Fresh Air Amid Hopelessness: Isang Daang Piso Para sa Matinong Kandidato

There’s so much negativity on the news lately as a result of developments in the Napoles pork barrel case. Now a lot more personalities have been linked, including media, senators and congressmen. It seems there’s an effort to muddle the issue by who-knows-who.

Prior to this, the Ph took a roller coaster ride through 6 presidencies in recent memory: Marcos, Cory, Ramos, Erap, GMA and Pnoy. That ride was one brief spell of euphoria and hope, followed by a downward spin that would somehow be mitigated by a glimmer of fresh hope with every change in presidency. Then back to rotting in the gutters for the Pinoy.

So, What’s Wrong With Us as a People and a Nation?

I will venture to put up my own Perry’s Top 21 Ph Blackspots that may well describe the Ph, culled from a Libertas blog (http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/05/the-philippines-a-world-travelers-musings-and-ramblings-wtf-wheres-the-fun/) I’ve read lately. I can find this List quite believable without too much debate. I will not lose sleep over it, nor waste my time pondering on how it evolved over time. I would rather think of ways to improve myself, as well as the people around me if I can, so by the next reckoning, hopefully the Pinoy can stand a bit taller. Here’s the List:

1. The Ph is nation of 100 million people, where unemployment is 27% and 35% living below the poverty line. Many Filipinos want to get out of the country (70% according to the last poll), and many do (10 million Filipinos work overseas), sending money to their families, and this accounts for 12% of GDP;

2. Filipinos are very sensitive, emotional souls, and the slightest criticism will result in either tears, or anger, but perversely they do not mind being used and abused by their own politicians, and presumably having gone from past colonial dominance to the current feudal system, subservience is now part of their DNA.

3. It is the center of drug trafficking in Asia;

4. There are 1 million sex workers and has a thriving industry in human and child sex trafficking, many under 14 and working in cybersex dens;

5. There are 14 million child laborers;

6. 26 million people have no toilets;

7. The Ph has the lowest IQ in Asia – 86 – and one of the lowest in the world;

8. It is the 6th worst country in the world for crony capitalism;

9. There’s up to 8 hour daily brownouts during summer, and the most expensive in Asia;

10. It has slow and antiquated Internet service.

11. The Ph sits at bottom of the ASEAN league when it comes to FDI (foreign direct investment).

12. There are no major projects or groundbreaking solutions to well known and long lasting problems on Infrastructure;

13. It suffers from an income inequality that ranks amongst the highest in the world;

14. 76 % of the national wealth remains firmly in the hands of just 40 families;

15. Corruption is the main income generator (even low government officials, especially in Customs, drive new cars, as when recently, its employee got busted for road rage on a brand new Porsche – all on the equivalent of 400 US dollars per month);

16. It is estimated that up to 40% of the annual national budget is siphoned off by politicians;

17. Filipinos do not like spending their own money, and do not regard the environment as important (man-made, or natural). They prefer to play the victim, hold out the begging bowl, then scam the aid or investment from abroad, subsequently siphoning off most of this to off-shore accounts.

18. Manila is the world’s most densely populated city (21 million). People from the provinces gravitate here in search of any work. It is high on the lists for pollution, crime, and with, horrendous traffic jams, incessant road works, an overcrowded and breakdown-prone mass transit system, illegal bus operators, and antiquated fume-spewing 'jeepneys'. The city is dilapidated, and is a vast shanty town, complete with hordes of illegal squatters;

19. Ph newspapers headlines gives good and rapid insight. It is always dominated by corruption, drive-by motorcycle shootings of politicians or journalists, beauty pageants, and any part Filipino who has achieved success abroad. Pinoys focus more on Vicarious pride rather than developing their own self-worth;

20. It is a Catholic country and Filipinos profess to be god-fearing, but that hardly stops the murders, rapes, child trafficking, corruption, scams. The Church itself loves to get involved in politics, and prescribes to their flock who to vote for, as the priest takes delivery of a new SUV.

21. The center of life in the Ph is the tacky lives of ‘personalities’ and politicians. Cheating has to be a component of everything. Lying has become a national art form. Hypocrisy rules.

In the meantime, the Pinoy seems to be caught in a vicious cycle of hoping, then getting frustrated, then hoping once again. During the interregnum, they get by living in utter unending hopelessness, amid the sheer political hypocricy, social dysfunction, and business inefficiency.

As can be gleaned from above, my Perry’s Top 21 Ph Blackspots can be solved by an honest and strong president. By honest, I mean just that – honest, without necessity of qualifying. And by strong, I mean somebody who came by the presidency without selling his soul to the brokers of power.

