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I saw this and I got homesick and all worked up. This is one of those days. The first actually since I came here a month ago. I don’t know. I was perfectly satisfied when I got here. I guess I just had a rotten day. Seeing those cruel and withdrawn kids at school made me wish for the warm hugs of my Pinoy students. Everything here is a big no-no. Don’t give them food–you might get in trouble for any stomach aches (so for 3 days now, I just had to bear seeing that boy in my class who sat defiantly in the cafeteria throughout lunch period. Without food. While everybody around him was eating). Never, ever touch them–you’ll get sued for harrassment. What’s a little hug, a tiny squeeze in the shoulder? Are they trying to raise cold-blooded kids here?

Granting that the video was pretty corny. But that’s what life is supposed to be. Simplier. With lotsa smilin’ and lotsa’ huggin’. Is it really bad to show someone that you care? Especially when deep inside you you’re convinced that’s all they need to make them feel better?

I miss the ”onli in da Pilipins” sunny smiles and innocent touch. Darn, I miss UP! I miss the crowd! I miss kwek-kwek, chicharon and Purefoods hotdogs! One month here? Oh boy, could I tell you what this country is missing!

Good News

Some amazing things are happening in the Philippines. No kidding.

Some weeks ago, there were news of oil search in Palawan. The good (make that great!) news is that, Coron North promises 450 million barrels of oil! I’m not really surprised at this news, you know. I visited some museums when I was in Brunei last December. Most of these museums boast of Brunei’s wealth through oil. A map mounted on a wall in Muzium Brunei showed an oil path that goes directly to North of Palawan. I was told that there could be natural oil lurking in Palawan. It’s just too bad that this oil exploration happened years after so many Pinoys have already left the country for a greener pasture abroad. I just hope that crooks won’t lay a finger on this natural wealth..

Good news number 2: At looooooooooong last! NAIA Terminal 3 will open to public two weeks from now! Well, at least that’s what the news on TV said earlier tonight. Mr. Cusi, NAIA manager, said international flights will soon follow on this airport. NAIA employees hopped on a plane today to do a dry-run of the airport. Aside from aircon malfunction, non-working baggage conveyors and defective airport bridge and lifts, the $640M airport is all set and ready!

Dirty airport (picture taken by him) 

This is great news! The dark facade and old facilities of Terminal 1 are depressing right from the sky down to arrival extensions. An airport is the face of a country–a fresh, newly painted, bright and new airport speaks of a country that is promising. I can welcome any visitors in an airport like that! 

Terminal 3 Facade

Terminal 3—so bright and so new!

The Annoying Tale of Sta. Maria Water District Employees

I went with my mom when she paid the water bill and in that cramped office of Sta. Maria Water District, I found something to blog today. But I have to warn you that this isn’t going to be a pretty picture…

I asked my mom to finish other errands first since it was almost 12nn and most of their employees might be off for lunch. She told me that their office has no lunch break. Good.

The office was small, can’t sit more than 10 people at a time. But that didn’t bother me. What bothered me was when one of the 3 women told us to sit down and wait since the cashier was having a lunch break. Lunch break? The window partitions of each booth there has a poster that clearly says “Office Hours: Monday to Friday- 7:30 to 5:30 NO LUNCH BREAK” By the way, that woman who told us to wait? She was having lunch, too. Along with 2 others. They were having lunch right there on the table in front of us. As if there wasn’t a qeue already. As if we can’t read the words NO LUNCH BREAK.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt and reasoned that perhaps they’re just taking a quick 10-minute lunch break (which was obviously just being ig of me..I mean, there were THREE of them there. Can’t one of them eat her lunch at 11am? The other at 12? Take turns??) but when a thin, malnourished-looking old lady came in to pay her bill and was told rather rudely by a certain employee named Gina (don’t ask me how I knew her name…I waited and watched them long enough to overhear their chitchats!) to wait until 1pm because THEY WERE HAVING LUNCH…I almost got up and tell them to remove those posters that boast of employees not having lunch break! 

I sat there seething and watching them EAT. I watched them bite, chew and even remove food particles stuck in their teeth! I can’t help it, they were eating for all the world to see! They were eating and chatting and laughing while WE, their supposedly “precious” customers, wait (im)patiently for them to finish their thing! It was all so disgusting and so unprofessional!

