The Things I Take for Granted (my post-birthday post)

Back at the start of 2011, I had a word that would describe what I was expecting 2011 would be: UNCONTAINABLE.

The power of words. Indeed, it IS.

As this year's chapter draws to a close and as I become nostalgic again celebrating my birthday, I'm awestruck by how God has been moving in my life this 2011. But before that, I have to be honest that I have been bothered lately by the littlest things... If should get an iPad 2, when I could get my camera upgrade, being hassled with commuting, my unpaid credit card bills... Ugh, I realize that these concerns are just so minor!

I'm reminded by God's goodness again when I heard Jessica Cox's testimony yesterday morning. She's a single engine pilot, taekwondo black belter, pianist, motivational speaker (among other things) with NO ARMS!

Here's a feature of her in Ellen's Show:



Having seen that, I'm no longer going to enumerate God's blessings to me this past year. I believe it is personal and I guess you've witnessed it in some of my posts (and I don't want to appear "showing off" to anyone). Instead, I'm going to be thankful for the simplest things I'm able to do which I've been taking for granted all this time...

- Being able to sip my cup of coffee in the morning
- Clothe myself in my favorite dresses and accessories with my two arms
- Type my travel blog entries in my laptop
- Hold my camera and take photos
- Use my QWERTY phone to email / text my friends with my two hands
- Use utensils to go on a food trip
- Brush and dry my short hair
- Do channel surfing with the remote
- Get lost in a book and flip its pages
- Prepare and design my powerpoint decks

I could go on and on...

...So you think you've got a big problem? Think again! :)

The sad news: We're driving tourists away...

Being a passionate traveler myself, my eyes would brighten up everytime I talk about the beautiful places in the Philippines to foreigners I've met. I could randomly help a traveller here and would go to a Lonely Planet mode, giving info and tips about the places that I think are worth recommending. One of my friends even branded me as “Ms. Mabuhay Philippines” because of that (hahaha!) and I guess you could see that enthusiasm in this travel blog. “If tourism were just about all the beautiful things that a country had to offer, we would be top on any traveler’s list–because we DO have EVERYTHING that a tourist would want to enjoy on a well-earned vacation.”

Having said that, it just depresses me to hear news such as Ninoy Aquino International Airport being voted the worst airport “for sleeping in” on the same week that Air France-KLM announced a phasing out of its Manila-Amsterdam route. I couldn’t agree more with Nina Terol-Ziacita’s article when she said that while our country has the perfect touristy allure, “we also have MANY of the things that would drive ANYONE away from ANY country: an inefficient bureaucracy, a horrible public transport system, heavily polluted streets, chaotic urban areas, beggars and street urchins loitering on the streets, crime, corruption–name it, we probably have it.”  That's why come news broadcast time at night, I would step out of our living room because I'm seeing the same kind of bad news over and over (and we all get so numb of it already, and that's another sad story). They've just become the usual icebreaker if you find yourself striking up a conversation with someone on the street.

*Sigh* The problem of the Philippines, as Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez himself had pointed is that, "We haven’t really acted like a tourism country. We’ve got an airport that doesn’t look like it wants to welcome visitors and make them stay; we’ve got a terrible public transport system and public infrastructure that discourages people from exploring any town or city in this country; we’ve got a tax regime and a business climate that discourages investments; we tear down historical landmarks instead of preserving them; we’ve got corruption; we’ve got garbage. In short: aside from our innate creativity, our laughter, and the genuine warmth of our people, we’ve given foreigners many reasons to stay away from us, from the level of policy formulation all the way to policy execution. It’s poor governance over the last few decades that has made us a weak tourism brand."

I don't only look forward to what Sec. Jimenez "rockstar of advertising" can do to our tourism industry, not only for President Aquino and his administration's projects to finally take place... I'm waiting for the whole country to get our acts together! Nope, I shouldn't just wait. I'll do something to make Philippines a little bit better in my own way. I hope you also do. We've just got to want this change SO BAD. 

*Some places I'd like to visit in the Philippines next year:*

Bantayan Island, Cebu. From Eric Brian Ouano, Flickr. 

 Batanes. From Anton Diaz, Our Awesome Planet. 

Coron, Palawan. From Anton Diaz, Our Awesome Planet. 

My own "social experiment."

And so I’ve been pretty much under the radar in the “social networking” world lately. It’s not mainly because I’ve been busy with work the past weeks (well, I really WAS), but I just felt like giving up that habit. It's like, let’s say, quitting smoking ingrained as a daily ritual—I turned cold turkey, or something. There wasn’t a major event that happened to me which triggered this decision. Don’t get me wrong okay, I didn’t turn into living like a hermit, a snobby, anti-social being… Turned to anti-FB or anti-Twitter perhaps? Not really, but I realized that I don’t like the general idea that it’s ALL OUT THERE (their privacy settings, no matter how private you set it, is just crap). Was I fooled by these social networking sites all this time? Maybe. But let's just say that I'm a bit wiser now.  

So here's my social experiment. What will happen when I've refrained from it? What will I now do then? Well, I felt that it’s about time to go back to really getting in touch with people intimately (and privately) again.

The tendency then was to “watch” people to update their lives in the News Feed. It’s like watching a newscast on TV: here are your friends, broadcasting the minutest and mundane details of their lives, yet there’s a glass wall separating you and them. You see their comments, their photos, Oh so, she likes to party. That one, I get it. Then you tend to disregard or put-off asking them “how are you?” in its truest sense since you already know what’s happening with them. But do you KNOW, really? 

I was once read a quote saying, "If someone wants to be a part of your life, they'll make an effort to be in it." Isn’t it great to receive a “how are you?” out of the blue because he/she truly remembered you and not because you shouted out or posted something in your Wall? Because they really want to know what you're going through, what's deep inside of you apart from and beyond your shared location, links, or "likes"? I think it would even feel better if you stop being too much of yourself and do the same. Just give.

I figured it’s about time to get REAL once again. To build REAL relationships and not just superficial and practically virtual relationships. I'm so glad my VG friends, even if we don't post that much or comment in each other's post, everytime we see each other every week, our conversations seem endless. That's what I want. Not just the trivial. Not just shallow. Time to get REAL. 

So that's my social experiment. Let's see my world could change. :)