Epic Fail

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

01 January 2017

2017, while anticipated to be productive for the Philippines and the Filipino people, may never be so unless 2016 is made an indicator of the country’s performance in relation to achieving targets planned earlier, New Year’s resolutions vis-à-vis personal achievements included.

The answers to the question why most targets or New Year’s resolutions fail should not be undermined.  For one, this speaks of strategies.  Two, it deals with achievability of targets.  Three, it determines the effectiveness of execution. 

Several leading experts have their own rationale on this:  Ram Charan, leadership guru, contends that seventy percent of strategies are poorly executed.  Doctors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, advocates of Balanced Scorecard argue that ninety percent of strategies are poorly executed.  Ernst & Young, management consultants, reveals that sixty percent of strategies are never executed while Deloitte, another management expert asserts that the hindrance to achieving targets is poor execution.  These teams conducted years of research and studies to come up with these game-changing statistics.

Obviously, these scientific accounts assert that achieving targets depend on how well companies or individuals execute their strategies, no matter how these strategies are poetically articulated, as in most cases.  One more time, these accounts include New Year’s resolution.

More than 30 years ago, Filipinos gathered at EDSA to call for the resignation of the late Ferdinand Marcos.  Organized by the late Cardinal Sin, it gained support from Fidel Ramos and Juan Ponce Enrile, two of the prominent stalwarts and allies of Marcos.  That catapulted his expulsion from Malacanang through the help of the American government.  The first lady president, Cory Aquino then governed the greed-adorned Palace by the murky Marikina River.

Novel ideas were deliberated and awesome strategies crafted with the help of old, aspiring and new politicos sans personal interests hidden in the rhetoric of all recommendations, actions or arguments they laid down on the table of political, socio-economic and cultural discourses.

We then thought we could move fast-forward.  Little did we realize that we were actually chugging towards development.  The only significant achievement Aquino administration can boast of is the amendment of the Constitution with uncalled-for re-naming of edifices and landmarks on the side; Ninoy Aquino International Airport is one of those.

Fidel Ramos took over amidst election protests from the camp of Mirriam Santiago.  Joseph Estsrada succeeded Ramos but was ousted for plunder in less than two years through the less popular EDSA 2 Revolution that ushered the petite lady of Pampanga to the Palace, ruling the country for about ten straight years, with a material number of high-profile graft and corruption cases recorded.  Benigno Aquino III, succeeded the Rule from Gloria Arroyo via his infamous “Tuwid na Daan” vehicle. 

Over time, Malacanang controlled the State:  Senate ruled, Congress banged its gavel unopposed, Supreme Court dissented anytime, Cabinet obeyed, and local governments submitted.  Much was done in favor of the few and privileged.  Individuals disappointed of results marched down the streets to express their most-of-the-time self-vested interests, shouted at the top of their voices behind picket lines. 

They argued much; they worked less.  Worse, they delivered the most mediocre of services.  It happened before; it is still happening today!

And what has become of us after 30 years of EDSA?  Amazingly, EDSA still stands as the most congested highway bringing the public to several behavioral disorders:  Budgets inflated to accommodate Pork Barrel, crimes increased, graft and corruption cases ballooned, insurgencies rose, etcetera.  An overwhelming lists of crimes, grimes and slimes more than achievements are exposed daily.  Wow!

Lately, rumors circulated that the opposition is cooking a mega-rally.  Allegedly funded by a Fil-Am billionaire, it is aimed at ousting President Duterte for the following simple reasons: They hate his firm resolve to kill criminals, jail corrupt government officials, and renew the face of the Archipelagic Philippines, literally.

EDSA has become a byword in political arena; it has gained criticisms across the globe:  For one, it marks the historic feat against tyranny; two, it shows the courage of the Filipino people to assert their rights; and, three, it gives the impression that Filipinos never have learned from one failure to another.  I love the first two points but the third sounds intriguing:  We never have learned from one failure to another over time!

Is another EDSA still worth the effort?  If I may put my two cents in, the answer is no because signs are telling us.  We have been accusing each administration for failing to steer the country to progress but we never realize our failure to assess how well we responded to every problem, how effective we resolved, how efficient we managed damages, and how openly we cooperated or openly accepted proposed changes.

Arguably though, another EDSA may not be the ultimate solution.  Mahatma Gandhi has something better to offer:  “Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law.”

