a cool morning

day, Feb. 6.

Shaded by his own shadow

I think it’s high time that somehow there’s something that needs to be done to people who are marginalized. Since time immemorial, people who do not have other means of living apart from begging depends on what is given to them. It now depends on the individual to ask this question to self: to give or not to give. More than likely, it’s not to give. But desperate people really don’t care about what one thinks or not. To them, it’s just a matter of statistics. The more people to beg from, the more chances of getting money out of them. After all, they don’t do anything the whole day but beg. Near our office, we even have this guy whom everybody calls “taong grasa” (Grease Guy) who is totally unkempt, both clothes and skin because of lack of hygiene. When the traffic light signals stop, he goes around the stopped cars and asked for coins. It was even rumored that when someone gives him money, especially the ones from the office, he thanks them in English with practiced words saying :”Thank you for this.” When evening comes, or during his siesta time, he sits at a curb of the office compound and counts his money: a considerable amount of it. Funny thing, he has more hard money that what I have in my wallet.

It caused me to think that begging had become a lucrative business. All you need to do is ask around for money. But it still does not remove the fact that they do it because they have no other means of getting a livelihood.

Every holiday season there are lots of mendicants who crowd the streets. They even come from rural areas by families and live beneath bridges and fly-over structures where they do their daily living. They are hoping to capitalize on the Christmas season where people have the intention to give gifts to others. They want just a taste of that spirit. Again, most of the time nobody cares to shed a single peso.

One law changes everything and Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte plans to make it happen. Presidential Decree 16563 Article 59 and 60 Section 4 states that assigned government and private institutions will apprehend all mendicants. Children and infants especially ones who are below 8 years of age who are found begging or being used as a paraphernalia of adults to squeeze mercy out of pedestrians or motorists will be taken into custody of assigned government institutions or volunteers both mandated by the government or non-profit organizations. They will see to the well fare of the apprehended children. All committed adults and children will be rehabilitated and will be taught the methods of self-reliance and livelihood. This even extends to people who are mentally unsound with the intention of addressing their mental illness.

This law is enforced by a governing body dubbed as the Anti Mendicancy Task Force. Here’s the organizational structure taken from SunStar Davao June 21, 2010 edition:

Chairperson: City Mayor

Vice Chair: City Council on Social Services

Secretariat: City Social Services and Development Office

Members will be represented from: the Department of Internal and Local Governance City Office, Women & Children Protection Desk-DCPO, barangay Community and Cultural Affairs Commission, Philippine Information Agency, City Information Office, Davao Medical Center-Psychiatry Department, United Church of Christ in the Philippines-Social Concerns, San Pedro College, Rotary Club of Downtown Davao.

These will be their functions:

All I can say that all intentions of these institutions and its functions are good. Yes, we can’t help that there are skeptics that are questioning all aspects of the program. There will be people who are phlegmatic on it. But at least there is hope for all mendicants to have a chance to give their lives an upgrade. Hope is important however small it is.
]]> http://richardbanner.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/mending-the-mendicants/feed/ 0 richard A youth beside Quirino Avenue http://richardbanner.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/remembering-b-h-liddell-hartmylot-user-profile/ http://richardbanner.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/remembering-b-h-liddell-hartmylot-user-profile/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:25:53 +0000 richardbanner http://richardbanner.wordpress.com/?p=88 ]]> There is one profound philosophy that I had learned from Liddell-Hart: No one wins by an indirect approach. Here are more quotes from the strategist.

