AYALA Competition Entry

These are just snapshots of my entry to the Ayala Dreambuilders Design Competition... this was last year... 1st prize yan hehehe

Divisions in Philippine Society

I had a ym conversation with a good friend, Monica who has left the Philippines and re-migrated to Spain, yes she is Spanish, but a true citizen of the world. Basically, the conversation made me realize just how deeply divided our country is. In the States, the main divisions are mainly along race lines… the black, white, latino, asian lines are defined by the color of your skin and what language each group speaks… they aren’t as divided in terms of class or economic lines because the United States has a dominant middle class.

 

Our country on the other hand, if you look closer has a really whacked-up society, these are just a few of our divisions:

 

1.      The Economic divisions = Mayaman at Mahirap …. Very few middle class kasi

2.      The Race divisions = Mestiza, Chinito, Moreno/Mullato (for the rich brown skinned folk) and Nognog (for the masa) <no offence meant!>

3.      The Regional divisions = The manileno, ilocano, kapampangan, bikolano, bisaya, ilonggo, batanggeno, etc. – which is really part of our clannish tribal mentality.

4.      The Religious divisions = The Christian majority … which in itself is divided among the Catholics, the Iglesia, Mormons, Born-again, Baptist, Adventist, Anglican, Dating Daan (YEMEN!) <again… peace tayo mga followers ni Bro. Eli> and then the Muslim community pa…

5.      The familial divisions

6.      Oh and on a lighter note, nandyan narin yung Media Divisions = Kapamilya o Kapuso, MTV or Channel V…

 

So what does all this mean? Well, it just goes to show we have a very rich socio-cultural fabric, but what’s so sad is that this is the main reason we can’t seem to get our act together as a country, because in the first place, ask anyone on the street the question “Ano ka?” They’ll probably answer …. Tao! (if he’s pilosopo), Atenista (malamang if he’s from ateneo), Ala eh! Batanggeno (if he chugs 5 gallons of beer and plays with switchblades) <again no offence to them… Jords… peace tayo pare!> ….

 

Rarely will you get an answer saying: “Pilipino ako” <again, kung pilosopo yung tao, sasabihin niya … eh ang labo ng tanong mo eh> but then that’s beside the point.

 

I grew up as a bystander/observer to these things, going to DLSZ for my elementary and secondary studies, and seeing how the top 5-10% of Pinoys live, while myself coming all the way from a middle/working class neighborhood in Paranaque… with an ultra-conservative and Chinese/Ilocano family upbringing, I was in a unique position to see these cliques and divisions. Sometimes, during my stay in Zobel I felt that there were invisible class lines and exclusions to people like me, who weren’t exactly part of the Ayala Alabang community, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitter or anything, because, without going through these experiences, I wouldn’t have been who I am right now, and I wouldn’t have wanted to strike out on my own in UST and go out of my old comfort zone and try to discover what the rest of society is all about. In retrospect, that’s probably why I learned to grow an emotional and social armor around myself and do and like all sorts of off-stream/obscure things (such as learn the clarinet, like American football, learn programming) because I wanted to define myself as better or at least different from the pervading cliques.

 

When I got to UST, I got the culture shock of my life, especially with my college, which used to be CAFA (College of Architecture and Fine Arts) we had a crazy mix of bohemians, rockers, artistes, and (just simply) weirdos… everyone in Arki had a slight weirdo-on-the-edge kind of feel mainly because we were more constrained and limited by what can be physically done.

 

So… what am I leading to… basically, I found the middle ground in UST, I met people who weren’t exactly coming from exclusive educations, rich families or Spanish heritages… they didn’t revolve around the same clique as Ateneans or Lasallians… but what I realized is that … You really don’t have to come from those “exclusive” schools to be classy and to have a proper upbringing… It was a humbling experience for me, and because of this, it has made me more sensitive of the huge disparities in Philippine Society. I guess being in the middle makes you see who is on top and who is below much better than anyone else, at the same time, being in the middle gives you the unique position/opportunity to make a difference and bring those two together…

Journal Topics that I'm itching to write about...

