There is a growing support for the proposed mandatory military training. A Pulse Asia Survey revealed that 69% of Filipinos favors the ROTC in Senior High School. This is amid reluctance of the Department of National Defense due to the budget requirement that could reach P61.2 billion.
Regret! That is what I felt after confirming the resignation or transfer (or whatever it is called) of University of the Philippines Professor Dr. Clarita Carlos from her 7-month stint as the first woman National Security Adviser (NSA). At that moment, I was holding the well-written draft of The National Strategy (NS) distilled from most recent empirical data and expertise of scientists and researchers whom she pulled to create a roadmap for government action that has a timeframe of between six to ten years or more. As the public was made aware, this social scientist gathered a circle of experts from different fields equipped with depth of scientific knowledge in their respective discipline. I was lucky to be in the circle serving as one of the experts during round table discussions on various topics that are all matters of national security.
The Philippines was on its way to economic progress until the pandemic disrupted its path to its envisioned progress. The consolation of this global experience is that it affected even the most developed countries and that the adversity may have triggered the further strengthening of the strong and resilient economic fundamentals. The role of the private sector cannot be understated, both in good times and in bad.
I have written many articles about this crisis—nursing crisis. Solutions were offered. Both short-term and long-term measures were proposed. Then, it was just a warning. Now, it is a real volcano waiting to explode—the health care system will collapse and we will declare a code red in the very health sector in the middle of a pandemic that is not over yet.
When common-sense isn’t common, the use of empirical evidence must guide our decisions, especially for policy formulation of matters vital to the nation. Recently, there were questions raised over the use of the mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MTB-MLE) in our early childhood basic education curriculum. Amid the ocean of opinions, there are empirical evidences from local and foreign studies that may awaken the judgmental conclusions of the emerging opinionated “experts” meddling with the discussion of a very sensitive issue where the future of our learners, and our nation, rests.
IT takes a village to raise a child! True, but there is more than just a village that can raise a child. And when the village itself is in chaos, how can the village “train up a child in a way he should go that when he is old, he will not depart from it,” as the bible assures?
The world will be short of 5.6 million nurses by 2030, based on the WHO’s State of World Nursing Report in 2020. The Filipino nurses are the best for the Filipinos and the choice of the world, as envisioned in the Philippine Nursing Roadmap. The Filipino nurses are the best for the Filipinos but they are leaving to respond to the irresistible offers of foreign countries. The WHO recommends that countries need to invest in massive acceleration of nursing education, create at least 6 million new nursing jobs by 2030 and strengthen nurse leadership.
WE have known the 3Rs as basis for the literacy of the olden times. With shorter and less complex curriculum and instructions, the older educational systems focused on the essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic. Then, when distractions are less, parents are able to inculcate and ensure the knowledge, skills, attitude and values of children, whose world was limited to what the small neighborhood community could offer and what limited media reach could communicate. Science may be young but sufficient to explain the basics of fundamental life and living.
PURPOSE has become a buzzword in the modern context where every person and organization is seemingly willing to find it within its core. Thanks to the science that articulated the evidences that sensemaking is deeper than simply making sense and that the art of sustainability is not about profit bottom-line but about greater purpose. Even the language of quality has shifted to look not on what is put in a product or service but on what the customers get out of it. The concept of customers expanded to include internal customers where the second bottom-line is its people. And it expands to cover the third bottom-line to include even the planet.
“He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him.
IN the words of Thomas Jefferson, “every generation needs a new revolution.” And our generation needs one—an entrepreneurial revolution. The pandemic, which is about to end, hopefully, has created crises that in the context of entrepreneurs are opportunities. History tells us that the rise of the entrepreneurs was observed during great depressions.
THE education sector must face 2022 with greater optimism in anticipation of the end of the pandemic, coupled with the hard lessons learned through it, and guided by the collective vision for a matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay (strongly rooted, comfortable and secure life) in 2040.
The Education Sector must face 2022 with greater optimism in anticipation of the end of the pandemic, coupled with the hard lessons learned through it, and guided by the collective vision for a matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay (strongly rooted, comfortable and secure life) in 2040.
“Politics is dirty. It is a hell on Earth. You don’t belong there. We are not ready to see you destroyed by it. It is a dangerous lions’ den.”
The people who are hesitant to get the Covid-19 vaccines and the anti-vaxxers have something in common. They had been vaccinated for at least a preventable disease in their lives. They probably did not realize that the reason why they still live up to now is the vaccine they once were inoculated with. We can credit their lives and that of their children to the vaccines that triggered their immune system to have an army and armory of antibodies that protect against present and future attacks of unseen enemies on Earth. They may still get sick but the vaccines have pre-set the memory of their immune system to have the infection under control.
What is violated when a person shouts “fire!” in a movie house, or cracks a “bomb” joke in an airport? The rational basis of such liability is the scare and commotion that such acts may unnecessarily bring the general public.
Humans are less intelligent than birds, that flock together with the same feathers, when they decide and take action based only on what is popular and through a mental process that does not involve thinking. Sadly, the most intelligent steward of God’s creation endowed with intellect and freewill may not be using such gifts in making decisions in this modern age of information and science. From choosing which post to like and share on social media to who to vote as leaders of government, there seems to be an automatic behavior that does not go through the benefit of a correct thinking process.
