Violence in Brotherhood

Fraternity, from the root word frater in the Latin word meaning brother, brotherhood, and every time I heard about this topic, I usually heard of the word brotherhood, because according to some people, this is what they are practicing inside the fraternity, but upon hearing the news about new members or neophytes in a particular fraternities, who died because of a rites called initiation, I somehow asked myself, is this what they called brotherhood?
We have an existing law here in the Philippines, the Republic Act No. 8049, or the Anti-hazing law, intended to fraternities, sororities and organizations that are practicing any forms of initiation rites. Hazing, a term used to describe various ritual and other activities that involves harassment, abuse or humiliation. According to the law, organizations such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Philippine Military Academy and the cadet corps of the Citizen Military Training are included, and could be punished if any members from the said organization, or even the organization itself, practiced such initiation rites. As what I have understood on the law, it doesn’t necessarily prohibits the existence of fraternities and sororities in any place, because there are fraternities, which I believed, who doesn’t practice any physical, mental, emotional and verbal abuse to their members. The law focused on the initiation rites conducted by various fraternities and organizations, it completely prohibit any forms of harassment, especially physical abuse, that sometimes caused death to young new members of a particular fraternity. The maximum sentence is reclusion perpetua, or life imprisonment, if the act resulted to death.
We usually heard from the news about the said issue, and mostly because a frat member dies because of hazing, and there are numbers of cases before, and just recently, a college student again, from a university in Makati, died because of hazing, and luckily, the suspects were caught and about to be punished.
I have some friends who are members of particular fraternities, and there are times where they are telling stories about the experiences they’ve gone through just to be in, and mostly are evidence that it shouldn’t be called brotherhood, because a lot of physical and sometimes mental tortures are going on inside a fraternities. Some of them are humiliated in front of many people; some are being slapped in their faces, running outdoors in their under wears, and the most painful I believe, was being hit by a wooden weapon they called the paddle, not the paddle used by fishermen, but almost look like what we used in washing clothes. How could I say it’s the most painful, well, I’ve never experienced being hit by a paddle, but I’ve seen the bruises made by paddles, on the upper legs of the frat members, it’s like seeing a “double-dead” meat. This is part of what they called the initiation rites, it’s like a tradition on their part in welcoming new members, and measuring how tough the neophytes are, but I couldn’t understand why they have to hurt their so-called brothers, it doesn’t show brotherhood, it shows violence.
During my freshmen days in college, I was able to experience being invited by two well-known fraternities, I ask myself at first why did they chose me, and I just thought that it’s because of my built. I was very hesitant at first to join, because my father told me before or warned me before about joining fraternities, he said that I should avoid joining any frats and just focus on my studies, because he believed that it could only get me into trouble, and could even put my life into danger. Honestly, I thought of joining one, because I’m interested in knowing what it feels like to be a frat members, because it seems that most students are avoiding them and some are scared of them, because mostly believes that only those who are brave are the only ones who are qualified to join in a particular fraternity. I’ve heard before that fraternity is all about brotherhood, they have your back whenever you need them, they will back you up to any troubles your into, and they even could be at help with any financial matters. These reasons somehow made me think of joining, but, the fact that I would experience the fierce of the old members by hurting me physically, and humiliating me in front of many people, stops me, because I’m afraid of the pains that I could get from joining them. At the end, even if I was almost got into trouble because of their invitation, I have decided that joining any fraternity is a no for me, I have my friends that would back me up and I could run to whenever I need them, and besides, I could gain friends even without measuring how strong and brave I am by undergoing any initiation rites. In addition, loyalty is one best virtue that fraternities embodied, being loyal to your members, to the masters and to the organization itself, which one thing I admire to them, but still, hurting should not be practice inside the fraternity.
I am not into a position to question the legalities of every fraternity, though I still couldn’t figure out, why they have to hurt their members, just to test their strength and be an official frat member. I couldn’t see the brotherhood that they are talking about, because I believe that no one would want to hurt their brother. I’m happy with the existing law about hazing, because it somehow helps in stopping and prohibiting some fraternities in practicing the deadly initiation rites, though the implementation of the law still wasn’t enough, but it somehow helped. Brotherhood is about a bond you would want to establish within your group, it shouldn’t be incorporated with any form of abuse and violence; otherwise, it should not be called brotherhood at all.

“Lapses or Careless?”

