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Faith in God, hard work, patience, and a  cheerful disposition are the key traits that Bunso have.  She also possesses an “UNLI”value that I shall deal with later. 

Una kong nasilayan si Bunso halos isat-kalahating taong na rin ang lumipas.  Bata pa talaga siya ng dumating sa Tumana. Hindi lang “may gatas pa sa bibig” kung titingnan, pede mo ring sabihing “mapanghe pa ang kumot”.  

True enough, her resume showed she was only 19 years of age. Huh? At the back of my mind, I was asking how could she be an B.S. Education graduate with six months teaching experience at this age?  Curiosity got the better of me and I interviewed her for the job opening at that time.

 DA INTERBYU :

 “Updated ba resume mo?”

 “Opo”…

 “Tama ba edad mo rito?”

 “Öpo..disenueve anyos po ako”…

 “Paano ka naka pagtapos at naka pagturo kung 19 ka pa lang?”

 “Accelerated po ako”….

 “Ah..ganun pala, so henyo ka?”

 “Sakto lang po”….

 “May asawa?”

 “Wala pa po…”

 “Pumapatol sa may-asawa..?”

 “Ay sir, ang kati!!!”

 “O sige, tanggap ka na!”

That interview was one of the more memorable ones for me.  I reminded myself that I should keep a close eye on this kid so she does not lose her way.

Unang araw ni Bunso sa Tumana.  Pag pasok niya ay medyo natigilin ang mga kasamahan naming..Hmmm…naka Tsalekong parang manga-ngam-panya.! Iba ito. Medyo wala pa sa porma ng isang taga Tumana. Di bale isang taon lang eh aayos din ang batang ito.  Paglipas ng mga linggo at buwan, nakaka sabay na rin si Bunso sa kalakaran dito sa Tumana.  Mahalay din naman palang mag-damit, may future!  Maboka siya at listo. Hindi ako nag kamali.  May angking alindog si Bunso kaya’t nabansagang “UNLI”or ang libog. 

Through a period of more than a year, she has developed good rapport and earned the respect of her peers.  She has touched us with stories of her band, brief teaching career, and Glen-the-Adonis!  She has this energetic laughter which I always tell her to tone down. I will miss that. She rides with me at least once a week aboard the “School Bus”.  She has opened up to me some of her fears and aspirations during those long trips when it was just the two of us. I have also shared to her some of my experiences and random thoughts.  She would never forget to say “Thank You and Good Night”…simple words of endearment that will forever be in my mind.

Malayo ang mararating ni Bunso. Hindi mo ma-aalis na kailangan niyang sumubok sa ibang larangan sa labas ng Tumana. Malungkot at Masaya. Dalawang emosyon na mararanasan naming mga iiwanan ni Bunso. Mas lamang siempre ang kasiyahan sapagkat mag sisimula na siya sa mas mainam na antas ng buhay.

She is just a few years older than my own daughter, that’s probably why there is a special affinity that I have grown fond of.  I am reminded of my daughter whenever Bunso is bouncing around the room with her contagious laughter and uncanny sense of humor.

Salamat at Paalam

Life is a journey. People come, people go. What we hold on to are the memories, both good and the tough ones. If we’ve learned lessons as we travel, the journey was well worth the pain of getting to the destination. 

A teacher by profession, an Ate at heart, and a Girlfriend by fate…we say Thank You , Wennie.

You have been very patient, very accommodating, and very kind.  Youré just a stone’s throw away so we will all see you around. This time with Dennis always at your side! 

KITKAT

Tahimik ang Tumana. Nagmasid and Bantay sa paligid. Walang ingay kungdi ang sipol ng hangin.

Sa gitna ng katahimikan, siya ay nag-isip.  Nasanay ka lang na laging maraming tao at kaganapan sa Tumana.

Espesyal na araw ito. Ngayon, ay nagbabakasyon ang mga masasayang kabaranggay ng Tumana.  Sa ganitong panahon ay mag kakasiyahan sila upang makapagbuklod-buklod ang mga mag kakaibigang matagal-tagal na ring di nag kasama. Isang okasyon kung saan ang lahat ay makapag enjoy at di muna mag isip ng mga kung ano-anong seryosong bagay….Kampay!

