Aking ulat para kay Heneral Luna

...pagbabahagi ng aking opinyon, tugon sa isang napagandang pagtatalang buhay ng pelikulang 'Heneral Luna'...

Heneral,

Eto po ang aking ulat sa Pilipinas ngayon, mahigit isang siglo mula sa iyong masalimuot, at di makatuwirang kamatayan.

Sa nakalipas na siglo, marami ng nagbago sa ating bayan.

Una, hindi na tayu sakop ng mga dayuhan. Isa ng demokratikong bansa ang Pilipinas.

Subalit sa ilalim ng demokrasyang ito, namamayagpag ang pinakamatinding kalaban ng ating lahi - ang ating sarili. Ang ating gobyerno ay hindi mauubusan ng mga pinakapipitagang pinunong nagkukubling santo sa tamis ng kanilang pananalita at huwad na pakikibagay sa mga dukha para lamang maluklok sa pwesto. Naglipana ang mga kapit-tuko na walang delikadesa o konsensya o dignidad na magbitiw sa tungkulin sa kabila ng tawag ng mamamayan.

Animo'y isang sirkus ang eksena ng pamamahala sa ating bayan. Puno ng mga karakter n may kanya kanyang linya, eksana at papel sa isang magarbong ispektakyulo.

Ikalawa, hindi na rin tayo pinagkakaitan ng mga karapatang pantao. Sa katunayan, meron na tayong isang mabusisi at malawig na saligang batas na nagtatakda ng kumprehensibong karapatan ng bawat mamamayang Pilipino.

Subalit sa kabila ng mga alituntunin at adhikain ng ating konstitusyon, malayo sa reyalidad ng bawat Pilipino ang kaganapan ng hustisya, lalung higit na ang pagkilala sa karapatan ng bawat tao. Talamak ang mga krimen. Ang mga nahuhuli at napapatunayang maysala ay magdurusa o mabubulok sa kulungan depende sa estado o yaman. Hindi lahat ng kinukulong ay talagang  napaparusahan. Ang iba, animo'y nagbabakasyon lang.

Ikatlo, hindi na tikom ang boses ng ating mga kababayan sa pagpapahayag ng kanilang mga saloobin. Ngayon ay nabubuhay ang bawat Pilipino na may layang ipayahayag ang kanilang nais.

Napakabilis nang magpakalat ng impormasyon at marami ng paraan ng pagdisimena ng kaalaman sa tulong ng teknolohiya. Nakakalungkot lamang na kadalasa'y sa mga walang saysay na paksa at kababawan lugmok ang karamihan.

Ang pagiging makabayan ay isang lumang tugtugin na kadalasan sumasabay lang sa kasikatan ng ating mga atleta, sa tuwing makikipagtungali sa ibang bansa. O sa mga malimit na pagkakataong kagaya nito, matapos ang pagsasadula sa sine ng inyong buhay. Napalitan na ng mga idolo sa kamera ang mga bayani sa ating kasaysayan.

Marami ng nagbago noon at ngayon, Heneral. Wala na ang mga dayuhang mananakop. Ngunit nanatili pa rin ang pangunahing kalaban ng ating lahi - ang ating mga sarili.

Umaasa sa bagong kamalayan,
-Isteban

IELTS - 3 Tips on your Listening (and Reading)

It's been a while since I took my IELTS exam but I do get asked about it by some friends who mean to take it for their own intents and purposes. So, I thought about sharing my tips on this regard, at least for the listening which I think in principle just goes for the reading module as well.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is one among many great feats every aspiring migrant gets to hurdle with. It will definitely greet you on your way along your visa journey. If you're like me, you may have had that same inkling to just curse upon this irksome requirement. But curse as we might, IELTS is there to stay and we just have to do it.

(Be forewarned: This worked for personally. I got 9s for the Listening and Reading modules and an overall band score of 8. I'm no English-major or language professional though so just take my tips to augment your own style and regimen. )

Tip #1 - Be a 3rd Wheel.

When I started out practicing for the listening module, I took it objectively as if it were an academic exam. I would try to remember the conversation like memorizing text from a book. But I didn't have alot of luck on that route because my mind is like a cache. Its usually fast, but it doesn't retain stuff for too long. 