Aren’t we are missing the whole point?

His Christmas Story

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

25 December 2016

As it was foretold, He was born out of the union of Maryam and Yossef in one winter evening in Bethlehem (Beit Lahm), a Palestinian town located south of Jerusalem (now occupied by Israel) sans the luxury of scholarly skilled birthing assistant and sophisticated hospital bed, in a trough where domesticated animals were fed.

My trip to Jordan, an Islamic country that hosted more than one tribes of the Biblical “Holy Land” reminds me of His overwhelming greatness.  A visit to His Baptism Site, a spot along Jordan River sanctified by no less than Pope John Paul II, added irresistible support to His existence in the history of man no matter what scientific big-bang theory tells us.

He is real:  As real as one Holy Night, as the John the Baptist Spring, where John took water he used to baptize Jesus, and the memorial of Moses at Mt. Nebo, southwest of Amman, the Capital City of Jordan, where Moses was granted view of the Holy Land.

Truly, He is:  As real as your own baptized Christian name, as the holy water poured onto your head, as your marriage, as your friendship and acquaintances and as the love you enjoy today.

He was given life and His passion was to give life:  Lazarus was raised to life from death.  It is the same life He gives to the adulteresses and concubines, to slaves and prostitutes, to social dependents and abused, to the corrupt and marauders, to mentally-dehydrated politicians and narco-politicos, to sinners and lost, and to the quick and the dead.  His life is hope!

Undoubtedly, He gives life to the self-confessed adulteress-senator and driver-lover-concubine, to senator known for his popular military siege now considered a traitor, to the apprehended and confessed drug lord and provider of largesse to top government officials, to the used and abused inmates of the National Penitentiary, to the men in robes who protect offenders, and to other modern day demons of the millennia.

His Words become Flesh; His Flesh becomes the life of courage and strength.  Yet, malevolent men lately take His Words out of context.  They corrupt their souls by corrupting the flesh with lusts, greed, and infamies.

It is as real as the baby you are holding everyday before leaving for work, as real as the man you argue and make love with at nightfall.

Absolutely, His is another classic story no need to tell – a story so distinct that has been told and retold from generation to generation.  His Christmas story is forgiveness that springs from hope in the manger, the manger that holds that One Infant from whom noble life springs.

Yes, the baby delivered to the world in a manger brings hope, hope that brings life, and life that brings forgiveness.  His story is forgiveness from that moment the news of that eventful winter night broke throughout the Jewish, Judean, Samaritan, Hebrew, Greek and Roman communities.

Yes, forgiveness does not begin with the crucifixion; it does begin with the moment her cousin announced her blessed-art-thou-amongst-women immaculate conception.  What transpired in the crucifixion was the fulfillment of the mission of The One to salve mankind from the pit of man-made annihilation caused by unrestrained men.

And this is not forgiveness as written in the Book of All Times:  Highly robed Administrators and Overseers of His Words who reside in strong-walled stone structures don’t seem to understand its profound meaning spoken of today.  Instead, they spark assemblies to rally for the unspeakable and inexplicable “un-forgivable” delivery of forgiveness.

Yes, His Christmas story is not just hope but light from the election fraud, truth from the big rally for his ouster funded by the Black Widow, justice for the victims extra-judicial killings, for the famers of that mega-farmland in Northern Luzon, and meaning why preachers do preach forgiveness and yet unforgiving.

His story is your story of pains and sufferings, epic fails and frustrations, sexual and marital abuses, psychological incapacity and irresponsibility of spouses, cancer cells and tumors, kidney failures and cardiac conditions, diabetes and high blood pressures – truly, His is above all these.

One more time, his Christmas story is forgiveness:  I forgive you and you forgive others regardless of what is and what’s not!  After all, The One named Jesus does not forgive based on any condition – he does forgive unconditionally.

Yes, this is his Christmas story written on walls and edifices of his birth, death and resurrection:  From the manger to the shanty in Bethlehem to the John the Baptist Spring to the Baptism Site along Jordan River to the Cross at Mount Calvary.  Do we have reasons not to?

To err is human, to forgive divine? – Oh, this is just being human!  Absolutely, there is no reason at all to be skeptical.  Skepticism creates paranoia.  And paranoia kills!

