I was born in a Christian family and I had a six religions before I met Nietzsche.
Friedrich Nietzsche is a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. His attempts to unmask the motives that underlie traditional Western religion, morality, and philosophy deeply affected generations of theologians, philosophers, psychologists, poets, novelists, and playwrights. He thought through the consequences of the triumph of the Enlightenment's secularism, expressed in his observation that “God is dead,” in a way that determined the agenda for many of Europe's most celebrated intellectuals after his death.
Nietzsche vehemently rejected the idea of God because it is “ANTI-LIFE”. The belief in God is premised on the belief of Absolute character of God. It is being itself- the CREATOR. So according to believers there is God that lies behind the flux of things. That God alone is the Being that remains the Same all throughout the decay of life and the world. For Nietzsche, the question is not really the existence of God but sociological: why the Hell does people want a God? Or, to put it bluntly: What kind of people or society would believe tenaciously to a fictitious META-PHYSICAL (BEYOND THE PHYSICAL) BEING?Nietzsche found the answer in the social psychological character of SLAVES! The slaves cannot accept life and its sufferings. They tend to invent META-PHYSICAL beings like angels, demons, souls and God and their dwellings (Hades, Hell, Heaven). These fictitious entities are supposed to be more real than life, more important than the body, the earth, and food we eat. You become A CHRISTIAN ONCE YOU ACCEPT THERE ARE TWO WORLDS; THE AFTERLIFE WHICH IS MORE REAL AND TRUE AS AGAINST THE MATERIAL WORLD THAT IS FLEETING AND CORRUPTIBLE. What kind of people would want incorruptibility? immortality? permanence? These qualities are the opposites of life! So those who defend these fictitious entities, cannot accept life! They want a continuation in eternity, a compensation for their inability to take revenge for the injustices committed against them.
Slaves are REACTIVE: THEY HATE EVERYTHING DIFFERENT FROM THEM! They always find someone to be blamed for sufferings! Not satisfied, they invoke GOD as their defenders against the cruelty of life! They are like children who do not want to be left by their parents! God is your father? You hope that God sees us all and treat as equally! Democracy of slaves! No wonder that Martin Luther said: Resist no tyrants! Why tyrants? Because tyranny only harms the body but it doesn’t kill the soul! That is the consequence when we embrace the distinction between THIS WORLD (LIFE) AND AFTER-LIFE (HEAVEN). We easily negate LIFE. We do not enjoy the “little pleasures” and sins in this world because we are looking forward to the Eternal Egg up there! How can we see our way into the world when we keep on looking up like delusional citizens? Nietzsche loved life so much that he wages a total war against those slavish students who would die for their God but would not even die for themselves! It is striking that you are willing to fight for your faith but you could not even fight for your nation! Your God has become fetish that allows you to enjoy this world as if you are not enjoying it. Traitors of this life! But isn’t Nietzsche critique also an interpretation? Nietzsche anticipated your rebuttal: “Supposing that this (will to power) also is only interpretation- he writes, “and you will be eager enough to make this objection?-well, so much the better” (Beyond Good and Evil 22). So does he contradict himself? He replies: “ I’ll tell you: one must have chaos in one, to give birth to a dancing star” You embrace God because you fear chaos. You cannot be a dancing star!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
What is a Filipino Music?
If someone would ask, “What is a Filipino music?” and I would answer him,
“Well, Joe, Filipino music are all sounds that is seems so ugly in your hearing”
I didn’t give much of a thought what a Filipino music was before.
All I knew was that they were only a bunch of indigenous song with nonsense lyrics and would give me a migraine if I heard even one song of them. I admit that I used to think that way.
“The way to write a Filipino music is to be a Filipino citizen and write all the music you wish,” sounds pretty weird but somehow there’s a truth about this quote, right? I realized that I could consider everything I heard here in our country as our own music. I realize that Filipino music is just like a portfolio of different music of various cultures. Everything as long as we Filipinos shared a specific music could be considered our own. I always hear in our class that “Filipinos are musically inclined” and I firmly agree that we are. Spaniards and Americans actually think the same.
