A Part of Me

I just learned something new about myself. I realized that I have been spending a fair amount of time, in my own head, day dreaming, fantasizing and working out scenes that I doubt will never happen in true life. And that my heart had been completely taken and caged by these fantastical imaginations.  

Completely drowned with my own imagination for the past years over a certain boy band; whenever I see them perform on stage, dance and sing all I can see is: Perfection and excellence.  And with that every moment I will always ask myself: Why? Why am I so engrossed with these five talented people?

Every waking moment of my life they are always there. Whenever I get off my bed I will always greet their faces printed on the posters a ‘good morning’. A habit that I can’t simply shake off from my being. Singing their songs while taking a bath and eating my food while in front of the computer while browsing their current activities, simply they are no doubt part of my daily routine.

If I could have my own time table, I am sure that 99% of my time is dedicated to them. It feels like they are my world. I am an addict right? I don’t care anyway. Even if they drain every single penny that I have; even if they make my eyes red every night and  look like a frog from too much crying, I don’t care, because I love them.

Whenever I feel so down, just by hearing their names I feel so alive. They are that kind of person. They changed me and I thanked them for that.

Did you ever experienced to have millions of friends supporting you? Well, I already experienced that because of them. Did you ever find big people in the country talking to you? I already have because of them. Have you ever feel so proud in your life? Yes, I have been so proud because of them.

So many questions that you can ask me, but there will always be the same answer and it will always be because of them. Have you been like this? So in love.

With a blink of an eye, I saw myself already falling deeply for them. With every breath I thank God for finding them and giving me the chance to love them.

Home Delight

Homework. Homework. Homework. The everyday lives of students are known to be always filled with somewhat endless list of homework. Yet, students have no choice but to do these as part of their so called development and grades. Nevertheless, students are still individuals who yearns for some good rest after 5 days of studying yet, the good two days on weekends(out of school) turned out, most of the time, to be restless.  

Teachers tend to give more homework to their students on weekends, as to reason out that in weekends, students have more time in answering and doing them.  But, Dep-Ed (Department of Education) proposed a new memorandum stating that there should be no homework given on weekend this is to give way for some quality time for the family and the students to bond with their loved ones.

 Department of Education Secretary, Bro. Armin Luistro had given orders to elementary school teachers to stop and avoid giving assignments on weekends.

As he explained, “Hindi lang naman sa classroom dapat matuto ang mga bata,”

Jonah Granada, a mother of two elementary school students, agreed on Dep-Ed’s new memorandum stating that it is good to have weekends spent with the family. 

“Lunes hanggang Huwebes tutok naman kami,  kaya dapat weekend pahinga,”  she said.

However, teachers think otherwise about this matter.

TDC spokesperson, Emmalyn Polocarpio said their perspective, “Kaming mga guro, trained kami, hindi namin sasadyaing pahirapan ang mga estuyante. Kailangan yung homework para hindi malimutan ang lesson,” 

They also said that students should know how to balance their time for family and school. On the other hand, ATC (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) General Secretary France Castro said that she understands this memorandum.

She stated that, “We understand the intention [of the DepEd] that the families need more time for bonding. It’s more worthwhile if the parent gets to teach the children,”

Parents can supervise their children’s studies more in house.

                “With a bigger number of students in our classes, a teacher can’t attend to all these students. We also need the help and support of parents,” she added.

Pick and Click, but what’s Fanfic??

Fanfic or Fanfiction is a widely term that used all over the net. It refers to stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work. It is rarely recognized and published by networks and publishers. It revolves around the universe of fictions.  Most of it is primarily read by other fans with the same fandom and interests.

                There are no rules on writing a fanfiction, it is more like writing the writer’s point of view, expectations, imaginations and ideas. Romantic and sexual pairings is also open on this and homosexual relationships are the most common on the world of fanfiction. Asians artists have numerous numbers of fanfictions that scattered everywhere the network.

                Just like the real stories, fanfiction also based on different genres. The most used is crack. Crack is a genre which deals with random and non-sense contents or generally is humor pieces.  Angst and Character death are also present. It deals with depressing themes and having the character suffered emotionally and sometimes physically in a way. Relationship break-ups, hurt and comfort are all forms of angst stories. Character death occasionally shows the death of the main character and also with the funerals, characters recovering from people they love dying or, usually after the death of a loved one, the character committing suicide. Fluff will never be forgotten as a genre, it carries light-hearted romance and totally devoid of angst.