Napangiti ang Bantay at umupo sa kanyang pwesto.  Dumukot sa bulsa at nag labas ng tsokolate.  “ Uhmm,..sarap ng KitKat…relax..take a break”   

Thank God for Sundays

 It was a nerve-wrecking week of five straight days of training. The last two days, required almost 12 hours of undivided attention,  devoted to Leadership.

Thank God, we didn’t have training on a Sunday!

For me, training is important because of the value of continuing education that can still be learned while you are already working.  There is also the added benefit of networking with new  people specially if participants are from a cross-section of the organization. It’s a bonus if there are third-party participants so you can get instant feedback of how you are perceived in the outside world. Lastly, a perfect excuse to eat more since food and drinks are normally served in abundance to keep the participants happy.

In my experience, you can’t absorb everything that is taught in a seminar or training. The information overload may lead to the phenomenon called – Paralysis by Analysis.

To avoid this, I apply what I have learned in my continuing journey into the martial arts. It is a very simple philosophy which I have embraced - “ Absorb Only What is Useful”.   

Some topics in a seminar may not be directly related to your work, catalogue them in your brain as “For Academic Purposes Only” so it doesn’t overload your thinking process.  Some topics are resource-related  to your work, so make a mental note as “Quick References” and move on.  The topics which are key success factors to your work are the ones you tag as “Useful Information” in your brain and in your writing materials. Yes, I urge you to write them down. Use bullet points in writing, it saves time and allows you to focus on the discussion, not the act of jotting them down. The message here is to write them down so you won’t  forget.

The lessons in Mentoring and Coaching, to my mind, are the key items during the last two days of training.  To me they are important because it will prepare any individual that  you take under your wing to become a future leader.  Two very unique skill sets that require experience and maturity.

Mentoring is the transfer of knowledge or  technology  to an apprentice. It is an investment of time and patience on the part of a leader to do this task.  Coaching, on the other hand,  is the act of guiding the apprentice as he applies the knowledge he has learned from the teacher. This is a more daunting task. Coaching is about giving guidance yet allowing the apprentice to make decisions on his own. The decisions an apprentice makes, enriches his experience and he develops confidence. Coaching is about giving him a clear direction to a goal and you empower him to execute that goal.  It is in  the execution of the apprentice to reach that  goal that a coach  has to follow-through

Estudyante Blues

The feeling of being back in school is like riding a bicycle. No matter how long you haven’t rode on one, for as long as you did it before, you can do it again.  It maybe a bit wobbly at first, but the balance will eventually come back to you.

The classroom setting for the not-so-young  people is like the coliseum in Rome. The seats are elevated in 4 rows and the podium where the teacher gives his lecture is at the pit of the coliseum for everyone to see.

In military terms, the teacher is at a disadvantageous position for two reasons. First, the audience has the high-ground so we have the vantage point of  landscape and terrain.  Secondly,  we  can all see the professor but he can’t see all of us. That  gives us the advantage of making a sneaky text, phone call or tapping in our laptop keyboards.

The classroom setting had also changed. In my row alone, 6 out of 10 either have laptops, mini-notebooks, or blackberry communication devices. We can make a fast query using the internet for resource materials that 25years ago would have demanded that you go check out a book in the library.

Unlike an MBA course which cuts and dissects subjects on a per unit basis, Strategic Planning Class combines, innovates, and tailor fits information and resources to the exact needs of an organization.  It’s very similar to the principles embodied in the classic book : “Art of War”. It’s taking a look at yourself, your surrounding, and even your enemies so you can plan and execute  your plan properly.

Another transformation that you will see in advanced classes is the level of participation.  Going back 25 years ago, when a teacher throws a question to the class, the students will look either at the floor or ceiling and will nervously wait to be called.  In advanced classes, strangely enough, participants can’t seem to wait and give an answer. They are all gunning to get the attention of the professor and get affirmation. Talk about being gung-ho!  Perhaps as people get older, they tend to challenge convention and ask teachers rather than get asked by teachers.

