When You Stop Having Opinions

28 Friday Dec 2012

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2012.12.28 Opinions

I had a conversation with one of my Filipino friends who is also studying here in the Netherlands. She is taking up a masters in financial economics at the Tinbergen Institute (a joint institution of Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Amsterdam, and VU University Amsterdam), and soon enough, plans to continue her PhD studies here in Europe.

Like myself, she also has a blog (or at least had one in the past). She currently deactivated it for personal reasons. We got into quite a lengthy conversation about our blogs and how it hasn’t exactly been as active as it was in the past (i.e. we were not blogging regularly anymore). We came to a conclusion that there were two primary reasons why we could have stopped blogging:

  • Our priorities could have shifted, and
  • We may have stopped having opinions we think were relevant

It was easy to say that our priorities have indeed shifted. We were both subjected to new environments recently. We both just moved to the Netherlands to pursue further studies from being in our comfort zones in the Philippines. Therefore, we had to readjust our lives to something new. But I told her:

That reason is too easy — were just thinking of an easy explanation about our laziness to blog.

And we did talk about it more.

A point raised during our conversation is that we think we have stopped having opinions, which we think were relevant — and this reason scared me. It scared me because once we stop having opinions, and start thinking that our opinions are irrelevant, it would lead us to becoming drifters. Being a drifter is not bad in itself, but I refuse to be one.

I’ve shared multiple times with my friends that I have this innate fear of being considered irrelevant. For this reason, I have never really settled for having no opinion on matters. And if I don’t know anything about a certain subject, I will ask them to explain it to me, or at least ask for a period of time for me to learn about it to broaden my knowledge. When the time comes that I actually have enough basis for myself to have an opinion, then I do give it.

This makes me think, indeed, I did not stop having opinions, I just got lazy about sharing them to the public. It could also be that my priority on sharing it in my blog has greatly diminished because now, I am part of an entirely new experience as being part of the board of a student association.

At the end of the day, I do know three things about myself:

  • I will always have a strong individuality as a person
  • I will always have an opinion
  • I will always have the confidence to say that I am relevant

Like what René Descartes (another proud Rene), said

Cogito ergo sum

In English: “I think therefore, I am”. We all still continue to think, therefore, we all still exist.

Invest in the Philippines

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

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NOW’S THE TIME. Invest in the Philippines. (Image taken by the author)

NOW’S THE TIME. Invest in the Philippines. (Image taken by the author)

The Makati Business Club, in partnership with the Philippine Department of Industry and the Philippine National Competitiveness Council, released a video for the promotion of investment opportunities in the Philippines. It is about time that the Philippine government really put attention on further attracting foreign direct investments.

Quite a number of development researchers, financial institutes and economic and political associations have placed the Philippines as one of the most promising nations in Asia (next to China and India, and at par with Indonesia). For so long, the Philippines has been seen as the sick nation in Southeast Asia due to the detrimental effects of the extreme corruption that plagues the country. With the current administration that puts emphasis on eliminating corruption (or at least significantly reducing it), the forecast for the Philippines has changed.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank has both placed a very positive sentiment on the economic performance of the Philippines up to 2016. In fact, Standard & Poor has upgraded the credit rating to just one level below the favorable investment grade, from BB to BB+. This opportunity should not be taken lightly — and thus, I laud the Philippine government and the institutions behind the initiative to attract foreign direct investments to the country. I sincerely hope that this initiative bears to be fruitful and for the Philippines to continue in its “straight path” towards progressive development and inclusive growth.

Who else to better describe what the Philippines is experiencing now than the President of the Republic. At the end of the video, President Benigno S. Aquino, III puts it simply:

We have been telling the world, the Philippines is open for business under new management. And we are happy to report that so many have already responded to the call. As we continue to walk along the straight path in inclusive growth, this will continue to spark a virtuous cycle: a skilled and more competitive labor base, more empowered consumers, and an even more progressive economy.
– Pres. Benigno S. Aquino, President of the Republic of the Philippines

Other notable quotes from the are transcribed after the jump.

