In less than a week, I'll be starting fulltime work again. Guess where? In the last company that I worked for. Yup, the one that I resigned from not more than a couple of months ago. In yet another weird turn of events in my life, I was asked by my big boss, whom I never spoke with until I was asking him for his signature for my resignation clearance, to be his executive assistant. So I said yes.
Thus, no more afternoon naps starting Monday.
A part of me is excited to be starting a new job. People close to me can attest to my exciteable nature, and then the gradual losing of energy. And that's what the other part of me is afraid of. I am ningas-cogon with hair and clothes. As early as now, I am conditioning my mind to like my new job and to stay in it until the end of 2008, at least. I need to control my jobhopping tendency is what I'm saying.
So wish me luck. And lots of energy.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Vigan Trip
Bevz, Kate and I, all working on our respective theses/books, packed our bags and headed to Vigan one weekend for some peace and quiet. We stayed in a 200-year-old house and had the solitude we were looking for. We vowed to write all day and never speak to each other save for mealtimes. So we wrote some, walked around some, shopped some, chatted some, ate some, and took lots and lots of pictures!
I must say that I found a renewed sense of purpose because of the Vigan trip. I had been having a lot of self-doubts about my writing recently and the trip provided me with fresh perspectives. It was a reaffirmation of sorts for me and that was what I so badly needed. And so I was able to set these doubts aside and convinced myself that there was still hope for the novel.
It will be done.
Exhibit at WTC
This was the raket I had weeks ago where I lost my phone. For about a week, I was basically an interpreter for a Taiwanese businessman in an exhibit of tools, machines, metals, and other things that I don't normally think about. It was excruciating work. :p
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Like Wine in the River, Like Citizens of the World
This Harvard Law graduation speech was delivered months ago but I only got to read it today. I stumbled on this blog and could not help but repost it. I hope you like it as much as I did. *sniffles
(You might want to read these articles too.)
Like Wine in the River, Like Citizens of the World
Harvard Law School 2007 Student Commencement Address
Oscar Franklin Barcelona Tan (Philippines)
Delivered June 7, 2007, Langdell Hall
Dean Kagan, Vice-Dean Alford, professors, classmates, families, and friends. Let me first thank my family, who crossed twelve time zones to be with us. Let me thank my father, who was once a poor boy from our province of Negros Occidental in the Philippines. He lost his parents during his childhood, then moved to the capital and slept on my aunt's couch to study law at the University of the Philippines. I do not know if he dreamt then that he would one day watch his eldest son graduate from Harvard Law School, but I want him to know that I love him and hope he is proud of me. Let me thank my law dean, Raul Pangalangan, who was like a second father to me in the University of the Philippines, and is fortunately present here as a visiting professor. I learned all I know about integrity and principle from these two men.
Let me also thank our tireless graduate program staff. Assistant Dean Jeanne Tai, Nancy Pinn, Heather Wallick, April Stockfleet, Curtis Morrow, Jane Fair Bestor, Chris Nepple, Valentina Perez, Ashley Smith, and Sarine Der Kaloustian: This year would not have been possible without you. But let me thank all of you in the Harvard Law community for truly making us feel part of it. I know I am part of it; I was featured in the Parody.
Not so long ago, I went to John Harvard's for the first time with the British, who began chittering in an alien language. I later discovered it was actually English – the real English. I complained I was not used to cold, but a Saudi Arabian reminded me that you can fry eggs on a sidewalk in Riyadh. An Italian gave me tips on women because Italian men are the world's greatest lovers, with the disclaimer that their style does not work on American women. A Malaysian was asked to explain the religious significance of the color of her hijab, or headscarf. She would answer: It had to match her blouse. And I learned more than I ever cared to about American culture: I spent a week in Jamaica with Andy Knopp and Mike Pykosz.
Soon, we found that great substance that unites any law school: alcohol. On New Year's Eve, a Belarusian handed me a glass of vodka, but scolded me when I began to sip it. Sipping, he emphasized, is not the Slavic way. I shared a Frenchman's champagne, a Peruvian's pisco sour, a Brazilian's caipirinha, a Mexican's tequila, and a Japanese's sake. And I learned how even weak American beer enlivens an evening when you drink it with the Irish.
