LEADERSHIP

Many say it is hard to be leader… and I can tell you, yes it is. All can become leaders but not everyone is good. There are many who failed but only few succeeded. And to be a good leader is one of the most difficult things to do. Leading people is like being a pilot on your own plane, you have to be very careful and alert or else your plane will crash. You are accounted on all the possible things that will happen during your entire trip and if you’ll land safely, then you have accomplished a flight once again.

Have not you wonder why is it hard to become a leader when all you have to do is to command and say whatever you want to happen, with just a snap of your finger, people will follow you? It may look that way but it’s not easy as what you think.

• First, not all of your members are your followers. Maybe there are many but there are some who wants to live by their own rules, their own styles. They don’t believe in your potentials and sometimes make things for you to be distracted. You can do nothing about them except when they realize that they have to follow you.

• Second, remember that everything you do, there is one people, at least one single soul who wants to oppose you. He will make moves to destroy all of your plans and will find all your flaws and if found any, he’ll grab the opportunity to gather up people and encourage them to go against you. This people may give you headaches but if you will just ignore him and do what you should really do, eventually, he will stop.

• Third, you have to consider that if you’re a leader, there are still people higher than you do. These are the people who will help you succeed in your life or maybe the people who will pull you back. You may be the best leader in town, but there really is one person, higher in position that will truly focus all his attention to you, guard you in any of your moves and reacts every of your single mistake. But on the other hand, there may be a person whom you are being subordinated will give you the total boost of support to the things you are planning to do and will add things which can make it better.

• Fourth, your "adviser" maybe your worst enemy. You may have plans that she doesn’t like and reject it so easily not knowing the sweat and hard work you have done just to attain things. She is the one who should help you whenever you have done something wrong, but some of them give you a mile of long blames of blah, blah, blah, blah… and instead of helping you get through to the hole you have fallen she’ll spread it to the whole wide world that you committed such mistake. She’ll make you cry and helps you look stupid in front of many... glad that only few of this kind exists... and sorry, if you're one of the 'unluckys'. (Well, for me, as not so lucky... with no choice, has this sh*test person in my good-old student body organization days)

• Fifth, the plans you formulated are not as easy as opening nuts. You have to work it out and be a part of the plan. You cannot just sit and shout what things to do but you have to work together with your members or else you will wake up a day, all your plans were devastated.

Now tell me, is it really hard to be a leader? Still yes it is, no leader have said it is easy. But there are many ways to lessen the load you are carrying. Just know the consequences of all our actions and be just honest sincerely open to anyone and be humble in all your achievements, no doubt, you will succeed. And remember when the world turned its back away from you, there is still one great God will cover you up.

Well, to the future leader wannabes…

GOOD LUCK!

Bring Peace in Mindanao

Mindanao... The Land of Promise, a promise of bountiful harvests, a promise of prosperity, a promise of peace... but does it really vowed PEACE?

I lived in this world for many years and these years are enough to know things. I learned to love, to laugh, to cry... and the biggest thing I’ve learned is to see that reality is lifetime grudge.

As a youth, it hurts to see violence surrounding your once peaceful environment, to see dead bodies, grieving families, bombing that pierces one’s heart, see brothers killing brothers and what hurts most is to know that our government takes it too slowly to stop.

I am living in Mindanao but I never regret living in it. But the continuous killings, the Moslem-Christian fight, the MOA-AD rejection that flared the whole MIs, and the now reappearing bloody Ilaga group make me think twice, is it safe here?

A home is place where you feel safe and warm. But the strife in Mindanao, the hostility in my home tends to be the reason of all my anxiety. It’s like having an always shouting and fighting mother and father. It’s like siblings fighting for a single candy. Can you see the picture? The war is breaking, slashing and devastating my home, the home of the Moslems, the home of the Christians, OUR HOME.

Violence is never acceptable nor of the Gods, even Allah knows it. But what are we fighting for? For the ancestral domains? For our own interests? For our own happiness? For ourselves? And we want peace, don’t we? Does the war aim to fight for peace? Gracious heavens! Fighting for peace doesn’t bring peace, let us all be in peace and surely... peace will come. #

Save Mother Earth, Save Our Lives

Shrinking forests, expanding deserts, rising temperature, melting ice…

…will you simply lie down and down and die without saving mother earth and your children’s children?