Someone might argue that still it could not be consider our own. If we tell them that Filipinos are making variations with this music, do they will finally agree on us? Maybe an example will enlighten them more. The girls and boys in pastores tradition in Bicol for instance sings most traditional Spanish Songs but sometimes they change some phrase of the song, rhythms, melody and sometimes they alter the character of the original songs to suit local tastes.
What do I prefer, the indigenous music, Spanish music, or the American music?
I don’t have a definite answer on that one because there are some elements I like on this one music that don’t exist on the other one. Sometimes I think that the best choice will be to choose indigenous music because it is unique but not everything on their music is best for me. For instance, I don’t like the sound produce by their instruments like babandir. It feels like I only listening to a group of people working in a construction site but I do like the musical instrument called saggeypo. The sound is soothing and it feels like it takes away all my stress in acads. Kulintang music will also be the one of the best musical instruments because it helps in unifying a community; it shows respect, self discipline, serves as a channel of expression and etc.
In the Spanish music, I love the song sung in churches but the best music I heard from them was the tiple, a boy who sung solo. Oh God, I really love that one. I’m sure everyone who will hear that will be amazed. In order to have a voice like that you must be in a lot of training. Spaniards were even amazed and they said that it was just like the boys were really speaking Latin.
While Spanish music introduced this kind of music, American also introduced some music too. We don’t want to be holy all the time if we keep listening to church music, do we?
Americans introduced more alive music like bodabil, jazz, waltz and etc. What the funny thing was that Filipino sung waltz. (See, like I said Filipinos always make variations on foreign music.) “This titled Ang Maya”. It is very a nice song.
Now when someone asks me “What is a Filipino music?”
I will answer her proudly that
“Filipino music is unique. It was made by the influences of the different cultures that made it distinctive among the others.”
“Well, Joe, Filipino music are all sounds that is seems so ugly in your hearing”
I didn’t give much of a thought what a Filipino music was before.
All I knew was that they were only a bunch of indigenous song with nonsense lyrics and would give me a migraine if I heard even one song of them. I admit that I used to think that way.
“The way to write a Filipino music is to be a Filipino citizen and write all the music you wish,” sounds pretty weird but somehow there’s a truth about this quote, right? I realized that I could consider everything I heard here in our country as our own music. I realize that Filipino music is just like a portfolio of different music of various cultures. Everything as long as we Filipinos shared a specific music could be considered our own. I always hear in our class that “Filipinos are musically inclined” and I firmly agree that we are. Spaniards and Americans actually think the same.
Someone might argue that still it could not be consider our own. If we tell them that Filipinos are making variations with this music, do they will finally agree on us? Maybe an example will enlighten them more. The girls and boys in pastores tradition in Bicol for instance sings most traditional Spanish Songs but sometimes they change some phrase of the song, rhythms, melody and sometimes they alter the character of the original songs to suit local tastes.
What do I prefer, the indigenous music, Spanish music, or the American music?
I don’t have a definite answer on that one because there are some elements I like on this one music that don’t exist on the other one. Sometimes I think that the best choice will be to choose indigenous music because it is unique but not everything on their music is best for me. For instance, I don’t like the sound produce by their instruments like babandir. It feels like I only listening to a group of people working in a construction site but I do like the musical instrument called saggeypo. The sound is soothing and it feels like it takes away all my stress in acads. Kulintang music will also be the one of the best musical instruments because it helps in unifying a community; it shows respect, self discipline, serves as a channel of expression and etc.
In the Spanish music, I love the song sung in churches but the best music I heard from them was the tiple, a boy who sung solo. Oh God, I really love that one. I’m sure everyone who will hear that will be amazed. In order to have a voice like that you must be in a lot of training. Spaniards were even amazed and they said that it was just like the boys were really speaking Latin.
While Spanish music introduced this kind of music, American also introduced some music too. We don’t want to be holy all the time if we keep listening to church music, do we?
Americans introduced more alive music like bodabil, jazz, waltz and etc. What the funny thing was that Filipino sung waltz. (See, like I said Filipinos always make variations on foreign music.) “This titled Ang Maya”. It is very a nice song.