508 days since March 15, 2020 when the first enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was declared in the country, another ECQ is to be imposed. This is in response to a more virulent Delta variant of the continuously mutating virus that is consuming several letters of the Greek Alphabet to date. And this is not only true in the Philippines. Countries known to have been commended by the world for their excellent handling of the Covid-19 situation are now as alarmed. Those countries which have achieved the targeted herd immunity are in the same panic mode.
Recently, we were seeing rays of hope. After more than a year of the pandemic, there is a reason for us to hold on to at least cautious optimism—that the pandemic could be over soon. But experts want us to know that there is still a concern that new mutations of the virus could bring it back, and it might be even stronger. And the variant is labeled as Delta.
I almost lost my mother to what two neurologists believe is vaccine-induced severe and life-threatening adverse effect. My extended family, especially those in their senior years, are reluctant to get their second dose. But I, as a person educated in the sciences, still make a stand and advocates that everyone needs to get vaccinated. I am sure, even my mother who had a near-death experience, could be convinced to have her second dose once her doctors recommend it.
His success may have been attributed to the surname “Reyes” which for the past three decades has been a brand in the Salon industry. But Les Reyes is more than just a brother to beauty icon Ricky Reyes. He has his fair share in reinventing the salon industry. And his colorful life shared with his family is the same that turned out to be a well-lived life of comfort and happiness. My family and I had an up close and personal encounter with the man who taught us the lesson that less is more.
Even the most gruesome and horrifying experience, like this pandemic, can be seen through a positive lens not to deny, fake and sugarcoat it but to celebrate the appreciation of the positive. After all, it is in this area of the positive where we are all intending to grow. We attract into our reality those that we choose to see through our perceptions and what we nurture in our conscious and unconscious minds. As social media has become an obituary of deaths or a scream room for those who are going through the difficult experiences, we may still choose to find a glimmer of hope. As my 19-year-old daughter Lyza advices people in her poem—if you cannot seem to see the light at the end of the tunnel, maybe you can be the light in the tunnel.
The landscape of the education sector has changed since the adoption of the recommendations of the first Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM) in 1990. But problems persisted, and the state of Philippine education remained problematic even prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Warning: This article may be very disturbing!
Facebook has become an obituary. Many profile pictures have become candles, black ribbons, and black backgrounds for our own relatives, friends and acquaintances. In the past, Covid-19 was statistics we monitor. Now it is a horror movie we cannot dare watch anymore but couldn’t turn off either. The movie is interactive that the terror is knocking on the doors of many while others have it within the household already. The scare is real. And the serial killer is on the loose.
Facebook has become an obituary. Many profile pictures have become candles, black ribbons, and black backgrounds for our own relatives, friends and acquaintances. In the past, Covid-19 was statistics we monitor. Now it is a horror movie we cannot dare watch anymore but couldn’t turn off either. The movie is interactive that the terror is knocking on the doors of many while others have it within the household already. The scare is real. And the serial killer is on the loose.
A year after the declaration of the 2020 quarantine, a survey was conducted by this writer. The survey covered 1,270 respondents randomly sourced from all over the country, of which 66 percent are female, 66 percent are employed with 61 percent from the age bracket of 30 years old and below. Google Survey forms were sent online through the nationwide network of Carl Balita Review Center from March 13 to 14, 2021. All regions were covered across socioeconomic strata. Research ethics was observed and data privacy was respected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data.
How can an experience as worse as the Covid-19 pandemic be worthy of being appreciated? The pandemic afflicted and killed millions, rendered us captive in our homes for safety, changed the way we live, and disrupted economies and countries. It took modern science months to understand it (slower than the time it takes for the virus to mutate). In what way can these continuing health, education and economic crises be perceived as something we can cherish now and in the future? How should we make the most of this unprecedented human experience?
Crisis calls us to act beyond the usual. This pandemic experience sets an unprecedented crisis that makes us reinvent ourselves. This is where the opportunities in crisis are derived. It gives us the opportunity to engage all that we’ve got to survive and thrive. All our intelligences need to be tapped to generate our best coping and growth—and this refers to the collective intelligence of the heart, the mind and the spirit. And the ultimate intelligence and the most fundamental that works in these trying times is our Spiritual Intelligence (SQ). The SQ is what will make us step forward toward who we really are—as individuals and as humanity. With SQ, we should be able to answer the question “what does it take to be human” amid and beyond the pandemic?
Everyone seems anxious about how learning is taking place in the new normal when the traditional face-to-face classes become trapped in the digital space. Prior to the forced migration to the new normal of learning, the 21st century learners were taught by the 20th century teachers in 19th century classrooms. There are doubts if the learning outcomes set by the educational authorities are achievable through the abrupt, and unintentional, shift to digital learning. The greater doubt comes from the parents who learnt differently in the past. But the greatest doubt may come from the teachers who were trained to teach differently and who are learning not only how to learn the use of digital technology but also learning how to teach learners, who know technology better, using these digital technologies. Content and pedagogical competencies of teachers are not sufficient as technological competencies become equally important.
Emotion is not just about feelings. It is the sum of feelings plus the distinctive thoughts (what we are thinking as we feel the feeling), biological states (the physiologic activities that are triggered internally and automatically associated with the feelings), and the action tendencies (what one is bound to do which is derived and governed by the feeling). If emotion is just about feeling, we can neglect it! But by the fact that emotion affects thinking, physiologic functioning and acting, it becomes big deal! Emotions are human warning systems that tell us what is really going in and around us, like an internal gyroscope, as per Dr. Maurice Elias’ analogy. Without emotional control Napoleon Hill likened a person to a runaway horse.
