blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

Empathy is defined as Identification with and understanding of another's situation,feelings, and motives. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object. Do we know what empathy really means? And do we really have it? Or we think we have it? In my case If I had not empathy then I would have long burned out as a teacher. Iwould be like a star that has burned out to be a brown dwarf! Ateacher (especially a university teacher) is always on fire andempathy for students is just one of the fuels. And still I burn redhot so my students say.The teacher's job is to stoke the fires for amyriad futures (as myriad as the students I meet every semester). Thisis not an easy job. There are a lot of futures at stake and I realisethat some will not turn out to be good. We stoke the fires for amyriad good futures and pray to God that all will be right. And amyriad expressions of empathy is needed at times. I sometimes end the day extremely drained as a result. Am I developing compassion...

Now that someone wants to learn more about my dating life in my travels, might as well write more about this topic. A man on a journey is likely to meet women at every literal step. There is no destination that I have been that I never been introduced to a lady. Well most of these were purely social and for some, I had remained in touch for a while and then lost touch. Perhaps she moved residence. Some I am still in touch after all these years and mileage miles. I am so elated to learn that she had found a husband and is happily married with kids. As for Ms Sydneysider, she and I are still in touch. She is of Greek and Filipino origin and is now a barrister having been admitted to the New South Wales Bar. She is involved with the rights of immigrants in Australia. She was the one who recemtly updated me about the case of Mrs Vivian Young Alvarez, the Australian national of Filipino origin mistakenly deported by Australian immigration. I told her that I am still interested in Australia...

Only a nomadic people such as the Turks (who were once from Central Asia) would come up with a saying that "Travel is a foretaste or preview of hell". In the time of the ancients, when the known world for the West is the Mediterranean and for the East is China, leaving these regions is like taking an intergalactic trip to places God knows where. Along the Silk Road or the Pearl Way brigands and bandits and pirates abound. It was a real possibility that you won't get to your destination in your physical body. (But of course the soul can get anywhere, right?) The trappings of travel modernity started with the Industrial Revolution with the invention of steam trains, followed by the internal combustion engine that made possible the automobile and the aeroplane. This trend towards fast and safe travel (actuarists know that there is a bigger chance of being hit by lightning and dying than being in a jet and crashing) ended one day in September 2001. 9/11 made jet planes into c...

Pagtatalik The Act of Life ni Jacques Cousteau Isang libog – marikit na kaguluhan Ng alikabok at hangin Lumiit naging pulang lupa Nang tunaw at init Sa mga nakalipas na habagat at amihan Ang mundo ay sadyang bughaw Siya’y isang sapiro Umiiikot sa kalawakan Isang pagkaraos ng libog sa sihay Sa dagat ang bumuhay Siya’y nagromansa ng buhay at libog At buhay, ang dagta ng dagat Ay umapaw sa kalupaan Isang kadyot ng sihay Ay bumuhay sa maraming libog Mga larvae sa karagatan Sa punla at tamod ng mga pusit Sa paglalayag ng salmon Sa pagpapangako ng albatross Isang kadyot sa sihay Ang nagpalipad ng ating pangarap sa buwan Kay Marte, Venus at Jupiter At kinabukasan, didilig ng luha sa ibang mga tala Ang marikit na libog ng ating pag-ibig Na iniyakan ng araw at lupa Buhay- ang milagro ng dagat na ngayo’y ating hawak Buhay – naghihirap at nanganganib sa kanyang huling supling.

Dr Jose Rizal’s Song of the Wanderer Canto del Viajero A dry leaf flies at random Till it’s seized by a wind so strong So lives on earth the wanderer Without a heading, soul, country or love Troubled, he seeks joy everywhere But joy is elusive and flees Like a shadow so vain that mocks his desire And for which he sails the seas so wide Impelled by a hand unseen He shall wander from place to place Only memories shall keep him company Of loves and days happier then Perhaps in the desert he shall find A tomb, a sweet refuge discovered But in his country and the world forgotten Rest in stillness his trials now over Alas they envy the sorrowed wanderer As across the earth he is found Ah! They know not of the emptiness In his soul where love no longer exists The pilgrim shall return to his country To familiar shores perhaps He shall find only ice and ruins Loves that withered, graves and nothing more Go wanderer! In your own country Now a stranger, always alone Let others sing of loving They...