It is at this time when I looked more closely at the Facebook Group - "Isang Daang Piso Para sa Matinong Kandidato" and spent a week pondering on who they are and what they stand for. Simply put, they are ordinary netizens willing to contribute resources, (P100 pesos to put a fixed square figure) so that when a qualified candidate comes, they can support this candidate and he does not resort to wheeling and dealing with power groups to step up with the exigency of elections.

Inspite of all the social malaise bugging the Ph, and in the face of myriad propositions from interest groups, the roadmap of "Isang Daang Piso Para sa Matinong Kandidato" is quite simple. Their first objective is to create a critical mass of 100,000 members, which should be accomplished by June next year (2015). It is in this endeavor that I am helping out.

So to all my friends, if you are on edge, eyes bulging out, hair falling, and too exasperated you keep chewing your nails due to the fact that only corrupt politicians, or movie stars, or cronies, or elites keep getting elected to run this country like hell, I suggest you go online and ‘Like’ the Facebook Group “Isang Daang Piso Para sa Matinong Kandidato”.

Be relevant in the 2016 Ph elections. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.

Success Comes to the Second Mouse: Working Hard or Working Smart?

It is a Sunday and I had intended to slow down take it easy for a day. I decided to watch UFC. But as I switched channels, I came across this movie playing on cable television, ‘Catch Me If You Can’.

The film’s lead role is a guy named Frank Abagnale, Jr. who, as a young teen was learning from his entrepreneur father. At one point, his dad was giving a speech after being lauded as a captain of industry:

               
     “Two mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse drowned and died. The second mouse struggled so hard, churning the cream into butter, and promptly got out of the bucket. I am the second mouse.”

His words on how he got so successful jerked my mind into asking, what was the lesson here?

I have a collection of many quotables, a lot of practical advice and philosophies that I gather into what I call “Perry’s Apothegms”. One thing I discovered is that all of this sage wisdom won’t work if you won’t.

So is success really about the ‘old school’ formula of really, really ‘working hard’? Or is it more of the gen-x adaptation of ‘working smart’?

I like working hard. But I will go for working smart any day. This to me means applying all the advantages to make your work easy so you can accomplish more given the same time. A good example would be to apply gadgets, devices and all of today’s technological marvels to your work or office. Much like the physics of life, it doesn’t make sense to lift an object with ten pounds of force if you can lift it with one pound using a fulcrum.

Well, in the movie ‘Catch Me If You Can’, Frank rose to become a topnotch bank checks forger. He was so good at his craft that eventually the FBI got him as consultant for its Anti-fraud department. It touches the heart that although Frank’s father lost his fortune, Frank loved him dearly, both as his dad and great mentor.

So is success about working hard or working smart?

I guess if you have the smarts for it, go work smart. But if there’s ever a reason you can’t work smart (say, you’re an entry-level employee down the food-chain, with powers one step above the office dork) then go kill yourself working your darnest, hardest best.

There is no equality in nature. But Life has a way of leveling things down the finish line. Take that from me! Cheers to more successes ahead.

Solitude: Appreciating Life with a Dose of Quiet

I’m lucky to have a place to spend an hour or less daily to enjoy time in solitude. At the break of dawn, I go out jogging. If I do it 5:30 AM or earlier, I can traverse a stretch of concrete road about half a kilometer long, and do it for several repetitions WITHOUT seeing any person. The feeling you get is that you are the only person in this part of the planet.

The feeling can be refreshing. I use this time in solitude as my “thinking hours”. I discovered that I can sort out my cluttered thoughts and come up with ideas when it is quiet all around and I can listen to myself. So I no longer belabor my head with queries requiring analytical thinking just before going to bed. I train myself to leave this for my quiet moments at the break of dawn.

So this has been my routine most mornings to start my day. I relish a dose of quiet. There is not a soul around. But I guess that’s an exaggeration. There are souls. After all, the place is a memorial park.

Yesterday, I saw one black-brown cow. It was grazing, and I wondered how its mouth is perpetually in motion, masticating grass the whole day. This morning, I saw one grade-school kid with a brand new black bike. He would zigzag his bike as he breezed past me while I jogged. Perhaps he graduated elementary recently and the bike was a gift. I was of course speculating because this is graduation month. But the boy’s eyes gleamed with satisfaction and I hope his parents could see him right there and then. That moment was priceless.

I always looked forward to meeting elderly persons who usually maintain a modicum of exercise by walking. They always have this anticipation that you will look at them and that they would have a ready smile to greet you back. Sometimes I am in deep thought, and at other times I am struggling to catch my breath as my lungs seem to explode from running. But always I would be disarmed by the ready smile of these senior citizens as I go past them.

Just as suddenly, I would have this reassuring thought that my day will be great. Then I will utter impulsively one “thank you” to the heavens for giving me another day to live. Life is beautiful and there’s every reason to live it fully.

Do you have a place of solitude? I hope so. You would be hard put experiencing that in the highly congested concrete jungles of Manila or other squatter-prone urban areas of the Ph. But try hard to find one. You will appreciate the simple things in life more.