Now when someone asks me “What is a Filipino music?”
I will answer her proudly that
“Filipino music is unique. It was made by the influences of the different cultures that made it distinctive among the others.”
The Exquisiteness of the Lagoon
“What a nice day we have now to start a new life,” the first thing that came out in my mouth as I stretched my hands up in the sky. It was only 06:00 in the morning then. I jogged in the oval for almost an hour and I had decided to take a rest in the lagoon. My shirt was soaking in sweat and I panted heavily as I took my seat in the ground covered by the green thin grasses. I felt glad that I could rest my back in the broad trunk of the acacia tree behind me. The place around me was enveloped entirely by a thin white fog making me fell asleep. I put my head against my knees and I tried to listen attentively to every sound I hear. I heard the chirping of the birds, the blow of the wind, the sound of the leaves kissing each other, the creeping of the insects in the soil and etc.
I lazily lifted up my head and as I slowly opened my eyes I saw a tiny green worm, maybe a 2 cm in size, right in front of me. I jumped in surprise and that cute little thing really woke me up. After that, I decided to take a walk. Sluggishly walking in the gray narrow pavements, I saw dead leaves covering the ground, yellow butterfly happily dancing with the wind, frogs leaping from crag to crag, and nearby you could also find a school of fish swept like a silver arrow in the water. “This place really seems to have a lot of insect and microorganism,” I thought to myself. Tired in observing almost everything I took my seat in the elongated cement table lying near the Melchor Hall. I lifted up my knees and hugged it with my both lean arms and I looked upward. It was almost 08:00 in the morning but still it was cold and I finally realized that the light of the sun could hardly penetrate in the lagoon because of the trees. It felt good to have a rest here because the scent of the wind was refreshing but there were some areas here that you couldn’t bear the smell. It smelled very horridly because probably of the garbage thrown by the people visiting here. It really smelled bad that you could even taste how gross the wind was. You could see candy wrappers, barbecue sticks, plastics, junk food wrappers and paper bags all over the place.
I even saw a young couple threw their soda cans after they finished with it. I just couldn’t believe that they had courage to do that. They didn’t even realized how lucky they were to have a chance to see the almost perfect paradise place like this.
Lagoon is a place full of exquisiteness because of its rich wildlife. It is also one of the best places to have a rest because of the green trees and grasses that surrounding the area. It would be such a waste from us if we didn’t preserved the beauty of the lagoon.
I lazily lifted up my head and as I slowly opened my eyes I saw a tiny green worm, maybe a 2 cm in size, right in front of me. I jumped in surprise and that cute little thing really woke me up. After that, I decided to take a walk. Sluggishly walking in the gray narrow pavements, I saw dead leaves covering the ground, yellow butterfly happily dancing with the wind, frogs leaping from crag to crag, and nearby you could also find a school of fish swept like a silver arrow in the water. “This place really seems to have a lot of insect and microorganism,” I thought to myself. Tired in observing almost everything I took my seat in the elongated cement table lying near the Melchor Hall. I lifted up my knees and hugged it with my both lean arms and I looked upward. It was almost 08:00 in the morning but still it was cold and I finally realized that the light of the sun could hardly penetrate in the lagoon because of the trees. It felt good to have a rest here because the scent of the wind was refreshing but there were some areas here that you couldn’t bear the smell. It smelled very horridly because probably of the garbage thrown by the people visiting here. It really smelled bad that you could even taste how gross the wind was. You could see candy wrappers, barbecue sticks, plastics, junk food wrappers and paper bags all over the place.
I even saw a young couple threw their soda cans after they finished with it. I just couldn’t believe that they had courage to do that. They didn’t even realized how lucky they were to have a chance to see the almost perfect paradise place like this.
Lagoon is a place full of exquisiteness because of its rich wildlife. It is also one of the best places to have a rest because of the green trees and grasses that surrounding the area. It would be such a waste from us if we didn’t preserved the beauty of the lagoon.
How do Institutions Constrain Philippine Growth?