As for me, I come from the Philippines, a former American colony best known for Imelda Marcos's shoe collection. I remember being a six-year old watching my parents walk out of our house to join the crowds gathering to depose the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and form human walls against tanks. I remember being a twenty-year old in a different crowd deposing a different but equally corrupt president.
It was liberating to hear how a Chilean danced with crowds in the streets when Pinochet was arrested. How a South Korean prosecutor proudly stated that his country has sent two former presidents to prison. How a Brazilian, when he was six years old, was taken by his father to see a million men clamor for direct elections in Rio de Janeiro. How a Bhutanese wants to help shape her constitution after her king voluntarily gave up absolute power.
Friends, my most uplifting thought this year has been that the more we learn about each other, the more we realize that we are all alike, and the more we inspire each other to realize our most heartfelt yearnings. My single most memorable moment here came when I met South African Justice Albie Sachs, left with only one arm after an assassination attempt during apartheid. My classmate stood up and said: "South Africa is the world's second most unequal country. I come from Brazil, the world's most unequal country, and I admire how the South African Constitutional Court has inspired the progress of human rights throughout the world."
A hundred and ten years ago, it was said here that law is defined by the bad man, who cares solely about how to avoid being thrown in jail. Apologies to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,* but our generation defines law by the good man. The German Constitution emphasizes human dignity, in a continuing repudiation of Nazism. The South African Constitution promises equality, in a continuing repudiation of apartheid. The Philippine Constitution, a continuing repudiation of the Marcos dictatorship, promises social justice and the Philippine ideal that "he who has less in life should have more in law." Even in the United States, the younger Fourteenth Amendment set the stage for the end of segregation.
Countless other developing countries in Asia and Africa have constitutionalized a broad array of socioeconomic and environmental rights. We have thus outgrown the concept of law as passive restraint. Rather, law is now aspiration, law is now the catalyst that seeks to realize the full human potential of billions of good men brought low only by poverty, bigotry, oppression, and conflict.
The good man's primacy is felt just as strongly in international law. Modern instruments, even those lacking binding force, have bolstered our concepts of rights, from economic rights to indigenous people's rights to the rights of the child. The vigor seen in today's expansive constitutions must find its way into these international challenges. How can rights to biodiversity be asserted given an intellectual property regime that allows Indian basmati rice to be patented in a key export market? How can rights to environment become reality given developing countries with large populations and meager resources? How must the right to labor of migrant workers be protected given their vulnerability to countless abuses?
At the least, law must enable nations to dialogue on equal terms. At present, for example, the Filipino people are indignant that a United States Marine appealing his conviction for rape is detained not in a Philippine jail, but in the United States embassy. My people cannot reconcile this affront with the fact that even after our big white brother Douglas MacArthur retreated from the Philippines, ** my country exhibited the fiercest resistance in the Pacific War.
I cannot deny that our generation's issues will be complex, but I can guarantee that they will never be abstract, not after having a classmate who was an Israeli army drill sergeant, nor after watching my Chinese and Taiwanese classmates celebrate the Chinese New Year together, nor after having a classmate chased by gunmen out of Afghanistan. In fact, when George W. Bush's speechwriter visited, my Iranian classmate introduced himself, "Hi, I'm from an Axis of Evil country." And when he was told that the speech made a distinction between the Iranian government and the Iranian people, he said thank you and replied, "When we call you the Great Satan, we also make a distinction between the American government and the American people."
This is how Harvard has changed us. We thank our beloved faculty for raising our thinking to a higher, broader level. But even the most powerful ideas demand passion to set them aflame. The passion we ignite today is fueled by a collage of vignettes that will remind us in this crucible of life that our peers in faraway lands face the same frustrations, the same nation building ordeals, the same sorrows, and ultimately, the same shared joys and triumphs.
