Halfway Thru The Birthpains

In a few days, I would be halfway through my probationary period. The past three months had been the most productive part of my life yet. Productive in the aspect of travel, of the people I met, and of the sales that I’ve generated.

I felt like I just gave birth and the newborn is the job I got in Merck. And just like a new mother, I began to take care and nurture my baby, making sure that I’d give him all he needs.

My baby had grown over the months. I made sure that he’s protected from harm, from despair, from frustration, from everything negative.

And I made sure that my baby adapts to the environment that I was in and the culture that I was exposed to. So that my baby would not be overwhelmed by anything and by anyone who dared to discourage him by any means.

My baby is almost 3 months now. I could see that my baby is contented. My baby had no other choice but to be contented. And my baby knew  that I had no other choice but to take care of him.

Otherwise both of us will die.

I don’t want my baby to die. I want to see him grow. I want to see him succeed in life. I’ve endured the pains of delivering this baby. I’ve proven to myself that I could bring it to life inspite the pains, so why would I stop now?

I want to guide my baby to the path of satisfaction and happiness. I’ve got 3 more months to do it.

And I’m halfway done.

When Opportunity Vanishes Itself

I just lost my chance to work in an oil and gas plant in the middle east.

On my way back to Davao City from a long day coverage of Maco and Tagum, I sent the agency an SMS inquiring about the status of my application for GASCO in Abu Dhabi.

The recruitment officer texted me back, informing me that they have already pulled out my papers from the pile of applicants because the employer had evaluated the results of my medical and physical examination and had declared me unfit to work.

Unfit to work. Wow. It was a blow. And it blew my hopes of working abroad. My hopes suddenly went down and trampled my dreams. It was my only chance for a better life. My only option to help my family more.

I paused for a moment and began to absorb the news. I breathed hard and deep, hoping that the news would not affect me much. I looked out from the window of the bus and saw the gloomy sky. Raindrops crashed into the window in loud sounds, hitting the glass like pins and needles, drowning my mood and burrying my soul.

Unfit to work. Yet the employer did not mention any specifics leading to my disqualification. But I did not push on with the inquiries. It was already enough that I knew.

I texted my dad. I texted Chong about the result. I did not text anybody else.

I have fallen. And I have fallen once again. A month ago, the recruitment officer hired by TIMEX Phils informed me that position that I was applying for had already been taken by someone that TIMEX promoted from their ranks.

I was also informed that I was over-qualified for the position and that they lowered their requirement for the said vacancy. In other words, the company decided not to hire an operations manager and picked someone from their workforce to function as a supervisor.

And now this.

It was because of this GASCO application that I decided to quit my post as a production manager in GenChem. I calculated that the entire application process would only take 4-8 weeks and that by November of 2006, I would already be in the desert of Habshan, working myself hard under the hot Arabian sun.

I was so excited and happy when I passed the medical and physical exam in November. I resigned from my job and left Genchem the following month. I was even excited for my working visa.

Came December. The working visa did not come. The agency sent an e-mail message requiring me and others to take additional exams. I took the tests in January and submitted the results before I got in at MERCK.

Then I waited again. Now I realized that I waited in vain.

It’s not only me who was disappointed about the news. I knew that many people were.  I was sad because I knew why I was unfit to work and there’s nothing I could do to reverse the results. I was sad because I had pure intentions to work abroad because I want to be successful financially and help my family along the way. I was sad because I lost the chance to experience life away from my family and friends, away from the country. I was sad because this was the opportunity for me to earn enough so that I could start realizing the dreams I shared with Chong.

And yet the opportunity just vanished itself. It vanished in mid air. There’s nothing I could do to bring it back. At the very least I knew that the job was not for me.

I have no other choice right now but to stick with my job at MERCK. I don’t have to sourgrape anyhow. I’m thankful that I still got a job and that I want to perform well in the company that I am currently in.

Covering Down South

An oppurtunity has come once again for me to explore the places down south.

For the entire week, I was in South Mindanao to work with the Global Diagnostics Team who handles clients in the Davao Provinces, North and South Cotabato, Saranggani and Sultan Kudarat.

It is also my personal intention to explore the provinces that I have not gone to.

Global Diagnostics is Merck’s exclusive dealer of clinical chemistry products for Mindanao. The team is composed of young ladies with medical technology background and is headed by Ms. Yolly Cañete.