At last, they finished their lunch at about 1230. Two of them got behind the cashier’s booth–but didn’t take payments immediately. They powdered their noses and re-applied lipstick first (is Sta. Maria Water District Office really THAT small, they were not able to built a restroom??). Okay, at least there was an effort on their part to look presentable because the one named Gina, right after she finished eating, faced her computer. Unfortunately, not to work but to PLAY one of those Gamehouse games! 

A guy walked up to her and inquired about water connection procedures. She paused her game and gave him a form to fill-up. And then continued playing. The man gave her back the form after he finished filling it up. She paused her game, told him blah-blah-blah, then continued bursting those li’l apples on her computer screen. The form laid on the table. Untouched. Unfiled. I guess she was just too busy to do that, you know, work..

They have a suggestion box (which, surprisingly was empty! Because I have tons of things to suggest!) near the counter. I wanted to write and vent my frustrations there but since I have a hunch that those very crooks will just throw my suggestion in the waste bin after they’ve read it themselves, I decided to wait and write them HERE!

Okay, you Sta. Maria Water District bosses, I just told you what your employees were doing when they’re at work. I later learned that that office has actually a second floor. How did I know? One of those women was looking for some guy. After a while, the guy went down from the 2nd floor and told that Gina character he was upstairs SLEEPING..! My mom later told me everybody on the 2nd floor was JUST PLAYING ON THEIR COMPUTERS…!

Now, here’s a few of my suggestions:

1. Tell your employees to eat anywhere BUT at the table in front of your customers! It’s just downright unprofessional and annoying! I wondered how they were able to eat at all when everybody was watching them! Build/assign a pantry where all the mess can take place! Even if pantry would mean under their tables!

2. DON’T OFFER A ”NO LUNCH BREAK” service to your customer if we would be told to wait from 12nn-1pm anyway. I’m not saying your employees can’t eat. What I’m saying is, if they can’t take turns having lunch, just close the office during those hours! It would save your customers from too much irritation, I’m telling you!

3. Get a supervisor down there. Fast!

4. Just because your employees know something more about water connection and water billing, it does not make them OUR boss. So tell them to stop treating us customers like dirt and nitwits! Especially those people who look malnourished. Or those customers old enough to be considered senior citizens. WE PAY FOR YOUR SERVICES. We definitely don’t get them for free so tell your employees to show their customers some respect!

5. No face powder and lipstick in those booths! Are these ladies crazy?? Maybe they’re not reading Cosmo magazines? Retouch is absolutely a NO-NO in any public place! It’s a ritual done only and ONLY in the restroom!

AND..

6. Computer games. Do I have to suggest what should be done on them??

If what they want is to sleep and play, tell them to go home and stop working. Work means at the end of the day, your body aches from too much writing, filing, typing, computing, etc. Not aching from too much Gamehouse and uncomfortable sleeping positions!

Oh and by the way, our water has TOO MUCH chlorine. I suggest you do something about that, too!

Flopped

I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something really off with Pinoy Idol. Maybe it’s Wyngard Tracy’s trying so hard to be Simon-mean-ish, or Jolina’s underexperience to become one of the show’s judges, or the American Idol’s too much influence on the Pinoy Idols hopefuls. 

Or could it be because even before American Idol became a hit, Bagong Kampeon had been on the airwaves, already fulfilling dreams of many singer-wannabes. I guess there’s just too many singing contests in the Philippines, both then and now that Pinoy Idol has already lost much of its pizzazz..

I don’t know. I’m not sure. Although I’m certain it’s always better for me to turn off the TV whenever Pinoy Idol is on. Conserve energy, right..?

 

Without Chains

To all the martyrs who shed their blood for the Philippine freedom, Happy 110th Independence Day to you guys. But somehow I’m glad you’re no longer here to “enjoy” the freedom you fought for until death. Because if you do, you’d realize that freedom is a state of mind and you’d be badly disillusioned. You’d come to conclusion that you can live in a “democratic” country but still become oppressed and repressed. I don’t know. Maybe I’m too harsh and cynical about freedom because I haven’t experienced being slaved in my own country. Or have I?