How do a mere 700 change the world, even with overpriced Harvard diplomas? Before a battle in China's Spring and Autumn Period, the legendary King Gou Jian of Yue was presented with fine wine. He ordered his troops to stand beside a river, and poured the wine into it. He ordered them to drink from the river and share his gift. A bottle of wine cannot flavor a river, but the gesture so emboldened his army that they won a great victory. We of the Class of 2007 shall flavor this earth, whether we be vodka, champagne, pisco sour, caipirinha, tequila, sake, Irish stout, or Philippine lambanog.
Thus, my friends – and this includes our American classmates who will soon lead the world's lone superpower – let us transcend our individual nationalities and advance law as the law of the good man in the international order. In this, let us affirm that we are citizens of the world. Maraming salamat po, at mabuhay kayong lahat.*** Thank you and long live you all.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -----
* "The Path of the Law", Harvard Law Review, Volume 10, page 457, speech delivered in Boston in 1897. "You can see very plainly that a bad man has as much reason as a good one for wishing to avoid an encounter with the public force, and therefore you can see the practical importance of the distinction between morality and law. A man who cares nothing for an ethical rule which is believed and practised by his neighbors is likely nevertheless to care a good deal to avoid being made to pay money, and will want to keep out of jail if he can."
** President William Howard Taft referred to Filipinos as Americans' "little brown brothers" when the Philippines was an American colony.
*** Traditional Filipino closing, literally, "Thank you, sirs, and long live you all."
(You might want to read these articles too.)
Like Wine in the River, Like Citizens of the World
Harvard Law School 2007 Student Commencement Address
Oscar Franklin Barcelona Tan (Philippines)
Delivered June 7, 2007, Langdell Hall
Dean Kagan, Vice-Dean Alford, professors, classmates, families, and friends. Let me first thank my family, who crossed twelve time zones to be with us. Let me thank my father, who was once a poor boy from our province of Negros Occidental in the Philippines. He lost his parents during his childhood, then moved to the capital and slept on my aunt's couch to study law at the University of the Philippines. I do not know if he dreamt then that he would one day watch his eldest son graduate from Harvard Law School, but I want him to know that I love him and hope he is proud of me. Let me thank my law dean, Raul Pangalangan, who was like a second father to me in the University of the Philippines, and is fortunately present here as a visiting professor. I learned all I know about integrity and principle from these two men.
Let me also thank our tireless graduate program staff. Assistant Dean Jeanne Tai, Nancy Pinn, Heather Wallick, April Stockfleet, Curtis Morrow, Jane Fair Bestor, Chris Nepple, Valentina Perez, Ashley Smith, and Sarine Der Kaloustian: This year would not have been possible without you. But let me thank all of you in the Harvard Law community for truly making us feel part of it. I know I am part of it; I was featured in the Parody.
Not so long ago, I went to John Harvard's for the first time with the British, who began chittering in an alien language. I later discovered it was actually English – the real English. I complained I was not used to cold, but a Saudi Arabian reminded me that you can fry eggs on a sidewalk in Riyadh. An Italian gave me tips on women because Italian men are the world's greatest lovers, with the disclaimer that their style does not work on American women. A Malaysian was asked to explain the religious significance of the color of her hijab, or headscarf. She would answer: It had to match her blouse. And I learned more than I ever cared to about American culture: I spent a week in Jamaica with Andy Knopp and Mike Pykosz.
Soon, we found that great substance that unites any law school: alcohol. On New Year's Eve, a Belarusian handed me a glass of vodka, but scolded me when I began to sip it. Sipping, he emphasized, is not the Slavic way. I shared a Frenchman's champagne, a Peruvian's pisco sour, a Brazilian's caipirinha, a Mexican's tequila, and a Japanese's sake. And I learned how even weak American beer enlivens an evening when you drink it with the Irish.
As for me, I come from the Philippines, a former American colony best known for Imelda Marcos's shoe collection. I remember being a six-year old watching my parents walk out of our house to join the crowds gathering to depose the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and form human walls against tanks. I remember being a twenty-year old in a different crowd deposing a different but equally corrupt president.