The world’s getting hot and it’s happening fast. The earth’s system has been cut deeply, hurt in so many ways. It is losing its protective shield. And it’s all because of us… we are a product of nature but we are ruining it. Now, the nature is devouring itself. Mother Earth is seeking her revenge. She want us to suffer even if takes to hurt herself for us to realize how deep have we cut in her heart. But now is the time to act and get her trust back. We have to sew back what we have torn.

We, the youth should take our part in saving our planet. We should act because we are the future of this world. We are the one who should continue stop the things that ruin earth… if not, who will?

Global warming is not a slow, gentle, pleasant rise in temperature to be savored. It is an abrupt fundamental breakdown in the earth system’s climate subsystem that threatens the earth’s humanity.

We are going and we have to save mother earth, you and I. We have to and by any means necessary. Ecosystems are collapsing and Gaia may no longer be able to regulate her temperature, biogeochemical and biological systems and balances. We have to save it, because in the end…no one owns this world but us.#

Maybe the Bill is Right

Maybe the Bill is Right

I have a classmate who always come to school late. Her name is Mara. It is like everyday she is busy even though I think she is really not. I didn’t really like her even before my eyes met her. Mara seems to be a miss know-it-all. Yeah I can tell she is intelligent despite of her filthy appearance. Her dress always looked not ironed and she always wears the scent of milk. But what puzzled me most is the apparent affection my teacher always gives her. As what I’ve said, she’s always late, but instead of shouting her to go out, my teacher would gladly welcome her both hands. And she is loved by my classmates. By the way, I forgot to tell you, I’m just a newly transferred student in this school. I’m still adjusting myself to the environment around me. Well, I kept all my puzzlements all to myself without telling it to a single soul.

Now came our 2^nd grading period. I never thought there will come a time that we will become seatmates. I can’t explain my feelings then. It is a mixture of excitement, of nervousness and of resistance. As always as expected, she came late, again without any surprise, my teacher directed her to her new seat which is just as close to mine. She welcomed me with a wide a smile. I smiled back. I don’t know why, I just felt the urge of responding to her action. She really excelled in our class but whenever there are activities, she would just turn her head down and pretend to write something.

One day, the day I never expected I will uncover the mysteries behind her, I saw her weeping outside our garden late afternoon. My head is fighting with my heart. My brain says no and just leave her but my heart says go and sympathize her. Maybe in most cases, our hearts always win. I just then found myself patting her back and comforting her. I told her to stop crying because it won’t do any difference whatever her problem is, and to my surprise, she stopped... Just then, for the first time in my entire life, I saw eyes that were full of emotions, a face that withstood many storms. I really can’t explain what I saw but before I could utter anything else, she started talking… and all the things she said crumpled my heart, and even though I don’t want to admit, I found myself crying with her…

She came fro a family of eleven including her parents. Her mother, aged 40, is a very hard-working mom. She even said, if superman is not real, she can testify she saw and lived with a Superwoman. Now, Superwoman, because of poverty, find as many jobs as she could just to save them fro their status. She jumped from one place to another, from small jobs to hard jobs. She is a man hiding inside a woman’s body. But his father? Oh, never mind, she said. When her mother is Superwoman, her father is Lazyboy. He is not just lazy, she stressed, but the laziest. He’s like the grasshopper on the story that never did anything but to flourish himself with all his wants like the world never had problems. He hops from one party to another finding food to feed himself not minding he has mouths to feed. He always come home drunk and always kick her mother like a stone, he shouts like no one is listening and acts like he is the world’s king. Someday, she told herself, she’ll make her father roll from Everest’s summit to the depths of Marianas. She even questioned God why on earth He gave a father like her when all he has done was to add misery in their lives? She has eight siblings; the youngest is a three-month old baby who happened to have pneumonia. Second is a one-year-old boy whom her mother always leaves on their relative together with her four-year-old sister. She has a first grader sister in a public school that is being watched by her eight-year-old brother who is selling sampaguita in order to add their money pot. She have twin sisters each performing in carnivals at night and go to school at day, and she being the second eldest guides them to school where my classmate is studying right now. She told me that she will first finish studies before working. But as she narrated further, tears again started to roll down her cheeks. Mara still has a sister, the eldest of them all. She sighed as she said, she’s a prostitute. That’s what she only said. She told me why she is always late, and why she always smell like milk is spilt on her because, being now as the standing eldest, she is the one responsible to look after her siblings as her mother is on work and her father on his everyday joy.