If you are asked to go back to school, training or seminar – GO FOR IT.  It will enrich your mind and experience.

If you can go to back to school, training or seminar ON YOUR OWN ACCORD , I salute you! You are empowering yourself to become a better student of life.   

There are other pluses of adult classes. The chicks are hotter andMILFIER

SUNRISE, SUNSET

Palubog na ang araw, lumalamig na ang simoy ng hangin. Hudyat na upang bumalot ang kadiliman ng gabi. Hindi naman dapat mabahala dahil may liwanag naman ng bagong buwan at maningning na mga bituin dito sa Tumana.

Tulad ng Haring-Araw na kailangan ding magpahinga, gayun din ang datihang Bantay ng Tumana.  Napapanahon na, upang bigyan ng mga bagong takda at pagsubok ang mga sumisibol na Mananabas.   Ito ay upang mahubog sila sa mga mas matataas na katungkulan at responsibilidad na gagamitin nila bilang mga susunod na henerasyon ng mga lider.

Lahat ng pumasok sa Tumana ay lalabas rin. Bibilang ka ng araw, lingo, buwan, o kahit na  oras,  ngunit darating din ang panahon mo upang  ikaw ay lumisan ng Tumana. Karapat dapat na ang mga batang mananabas ay bigyan na ng mga bagong panunutunin, gabay, at kumpyansa upang maipag patuloy ang pamumuhay sa Tumana.

Natutuwa ang Bantay dahil nakikita niyang utay-utay ng tinatanggap ng mga batang mananabas ang hamon na sila ay gumanap ng mga bagong katungkulan sa Tumana.  Sumisibol na ang ilan sa kanila at nararamdaman mong malapit na silang mga ganap na Bantay. 

May tiwala ang Bantay sa Maykapal na hindi niya pababayaan ang mga batang mananabas ng Tumana.  Napakagaan sa kalooban na madama ang kusang loob na pagtanggap ng mga bagong responsibilidad ng mga kabataan.  Hindi ito magiging madali. Mararanasan rin nila ang lahat ng hirap, lungkot, at sama ng loob sa animo’y walang katapusang mga problemang dumarating sa Tumana.

Movies Day 3

A perfect way to cap the day is still watching a movie.  This time, a movie actually watched in a movie house.  It was father-daughter bonding time when we raced to the movie-house and caught the last full-show of “Clash of the Titans”. 

I would have personally preferred to watch “The Green Zone” but hey, it’s not everyday I get to go on a date with my teen-aged daughter.  I liked the set-up because I can feel that age is creeping up on me and pretty soon, she will always prefer going out with her friends rather than her dad. I would enjoy these moments while they last. 

Plain and simple, this is about escapism.  All the myths, characters, and plot-twist are an invention of our society to give us a temporary “narcotic” release of our fears and apprehensions of the real world.

Why wouldn’t you call this escapism? Anybody rode a flying horse before? How about retrieving the head of a former nymph who can turn living creatures into inanimate objects? Can anyone say, “been there, done that” ?   

To my mind, riding a flying horse is a symbolism of our desire to be free of all problems . Sorry you can’t escape this reality. Cutting the head of an evil witch is a symbolism of man’s triumph of all the injustices in the world.  Honestly, for as long as there are tyrants in this world, we have to continue fighting the injustices. 

For a solid two hours, it was a visual delight to watch giant scorpions, zombie-looking heroes, and terrific sword wielding techniques.  It gives one a chance to relax and forget the real world for a while.  The movie ends with the universal theme of good overcoming evil.  Again, another form of escapism. 

I enjoyed the night best because I spent it munching pop-corn and downing a litter of soda with my little princess.

Movies Day 2

After watching a war film, it’s always entertaining to watch a Feel-Good-Movie.

The tandem of Loyddy and Bea still hasn’t lost box-office appeal. Their chemistry on screen appears to transcend their roles into real life.

