Dancing politics

Politics in the Philippines require knowing how to dance - all kinds of dances, the traditional, the modern, even the outrageous -- maskipops, or maski papaano (whatever). This is because the ordinary Filipino voters who put the officials on Philippine political map are so difficutl to decipher as well. So when you meet them, you have to check to which dance he or she will respond.

And that is because our folks have had to contend with different kinds of politicians, those they trusted and distrusted later on. At first, they gave their best foot forward, voting the honest ones in politics. Later on, these because the oppressors, the amnesiacs who could not recognize those who helped them get on the platform and back to their seats, as well as the megalomaniacs who want to rule forever and ever. And so, our voting ordinary folks, learned to dance, tango, twist, and cha-cha. But the latter, they are not dancing this time. It is too costly, morally and physically for them and for us, as well.

What is it about dancing that attracts people, especially in politics. When you dance, you free your body of rigidity, of inflexibility. And so, dancing allows you to move all your muscles in your limbs, your torso, and your neck. Every part moves, and you can imagine the blood flowing breezily or chaotically from one organ to the other. It flows breezily if you don't have those rickety veins which have not experienced pumping regularly; and chaotically, when you lack massage.

Yes folks, massage is a very good therapy for tired and frigid muscles that cannot dance well. Massage frees those veins in the limbs that are so worked up for your having to walk miles and miles just so to save on transportation fares. Massage helps you to move your head from left to right and back without experiencing pain and so you can easily look left and right when crossing the polluted streets of MetroManila.

Above all these, political dancing is without comparison to all other dances. It has been used by many politicians over time. Marcos did his, jumping from one party to another just so he could clinch the presidential candidacy, and so successful was he that he ruled this country for 14 years challenged poorly by other candidates, some of whom he put up himself just so to project the image of our country's having democracy.

Of course, political dancing is now being used more regularly, and has acquired a kind of "normalcy" and acceptance, as a way of being in the limelight. Come to think of it, is it really hard to get out of politics?

We ought to create a dance for getting out of politics. I am sure that would be a hit, especially when the unwanted Malacanang tenant does it together with her cohorts-assLLLLL.

MY ENTREPRENEUR' S CREDO" I do not choose to be a common man,
It is my right to be uncommon… if I can,
I seek opportunity … not security.

I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled
And dulled by having the state look after me
I want to take calculated risks;

to dream and to build,
to fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;

I prefer the challenges of life
to the guaranteed existence;
the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence
nor my dignity for a handout.

I will never cower before any master
nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect.
Proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself,

To enjoy the benefit of my creations
And face the world boldly and say"

This, with God's help, I have done,

All this is what it means to be an ENTREPRENEUR. "

ERNIE DELFIN

TRANSLATION INTO PILIPINO:

HINDI KO PINILING MAGING PANGKARANIWAN
KARAPATAN KONG MAGING KAKAIBA...
KUNG KAYA KONG
HANAPIN ANG PAGKAKATAON, HINDI ANG SEGURIDAD

HINDI KO GUSTONG MAGING MAMAMAYANG
NAKATANGHOD SA ESTADO PARA PANGALAGAAN AKO.
GUSTO KONG MAKIPAGSAPALARAN
MANGARAP, AT PAGTAYO, MAGKAMALI, MAGTAGUMPAY.

HINDI KO IPAGPAPALIT ANG PABUYA
PARA SA ISANG LIMOS
HIGIT NA GUSTO KO ANG MGA HAMON NG BUHAY
PATUNGO SA ISANG PAMUMUHAY NA MAY KASIGURUHAN,
MAY KASAYAHAN SA PAGKAKAMIT NG MITHIIN
HIGIT SA WALANG KAGANA-GANANG KATAHIMIKAN NG UTOPIA

HINDI KO IPAGPAPALIT ANG KALAYAAN AT
ANG AKING KARANGALAN
PARA SA TULONG KAWANGGAWA,
KAYLANMAN HINDI AKO YUYUKO SA ISANG AMO
O KAYA'Y LULUHOD SA ANUMANG PAG-AAMBA
NASA LAHI KO ANG TUMAYO NG TUWID
MAY LAYANG MANINDIGAN, AT WALANG TAKOT
NA MAG-ISIP AT KUMILOS PARA SA SARILI
MAGTAMASA NG MGA BENEPISYO NG AKING MGA
NALIKHA AT HARAPIN ANG MUNDO NG BUONG
KATAPANGAN UPANG SABIHING:
SA TULONG NG MAYKAPAL, ITO ANG AKING NAGAWA.
AT ITO ANG IBIG SABIHIN NG PAGIGING ENTREPRENEUR.
COMPLIMENTS OF: ERNIE DELFIN, Entreprenuer- Businessman
Entreprenuer- Businessman
SINALIN SA PILIPINO NI EMMA S. OROZCO

my country right and wrong

I have to title my post this way because there is no escaping the fact that the wrongs in my country, the Philippines, are there no matter how hard we try to escape or solve them. I even think the wrongs are multiplying day by day. No day passes by without a scandal, a scam, an issue cropping up in the papers.

And those people who are guilty of wrongdoing are seen and heard on tv, radio and the print media. So how can we get out of them?