We started the week visiting the hospitals in Davao City.

Monday. City of Davao

Private Hospitals and medical clinics abound in this area. The city with a population of 1.147 million has 31 major hospitals. Half of the day we covered some of these hospitals and clinics.

I’ve been to Davao a lot of times. I think it was my 5th time to visit this city. After work, my officemate Cha met me at a mall and brought me to a particular place where I could meet her friend David. I asked her who David was and if he was straight, bi or queer. She said nothing until I met him.

   

Yeah, in an unfinished baywalk project beside a known motel called Queensland stood the replica of Michelangelo’s David.

This version of the David is about 4 times the height of the original and is painted in copper. I was intrigued about the city government’s decision to erect such a statue with no particular connection or relation to the city.

David stood at the front end of the unfinished promenade. At night, it is a favorite hang-out spot for dating couples and lovers.

Cha then took me to the favorite hang-out of Davao yuppies: The Matina Town Square. At the certain end of the stretch of establishment lies the Blugré Coffee, their version of Starbucks or Cebu’s Bo’s Coffee Club.

    

What’s unique about this coffee shop was their durian-flavored coffee. The cakes were also served with cream and milk.

Tuesday. We went to this place called:

Kidapawan City is in North Cotabato and is the capital of the said province. Global Diagnostics had a string of client hospitals in this city. And even though it is a second class city, we experienced heavy traffic along Quezon Boulevard.

For mountain trekkers, Kidapawan is known as the best starting point for a climb up to the summit of Mt. Apo. This city is located at the foot of the country’s tallest peak. To some, the city is “A Spring in the Highland” perhaps from the local word “kida” or “tida” which means spring and “pawan” which means highland.

In the months of April and May, this highland experiences the hottest temperature. The rest of the year, the weather is cold, especially in the months of December and January.

Wednesday. Central Mindanao

I met up with the Global Diagnostics Team in Davao City at 5:30 am for a long trip beyond South Cotabato. We had a brief stop to this place called Malungon in the province of Saranggani.

Nope. We didn’t stop to look for tarsiers in Malungon but because we need to deliver some clinical goods to the hospital.

Sarangani’s Malungon town made a stir over the years because it had claimed that tarsiers abound not only in their town but also in Glan and Maitum. Locals called their tarsiers as ‘mal’.

Other than the tarsiers or mals, Malungon is the major source of banana, pineapple and asparagus to DOLE Philippines.

Then we headed west to South Cotabato and then turned up north to Koronadal and Tacurong then to the capital town of Isulan in Sultan Kudarat.

On top of the arches is the statue of Sultan Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat, a sultan of Maguindanao who reigned from 1623 to 1671.

The current ruler of Sultan Kudarat is Gov. Datu Pax S. Mangudadatu who made a tremendous effort to construct a provincial capitol in this magnitude.

People of Sultan Kudarat claimed that once their capitol is completely built, it will replace Sarangani’s capitol as the most beautiful provincial building in the country.

The provincial hospital of Sultan Kudarat is currently being constructed right beside the capitol. The province is also known for its mobile hospital which is a brand new bus equipped with medical instruments and beds, the first in the country.

This trip to the town of Isulan was a very important leg of my itinerary because Global Diagnostics would be presenting a proposal to the hospital on clinical chemistry products and instruments.

From Isulan, we headed back to the province of South Cotabato in the capital city of Koronadal.

We arrived at Koronadal City in the afternoon. When we arrived in the city, the national public school athletic meet or the Palarong Pambansa was being held. We had difficulty in finding a place to stay as all the hotels and lodges were fully booked. We managed to find a non-aircon dormitory room a few blocks from the provincial hospital.

Koronadal was the first place that I ever visited in Mindanao, more than a decade ago. This city was declared as the “most competitive small city” in the country. Much has changed from the time it last hosted the national sports meet.

Thursday. General Santos City

From Marbel or Koronadal, we headed south to the town of Polomolok in South Cotabato. Polomolok is where DOLE Philippines is located. A string of hospitals were located near the pineapple and banana processing plant.

From Polomolok, I had the chance to drive down to General Santos City. The road from Koronadal to General Santos City is safe and in good condition and there were checkpoints along the stretch.