Eid milaad saeed! 

A Different Christmas Story

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

18 December 2016

Indeed, a smoldering wick:  His grip of the weakest eases the humankind no strongest of powers produced by mortals can do.  “He is,” he quipped!  And at least, he believes in this.

He said he never had a good Christmas.  He spent his childhood in a brim of poverty that extras outside of the three-times-a-day meals became a luxury.   Theirs was a survival of the fittest that outsmarting the superfluities the “rich and the famous” of his prime enjoyed or were born to enjoy was next to impossible.

In a brief encounter with him one day, he narrated that when Christmas comes, he fears:  For one, he, along with his siblings and mother, spent his Christmas with only the staple on the table.  Two, he spent his Christmas with tears.  Three, he spent his Christmas with dreams.

Fear is an anticipation of pain, that’s what I told him.  In the season of advent, people across race, culture and faith find it absurd to convey fear instead of hope if one were to anchor on the true meaning of Christ’s birth.

Celebrating Christmas with the staples on the table had become the tradition in the family.  His father, a fisherman, earned meager income of survival.  His father’s catch would be divided into two; one half went to the market and the other to the table.  The proceeds of the sale, depending on the scientifically annoying supply-and-demand rationale to poverty, would answer the whole day’s three meals.  That small-scale economics would satisfy their Christmas with porridge, fish paksiw and spring water. Occasionally, a loaf of bread, a can of margarine and Pepsi would make a wonderful Christmas.

Fear is the anticipation of emptiness.  In this time of the year, the feeling of “nothingness” should be ruled out and filled in with actions to fulfill, which is the underlying meaning of Christ’s existence.  And he knew that.

Celebrating Christmas with tears was the most inexplicable ritual in his life, he mused.  When he was a kid, most of the time he spent Christmas with his brothers and sisters – and with his mother.  He never had experienced celebrating it with his father.  As far as he could recall, he would accept long-term fishing contracts for bigger catch and for a little-higher-than-the-meager pay.  Celebrating Christmas with an absentee father would mean defeating the purpose why Christians would celebrate Christmas with Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  The bible does not tell us otherwise.

He said he was and is a dreamer.  When Christmas would come, he would avoid fear and forget emptiness by dreaming the exact opposites of the realities he experienced for more than five decades now.  Forward-looking to the future, he would continue to see his self and those of his siblings as persons of stature worthy of emulation – with accolades hanging on the walls of their structures that for a long time insisted to hold that thing called “home,” a temporary reprieve from fear, tears and emptiness.

Through his golden years, he humbly narrated that he’d mitigated fear to make his own niche, at least in the industry where he excels, though erratically.  He has his own family to take care of and spend Christmas with.  At his age now, he still feels occasional fears, unleashes occasional tears but dreams most of the time.  He can’t help but look back at the porridge, fish paksiw and spring water for Christmas.

When at the height of his career, he celebrates Christmas with his family sumptuously and when it is at its lowest, he does it with the classic porridge, fish paksiw and spring water.

He shared one best lesson he learned through life:  When you are full, you have lots of friends – even acquaintances become friends; they dine and merry with you.  When you are empty, you lose your friends.  Worse, they become your attackers, your predators.  They don’t answer messages; they cut phone calls.

He hates Christmas when it comes:  He locks up himself in a room and cries his fears and emptiness out.  Literally and figuratively, he never feels happy during Christmas.  He acknowledges it’s weird and in fact wishes to re-write history and create different story of His birth.  He smiles but his eyes ooze an altered tale.

Nevertheless, he inspires his children through and through.  As the head of the family, he grips all of them like one bundle of weaker wicks creating a centrally stronger one that gives the most blazing of all lights illuminating his household.  By far, he is an example of a really startling smoldering wick I could ever imagine.

Sadly though, his is an exceptional story.  And all Christmas stories do come in varying colors:  Others painted their rhetoric with cheerfully dashing red; others elaborately adorned their narratives with fully lavishing gold or actively rejuvenating green or even purely inspiring white, or deeply moving blue.  Uniquely individual!

That was his story, a truly different one!  Do you have your own Christmas story to tell?

Deceived!

