Giancarlo Angulo's Blog
Dear 27 and (Still) Single Since Birth,
Having read your letter I get the impression that you are a witty, funny, intelligent, decent and, as you have explicitly pointed out, straight man. Unfortunately my friend, these are not enough to snag you a girl or even a boy (boys are actually more picky than girls when choosing boys).
I once had a roommate who had a thing for foreign girls. After months of distant longing for an American girl, he put on his striped long-sleeved polo, puffed up his chest, gathered what confidence he had and approached the girl of his dreams in broad daylight and in front of the whole school. He introduced himself, declared his undying love, and offered her a brand new copy of The Silmarillion. To say that the girl was taken aback is an understatement but at least she had the decency to not accept his gift and to politely decline his affections.
We were not yet roommates when it happened but he told me about it during a moment of frustration about his non-existent lovelife. “I’m a decent guy” he told me with a pained expression and his suffering was evident in his eyes. “Why do good, decent girls go for guys who do not amount to anything? I have a degree (it was more of a certificate for a two-year course) and these guys that they go after will never even finish college!”
I did not have my Auntie Janey powers back then and I was more interested in the fact that he offered the girl a copy of the book I had been longing to read than concerned for his emotional well-being.
Now that I have seen some of the lands that lay beyond the fairy mists that bordered my homeland, I can tell you this: Good, decent girls go for uncouth deadbeat men because these girls are tired of being good and decent and they want excitement and unpredictability in their lives. Yes, this is true even though a lot of educated high-achieving girls would go “Eeeeeeeeewwwwwww” at the thought.
via Auntie Janey’s Old-Fashioned Agony Column # 24: What a good girl really wants is a bad, bad boy | JessicarulestheUniverse.
“These Filipinos never give up!” the FIBA announcers kept shouting.
They don’t know the half of it.
Sen. Grace Poe rode the MRT, taking two hours to get from North Avenue to Taft, ostensibly doing research ahead of a Senate hearing on the rolling disaster that is the MRT – and the even more epic fail that is the current leadership of the DOTC. Poe was lucky: the door on her coach was closed when the train ran. But the first and last thought on her mind, the senator said, was about the people all around her: Filipinos who would subject themselves to torture twice a day, taxpayers screwed by the system and insensitive leaders, but hardworking folk who, out of duty, lack of choice, but also with stubborn vision for their children, would still show up for work, waking up at 4 a.m., getting home near 10 in the evening, day in and day out, to go through the same gauntlet the next day. Below the trains gingerly running at 40 kph because doing the optimal 60 kph is now just too dangerous, even more of the people were being steamed like corn in uncertified buses.
Mura mura na lang pag may time.
And still they show up. Ready to rebound, ready to slam, giving up their bodies to clear way for another. Basketball, the No. 1 sport of Filipinos, dishes out so many metaphors, but nothing as great as the delight and heroism daily afforded by our love affair’s irony. This shouldn’t be working. Why is it working?
Our underpaid, under-supported soldiers and policemen practice rowing in Manila Bay and the Pasig River – diving for mussels in between sessions so they can have some extra energy – and that should all account for nothing. And yet there our rowers were, almost unheralded the same week our ballers were shocking the world, themselves no longer surprising as world champs. International rowing organizers had years ago declared, there is no point in having international competitions without Filipino rowers, because Filipino Rowers are by now the Brazilians of Dragon Boat racing. So dominant, so colorful, all heart.
via EDITORIAL | We Are Team Pilipinas.
I have a conceit against lawyers from my country not all lawyers but I would say most.
Our law school curricula naturally follow the too-long list of prescribed bar subjects. This has destroyed legal education because there is simply no room for anything else, especially with the entire fourth year of law school intended for bar review subjects that are a compressed repeat of the first three. In contrast, law is a three-year program in the United States where one takes the most basic subjects in freshman year. The succeeding years are purely for electives—they presume one does not need exposure to every single field—and some have proposed two-year programs given this.
Philippine law schools must devote three units to the Negotiable Instruments Law. This is a cruel joke because the law was intended for a time when commercial papers were delivered by galleon or stagecoach and that class typically ends with a summary of the brief rules for bank checks, the instrument we far more commonly use today. In contrast to this monumental waste of time, modern, complex laws such as the Intellectual Property and the Securities Regulation Codes are not required reading.
