Bandology

I have one history professor who said that she is not against vandalism. She believes that written comments weave the history and reflect of the lives of the people. In UP, vandalism is commonly found on the walls of the CR and on the armchairs. This is a glimpse of the pages of UP vandalism. The best ones make us smile and think about our college experience.


Fine Arts bldg:

"nobody cares"
me sumagot:
"not even the carebares?
"then another: "not even kier?
"then: "not even zoren?"lastly:
"not even zorro?

"PALMA HALL (A.S.):
A.S. chairs:"push button to eject seatmate"
"push button to eject urself"
"push button to kill teacher."
"push button to eject teacher"....reply:
"it's jammed! We're doomed!"

A.S. 1st floor CR:"if you forget the past, then you porget the purious..

"CHEM Bldg.:Chem chair:
"push button to spray acid on prof's face.

"Another chem chair: "You Boron!!!"

MATH:sa cr sa may math building: "SUMAPI SA NPA!
"may sumagot: "PAANO?
"may sumagot pa: "MAGFILL UP NG COUPON AT IHULOG SA PINAKAMALAPIT NA DROP BOX SA SUKING TINDAHAN"

sa math 3rd floor, sa isang upuanuli: "you'll NEVER find what you're looking for
"May nag-reply: "find x."

3rd floor math cr: "kaibigan, pagkatapos mong umihi, paki PLUS mo
naman

"VINZONS:Wall ng vinzons: "Do not steal. The government hates competition"


men's cr sa Vinzon's: "remember, the hands that clean this toilet are the same hands that cook your food."

One by one
He took them all
All the things I valued the most
Until I was empty handed
Every glittering toy was gone
until I am reduced to rags and poverty
I heard His voice inviting
To lift my empty hands to heaven
And God filled them with blessings
Until they are so full they can’t contain anymore
And I realized
How can you receive God’s blessing if your hand is already full


I was having the blues,
Because I have no shoes.
Until I saw a man in the street,
Without any feet.

Sometimes you can feel everything is being taken from you. All the things that can make you happy. Your dreams, your possessions, your ambitions. Until you have nothing.

Having nothing can be a source of big frustration. Or a source of inspiration. You will never realize that God is all that you need until God is all you have.

There was once a Greek philosopher, who lived a very simple life. It was so simple he did not have any house or villas typical for a man of his status. One day Alexander the Great approached him and said “What can I do for you?”. Guess what was the philosopher’s answer. A big house, a vast land to rule, or the prettiest Greek damsel.

“ You can step away. Your blocking the sun.”.

Possessions can possess us. What is the value of a very expensive mansion if you worry night and day about burglars? If wealth is meant to bring security, it can also bring unnecessary worry. It reminds me of an old woman who has a small makeshift stall selling coffee and other food items in a street in Iloilo. Her “home” does not have a door, it does not have the lavish furnishings in lifestyle magazines. I now ponder where is her comfort room. But she is living, and she appears content.

Things should serve our purposes, not us serving things.

Apathy is about whatever y best efforts produce, it will never be enough to make a difference. So why bother?

Never underestimate the power of one.

You only need to change one person in order to change the entire humanity. Coelho said that, and I agree with him. On a slightly different wording, it was also mentioned in the movie Schindler’s list “He who saves one person, saves the world entire…”

Doing something good, doing something positive, doing something life changing are all important, regardless of scale. It is the little things that make the difference.

One good deed has a ripple effect. What a simple person thinks is an insignificant action can inspire other people to do more things.

Many things changed because one person dedicated himself to doing what is right.

Gandhi spearheaded the non-violent protests of India. One person was able to move an entire nation to a peaceful resistance. Others eventually followed.

Mother Theresa acted alone when she tried to comfort the dying and the neglected in India. Others eventually followed.

There are a lot of issues and problems in our society waiting for the power of one.

That one can be you. And others might eventually follow.

I asked a friend who lives in US to buy me the yellow wrist band.

Live strong.