I realized later that to me, it is more effective if I could somehow relate myself to being the person asking the questions, wanting the answers in the conversation. As Tony Robbins, on of my favorite success coaches would say - effective learning is taking what's new and associating it with a fragment of what you're already familiar with. So try to have a 'feel' for the conversation.

Here's a scenario - A student is asking his professor about the course requirements and consultation schedules on his Foreign language class. 

What worked really well for me was imagining myself being another student standing present in that very conversation. I immerse myself to thinking that I'm also a student that needs the same information that my classmate is asking my professor. From there I relate to and identify the contextual details in the scenario that describe what is being talked about. In this case, its about getting the details of course requirements and consultation schedules, so keep that context in mind and look out for what 'I need to know'. I am in the same spot as the student asking the question. 

What could even be better is in this regard is to associate this to a time you were in a similar situation. May be during your college days, at the start of the semester when you're all enthused and excited about your classes and learning and getting those A's. You were so eager and pumped up to get started that you wanted to ask your professor for more information. (Which to me lasted until mid-semester, when I start finding myself waking up wishing it would just be a free cut... so I can play DOTA already!)

Tip #2 - Less is more. More is less.

The listening module is not about transcribing the conversation. It would be really awesome if you could write so fast to be able to write the discussion between the characters word for word. But in this day and age, chances are you're more used to a touch screen and typing than holding a pen. So, don't race with the conversation trying to jot it all down. The goal is to LISTEN. 

There is a big difference between hearing and listening so be self-conscious about it. The way I saw it, hearing is the first and basic step. If you can't hear the conversation well, then that's something you'd want to bring up to the examiner. 

When you're listening, you follow the conversation and watch out for the proper nouns, dates, numbers, adjectives. These you jot down and list down IN ORDER of when they were mentioned in the conversation. Because, note - the questions in the Listening module ask for these potential answers, chronologically, following the flow of the conversation.

Tip #3 - Plugin to Audio books

Like most people, the module I really dreaded in IELTS was the writing module. I spent 80% of my preparation time there. So to tell you the truth, my practice for the speaking, listening and reading where really more into just knowing the format of the exam, and the type of questions. I did adhoc, guerrilla tactics to really 'review' for them. And for listening, the best, most effective activity I did was to listen to Game of Thrones audio books. I indulged in the audio books from 'A Storm of Swords' to 'A Dance of Dragons'

.

But it wasn't always easy to just jack up those earbuds and listen through the 50-plus hours of Game of Thrones (for each book of the 3 books I've gone through). If you'd give it a try, you'll hear what I mean.  It was really hard to wrap my mind around what George Martin was telling when I was starting out with his audio books. The language, vocabulary, jargons, idioms in the GOT books sounded like French fused with German to me on the onset. But after the first 10 hours of hearing this concoction of  old english and modern slangs blended together, I simply got attuned. I think I became more receptive to just be ready for any word/vocabulary that might come up between the Starks, Targaryens, Lannisters, Baratheons,  Greyjoys, Tullys', etc. And with my limited vocabulary, from time to time, I simply had to pause, rewind, look up some words in the dictionary.

The good thing is, it was really enjoyable to listen through a great novel. It's entertaining and I didn't event notice I was actually developing my listening skills as I went along. This was also a pain-saver from my biggest daily stress - my 3 to 4 hour commute to and from work.

So there you have it, I hope this helps you in some way and I wish you the best of luck! :)

Cheers,

-Stephen

Why you shouldn't wait to die to be immortal?

... My reflection on an episode of the Word Exposed by Cardinal Luis Tagle...

Growing up in a traditional catholic family, I was always told that eternal life is the life after this one. It is the life in heaven that ensues after I die if I behaved well. Or, on the flip side, it could be living in endless episodes of the Walking Dead if I didn't do good in my time on earth. Only in that unending series, I'm casted as a zombie, or may be a zombie on fire, or half a zombie with a half a carcass, or worse...

So personally, I believed that Eternal Life is a reward-concept and I was told that I'd have to obey my parents, respect my elders, take care of my siblings (and my dog) so that when I die and St. Peter meets me (in his splendid white beard and his texas), I'd be sure to enter the Golden Gate and not be ushered down by a muscular bulldog holding a fork.