Police officers are responsible in maintaining peace and orderliness in a certain nation, the society are expecting that they are the ones who will provide protections, securities and any other tasks given by the state, as long as it is not against the rule of law. Recently, the credibility of our Philippine police once again being questioned, because an incident took place where foreign people were abducted by an ex-police officer and eventually were murdered, that causes our country in the center stage in the whole world. The Philippine National Police had just shown another bad performance in handling a hostage situation, particularly in crisis management, “low-tech” equipments, and poor-decision making.
In the news, we usually heard of the word crisis management, especially when there is a complicated and dangerous situation happening. In the recent hostage drama happened in Quirino Grandstand, I strongly agree that the Philippine National Police have not handled the situation very effectively, because the incident end up in a more tragic way, and the poor handling of the police in the vicinity somehow affected the outcome of the hostage drama, where 8 Hongkong nationals were killed. I do not have any background when it comes to handling dangerous situations, or participate in any delicate matters, but I clearly saw the lapses made by our policemen. First point, the handling of the media people, I know that it is their job to cover everything, and bring the latest reports to the watching and hearing public, but the police should have given them their respective spots, where they should stay and record the blow-by-blow situations. As I have seen on the television, some reporters are what, only few feet away from the bus where the hostage drama is happening. I do not say that the media should be prohibited in the area, but, they just have to restricted, and give limitations to their coverage to avoid making the situation worst. Second point, the number of bystanders is large, large enough to somehow interrupt the operation of the police. I believe that the police are responsible in clearing the crime area, and make it sure that those who have something to do only, with the situation are those who are permitted to stay within the area. A bystander was hit by a stray bullet during the gun fires of the hostage taker, and that is the reason why they should not be at that place at that time. I think, the police should not necessary be a master in handling such crisis, they just have to be effective.
In every battle, a soldier, of course, need to be well-prepared, not just physically and mentally, but also, loaded and have complete necessary equipments. Guns of course is necessary, especially when the situation is very delicate and dangerous, but it does not mean that a police should use that gun for killing a suspect, remember, they should not abide the rights of any human, innocent or brigand. I was confused to see the policemen who assaulted the hostage taker, at first I thought they are just ordinary policemen, but I was wrong, they are members of Special Weapons and Tactics, or simply known as SWAT. SWAT are trained for solving dangerous and more complicated situations, they are usually operates during delicate cases such as kidnapping, robberies, hostage and many more. I was surprised and quite annoyed when I saw these SWAT policemen, clustered around the bus, assaulting with incomplete equipments. Some wears an assault vest or the bullet-proof vest on their body, while some are in plain uniforms, some wears a ballistics helmet, and there are some who wears a police cap, that whenever a bullet fired on their head, it would just take a tense of a second before they die. I saw a video that shows an assault by SWAT team from a European country, and it amazed me seeing them working and moving quickly. I asked myself, what if our SWAT police are like these guys, things would have been different, and result might not ended up in a tragic way. Philippine SWAT uses sledge hammers, good thing, but the windows are made up of fiber glass, and it is not easy to break it, they attempted many times, and the hammer slips of their hands at least couple of times, because they did not used any gloves. They used police automobile to climb the bus instead of using ladders or ramps, they used ropes instead of chains. The lack of equipments might not be entirely the fault of SWAT, because the budget allotted for them is not enough, but, I believe, they should maximize the resources, they should make use of whatever they have, it is not on the equipments, it is on their dedication.
One reason I belive, which ignited the hostage-taker is when his relatives was being hold by the policemen, and was brought to jail. It is not a good move to the part of the authority, it does not help anything, and it worsens the situation. It is not a good decision; they should have done that after the incident. Now, some authorities are pointing fingers, on who truly gave the order of arresting the relative of the hostage-taker, but it would not make anything back, the damage has been done, but it would have a different result if they did not do it.
It was indeed an unacceptable fact, that our policemen have done such lapses, it would just make me think, make everyone thinks that we cannot depend and rely on them, because they could not get their job done. It leaves a question on my mind, are the Philippine police smart enough, not to gamble their lives for others, or they are just afraid to die just to save and defend their citizens? I remember a line in our national anthem, “ ang mamatay ng dahil sayo.” A policeman should be brave, brave enough to die for their sworn obligation to their country.