We managed to cover the hospitals in General Santos City within 3 hours and by 2.30 pm, we began our long trip back to Davao City.

Between GenSan and Digos, Davao del Sur was a mountain range that offered a fantastic view of the Davao Gulf. We had a brief stop in the place called CliffHanger.

I rarely found a view as breathtaking as this.

Friday. Tagum City and Compostela Valley

It rained on Friday. The car was unavailable so we had to ride a bus and commute to and from Tagum and Maco.

Our first stop was Maco, Compostela Valley.

It was a 3-hour ride from Davao City. Compostela Valley used to be a part of Davao del Norte. Maco is a second class municipality and is a few kilometers east of Tagum City.

What’s interesting about Maco is its municipal hall. The municipio is located on top of a hill several kilometers from the national highway and is far from the town proper. The location was so high that not even a tricycle could climb up the hill. To get there, one must have to backride a habal-habal or a motorcycle (see above picture, lower left portion).

We decided to rent a multicab for 60 pesos because we needed to deliver the goods to the health center. It rained hard that day. But in spite of the poor weather, we managed to reach the municipal hall.

I think the main purpose of the location was the breath-taking view of the gulf. It’s similar to the view at the CliffHanger and yet it’s blurry because of the rain.

From the municipio, we had no way to got down to the national highway than to take a habl-habal. In my smart casual attire, a jacket and a notebook bag in tow, I humbly rode the motorbike sandwiched by the driver and Orchid Mae of Global Diagnostics. We rode down the uncemented road back to civilization on a habal-habal and under Orchid’s pink umbrella.

We went to Tagum City thereafter.

Tagum City is said to be one of the fastest growing cities in the Davao area. It has become a center for business and entertainment and is known to be the Palm Tree City of the Philippines.

This city could trace its establishment from the time it was called as Magugpo. The first immigrant came from Moalboal, Cebu. He was Sulpicio Quirante who pioneered and came in October 1929 through the homestead act.

From that time on, Tagum’s development had coursed through several decades. It became a provincial capital in the 1960’s and progressed into a 1st class city with 180,000 people.

It’s progress can be reflected in its hospitals and other services. The Davao Regional Hospital along with several other privately-owned hospitals cater to the needs of the people of Tagum.

Tagum Doctors’ Hospital, Medical Mission Group and Bishop W. Regan Hospital have complete medical facilities and laboratories as well. They even have some cute medical technologists and employees but those were beside the point.

We went back to Davao City before the night fell.

Saturday. Heading Back Home

Ms. Yolly drove me to the airport hours before my flight back to Cebu. We managed to drop by a fruit stand and purchased some sweet pomeloes and mangosteen. The fruits were quite expensive there.

On my way to the departure area, I heard a lot of commotion about Pacquaio. I thought that it was Pooh-quiao (Manny Pacquiao impersonator) that they were referring to as he will be performing in Davao’s The Venue that day.

But no, I saw Manny Pacquaio walking past me and he was being escorted by 2 personal guards and an assistant on their way to the boarding area. Wow. This guy is about my age and yet he is way richer than anyone else in the airport.

I might have been star-stricken because I somehow forgot to claim back my Mabuhay Miles Card from the cute Air Philippines Check-in Officer. And so I rushed back to the counter and got my card from the bespectacled looker.

Well, looking back, this week had been enjoyable and productive and enriching for me. And I hope you guys wont mind me at all if I talk about the wonderful places that I have gone to. I wish you would also do the same when opportunity presents itself.

Amities tout le monde!

 

 

My Lolo is An Addict

IpratropiumSalbutamol Duavent 500mcg/2.5 mlPulmoneb solution for nebulization

Salbutamol (as Sulfate)1 mg/ ml (2.5 ml) Respirator solutionBronchodilator

Atrovent UDVs 2ml500 mcg/2mlInhalation

He took in any of the above-mentioned drugs at least 6 times a day or whenever he wanted to.

It’s true. And he’s been an addict since September last year.

My Lolo Filomeno (aka Mining) is my mom’s father. He is turning quatre-vingt-cinque ans this December. He is an addict at 84 years old.

I flew in to Bacolod City 2 weeks ago as part of my client coverage plan for April. My boss was with me for a meeting with our dealer for Negros Occidental. Ma’am Joyce ferried from Iloilo right after the PAMET Convention and joined me a day after.