But as I've just learned, the thing is eternal life is not just life after death. It's not just the light at the end of the tunnel. It is possible even now. How?

Forgetting the concept of time is a taste of living forever. If you think about it, when time doesn't matter, that is eternity.

When you are having that moment with you family, your friends, your loved ones and you don't notice that time just flew by, you forget about time.

When you are working on a dream with all your passion and intent,  and you don't  don't care about the time it takes to get there, you are setting up your stage to forever.

To me, this makes absolute sense. It's so simple that I was really amazed by this realization.

If you find yourself, sharing the same sentiment as I used to have, it is my hope that this episode of the Word Exposed with Cardinal Luis Tagle will also bless and grow your understanding, not just to live life forever now, but to live it with more faith, joy and appreciation. We have forever at our grasps!

John 6:51-58 (NIV)

51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”


Have a Blessed Sunday everyone!

- Stephen

A Couple of Tips When Migrating Abroad

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

Migrating abroad maybe one of the most life-changing decisions to anyone making that leap. You literally have to carry your whole life on a couple of luggage bags wishing you could just take more with you, and for good cause - there is no turning back from this one, well at least not in the immediate and foreseeable future.

Many of us leave never ever feeling that we are going to be ready for the long haul hiatus. Despite the preparation, anticipation, despidida's, and visits to Antipolo Church, we can only bring as much stuff that we hold dear. When you look at the things you pack, there's always that dilemma of leaving that d-day shirt/sando/short/brief that we've worn since childhood, those deeply sentimental artifacts that symbolizes bits and pieces of the life we're leaving behind. 

This is the reality though and we all made our choice. There's been way too much emotions and money spent (or owed) that we simply must do what we ought to do. So, we pack our bags and go.

In the dark and unknown universe waiting for you on the other side, wherever country you set out for, it's always good to get some insights from people who have been on a somewhat similar spot. Yup, you have not been alone in that feeling, my friend. Please know that I don't claim to be a pro giving rock solid advice that I'd go on a blood pact and bet on with my job. But its always good to put out some thought out there with the best intent, and I wish you the very best. So, here it is - 

1. Create your own story, the one you'd like for yourself that you'd be happy to share to people. 

When I came to Australia, I had been forewarned that I needed to leave not just my family, and not just my friends. I was told over and over that I also needed to leave my pride. As they said - 'Bawal ang ma-pride sa abroad. - A lot of anonymous people'

I was just shocked by the strong dogma against having that pride when you arrive as a migrant. While I barely knew anyone in this new country, the Kabayan's I've come to meet by chance have all been tamed to this defensive mentality - that notion that their isn't much out here and life's tough. Most are seeing the scarcity more than the opportunities available. For a fact, I must have heard so many stories of hard times, experienced by apparently everyone when they're starting out, that for the first few nights abroad, my best sleep was 2 hours. 

I had those tales creeping in my mind and I started to worry more. The truth is, we are strongly moved by stories, specially those that we can see ourselves fit into. We identify ourselves closely to stories of people who we see ourselves being in the same position with. In my case, I was concerned to hear about how terribly difficult it was for new comers to find a job and get settled. Or, how some starters have been bouncing between any available odd jobs just to get by. I was beginning to see myself in that same situation, dreading the already monumental, if not impossible task ahead.

On my 2nd day in Australia, I chanced to meet a fellow Filipino on a bus stop waiting for his line. He carried a plastic bag with some leafy vegetables amongst other ingredients to what I suspect is Sinigang. I greeted the man, he was in his late 40s I think. And I said to him, 'Kamusta po? Mukhang sinigang sir ah...' The man looked at me and smiled faintly. We talked for a bit while waiting for our buses.  I learned that he came here some years ago, he couldn't recall the exact number, and he was a successful engineer back home. He was really excited telling me about his past career, position and memories from before here, while asking me about what the familiar places he used to go in the Philippines. He sounded excited about the Philippines and knowing I just recently arrived. Then, I asked him how he is now and where he works. His face changed and from him I saw someone who has never looked so defeated in life. He said he's doing odd jobs whenever he finds one. At the moment, he really wants to get employed as a construction worker, which even that, he said is very difficult with all the competition and all his disadvantage against younger people and other nationalities. He's on his way home to cook lunch for the kids because his wife is at work and he didn't find a gig for that day.