Last chance, new life!

the storm is over, the sea is slowly calming down, and i expect that things go back the way it was before. i've learned a lot of things from this experience, i was proven guilty, and there are some who judged me from there, and these people seems not giving me another chance to redeem and prove my worth, i don't care, i don't really care, we can't pleased everybody, and my life wouldn't stop just because of these people. What's important is that, my "life" is back, and she accepted me, and prove how much she love me once again, and this made me feel stronger and eager to prove my worth.
Now, back to work, while expecting those changes that i have to, and i need to, and i want to, if i've been a s**t, and i mean it, i've been a rough player for a long span of time, and it's sad to know that i would awake because i hurt the person i love the most.. but, i consider it as part of my past, and i'm very excited to face the new me, i closed the past chapters, and very determined to live my new life.. thanks Mitch Vicencio.

Instrument for Change

I could still remember the first time that I’ve learned about blogging, it was way back during my high school days. During that time, I was just so intrigued on why there are a lot of people, giving their spare time composing articles and load it up on the internet. The internet saga was just rising during my high school days, and blog sites are just one of the few things that are emerging from the wonderful world of worldwide web.
What is really blogging, or a blog? According to what I have understood in reading articles and definitions on the internet, it is a compilation of articles, journals, commentaries and just mere descriptions of events or persons, made by different kinds of people all over the world. There are a lot of blog sites in the internet, different topics discussed by people who are very patience in maintaining their blog sites, and surprisingly, a lot of people are becoming interested in reading and following a certain blog site, the emergence of blogs is like a wildfire.
Now, reacting on an issue about blog as the 5th estate, well, I’m very much agree in the media being the 4th estate, under the 3 most powerful system in the government, which is the executive, legislative and the judiciary, because media could manipulate the situations, they can create issues that could give good impressions to certain people, they could also damage a reputation of a well-known person. It is clearly seen how powerful the media is, it could influence every single person on earth, by just simply watching a television show, listening to radio program and reading current issues on newspaper, is a clear manifestations that we are influenced by the media. I beg to disagree that blog is being labeled as the 5th estate, well, I strongly agree that blogs are very powerful, it could also influence a persons’ view about a particular topic. For me, blog is a tool of media, it’s just an instrument used by media to reach people. Some media/journalists used blogging as their second weapons in firing an interesting yet controversial commentaries and issues about a particular person.
I believe that blogs add more spices to the media industry; it’s like an escape hatch for some media practitioners, because there are no rules in blogging, unlike in the television, script is limited, media people could not just say whatever they want to, because there are agencies who observes and follows TV networks and radio stations, in the print media, they have their editors who are also carefully selecting the words to put on a certain article.
Now, being part of the generation that is really into technologies and life is very much easier because of the technologies being invented and introduced, it somehow makes me feel good and fortunate. I really believe in the capabilities of the media to change the perception of the public, they have the ability to turn things around, and blogs, it’ll continue attacking and conquering minds of the public.

"Power of Writing"

“The pen is mightier than the sword”, as what our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal have said, upon showing us how he fought the Spaniards and tried to help our country to be liberated from the rulers. He used his writing prowess as part of his strategy in fighting the Spaniard rulers, and it was effective, and his works and novels have been instrumental in enlightening the minds and woke up the anger in every Filipino.

Now what does this fact tells me? It tells me what impact or difference that writing could give to our life. I learn to write when I was in my kindergarten; the usual alphabet was the first letters that I wrote, then my name and followed by some words such as dog, cat, mom, dad and many more. It all started with learning to write the alphabet, and as the year passes, my level in writing also progresses, and I learned to write sentences then paragraphs.

Why do we write? Well, for me, I write because I consider writing as one of my ways to express my thoughts and feelings. Honestly, I don’t write that much, because I’m more into reading than writing, but most of my writings are product of what I felt, my experiences on a certain thing, and my thoughts, I usually put into writings the feelings that I couldn’t express to others, and it somehow helped me to lighten the load that I carry in my chest. In this way, I believe that I hit two birds in one stone, I was able to release and express the feelings inside of me, at the same time, I was able to practice and hone my skills in writing. Like what I’ve said, I prefer reading than writing, but I believe that reading and writing are partners, because sometimes, we write something about what we have read, we react and give our comments on a certain writings. Another reason why do we write is because we want to be heard in a way that we won’t need to have high confidence in speaking, because there are people who have thoughts in their minds, but couldn’t express it, because they are not confident and don’t have the guts to express what they think thru verbal communication, so they just put their thoughts in writing.

