Remembering My Teachers
“Happy Teachers’ Day”
“What is done in the classroom today becomes the indelible memories of tomorrow.” – Robert Brooks
What do we remember most about our teachers? Is it their intelligence or their wit and humor?
Why do we say that we’ll never forget some of our teachers? What made it hard to erase them from our memory – the positive influences they exerted on us or the emotional wounds they may have directly or indirectly inflicted? Do they remain in our memory because of the words of encouragement they said that motivated us to excel or the mouthful they gave that destroyed our self-esteem?
Do we recall the lessons our teachers taught in the class or is it the jokes they shared that we cannot forget to the point that to date those same jokes we still share with others?
Think about this… Is it our teachers’ impeccable display of mastery of…
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Killing Innocent Civilians (KIC)
We’ve been hearing (and reading) a lot about the (alleged) extra-judicial killings (EJK) in the Philippines. The president of this island nation, Rodrigo Duterte has been peppered with a lot of criticism, both in his (my) country and overseas, for the increasing number of deaths attributed on the government’s war against drugs. As of September 30, 2016, there has been more than 2,800 suspected addicts and drug dealers killed.
It is understandable for the United Nations to be concerned and say a mouthful about these extra-judicial killings happening in the Philippines. But has the United Nations been doing anything (or, at least, been saying anything) about killing of innocent civilians (KIC) in different parts of the world.
The United Nations, in a way, called the attention directly of Duterte, asking him to explain.
What about Obama? Has his attention been called by the United Nations to explain the spate of mass shootings and indiscriminate killings of African-Americans happening in his country?
So, is this a matter of when it is the government of a poor nation allegedly committing a crime against humanity the United Nations will have to say something but turns a blind eye when it is a government of a rich powerful country committing the same. The US police are allegedly shooting helpless civilians in broad daylight and the United Nations has yet to issue a policy statement on the matter.
When we argue that the war on drugs can be approached in a way that does not necessitate killing why don’t we also say that peace in Syria can be achieved without carpet bombing a community where properties are utterly destroyed and hundreds of innocent lives are lost.
Compare the more or less 2,800 suspected addicts and drug dealers killed in the Philippines to the number of innocent civilians the US, UK and Russia killed in the hundreds of airstrikes they made in countries where they are fighting terrorists.
So, is it a case of the human rights of those dead drug addicts and drug dealers matter and the lives of those innocent civilians getting killed in war-torn areas don’t.
Have the United Nations reprimanded these countries? Why won’t the United Nations ask the countries aforementioned to find a peaceful resolution to the conflicts in these areas in the Middle East without resorting to killing the ones they call terrorists?
Of course that’s not possible. The only way to deal with suicidal terrorists who are out to disrupt peace and indiscriminately kill, is to fight them tooth and nail, hoping that when the smoke dissipates it is the good that remains standing. That is the same with the drug dealers in the Philippines. They are worse than the terrorists because it is the family, the basic foundation of our society, that they are destroying. They will never stop selling drugs. It is so unfortunate but the only way for them to cease plying their dangerous and life-ruining trade is to kill them (but only when they refuse to surrender and opt to fight authorities.)
As Duterte said in one of his press briefings, both Philippine’s EJK and America’s KIC are appalling. But between killing a drug dealer and a drug addict (who has the potential of becoming a thief, a rapist, and a murderer) and an innocent peace-loving African-American, which one deserves more condemnation?
Remember when Duterte was interviewed by a foreign correspondent about the rising number of drug addicts and drug dealers getting killed in the Philippines and he responded by calling that correspondent’s attention to US policemen killing innocent African-American civilians? Well, to date, more addicts and drug dealers and innocent African-American civilians are getting killed in the Philippines and in the US, respectively.
It is a question of whose lives should the Philippine authorities value more, those of the drug addicts and drug dealers or those of the innocent people getting victimized by the drug menace.
But it seems that the world media is ganging-up on President Duterte for the way he chose to wage war against drug dealers. The world media has suddenly become concerned about killings. What about digging into the allegations of Prof. John Mc Murtry, a world-renowned Canadian philosopher, who argues that “the United States holds the world record of illegal killings of unarmed civilians and extrajudicial detention and torturing of prisoners who are detained without trial.” [1]
I know that the people who make up the U.S. government are decent, peace-loving and God-fearing individuals. This is the reason that I am inclined not to believe Mc Murtry’s imputations. He probably was just hallucinating when he opined that the U.S. government is a gigantic mass-murdering machine which earns profit through waging war.
__________
UPS AND DOWNS
Love you said was a roller coaster
Treacherous switchback it bestrides
Swirled up and twisted you under
You grinned and cried but loved the ride
Cried the tears of pain and delight
Just ride again when love rolls down
By then you know the twists and turns
Buckle up in delight be drowned
Before downwards the ride returns
Expect the many ups and downs
Expect the twizzles and the twines
When spun and twirled never whine
Sit tight never ever let go
Hold still and roll on with the flow
KAPAG UMIBIG
Winika ni Balagtas ating balikan
Pag-ibig daw labis makapangyarihan
Kapag pinana’t sa puso’y tinamaan
Utak ay lumilipat sa talampakan
Wika nila’y kapag tumibok ang puso
Pupungay ang mata tutulis ang nguso
Lutang at tulala parang tinotoyo
Nagiging pasaway tumitigas ang bungo
Kapag umibig lahat ay sasawayin
Mga bilin ni nanay ‘di papansinin
Upang ang kasintahan ay makapiling
Mataas man ang bakod ay aakyatin
Basta’t ang pag-ibig ay masunod lamang
Basta’t kasama mahal na kasintahan
Tatakas at lahat ay tatalikuran
Kakalimutan maging mga magulang
Animo’y bawal na gamot ang pag-ibig
Kapag tinamaan ka’y t’yak na maaadik
Harangan ka man ng sibat o ng kampit
Bisig ng sinta mo’y yayakaping pilit
Kaya’t kapag umibig ay kaiingat
Hangin ang pag-ibig ika’y ililipad
Minsan ay dadalhin ka sa alapaap
Minsan ay sa batuhan ka ibabagsak
Free Verse
I am free to verse
Verse the way I want
Verse away from meter
Verse away from rhyme
I versify my heart
I versify my mind
Verse when hurt
Verse when glad
I verse whenever I want
I am free
My verse is free
I verse what I want
I verse the way I want
The Eulogy
I promised not to cry. That is if I could help it. But should the people notice tears cascade from my eyes…should they hear my voice crack…should I suddenly break into tears… I know they will excuse me. I know they understand. I know that they share the grief that I and the rest of my family feel.
Now I must tell them what I need to say.
Source: The Eulogy
ON BEING A POET
It’s never easy.
The literary genre most difficult to produce is the poem. Imagine putting together the elements of rhythm, rhyme, sound and imagery, not to mention the need to have a formidable vocabulary.
Writing stories may also have maze-like intricacies because mixing in bowl the elements of fiction within the bounds of the plot is not a walk in the park. But fiction writers have the luxury of using a lot of pages to serve their purpose. Leo Tolstoy needed more than half a million words for his novel “War and Peace.”
Conversely, a poet has a single page, sometimes not even the whole of it, to capture vivaciously and vividly the emotions and thoughts pervading within or around him. The Japanese, through their Haiku, would do it in a single-stanza poem with three lines consisting of a total of 17 syllables.
What adds difficulty when poets thread the…
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M.A.D. LIGAYA
M.A.D. L I G A Y A 