The movie, Miss You Like Crazy,can bring both happy and sad memories. It reflects our own human struggle to hope, when all hope seems lost. It’s also about faith, and how it overcomes the boundaries of time.

There is one line in the movie that struck me. No, it’s not about Lolo Ulysses ranting about eternal love that is not bounded by time. It’s a line uttered by  the character Mia in a confrontation scene with Allan in Malaysia which, to my mind, summarizes the whole movie.

I can’t remember verbatim, but in essence, Bea said : “ngayong malaya ka na mag-mahal, ngayong wala ka ng sabit…, eh sisipot ka, at sasabihin mo sa aking mahal mo ko?…eh Putang Ina Mo!! “

Pop-corn anyone?

Movies Day

If the movies imitate life, then we must really live colorful lives.

The week-end was spent indoors after 830 am.  Yes, at this early part of the day it must have been baking around 40degC temperatures. After my  pre-dawn run I took with my wife, it was pretty much watching movies at home.

My pirate friends from MCS were so excited when they sold me a three-part movie - “The Pacific”.  I asked Mir, my reliable contact, if the copies were already High-Def. He told me…”Allah be praised, all my new products are HD” (Hidden Down the cabinet). With that, I gladly bought the copies.

The tone of war was captured in a way that is tries to make sense of brotherhood, owning up to responsibilities, and even love amidst the carnage in a tiny pacific island known as Guadalcanal.

The reasons why nations go to war is only clear to the men who plan them. To the foot soldier on the battlefield, it is all about making it through another day, hopefully with all your body-parts intact.

If the war on the pacific was anchored on the premise that Japan had to subjugate all the Asian neighbors for oil, then we did not learn anything from history. This is exactly the same line of reasoning of the Iraqis when they invaded Kuwait, in what is known as the “Gulf War of 1990 “. 

The Japanese, in 1939, was paranoid that its industrialization will be halted if their oil supplies were cut, thus the need to annex its Asian neighbors for supply. 

The Iraqis in 1989, were also paranoid that their oil-fields will not be enough to continue their war-machine with Iran. This was their justification in annexing the nation-state of Kuwait which was according to them, was part of the former kingdom of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).

 
See how plain greed and  paranoia can throw the whole world into chaos? The parallelism of the two wars, almost 50 years apart teaches us that we have not learned anything. The world’s natural resources, especially fossil fuel / oil is finite, and will be depleted.  It is up to our great leaders to think of alternative sources of energy production to alleviate our dependence on fuel. 

What will be the cause of the next war after all the oil is gone? I believe it will be the supply of drinking water of the world. That’s not pretty far fetched considering the 40deg C that we are continuously experiencing today. 

Anyways, after all the blood and guts thrown at the big-screen from watching 3 hours of “The Pacific” the director focuses on one resource of man that will never be depleted - his will to survive.

Georgiana

A baby is God’s gift. Every life is precious, that’s why we, as care-takers of this earth, must ensure that the balance of nature if maintained at equilibrium. 

Babies may come in different colors and shapes, but they are all the same, special angels sent from the heavens. 

Today, Gina-ni-Creek is welcomed to the long list of mommy wanna-bees.  Yes, the golden-lass from Leyte if off the market. She is 100% expecting! 

Mental thanks to God for giving Gina and Creek the blessing of a baby.  We are all graciously waiting for Geogiana to make her angel’s entrance to the world.

New Hope

Easter Sunday , the day of the risen Lord, truly has a way of marking new beginnings.  

The message of Christ is echoed and amplified in so many ways. In the text-world, I received two of the most meaningful Easter messages :

“Do not worry so much, put your trust in the Lord. Almost 90% of all our worries turn out to be non-consequential. Only 8% have real impacts but you have the 100% support of God and your family.  Only 2% of what we worry about affects us and oftentimes, this are just indirect results of our actions”.

 
“Everyday is a gift, a new beginning. Whatever glory or pain in the past, remember : that yesterday ended last night..”

 
Move on people, the Lord is risen with the promise of new hope. If we were down and worried, let’s move past that.  Hey guys, once you hit rock-bottom, there’s definitely no where to go but up, up, and up.