The yellow wrist band is the symbol of Lance Armstrong. Lance was diagnosed with testicular cancer and was already in the advance stage, the cancer cells already spread (medically known as metastasis) to the lungs and the brain.

But he went on to win the Tour de France for a number of consecutive years. He did not allow his condition determine how he would spent his life but went on winning.

It is possible to win at any circumstances. Emerson was right “ From our weakness, grows our strength…” Winning begins with a positive mental attitude. Lance rose above his circumstances to make a difference. He even created a foundation to raise funds, and the wrist band is one the income generating mechanism he thought of.

Coelho in his blog has an article on how God uses disease to teach us about health. Being sick teaches a lot of things, wallowing in self-pity is not one of the lessons. If you are sick, whatever disease it is, you must courageously face life. If you are dying, face death courageously. But do not resign to dying, but go on living. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. Face each day as another gift from God, and decide how He wants you to live it.

I recently bought a Dag Hammarskjold book, Markings. I first encountered Dag on a quote from the Ayala Young Leaders Congress.

Your own path
You will follow it
You own truth
You will discover it

This was quoted in the letter of Sir Monchito, the congress director of AYLC. I consider sir Monchito my guru in leadership,particularly servant leadership. He is our Master Yoda,the repository of wisdom through the years.

Markings is a diary posthumously published. It contains short bits of reflections, an internal struggle between God and man. There are also a bit of poetry, particularly haikus. Dag was fond of the seventeen syllable structure of the Japanese poetry.
Here are the quotes I find very interesting.

Do what you can-and the task will rest lightly in you hand, so light that you will be able to look forward to the more difficult task ahead of you.

Live you individuality to the fullest not for yourself but for the good of others.

You have never done enough as long as you can still contribute something of value.

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.

Life only demands from you the strength you possess.

We are not permitted to choose the fame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

Goodness is something so simple: always to live for others, never to seek one’ own advantage.

How humble the tool when praised what the hand has done.

Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.

Not I, but God in me.

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn
From your heart, even as if your beloved
Were to wear that clothe
It is to build a house with affection,
Even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house
It is to charge all things your fashion with a breadth of your own spirit
Work is love made visible.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger
and if you grudge the crushing of the grapes,
your grudge distils a poison in the wine
And if you sing though as angels,
And love not the singing,
You muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night
-Khalil Gibran

Work must be a source of fulfillment. Work must create the smile and the strong urge to leave the bed and go accomplish the daily task. The greatest reward is not the paycheck, but the sense that our work is doing something to make a difference.

And if your current job makes you think of the words suffering, boredom, frustration, angst and bitterness, it is time to browse Jobstreet and the classified ads.

But before you do that, you must first check what you really want to do.
Write the things you love to do. The things that make you feel excited and enthusiastic. Do these things exist in your current work? And what will guarantee that these things will be in your next work?

Or perhaps you want your work, but there are also other things you must pursue. Then you must be willing to pay the price. Some people are creating barriers to their happiness. They want to go to the moon, but they are too afraid to abandon earth. Each dream has a price. Are you willing to pay the price in order to get the source of your happiness and fulfillment?

Aristotle said you are what you repeatedly do. If you are repeatedly doing the work that is not you, well, the choice is yours. You have the freedom to do the work that expresses your personality. You cannot say, I have no choice. You create your own happiness. That is your source of power, the ability to decide and determine the course of your life. You are the captain of your destiny.

Graduation for veterinarians is different.

Unlike other courses who can afford to rest for a while before going to work, veterinarians have to face the board exams before going to work. And the preparation starts even before graduation day. Graduation day appears as an interruption to review sessions. I can blame the very late graduation date of UP (ours was the second week of April, while other schools usually have it in third week of March).

I was tasked to deliver the valedictory address. But this is a bit different. I did not have the absolute freedom to say whatever I wanted to say. It must be a collective message of the entire batch. As mush as I want it to be personal, I can’t simply do that.
The current scenario in our time was a mixture of pressure and high hopes. The preceding year’s record was the worst for the entire history of the college- another school edged U.P. on the percentage passing in the board exam. Our batch was to redeem the prestige and glory of the college.

