Disorder and Chaos During the Holiday Season

Just like last Christmas, I have gone to the wet market here in our city to buy some food stuff for the new year only to be disgusted by the chaos and dirt.  Plastics and all sorts of garbage are just scattered everywhere while vendors who are responsible for all those mess do nothing.  What make the matter worst is that these vendors are occupying almost all the spaces they can creating traffic jams of both people and the public and private transport.  Undisciplined consumers however just throw there garbage.

This is better for a public market but not in the place mentioned here.

I don’t know but the authorities are unmindful of the matter. While everybody just keep the heck out of it.  The vendors and the consumers responsible and the authorities who are all accountable don't care.  Yet some of these individuals are even promoting tourism?

I just cant help but to ask myself, is it the worth of the Holiday Season?  Of Christmas and New Year in this part of the country and the world?  That it tend to downplay discipline and order just because it is so? What has happened now to the supposed spiritual maturity and enlightenment that Christmas should have been brought.  Or what about the challenge of constinuously striving for changes for the better that every new year gives?  An ordinary visitor like me was disgusted and highly irritated, what more for visitors or new comers.

This is only the tip of the iceberg in this city.  Not to include undisciplined commuters and drivers who are contributors to traffic jams.  And the garbage too in almost every corner.  Really irritating! 

For over a hundred years, our country has been celebrating New Year and Christmas as a colonized nation, later an independent state.  For centuries too, we are taught that Christmas brought with us God and New Year is the time to forget the bad old and retain the good even improve it for the new.

However, these have fallen on deaf ears and what matters now is self satisfaction.  Political leaders in the city however seem to be unmindful or totally ignorant of the matter.  What have we different from the things we consider evil?  For example, many are willing to spend money on dangerous fire crackers but are unwilling to support their churches and schools.

I feel aggravated because these are all what the youngsters are always seeing.  What is more irritating is these people want lots from the government and the state yet instead of being part of the solution, they are part of the problem.  The local government however is soft on the matter-- the downside of popular and patronage politics.

Still, I have high hopes and faith in the power of prayer.  And that somewhere, out there, there are also individuals who feel the same shame as I do who happens to have connections or contacts to responsible individuals- disregarding the evils of popular patronage politics for the common good.

I hope that this new year will make evil doers and unrighteousness become new as this season expects them to be. I wish too that leaders in the area may come to see it for themselves so that they could implement what is necessary.  God Speed!

(This blogger writes in the suburb of Lucena City.  He is irritated and stressed that order seems to be deteriorating partly because of lack of discipline and certain level of humanity viz animalistic behavior and apathy of the many.)

Teaching, Teacher, and Thorns

By Felix N. Bagnol, PhD

Lipata Elementary School

Surigao City District VI

Among all other things, teaching was never meant to be a predestined calling on me. I would explicate this because I was told that teaching is a multi-faceted preoccupation. Even then, I used to be a victim of many, I mean, different types of teachers. Some were domineering and strict who believed in suiting a penalty to the crime. Some were indulgent who were able to lend a hand when the pace seemed slow and steady. Still others were that nonchalant or that you would always expect to be ignored and looked down.

Teaching is a mission guided by love.  (Photo by G.M Forbes)

This was my notion on teaching – a job so desired but a part is sometimes wasted. And it all occurred to me way back then. It had been an outright view on me not until someplace else at the back of my mind encouraged me like what I am now. Either conscience or someone else’s approval propelled me on my way. The thing is, and the matter says, I am what I ought to be.

Now, it is to my apprehension that teaching is a gigantic endeavor. I have for now and it will always be considered a noble profession.

We are in need of teachers who can bring the best out of the child’s potentials and capabilities. We wish to have teachers who will become the children’s admired model in the community. We dream of teachers who will be the frontline of society’s moral, spiritual, and ideological changes. As our community hungers for upright teachers, so does the learning world.

My idea on teaching simply suggests a tap on the shoulder. Once it is done, you will be awakened and all together oblivious of what is happening around you. Teaching is a communicable virus. Once it is inflected into the system, it perpetrates inside out. The moment you teach a child or anybody else, the words are about to seep through her not until you render interest on her. In other words, teaching through absorbing is semi-permeable. It would be a sort of a deal between the learner and the teacher.

