“One thing about us Filipinos, we can never stop hoping for the best, always seeing ‘the glass as half full’ rather than seeing ‘the glass as half empty’”
I have been asked why I consider being a journalist a “CALLING.”
Being a journalist is a calling because like priests and nuns who are bound to observe chastity, obedience and charity, journalists are bound to their ethics, to write truth and facts, to be just and fair and to balance the news.
That makes a journalist totally different from bloggers and vloggers, with so many in social media today, who are glorified “chismosos” and “chismosas,” who peddle so much fake news and disinformation, Santa Banana!
It is for these reasons why I consider being a journalist a “calling.”
We journalists are in fact accountable for what we write, accountable to the media outlets where we work and to our readers.
That makes us totally and completely different from those peddlers of fake news and different from those in social media.
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Days before New Year’s Eve tomorrow there has been a total of 25, or even more, cases of fireworks-related injuries that have been recorded by the Department of Health nationwide.
Santa Banana! I am certain that the amount of cases up to this date has doubled!
The latest report, as I write this column, as reported by the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau, showed that the most recent cases, consisting of 15 incidents of fireworks-related injuries were reported by some hospitals, from the morning of Christmas Day, which brings up the number recorded in 2021 (20 cases).
My gulay, this report shows that the number of fireworks-related injuries nationwide, especially here in Metro Manila, that people do not seem to learn that firecrackers can injure and kill, especially the banned ones.
Central Visayas and Soccsksargen have the highest number of cases, with three incidents each, while there were two cases each recorded in the Ilocos region, Western Visayas, Davao region and the National Capital Region, mainly Metro Manila, totalling 25 cases.
While the number of fireworks-related injuries may seem small during the period reported, I am certain there will be more people with injuries lining up in hospitals here in Metro Manila.
Despite all the “Iwas Putok” warning of the DOH, and despite the fact that the police are all there in Bocaue, Bulacan, people just love blowing away their money in buying all those firecrackers from underground stalls in Divisoria and even Bocaue, under the very noses of all the police.
I know of somebody who boasts that every year he spends thousands of pesos to buy those funny-sounding firecrackers, because he and his children want to make sure that they celebrate the year 2023 with a “Big Bang.”
I find all that stupid. But, they do it every year. And I am certain that there will be more than a hundred lining up at hospital emergency rooms tomorrow evening. They never learn.
It’s for all these reasons that I have been continually pushing for a total ban on firecrackers and harmful pyrotechnics.
Who are the government protecting anyway, my gulay — the Bocaue manufacturers and peddlers of those deadly firecrackers, at the expense of all the people injured in firecracker accidents by the hundreds?
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As I went over my files to clear my desk of those papers I don’t need, I came across this item.
I don’t know if it’s a prayer or just a reminder of what we are supposed to do, but in any case, I would like to share it, for its worth as the year ends and as we greet 2023 with much hope that it will be a better year than 2022.
One thing about us Filipinos, we can never stop hoping for the best, always seeing “the glass as half full” rather than seeing ”the glass as half empty.”
For one thing, our economy is sound and substantial. That’s one thing I like about the BBM administration, our economic managers are excellent.
And with President “Bongbong” pushing them, the year 2023 has great promise despite all the headwinds , challenges and threats coming our way.
Go for it, Mister President. Achieve our dreams as a people and your dreams in your six-year term.
With this thought, I greet one and all a happy and prosperous New Year.
IF I CAN
(Anonymous)
If I can throw a single ray of light
across the darkened pathway of another;
If I can aid some soul to clearer sight
of life and duty and thus bless my brother;
if I can wipe from any human cheek a tear,
I shall not have lived my life in vain while here.
If I can guide some erring one to truth,
inspire within his heart a sense of duty;
if I can plant within my soul a rosy youth
a sense of right, a love of truth and beauty;
if I can teach one man that God and heaven are near,
I shall not have lived in vain while here.
If from my mind I banish doubt and fear,
and keep my life attuned to love and kindness;
if I can scatter light and hope and cheer,
and help remove the curse of mental blindness;
if I can make more joy, more hope, less pain,
I shall not have lived and loved in vain while here.
If by life’s roadside I can plant a tree,
beneath whose shade some wearied head may rest,
though I may never share its beauty,
I shall yet be truly blessed –
though no one knows my name,
nor drops a flower upon my grave,
I shall not have lived in vain while here.