A complacent satisfaction with present knowledge is the chief bar to the pursuit of knowledge.
BH Liddell-Hart

Every action is seen to fall into one of three main categories, guarding, hitting, or moving. Here, then, are the elements of combat, whether in war or pugilism.
BH Liddell-Hart

Guerrilla war is a kind of war waged by the few but dependent on the support of many.
BH Liddell-Hart

Helplessness induces hopelessness, and history attests that loss of hope and not loss of lives is what decides the issue of war.
BH Liddell-Hart

In reality, it is more fruitful to wound than to kill. While the dead man lies still, counting only one man less, the wounded man is a progressive drain upon his side.
BH Liddell-Hart

In should be the duty of every soldier to reflect on the experiences of the past, in the endeavor to discover improvements, in his particular sphere of action, which are practicable in the immediate future.
BH Liddell-Hart

Loss of hope rather than loss of life is what decides the issues of war. But helplessness induces hopelessness.
BH Liddell-Hart

The chief incalculable in war is the human will.
BH Liddell-Hart

The search for the truth for truth’s sake is the mark of the historian.
BH Liddell-Hart

Xenocide

The book started out from where it ended in book 2, Speaker for the dead. The protagonists are now faced with multiple challenges: Invasion; incurable epidemic; denial to access of data, information and communication. The story revolves around resolving these issues which makes it quite easy to follow and understand. What makes the book meaningful are the discoveries that were made to resolve the issues.

Characters also respond to the moment of need or creation. The plot is as simple as the story. There are few twists to it than none. Notable parts would be the discovery of the “aiua” concept; the discovery of the influence and non-influence of descolada to the pequininos; Jane’s own “aiua”; the creation of the anti-descolada and recolada; and the conception of Peter and Valentine Wiggin from Ender’s mind.

Necessity is the mother of invention. With pressure, the human mind is tapping into its creative power. More to this, the story tells us that the human mind thinks about many things until we arrive at a solution. I remember reading an article on the net about negotiation. It was discussed there that one must not hinder an opinion and all opinions are collected so there can be a selection process for the most favorable conditions for both parties.  I think people feel helpless because as they think for a solution to their problems, they are thinking that there is no possible solution to it. One must be able to unlock his imagination or ask for others’ help to collect more options for solving a dilemma.

It’s a good book to read but there’s that “something” that is not present which is evident in the first two books. Again, as with all the books that I had read before, if we over-analyze things, then we fail the to get the books intention to entertain. Relax and have a nice read.

The spoken word

without thinking about the aftermath of the word. Words have power to kill and to give life; to build or dash hopes. A discouraging word can destroy the hope of a person ultimately bringing down anything connected to it like dreams, aspirations, and enjoyment of living. Choose words carefully for words have unseen yet very much affecting aftermaths.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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Have you ever thought that even religion needs to be organized? Unless this happens, a particular religion will fall into pieces. Of course, I’m talking about religion and not faith.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
All of us are aliens bent to understand each other. One acceptable activity might be another person’s taboo; one person’s heresy might be another person’s faith. This happens in relationships. Grokking each other: some succeed, some fail. It’s an excellent story. No wonder this book won the Nebula Awards following it’s prequel a year before making Card the only one who won in two consecutive years.

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I believe that old traditions die hard; old habits are difficult to undo; but one way or another, change has to happen. This change may be a mutation of an old habit, a marriage to the new; an eradication of the old one, or an entirely astounding paradigm shift.

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Emotions are sometimes a nuisance. They sometimes tell you that you’re in a bad shape to handle something. Utterly debilitating. Yet, it tells you that you need to do some important things because emotions can be described as pain, suffering, confusion, summing up to a conclusion that a person is not at ease. A person who is in dis-ease (pun intended). The mechanism is simple. If it is something that causes you not be uncomfortable, then remove things that makes you uncomfortable.

As a mechanism, emotions form beacons to generate a plan to follow the correct course or a course that seems the right path to be happy. As humans, since the dawn of history we all have that goal to reach emotions that are happy; free of fear; free of insecurities; free of low self esteem. Basically free of all negative emotions. Nothing wrong with that. Negative emotions is simply equated with pain.