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A short documentary on Theo Jansen and his animal creations

30 Friday Nov 2012

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Reblogged from TED Blog:

http://vimeo.com/46453433

.
Dutch artist and engineer Theo Jansen introduced us to a new form of life at TED2007—nimble kinetic sculptures that he crafts out of electric tubes and fans which gather wind energy. Jansen shared his idea: that his sculptures that could live as a herd on the beach and survive on their own.

Salazar, a director’s collective in Vancouver, Canada, stumbled upon Jansen’s talk and approached the artist about making a 7-minute documentary about his work and philosophy.

Read more… 74 more words

Here's an interesting piece from TED about the creations of Dutch artist and engineer Theo Jansen.

Tito Sotto Makes me Embarrassed and Disappointed of Philippine Politics

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

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Rappler News: “Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto says there is no need to apologize for using the Filipino translation of a Robert Kennedy quote without attribution”

This is embarrassing and disappointing. Where is senatorial delicadeza these days? Invoking parliamentary immunity every time he does something wrong is just clear arrogance of power. Committing 9 plagiarism cases in less than 6 months and not being called out by the Senatorial Ethics Committee is outright stupidity.

In my opinion, plagiarism is unethical. POINT. BLANK. PERIOD. Therefore, action should be taken on these unethical misdoings. We deserve better leadership than this.

Below is the video from Rappler regarding Sen. Tito Sotto and Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s remarks about Sotto’s plagiarism cases.

P!nk’s new music video for “Try”

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

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P!nk released the music video to her latest single, Try. The video for Try features P!nk and a male dancer dancing passionately that tells their love story. In my opinion, this might be P!nk’s best work yet, in terms of music video. Not only is it visually inviting because of their excellent dancing prowess, but it is also emotionally charged and it comes across even just through the dance — and simply being able to accomplish that already says a lot.

Cinematography, lighting, choice of colors, writing, and overall composition of the video (in my opinion) is excellent.

Enjoy watching the music video below:

Artist: Pink
Song: Try
Music Video Director: Floria Sigismondi
Choreography by: Golden Boyz

Interesting.

07 Sunday Oct 2012

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KASTEEL NYENRODE. This is what happens when they let “tourists” near the Nyenrode castle.

I’ve been in the Netherlands for almost 2 months now. The time I’ve been here has been quite interesting —  and I feel bad that I haven’t written anything about it. I guess it comes with the adjustment phase, but I feel more settled here now and I believe that I could continue writing sensible material again.

Interesting would be the best word to describe the past [almost] two months. From being in my first long flight (i.e. more than 12 hours), landing at the Schiphol airport, meeting new people, having a rather exciting introduction, taking classes with me being the only Filipino, gaining expertise from some of the best people in their field, up to the surprising hefty amount of beer here in the Netherlands, have all  been interesting.

Some might find that describing that something is “interesting” might sound boring. Not for me. Being interesting, in my opinion, is a quality that is exemplary when a particular person, event, place or item has  it. That is because being interesting means being able to arouse curiosity and/or attract attention. And that is what I have been experiencing for the past two months here in the Netherlands — especially here in Nyenrode where probably some of my greatest memories in NL will happen. Everything just seems exciting, new and interesting for me.

It’s honestly hard to put into words what I’ve experienced thus far. What I could write though is that the past two months already feels like a year already, just because each day has a something surprising to offer. Trying to condense all of them in a single post would be too tedious and unproductive. Hence, I’ll just share some photos which I was able to take during my stay, all of which were taken using my phone. (see photos after the jump)

With all of these said, I can’t help but feel excited for the remaining 15 or so months here in Nyenrode. I hope that everything stays interesting and exciting as it is.

PS.
I’ll make sure to blog more regularly now that I’ve adjusted well. Especially to my friends who kept on nagging me to write something new — here you go. Cheers!

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