It will take a lifetime or several lifetimes to solve them, that is if we think that way. But my propaganda powers have been clipped very badly by this administration. My last writing slot was in Business World which had moles inside and who made sure that my writings would have wrong grammar, would have wrong tenses. Sometimes chunks of paragraphs would even get lost as I typed my articles for my column, titled Equal Quest.

So now I am reading about self-publishing in a US magazine. And as I am writing this, someone is sweeping in the next house. Would you believe that at 1 am, I could hear that also, to make sure that every movement of mine is being watched. Wow, and who deserves to be relegated to the dustbins of history? Eh?

My country right and wrong: beautiful scenery like the sunset at Manila Bay, never mind that monstrosity, the Ocean Park with atrocious prices. This was built by the former mayor, Atienza, and which covered a good view of the sunset. The promenaders, mostly urban poor, would go there to exercise in the morning or just plainly go there to breathe sea air, which sometimes stinks rather than cleanses your lungs, and wander at the beauty created by the Almighty.

Well, the Almighty is the pen of that local politician who was able to destroy the view.

My country right: Beautiful people. Ride a bus. Once you say stop, and the driver still continues, everyone tells him to stop. You see, there is collective camaraderie inside the bus. Or ride a jeepney and hand over your fare. Everyone catches the coins or paper, and hands them over to the driver, as well as the change which goes back to you.

My country wrong: Along the way to Agrifina Circle, from Sta. Mesa, you can see masses of streetsweepers with dark blue shirts and printed on them, propaganda for the unwanted tenant in Malacanang. I asked one how come they are all there: "Dito ho nagdaraan si Ma'am." Maybe "she" likes seeing them, one of the very few scenery that hails her as a "do-gooder."

My country right: All the senators are into an investigation of a scam.

Endless rights and wrongs.

Multiplying postings

I find myself not writing enough this year. It maybe because I am still grieving over the loss of my mother, of my stepfather. More of my mother who was the pillar behind all my political involvements and my writings. She gave me support, if not money, then verbal and emotional support for all the things I had been doing in society while she was till alive, from my engagement with the women and children of Tondo, to my writing in the newspapers and magazines, up to providing for my clothes and even cosmetics at times. She was and is to me my one and only mother, literally and figuratively.



Am I the same with my children? This year, I started receiving help from my children and I hate being in the receiving end. For many, many years since their births, I was independent financially, earning from my films, my writings. But today, I have to seek help, at this time when other people of my age are already retiring from their professions.



But this is more of a challenge for me now, how to be productive and economically profitable at my age, 60. I shall not allow my health to fail, nor my mind to decrease in strength and sharpness. Funny but I am now researching on herbal plants to strengthen the mind, that render bodies more resilient to stress, and stronger to face the elements. Thank God in our midst we have the inventors who never tire of researching for them as well, and in the most scientific manner.



May God bless them all the way, and us, as well.

Creating a Nice Feeling

Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to create a nice feeling just in the mind. But that is not enough, I see. If it is just in the mind, then as soon as we open our eyes, the bad feeling sets in. Or as soon as we open our senses, then such a feeling overwhelms us.

So to have a nice feeling, we should really create an environment that brings about such a nice feeling. For example, when I came back from London and started talking about feminism, the women in my midst saw me as rather odd, as anti-men, and truly off synch from the political situation in the Philippines which was calling for the booting out of martial law. So I had to tell them, especially those in the academe, the intellectuals steeped in political involvement from the grassroots to the different government bureaucracies that no progress can be met without women's involvement. Hence women must be liberated from those obstacles that are barring them from full political participation.

Another time, as I was feeling asthmatic, I saw people smoking inside air-conditioned rooms, inside jeepneys and buses, air-con and non-air-con, and even inside some theatres. I felt like dying right there and then. My reaction was to tell off the smokers, to call the attention of drivers, or whoever was in charge of that particular event I was attending. At one time, a man got off the jeep and showed his gun, as if to say, don't tell me what to do because I have a gun. Then he even said, I am a police officer. So I replied, "You are a police officer; therefore you should be a model to other people, a model for respect for civilians." He smiled rather mischievously in reply. Then I also wrote in the papers about the ills of smoking .

Today, we can breathe well, everywhere except, except where public vehicles are running without concern for the need for fresh air. Yes in MetroManila fresh air is a very rare if unavailable commodity, what with diesel- and gasoline-fed engines running around and polluting the air. Yet, this is not the end of the line. electric-driven vehicles will soon be the, THE, vehicles that will crowd the streets.

Still another way of having that nice feeling is surrounding ourselves with nice people, those who think we matter in this world, not necessarily a lover, but rather just a friend or even a stranger who could have those positive feelings for us as a fellow human being. The thing is with regard to friends, we have to cultivate them. With regard to strangers, we need to cultivate our antennae to find out if that person is truly or could be truy sensitive to us.

Sometimes that person could be a foot away from us, or thousands of miles away. How funny, I am able to connect with certain people in this manner, just using invisible antennaes. And they respond in the most appropriate manner. So now sometimes, I ask myself, do I belong to this country or to another as I am able to connect faster with them. Or maybe my mind has read too many books, ideas coming from those places and so I am more attuned to people who think in the same manner and think the same thoughts.

My goodness, human beings are still a marvel to me.