A line in the book “Write to change the world”, the author said that “writers are people who care enough to share their ideas with other people”, which I strongly agree, I believe that people who are fond of writing are the kind of people who cares enough to let others know what’s on their mind, and in this case, the author also said that “writings connects people from one another”, which made me realize that writing could be a source of unity that this country, and this world needs, and that alone, is a reason why do we write.

"Truth Hurts"

I am fond of hearing stories about the past events, especially about those times before I came to this world, I love knowing things that I didn’t experienced, maybe because I have this personality that I want to be always at any happenings. The stories about the situations and incidents during the Martial Law era captivates me much, it’s because there are a lot of things happened during that time, and those things are considered as historic, and have relevance in my life as citizen of this country, I am interested to know more about the situation of the media, since I am a mass communication student, back then, because I believe they played I big part during those days.

Transparent, according to dictionary, it means clear, translucent, visible, but I hear this world mostly from media people, and it doesn’t seems to be the best words to describe the media. Of course, the media are expected to be brave, honest and transparent, transparent in a way that they don’t choose sides, they are not fighting for a particular person or people but they are fighting for the truth, they are at the middle of every issues, they try to connect, bridge the gap and communicate with different kinds of people. I’ve been impress with some media practitioners, and with some media outfit, because they have been relentless and bias in serving the audience the news that are very informative and interesting.

But recently, as the issue of Noynoy Aquino’s running the presidency, I’ve noticed that this particular station seems giving him much attention and exposure compared to other candidates, and it continued until he was inaugurated. Well, I’m giving them the benefit of a doubt, because of the reason that during his mother’s presidency, her mother was able to bring back the administration of the station to them. Enough of the criticisms, I should be writing about the role of the media in President Aquino’s administration, though it’s somehow related. The media should of course be bias, should not take side in giving information regarding every issue that this administration has, and it should be brought to the public with complete details, and nothing to hide.

I am also expecting and hoping, that the media add strength in their news, it’s not that they are too weak for me, but they should show how powerful they are, and how influencing they are.

Indeed, the life of a media practitioner is too dangerous; their one foot is already on the grave. And in this country, it’s just normal to hear issues regarding media violence, and it’s a minus factor for Philippine journalism, because it somehow means that vigilance could just shot and kill a media man that easy, because media people are too brave to think about their safety. To end, I thought of a quotation that I really like, “truth hurts,” the worst is, the life of media, truth kills.

"Annoy on P-Noy"

June 30, 2010, it was a historic day for every Filipino; this is the day where the 15th president of the Republic of the Philippines was inaugurated right in the very eyes of millions of Filipino. I am not a fan of his Excellency president Noynoy Aquino, but I witnessed this historic moment, because I’m a Filipino, and I believe that it’s my obligation to watch this event.

I am not after the celebration, I was just anticipating the speech that he will give after he takes his oath to office, and I highlighted some points in the speech, and still, full of promises, just what traditional politicians do before they start their work, and he give his speech in tagalog, it had shown his love for our national language, but how would the foreign dignitaries and visitors understand his piece if he didn’t use our international language. At the start of his speech, he mentioned that he didn’t expect and even in his wild dreams, to lead a nation, and with this statement, I just recalled in my mind the reaction that I had upon learning that he will run, not because he really wants to, but because many people wants him to, and that alone showed that being a president is far from his political agenda and for me, it means that there is no willingness on his part to be a leader of this country.

Another statement that really caught my attention is when he mentioned that he knows what is like to have nothing but his life, meaning to be less fortunate, and I strongly disagree with that, because many people know where he came from and the social class that his mother belongs to. It pisses me when he always mentioned his parents, we all know how great his father and mother was, Ninoy his father, which I really admire the most, is a martyr, no doubt about it, and his mother former president Cory, the fearless woman who brought democracy back to our nation, why it pissed me? Because it somehow convinced me that he is really using his parents name to cover up his ignorance when it comes to being president, his parents are really great, but it doesn’t mean that you carried that trait. There are a lot of promises mentioned in the speech, even his anger on the past administration was strongly pointed out, and I could see his passion in seeking for justice against the former president, and for me, he shouldn’t have to mention that issue on his speech.

