Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Legend of Balingasag in Misamis Oriental


Centuries ago, there was a place located near the bay where you can find a lot of “casag” which is a type of crab. People who lived there used to catch these crabs for their daily living and business. Kids often used to play on the bay while adults are busy catching different kinds of sea creatures like fish, shells, and crabs. They sell it in the market. They catch crabs and other sea creatures by the use of fishing net which is called “baling”. 

That time, the place has no name at all. Because of the use of the net to catch crabs, they named the place “Balingcasag” to thank the gods and goddesses for the abundance of the resources from the sea. People that time kept on catching crabs for a bigger business and they became abusive and greedy. The gods and goddesses got angry and punished the people so they decided to control the sea by not producing or giving the people any kind of sea creatures or food. Several years, after naming the place, citizens were shocked because they can’t find anymore crabs and any other sea creatures in the bay. The people lost their business and some of them had difficulties producing foods for their families. The people realized how important and valuable the bay for them. They repent their sins and ask for forgiveness. They then change the name to “Balingasag” that served as their sincere apology for the gods and goddesses. Their apologies were accepted, and people were able to catch sea creatures again except for the existence of the crabs.

Until now, several decades had passed but still there hasn’t been any single crab seen in the bay. That serves as a lesson for the people of Balingasag to be aware of not harming and exploiting the natural resources of the place.

It Wasn't That Bad After All

Having different problems at a time could be a lot frustrating. Sometimes, you can’t just ignore them. You need to face them. In more often cases, sometimes people couldn’t take it anymore that they long to commit suicide and use it as an escape from the harshness of reality.

Every person is bound to have trials in their lives and it is part of our existence. As what I always tell my friends “Maybe their lives are not that bad after all”. Well, I just got that line from someone I know.

Several years ago when I met Claire on the internet, I was eighteen back then. We were chat mates. We talked about feelings and emotions. We shared about problems in life which we always encounter almost everyday. I told her how I hated life and the way it treats me. But then, that changed when she shared me one particular story.

“There was this girl whom I used to know”. Claire said. “She kept on isolating herself from people and pushing them away from her. She has a bad temper with a very bad attitude. She lived in New Jersey. She always hated life; she committed suicide by jumping off the building. The girl thought that her life was miserable and she couldn’t find ways to fix it”.

“As she jumped off the building” Claire continued typing message. “She saw a loving couple on the 10th floor hitting each other. She saw the usually tough and strong person she knew named Louis on the 9th floor, crying. On 8th floor, she saw her friend Cindy who just found out that her lover is sleeping with her best friend. 7th floor, a girl named Colleen is taking her daily anti-depressant medicine. On 6th floor, jobless George, her father’s friend, still buys a daily news paper searching for a job. Much respected Mr. Blackburn on the 5th floor is taking on his wife’s undergarments. 4th floor, her classmate Rose and her boy friend are fighting again. Pensioner Marvin, on the 3rd floor still hopes someone would come and pay him a visit”.

Claire stopped typing. I got impatient waiting for the continuation of the story so I buzzed her. “Then, what happened next?” I asked. She replied after a few seconds

“Before that girl jumped off the building, she thought she was the unluckiest person in the world” she sent with a smiley on it.

I paused, honestly, I did felt something strange. I did absorb the story. I then realized and recall those times I thought about committing suicide. Then Claire started typing again. I waited patiently for her message.

“Then she thought, maybe her life wasn’t that bad after all” Claire said

Yes, she’s right. Maybe the girl’s life wasn’t that bad after all. Maybe my life’s not that bad either. But then I felt sorry for the girl so asked Claire.

“She died, didn’t she?!” trying to express my solemnity

“Nope” she replied to me giving this laughing icon. “Miraculously, I survived” sending that message to me three times.

I smiled. Knowing a story like that and having a cyber friend like Claire, life wouldn’t be complete without it. Perhaps she told me a lesson which I know for certain that I hate to admit to myself how lucky I am for knowing her and having simple problems in life. I guess my life wasn’t that bad after all.

Rampant Globalization

Everybody loves innovation, evolution of technologies in a short period of time. The main reason of embracing it is because it helps us in our daily living. It makes every work a lot simple and easy. Well, we can’t blame people because as technology rises and evolves, people also do.

“People change by nature”, indeed it’s true because technology nowadays are creating a massive effect on our values. It influences a lot of people by using new innovated technologies and gadgets. It implements ideas on our minds by using media.

Media is a great way of knowing a lot of information. You could learn a lot of ideas from it and you could see different things that somehow affect our value system.

Several changes in our values have been made through the rampant globalization. We are being influenced by westerns and other foreign countries. We changed our clothes, culture, language, and even our religions. We imitate things we saw on television. Some people buy stuffs worn by their favorite actress or actor. We even like the foods they eat. It’s funny that we keep on buying them although we can’t afford. We also relate our lives from the melodramas we saw on TV. Kids are being imaginative, experimental, and liberated. They build a harsh imaginary world that result in ruthless crimes. Teenagers are being wild and aggressive. They engaged their selves’ on premarital sex and drugs. Even adults are being impulsive and outrageous. They’re now having difficulties in determining which is right from wrong. It’s kind of ironic that we love those changes on us. But somehow, I do understand. We can’t help it. That’s what we saw, that’s the way others did it, that’s how we are being affected.

Media showed us a different kind of perceptions and opened our minds on a different world. A world which we never though could exist, a world that made us the exact person we are right now, and a world that proved us that “change” is the only constant thing.


Thursday, September 9, 2010

It Could Be Something Better

often times we see different kinds of incident going on in our society. We even give a comment to the situation we currently hear and see. Different opinions and evaluations could be given and its because we do really feel different about every issues.
But one of the recent news that I can say that interest me was the hostage taking done by police chief inspector Rolando Mendoza. The incident showed the people how a certain hostage taking could be a mere reason for our country's failure. Well, everybody share the same sympathy on the case. The "police incompetence" thing created a massive destruction to some of our government officials. But honestly, we can't blame them. People saw things and interpreted it on that way because that's the way how they see it. That's the way how they felt. Perhaps things could change if we do share common sentiments. I just realized that people learn to commit mistakes at some point because they do believe in something and tried to fight for what they believed in. there could be a harm in risking but he might regret it if he didn't do anything. We have to admit it, these incident that had happened already happened before. We simply just ignore it. These repeated experiences teach us the things we refuses to learn. If we can only see what are the stories behind every person's actions, judging the person would be difficult. As the hostage taking ends, it leaves a mark on every persons mind. Marks that could basically make them think and realize if what they believe is really worth dying for.
Sometimes it's better to be clueless about what's happening around us rather than knowing everything that would silently kill you because we can never go back and change what has been done, but we can always earn the lesson learned to make things better next time.