pati dito sa sayoterepublic, di ko na magawang tumambay. blocked sa office. hehehehe.

The Signs of the Time (part2)

To be frankly clear about it, I am not averse to rallies, demonstrations, protests, marches, noise barrages, assemblies where the people seek redress for their grievances. It's a from of freedom of expression. And it's a sacrosanct right enshrined in the Constitution that should be safeguarded with our equally sacred lives.

But when a certain demonstrator of a particular persuasion resorts to a boorish display of shallow manner just to convince a people who is unlike of his thinking to participate in the demonstration by goading him with jeers, then I am sorry to say this but you lose your point. You defeat your purpose because all the people in the sidelines could see is not the merits of your argument about the issue but the manner by which you are expressing your views. Remember Marshall McLuhan's thesis, that most often the medium becomes the message.

When a person runs raving naked in a basketball court your attention would be diverted to the streaker and not on the game that's being played, de Quiros once said to illustrate a point. Same applies to rallyists, all we would see are the wrongs they are making to drumbeat on their message and not the message they carry if they perpetuate the ill habit of branding the people in the sidelines with tags like "apathetic", "cowards", "passive" and "unpatriotic". No one has the right to do these to those people in the sidelines who we never know might be more participative, brave, active and nationalistic than any or all the so-called known activists combined.

Let us all learn to live and let live. Let us all agree to disagree. Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to death your right to say it."

Another equally important point that begs much scrutiny and reflection is the imperative requisite for demonstrators (especially those who speak in assemblies) to at least have the credibility in making their causes known. The people should be able to trust you, empathize with you, and that can only be done if you have the integrity to go with your message.

Also, one doesn't have to yell out to high heavens to make his cause known or for the intended party to receive the message. After all, it's not a contest of who can hit the highest of notes or who has the highest urine ejaculatory shot.

And yes, what about the use of the school paper to publish the elected causes of the few. Last time I read, heard, saw and knew of the publication, it is still owned by the studentry. I paid for it as reflected on my FORM 5 or matriculation receipt. So what does it say about the paper or better yet it's editorial staff that the periodical only publishes propaganda and articles with a particular leaning? I'm not paying for trash so don't give me one, I said then. On many occasions I also found the paper fudging numbers of protesters to make the rallies then seemed mammoth (where did they learn to count?COMELEC?). It has also wrongfully cited sources. It published racial slurs, homophobic articles (remember Wilzen?) and write-ups meant only to malign, besmirch, alienate, antagonize people without much thought, consideration and sense of propriety. It published sexually suggestive pieces geared only to appealing to prurient interests. Read my lips: It's not the issue of the goddamn press freedom, it's the issue of who is committing a continuing crime of libel, unjustified bias, grammatically fractured and atrocious English and spelling.

I don't want to sound cheesy but the situation necessitates a quote from a popular movie:"Great power comes with great responsibility." Also, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely". The people behind the paper then were too drunk with power they don't know what right journalism means. And their filthy vice feeds on harming other's reputation. If I were just wiser then as I'm now, I would not have paid for the school publication. I deserve more than what we were being offered then.

I recall my college teacher once said that he was particularly aghast at one of his students who was a perennial participant in rallies. My teacher said that that student was very much active in rallies particularly on protesting the so-called US imperialism and capitalism. All were right, my teacher added, but the clincher was the fact that he once spied on that certain student-activist in a mall while ordering a tall cup of Starbucks coffee and taking a swig at it and lining for a movie premiere of "Spiderman". All my teachers could say then were "There goes your anti-capitalist and imperialist stand. Down the toilet bowl of oblivion." Funny? Maybe. Saddening? Maybe. HYPOCRISY? A resounding YES!

I do not mean to generalize the self-claimed activists. But I can't help it. You are what company you keep. And if you suggest you're unlike them, the question is why are you sticking with them? Why didn't you take the effort to check on whether your colleagues really are standing by their ideology with firmness, persistence, and consistence. Why? Why? Why?

Before we point to a dirt in one's face, let us first examine ourselves because we might not know it but we're actually mired in a deeper sh*t. Sh*t happens.

The Signs of the Time

I am a Centennial graduate (Batch 2008) with a degree in BA Communication - major in speech communication and minor in journalism - from, of course, the University of the Philippines - Baguio. I'd like to take this opportunity to add a thing or two to Mr. Joel Pinaroc's insightful and nostalgia-inducing article about the many changes he observed about my or rather, our beloved university. I guess my stay at the premiere school of the North and my experiences there as well could qualify as appendages to Mr. Pinaroc's article since it could still be considered "recent history", with emphasis in the word "recent." With that amusing thought, I take the liberty to provide my own account of how much UP Baguio (especially the students) have progressed (or not).

Indeed, much has changed in UP Baguio if we were to compare it from its distant past.

When I was in UP I heard from a not so few professors that the students (in my time) were a far cry from the students who have come before us. The point of comparison is particularly centered on how the students react to the burning societal, political and economic issues of the time. Students then, my teachers would say, don't just join rallies or stage protests for the sake of it. They join and stage them if it absolutely and necessarily calls for it. Students then would not act on an issue without proper consultations, discussions, study, reasoned judgment and weighing of the many variables that affect the matter at hand.