Almost at the same time my aunts had come home from Canada because they were informed that lolo’s not feeling any better. I’ve talked to them on the phone during Holy Week so I knew that I have to pay my grandfolks a visit.

It was an unplanned reunion of sort because Mom decided to visit Grandpa and flew in from Cebu. So were my sisters Christine and Karen and the little baby Kim.

From L to R: Tita Fe, My mom Felma with Baby Kim, Grandma Monica, Aunt Ed and Sis Karen.

I managed to catch up with Kim and my sisters at the airport. When I arrived from Manila, I immediately transferred to the other airline’s building and met them. Their flight back to Cebu was at 9am.

I took a cab then a bus ride to my mom’s hometown Hinigaran. I was a bit excited because I get to see my grandparents and my aunts again and at the same time I was worried on how serious my lolo’s condition was.

It was my mom who fetched me from the town proper. We got into a pedicab and proceeded to a little barrio called Paticui. On the way to the house, I asked mom about Lolo’s condition. And she said that my Lolo didn’t look so good. He’s skin-and-bones already and could rarely move about.

Mom further said that Lolo Mining had not eaten much for several days and that Lola Monica must have to shove food into his mouth every time. Lolo Mining rarely got off from his bed.

I was worried enough to the point that it could be my last time to see Grandpa alive. 10 minutes after the pedicab ride, I rushed in to my grandparent’s house and went in and looked for grandpa.

And I saw him sitting at a table’s end with grandma Monica spoon-feeding him. He was too weak to even lift a spoonful of breakfast meal. 

He just sat there, staring at an image of the Sto. Niño across the table. I saw that he was weak. Skin and bones, matter of fact. I knew before that he has glaucoma and his right eye was affected by a mild stroke.

My aunts and Lola Monica was glad that I came. I hugged them all, and I hugged my Lolo.

Aunt Fe and Ed told me how worried they were of Grandpa’s condition. Just like me, they were shocked to know that Lolo was too dependent on the nebulizer solution. I was surprised when Lola showed me 3 plastic bags full of empty nebulizer solution ampuoles.

She said that those were collected in a span of 3 months only. Lolo consumed a daily average of 6 ampuoles. Wow. Even people with asthma were limited to 2 ampuoles a day.

And so we talked to Grandpa about his condition. We talked to him about his dependence on the drug. Once in a while he would cough and act as if he had difficulty breathing and he would ask to be nebulized.

But we explained to him that it was not necessary.

We sat beside him over lunch and dinner. We wanted him to eat more. He may have been weakened by the drug but we knew that he could stop the habit and start eating again. We wanted him to stay healthy and strong.

The following day, we all decided to attend an early Sunday mass. A lot of people were glad to see him in the chapel. But I prayed hard for his health and life. I knew that it’s wonderful to see a person at the age of 84. Not everyone could reach such an age. My Grandpa has been blessed with kids and and grandkids who care for him and who love him.

In the chapel, I prayed for his health and life. I asked for blessings and for the chance to see him again.

It was raining hard when I left my grandparent’s house after lunchtime. I was no longer sad because grandpa promised to be stronger and not to use the nebulizer again.

Lolo Mining, we will see each other soon. 

Out of Town Again

 To be really honest about this, I say that I have not reached the level of stability that I aspire to reach as a technical sales representative.

I have been with Merck for the past two months. It was my second monthsary last April 9 which was a holiday here in the Philippines as a day of remembering the Fall of Bataan and how the Filipino and American soldiers gallantly defended the islands against the Japanese invasion.

Yes, my two months in Merck seemed like decades of work but I am not complaining. Please dont get me wrong. I actually like my present job. It gives me opportunities to travel and see places. It offers me more things that I could ever hope for.

Last week, I was in Manila for another round of training. Consequently, I had not been able to post blogs for several days. But now, I am in Bacolod with my Boss, and I am having a grand time abusing the Wi-Fi connectivity at the lobby of the hotel with two white foreigner – bikers sitting across me.

Yeah, and they just left before I even began the next paragraph.

Anyhoo, I chanced upon my blog and read a comment in my entry about Easter. It’s from a certain editor of a newspaper site for Japanese and Americans. Well I was flattered alright. But I dont know if it’s genuine or if I should believe it.

