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I didn’t mean to show regret being a Filipino. I stand by Max Ehrmann’s words in his poem “Desiderata” which goes, ” You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” For all I know I could be born somewhere among the 195 countries of this planet we call Earth and by then I would be concerned on the issues coming from my country with less emphasis on the Philippines. But since I’m a Filipino in a greater degree I feel connected and affected by what’s going on in my country of origin more than anything else in the world. The difference of talking about Philippines in a standpoint of being in a foreign country offers a clear vantage point than being on it feeling about her woes. When you are a government employee (as I used to be) there would be instinctive guilt when you hear complaints from a fellow citizen that the government is not effective in running its programs. For one thing, you feel indirectly responsible because in the actual sense you are one of the working arms of the government reaching out to the field. On the political side, there is substantial worry on your part because you know what happens when you side with the issues and not the institution.

The state of a country could be compared to a functioning human body. The brain functions to supervise the other organs and systems of the body and the skin (surrounding the whole body) sends back signals to the brain of the wise options to take following each task/movement taken. For example, if the fingers of the hand sense something hot, it will send back signals to the brain that the object to be handled is hot so the precautionary measures could be taken. The practical approach would be that the brain will command the hands to wear protective gloves so that the hot object could be handled without harm to the skin. But what if the brain ignores the signals from the fingers of the hand and stubbornly picks up the object even though it is hot? The surface of the skin will be burned and the resulting burns/pain could cause complications ranging from skin infection to other serious issues.