Top 5 Tips for Typhoon-proofing Your House

At this point in my life, I do not believe typhoon-proofing a house can be guaranteed. But damage can definitely be mitigated by adapting our construction methodology to the threat. The Ph is the most typhoon-hit country in the entire planet. I live in Sorsogon, one of six provinces in the Bicol region. This area is generally more wet than other regions because most typhoons come from east of the Ph as it makes its way to either Japan or China, traversing Catanduanes.

In the last quarter of 2007, two typhoons of “signal no.4” strength ravaged Bicol. ‘Milenyo’ hit Sorsogon in September, followed by ‘Reming’, which devastated Albay a month after. Of course this was way ahead of ‘Yolanda’, the super-typhoon that struck the Visayas last November, 2013.

The painful lessons of those 2 super-typhoons in 2007 taught the Bicolanos to adapt to the phantasmagoric havoc that their kind can wreck.

Right after 'Milenyo', I undertook construction of my house which was totaled. After a month, 'Reming' struck and ruined what substantial repairs I had done. Add to this scourge the power outage that lasted several months. Many were overwhelmed by the blight and hopelessness all around. But life moved on and forward.

 
It’s a blessing that I do construction regularly, so I took particular attention on what parts of a house sustained the first damage that eventually caused a domino-effect on the entire structure. I’ve been asked often how to typhoon-proof a house. Here are my Top 5 Tips:

1. Limit Your Openings.

I looked at the direction of the mighty wind blasts. In my place it came from the West side. So I made no openings there except for the main door and a window beside it. I used steel casement windows on the weakest side, not big glass on aluminum frames to minimize the danger from glass debris in a storm. In the event glass is shattered, I need to replace only small glass panes. My garage, which was in front of the main door, had sheet roofing. I protected this by casting in place a 0.60 meter (24 inches) wide parapet wall along the entire front.

Plan your Roof. If it goes, practically your whole house goes. So my tips include several ideas on the roof alone.

2. Limit Your Roof Eaves. (Bolada)

I observed that most Ph houses try to make the roof eaves as lengthy as possible (sometimes reaching up to 1.2 meters) to economize, since long eaves provide shade in summer and cover during rains. Try not to exceed a 0.60 meter eave length. Strong winds will hold on the eaves with devastating uplift force. It is very important to ensure that no portion of the eaves all around the house is left without a ceiling (kisame). Additionally, I protected the roof by casting in place a 0.60 meter (24 inches) wide parapet wall along its entire perimeter.

3. Exaggerate Your Trusses.

The typhoons ravaged a lot of forest areas that in 2008 a moratorium was issued to allow the use of timber obtained from fallen trees. I used hardwood derived from this. But if your area is scarce in wood, use steel trusses. I shortened the spacing between my main trusses. I exposed my wood trusses by putting my plywood ceiling right beneath the roof (and the heat insulation, if you have any). The reason is that once you hide your trusses underneath the ceiling, it is very hard for you to check them later. 

Note that there are 2 things to be aware of: (a) the bottom chord of trusses is subjected to heavier stresses; and (b) you must re-visit your truss connectors at some future time after construction. In my case, since there was urgency when I constructed, I used nails to connect my truss members. Later I revisited and changed them to nuts and bolts.

4. Exaggerate Your Purlins.

Since wood is not available in most urban areas, most purlins are C-section steel sheet channels 3” to 6” wide. Exaggerate purlin spacing as well. So much discussion was made after the super-typhoons that the first cause of flying G.I. roofs was that the nuts and bolts that fastened them to the purlins were dislodged due to constant vibration from successive wind blasts.

In case you are using steel purlins, avoid using Tek screws that drill their own hole and then tap threads to combine two or more pieces of material (in this case, the roof sheet and the purlin). Rather, fasten your roof in this manner: Use a bolt that goes through the roof, then flat washer, then lock washer, then nut, then lock washer, then nut. Spend extra effort on using 2 nuts and 2 lock washers while installing heavy-gauge sheet roof. You may not get the chance to add this later, especially if your ceiling hides your trusses.

At any rate, I used lumber for my purlins because lumber was plentiful after the super-typhoons. I exaggerated by using 3”x3” wood purlins spaced every 1 foot. I pre-drilled the roof sheet but not the wood to allow the Tek screws to ‘bite’ on the purlins.

5. Limit the slope of your Roof.

 This is a rather touchy matter since you have to balance aesthetics with strength. As a rule, the bigger the slope, the stronger. But too steep a slope will be an eye-sore. You have to find out by trial and error what works best for your house’s dimension. I used a 38-degree slope because it looked pleasant, but I will go no higher than 41 degrees because I feel that going more than that will look bad. Sometimes you have to blend different slopes, especially when your roof bends in different directions.

Be safe.