                Fanfictions have different lengths. Categorization by story length varies greatly among fandoms and among individuals. Terminology for different lengths also varies. Some of it are drabbles which has only 100 words and ficlet which is longer than drabble but still short. It can be also chaptered or one-shot. These also need some ratings to warn the readers. Ratings are usually accompanied by a brief statement of the reason for the rating; sexual content, violence, or language, for example. "Adult" or "Mature" are also commonly used to refer to content equivalent to an R or NC-17 rating.

                Real stories are needed to be published and be read by the people. Authors will always assured all the words and grammars are correctly written on real stories while on Fanfiction other people will be the one to do it for the author, the one they called “beta”. Beta Fanfictions are more accurate than the “unbetaed” and mostly preferred by the readers. Crossovers are also used in Fanfictions freely unlike on real stories; authors still need some approval for the character that will be use. Writers of fanfiction may be able to publish if the readers are willing to buy the book with a price.

                Filipino fanfiction writers are also all over the net. They are numerous than the other country’s writers which is an unexpected. By this fanfiction, skills for literature of Filipinos are slowly developing.

                Everyone is free to write and show pieces for others. For a student, writing a fanfiction may help to improve the act of literature. Grammars and vocabulary words may enhance just by reading and writing. It is one of the easy ways that people should learn to express the feelings and emotions that held out inside everyone’s heart. It helps someone to laugh and forgot about problems. Trying can’t hurt but it can make ways better.

KPOP in Flop!!

As people walk by on the streets, different kinds of music can be heard. From the music of our local artists and bands, western style and Asian’s songs are creating a buzz everywhere. Teenagers are found to be the one who are prone to this kind of addiction. Started from the so loved Korean dramas, songs from the radios and by browsing through computers, KPOP (Korean Pop) is nevertheless dominating the music scene in the country.

Kpop or Korean Pop Music is the term associated with the popular South Korean music. With the inevitable sharing of cultures, many have known the existence of many Korean artists, commonly known to be 'idols' - Idols which are currently invading music scene of different country, not just in Asia but also in the different countries around the globe. The popularity of Kpop is said to be a part of the Korean Wave or also known to be the Hallyu Wave that reached many countries including the Philippines.

Even the time when Kpop is not that popular in the Philippines, Korean bands have already marked their names in their respective field.One of the greatest and probably, the best boyband is Dong Bang Shin Ki known with their international name TVXQ.Their fanclub Cassiopeia Philippines established during the summer days of 2006 is the premier and the first Korean boy band fanclub in the country.

In the late months of 2008, Kpop slowly gained attention from the Filipinos. It was from Wonder Girls’s Nobody and 2ne1’s Fire. Kids and even adults developed fondness with these upbeat songs. But not only girl bands  got the powers to gain attention but also the boy bands such as Shinee, Super Junior, BigBang, CNblue, SS501 and U-Kiss. Shinee with their famous ‘ring ding dong’ song visited the Philippines for the celebration of Korean Culture Festival last November 27, 2009 at PICC. Super Junior with their ‘sorry sorry’ held their 2^nd Asia tour Concert at Araneta Colliseum which gained many criticisms from different journalist for the price that have cost the entire event. U-kiss with their ‘bingeul bingeul’ started with Mall tours and also ended up with a concert.  BigBang and other Boy bands  also gained popularity here in the Philippines.

Each Girl band and Boy band have their own fanclubs here in the Philippines like CassPh, SujuPh, U-KissPh, Shinee World Ph, Triple S Ph and almost a total of 50 fanclubs have been established here. These fanclubs coordinates with each other to perform an event like KPOP Festival, KPOP Nation and the most prestigious KPOP Convention which was held last December, known as the first in the country- spearheaded by CassPh.

With the growing popularity of kpop in the country it had also faced many criticims and prejudices from different people. Yet, many people still go with the flow, admiring the uniqueness of Korean music , the perfection of the artists with their every move to which is something very new and awesome us. Though some may say that being too engrossed with Korean music makes you less Filipino even so, many came to deny and be against this. With the very reason of freedom in choice and that, listening to foreign music doesn’t make you less Filipino. It only allows you to discover and expand your knowledge in music and also it gives you the opportunities in allowing yourself submerge in other country’s culture. Being able to relate to them makes you a lot more versatile and socially conscious.  

A Drop of Blood in a Bowl of Milk: Reshaping the figure of women in this centur

Kaisa Aquino (First Place, High School - English)

Once upon a time, in the midst of the black roses, a red one so vividly colored and severely alluring stands out but has difficulty blending in. She felt miserable and degraded and sometimes wished she was just a black one. Sometimes, she also wonders why can’t all the black roses just be red ones. One day, an elderly man named wisdom came passing by and the red rose took all the courage to ask wisdom why and to that, wisdom had no answer.

