Essay Contest '07/ Katrina Nessa Abad: The media shape us into the people we are
07/18/2007
SPECIAL TO THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
This essay won one of the second prizes in the English essay contest sponsored by the International Herald Tribune/ The Asahi Shimbun. There were 670 essays submitted.
* * *
As a member of this fast-paced generation, I know that I am highly dependent on the media for mostly everything I love to do. I am just an average person with simple needs, but even so, the media has become such a big part of my life.
One of the usual ways I use the media is to learn new things. I read the newspapers every day to keep myself updated on news and current events. I am a foreign student living in Japan, so it is really handy for me that one of my country's leading newspapers has an online edition that I can access every day.
I know it is important that I keep abreast of the daily dramas unfolding in the Philippines--a beautiful, dynamic, but volatile country inhabited by highly emotional people. I also like to read international newspapers and magazines, especially because these have special features on topics ranging from science to culture and the arts, to the weirdest or coolest stuff that's probably not useful to remember but fun to file away in my brain.
Apart from information and entertainment, I also read newspapers and magazines because it helps me to hone my skills. I do not just learn new ideas; I also learn new words, enabling me to expand my vocabulary.
But more importantly, I think that reading newspapers, in particular, helps me to improve my critical thinking skills. I consciously try to practice contextualizing and objectifying what was reported in the papers to help me formulate or reformulate my analyses and make sense of what is happening in the world around me.
Every day, too, I use the media as my source of entertainment. I love to read books, watch movies and listen to the radio. That's probably normal for a lot of other people, but I recall these now with fond memories of my parents back home.
I remember that for the longest time, my father refused to have more than one television set in the house because he wanted the entire family to enjoy watching shows together. And my mother, who is a librarian, raised my brother, my sister and me to read like there was no tomorrow.
She started us off with those hardbound children's encyclopedias, and then afterward she subscribed to magazines in our names (getting mail at the age of 10 was so cool). I remember that regular visits to the local bookstore felt like such a special treat in those days.
She just now finished sewing a cloth "book" for her first grandchild; she says we don't remember, but that she did the same for us kids when we were babies so that we could freely play with pages that would not tear.
Today, with the Internet as a more advanced form of the media, I can play around with lots of things and also express myself. For example, I can both watch and upload videos of my own to show to others.
On a Web site I own and maintain, I regularly post pictures that I take here in Japan to share with my family back home.
Likewise, I can check out what is new in the lives of my loved ones when I view their Web sites.
I also have three separate online journals, more popularly known as blogs (from the term Web log). One of them chronicles my adventures in Japan, and another, more private one, holds all my secrets and my views on life.
There is more to the media than meets the eye. I probably use it in ways I am not even aware of. That is because the media is continually undergoing innovations and being revolutionized to cater to the growing needs of the masses, and its boundaries are constantly being pushed back.
Ten years ago, nobody would have imagined that the news headlines would be delivered to their fingertips, but now news alerts and even weather bulletins are accessed via mobile phones.
The main point is that by maximizing the many ways in which I can use the media, I believe that I can lead a fuller life--it supplements my education, it provides entertainment, it helps me touch base with family and friends and it allows me to creatively express myself.
The truth is, the impact of the media on my life is so great, it has helped shape me into the kind of person that I am today.
* * *
Katrina Nessa Abad is a senior majoring in English at the University of the Philippines and now studying Japanese and Japanese culture at Nagasaki University.(IHT/Asahi: July 18,2007)
Monday, July 23, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
TOFI is…
A question of UP as a state university. -Faculty Regent Roland Simbulan
A drastic change of UP Philosophy education (from providing enabling conditions for the poor but talented students to acquire quality education to a market based instrument where prices must be adjusted depending on the customer’s ability to pay). -FR Roland Simbulan
A way for UP to help itself. (The government thinks that UP is just trying to help itself upon the implementation of TOFI.)
(On the rationale of TOFI and new STFAP brackets) The dual meaning of the principle “those who can afford should pay more” is “those who can not afford should not pay!” –Student Regent Terry Ridon
Sends wrong signals
>to the hard up parents paying high tuition fees
>to legislators who will think that UP is now rich so they can reduce further the budget for UP
>hopefully, other SCUs will not idolize UP
- Student Regent Terry Ridon
As I see it, TOFI is...
A shift of burden to the students (pasaload).
