...to help save the environment!
1. Use public transportation or join carpools from time to time. For those always stuck comfortably in their cushion seats, commuting will be an adventure while carpooling will be an avenue to meeting new friends who also happen to live in your area.
2. Encourage your family and helpers to bring reusable bags for grocery instead of consuming the plastic bags. If it can't be helped, at least reuse the bags for trash cans. (FYI, Rustan's Supermarkets have these Amorsolo bags which are reusable bags with Amorsolo designs. These are for the benefit of the C.R.I.B.S. Foundation. )
3. Use the blank sides of handouts and other photocopied/ printed materials as scratch and notes. And then, sell these scratch papers to junk shops. You get to earn money as well!
4. Support stuff made from recycled materials! Such as bags made from tetrapacks or plastics, notebooks from recycled paper.
5. Yes, some are accustomed to using showers like those in the hotels. But how about using buckets and pails? It's good exercise as well with all the lifting and the bending!
6. Use rechargeable batteries instead of alkali batts for remotes (TV, stereo, Wii, etc.), clocks, toys and other wireless devices. Well, yeah, charging will consume electricity but at least no need to dispose so much batteries that contain chemicals harmful to our health and the environment.
7. Don't leave appliances turned on or even just on standby. Those little red light indicators also make use of power called vampire load.
8. If we really need the air-con to make us comfy, use the timer. This will avoid wasting electricity during the hours we won't be able to appreciate it anyway due to deep sleep. It'll also help keep us from getting too cold and waking up in the middle of the night just to turn it off or raise the temperature.
9. Encourage the use of eco-friendly lights at home. These consume less power but produce brighter lights. (One product is the Ecotone line from Philips)
0. Let's do our best to do all of the above!
Can you handle that?
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Filipino Traditions
We talked about a few Filipino national traditions in my last Theology class. There's just two things I want to react to.
First of all, the teacher gave out a comment about how we Filipinos are so well-behaved when in other countries, but so love breaking the rules in our own home country. For me, it was insulting and generalizing at the very least. First, it's not a trait unique to Filipinos. It's a behavior found in almost every nationality and ethnicity. It was insulting for me on how the teacher made it out like it was only Filipinos who are like that (though I'm sure that's not what he meant, but the way he said it implied that). Secondly, there's a logical reason to that. In one's own home country, one knows the rules, culture, and mindset by heart. Therefore, a person is comfortable about his own actions and knows how far he can bend the rules. In a foreign land, it's a whole different scenario. He's a stranger in a foreign land where the culture and rules are different. He must rigidly follow the rules because he knows that no one, or very very few people, could help him if he gets into trouble or understand his predicament. Once he gets comfortable around the rules, he'll bend them as much as he's allowed to for his own convinence. And lastly, rules in other countries (US, Europe) is very striclty enforced, and the fines are very large. Here, it's not the case. Probably a unique feature to us Filipinos, is that the cops themselves are rule breakers. I remember my History teacher telling us that we're the only country that have to bribe our police force in order for them to work. An exaggeration yes, but still has some truth in them. They're also lenient on enforcing the laws. But that's also because of our lazy government. Whatever happened to the Clean Air Act?
Another thing is that at the end of the class, our teacher asked us how normal people can live out "pagkabayani". The class stated some examples, like OFW's and paying taxes. I agreed with them on those. But when they started giving examples like segregation, cleaning up after one's self in the cafeteria, etc... , I started scratching my head. For me, the word "bayani" always meant something extraordinary. This is just probably the pessimist in me talking, but how low has our values sunk if we put something as simple and as natural as "throwing trash in the garbage" as extraordinary? It's just depressing really. I mean, if something like that is "extraordinary", then how low must our status quo be? What would the "ordinary/normal" be then? Throwing trash in the trash can isn't something to brag about, but it seems like it is now...
First of all, the teacher gave out a comment about how we Filipinos are so well-behaved when in other countries, but so love breaking the rules in our own home country. For me, it was insulting and generalizing at the very least. First, it's not a trait unique to Filipinos. It's a behavior found in almost every nationality and ethnicity. It was insulting for me on how the teacher made it out like it was only Filipinos who are like that (though I'm sure that's not what he meant, but the way he said it implied that). Secondly, there's a logical reason to that. In one's own home country, one knows the rules, culture, and mindset by heart. Therefore, a person is comfortable about his own actions and knows how far he can bend the rules. In a foreign land, it's a whole different scenario. He's a stranger in a foreign land where the culture and rules are different. He must rigidly follow the rules because he knows that no one, or very very few people, could help him if he gets into trouble or understand his predicament. Once he gets comfortable around the rules, he'll bend them as much as he's allowed to for his own convinence. And lastly, rules in other countries (US, Europe) is very striclty enforced, and the fines are very large. Here, it's not the case. Probably a unique feature to us Filipinos, is that the cops themselves are rule breakers. I remember my History teacher telling us that we're the only country that have to bribe our police force in order for them to work. An exaggeration yes, but still has some truth in them. They're also lenient on enforcing the laws. But that's also because of our lazy government. Whatever happened to the Clean Air Act?
Another thing is that at the end of the class, our teacher asked us how normal people can live out "pagkabayani". The class stated some examples, like OFW's and paying taxes. I agreed with them on those. But when they started giving examples like segregation, cleaning up after one's self in the cafeteria, etc... , I started scratching my head. For me, the word "bayani" always meant something extraordinary. This is just probably the pessimist in me talking, but how low has our values sunk if we put something as simple and as natural as "throwing trash in the garbage" as extraordinary? It's just depressing really. I mean, if something like that is "extraordinary", then how low must our status quo be? What would the "ordinary/normal" be then? Throwing trash in the trash can isn't something to brag about, but it seems like it is now...
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