In a spur or narcissism

A/N: A little something I wrote for my writing workshop at the office.


Once upon a time, there was a little girl who stared out into the night, at the brightest star in the sky. She closed her eyes, and clasped her hands, and fervently murmured her petition into the quiet night: “I wish to wake up tomorrow and find myself beautiful. I wish for fair skin, and blonde hair, and clear, bright blue eyes…”


I used to hate being a Filipino. When I was in my high school, I had dreamt of my future as a professional in the U.S., a woman of sophistication, possibly married to a white man, with beautiful, bright-eyed children. I wanted Western liberty and class. I believed the Filipino people were hopeless, helpless and ignorant. I even wrote this description of our country in my old deleted blog about Joseph Estrada’s term as President:

“In the Philippines, we have an actor for a President, and people from the entertainment industry are flocking into politics as though it were the newest fad. People would storm the streets everyday, demanding reforms, demanding the resignation of our leaders. We had a so-called EDSA Tres, which, in my opinion, is an event disgracing the original EDSA miracle. We have Abu Sayyaf decapitating people left and right. We have NPA, MILF and whateverterrorist groups. We even gained international acclaim for our connection to the Al Quaida group. We had the international reputation of being a country of corruption, and of murderous Muslim rebels.”

What had caused the turn around?

It was my steady exposure to the outside world, the positives and the misconceptions about our race, and my sudden realization that whatever I do, whatever I change, I am, and will always be a Filipino. I have loathed discrimination for as long as I remember, and here I was, a supposedly educated, an intellectual young lady, discriminating my own kind, being a racist to myself. I had been an idiot, and I realized I should not allow my people to make the same mistake as I had.

These days, I make it a point to show my color. I want to show everyone that they should not let anyone degrade their dignity as a Pinoy. There have been many instances wherein Filipinos have been discriminated. American TV show Desperate Housewives implied that Pinoy health care professionals are incompetent. Chinese columnist Tsip Chao’s article, The War at Home, explicitly stated that we are “a nation of servants” (albeit the article was supposed to be a satire). Recently, American radio host Adam Carolla stated that the Philippines has nothing to be proud of but Manny Pacquiao, and that we should “get a life”.

It is one thing for foreigners to be subjectively narrow-minded in discerning the Filipinos, and another when the Filipino himself looks down at his own identity. Many people do this. They fervently believe that this country is worthless, and helpless; that their heritage is not important. They look down upon their fellow Filipinos, and look down upon themselves, too, as Filipinos. An article featured in Bob Ong’s Bakit Baliktad Magbasa and mga Pilipino?, claimed that the thing we lack is respect for ourselves. This article was written by a foreigner who had fallen in love with the Philippines.

If truth be told, we have a lot to be proud of.

We have a beautiful country, and a resilient people. We have a colorful history, filled with many brave men and women who fought for what they believed in.
We are a race of survivors, who have lived through the storms of nature and history. We have been through Ondoy, and Basyang lately, and countless other natural disasters. Devastating winds and floodwater might have crushed our houses, and destroyed our crops and possessions, but no amount of catastrophes could mangle the Filipino spirit. We always emerge victorious in the end.

We are a country of resourcefulness, creativity, humility, and of love for God. Our professionals brave foreign seas for the sake of a better life for their families, despite the fact that the work they do is way below them. Young, intellectual marvels from deprived families studying in ill-equipped public schools do researches for the advancement of science and technology. We have Lea Salonga, Charice Pempengco, Arnel Pineda, Manny Pacquiao, and Efren Pena Florida and more. They are Filipinos, and the world is at their feet.

I want to tell Tsip Chao that we are a nation of servants, but not robotic drones. We are hardworking, competent and compassionate. I want to explain to Adam Carolla that yes, we do have Manny Pacquiao to be proud of, and that he is among the millions of Filipinos who have made their mark in history. I want to tell you, my fellow Pinoys, that no one has the right to spit at his own identity.
This is my passion. I burn with enthusiasm and love for my heritage, for my culture, for where I come from, and, ultimately, for who I am.

The little girl woke up the next day and found that the star had granted her wish. She still had her brown skin, and her long hair. When she touched her nose, it was still flat. But as she looked at herself in the mirror she realized something: she was beautiful.