But I have one.

Perception has it that Eve, the first figure of women to ever walk the halls of our society was the root of all sin. Because she ate the apple, because she was easily tempted, because she talks to serpents, because she has long wavy hair that covers her porcelain-like skin where there was still no long dresses by Armani to cover her with, because basically of one reason that has always been an extreme point of argument - because she is a woman.
And… and what? Remember, God created everyone equally in his own image and likeness.

Modern jungle: Woman throughout the centuries

As men evolved from apes to upright-walking men who can use their body efficiently to survive, as nipa-huts turn into towering buildings and sky-high infrastructures, as shelves of book started depleting and were then replaced by computers and as the world spins madly on, women, as they live in their own private bubble also undergoes the phase of evolution, of development.
Women changed. As all things do. They started to learn how to stand on their own stiletto-wearing-feet, they learned how to go with the fast-paced life and they struggled to thrive in a manly-world.
According to Gloria Steinem, “This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism.”



Modern jungle 2: Women in the world of men 

However, as women try to advance in this world, it is inevitable that pitfalls to their success would get in the way.
“Socially constructed roles too often thwart the potential of girls and women. Discrimination denies them health care and education. It hides information that they can use to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. Discrimination robs girls and women of the the power to make decisions, to earn a living and to be free from violence, abuse and exploitation. Often it deprives them of any legal protection”, a statement from UNICEF tackling about the big picture of the reality of the head-on collision of men and women in this now-becoming one-sided world.

While it is difficult for women to survive in a manly world, you can only imagine how much more it is in the part of bisexuals, transgender and the like. It is far from our wildest imagination to think of all the difficulties these kind of people are experiencing. Truly, the world has changed. God only created Adam and Eve and then as years passed by, there sprung another kind.

It’s just a matter of perspective. You can look at them as the fruit of all the majestic things that the Mighty has done. Because just the same, they’re humans, with equal rights and equal feelings. They just differ on a completely nth number of degree because of their varied beliefs and principles in life. The LGBT, an initialism raised to stress the miscellany of "sexuality and gender identity-based cultures".

Of course, the LGBT gathered many unwanted fans. Some says that transgender and transsexuality is simply about gender identity and it’s just a matter of sexual orientation. There were personal, moral, spiritual and social objections to gay rights.

Moreover, it is not only these ‘queer’ and ‘rainbow-like’ people who are painstakingly taking the journey side-by-side with men. Women, of course has the most evident difficulty.

Here in the Philippines, in was in the 1987 that the government introduced a Constitution that affirms women’s equality with men. But there were still the incessant and consistent problems on the issue on gender equality where women were discriminated by the rights that they rightfully deserve and situations where education and employment opportunities differ between men and women.

Globally speaking, various movements and codes of ethics were written to legalize the rights of women. The conference on 'Women deepening democracy' held in New Delhi last week examined what can be done to tackle the gender-specific double standard encoded into the DNA of political liberalism. Women have been at the forefront of democratization struggles around the world, from the Southern Cone of Latin America in the 1980s to the Eastern European transitions of the 1990s, and from the Orange and Rose revolutions, to the establishment of democracy in post-conflict countries such as Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nepal. Once democracies are established, efforts are often made to increase the numbers of women participating in competitive politics and holding elective office. Doing so, it is hoped, will bring issues of women’s well-being onto public agendas, combat gender biases embedded in a range of public and private institutions, and improve social and economic outcomes for women.

Last week twenty two civil society groups from fourteen countries supported by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the new United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) shared their experience of trying to make democracy work for women at the ’Women Deepening Democracy: Transforming Politics for Gender Equality’ conference in New Delhi.
The global quest for gender equality goes on.

It all boils down to this.

Filipinos have been far behind the efficient promotion of gender equality. We were lost in the allure and sparkles coming off the beautiful clothes women wrapped themselves in when behind the layers of silk and rich tapestries lies the many wounds and blisters the society ahs inflicted upon them.

Regardless of how many bites Eve took from the apple, despite of the many flaws and imperfections of women and in the face of all the disgrace and impurities the society perceive women has, a woman is still a woman, a creature of God, a blessing from above.
But here me when I say, we still have all the time in this world and there’s still a lot of spaces for improvement and rooms for development.

Pamela Anderson echoes my answer by this saying of hers, “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”

And one last thing, we measure the significance of one’s lives not by how many apples they bit, punches they’ve thrown, years they lived, sunsets they’ve seen or midnights that passed, but by the number of moments that they made that will truly live forever.
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