Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.

-- Amy Bloom

         Do I want Ms. Arroyo impeached? Ofcourse, I do. But do I want it done now? at this point in time? Honestly, no.

          I'm no expert in politics but with the current global finanial crisis, I don't think impeachment is a very good step. If ever it does push through, it's still going to take time. And reelection is just around the corner anyway. I just don't see the point in doing it now and having the whole country think about how politically corrupt Ms Arroyo's administration is (something we've been tackling since the dawn of human history hahah) while the whole global community is doing their best to find solutions to the current crisis. We're probably just about an arm-length away from economic recession and we instead want to talk about the same political problems we've been dealing with for the past several years (or probably longer). I believe there's a right time for everything this is simply not the time for impeachment. That does not mean we should merely sitback and focus on economic reforms and forget about all of Ms. Arroyo's past offenses. No, that's a bunch of balooney. I want the government to focus on how we can weather the current financial crisis and avoid the looming economic recession threatening the global community and I want the Filipino people to be more vigilant on how the administration is going about their businesses. Granted, the adinistration will never change their corrupt ways, but we can atleast scrutinize everything they do and every deal they make so that we can avoid further damage to our political situation.

         Just a thought : given the looming crisis, can we handle both political and economic instability at the same time? Wouldn't that be suicide?

         
         How well do you solve problems on the job? This brief quiz will help you gauge (and improve) your problem-solving ability. The questions seem simple, but think carefull before answering.

1. How do you put a giraffe into the refrigerator?

2. How do you put an elephant into the refrigerator?

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. One animal is missing - which one?

4. You came to a river that is known to be inhabited by crocodiles. How do you get across?

KEY

1. Answer : Open the refrigerator, jam in the giraffe, and close the door.
    Point : Do you tend to do simple things in an overly comlicated way?

2. Answer : Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant, and close the door. Did you remember to remove the giraffe?
    Point : This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

3. Answer : The elephant is missing because it's still in the refigerator!
    Point : How good is your memory and sense of continuity?

4. Answer : You can swim accross safely. All the crocodiles are at the Lion King's animal conference.
    Point : How good is your ability to learn from previous mistakes?

         If you didn't fare well on this quiz, don't despair. About 90 percent of business professionals incorrectly answered all four questions. Children, on the other hand, usually answered them all correctly.

We cannot really love anyone with with whom we never laugh.
 ~~ Agnes Repplier ~~

          A peace agreement is supposed to come after the conflict. It is supposed to avoid any further violence. Leave it to our very wonderful Ms. Arroyo to mess up even that basic premise. After a series of national issues centering on the legitimacy of her presidency and the integrity of her administration comes yet another mind blowing matter - the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD). Indeed, she never fails to shock the public. The MOA-AD is the result of the peace talks held between the negotiators of the Arroyo adminitration and the MILF leaders. Almost all of us are aware of what this group has always been after - an independent Moro Islamic state. It seems that the current adinistration agreed to many of the MILF's demands without considering it's legal implications. And now that it's out in the open (the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order to stop it's signing which was supposed to take place in Malaysia), it's constitutional flaws and objectionable provisions have also become quite a sensation.

            Let's take a closer look at why the MOA-AD is unconstitutional. Firstly, it commits to the MILF that Congress and the Filipino people will ammend the 1987 Constitution to conform to the MOA-AD. Bad, bad move. The Executive branch has no legislative power, it has no power to propose ammendments to the Constitution, much less, commit ammendments to it. Also, there was never any consultation made with the significant publics and the stakeholders. Everything was done in a series of closed-door meetings. This number one flaw of this memorandum makes you wonder if it was really created in good faith or simply meant to be a means for some hidden self-serving, selfish agenda of the President. Cha-Cha (or Charter Change) would, afterall, allow her to remain in power beyond 2010.

            Another flaw of the MOA-AD is that it creates a state called the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity with all sovereign powers and institutions. It will have it's "own" courts, "own" legislature, "own" institutions and it's "own" police and internal security force. That goes against our Constitution which states that the "State shall establish and maintain one Police Force, which shall be national in scope and civilian incharacter, to be administered and controlled by a National Police Commission." That's Section 6, Article XVI. Section 18, Article VII of the Constitution mandates that the "President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines. These provisions clearly do not allow the existence of armed forces like that of BJE's own internal secutiy force that are not under the control and command of the President through the chain of command.

           Now let's talk about the Lumads. The Lumads are not and have never been Muslims but they are included into the Bangsamoro without their knowledge and consent. Imagine their surprise when they learned about this MOA-AD from the newspaper last Aug4, 2008. Given that individual Lumads are given freedom of choice to join the Bangsamoro, their ancestral domain will remain with the Bangsamoro whether or not they join it anyway. I'm having a hard time looking for anything fair in that.

            What was supposed to end a period of truce has provoked even more conflicts. How bad can it get? Randy David, my favorite columnist, wrote "because the negotiations slid into a routine of closed-door technical meetings that tended to minimize the need for consultations with significant publics, the whole affair and the document resulting from it acquired the stima of something sneaky and conspirational. Instead of welcoming it as a breakthrough, nearly everyone took the MOA-AD as an intriguing clue to undisclosed script. This doesn't do justice at all to the painstaking and substantive work that went into the crafting of the document." I love Randy David to the core but I really do not see any painstaking and substantive work that went into the memorandum. If anything, it is badly-crafted and self-serving to the poeple that that worked on it. That is clearly shown by the fact that even the administration (who started this whole problem in the first place) is now calling for a review of it's provisions. They say they're not signing it in it's present form because of the "terrorist activities" of Moro rebels in parts of Midnanao? Oh, come on. Who are they fooling? They know bloody well that those "terrorist activities" are not the main reson they had a change of heart. It's simply because the MOA-AD's constitutional flaws have now been thoroughly exposed and the public would have thrown them balls of fury had they continued their quest to make us accept it.

           I know that at this point in time, blaming and pointing fingers wouldn't really do us any good anymore but I still can't help saying that much of this mess is the adminitrative's own making. Just what did they have in mind while they were drawing the provisions of the MOA-AD? Really, you have to be blind as a bat to design a memorandum as bad as that and not see this bloodymess of a situation coming.

           I am thoroughly disgusted.

Always end the name of your child with a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry.

--  Bill Cosby --

-- eat an apple. (a healthier and cheaper choice)
-- move! don't stay in one position too long. or better yet, take a walk around the room (to jolt those sleepy nerves)
-- get some fresh air
-- allow yourself some creative distractions
(this one is only for those with enough self-discipline ^^)
-- take a splash. (wash your face with cold water)
-- change your clothes, right down to your underwear. ( this is actually quite effective, unless ofcourse you changed to your pajamas ^^)
-- try eating sunflower seeds (it doesn't work for me but who knows, it might work out for you)
-- stop thinking about how tired or sleepy you are! (most of the time we're not really that tired)

This one is my favorite :

-- drink lots of water. dehydration will reduce your blood volume and that's going to make you feel tired and thus, sleepy. drinking lots of water works two ways : it'll make sure you get your needed daily intake of water which is very good and it'll force you to stand up and walk to the toilet every now and then (even when you don't feel like standing up ^^).

         And oh, I also visited my sister's school website to check out her tuition fee. They must be using gold chairs now. The fees are skyrocketing, I swear. The figures definitely buzzed me up. Come to think of it, that might just keep me up for several nights. Hahah