Her eyes – they were bright and clear.

Profiling a rapable woman (How the Idiot Society stereotypes a rape victim)

A couple of nights ago, I was watching TV in our small sari-sari store. I was tuned in to a news program, and the report was about a twenty year old girl who was raped by an actor turned politician. According to the report, Ms. Twenty was hanging out in a condo where she and her friends are having a drinking spree. Mr Actor-Turned-Politician arrived at around 1AM. Miss Twenty eventually got drunk and fell asleep. Some time later, she woke up and found herself naked, with Mr. A-T-P on top of her, equally naked. She screamed for help and was rescued by her friends.

A woman had come into the store and had taken a can of sardine. She had paused to watch the report, her face contorted to what I mistakenly interpreted as feelings of disgust at what happened to Ms. Twenty.

I was wrong.

“Iinum-inum ka tapos ngayon, gaganyan-ganyan ka,” she spat.

Translation: “You drink, then you act that way.”

The English translation barely scratches the surface of what these words mean. The woman is insinuating that Ms. Twenty had it coming to her because she was drinking.

Needless to say, I wanted to smash the fish de lata to her face… but as always, boys and girls, violence is never the answer for any person’s shortcomings. Idiocy is never cured by a broken jaw. Besides, the woman was customer. And she’s not the only one who thinks that way. I can’t just go whacking people with sardines, right?

In a lot of cultures, society has “dumbed” the people into adapting the Victim-Blaming attitude. This attitude implies that the rape victim is partially, if not fully, responsible for the rape.

Studies show that there are stereotypical characteristics of the victim, and the rape, that increases the perceived fault factor of a rape victim.

1. The victim is classified as provocatively dressed

Apparently, women who are inappropriately clad tend to seduce men into committing rape. For many centuries, a person’s clothing has been related to his or her personality. This stigma still exists in today’s society, If a person is deemed “inappropriately provocative”, (by whoever thinks that he has the right to classify one’s wardrobe as such), then, that person is deemed as inappropriately provocative.

2. The victim is seen as a party-goer
Booze, drugs, and sex: the trilogy of a hard-core party girl. The problem is, narrow-minded people adamantly believe that if a person is doing one, then he or she must be doing all. This mindset compromises the integrity of the victim. There are no gray areas, only black and white.

3. The victim is a known flirt.

So a girl has a lot of guy friends. She links to hang out with them, and to peck at their brains because she finds them interesting. Not everyone sees it this way. A lot of people would happily put malice into an innocent friendly chat, possibly to add color to their perpetually dull lives.

4. The rapist is known to the victim.

If a girl dates a boy, she is probably interested in him. If a girl dates a boy, and the boy rapes t he girl, it’s probably because the girl is interested in him. She probably wanted it to happen. If the perpetrator is a relative, the harlot probably seduced him to his limits. It’s the rape victim’s fault. This is how the Narrow-Minded Society thinks. Do you agree?

The moral is this: Victim-Blaming attitude stems from a bunch of stereotypical characteristics which is cultivated by prejudice and gossips. Unfortunately, these are very powerful things. Fortunately some people do recognize the idiocy in this mindset, the idiocy of discrimination, and possibly, of the contagious generalization. They recognize its effect to the justice process, as many rape victims opt to remain silent about their ordeals, rather than face the sharp, flippant tongues of the Narrow-Minded Society.They recognize its disastrous effect on the victim’s psyche, the escalation of the degree of worthlessness and self-disgust that rape leaves in its wake.

The truth is this: The mentality that the rape victim was “asking for it” is total bullshit. There are reasons why rape is committed. There may be triggers and provocations. But no matter what anyone else says, there is absolutely no excuse for it.


A/N: There is no such words as rapable and dumbed. They are coined by the author, like J.K. Rowling coined the word Muggle.

Tips for the Nursing Boards that Would Prevent Your Descend to Insanity and Madness

October, and the Nursing Licensure Exam is upon us once more. If you’re like me, then you probably only have only one month’s worth of study opportunity…and that includes all the lazy spells everybody has, no matter how hardcore that person is reviewing. So how do you do it?
Studying with the humongous pressure of passing is not something that you can do without going a bit crazy, but here are a few tips (some of them probably unusual) that might help prevent your fatal freefall into madness…or at least give you a softer landing.