But now as she said, accidentally, her mother whom she considered as Superwoman met a tragic accident and sadly died. She couldn’t speak well upon mumbling these words but my heart really cried for her. Now she’s left with seven of her younger brothers and sisters with their good-for-nothing father.

And as I went home, watching news on television about the church fighting against the Reproductive Health Bill, I asked my self, what if I were Mara, what if I were left with my younger siblings, facing the big question where on earth will I find food to feed them on my young age. What will happen to us when even my father couldn’t stand up on his own feet? What if my parents are like her parents who haven’t taught of proper education on raising their children? What if I could no longer sustain my education because I’m facing the reality that I have to stand now as mother? What if I were Mara who has a sister who forgot that she has siblings? What if the church continues to fight against this bill and will let people multiply rapidly? I have many what ifs in my mind and what if it will happen to me because the church won’t let me use practical ways on having children? Can the church answer all my questions? Maybe they’re just following God’s commandments but never God stated in the bible that it is a sin to control mortality rate, does He?

So now , I can say, maybe it’s time to listen to the bill, I’m not saying that the church is wrong but I just want to point out that the bill only wants what’s best for the country’s people, not for their own deterioration. Maybe the bill is right, isn’t it?

The Call of Allah’s Son

Before I’ll start everything, I just want to say, I am a Moslem. Yes I am a believer of Allah but never did I regret being one.

I lived in a Christian community with Christian ways; I tried to blend with them but later proved that there is a big wall that separates me from the other. I don’t eat what they sometimes eat. They have certain traditions that I cannot penetrate. It is so hard to live with a wall between you and the other side. I want to mingle with them but found it very hard to do so. Sometimes I notice that some people whenever see me covered gives me a glimpse of total weirdness. We are sometimes treated like viruses which should be avoided. Sometimes, I ask myself, is it a sin to become a Moslem and a person who happened to preach Allah?

As the war protrudes in the forests of Cotabato, people all blame Moslems for all of their misfortunes. But please, IT IS NOT US! It is the rebels, the no-hearted life-slayers, the terrorists, the Abu Sayaffs, the MILFs, the Ilagas, Kato Bravo… they are the people who caused all of Mindanao’s grim present. They are not Moslems, they are devils. They don’t deserve to be called Allah’s son but Satan’s dominion.

Please, let us live like you, not discriminated and isolated. You know, as a Moslem, as a true believer of Allah, it hurts and my heart deeply cries for our race’ rejection. But take note, we are just people, we have hearts that cry and feelings that hurt. We are just human subjected to equal treatment like any others. Even though our gods differ in names, still, we are worshipping one God, one Creator.

Moslems and Christians are brothers; they should never fight one another. By the way, what are we fighting for? For one’s a selfish reason? Let us stop the tension between us, we are not enemies, our enemies are the people who want war and govern people in their own steel hands and cold-stoned hearts. And I want to repeat, we are not your enemies, the Moslems were never your enemies. Moslems always pray for peace as well as Christians. But always remember, WE SHOULD NOT FIGHT FOR PEACE. Be at peace and peace will come.

Cry of the Stuck

Hi! I’m Maureen, Maureen Hultman. Maybe you know me. Maybe I’m popular, popular because of that dreadful accident that allowed my parents to grieve over my body in the hospital’s white lights.

But now, I’m a just a soul, a lonely soul who wanders the earth, searching for justice and answer why my murderer killed me for no reason. I can still feel my fast-beating heart during that night, all my pleas and begs for him to stop pointing that sinful gun to me, the trembling of my hands, the blurring of my vision because of my tears, my scratchy voice, my prayers who called all the saints… but all of these fall on deaf ears.

I haven’t stop death from snatching my youthful spirit. I died without fully experiencing the world’s wonderful blessings, I was just 16 then, a young girl who wants to explore the planet where I’m living in, but I never have the chance to do it anymore… and it’s all because of him! The one who killed me, the one who grabbed my future, the one who easily took my life; these are all because of him! I haven’t found peace even on after life. All is dark here and I’m here together only with myself. I have no companion. I’m so… lonely! It should be him who should be suffering from all of this doom. It is not me. I’m innocent. It should be him to be on the fires of hell ad the sufferings of the evil.