I have always believed that learning is a two-way feature. It is sometimes chewed but not digested and in other times digested but land as a waste. It is the responsibility of a teacher to hone the child’s sensitive minds and to shape her ideals and behavior as she is still tamable and young.

If I have to do it all over again, I still would wish to teach. This is now my flare for life, a fire emblazoned in my genes. I would be brick to say that if one abhors teaching, he never becomes a guru but turns out to be a flop. To be a teacher is to be naturally interested in the work. It must be remembered that unlike other professions, teaching is replete with thorns more than roses.

Ten Tips: Keeping Away with Spending Spree Every Holiday Season

Gilbert M. Forbes

 Keeping away with spending spree every Christmas season is challenging budget and financial wise individuals once more.  Stores are really keeping up with the time when bonuses are released to all salaried workers and employees both government and private- making their displays more mouth watering and extremely tempting than ever.

Photo courtesy of google search images.

Shelves are updated with new and trendy items particularly tech and gizmo stores. These stores have even partnered with credit card companies to allure customers of buying their new models of cell phones, computers, high resolution and dynamic LCD and LED television sets, etc.  One wouldn't be exempted of thinking of buying one of these to replace their ancient gadgetries for those who have long settled to surplus items like me.

To others who are riding with the craze of always embracing whatever is new on a yearly basis will certainly not be left behind starting from their trendy cell-phones or wardrobes.  But to those who are already awaken and have already decided to prepare for a financially independent life, how could they escape the temptations?  Here are the tips.

1. Pay your debts.  If you have a debt, think of paying it first.  If you can pay it in full, better.  It will free you from a lot worries and stress in the future.  It is very liberating for an active income earner to be debt free.  If you are highly indebted, this is the opportune time to reduce it considerably and start to get out of it as fast as you can.
2. Get enough protection.  Consider getting enough protection by buying an insurance equivalent to a ten-year total expenditure.  In case something happens, your family shall no longer worry of your financial obligations.  This is the beauty of insuring yourself.  There are lots in the market tailored fit to your needs.  Caution however must be applied in selecting one. 
3. Save it all!  If you have no debt, start save and start increasing your passive income as fast as you can.  Having all your bonus and 13th month pay as a saving will be a great start.  Financial experts are saying that bonuses and other financial rewards salaried workers receive every Christmas season are not categorized as active income.   As such, they are suggesting that it should not be spent and should go directly as savings.  But since we just learned it, we could settle saving at least 20- 50% of it.
4. Budget and stick to it.  Budget with the family members so that they will not only get acquainted with the beauty and art of budgeting but be informed and consulted as well with your financial plans and status.  In this way, they will no longer be expecting so much from you.  Budget is the lists of things to buy for a given time or season like Christmas.  List down only things that are really needed.  Review the budget two to three times for the last minute changes.  There is no more rewarding for any individual if he/she is always successful in sticking with her monthly budget. It is a part of self-restrained and discipline- a key to simple living and financially rewarding future.
5. Write.  Prepare a list of things to buy and start bargain hunting as early as possible and avoid the rush.  List only the things you really need.  Compare the price from store to store so that you can have the best buy and save a lot.
6. Prioritize.  When buying a gadget or something consider its immediate use.  For example, if you will just use a cell phone to call and text, the cheapest quality cell phone in the market will do.  But if your job requires high connectivity, an android phone versus an Iphone or blackberry would be a lot cheaper.  Are there no other alternatives but to have this gadget?  Is it part of our priority?
7. Avoid temptation.  Do not be tempted nor influenced by peers most importantly by personal ego.  When temptation is sinking in, ask only yourself with these questions:  Do I or we really need it? If we need it, can we still post phone having it?  If not, in what degree will it benefit us the most considering our financial standing?
8. Think of the end in mind.  Always think of the end in mind as the best selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, Stephen Covey says.  When you think of the end in mind, you are thinking of the future that you want for your self and your family.
9. Read and Learn.  Buy your self an easy to understand book on personal finance. There are best sellers available in the market in accordance with your location and nationality.  Nothing can surpass the motivation and inspiration that will be provided by reading and being knowledgeable.  It is so far the best investment that you will make other than ordinary material things.  It will help you grow.
10. Act now.  The earlier, the best.  There is no other time but to do it right away.  Every minute and single days lost can no longer be replaced nor recovered.  The element of time is of primordial importance to a financially rewarding life.