I drafted my speech, but I deviated a bit upon the delivery. My speech, I was later told by my batchmates, was even better than the speech of the university valedictorian.Here are few things I said on that day.

I view life, not what it is, but what it can be. And it is not easy to live that kind of philosophy. Living a life as it can be means a lot of sacrifice. For my part, it meant asking other people to help me, by asking for favors, by borrowing things I needed…

Many times, I prayed, why do I feel so deprived? I do not have everything I need. Then God answered me with this verse “Never will I forsake you, never will I leave you…” What I do not have, I do not need, what I need, God has always provided me.

Then I realized, life is not about possessing things, it is about sharing. It is not about competition, it is about cooperation. it is not being the best, it is doing what is best for others.
I then understood the significance of this verse in my life “ My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…” When I was weak, I asked God to be my strength.When I had nothing, God provided me everything.

We are accepting the challenge. And we will do beyond our best to meet your expectations. I told my batchamates who said “ We are not inspired, we cannot review for the board exams…” . Do not wait for inspiration to come. Just do it. You have to challenge your excuses. Challenge your excuses.

No person crosses the same river twice. This is also true for literature that we read. New thoughts seem to appear from the same words. Maybe, our new set of experiences makes us see the same words in a different light. After my resignation, I found time to reread my books. I divide my books in two generations, the one I purchased when I was a student and the ones after graduation. The ones purchased during my college years were from my meager stipend as a UP Presidential Leadership scholar. Those books are usually from thrift shops. The ones I purchased after graduation are from the more expensive bookstores. Between buying clothes and buying books, I prefer books. Books are portals to vast galaxies of information and experience.
The book of Swindoll remarkably moved me when I reread it. I quoted the poems he used to drive his points on humility and anonymous service.

I wonder
If you asked me to wash
The calloused feet
Of a bent and wrinkled
Old woman
Day after day
Month after month
In a room where nobody saw
And nobody knew

It is a candid examination of the driving factors in one’s action. Dag also posed the scenario with a more direct statement. For the glory of God, or for the glory of yourself. For the good of others, or for your own good. The answer will determine your actions.

I am like James and John
Lord, I size up other people
In terms of what they can do for me
How they can further my program
Feed my ego
Satisfy my needs
Give me strategic advantage
I exploit people
Ostensibly for your sake
But really for my own sake
Lord, I turn to you
To get the inside track
And obtain special favors
Your direction for my schemes
Your sanction for my ambition
Your blank check for all my wants
Change me, Lord
Make me a person
Who asks of You and others,
How can I serve you?

Solving the world’s problems has become a popular job choice.

People are opting to create career opportunities that help alleviate the suffering in the world. These are the jobs that enable a person to earn profit and make a difference at the same time.

Yunus is the womb of the great idea. People who are poor are denied the access to loans. Loans require a collateral. Poor people usually does not have any to the requirements to make them eligible for typical bank loans. Grameen Bank provided a poor man’s loan. But, with a system that ensures people will be pay due to community pressure. Loaners are grouped into clusters, and any delays in payments of one of the group members suspends the rights of the other members of the group. Several microfinance institution have sprouted in the Philippines following the design of Yunus.

The Philippines has its own share of social entrepreneurs. Ilaq Diaz explored the solutions in housing problems in the Philippines. He stumbled upon earth bag construction, the centuries old technology that uses soil as the building material . Soil is abundant and is readily available.

The appeal of social entrepreneurship is on its ability to create business opportunities while solving the different problems of the world.

Social entrepreneurship deals with the basic necessities. In many areas, water is a concern. A person presented with these might think that multimillion high technology project is the solution. On the contrary, many places are going cheap and low technology. Some areas are reviving ancient waterways thousand of years old.

How can I be a social entrepreneur?