But now, as all of the country’s media has been telling, he as been freed? FREED? Those nine years that he has stayed in the prison isn’t enough to pay his debts. He killed lives, innocent lives of the nation’s future. Hello!? Is the president insane? Can’t she feel my parent’s sufferings? Can’t she feel the feeling of wanting to kill someone for justice? What will she feel if her child’s murderer was freed without her being informed? If I’m just on earth and would be given a chance to talk to her in just an hour, permit to slap her face and shout at her what the real picture is. I want her to wake up. He freed a man who killed lives. As what I said earlier, innocent lives of the nation’s future. Yes I know why she freed him. Is it because he is a man whose relatives are in the government’s high positions? Am I right? And she doesn’t want these people to torture her while she is on her seat that Is why she is helping them! What a selfish president do we have! She only thinks only of herself! How sad our nation has leaders like her.

As my murderer escaped inside the bars of sufferings, what will he do next? Be an angel on everyone’s eyes? Yeah maybe he’ll do that and be a good man for years. But once a murderer, always a murderer! No one can change the fact what he is. He should be toasted in hell!

I am so mad! I am very madly in love for seeking justice, a justice that never was once mine.

And now as I’m sitting here in the darkness and loneliness o the betweens of heaven and hell, all I just want to do is to knock in the doors of your hearts, open it to victims like me and pleading to battle these unjustified actions. Help us, help me… I’m begging.

The Ship of Death (MV Princess of the Stars Tragedy)

This is my first time to ride in a ship. I am so excited, and take note; I will be riding in the country’s biggest ship. I am going to Cebu to visit my relatives together with all my family including my grandma who insisted to come even if her knees are weak. I really miss my cousin’s laughters of joy. I am so excited that I forgot to pack all my gadgets. My laptop, my newly bought Sony PSP and my iPod, nut it doesn’t matter, at least I brought my most important possession, my prayer book.

The sea was calm on the midday journey. All was clear. The sky was bright and my grandma’s face was full of joy. We were on the economy class because my father cannot afford to put us in a cabin. Children’s laughter is everywhere. My father even talked to a newly freed prisoner whose deck is just one way ahead of us. He’s full of joy and I even overheard him saying that he’d been to prison for 30 years and he regret all things he have done swearing he’ll never go to prison again. Thank God, He’s good. He always shows mercy for us all. Everything was perfect, everything was fine, not until the clouds formed into dark cottons, the sea became wild and turbulent, the rains dropped like stones, the storms raged and the ship swung back and forth. Who would think that this would be our one way ticket to death? I never remembered the captain saying that there would be storms on our way or else he would not permit the big vessel to sail, does he?

The laughter then turned into vicious cries. The smiles became frowns of anger. All was shouting what to do but the captain told us to be calm because no one will be harmed. We trusted the captain, I trusted the captain. His words became small relief for us all in the midst of Poseidon’s claws. I think God was angry but I strongly grippe my prayer book and whispered, “No one can save us now, but you.”

My grandma is crying, my brothers’ faces were full of tension. My mother has done the sign of the cross in the nth times, but as I never expected, my father was calm. He spoke words of assurance that everything will be fine, that we will reach Cebu safely and that we’ll meet our relatives’ happy faces and everything is jus a dream, a very gloomy dream, but is it really a dream? I slapped my face, it did hurt, and I realize, that this was reality. My father gave me a meaningful stare, and I never thought this would be the last moment with him.

Everyone is going crazy but still the captain told us to be calm, who will calm in the midst of this unwanted, heart-pounding situation? My mother headed for the life jackets as the rain poured down on our faces. The waves enter the ship freely. My head is turning and feels like the world is circling, I was like in a roller coaster but the shouts are not merry, it’s horrible.

Everyone’s praying now and I prayed that the captain would command us to abandon the ship, but my prayers are not heard.

I looked at my grandma once again, she’s calm now, but I wonder she closed her eyes, the newly freed prisoner strongly held the bible, my two brothers were numb, my mother doesn’t know where to go, my father is still assuring us that everything will be fine. The ship is still swinging back and forth, the storm is still raging and the waves are still turbulent. Everything was in a slow motion in my life’s slowest time. I firmly gripped my prayer book and prayed, after that…

…all was darkness.