Resilience.....

It can be one of the most important skill we can teach/ instill to our children. But it can also be the hardest. Children today have been raised being given everything they need and want. Their tolerance for hardwork and pain is tooooo low. Their ability to adapt to change is too poor. But teaching resilience is basically preparing these kids for future success in college and in life.
I believe it has also something to do with the way parents treat their kids nowadays. Parents are so focus on career that giving in to their children's want so as to shut them up will give them peace and quiet they want after a hard day's work. But these "giving in" is doing more harm than help. Its an immediate solution to keep the kids preoccupied. But the lack of waiting, perseverance and delayed gratification will lead the next generation to be impulsive, spoiled and weak. What will happen to the next generation?

Ive been watching discovery's " waterfront cities of the world". Downloaded it and have been watching it for sometime now. Its about urban planning and how these countries/ cities have planned their cities to meet modernity. Its so amazing! Even astounding to see cities who planned, fixed their problems to cope with the changing lifestyle of their people, to cope with global warming - the sudden rise of sea water, the change in climate and weather disturbances. Really beautiful! Really wished every filipino watch it, wish every filipino "politiko" watch it. If you passion for public service, if you really feel you want to change the landscape of Philippine society , better look, study how other cities and countries have done it, dont just go travel and relax in thse cities. Study, learn from them. Learn their very motive why hey wanted to change their place, why hey had to do all these sacrifices for their nation.
Urban planning is non existent in Philippine geography and Phiilippine politics. We have city admnistrator, we have city engineer in every local government unit. But no city planning. We probably have a city planning department where they approve every proposed roadwork projects, allocate money. But they dont really do the research, the study on how our cities can really cope with the changing times, how we canimprove he landscape of our city with long term goals. And thats where all the problem begins. When we neglect planning, focus on "projects" instead of strategically planning every project toward one common goal (long term), we will not go through the flood we go through every year. We will notgo through the prolem of  waste disposal every year. It all involves planning, researching ,studying and thinking. We dont just fix all the symptoms. We treat the disease. If every filipino will stop tolerating such a lack of planning in our communities, we will stop the misuse of our government funds and start allocating funds for big projects that will really save our cities from future destruction.

Education play a huge role in 'changing' the landscape of philippine society today. If we raise the next generation with the character to progress and to be proactive, i believe we will eventually have a different Philippines. But it involves a lot of partnershp with parents. I believe Oakridge parents have seen the realities of Philippines society, wanted change and wants our country to progress. With this, we need partnership. Everytime we want 'shortcuts' in our chldrens's education, we think again if thats best. Remember it all begins in small things. When we learn to compromise our standards in a small way, we will eventually compromise our principles in a big way. Everything starts small. If we raise our children knowing how to follow rules, obey parnts, not take shortcuts, value hardwork, not compromise, not be a mediocre - i believe we are in a road to a progressive Philippines. But if we give in to every little requests - can i use ipad 5 minutes lang? Can i skip reading tonight lang? Can i not eat vegetables now lang? , we will instill a culture of compromise and tolerance that causes the very big problem in our society today.

We always say that its a cultural problem-deeply rooted, almost impossible to correct. But if we have that kind of mindset - so apathetic and passive, surely Philippines does not have any hope to progress. But if each tax payer stand up for a systematic, structured government , i know we can make a difference.
I recalled one historian talk about the 'cycle' of Philippine politics. Taxpayers pay taxes, politician get taxes, and during election, the same same the given to the poor to get majority votes. Taxes dont really benefit taxpayers. Its like the circle of life in the Philippines. Thus, the poor doesnt relly have the intrinsic motivation to progressed. Why? Politicians give them money in exchange of votes.
Do you know that Pork Barrel in the 1920s in the US was really used to gain political favors? The thing is US changed. They scraped it when they realized the misuse. The problem with. Our society today is we know theres a misuse, we know we need to scrap it. But i bet you dollars to donuts, pork barrel will still be there next year. Why? We live in a society where people are so apathetic, passive that people simply accept things the way they are.
To tell you the truth, I wont.

With all the news about Pork Barrel scam hitting every newstand and every filipino channel for he past few weeks, we cannot help but wonder if this is another case of issue in the philippines where everybody talks about it for a month and eventually forget after nother kris aquino news or claudine raymart issue or probably a sex video scandal. I hope not. As Senator Miriam Santiago has explained it, it is an "organized system of graft and corruption" . I couldnt agree with her more. but we should not just focus on the issue, we should solve the very disease/virus rotting our society. We should sop focusing on the "symptoms" and start dealing with the disease. The very problem with our society is we all know these are happening, but chose to accept it, be forgiving and live with it. True, theres nothing wrong with forgiveness. But not in building a nation - or in our case rebuilding the nation. We should stop compromising all our laws to fit in every injustices and malicious practices in our country, even in our lives. I remember Pastor Peter Tanchi talk about how God has called us to be come to the full knowledge of His word, to speak forth Christ and be testimony. But if we compromise, bend God's word to be politically correct in the world, we will not give justice to God's calling. It is the very problem in our society today. The strength that we all call in filipino culture - the ability to adjust and be flexible, is the very reason why our country has not progressed over these decades. We bend every rules, laws to fit our preferences and to give way to pakiusap, favors and personal interests. If we choose to excuse one from the law/ rule to serve his/her preferences,we loose the very reason why rules and laws are established.
This morning, i was lookingfor drivers' handbook in the philippines. After checking lto website, i found nothing. Nada! With all the accidents and traffic violations that happens everyday, we can probably minimize 50% of that by giving each driver a handbook. But he very problem in driving in the philippines is there are no rules. Everything is about 'diskarte' or the ability to survive in the road. Seriously?!