By Rolo B. Cena

Random

Dumaguete Star Informer

11 December 2016

The country has been seeing and hearing one deceptive behavior after another lately, and the signs suggest that we can expect a lot more of them in the coming days.  While most people have used deception to make something good or cover up a wrongdoing, what we are generally experiencing lately are very overwhelming that Filipinos cannot just ignore. 

Maria Schneider for instance felt deceived after shooting the scene of an infamous “butter rape” with co-lead star Marlon Brando in the movie Last Tango in Paris.  Movie director Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the 2013 video recording now circulated in the net, admitted to have conspired with Brando to do the rape scene using the butter stick as lubricant.  Bertolucci defended that he and Brando had just wanted to make the scene realistic and had wanted to let Schneider feel the rage of humiliation not as an actress but as a girl.  The movie gained its box-office success with Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Director.  Bingo!

And so goes with the lies and treasons our country has been enraged and manipulated by another political showdown on earth:  The Delima-Duterte’s soap dish that has maintained its primetime popularity rating in the country’s top terrestrial giants. 

The feisty Senator Leila Delima has denied at her best effort her intimate sexual relationship with her former driver Ronnie Dayan.  In a sudden twist of fate, the former admitted that she had an affair with the latter but defended herself in the guise of “frailties of woman.”  In a press conference, Dayan later admitted that he had an “affair” with the now-troubled senator that lasted for seven years.  Another musical note to listen to:  The Senator articulated that she could not destroy the man who has been part of her life.  Bingo!

Duterte had comprehensive information that Region 8 CIDG Chief Marvin Marcos is involved in illegal drug trade.  More than that, Duterte knew that the latter possesses tons of critical data concerning the regional arena of drug trafficking.  Nevertheless, he instructed PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” De La Rosa to reinstate Marcos as the chief.  The murder of another state witness Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte then ensued.  Bang! 

Lately, Ronnie Dayan, the former driver-lover of Senator Delima, was presented to the Senate for the hearing on illegal drug trade along with Kerwin Espinosa, son of the late Rolando Espinosa.  In his testimonies, he stated that his exchanges with the younger Espinosa happened five times in 2014.  Juxtaposing his allegations with that of the younger Espinosa, Kerwin affirmed that he met Dayan four times in 2015.  Worse, dovetailing these to the me-and-my-big-mouth hullabaloos of the adultery-drug-troubled lady would summarize to deception at its peak!

 

A classic tale of dumb-if-you-do-dumb-if-you-don’t desperate move:  Vice President Robredo resigned from the Cabinet.  And she is making a big fuss of it– along with her cohorts and fanatics.  Her camp believes that this would start the fall of Pres. Duterte.  Madam Robredo, even a simple googling would give us the information that you are not the first to resign from any Cabinet.  Gloria Arroyo, former Vice President of then deposed Joseph Estrada resigned from her post as a member of the Cabinet; Dinky Soliman did that several times, and others no longer worthy to mention.  Hey, Lady, had you been to yourself lately?

Through the years, we members of the Filipino community have always been in conflict with some of our peers.  This is so because the familiarity of everyone simply accords us the readiness to attack the other:  We knew when people are inactive, weak, or absent. These signs are what war or corporate experts need to peep through beyond enemy borders, which are actually hard to conceal, yet easy to detect.  This would require something essential and this is where deception – and its critical role come in.  When one is unable to show the enemy something that the opponent wishes to see and wishes to believe in a way that creates false impression, the enemy is seduced into deceiving himself.

Tragically painful:  Our leaders deceived us Filipinos more than once!  Marcos did that, and for this reason, he was – or were we fooled to believe that he was – named as the greatest dictator of all times, with the longest list of lies and deceptions.  Cory Aquino had allegedly a material number in her register and so with Fidel Ramos who had allegedly the most inexplicable of all.  Joseph Estrada had a number to share, too.  Gloria Arroyo had allegedly the second longest list.  Benigno Aquino III would be foolish to claim he had none.  Deceptions then, according to John J. Mearsheimer in his Book “Why Leaders Lie,” had become more than just an art; it is a science of strategy.

Sun Tzu elaborates in his book “The Art of War,” which I quote:  “Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make our enemy believe we are far away; when we are far away, we must make them believe we are near.”

Three Zoroastrian Wise Men deceived Herod – it saved the baby boy born in a manger in the Judean town of Bethlehem, who has lived and became King of the People.    

Had you been deceived lately?  Look who’s talking!