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...