"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.