It was liberating to hear how a Chilean danced with crowds in the streets when Pinochet was arrested. How a South Korean prosecutor proudly stated that his country has sent two former presidents to prison. How a Brazilian, when he was six years old, was taken by his father to see a million men clamor for direct elections in Rio de Janeiro. How a Bhutanese wants to help shape her constitution after her king voluntarily gave up absolute power.
Friends, my most uplifting thought this year has been that the more we learn about each other, the more we realize that we are all alike, and the more we inspire each other to realize our most heartfelt yearnings. My single most memorable moment here came when I met South African Justice Albie Sachs, left with only one arm after an assassination attempt during apartheid. My classmate stood up and said: "South Africa is the world's second most unequal country. I come from Brazil, the world's most unequal country, and I admire how the South African Constitutional Court has inspired the progress of human rights throughout the world."
A hundred and ten years ago, it was said here that law is defined by the bad man, who cares solely about how to avoid being thrown in jail. Apologies to Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,* but our generation defines law by the good man. The German Constitution emphasizes human dignity, in a continuing repudiation of Nazism. The South African Constitution promises equality, in a continuing repudiation of apartheid. The Philippine Constitution, a continuing repudiation of the Marcos dictatorship, promises social justice and the Philippine ideal that "he who has less in life should have more in law." Even in the United States, the younger Fourteenth Amendment set the stage for the end of segregation.
Countless other developing countries in Asia and Africa have constitutionalized a broad array of socioeconomic and environmental rights. We have thus outgrown the concept of law as passive restraint. Rather, law is now aspiration, law is now the catalyst that seeks to realize the full human potential of billions of good men brought low only by poverty, bigotry, oppression, and conflict.
The good man's primacy is felt just as strongly in international law. Modern instruments, even those lacking binding force, have bolstered our concepts of rights, from economic rights to indigenous people's rights to the rights of the child. The vigor seen in today's expansive constitutions must find its way into these international challenges. How can rights to biodiversity be asserted given an intellectual property regime that allows Indian basmati rice to be patented in a key export market? How can rights to environment become reality given developing countries with large populations and meager resources? How must the right to labor of migrant workers be protected given their vulnerability to countless abuses?
At the least, law must enable nations to dialogue on equal terms. At present, for example, the Filipino people are indignant that a United States Marine appealing his conviction for rape is detained not in a Philippine jail, but in the United States embassy. My people cannot reconcile this affront with the fact that even after our big white brother Douglas MacArthur retreated from the Philippines, ** my country exhibited the fiercest resistance in the Pacific War.
I cannot deny that our generation's issues will be complex, but I can guarantee that they will never be abstract, not after having a classmate who was an Israeli army drill sergeant, nor after watching my Chinese and Taiwanese classmates celebrate the Chinese New Year together, nor after having a classmate chased by gunmen out of Afghanistan. In fact, when George W. Bush's speechwriter visited, my Iranian classmate introduced himself, "Hi, I'm from an Axis of Evil country." And when he was told that the speech made a distinction between the Iranian government and the Iranian people, he said thank you and replied, "When we call you the Great Satan, we also make a distinction between the American government and the American people."
This is how Harvard has changed us. We thank our beloved faculty for raising our thinking to a higher, broader level. But even the most powerful ideas demand passion to set them aflame. The passion we ignite today is fueled by a collage of vignettes that will remind us in this crucible of life that our peers in faraway lands face the same frustrations, the same nation building ordeals, the same sorrows, and ultimately, the same shared joys and triumphs.
How do a mere 700 change the world, even with overpriced Harvard diplomas? Before a battle in China's Spring and Autumn Period, the legendary King Gou Jian of Yue was presented with fine wine. He ordered his troops to stand beside a river, and poured the wine into it. He ordered them to drink from the river and share his gift. A bottle of wine cannot flavor a river, but the gesture so emboldened his army that they won a great victory. We of the Class of 2007 shall flavor this earth, whether we be vodka, champagne, pisco sour, caipirinha, tequila, sake, Irish stout, or Philippine lambanog.