That encounter made a strong impact on me. It validated all the stories I have heard. It's all true. Life here is indeed tough and could even be punishing. But then, that moment made me realize that, really, you attract what you think. I have been thinking about the negativity for sometime and low and behold, a testament to that showed up to me. It made me wonder, what if, I started thinking the contrary? What if I thought differently and go the more positive route to be optimistic and hopeful instead? Will that attract me a different story for my own? 

It didn't took me a long time to find out the answer for myself. When I started to think more positively about things and changing how I perceived my circumstance, I switched on to a nothing-to-lose mentality. I kept a guard at the thoughts entering my mind. It's like my brain always hosted a party and on that party with all my thoughts socializing together, there's just one rule: No Negatives allowed. I became more determined that I will have a better experience to tell for new starters. And I imagined being able to do what I am doing now, sharing you the kind of story I want. 

I wasn't able to sleep well that very night. Because I was in a job-application frenzy. I didn't stop formatting my CV to the best my English could provide. Then, 3 days later, I got a job offer from a multi-national company, with a full-time permanent role, with above average pay for the same work I have been doing for years in the Philippines. I couldn't forget how I had my fist up in the air, clapping, a tear swelling up in my eye, in awe and amazement of His grace, just right after leaving the building of my new company.

I believed then, that you really need to see it clearly in your mind. Paint your own story before it actually happens and simply trust that it will.

2. Don't go on Cruise Control.

If you share the life-abroad dream like me, then you would have been in leaps of joy in every step of that long journey. From the baby steps like finding out what requirements you need, gathering those requisites through requests countless submissions here and there, we all felt excited that bit by bit we are building the dream.

I mean, who could forget the drama, and sometimes trauma of those silly English-Proficiency exams? (Yes, IELTS, I'm staring at you with angry eyes, and eye bags all over). Who was not logging in to the Migration website every day, if not by the hour, to check for the slightest changes in their application status? Who didn't lose focus at work while waiting and waiting and praying for a positive assessment on their skills or on their sponsorship? Who didn't go an a cleanse diet to not get deferred from the Health checks? In many ways, we've gone through different flavors of these things before we got to where we are. It wasn't something that we just said we want as a lot of other people do. It's something that we said we wanted and will do everything we can no matter what. And that, I think is what fundamentally makes us not just dreamers. We are dream-chasers!

What I did notice though, is that after being able to settle in and be in our new country, all of a sudden we get comfortable. Now, that is not a bad thing at all, since after all that's the point in seeking a better life abroad - to be comfortable. We want a comfortable life for ourselves and our families. We've gone through a lot, paid the price for being where we are and we deserve that much. 

A thing that really bothers me though is that it seems this kind of comfort drives us into an ironic state where we easily become even more uncomfortable to a lot of things easily. When we become comfortable to how things are, we tend to want them that way and every other detail that delineates from what we're used to becomes bothersome. For instance, I see this ever so often on my train ride to and from work. People have been used to the 98.5% Train-Schedule guarantee that on that rare occasion we get that 1.5% of service interruption, you'll start hearing people cursing the train management, how it sucks and how unreliable it is. Now I don't know if they've just had to have a taste of our own MRT to be more appreciative. 

I noticed too that a lot of people are just way too attached to their jobs even if they're not happy with it, or it's not their real line of work, just to get by, make it through, and be able to pay the bills. While it's good that people are willing to do just any kind of job out there, I think it sucks out the dreamer-chasers in us when we continue on like that. Its simply leaving below our potential while we wait for something different to just happen. And then the tendency is to forget the magic of having gone through the monumental effort and hurdles just to arrive to where we are. 

To me, all of us have already arrived the moment we touched down. But it doesn't mean we should stop moving forward and pursuing the bigger dreams. And while they say, good things happen to those who wait. We have to realize that those good things are usually the one's left behind by those who hustle. 

So my friend, start strong and keep your that steady pace. Pray harder than you think and don't shrink your dream to fit your life. Instead, keep on growing to fit your life into  your dreams. I wish you all the best!

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  

 2 Timothy 1:7

Cheers,
- Stephen

PS: I'd really love to hear from you. What's your story? Please leave me some love (or hate)  in the comments below. Thanks! :)