Colonial histories, poverty, social ineffective and poor education in the Philippines give rise to weak institution. The so called “elites” compete for rents and they are competing for power in the politics. What is their incentive to do that? They have hunger in power and money. They corrupt; thus causing a political instability. Political instability then will result low economic performance which leads us back in our vicious cycle: a weak institution.
Greif defines institution as a system of rules, beliefs, norms, and organization that together generate a regularity of social behaviour. People’s social behaviour affected the performance in the economy. Note that labor is one of the most important factors of production. Therefore, it contributes a lot in the productivity of a nation.
In geography, there is a so called “environmental determinism” which explains that people’s action, belief, behaviour, and the way people live are determined by the environment around them. This seems like an obvious fact. Take this for instance; if a person lives in a beach his job is most likely a fisherman. The Filipinos also are said to be lazy due also to the climate condition around them. This will make them unproductive. The point is that Filipinos behaviour is actually the one that constrains the growth of the Philippines’ economy.
There is no way for the Philippine economy to grow if the government officials are corrupt. Instability and corruption have a negative impact on investment. Negative impact on investment means a mediocre government.
Political instability causes capital flight. A capital flight causes the interest rate to rise and the currency to fall. The rise in interest rate reduces domestic investment, which slows capital accumulation and economic growth.
Behaviour of the Filipinos is the one that causing a very bad economy in the Philippines. If people will change their expectation about their country and if there will be honest officials, then Philippines’ economy will be better.
Greif defines institution as a system of rules, beliefs, norms, and organization that together generate a regularity of social behaviour. People’s social behaviour affected the performance in the economy. Note that labor is one of the most important factors of production. Therefore, it contributes a lot in the productivity of a nation.
In geography, there is a so called “environmental determinism” which explains that people’s action, belief, behaviour, and the way people live are determined by the environment around them. This seems like an obvious fact. Take this for instance; if a person lives in a beach his job is most likely a fisherman. The Filipinos also are said to be lazy due also to the climate condition around them. This will make them unproductive. The point is that Filipinos behaviour is actually the one that constrains the growth of the Philippines’ economy.
There is no way for the Philippine economy to grow if the government officials are corrupt. Instability and corruption have a negative impact on investment. Negative impact on investment means a mediocre government.
Political instability causes capital flight. A capital flight causes the interest rate to rise and the currency to fall. The rise in interest rate reduces domestic investment, which slows capital accumulation and economic growth.
Behaviour of the Filipinos is the one that causing a very bad economy in the Philippines. If people will change their expectation about their country and if there will be honest officials, then Philippines’ economy will be better.
Is coal our best option as alternative source of power?
There is always a fluctuation in the price of oil in the world market and it is difficult to predict and since the demand for oil is high and if the supply of oil decreases the price will be high. Obviously oil is not a perpetual resources and it means it is not renewable therefore this kind of behaviour of the consumer and the producer really prevails. Also there will be a time that these resources will be gone and we have to do something before it happens and it will be cheaper for us to use our abundant resources as an alternative source of power. Our country relied too much in importing this good making our net exports to go down and since our demand for foreign currency is high, then our own money will depreciate and because we are buying goods from them they are now acquiring an asset from us, thus decreasing our net capital outflow. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against trade because trade allows specialization and the country can produces its best goods and services in which it has a relatively lower cost and besides trade can make everyone better off. My only point is that our resources are there. Ready to be exploited but we are not using them and even we are using them we are not maximizing its full potential. If there will be a great deficit of supply for oil our country will greatly be affected. We also have to face the fact that our country is not that rich to import oil if the price increases too high. (Mankiw, 2009; Paul A. Samuelson, 2007)
Philippines is a rich country in terms of resources. We can be one of the best countries in the world if we want to. The only problem is that our country has a bad master. We don't know how to maximize our resources. We don't know how to tap all those resources around us so that we will no longer relied in oil as a source of energy.