Thus, my friends – and this includes our American classmates who will soon lead the world's lone superpower – let us transcend our individual nationalities and advance law as the law of the good man in the international order. In this, let us affirm that we are citizens of the world. Maraming salamat po, at mabuhay kayong lahat.*** Thank you and long live you all.
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -----
* "The Path of the Law", Harvard Law Review, Volume 10, page 457, speech delivered in Boston in 1897. "You can see very plainly that a bad man has as much reason as a good one for wishing to avoid an encounter with the public force, and therefore you can see the practical importance of the distinction between morality and law. A man who cares nothing for an ethical rule which is believed and practised by his neighbors is likely nevertheless to care a good deal to avoid being made to pay money, and will want to keep out of jail if he can."
** President William Howard Taft referred to Filipinos as Americans' "little brown brothers" when the Philippines was an American colony.
*** Traditional Filipino closing, literally, "Thank you, sirs, and long live you all."
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Busy Bee
And I thought I'd have a lot of free time after I resigned from my fulltime job. Two weeks since I've become unemployed and my to-do list seems to be getting longer. Much, much longer. And now it's September!
My last day at work was a Saturday. I had a good rest the next couple of days, feeling I deserved to at least sleep two full days before I dove into my writing commitments. So after waking up from the two-day hibernation period, the next couple of days were spent working on the Electronic Evidence module. Emer informed me that my first paycheck was waiting for me at the office and my conscience dictated that I first work on an article or two before I brave the EDSA traffic and drag myself to UP for my sweet, sweet paycheck. So I did. I have gazillions of articles left to write but at least I've already started. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes, "好的开始就是成功的一半。(A good beginning is midway to success.)" It was storming the rest of the week so I had a great excuse for being cooped up at home, cleaning the dogs' cages in the afternoons (we wouldn't want the rainwater to go to waste, would we?) and working on the e-evidence at night.
And then I got a call from a friend looking for a translator for a Taiwanese businessman for an exhibit at the World Trade Center. Naturally, I couldn't pass up an offer of a few thousands for four days of interpreting work. Never mind that I was still far from fluent in both Mandarin and Fukien. The plan was do the translating job in the morning, write the e-evidence article at night. That, of course, did not happen. I was too exhausted by the time I got home each night that all I could do was get to bed and drift off to dreamland. I am now way behind schedule on my carefully laid out timeplan for the writing assignments. (Emer, I hope you're not reading this.) But the job was done, we sold our products, I got paid. All these after I lost my phone, which happened on my very first day on the job.
So I spent the entire week being ex-communicado, my world revolving in and around the World Trade Center with its P60-hotdog and P40-Coke in can. I had no time and energy to go scouting for new phones and besides, I'd get paid at the end of the week. The universe had already decided that the money I would earn would go to buying a phone, so it seemed.
I got home on Friday with the house all locked up and dark. It turned out that Akoh was rushed to the hospital due to dizziness. Naturally I was not informed because I did not have a phone. It was like being back in the old days when you get second-hand information all because there was no way of directly contacting you.
I went directly to the Chinese General Hospital after my last day at work to relieve Nuna from her post of bantay and stayed overnight until Akoh was discharged noon of the next day. I finally had time to get myself a new SIM but without a phone, I was still pretty much out of touch with the rest of the world.
I finally got a new (okay, a second-hand) phone last Wednesday and I'm still exploring all its mysterious features. It's a 3G! Although I haven't used that yet. I wonder whom I could use it for. Besides, I will have to make sure that I combed my hair at least before starting a phone conversation if I were to use that feature. But I've already transferred songs to it! Except I don't have an earphone yet so I pretty much have to share the music to everyone within hearing distance, which by the way, Iel doesn't mind at all. That kid's world is ruled by music and dance.
Promptly after I got my phone, my body realized that I'd run out of urgent things to do and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, started playing with a harmless cold. A simple cold, of course, never kills anyone so I went to the SSS office with Akoh on Thursday to process some papers for her Philhealth benefits. By lunch, it wasn't my cold that stopped us from going straight to the hospital to complete the day's mission but a bad case of dysmenorrhea. We went back home and saved the hospital trip for another day. The dysmenorrhea took up most of my world those couple of days that I hardly noticed my worsening cold until two days after when I was no longer in pain from my monthly torture.
