deep at the frayed edges of morning and mourning.
But rest in peace, old man, my father who did not get angry and raised his voice.
Rest in that sacred abode where there is supposed to be no night for you dreaming of the son who went to the university, the first of your siblings that hurdled the barriers of that academic world of a million dreams.
Thank you for the life, the love and the adventure, Lakay Dionisio Coloma Pasion Miguel Julian.
Thank you for the life, the love and the adventure, Baket Rafaela Corpuz Corsino Labayog Julian.