1. Have a study habit that you’re comfy with. Screw what the summa cum laude tells you. If your brain is turned on by loud music, the prime time telenovela, or pigging out on a nice big batch of McDo french fries (which was what my classmate Manilyn Abletes did), then go have it. Remember, it’s all about you. Your brain works in an environment you’re most comfortable with. Just be sure not to bother the rest of the world too much.

2. Do not attempt to devour your books. You are not Hermione Granger. Besides, one way or another, you’re already gone through them. Skim through your notes, study your questionnaires. Time is not your friend, and bits and pieces of information should be enough to stimulate your brain cells to remembering the concepts you’re trying to recall.

>
Above: A picture of all the books I've acquired during the NLE review. I did not, however, read all of them. The books served as reference materials for facts that I have forgotten. In fact, I the only book I almost finished was the RCAP compilation of old NLE questions.


3. Back to basics. Nothing beats a good comprehension of anatomy and physiology, or the Fundamentals of Nursing. The theory is, if you know the basics, you can apply it to more complex concepts. The theory is relatively correct.

4. Karaoke time plus study time. I was once out with my guy and a couple of his friends, all of them passers of the Chemical Engineering board exam. I asked how they did it, and one of them jokingly replied, “We go out to sing”. And so I did. Lo and behold, come September, I see my name posted online as an NLE passer. Do not fry your brains with too much studying. It doesn’t help. Give the neurons some breathing time. Have fun once in a while.

5. Memorize passively. If you’re like me, you despise memorization. Of course, if you’re about to take the boards, it’s impossible that you won’t need the normal value for blood pH (7.35-7.45) or the four defects in the Tetralogy of Fallot (ventricular septal defect, pulmonary valve stenosis, overriding of the aorta, and right ventricular hypertrophy). How to memorize all those stuff without busting your brain? Try this tip on for size. Write these babies down on a piece of manila paper (or a nicely colored cartolina, with pretty green highlights), and stick them on your wall. Every night, before sleeping, recite them like a prayer. Do it again in the morning, before getting out of bed.

6. Answer past board exam questions. This one’s a classic, but it’s not a classic for nothing. While my review-mates are reading and re-reading their notes given by the review center (which I did not have since I was not fortunate enough to attend the comprehensive review), I was eating peanuts and chocolate and answering past board exams from 2001 to 2006…12 sets of exams! This might not be very encouraging (Honestly, if I was really taking the NLE, I might have already failed 12 times), but it gives you an insight to the examiner’s mind – how the questions are formulated, and what techniques work. Besides, it’s better to fail now that you’re still reviewing, that screw up the actual thing, right?

7. Exercise catharsis. We’re all up to our ears in stress during the entire time span of the review, and like any normal human person, if you bottle up your emotions too much, you eventually pop. Anorexia. Flat affect. Circumstantiality. The works. Eventually, psychosis. You want to be your former-classmate-now-RN’s new patient? No way, right? So take time to talk to someone. It does not do well to keep your apprehension bottled up, threatening to explode like a nasty aneurism.


Above: One form of our catharsis. Drawn by Manilyn Abletes, R.N.


8. Weird psychology, and some physiobiological stuff you would probably sneer at, but is actually true. Green highlighter promotes retention of concepts. I have no idea where this one came from, but apparently, it’s true. Chocolate, Coffee and Coitus help with studying. The famous 3Cs are related to the production of serotonin (aka the happy hormone), and the feeling produced would be attributed to studying. Thus studying is equated to pleasure, and the pleasure becomes a motivation to study more. It also keeps the brain in a heightened level of consciousness, because of caffeine, and because seriously, would a normal person feel sleepy in the middle of sex?

9. Do not indulge yourself in an ideal test-taking location. On the actual exam, expect the worst. Expect the heat to permeate through your thick, white uniforms, and noise pollution to bombard your already question-tortured brain. Testing sites are not exactly comfortable, so try to get used to the things that would probably distract you from the questions.