It is possible that the editor may have thought that I was Japanese. But no, I am not.

thecapricornbeartakeshi is just my nom de plume. It’s just a name. And I explained it comprehensively in one of my first articles.

Anyhoo again. It’s great to be in Bacolod again. I was able to visit my grandfolks in my mom’s hometown Hinigaran, 54 km away from the city. I also met my aunts who flew in from Canada. My grandpa has been very sick lately. He’s 84 years old, you see.

I’m still out of town. From Bacolod, I’m going back to Manila for a series of activities related to Microscopy and Stains. I will be posting some blogs once in a while.

Amities et a bientot!

The Break is Over

The long break from work is about to end. I’m maximizing the last remaining day knowing that I would be on the street again tomorrow, peddling my stuff with my dealers in clinical laboraties and hospitals.

By maximizing the time, I mean spending it at home with my family, doing chores in the house and of course watching the 5th season of OZ. From time to time I’ll surf the net, check my yahoomail or read people’s blog or hop from one blog to another.

There’s an ongoing house renovation so my mom’s going to need my help in cleaning the house free of dust and whatnot. The repair jobs resume today so almost all the things in the family room will be wrapped and covered with plastic sheets and newspapers.

   

The house has been around for about two and a half decades now. Ours was one of the first bungalows ever built in the area. The house was made years before a giant realtor (Sta. Lucia) created a subdivision for the upper middle class somewhere behind the cluster of houses where ours is also located.

The repair and replacement works are long overdue. For the past several weeks, there were a lot of carpentry jobs made. The ceilings were replaced, wood and plastic mouldings installed, room lights and conventional outlets added, and the wooden window jambs removed and replaced with concrete. Even the drainage system was repaired.

For more than a month, the house was in disarray. The furniture, the appliances, and everthing else were moved from one place to another. Not to mention the dust and the smell of fresh paint and cement that adhered to the skin and clothes.

But we were not complaining. It was my mom’s idea to have the house repaired. So among us, Mom seemed to be the happiest now. 

My mom was also able to instruct the carpenters to build her a long plant box for her wild roses. And she could not wait to have all the works done so she could start arranging her ornamental and flowering plants again.

It is already known fact that in our household, Mom gets to dictate what should and shouldn’t be done. And I was happy that Dad supports her unconditionally. Once in a while, dad would say “what Mama wants, Mama gets.”

Mom always have a valid justification for all the projects involving the house. This time, she was concerned that ceiling was already old and ugly and that she’s worried that one day, the entire ceiling may collapse.

I remembered that she mentioned in one of those phone conversations we had that she would want to have a ceiling similar to a Filipino celebrity’s house. I asked her who the celebrity was and she answered Nadia Montenegro’s.

Mom particularly wanted to have Nadia’s ceiling. She saw it in one of the local magazines and was so excited that her wish would finally realize. She even wanted the plant box copied from Agot Isidro’s.

I was happy for mom. She is going to get what she wished for. The house has been her life. It’s where her home was made. Now the house looked better than what it was 25 years ago. And the last remaining job will be done before this week ends. 

Later in the day, I’ll draft my schedule for the month of May, pack my things for tomorrow’s flight back to Manila and review my itinerary for the week.

Yet I will be busy cleaning the house soon after the carpenters leave. 

Happy Easter Folks

Happy Easter Everyone!

 

I find it weird that I hadn’t seen an Easter Egg today. Not a single decorative, colorful egg hidden or displayed anywhere within 100 meters from where I was standing. It looked like nobody was so eager to play hide-and-seek with an easter egg. Nobody cared about the egg. Not even Easter.

For Roman Catholics, Easter is the the main celebration of the ecclesiastical year. Easter marks the end of the Lenten season where the Lord has risen from the dead.

Filipinos celebrate Easter in a different way. Roman Catholics would go to church early on Easter day, usually before the crack of dawn to witness the “Salubong.” This is an activity where images or statues of the Blessed Virgin and the Risen Christ were made to meet at an agreed location near the town church.

The meeting or Rencontre or the Salubong depicts how Mother Mary and her son Jesus meet after the latter has resurrected from the dead. People would revel and celebrate the meeting by lighting firecrackers, beating the drums, burning an effigy of the traitor Judas and hearing a joyous celebration of the Holy Eucharist.