One of my main frustrations is the fact that I always run across some great topics for my journal, but I always end up not being able to write about them and follow it through, now for future reference ... things I really want to write about in the future, but I'm just not in the mood to talk about them right now (in my most artsy-fartsy, bohemian writer cum architect cum artist tone):

1. Sell-out architecture/Commercial Architecture vs. Good Architecture

2. Being square/boring is good!

3. Nationalism and Discrimination of the local Filipino-Chinese (thanks to Mac)

4. U2's rock opera style

5. Me as a thesis tutor/adviser (helping out 5 students with their thesis) - the lessons that I would love to impart to them.

6. My overall design philosopy - Contextual Determinism

7. High School Stratification/Cliques

8. Class Lines in Manila

9. Love and Reality/Pragmatism

10. The Contradictions of Pluralist Ideology

11. China ! - The Country not the female wrestler

12. Religion/Faith - sects

13. Metropolitan Traffic in Manila

14. Dumbass, Good for nothing mayors... not to mention... really dumb legislation regarding MMDA.

15. Engineers vs. Lawyers... Doers vs. Talkers...

16. Architect - Client Relations... should architects just roll over for their client's desires and follies.

17. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged - The correct definition of ego.

Obviously... I have a lot of things and ideas that I'd love to tackle... I hope to write about these things soon.

 

New Thinkpad

I am typing this on my new Thinkpad, which I was able to buy at a ridiculously low price of 42k, well it is relatively low, compared to how other similarly spec’d branded laptops in the market… the difference? Its parts and components are made mostly in Asia, in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, with more expensive parts coming from Taiwan and Japan… All of these brought together and assembled in China. What does this mean? It means China has busted down the doors of production quality discrimination and stepped into the “quality” psyche of consumers and producers.

 

Kudos to Lenovo Inc. for purchasing IBM’s PC division, this is a huge development in Asian business, considering that IBM started the whole PC boom, its kind of ironic to see an Asian company buy them out. Maybe IBM realized that they were better off with letting themselves focus on their core competency, which has always been the big, mainframe/server business, and letting their smaller, consumer/personal computing division go to a more production-savvy Lenovo, which has China’s production muscle as part of its main business arsenal.

 

What do all of this mean? Well, simply put, watch out for a flood of cheap, branded, quality PCs and notebooks from China. This will energize the local and regional electronics sector and bring about a wave of democratization of IT technologies throughout more backward and rural areas of Asia, particularly the mainland.

Come here little guppy !!!!

A380 take-off with learjet lead plane

Waiting for take-off...

Now... continuing my train... or... plane of thought... hehehe

I feel like an A380 fully fueled with the flaps down and the brakes off, lined up at the end of a long runway ready for take-off... but the control tower hasn't given me clearance yet. I really hope ALI finally set a date for my interview this week.

When I was in high school, in the midst of deciding for what I want to do for my career, I actually gave aeronautical design/engineering some thought. But the thing is, the opportunities for that profession don't sound so optimistic, especially here in the Philippines.

So I got into architecture, and don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing right now, its just that I really want to be able to fly a plane someday. Oh well... in the mean time, I've kinda adapted a subversive design "image" in terms of my architecture... which, as one of my profs mentioned... "You're buildings look like they're about to take-off" hehehe ... which really is a compliment for me... because I guess... thats what I've been wanting them to do in the first place.

Now... about flying... Looks like I'll be travelling with my mom to attend my cousin Miguel's wedding in Vancouver. I'll be leaving in 2 weeks, and I can't wait to get out of Manila's heat. Hopefully, ALI calls na so I can clarify how long I can stay in YVR...

 

On the tarmac...

 

Kudos to the Airbus A380 design team... what a huge bird... hehehehe... it took off with a learjet observer/spotter plane ahead of it, and it seemed like it was about to gobble the poor thing up.

That is one of my frustrations in life, being a kid, and being blessed/allowed to travel the world at an early age opened my eyes to the wonders of flight. Nothing compared to the rush of take-off... well we always travelled stand-by (because my mom used to work for an airline) and because of that, we usually get stuck in airport departure lounges and check-in areas waiting for the clearance to board the flight. I really didn't mind the wait, because I always carried around a small steno notebook and I'd find the nearest curtain wall window and just sketch whatever new aircraft I see.

Its sad that for a lot of people, getting on a plane is almost the same as getting on a bus. hopefully, with the a380, this is going to change, hopefully it will bring back the glory and glamour days of air travel.