The trick is to block it all out. Tip: try whispering the question to yourself, while simultaneously listening to what you’re whispering. Just make sure you don’t disturb the person next to you.

10. PRAY. Seriously, if He meant for you to be a nurse, He will give it to you. But that doesn’t mean that’s all you’re going to do. You are still required to hit the books.


(The author has lost her PRC requirements to Bagyong Ondoy in 2009, and it took her until May 14 to finally complete all the papers she needed to apply for the NLE. She applied on the same day – May 14- which is the last day of application, thus spending her 22nd birthday in the hot, sweaty PRC compound. Lacking the discipline that most reviewers had, the author has spent perhaps 40% of her time slacking off during the review session, but still managed to scrape a not-so-embarrassing average for the NLE.)

Clearing up the mumbo jumbo

I know. I've read them - the various medical codswallop on family that a busy person would normally not have time to discern. Of course, information on reproductive health is readily available to health care professionals in the neighborhood, but again, not everyone has the time for this.

So here's an easy-breezy summary of the common family planning methods that highlights the pros and cons of each. Feel free to look through them.

Remember, wise choices are made with good information!

Please click on the pictures for a bigger view.

The Rape of a Profession

What now?

I’m 22 years old and, my father still drives me to work every morning. It’s the perfect time for one of those father-daughter talks, consisting mainly of what am I going to do with my life now that I am a full-pledged Registered Nurse. “There’s no job,” I keep saying, echoing the comments of numerous passers like me.

I was a product of the early 2000 Nursing boom, when the demand for my profession in the West increased dramatically, prompting most us to be pushed, coerced, and disillusioned to studying Nursing, only to find out, four years later, that the surplus of nurses is incredible, and the hopes to fly to greener pastures were not as easy as we thought. The problem has been attributed to two major causes: new RNs are products of fly-by-night schools, rendering a lot of us under-trained; and the 2 years experience requirement of agencies before an applicant is considered for deployment.

While many RNs flock to call centers and English language academies for work, a lot of brave souls still opt to pursue their profession. They pay to be able to do volunteer work for hospitals, where they get a very modest stipend. A friend of mine told me it’s PHP 120. I don’t know how the rest of the nurses survive.
After this, they might either be absorbed by their employers or thrown back to the world of the unemployed. Then, it’s back to square one.

Florence

Amidst another father-daughter talk on the way to work session, I heard Gerry Baja and Anthony Taberna discussing a rape incident that occurred last Saturday, in Mindanao. Needless to say, the news would have pissed off anyone.

A 21-year old volunteer nurse, aliased Florence, who works in the South Upi Maguindanao Municipal Health Office was found naked and unconscious Sunday morning. Authorities believed while she was on her way to a midwife in Timanan, she was dragged off to a cornfield by around 10 men, where she was repeatedly raped. Police Inspector Reny Valdesco described the victim: “Hubad, leeg may sugat siya, ang ngipin naputol kasi pinalo ng kahoy.”(Naked, with a wound on the neck, her teeth broken because she was bashed by wood).

Six men who were reportedly having a drinking spree with the victim were apprehended by the police. Enough evidence was allegedly present to bring them into custody.

The suspects face a rape and frustrated murder charge. Others allegedly involved in the crime are said to have very strong political ties.
This incident has sent the Nursing community clamoring for justice, and the feminist groups like Gabriela storming the streets.



Nurses study and invest money for four years of education, they graduate, drag themselves through the torture of the board exam, and if they pass, they’re lucky. Then they go out into the world begging for jobs, and end up paying hospitals to get an opportunity to volunteer. Many of them get paid with less than minimum wage. Many work their butts off. Nurses are scarce even if the supply is high, because a lot of hospitals cannot afford to hire them anymore, and thus, these health workers are stuck with 1:30 nurse-patient ratio, and 12 hours of working.

And this is what these thankless men do to a 21-year old girl whose only fault is to dream.


http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/09/28/10/nurses-seek-justice-gang-raped-colleague
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/202205/suspects-in-gang-rape-of-nurse-in-maguindanao-nabbed
http://www.mindanaotimes.net/?p=13459