Easter Eggs are popular at this time of the year. Historical explanation to the easter eggs traces back to the pagan times when the fragile avian product, along with rabbits were made symbols of fertility.

The egg symbolizes the start of the germinating life of early spring. It is an emblem of rebirth, of renewal, of a start of a new cycle.

These eggs are popularly painted in red to symbolize joy. But red also represents the blood of Christ which He shed to redeem the world. They were not allowed to be eaten throughout the 40 days of Lent and were only brought to the table on Easter.

In some orthodox practice, these red eggs were given out as presents or gifts to friends while greeting them. Mary Magdalene was believed to have given the Emperor of Rome with these red eggs as she greeted him with “Christ has risen.”

I searched the fridge for eggs and there I saw 5 white ova at the top rack of the cover. I wanted to paint them red and give them out to my friends but then, I just don’t know what they would do with the eggs after Easter.

I closed the fridge and decided to greet everyone instead. 

OZ – Gone but never forgotten

Since its debut run in 1997, the tv prison drama that is OZ was a brutal and cruel depiction of the life in prison and the struggles of all inmates to serve their times in a penitentiary stripped of most of their rights and privileges.

This TV series created by Tom Fontana ran for 6 years and had already concluded last February 2003. The show had a total of 56 episodes spanning 6 seasons of stories of prison life and death, of fightings, rapes, bullying, substance abuse and withdrawal and everything else that happens inside the prison.

OZ is the nickname for the Oswald State Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility which was later changed during the second season as the Oswald State Correctional Facility, Level Four.

OZ is not related to the L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of OZ except for the one experimental section of the facility which Tom McManus created and labeled as the “Emerald City”.

In Baum’s novel, Emerald City was the capital of the Land of Oz and was found at the end of the “Yellow Brick Road”. This city was made of green glass, emeralds and other jewels and had rows of shops selling wares of green shades, green stuffs in all varieties and forms. Though it may not be too clear if the wizard of Oz built this city or usurped the crown from the former king of Pastoria, the wizard had control of his domain.

In McManus’s case, he created the Emerald City or the “Em City” as the center for the rehabilitation of prisoners, in the hopes that the inmates may find reason to be penitent and to learn how to be responsible for their actions during imprisonment.

Unlike the Wizard of Oz, McManus was not able to course the objectives of the Em City the way that he thought it would go. Under his leadership, the experimental center was the venue for drug trafficking, murder, rape, physical assault and lies.

This show caught my interest several years ago when its re-run was aired on the USA cable channel. The first episode I ever watched was episode 14 under season 2 where Chris Keller (Christopher Meloni) comforted the grieving Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen) when the latter knew that his wife had committed suicide. Beecher woke up from a nightmare and started crying at a corner of the cell which he shared with Keller. Keller hugged him from behind and told him that everything would be okay.

That particular episode started the love-hate-love relationship between Tobias and Keller. This angle of the series had made my eyes glued to the tube almost every tuesday night.

Today is Black Saturday, and I am watching and am now glued to the second season of OZ. I borrowed the discs from Bro Bear last week along with another tv series Brothers & Sisters.

Aside from the homoerotic undertones and the budding relationship of Keller and Beecher, OZ had an interesting mix of characters. Em City being a controlled environment had about 10 nominal groups. The Muslims were composed of Afro-Americans with their requisite Qur’ans who dislike drugs and homosexulity. There are also the Homeboys (another afro-american group) who were deep into drug use and trade.

Homeboys clashed with the Aryans who despised them along with the Jews and those who do drugs. The Aryans however were sadists engaged in rapes and killings of inmates. They were allied with the Bikers but not with the Homeboys.

There were also a group of Italians who took control on the drug trade. They have strong influence over some prison officers. The Hispanics or the Latinos were also another cultural group whose members were into the drug trade. Another group were the Irish composed mainly by two hoodlum brothers Ryan and Cyril. Other background groups were the Christians and the Gays.

Beecher and Keller do not belong to the group of Gays. They were not affiliated with any of the abovementioned groups, thus they belong to the group called OTHERS. Aside from Beecher and Keller, other outcasts who belonged to this group were Augustus Hill, the series’ crippled narrator on a wheelchair, and the old Agamemnon Busmalis.