The line of University of the Philippines professors once was that students were there to study law in the grand manner, not review for the bar. Even UP bowed to pressure from alumni fixated on the bar. Equally fixated college seniors were attracted to schools with higher bar passing rates and topnotcher counts. UP did well in both in recent years, but at the staggering cost of eliminating nearly all electives in favor of mandatory bar review classes and stricter grade requirements to remove perceived weaker students before they could affect the all-important bar statistics.
All this has reduced law school to soulless memory games. Our unconscious image of the abogado de campanilla is still an idiot savant who can recite pages of rules verbatim, down to the commas. I remember a progressive Dean Raul Pangalangan holding up a CD of compiled court decisions, then worth about P30,000, to freshmen and reiterating the trivial market value of the memory games.
via Why bar exams ruin legal education | Inquirer Opinion.
Our law school curricula naturally follow the too-long list of prescribed bar subjects. This has destroyed legal education because there is simply no room for anything else, especially with the entire fourth year of law school intended for bar review subjects that are a compressed repeat of the first three. In contrast, law is a three-year program in the United States where one takes the most basic subjects in freshman year. The succeeding years are purely for electives—they presume one does not need exposure to every single field—and some have proposed two-year programs given this.
via Why bar exams ruin legal education | Inquirer Opinion.
Unlike most of my friends I am not a fan, of Prof Monsod rather I’ve tried to teach myself how to be level headed and critical of everything. So if it seems I am ragging on the VP often this is not some demagogue
Six times in the past seven weeks, this column has been devoted to issues surrounding the Makati parking building and other possible cases of corruption against Vice President Jejomar Binay, who, as mayor, and together with his wife (three years) and son (four years and counting), has ruled Makati for the past 27 years.
Why the concentration on the overpriced building and Binay? Because Binay has made no secret of his desire to be president of the Philippines in 2016. Therefore, Filipinos should have access to independent information (as opposed to his press releases and the work of his network of media professionals) on how he ran Makati, which will help them make up their minds as to whether he deserves to be president—other than that he has been dreaming of it since he was a poor, orphaned child.
Binay has portrayed himself as a victim of political persecution, saying the case involving the Makati parking building is already with the Sandiganbayan and therefore should no longer be heard by the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee headed by Koko Pimentel. In addition, he says, the subcommittee has no jurisdiction and it should be the full committee that should be hearing the case.
Sorry, Mr. Vice President. It takes the Sandiganbayan an average of eight years to resolve a case, and quite apart from the doubts on its integrity, it is a fact that a decision made eight years from now by that court will be useless to the Filipino people who will be judging you in the election that will take place 18 months from now. Which is why they need to know about how you ran Makati, and, relatedly, your unexplained wealth.
The only possible place they can get their facts is from the Pimentel subcommittee, but you and your minions are trying your best to gag them. The political-persecution ploy is overplayed, I think. The fact that you are allowed by the administration to hand out land titles (the President usually does that) allows me to rest my case. The lack-of-jurisdiction ploy is the same one you used in 1995, and it bought you four years from the Supreme Court. I don’t know how many times you’ve used it since then, but I hope it doesn’t succeed now. The fate of the country is at stake.
Then there’s the presumption-of-innocence ploy—a man is presumed innocent until he is found guilty. True enough. But the Senate hearings are not a criminal proceeding, so that presumption is not at issue. This is the court of public opinion. Because, Mr. Vice President, you want to be president. And the question of the people watching is: Are you worthy?
via Binay and the court of public opinion | Inquirer Opinion.
Mr. President, mga kasama sa ating paglalakabay sa landas ng Daang Matuwid; mga minamahal na kababayan: Una, happy Saint Ignatius Day.
Maraming ginigising na alaala itong Club Filipino. Dito nanumpa si Pangulong Cory noong 1986. Nabanggit na rin ni PNoy kanina, dito niya tinanggap ang panawagang mamuno; at dito niya unang sinabing puwede na muli tayong mangarap. Dito ko unang sinabi ang mga salitang “Bayan bago ang sarili.”