A way to stabilize the funds of UP and therefore will not immediately result to improvement of facilities and increase in salary of faculties.
(According to the De Dios report, the UP Administration expects a P53.7 million increase per semester in the money collected from tuition of incoming freshmen. If the tuition increase will be implemented in all levels (freshmen up to graduating class) the money generated is up to P429.6 million which will be the yearly collection from tuition alone. This means that the money generated will surpass the income of UP from the combined fees which will be paid by the students every year.)
A symptom of state abandonment.
( “…there was nothing in the law that said the government should provide a free college education, and warned that all other state colleges may end up following UP's example because of the government's fiscal crisis.” -UP Pres. Emerlinda Roman (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Oct. 1, 2006 issue)
A manifestation of the glaring commercialization of education in our country today. (Commercialization of a basic right)
An understatement to the worsening living conditions and limited capacity of the majority of the Filipinos to afford education.
What’s more is that, we are pressured BUT the government ISN’T.
A question of UP as a state university. -Faculty Regent Roland Simbulan
A drastic change of UP Philosophy education (from providing enabling conditions for the poor but talented students to acquire quality education to a market based instrument where prices must be adjusted depending on the customer’s ability to pay). -FR Roland Simbulan
A way for UP to help itself. (The government thinks that UP is just trying to help itself upon the implementation of TOFI.)
(On the rationale of TOFI and new STFAP brackets) The dual meaning of the principle “those who can afford should pay more” is “those who can not afford should not pay!” –Student Regent Terry Ridon
Sends wrong signals
>to the hard up parents paying high tuition fees
>to legislators who will think that UP is now rich so they can reduce further the budget for UP
>hopefully, other SCUs will not idolize UP
- Student Regent Terry Ridon
As I see it, TOFI is...
A shift of burden to the students (pasaload).
A way to stabilize the funds of UP and therefore will not immediately result to improvement of facilities and increase in salary of faculties.
(According to the De Dios report, the UP Administration expects a P53.7 million increase per semester in the money collected from tuition of incoming freshmen. If the tuition increase will be implemented in all levels (freshmen up to graduating class) the money generated is up to P429.6 million which will be the yearly collection from tuition alone. This means that the money generated will surpass the income of UP from the combined fees which will be paid by the students every year.)
A symptom of state abandonment.
( “…there was nothing in the law that said the government should provide a free college education, and warned that all other state colleges may end up following UP's example because of the government's fiscal crisis.” -UP Pres. Emerlinda Roman (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Oct. 1, 2006 issue)
A manifestation of the glaring commercialization of education in our country today. (Commercialization of a basic right)
An understatement to the worsening living conditions and limited capacity of the majority of the Filipinos to afford education.
What’s more is that, we are pressured BUT the government ISN’T.
TOFI Updates
I got the figures below from the Office of the Student Regent. You may use it as a reference if you’re currently making a paper on the 300% tuition increase in UP and its implications. I asked the UPM Administration to furnish me a copy of the enrollees for this school year and for the past academic years but up till now they haven’t released it.
*note: The number of confirmants is not necessarily the number of enrollees. In UP Diliman, the number of enrollees is relatively lower to that of confirmants.
UP Unit Qualifiers Confirmants % (Confirmants)
Baguio 1162 463 39.85
Mindanao 537 90 16.76
Manila 820 450 54.88
Diliman 3813 2636 69.13
Pampanga 233 103 44.21
Cebu 550 132 24
Iloilo 1295 429 33.13
Los banos 2352 392 16.67
Tacloban 423 159 37.59
Total 11, 185 4,854 43.40%
Source: Office of the Student Regent
(UP Diliman)
I got the figures below from the Office of the Student Regent. You may use it as a reference if you’re currently making a paper on the 300% tuition increase in UP and its implications. I asked the UPM Administration to furnish me a copy of the enrollees for this school year and for the past academic years but up till now they haven’t released it.
*note: The number of confirmants is not necessarily the number of enrollees. In UP Diliman, the number of enrollees is relatively lower to that of confirmants.