1. Find a pressing need. There are a lot of problems that so many writers and people complain about. But few people choose to act. Stop complaining and start finding the solution. I can think of poverty, unemployment, and poor quality of education as a possible set of example of the problems.
2. Search for a solution. There are so many simple solutions to almost all the problems and are readily available in the internet. The wheel does not have to be reinvented. Solutions from other countries can be modified to suite the local setting.
3. Execute your plan. Go for other people who can help and give you advise and resources. Do not try to do it on your own.

I believe in miracles. And I believe in making them happen.

The cynics might retort, miracles are impossible on a rational world governed by scientific laws. Everything has an explanation. Only desperate and ignorant people believe in miracles. Walang himala, as the immortal lines of Vilma Santos says.

But everywhere, scientific persons are experiencing unexplainable events, on a regular basis. I am thinking of medical doctors. Doctors, based on medical knowledge and experience develop what is termed as pattern recognition. Previous encounters make them thoroughly familiar with the disease. It is like a movie you have watched; you can tell what will be the sequence of events. This enables them to make a prognosis, of prediction of outcome. This prognosis is accurate. Well, most of the time. But there are stories of unexplainable outcome, even to the doctors themselves.

Yes, those are miracles. Acts of faith, beyond our greatest expectations and beyond our imagination.

Everyday, miracles are happening. If you believe in God, and if you believe in His power, power to do anything good, then why are you denying the idea?

But I am not sick, these miracles can’t happen to me. We often times limit God on our preconceived notions. We define miracles as supernatural events like dividing the water or walking on water or being safe with hungry lions. But God can act on all aspects of our lives, on our career, on our studies, on our lovelife and even on our hairstyle. God is beyond the laws of nature. He is beyond time and space.



Ok, perhaps God is a daily miracle maker. But miracles seldom happen to me. Stop and analyze all those seemingly desperate situations. Somehow, you were able to manage to go through. Remember the pleasant surprises and the many unexpected turn of events.

Each day is a miracle. And each one of us is given so many wonderful chances of experiencing the numerous disguises of the blessings.

How about the suffering of the world , poverty? Why can’t God create a miracle to solve everything?

You are right. God can do a miracle to solve the suffering. And He already did. That miracle is you. Gandhi was right, the difference between what we do and what we can do is enough to solve the world’s problem.

I remember this movie of Jim Carey, Bruce Almighty. The last statement of God to him was”You want a miracle? Be a miracle.”

Making everyday a celebration.

Those words were etched on a metal plaque displayed on one of the walls of the San Miguel Management Training Center in Tagaytay. San Miguel’s motto caught my attention. Why not make everyday a celebration?

The idea is so appealing for a beverage and food company. Filipinos equate celebrations with food. Good food. (Too good that I myself imagine gorging on buco salad, calderata,letchon and the likes while I’m writing this article.) Good food necessitates expenditure. It seems, one of my classmates in college remarked, difficult to enjoy life if you don’t have any money to spend on the things you want to buy. Happiness has a price, and she imagines, poor people can’t possibly afford it.

How much does it take to be happy? I wrote a few things that create the rainbows and sunshine in my life.




1. reading a classic while sipping hot coffee Php 40.00
2. having a good conversation with an old friend Php 0.00
3. saying I love to you to the person I love Php 0.00
4. going to a garden show and appreciating the rare orchids Php 20.00
5. writing poetry Php 0.00

Receiving a compliment, according to Mark Twain could make him go on for two months. And such things are beyond monetary values. Clearly, happiness is within the grasp of anybody, across the income brackets. The Philippines might rank way below the world’s top twenty in term of per capita income, but it holds the distinction of being the 17th happiest place on earth.


Happiness is never reserved to the people with the most money. Some people who have money, eventually, after having so much of it, eventually realize there is a limit to enjoying their money. Gokongwei eventually distribute his money to scholarship grants, and Bill Gates is doing the same. Bill Gates is the greatest philanthropist of all time. His foundation is already credited with the saving of millions of lives through vaccinations.

If having lots of money is the peak of happiness, how come these people are finding fulfillment in sharing their money?