In conclusion, I am not sure if he could really lead our country, I’m criticizing him not because I’m not in favor of his administration and didn’t vote him, but I criticize him because I could see that he is not ready for the task. To end this, I bid good luck to my fellow countrymen, we now have a leader who ran and elected to the post, because of the sympathy of the people.

"Positivity out of Negativity"

It was just the first time that I have heard of Anne Frank, especially her traumatic and tragic experiences, during the Nazi period, and I think that it is somehow synonymous to what our country had experienced from different colonies from different time, like the Spanish period, who ruled us for almost 300 years, then the Japanese era, where in my point of view, the most traumatic period for most of Filipinos, then the Americans, and also, during the martial law, where a dictator ruled in our beloved country.

Like most people, I am also aware of the evil deeds around me, since I was in my puberty period, I had seen violence from television, newspaper, and even right in front of my very eyes, and as I grew older, I became more aware that there are more evil deeds than stealing things, physical fighting and verbal agreement, I have seen worst as killing and murdering. What struck me most is the violence against women, young people and those who doesn’t have any strength and capability to retaliate, because they couldn’t defend themselves with stronger people, because some are physically weak, some are emotionally and mentally weak, and there are some who are financially weak.

Innocent people like Anne Frank are mostly the victims, because they are just living their own normal life, they wouldn’t want to harm and have enemies because they just want to live a simple normal life, but unfortunately, they are the ones who barely suffer from the hands of the villains. Anne Frank and his family lived a normal life back then, but they suffered under the hands of the merciless Nazi’s and ended up dead.

I’ve read that Anne Frank had her feelings on less fortunate people, in this, I somehow felt that we have the same feelings on those people, sometimes, I also think if those wealthy people living on this planet somehow felt or have any idea of what’s in a life of a person who literally have nothing, aside from his life? I don’t consider myself wealthy, but I am lucky, because there are millions out there who doesn’t have what I have, who couldn’t eat what I eat, and that made me felt sorry for being in a world where there are a lot of differences in many aspects.
As for my conclusion, I may not really known Anne Frank, I may not read the whole story in her diary, but she was able to amaze me and made me raised my hands for her, because as what I have understood, she still, was able to point out the beauty and happiness that this world possess, even during her time of sufferings, violence and merciless punishment, that alone inspired me a lot, to have another look in this world, amidst of evil deeds, to look and stays positive even the times of difficulties.

Nothing to esSAY?

I was able to finish my first essay of the semester, as our subject requires us to write an essay, with at least 500 words, every meeting. Well, I’m not really surprised about the given task, because the course requires us to, and our degree, expects us not just be familiarize, but be experts in writing essays. I have a lot of idea in my mind, but the weird thing here is that I’m still having difficulties in writing my piece, because I couldn’t control the other things that are running in my head at the moment, but I’m still positive that I can go on with this one.

Speaking of difficulties, the topic here is the difficulties that students like me, are facing, in writing essays, and I knew some very well, since I am experiencing one. First, the choice of words and the grammar, my consistency in speaking and writing the English language is not that high, I consider myself in the average level, and I believe that it’s very important to be consistent in the language, since the readers must understand every word that they read in an essay. That is the main problem that some Filipinos are encountering, they find it difficult to write an essay in English language, that’s why there are a lot who doesn’t have any interest in writing. Secondly, I agree to the article about essay writing, in what I have understood, the article said that the “students lacks in clear guidance in the rules of the games in academic writing”, meaning that students are having a hard time in composing essays because some of them are not really taught of the proper forms and even styles in writing a presentable and meaningful essay.
Another difficulties is the lack in concentration, in reality, I think it’s impossible for a certain person to have a clear and peace in his mind, because there are distractions that are hard to avoid, like problems, and every single person in this earth do have one, and the more you think of solutions, the more you become distracted, especially on students, there are a lot of things are running thru them, and mostly are connected with their studies, but don’t get me wrong, I believe that that are some who can stay on their focus. It’s important in a writer to have focus, because having a clear mind helps in having many different thoughts and ideas about a certain topic.

Indeed, most students do have many reasons why they are having hard time in composing a piece, some of them are just forced to write an essay because it’s part of their requirement in schools, and there are a little number of students (I presume), who are writing because it is a part of their system, their hobbies. As a student, I’m looking for other ways to helped me out from these difficulties.