In the medical world, pain is not abnormal. It is even abnormal not to feel pain. Yet, when we feel pain, it means that we need to do something to relieve it because something bad is happening. If I stepped on a pin that’s standing upright with the puncturing tip at the top, I will experience pain and will remove my foot away from the source of pain. Instinct. Reaction.

But if we describe pain as an emotional state, then we have a chance to do something that is not instinctive and reactive. We can respond. However, looking into the meaning of these words, there is a thin line in differentiating them to the point that we can use them interchangeably. This is just my life-view of these two words, reacting tends to be more instinctive while responding requires a certain amount of analysis and thinking.

As I see it, reaction to a direct emotional pain can cause damage if we do not think on how to respond. Some might say, “When I express my anger, it’s like an explosion. After I express it, I’m ok”. Yes, it’s like a grenade, after the explosion, there are body parts all around. The damage has been done.

On the contrary, I had just read an article in the web that says couples who fight, a healthy fight, live longer (Want to read it? (Click this link http://www.livescience.com/health/080123-spouse-fights.html). These are not melees where it’s a tooth for a tooth but a path to find a resolution from conflicts. Well, the goal is to eliminate pain. Again. Yet, it seems that we can never be without emotional pain. It’s a part of our existence.

I think we just need to find a balance on expressing our pain. Maybe we can find ways to express it in a healthy manner. After all, we can get benefits from finding solutions. There is always a way, we just need to find it.

I was just saying.

Take that!

Simple words, powerful meaning.

During training, one of the first things that I tell my trainees when they are talking with customers, is that they need to consider three most important things: Acknowledge, Empathize, and Assure.

When people call service providing companies, it’s more than just the product or the service that they are getting. We had one important aspect of communication to be conscious of: It is the human emotion. The tendency of a newbie is to go straight ahead to the troubleshooting steps. Customer service is not only about fixing technical problems; customer care is not only the exposition of policies and procedures; but it’s understanding how these policies affect the consumer and, if I may say this, troubleshooting a frustrated person’s emotions. We fix machines, we accommodate people. Without acknowledging, empathizing, and assuring, we are building a communication barrier with a person.

It’s so simple yet even I sometimes fall prey to not doing these important verbs. These are the basic ethical standards of caring for customers. Come to think of it, these principles can also be applied in our day-to-day lives. Most of frustrations are agitated because the frustration that one is experiencing is not being acknowledged. Frustration will lead to anger, and from there it’s just a downhill slide to talking with an irate person. Acknowledgment prevents this snowball effect in communication whether it’s a business transaction; a deal -negotiation; or event just trying to get yourself heard. One needs to know what the other is feeling and just plainly, explicitly, proactively mention that you have the knowledge of what the other person is feeling.

It’s a bit funny but I find this statement a reality: do not say “I understand” because you don’t. I usually say to my trainees not to say phrases such as “I understand” or “I know how you feel”. I had talked with irate clients and hear responses such as “No, you don’t understand”, which is likely true. I had not experienced the same thing that my client had experienced; how would I really understand? Instead, one must know that a current situation (i.e. poor service, bad product, overdraft charges, etc.) leads to a person’s frustration. We need to empathize. It is to identify another person’s feelings, not necessarily experiencing those feeling yourself. An analogy, you don’t need to cry when the other person that we’re talking with is crying. It’s this statement that embodies empathy: I may not have experienced what you are encountering right now however I now it’s the cause of what you feel right now.

Never fan the flame of frustration by giving more doubts. Assurance is presenting a very optimistic outlook in the conversation; making others feel that everything’s going to be alright. It’s banking on good hopes. On another side, people usually are stressed out because of dwindling hopes. There’s nothing bad when you say that after your conversation the issues will be resolved. Just set the expectations if you discovered that you might not be able to handle the situation (and transfer to other department) while continuing to assure the member that you are doing your best to do something about it. Do not forget to convey that sense of urgency that you want the situation fixed as soon as possible.

Just keep in mind that in your conversation, we need to do these: Acknowledge, Empathize, Assure.