State of Culture

A couple of weeks ago I was at a rehearsal for a wedding ceremony. It was held in a Cathedral, and our rehearsal was scheduled next in line to a local college practicing for their Baccalaureate Mass. We were informed that our time slot was for 1:00pm - 2:00pm to use the church. However, it was way past 2:00pm when the college group began (yes, BEGAN) their practice. You can imagine how that hurt the whole daily schedule for all of us waiting. The kids in our group were getting impatient and the grown-ups were getting irritable. That meant additional expenses for snacks to pacify the children, and additional effort to keep our tempers in check.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, the college practice was over, but not before the teacher in charge had a few reminders to her group. I believe it went a little something like this:

"OK, tomorrow, when you arrive, please take the seating positions that you have now. For late-comers, since it will be unavoidable, please try to find seats where you won't cause a lot of noise getting to, to avoid disrupting the ceremony."

Oh, My God! She was seriously saying that being late was a completely acceptable thing (she was very cheery as she said those words, lol). These were college graduates in front of her, and her words implied that for her, they need not be totally conscious of time. We were taught since pre-school to value other people's time, and now, on their graduation day, she is taking it back. Punctuality is not just for school, teacher, it's going to matter a lot more out there in the real world.

I can only hope those graduates make it in time for their first job interview.

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Hypocrisy 2

On my way to work today I met a couple of interesting people. The first one was a fellow passenger on the jeep. I didn't notice her until she asked the driver to stop. People in our city usually say "Ilugar lang" to signify that they want the driver to pull over so they can get off the ride.

She said, "Ilugar lang."

Driver says, "Sa unahan lang, bawal dinhi." (roughly translates: OK, we'll pull over up ahead, it's not allowed here.)

Lady goes, "ILUGAR LANG!"

Damn, I mean she said it herself. When you say "Ilugar lang," you are actually telling the driver to find a decent place to pull over. That way, it's a lot different from saying "Stop the car!" or "Halt!"

The rest of the passengers ended up snapping at her for contradicting herself.

...

About a couple of hundred meters down the road the driver hollers to a street vendor to buy a stick of cigarette. I was thinking to myself, he's not gonna light up here...

He did. Right in front of the "No Smoking" sign on his windshield.

...

These encounters reminded me of the recent issue (well, actually it's an age-old issue) where ANOTHER college student was suspected to have died after going through hazing trying to join a fraternity. A LAW fraternity at that. I mean, what's the point of taking law when they break it even before graduating? Repeatedly, and intentionally. These people kill with no remorse.

Since 1970, there has been at least one hazing-related death on a US college campus each year(HTTP://www.greeklife.uconn.edu/hazing_stats.html)

Given that there are hundreds of campuses in the US, you figure out how many kids are murdered by the organization they're trying to join every year. It's crazy. No, it's stupid. They invite people to join them, and then kill them when they try? They're worse than serial killers. At least those guys didn't promise their victims anything.

Hazers should get far worse penalties than serial killers do.

Hypocrisy 2

On my way to work today I met a couple of interesting people. The first one was a fellow passenger on the jeep. I didn't notice her until she asked the driver to stop. People in our city usually say "Ilugar lang" to signify that they want the driver to pull over so they can get off the ride.

She said, "Ilugar lang."

Driver says, "Sa unahan lang, bawal dinhi." (roughly translates: OK, we'll pull over up ahead, it's not allowed here.)

Lady goes, "ILUGAR LANG!"

Damn, I mean she said it herself. When you say "Ilugar lang," you are actually telling the driver to find a decent place to pull over. That way, it's a lot different from saying "Stop the car!" or "Halt!"

The rest of the passengers ended up snapping at her for contradicting herself.

...

About a couple of hundred meters down the road the driver hollers to a street vendor to buy a stick of cigarette. I was thinking to myself, he's not gonna light up here...

He did. Right in front of the "No Smoking" sign on his windshield.

...

These encounters reminded me of the recent issue (well, actually it's an age-old issue) where ANOTHER college student was suspected to have died after going through hazing trying to join a fraternity. A LAW fraternity at that. I mean, what's the point of taking law when you break it even before graduating? Repeatedly, and intentionally. These people kill with no remorse.

Since 1970, there has been at least one hazing-related death on a US college campus each year(HTTP://www.greeklife.uconn.edu/hazing_stats.html)

Given that there are hundreds of campuses in the US, you figure out how many kids are murdered by the organization they're trying to join every year. It's crazy. No, it's stupid. You invite people to join you, and then kill them when they try? You're worse than serial killers. At least they didn't promise their victims anything.

You should get far worse penalties than serial killers do.