You may not know but our country is already using coal as a source of energy and I'm very disheartened to tell you that we are not only importing oil but we are also importing coal from other countries. 75% of our consumption in 2007 came from other countries (7.7 million MT out of 10.2 million MT). Our main source was Indonesia (4.5 million MT), followed by China (2.1 million MT) but in 2008 China almost stopped in exporting coal to meet its own demand. These together with other fuel prices, pushed prices up at the wholesale electricity spot market, resulting in higher power rate for customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
The nice part is that somehow our government is making an action. The Philippine Energy plan has a plan to reduce our coal imports by 20 percent and encourage the local production. They want to increase our production from 12.2 million metric tons in 2008 to 15.28 million MT in 2014, of which 13.06 million MT are for power generation and 2.22 million MT are for industries.
The Department of Energy last May offered contracts to explore and develop 30 prospective coal areas in the country under the fourth Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR) 2009. PECR is a public bidding round which encouraged the companies to invest in the country's energy sector. The 14 provinces which is included in the bidding are Cebu (Bolijon, Carmen, Naga and Asturias), Quezon (General Nakar, Polillo Island and Tagkawayan), Masbate (Cataingan), Albay (Rapu-Rapu), Catanduanes (Caramoran, Panganiban and Viga), and Zamboanga del Norte (Godod), Zamboanga Sibugay (Diplahan-Buug, Siay, Payao and Naga).
Davao Oriental (Manay, Tarragona), Agusan del Sur (Bunawan, Sibagat and Trento), Surigao del Norte (Kitcharao and Gigaquit), Surigao del Sur (Cagwait-Marihatag, San Agustin-Lianga and Tandag-Tago), South Cotabato, Sarangani, and Sultan Kudarat (Bagumbayan and Senator Ninoy Aquino).
You may ask why our government chooses coal as a source of power generation. That's because it is abundant and it is relatively cheaper compared to other fuel types. If that is the case then why on earth the environmentalists strongly opposed for this project?
The environmentalist strongly opposed for this project because coal-fired power plants emit large amounts of carbon dioxide which contributing significantly from climate change. Note that carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases which trapped the heat to escape from earth. If too much carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere this will make the earth very hot. We don’t like that to happen, do we?
Second, the coal fired power plants also emit toxic substances like mercury and arsenic. These toxic substances have adverse effects on crops, humans, and even building materials. Environmental activist group Greenpeace estimates that a 100-MW coal plant emits at least 25 pounds of mercury per year but here’s the bad news. It will only take 0.002 pound of mercury to contaminate a 10 hectare lake! Besides from this surprising study, mercury can also cause severe brain damage in fetuses. Not only the fetuses are subject from the horror effect of mercury, we also adult can be killed by this deadly substance. How about arsenic? Is arsenic can also bring death to us? Well, the answer is pretty obvious. Like I said before arsenic is a toxic substance, thus it means that it is harmful. Arsenic is a known carcinogen or a substance that cause cancer.
Third, mining for coal can wiped out the forest but how? The forests are wiped out because to get a coal the first thing to do is to remove the mountaintop which also leads to the destruction and displacement of wildlife and degradation of air quality.
Fourth, coal can pollute the water bodies because if coals refuse in mine sites it can seep into the ground and contaminate the water underground.
Fifth, coal soot causes lung diseases like cancer.
There is nothing wrong if the government thinks that if we supplied our own needs of coal it can lower its expenditure and just used the money saved to other projects in benefitting the people, and at the same it can increase the employment rate because of the needs of worker in coal mining but the government must also take to consider the effect of coal in society and to our future generation. The government should make a cost and benefit analysis. Is it worth to risk the health of its own people just to produce a low cost (in terms of money) fuel source? Is it worth to destroy the environment to supply our short term needs of energy?
In the long run the little money saved by the government will be negative because the cost exceeds the benefit and besides if we used the coal as our primary source of energy we are going to have the same problem as before because coal is also a non renewable resource. There are still a lot of alternative sources of power like wind, sunlight and biomass. According to study conducted by the US the wind energy in the Philippines can supply more than seven times the country's power demand. Sunlight that falls on land half the size of Quezon City can provide for the whole country's energy needs. It will be costly of course to invest the right equipments to tap these resources but it is worth all the effort. In the long run the cost will be covered, the environment is safe from any harmful chemicals, and all living things especially the people will be safe. Therefore, coal is not our best option as alternative source of power. (Minerva Generalao).
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