Today or at least in my time, my teachers would say, students make blitz protests right and left without much thought of the essence of the issues. They do so rather recklessly, hastily and with the intention to be none but confrontational.

This development makes me hark back on a saying I saw posted on the wall of a classroom when I was still in high school. "Speaking without thinking is shooting without taking an aim," goes the wisecrack. And it still resonates now more than ever. It does.

I have seen with my own eyes how my fellow students would speak at the top of their lungs before a motley crowd, spitting out a miscellany of rant and rave and trying so hard to egg on other students to join them in there scream fest, a.k.a. rallies. They would even go on to taunting bystanders as "blasé" folks who just adopt a wait-and-see attitude at the sidelines and play it safe.

Admittedly, for the most part, the rallies did not in any way appeal to me. I did not join many of the rallies and guess what, I feel no remorse or regret at all. Why? Well, certainly it didn't mean apathy or callousness on my end for I have joined some other rallies. It only showed how much absolute apprehension I feel for the student-activists' vaunted causes in my time. It showed how much misgiving I had for these loud-mouthed, cantankerous lot who have deigned on to partaking in shouting contests rather than participating in an educated discourse and mobilization of people.

I remember a couple of months ago a news which appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer that showed a picture of a female UP student-activist standing side by side with UP President Emerlinda Roman. The poor girl was seen voicing out whatever it is that particularly irked her about Roman or the university policies.

It made me laugh seeing the girl with eyes nearly popping out of its socket and trying so hard to articulate her thoughts on an indifferent Roman. I said to myself then, there goes your penchant to raise your voice many decibels to bring your message across and failing and falling so hard on deaf ears (pardon the pun).

I always thought and I still do today, that nothing would be accomplished if an issue is fought via a competition to raise one's voice. The issue would always be ignored if all the people in the proverbial room are talking and have not learned to value the ability to listen to one another.

Before I forget, let me say that I know the girl in the picture of the Inquirer. She also entered UP in the same year I did.

Quite apart from finding hilarity in the picture, I also found my heart aching for that girl. If she was still in UP months after I graduated, that follows she wasn't able to finish her course on time.

This sorry and poignant story is a clear example of what happens when you start early in changing the world without changing yourself first. Conrado de Quiros, my favorite columnist, once wrote that the heart of revolution is the revolution of the heart. I am saddened by the fact that the girl I'm referring to wasn't able to read de Quiros' article, appreciate its wisdom and practice what de Quiros preached.

What I'm driving at is that in her desire to "serve" the studentry and the Filipino nation through rallies and "activism", the girl forgot that she's making a humongous disservice to the Filipino taxpayers who are the reason why she's studying in a state university by squandering the opportunity to achieve a proper and decent education.

Same goes to the many self-proclaimed student-activists in my time who go on attending this rowdy assemblies. Same goes to those so-called activists who mock the bystanders, brandishing their placards ostensibly as if to say "I'm proud of what I'm doing and I have the monopoly on every coherent thought, sound verdict and opinion of the issues that enter the bar of public opinion." Same goes to these hypocritical people who cast the stone on a sinner without first making an introspection and seeing that they also have somehow decayed inside.

Mr. Erwin Oliva,

Greetings.
I'm a UP Baguio graduate (Batch 2008) and I'm seeking for your permission to repost this blog to the Batch 2008's Friendster blog. If that's okay with you Sir. Thanks.
Oblation 2008

Hi, the author is actually Mr Joel Pinaroc, a fellow batchmate. Perhaps you can take an excerpt and link back to the original source? How's that? Thanks and keep on posting.

i'm so excited to come sa reunion....sa friday na!!! nga lang I don't have my "red cartolina laminated ID" na. baka di ako papasukin ha. di bale I still have my alumni card na damaged na din. dalhin ko na rin siguro TOR ko para sure na my proof ako na UPCB grad ako... hehe. i really missed UP Baguio!!!

ito ang ilan sa mga pagbabago

1. bawal na magyosi sa loob. isang malaking ashtray na ang sunshine park.
2. nagkaroon ng time na merong CCTV sa bawat sulok ng campus. tinigil kasi daw wala ng pambili ng tape.
3. madami ng mga bagong buildings...

but despite all of these, tingin ko buhay pa rin (naman) ang spirit ng pagiging UP, lalo na ang pagiging UP baguio...

ganun talaga, lahat ng nagbabago dun... ang hindi n lang yata nagbago eh si manang mani

The Pines Hotel back when was a UPCB annex.

The PE classes for swimming were held there and some students took the swimming classes just to get access to the "unlimited" hot showers at the hotel! For some, the casino and the bar just outside it were a good hangout too.

Back then, everybody knew each other - from the old DQ's to the high school students.

nadaan ako sa UPB 3 years ago nung last time akong magbakasyon sa Baguio. madami na ngang nagbago pero that time di pa ko hinanapan ng id. thank you nga pala kay celso (theltho) na siyang nagsabi sakin about this website. kita ko siya sa mall sa quezon city nung isang araw ayun ganun pa rin siya :D theltho pa rin...pero talaga, kaka-miss ang UPCB haaaay...