Mar's problem

Mar Roxas said that he does not have to apologize for being born rich. I agree with him.

The problem though is  that his 'nyorito upbringing may not have prepared him to be the leader of a country where the life experience of the majority are vastly different from what he grew up with.

Thus when the people decide to pick a leader, they may not pick Roxas not because they are "unenlightened" but that their perspective is simply different from that of Roxas or his band of supporters.

If Roxas wants to become PNoy's successor, he should try to understand the people instead of expecting the people to understand him. And the way he will do so will show what he thinks of the people.

Fighting depression with exercise

For the longest time I have been struggling against depression - this hateful feeling of despondency, sadness and mental pain that I know is not normal and that I should not have.

Depression puts me in a state of hopelessness and prevents me from thinking clearly and being productive. I have become forgetful and unfocused and it has kept me from holding on to a job for a long time.

Still despite the temptation of taking medicine to rid me of this condition I refuse to take medication for fear of the drug's rebound effect which I fear may make my problem worse.

In my quest to find a non medical solution to depression I find the remedy that works for me is exercise and physical activity. Biking and walking a lot somehow makes me feel better. My problem with exercise though is how to get over the first few minutes of inertia and how to be consistent in exercising at least every other day.

I have even tried laughter therapy but I can not say that it worked for me. What I am sure of is that it made me feel silly. But I will not put this down completely. I read somewhere that in one psychological experiment, merely smiling, even when forced can already alter the brain and put a person in a positive frame of mind. Maybe I am just too impatient to wait for its beneficial effect.

Is it still safe?

Laguna de Bai has always been a source of food and livelihood for many people.

 But with the way we have over-exploited and abused this lake, I wonder if the food it provides is still safe to eat. Local scientists studying the lake have already warned of high heavy metal concentration in fishes in the lake.

It is unthinkable how we have allowed factories to dump their poisonous waste into this body of water that provides us food or land developers to slowly claim parts of its body. Instead of enhancing the beauty of the lake we have allowed it to be destroyed.

What consoles me though and gives me hope is the knowledge that what exists at present does not have to be permanent and that eventually we can restore this lake back to health and life giving grandeur.

Mother Nature's art and wrath

From afar, I thought that someone had simply drawn a white bell on the wall . But on closer look, it turned out to be a pattern on the wings of a moth.

We may not have time to stop and appreciate what mother nature has created and that may be fine with her. What is not acceptable though is when we continue to destroy the natural environment where we and mother nature's creation exist.

This is not merely a benign neglect. There is a steep price to pay and no one will be exempt from paying.