ALL MY ROADS BEFORE ME Down the paths, I tread Amidst the green, eucalyptus boughs Shadows, shafts of light A break in the gloom And wildflowers bloom The road is long and at times rough Traverses through dry and stony ground In coming winter’s Antarctic breath, the flowers break The spell of autumn and her promises of chill I walk the trails through rises and vales And the road before me is mine The sun begins to set and night has come And road leads to places I haven’t seen I tread in sight of the dawn And colours of the wattles amaze and bellbirds ring Where I end, home is there The future is seized in the trails My Master ten paces ahead My past a step behind The walk leads me home 10 April 2004 The Dandenong Mountains Victoria, Australia

In my research I have been all over the Philippines looking for shells. There is one beach in Sorsogon that has a lot of tellins, these are thin shelled pink or yellow clams. I was there in 1999. Now I plan to go back in the third week of May. No one journeys without a reason in mind. For some it is a search for identity, their selves lost in the business of daily life. Some seek spiritual enlightenment and an encounter with the Divine. Some seek better economic pastures. Some seek liberation. Some seek some aspect of truth. John Steinbeck before leaving on the now celebrated "Sea of Cortez" expedition used a fish to illustrate why we need to travel to distant places. He used the Sierra as an example. This mackarel is an important fishery product of the Southern California coast. Steinbeck said you can learn about the fish from a book, see the fish itself in the museum or sold in the market. You can count it's spines and characterise its DNA . You can be sure that indee...

I did date in Sydney but not the “million girls” that bloke in the popular Hotdog song would like us to believe. Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities on earth. As one writer rightly described her, Sydney has the greatest concentration of beautiful women in the Southern Hemisphere. The harbour can easily make you romantic. Even the most jaded hearts can’t avoid that. The Harbour Bridge is utilitarian, lacking in grace and ugly as James Michener correctly observed more than fifty years ago. The harbour by its very romantic nature can change even that. I did arrive in Sydney in the dead of winter after a two-hour flight from more tropical and sunny Townsville. The avro was cloudy and grey, hardly the time for going around town. The night was even worse, freezing cold and windy. But all that can be changed. My Sydneysider Filipino friends introduced me to her. She attends Sydney Uni. and sings heartbreaking Tagalog songs for homesick Pinoys. We went out for tea. A cup of tea at the...

Tranquil Impermanence Ofunato, Japan 08/11/04 Autumn leaves in fire and gold will soon fall on winter ground trees bare with buds asleep await spring in the months to come Sharp rocks covered in mist The sea as calm as temple ground Whatever the eye sees on sandy shores ever does move in changing form Bashõ's words has captured it more In haiku forms the tranquil morn For impermanence is ever here And tranquility and peace that's always still

Autumn, sea and shore 06/11/04 Otsuchi Bay, Japan Cold breath, northern wind Maple leaves turn into fire red And die Stone pine along rocky crags Sea spray cool and sharp Clear water and breaking waves Strength and defiance Tranquil and permanent Japan's soul Winter is nigh The sea wind becomes ice The pines still green and remain Maples await spring The seasons play The game of eternity

Australians are a decent mob. I know this since I lived with them as a student in Queensland in the late 1990s. They have become my mates. And once a mate, you are always one. The ordinary bloke and shiela hold dear the quintessentially Australian values of a "fair go", "mateship" and of course being a "larrikin". "A fair go" means that everyone should be given an equal chance to explain or to prove, mateship means when two become steadfast friends because of a shared experience (often a hard one, doing the "hard yard" as we say) and being a larrikin means having a healthy distrust of authority, especially when authority says something nonsensical. Filipinos and Australians shouldn't worry that their mateship will be broken. Australians have likely dismissed Alexander Downer's and John Howard's irresponsible statements on our government's policies. After all, Aussies are larrikins. They know that come the next general e...

I am a writer and a marine biologist Strange combination they all say. The more diplomatic would say, unusual. I am a marine biologist looking at seashores and their life. My colleagues believe that many scientists can write good scientific papers that are objective with methods that can stand scrutiny by their peers. But essays with the human insight at hand? Fortunately there are precedents. My favourite writer, John Steinbeck studied marine biology at Stanford and then started to write. His fiction carries a basic concept of marine biology, the nature of life and how it interacts with the environment. All these are enmeshed in the human experience. In “Grapes of Wrath” it is denunciatory and in “Cannery Row” it is celebratory. In Sea of Cortez both literature and science meet in an unusual collaboration, with another good marine biologist, Ed Ricketts. I first encountered Steinbeck not in a high school or college literature class but in my first undergraduate course in marine biolo...

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