We all intend to have a happy, wonderful, fantastic life.  So why should we let ourselves complicate things when we can simplify it.  

An Spending Instance That Could Have Been Avoided

Gilbert M. Forbes

Spending is easy that in the end you will not notice that you have already ran  out of budget.  For quite a couple of days, I have already spent a portion of my disposable income, I considered it is as such because it is an extra income.  Hence, I already allotted all my bonus to pay for two of three of our astounding obligations.  That is for a basically financially literate and practicing personal finance person already. 

Photo from lammatlarge.wordpress.com

The truth is, I could have just set aside those things like for instance purchase of a hybrid AM-FM radio, a set of classical music CD's, 3g cell phone LCD repair, and some kitchen utensils.The fact is t was an spending instance that should have been avoided but it wasn't.  What more if I'm not practicing personal finance and that I am financially illiterate, I would have spent more for I am thinking of replacing my 10-ten year old CRT Likom PC monitor by an LCD, buy a new hard disk to replace my HDD which is already running out of space, a netbook or an android phone but I declined.

Still, I am actually defending myself saying that those purchases though few are necessary.  The hybrid radio is needed so that we will no longer depend on TV for news and talk shows saving us on electrical consumption. The classical music cd is for our toddler for his mind and our minds stimulation and the last because I just want it repaired.  The cell phone is still greatly functional and is for home use only.

This is the psychology of spending.  Our mind is quick to put rationality on our actions even if it tends to complicate things.

The quick reminder is, are we willing to live in a complicated atmosphere?  I’m not,  that's why I am taming myself.  My inspiration is simple.  Once I got out of my debt, I could start immediately on my journey towards financial freedom.  I just couldn't think of a life having no debt to think of.

This is not only for my future but also for all those who depend on me.  And most of all for my God for apart from Him, nothing would be possible.

For additional info and inspiration, also see Keeping Away With Spending Spree Every Christmas Season

What to do with 13th Month Pay and Christmas Bonus

Just two weeks from now, its Christmas once more.  As a lyrics of a song goes, "Its Christmas, all over the world . . . "  Most of the public school teachers all the over land have already received their bonuses and only the cash gifts, productivity or performance bonuses remains to be received.  But what is really the best way to do with it aside from paying off debts that we teachers used to do.  Well, I am praying that all of us would be able to get rid of these debts soon.  Here is the article originally entitled Five Important Things Do With Christmas Bonus and 13th Month Pay.

Photo from financialplanningph.com

Every Christmas is a season of hope and most of all, in this materialistic world, a season of buying and selling extravaganza. Good for the sellers but not so good for the buyers who end up financially unstable once new year start.

Since most of public employees particularly educators have already received their bonuses while the rest of the employed are about to receive it, many eyes are sure to be twinkling and their hearts and enthusiasm rises.

I’m sure; many already have plans on what to do with their bonuses. Some would be to buy new gadgets and gizmos to replace the year-old once and for the not so lucky ones, to pay for their debts, because they have already compromised their bonuses in advance. Too few would decide to put their bonuses in savings and most importantly as an investment.

But what is really the best way to do with the bonus?

Financial experts don’t consider bonus including the 13th month pay as income. So, according to them, it should not be treated as what we used to do with our income even how meager it is.

For those who have already imbibed alternative or simple lifestyle and wanted to be financially stable, it is suggested that we should adhere to do the following:  click here to read more

The following articles would also be encouraging to follow the path of financial stability or rewarding life in the future.

