Pinoy sa Puso't Diwa

Although I might not have the best grammar in my native tongue, I would still like to believe that I am a proud pinoy. Not 100% of the time, but most of my life I have never been ashamed of saying that I am a Filipino.

There have been a lot of misconceptions about Filipinos--Filipinas. One is that we are "easy" women; would do anything for a green card. This is perhaps one of the most revolting perception of foreigners about my countrymen. They go as far as to say that Pinays are "sex workers" who exchange sex for money or a chance to live in a foreign country.

Another infuriating notion is that Filipinos are ill-educated or worse, stupid. I really can't blame foreigners for thinking like this because our media portrays us as such. Movies, news, and even online articles are filled with negative comments about us. Our own kind, treating us as garbage. what is more painful is that some pinoys believe them. When in front of a foreigner, we lower our heads and accept their criticisms like they were facts.

Why can't we have more pride in ourselves, in our nation? The Philippines is a wonderful country gifted with beautiful natural resources and resourceful people. If only we could stop looking for an easy way out and find ways to sustain our growth and resources, we could be a powerful and rich nation. One that would be emulated (again) by neighboring countries and even across the seas.

Let's not leave everything up to chance and the government. We should be responsible for our own destiny; supporting and supported by the government.

onemanga.com: A Poor Otaku's Friend

I have been reading manga for as long as I can remember. Sadly, it is not the cheapest and most available piece of reading in the Philippines. That is why I was so happy when I was acquainted with manga scanlations, or scans of translated manga posted online for FREE.

One of the first sites that I have frequented was OneManga. So imagine my shock and utter dismay when I found this note on my way to read the latest release of Naruto.


Due to some problem with publishers, OneManga has opted to close down until further notice. I hope that someday soon, they will re-open. It has been a great pleasure to visit it every so often to get my daily manga fix. It was very useful when I didn't know what to read next because of their random selection button. I have been in some trouble because of that though (LOL labels like "not safe for office" should be indicated).

Farewell onemanga.com you will be missed by this poor otaku.

Typhoon Basyang and the "Plight" of the People

Typhoon Basyang was a certain surprise for most Filipinos. A couple of days after being told that there were no signs of a typhoon hitting our shores in the next few weeks, viola! classes were suspended and worse, no electricity. Unlike most of my countrymen, I HATE pointing fingers. Why in God's name do we always have to look for someone to blame? It's a natural calamity! Can't you even remember a basic lecture in our grade school class? Typhoons are named after women because of their erratic behavior. It's really not easy to predict where, when, and how strong it will hit us. I know there are apparatus to help us with this matter, but no matter how advanced our technology is, it will not stop the typhoon from hitting us hard.

Let's say they have predicted a typhoon's strength and direction, will it help strengthen our roof or our infrastructures? Will it prevent power outages and floods? NO. The storm signal was raised in some areas, while other neighboring locations were spared from the list; do we put our guards down knowing that the said alarm signals are only a couple of kilometers away from us? NO. Didn't we learn anything from Ondoy? We should always be vigilant.

I just hope people would stop pointing fingers at others and reflect upon their own actions (or worse, INaction). The need to put the blame on people ASIDE from ourselves is perhaps the greatest obstacle in Philippine development. Self accountability and the desire to COLLECTIVELY rise up the ladder of success is sorely missing in our masses. We must not pin all our hopes in one person even if that person CLAIMS that he can save you from poverty. As long as you yourself do not make a move to alleviate your own situation, nothing will change. The Filipino culture of "crab mentality" is definitely a scary thing. It is something that I hope will be put into the bin and never recycled. Why can't we look at a person who is rising to the top and say "I want to be like him" instead of "He cheated, that's why he got there." I mean, honestly...WTF?!