Best we've ever had?

Last month, I had a project that required to conduct a survey about who the best President is. My respondents were mostly old people. To my surprise, of 20 respondents to the question "Who is the best president for you" 17 people answered Ferdinand Marcos. the common answers to why he is their choice is that, In Ferdinand's time, especially when Martial Law was declared, the country was peaceful and quiet. According to one of my respondents, martial law was really necessary at that time. Ferdinand knew how to discipline his people. 

With regards to intelligence, for me, the best President that we had is Ferdinand Marcos. He loved the Philippines so much that he did his very best to make our country known to the rest of the world. In every man's success and failure, there's always a woman behind. I believe that it is Imelda who brought downfall to the Marcos regime. He is considered as a social butterfly. She lived an extravagant life. She lived like a princess with Ferdinand as her prince. Ferdinand loved the country as much as he loved her wife. Until the very end, he showed his love to his country by wanting to die and to be buried in his native land.

Ang mamatay ng dahil sa'yo

I remember Mr Reyes saying that this statement of our National Anthem was wrong. It should be "Ang mamatay at pumatay ng dahil sayo". Throughout that lecture, this statement was the one that was stuck on my mind. True, why would one want to die without trying to kill for his country. Can someone really say that he can die for his country in the first place? Nationalism, is it a good or a bad thing?

For me, nationalism may be a good or bad thing depending how you look at it. If your kind of nationalism is just being proud of your race and trying to excel and make the world know that you can do something to change something negative, then that is a good kind of nationalism. When you're talking about nationalism to the extent of discrimination and racism, then your nationalism is Bull***t.

The said line in our national anthem isn't good nationalism. I think it promotes violence and shows people the nationalism which we shouldn't adore to have. Risk your life for a reason, but never do it for the sake of stepping and lowering down other races.

Asia's best worst

Last time I heard, The Philippines was ranked 100+ on the list of the most corrupt countries in the world. I wasn't shocked about that because as what I see our country, our officials use their position, not to serve but to be served by the people and the tax that they pay. The main purpose of officials running for position in our country is money. nothing else. I am aware that the Philippines is one of the most corrupt countries in Asia, but I wasn't aware that it is the MOST. I was shocked when I saw this article about the Top 10 most corrupt Asian countries. I knew that the Philippines would appear on the list but I didn't expected it to be the top notched. Here is an excerpt of the article.

http://www.asianoffbeat.com/default.asp?Display=844
Most corrupt

1. Philippines

Expatriate businessmen in Asia perceive the Philippines as the most corrupt country in the region. Nearly $2 billion dollars, or roughly 13 percent of the Philippines' annual budget, is lost to corruption in the country each year, according to the United Nations Development Program.

Its judicial system is believed to be ineffective at prosecuting and punishing individuals for corruption when abuses are uncovered. Local corruption monitors confirm that graft and bribery in the Philippines remain rampant. Corruption has penetrated every level of government, from the Bureau of Customs down to the traffic police officers who pull over motorists to demand

The next countries are as follows:

2.Indonesia
3.Thailand
4.Vietnam
5.India
6.Korea
7.China
8.Malaysia
9.Taiwan
10.Macau

Can the current president turn the picture around? Let's see.

"Benigno Aquino III"

Yeah, this guy right here. He is our newly elected president Benigno Aquino III. Many of us wonder if he would make a good leader of our country. For now, he's done well. but for how long? Can he stay loyal as he is right now til the end of his term? Sure, he made this and that and this and this and that, but can he really resist the temptation of graft and corruption? When he first gained his position, first thing he did was to remove all vehicle's sirens and blinkers. He said that we should all be equal in the roads of the metro. 2nd thing was to implement justice for the cheating anomaly that the former president was accused.  3rd thing he did was to remove all midnight appointees done by the former President. These first steps in my opinion was good. He puts his words in to actions and little by little, he establishes a good image to the people.

The guy has a good family background. His father, a hero. His mother, a former President of the country. Is this enough to trust him and believe that he would be a good and different leader from the past administration? We came from a President who didn't get the trust of her people. She was called the most unpopular president. What difference is our current president from the former one? who knows? All we could do is wait. A couple of months doesn't determine a good leader, but from what he is doing, I think he's in the right path of being one.

"IMAGINE"

Last week, on my way to school, I heard a remake of this song called "Imagine" by John Lennon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM0Z75KEd_o

here are some parts of the song

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.

I was touched by this song. You see, He's right. We made the world more complicated because of countries, religions, beliefs and other things that separate us from one another. These concepts classify us, and puts us in a certain group. Yeah, imagine if these things do no exist. Maybe the world wouldn't be as chaotic as it is. Maybe we could live with anyone from any part of the world. No borders, no separations, no discrimination, just peace and unity. I know that this would be impossible to do, but just the thought of it amazes me. How we human beings call ourselves as supreme beings when we cant even live equally with someone from the other side of the world but the same species as we are. All of the things that John Lennon said in this song is perfect. So perfect that we couldn't possibly attain it. All we could do is imagine.