Pamilyar sa akin ang dinaanan ni PNoy; nauunawaan ko nang buo ang pagninilay na kinailangan niyang gawin noong 2009. Labas sa mga kilala talaga ako, kakaunti ang nakakaalam na hindi ko rin binalak pumasok sa gobyerno. May kapatid ako, si Dinggoy; namatay siya noong 1993. Siya sana ang ambag ng aming henerasyon sa prinsipyong pamana ng aking lolo: “Bayan bago ang sarili.” Kakambal na ng dugo namin ang kaisipang ito. Ito ang idiniin sa akin ng ama kong si Gerry at ito rin ang idinidiin ko sa anak at sa aking mga pamangkin: May obligasyon kang magsilbi; unahin mo ang kolektibo kaysa personal; palagi kang mag-ulikid sa mga kababayan mo.
Ilonggo iyon, Bisaya iyon – wala akong mahanap na katumbas na kasama ang damdamin. Nang nawala si Dinggoy, sa akin lumapag ang responsibilidad na isabuhay ang prinsipyong ito. Hindi ko ito kayang talikuran; hindi ko kayang talikuran ang alaala ng Dad at ni Dinggoy, pati na ng aking Lolo. Tungkulin ko ito: Kahit alam kong magbabago ang buhay ko, at kakailanganin kong lumabas sa nakasanayan ko. I had to do justice to what I had been taught, and to what I knew in my heart was right. I accepted the responsibility.
Doon nagsimula ang buhay ko bilang lingkod bayan. Sa maraming taon sa serbisyo, namulat ako sa mga hamon, sa requirements, sa tama at makatarungang diskarte at pagpaplano para masigurong aabot sa taumbayan ang nararapat na serbisyo. Kasama dito ang pagpapasa ng makabuluhang batas, ang pagpapatibay ng ugnayan sa pribadong sektor, ang pagbuo ng consensus na patas, kung saan tanging taumbayan lang ang panalo.
Sa pagiging lingkod-bayan, ang pinakamahalagang natutunan ko – sa pagpunta ko sa iba’t ibang mga lalawigan, at sa pakikipag-usap ko sa mga kapwa nating Pilipino, magsasaka man, o informal settler, nagtatrabaho sa call center, o ordinaryong mamamayan: Binibigkis tayo ng ating mga pangarap. Hindi iba ang pangarap ko sa pangarap ng bawat Pilipino; I wish for the Filipino people only what I would wish for myself. After all, who are we if not our dreams?
Sino ba naman ang hindi nangangarap ng buhay na maginhawa at may dignidad? Na kapag nagutom ka, may isusubo ka. Kapag nagsikap ka, aasenso ka.
Kapag may gusto ka, may ipinangarap ka, hindi mo kailangang ibenta ang dangal mo, dahil may trabaho ka, dahil may naipon ka, dahil may risonableng paraan para makamit ito. Kapag naglakad ka sa kalye, hindi mo kailagang mangamba. Kapag nagkasakit, o tinamaan ng sakuna, may darating na suporta. Kapag may maling nangyari sa iyo, makakaasa ka sa sistemang may hustisya; makukulong ang nagkasala. Sino ba naman ang hindi nangarap na hawakan ang sariling kapalaran?
Alam nating lahat, at nakita na natin nitong mga nakaraang taon: Ang mga pangarap na ito ay kayang maabot. Kailangan lang ang isang gobyernong nakatutok sa kapakanan ng taumbayan, at tumutotoo sa sinumpaang tungkulin nito; gobyernong mabilis, maliksi, at agarang nakakaresponde sa pangangailangan natin. Propesyunal, hindi transaksyunal. Walang bara-bara, walang patsamba, kundi sistematikong pagtupad sa mga pangarap natin. Isang gobyernong ang tanging pinaglilingkuran ay ang ating mga Boss na nagbigay sa kanya ng mandato at lakas.
Ito ang nasimulan natin sa Daang Matuwid. PNoy allowed us to imagine again what the Filipino is capable of.
Pasensya na po kayo, mababa talaga ang luha ko.