UP Unit Qualifiers Confirmants % (Confirmants)
Baguio 1162 463 39.85
Mindanao 537 90 16.76
Manila 820 450 54.88
Diliman 3813 2636 69.13
Pampanga 233 103 44.21
Cebu 550 132 24
Iloilo 1295 429 33.13
Los banos 2352 392 16.67
Tacloban 423 159 37.59
Total 11, 185 4,854 43.40%
Source: Office of the Student Regent
(UP Diliman)
Now that PGH increased its rates through Memo 2006-131 which was implemented last Dec. 14, 2006 hence making the health services less accessible to the poor majority, is it then still the Ospital ng Bayan?
The same way, is UP still the Pamantasan ng Bayan, as it claimed, after it amplified its tuition and other fees making UP education less accessible?
The same way, is UP still the Pamantasan ng Bayan, as it claimed, after it amplified its tuition and other fees making UP education less accessible?
On making a stand
The role played by student councils has changed over time. From the fundamental task of promoting the welfare of the students, history has seen how this was transformed to higher forms of service- to the students in the micro level and to the Filipino masses in general.
The youth particularly the students are always in the forefront of the struggle with unrelenting vigor. They have stood up in resistance when Marcos blatantly ruled the people with hands much harder than iron. During that period, mobilizations were attended by hundreds and even thousands of youth, their fists clenched high in the air as they marched in the streets with battle cry for freedom, change and justice. Such act is crucial for it’s a way to register your position (opposition or support) on certain issues with regards to the national conditions. Mass action is a manner of showing force, too. Time and again, history would tell that collective action is an effectual way to achieve something. However, I must stress here that activism and service need not to be in the streets. Activism comes in many forms.
The repression of the people during martial law pushed the students to walk out of their classrooms in order to learn and see the reality in the streets, in factories, in the countryside and other dejected areas. They learned about the marginalized sectors and the glaring repression and exploitation. They became a potent agent for transforming the society. Alongside their resistance, they pushed forth solutions to the obtrusive political and economic crisis during the period. In the realization of their influence, Marcos ordered the deferral of student organizations and publications, except for fraternities as Marcos himself was a frat man.
Conventionally, student leaders hold activities to consolidate the students and strengthen the community spirit in the campus. It is also expected that they will represent the students in the pursuit of their interests. The question on how the students will be represented will always be answered through a democratic consultation (though this one is litigious as people have different interpretations on it). This way, the pros and cons of an issue will be discussed so that students may give their stance. However, there are instances when the student council needs to function beyond merely reflecting the students’ voice. Its role must not be confined with purely mirroring the stand of the majority for there are times that the majority is not always right especially if it obstructs the rights of the minority.
It is imperative to bear in mind that our individual standpoint will not matter if it is not voiced out; stance is futile without action.
The role played by student councils has changed over time. From the fundamental task of promoting the welfare of the students, history has seen how this was transformed to higher forms of service- to the students in the micro level and to the Filipino masses in general.
The youth particularly the students are always in the forefront of the struggle with unrelenting vigor. They have stood up in resistance when Marcos blatantly ruled the people with hands much harder than iron. During that period, mobilizations were attended by hundreds and even thousands of youth, their fists clenched high in the air as they marched in the streets with battle cry for freedom, change and justice. Such act is crucial for it’s a way to register your position (opposition or support) on certain issues with regards to the national conditions. Mass action is a manner of showing force, too. Time and again, history would tell that collective action is an effectual way to achieve something. However, I must stress here that activism and service need not to be in the streets. Activism comes in many forms.
The repression of the people during martial law pushed the students to walk out of their classrooms in order to learn and see the reality in the streets, in factories, in the countryside and other dejected areas. They learned about the marginalized sectors and the glaring repression and exploitation. They became a potent agent for transforming the society. Alongside their resistance, they pushed forth solutions to the obtrusive political and economic crisis during the period. In the realization of their influence, Marcos ordered the deferral of student organizations and publications, except for fraternities as Marcos himself was a frat man.
Conventionally, student leaders hold activities to consolidate the students and strengthen the community spirit in the campus. It is also expected that they will represent the students in the pursuit of their interests. The question on how the students will be represented will always be answered through a democratic consultation (though this one is litigious as people have different interpretations on it). This way, the pros and cons of an issue will be discussed so that students may give their stance. However, there are instances when the student council needs to function beyond merely reflecting the students’ voice. Its role must not be confined with purely mirroring the stand of the majority for there are times that the majority is not always right especially if it obstructs the rights of the minority.
It is imperative to bear in mind that our individual standpoint will not matter if it is not voiced out; stance is futile without action.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
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