So I now sniffle in self-pity. I have the voice of a frog while my body aches all over and is in bad need of a really good massage.
Oh! And I have to go to Makati tomorrow to meet with my old boss (who might become my future boss again. But more on that in an altogether different blog entry). I think what I need to do now is lie down and sleep.
My last day at work was a Saturday. I had a good rest the next couple of days, feeling I deserved to at least sleep two full days before I dove into my writing commitments. So after waking up from the two-day hibernation period, the next couple of days were spent working on the Electronic Evidence module. Emer informed me that my first paycheck was waiting for me at the office and my conscience dictated that I first work on an article or two before I brave the EDSA traffic and drag myself to UP for my sweet, sweet paycheck. So I did. I have gazillions of articles left to write but at least I've already started. There is an old Chinese proverb that goes, "好的开始就是成功的一半。(A good beginning is midway to success.)" It was storming the rest of the week so I had a great excuse for being cooped up at home, cleaning the dogs' cages in the afternoons (we wouldn't want the rainwater to go to waste, would we?) and working on the e-evidence at night.
And then I got a call from a friend looking for a translator for a Taiwanese businessman for an exhibit at the World Trade Center. Naturally, I couldn't pass up an offer of a few thousands for four days of interpreting work. Never mind that I was still far from fluent in both Mandarin and Fukien. The plan was do the translating job in the morning, write the e-evidence article at night. That, of course, did not happen. I was too exhausted by the time I got home each night that all I could do was get to bed and drift off to dreamland. I am now way behind schedule on my carefully laid out timeplan for the writing assignments. (Emer, I hope you're not reading this.) But the job was done, we sold our products, I got paid. All these after I lost my phone, which happened on my very first day on the job.
So I spent the entire week being ex-communicado, my world revolving in and around the World Trade Center with its P60-hotdog and P40-Coke in can. I had no time and energy to go scouting for new phones and besides, I'd get paid at the end of the week. The universe had already decided that the money I would earn would go to buying a phone, so it seemed.
I got home on Friday with the house all locked up and dark. It turned out that Akoh was rushed to the hospital due to dizziness. Naturally I was not informed because I did not have a phone. It was like being back in the old days when you get second-hand information all because there was no way of directly contacting you.
I went directly to the Chinese General Hospital after my last day at work to relieve Nuna from her post of bantay and stayed overnight until Akoh was discharged noon of the next day. I finally had time to get myself a new SIM but without a phone, I was still pretty much out of touch with the rest of the world.
I finally got a new (okay, a second-hand) phone last Wednesday and I'm still exploring all its mysterious features. It's a 3G! Although I haven't used that yet. I wonder whom I could use it for. Besides, I will have to make sure that I combed my hair at least before starting a phone conversation if I were to use that feature. But I've already transferred songs to it! Except I don't have an earphone yet so I pretty much have to share the music to everyone within hearing distance, which by the way, Iel doesn't mind at all. That kid's world is ruled by music and dance.
Promptly after I got my phone, my body realized that I'd run out of urgent things to do and slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, started playing with a harmless cold. A simple cold, of course, never kills anyone so I went to the SSS office with Akoh on Thursday to process some papers for her Philhealth benefits. By lunch, it wasn't my cold that stopped us from going straight to the hospital to complete the day's mission but a bad case of dysmenorrhea. We went back home and saved the hospital trip for another day. The dysmenorrhea took up most of my world those couple of days that I hardly noticed my worsening cold until two days after when I was no longer in pain from my monthly torture.
So I now sniffle in self-pity. I have the voice of a frog while my body aches all over and is in bad need of a really good massage.
Oh! And I have to go to Makati tomorrow to meet with my old boss (who might become my future boss again. But more on that in an altogether different blog entry). I think what I need to do now is lie down and sleep.
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