Malakas tayo: Kayang lumaban sa bala, sa diktador, sa pang-aapi. Matibay tayo; madapa man dahil sa sakuna o sa kahirapan, ay babangon at babangon ulit. [Palakpakan] Mabuti ang Pilipino: Kahit minsan nagsisiksikan o kinakapos na tayo, kaya nating buksan ang loob sa kapwa at sa buong mundo; kaya nating sabihing “Halika, magtungo ka dito, paghatian natin kung ano ang meron kami. Ituturing ka naming kapatid.” We are a serious people who are serious with our dreams, who have just had a taste of what serious, selfless leadership can achieve.
Mr. President, kung maaalala po ninyo, noong 2009, nag-usap po tayo, bago po ninyo tinanggap na tatakbo po kayo. Nagkasundo tayong isantabi ang personal na interes, at isipin kung para saan ba talaga tayo nagsisilbi. Sabi mo sa akin noon, “Hindi mo puwedeng talikuran ang panawagang ipagpatuloy ang laban ng iyong mga magulang.”
Sa pag-endorsong ito, ang pakiramdam ko, ipinapasa mo sa akin ngayon ang mga ipinaglaban nila.
Natatawa na lang ako sa sarili ko dahil talagang naluluha eh. Malaking karangal po iyon para sa akin, Mr. President.
Napakalaking karangalan nito; at sumusumpa ako ngayon: Hindi ko dudumihan ang pangalan nila. At lalong hindi ko dudumihan ang pangalan po ninyo.
Sa pag-endorsong ito, ipinapasa mo rin ang pangarap at lakas ng bawat isa sa isandaang milyong Pilipino. Mga Boss, hindi ko sasayangin ang tiwala ninyo.
I owe the Filipino as much; and I owe as much to you, Mr. President. I have never met a President who sacrificed so much for the country. I have never met a President who has been able to inspire so much confidence. Namuno po kayo sa pagsasabuhay ng mga paniniwala natin; ipinakita mo kung ano ang kaya nating marating gamit ang political will, ang paninindigan, ang pagkapit sa tama kahit gaano kalakas ang kalaban. Buong pagpapakumbaba akong nagpapasalamat sa iyo, at sa ating mga Boss. Hindi-hindi ako lilihis sa Daang Matuwid. Ibubuhos ko ang lahat; wala akong ititira para sa sarili ko. I will leave everything on the floor para sa labang ito.
Naniniwala ako: Hindi lang ito tungkol sa akin o kay PNoy. Ang Daang Matuwid ay tungkol sa mga pangarap ng bawat Pilipino. Sabi nga ng Pangulo: It is worth fighting for. It is worth sacrificing for, and dying for if need be.The straight path transcends me and PNoy; it is a Filipino ideal that has been there long before we were born, and will remain long after we are gone. Hinahamon tayo ng kasaysayan na isabuhay ang prinsipyong ito; na magpatuloy sa ating paglalakbay; na ipaglaban ang ating mga pangarap bilang lahi.
Mr. President, noong Lunes sa SONA, sabi mo, “Simula pa lang ito; simula pa lang ng dakilang kuwento ng sambayanang Pilipino.”
Ngayon, buong katapatan, buong-loob, at buong-paninindigan kong tinatanggap ang tawag ng Daang Matuwid. Tulad ng sinabi po ninyo, Ginoong Pangulo, “Simula pa lang ito. Laban pa rin tayo.”
Ako si Mar Roxas, tinatanggap ko ang hamon ng ating mga Boss: itutuloy, palalawakin, at ipaglalaban ang Daang Matuwid.
A balanced view of the former President warts and all.
But I can’t deny the results. The economy was fine; better than fine. The world knew it. Banks knew it. Investors knew it. Under his watch, the sunshine industry of BPOs grew from being a trend to being a reliable industry employing 2 million+. We weren’t just relying on our OFW remittances anymore. Heck, minimum fare was P7! The last time that happened, Ramos was still the president. Only the people who can’t accept the truth denied how stable, even prosperous, the country was. He was the first President i
Source: My Beef With President Noy Aquino | Development templates for Guinarona
Finally, the ideal leadership style is radical candor. It’s when you care personally and challenge directly. It sounds simple, Scott said, but it’s rare in today’s workplace.You can start displaying radical candor by getting feedback from your team — and then giving it.Scott avoids the “feedback sandwich” — in which you praise, than criticize, and then praise again — but she says it’s generally a good idea to offer more praise than criticism.
Source: Radical Candor’s Kim Scott: The most effective leadership style – Business Insider