The number of members for each group were limited to avoid confict related to race or social group. The series allowed viewers to observe how these groups move and struggle against other groups. It opened venues for viewers to understand how beings behave in a controlled environment, in limited rights and priviliges and with different racial or social clusters.

That in the midst of serving time in Em City, a homo relationship could blossom and perhaps provide viewers with hope in finding their one true love.

But watching OZ had opened my eyes to the very fact that the Philippine judicial and penal system is as corrupt and imperfect as the Oswald Penitentiary. Compared to the Em City, the country’s prison is overcrowded. Some controversial and powerful inmates were given special privileges and treatment while most poor convicted Filipinos sleep side by side, elbow to elbow, feet to head with at least 40 other inmates in one small prison cell.

It’s hard to imagine how the catering service perform in our prisons. It could be worse than the catering service in my college dormitory. In Oz the mess hall was wide and the food was never limited, there were stockrooms of food, a big kitchen and complete cooking equipment.

Em City had clean shower rooms and toilets, several books in their library, and support systems like educators, psychologists, medical team and the spiritual advisers.

Watching OZ is like watching pitbulls fight or witnessing evolution in Charles Darwin’s eyes. You see an inmate brought in, forced to survive by attaching to a group and then eventually pushed to murder someone or be killed by another. Others snaked their way or adapt to the style of the leader just so he could live another day of his term in jail. It’s ’survival of the fittest’ in the Em City.

OZ. It is GONE. Even after the coming of the Sopranos, the sugar-coated Sex in the City, or the twisted Six Feet Under, and no matter what Prison Break brings, OZ will never be FORGOTTEN.

  

  

Good Friday With Elliot

For people baptised under the Roman Catholic Church and for those who remain to be attached with Christianity, the Good Lord is scheduled to be nailed on the cross and is going to die at 3pm.

My family was up so early today because my sister Ken who just arrived from Manila had an early meet-up with her barkada, and the rest of us attended a church activity which is the Via Crucis.

Via Crucis or the Way of the Cross is carried out every Good Friday. For those who are not familiar with Via Crucis, it is a pious devotion to the Lord’s sacrifice, death and resurrection.

To some, it’s more like reminiscing, reflecting and remembering the Passion of Christ.

Via Crucis has 14 Stations. In every station, devotees would listen to the Gospel related to the account on HIS Journey to Calvary.

But the ultimate purpose of this pious exercise is to leave the faithful with the sense of expectation of the resurrection in faith and hope.

Yes the Lord is going to die at 3pm.

HIS time will be up this afternoon on a GOOD FRIDAY and while waiting, I am going to spend the time listening to Elliot Yamin’s songs in his debut album.

The song is MOVIN’ ON. Yes siree. Finally, Elliot has come up with an album and I’m very ecstatic about it. The Yaminion movement has been validated and I couldn’t be so happy for Elliot. He was my choice for last season’s American Idol.

I was rooting for him but he was overshadowed by Katherine McPhee’s rendition of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and Taylor Hicks’ salt n pepper hair. In spite of . . . , I had high hopes for him to be signed up by a large recording company and for him to have an album really soon.

It really was long overdue. Other AI finalists have already released their albums. I waited so long for Elliot to come up with an album of his own. I thought I lost my hope.  But I had faith in Ehhh-liiii-yottt. The long wait is over.

And I want to thank my Bro Bear for giving me a downloaded copy of Elliot’s album. For the past days I’ve been playing his music repeatedly in my notebook. Here’s another cut on the album.

Elliot’s new look could qualify him for the role as Jesus Christ for the Via Crucis. I know his Jewish so I just have to be content that somehow, he resurrected my hopes of hearing his voice again.

That even on a Good Friday, Elliot will be there to accompany me as I bide the time for my JESUS to die on the Cross.

BEWARE OF THIS MONSTER

Two days ago, I posted the groper’s pictures. One was with the machine that he was trying to buy from Merck and the other was a close-up photo.

You might have seen the pics and perhaps you already have an idea of how the sex offender looked like. But upon the advise of those who worry about my life and those who believe that this information highway should not be the medium for retaliation, I took it upon myself to remove the groper’s photos from this entry.

It is not at all an indication of fear nor it is a sign that I’m letting my guards down.

Just beware of any monsters that may cross your path of existence.