• Keeping Away With Spending Spree Every Christmas Season

• Ang May Madudukot Ay Ang May Isinuksok

• Eight Steps to Get-out of Bankruptcy and Debt (Walong Paraan ng Paglaya sa Pagkakabaon sa Utang)

• Seven Ways to Avoid Bad Debt (Pitong Paraan ng Pag-iwas sa Masamang Utang)

• Understanding the True Meaning of Wealth or Richness

For more articles on financial literacy or personal finance, one may click financial literacy or personal finance and see for yourself set of articles that could be of help in strengthening your motivation and desire of embracing a simple lifestyle and get out of debt the fast as you can.

I just can't personally imagine how does it feel having no debt's to at least think of.

Multi-literate Teachers for a Multi-literate Citizenry

By GILBRT M. FORBES

With the advent of the advancement in information technology, information now a day comes with different forms and from different flat forms.  Thus erasing the traditional way we receive, perceive, process and understand it. 

Society has moved away from a reliance on print toward digital technology, including sound, music, words and still and moving images. Therefore the texts that students write or read now often rely on processing several modes of text simultaneously in order to construct meaning. For example, while eating breakfast, students may be listening and speaking at the table while watching a morning news program that requires them to attend to print, view both still and moving images, interact with a website or view a film clip, and at the same time interpret the behaviour of the news broadcasters interviewing someone from another country on a split screen.

It too has an impact on the way literacy has to be developed to our learners.  To learn within this environment, students need to be able to understand and use the grammars of language, still and moving images, music and sound.

A 21st-century multiliterate individual needs to have the skills to consume all five semiotic systems. Conversely, they will be required to produce texts that use all five systems such as play scripts, email, video and PowerPoint presentations. The terms ‘consuming’ and ‘producing’ are used here because they more accurately describe the knowledge, skills and processes employed in constructing print and digital texts than the traditional terms reading, listening, writing and speaking.

The changes in society and technology that we have detailed require students to understand that the choice of live, electronic or paper text forms will vary according to purpose and context. The plays of Shakespeare, for example, could be approached through reading the traditional print text, viewing a live text (i.e, the production) of a play or through interactive engagement with a video or Internet reproduction, based on knowing what can be learnt from the live, electronic or paper versions.

Exposure to all these forms of text must go hand in hand with the realization that all texts are consciously constructed in order to share information in particular ways – that texts can shape attitudes, values and behaviors. There is always a selection process going on when a text is constructed; information can be included or excluded and certain groups can be portrayed positively or marginalized. Therefore, being multiliterate must also involve being critically literate, that is, having the ability to analyze texts, identify their origins and authenticity, and understand how they have been constructed in order to perceive their gaps, silences and biases.

Having no ability to analyze information will harshly deteriorate value system, morals, and the way one perceives truth or right and wrong.  The common tao or the masses and the marginalized will be more subjected to exploitation by power greedy individuals.

Although, the advent of information revolution has brought and informed society particularly in the arab world bringing into light the abuses and arrogance of their leaders, this could not be the same in other nations.

In this regard, teachers are expected to be at the forefront of these developments and that they have to be the first to be ready.  And that is to become a multi-literate one. 

A multi-literate person is someone flexible and strategic in their literacy: able to understand and use literacy and literate practices with a range of texts and technologies, in socially responsible ways, within a socially, culturally and linguistically diverse world; someone able to participate fully in life as an active and informed citizen (Anstey, 2002). Being multi-literate or multi-literacy is therefore now the name of the game.

And this is the main challenge for teachers and educational leaders particularly now that what is happening is the reverse.  Teachers and school leaders are being left behind by their pupils and students in the use of technology.  Instead of taking it as an opportunity to enliven the way knowledge and skills are transferred, data are process, and being on top of the situation, teachers are often sidetracked by these developments and are often the last to taste and realized its immense benefits.

Teachers and school leaders therefore should now engage themselves in learning relevant technologies like power point, internet, you tube, video and music upload and its various applications, basic video and sound editing and recording, utilization of digital and satellite TV and radio broadcasts, etc.

They should not let themselves left in the age of antiquity.  If they do so, they have the option or choice of leaving or being left out for what counts more is the interest of many, i.e, the citizenry.

Reference:  

What’s so different about multiliteracies? by Geoff Bull and Michele Anstey