A Fix that Fails

I have been recently enrolled back into school.  This time, it isn’t about business administration or marketing.  This time, it’s about “systems thinking’.

So what is Systems Thinking? This school of thought trains you to think of solutions in a non-linear way. We were all  conventionally taught in school to think in a linear manner.  When we say linear manner , it means a mathematical way of solving  a problem.  Simplistically, it was drilled to us that  ” one plus one, equals two” is the best solution because it uses math that can be counted and verified. But if some one says, “… to arrive at the number two, we can divide forty by five, then take away six.” A mathematician will ask you why will you take the long route when you can get the same result using  a straight line or linear approach?

In my humble understanding, that is exactly what systems thinking is all about. It considers different parts, scenarios, or factors to see a problem as part of the whole system. While I still consider linear thinking as a logical solution, systems thinking have definitely broadened my way of analyzing a situation in business, politics, and personal life.  We have been told to “think out of the box”. Well, systems thinking is just that. We learn to consider all possible facts, opinions, and scenarios as if they were all part of a system. 

There are learning aids in systems-thinking called “archetypes”. In lay mans terms, these are your “proformas” or “de kahon” systems that have been documented.  There maybe variations to a theme but archetypes are the building blocks of systems thinking.

This political story is an archetype known as  ” A Fix That Fails”.  This archetype describes a problem that was prescribed a solution that lead to failure . Instead of fixing a problem, it got worse because the solution was poorly planned.

This is what happened in less than 24 hours after political rivals of Senator Manny Villar sought to destroy the image of the poor boy from Tondo, Manila.  

Early this morning, the radio aired  news of supposed information to debunk the claim of Senator Manny Villar that he really came from a poor family. The political rivals of the senator is challenging his info-mercial on the supposed poorness of the good senator which resulted in the untimely death of his brother.  The propagandists had medical records that the dead brother of the senator was brought to an exclusive hospital and was eventually interned at an exclusive funeral parlor in Manila. They bragged of their superior research hound-dogs that uncovered this new information. 

Instead of winning the battle of hearts and minds, the political rivals got a severe beating. Here’s why. Senator Villar was scheduled on an AM radio show this evening, or roughly 12 hours after the counter-intelligence materials about his brother’s death was supposedly uncovered.

Problem is, the “superior research”  lacked human-intelligence to verify the context of the documents presented :

1. Death Certificate of Danny Villar from FEU Hospital

2. Funeraria Paz Record of interment

The propagandists claimed Senator Villar was not poor because public records showed “

1.  that his dead brother died in FEU hospital, a private hospital, not for the destitute.

2.  that his dead brother was brought to Funeraria Paz, a private funeral parlor who did not accept IOU’s.

In a shining moment of pure brilliance, Manny Villar did not deny any of the facts that the documents showed. He however told the context or circumstances how his brother died in FEU and interred at Funeraria Paz.

While it was true that he died at FEU, his brother was admitted as cancer patient at the  Charity-Ward , which the propagandists failed to discover.

While it was true that his brother was interred at Funeraria Paz, there was no record that the wake was ever done at Funeraria Paz.  The funeral parlor arrangement is part of FEU’s service to destitute patients.The brother’s wake was done at their rented home in Tondo, Manila which can be verified by old time neighbors who are still living at the same place.

So, you see, even in politics, systems thinking can be applied.  This archetype - ” A fix that fails” is a classic example of how the propagandists failed to think through of a real solution to their problem.  It was a sloppy solution that back fired in their faces.

In fact, if a survey was done tomorrow, I am certain that senator Villar will push ahead of his rivals because of the poorly conceived solution of the propagandists to pull-down Villar’s popularity.

Personally, a promise of good governance, untarnished by corruption, will be my measuring stick when it comes down to choosing my candidate for president.

I am just amazed on how the supposed brilliant minds of politicians made a blunder on their research regarding  the circumstances of Danny Villar. Maybe it’s not too late for them to go back to school and learn new things like me.

May God grant eternal rest to you Danny. Your brother won this round.