Rudeness

Is rudeness now the norm than the exception in this country?

Last weekend, I went to take a walk in the nearby mall. It was packed with people of all sizes and yet there were some children running around and making a ruckus. One boy bumped into me and even tried to push me aside. I was taken aback and in reaction I looked for his adult companion who was nowhere to be seen. As I walked away, the same boy bumped into me again and this time I told him to stop running around as the place was not a park. Instead of listening to me, the boy tried to push me again, I repeated my request. A young woman approached me and pulled the boy away. No "sorry" or "excuse" and they left without even looking at me.

This led me to thinking: How many times have I been subjected to such rude behavior? Not once, but many times. I am not even sure if I were guilty myself.

Just recently, I went to attend a wedding in a Catholic church and there was this woman who works for the church giving instructions to the people. Being a church worker, you would expect that she would be patient and courteous but no. She was barking at people, treating us like we were some insignificant matters.

There was also this female salesclerk in a computer shop who wouldn't even answer your question about their product simply because she believes you will not buy. I did buy the product from the same store after somebody else assisted me. I overheard the first clerk told her co-worker that I was her client first. I smiled at her and told her that she didn't want to help me so how could I be her client.

I wonder where the boy got the idea that it is okay to bump other people and even try to push them aside when they want to. I just hope that the boy would learn someday how to say sorry or excuse me even if his adult companion do not think it's necessary.

Let's hope he won't grow up like that church woman or that salesclerk.

Update no. 1

A belated happy new year to everyone. I know 2009 is almost three weeks old but I've been quite busy during the holidays. The schedule was quite hectic but fun. Fun because our family got together again after a number of years. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of our parents wedding. Not only was it a reason to have a reunion but it was also a great excuse to dress up in formal wear.

For my sisters who came from different parts of the globe, it was also time for a grand vacation, and it was quite a vacation. For one we travelled 18 hours by road to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, stopping along the way to visit Paoay, Batac, Laoag Bangui and Vigan. I hope the kids learned something about the country of birth of their parents.

The trip also confirmed my belief that the beauty of the Philippines is not in its cities but in the countryside. We were treated with scenes of green rice paddies, flying birds and happy people.

Speaking of people, it seemed that a lot of people from the cities flocked to the northern part of Luzon during the Christmas break. It was a long vacation for many folks so they must have taken the opportunity to pack their bags and go to the North. What happened was during our stay in Vigan, we had a hard time looking for a place to stay. Blame me for not making a reservation before making the trip. Luckily, we found a place to stay in a highway hotel!

After the trip, we promised ourselves that the next time we go to Ilocos, we'll take the plane.

At the end of the day...

I was watching the reunion show of the Project Runway Philippines last week which had designer Rajo Laurel answering questions of the designers and viewers. I can't help but notice that his last sentences always began with, "At the end of the day..." Then some of the designers talked about their experiences and it was the same case, they end their remarks with a sentence starting with "At the end of the day..."

This lead me to think whether this is the new expression, "At the end of the day..." What do they actually mean by this phrase? Can't they just say, "Ultimately" or "In the end"?

In a showbiz oriented talk show, I hear this teenstar say "At the end of the day, kami din ang makakaalam..." Huh?

I bet they heard this phrase used somewhere and they think it makes them sound... intellectual. But these things are not to be used lightly.

I guess that soon, "At the end of the day" will take its place alongside such showbiz created expressions such as "in fairness", "actually", "you know...", "it's like..."

National Bookstore Sale

I always pass by a National Bookstore Branch on my home from the office. Last August, it announced a sale of its books with prices cut by 20 to 70 percent. It got me so excited of course, hoping I'd be able to get the books I wanted at lower prices.

The most exciting part of the sale, though is the P99 bin. I found a lot of books there that I've always wanted to buy but were so expensive. Most of the books are hardbound editions so it was quite a steal to get copies of books.

Thanks to National Bookstore for making one of my passions more affordable.

What Happened to Milk?

I am not a big fan of milk. I don't drink milk because I have lactose intolerance since I was a kid. But my brother drinks lots of milk. Even today when he's fully grown, he still drink the white stuff before he goes to bed. He said it relaxes him.

Though I am not a milk drinker, I encourage people, especially young children to drink milk. It's a complete food, you get Vitamin A for good vision, Vitamin D for your bones and teeth, Vitamin B for over-all wellness and lots of other minerals and micro nutrients. So if there's one food item that needs to be in the grocery list, it has to be milk.

But milk has become complicated today. There are so many brands (one celebrity endorser says, "ang daming milks (sic)"). Each brand has so many claims about having this and that to increase your child's growth, brain power, etc. One even has the temerity to claim that it can make your child a gifted child. Parents now are faced with the dilemma whether they're giving the right milk to their kids or not.

While milk is essentially one of the most nutritionally complete food available, its reputation was never unblemished. There have been instances that milk was blamed for the spread of diseases including tuberculosis. Thanks to the process called pasteurization, some of the bad bacteria that comes with milk have been minimized, if not eliminated.

Just this week, however, milk has become the object of another health scare. But it's not because of its own doing but by men.

In China, hundreds of kids got sick after consuming milk contaminated with melamine, a substance used for making plastic ware. News reports say that melamine contains compounds that added to milk, will make the milk register a higher protein content when tested.

This contamination caused kidney stones among other ailments in hundreds of babies in China. Some eventually died after their organs failed.

This caused the supermarkets here to withdraw all milk and milk products imported from China. Too late for me, I already bought one brand that was ordered to be recalled by government. It's called Yi LI. I intended to give it to my pet dog. Luckily, I haven't given it to her.

This incident however has put milk under suspicion. So much so that some of the milk companies came out with notices that ingredients of their products do not come from China. Even Starbucks had to announce that they don't use dairy products from China.

We Filipinos however have a tendency to generalize, as I have done so in that statement. When you say, some milk brands made in China are contaminated and unfit for consumption, we would avoid the milk not only from China but from anywhere else. So in TV tonight, newscasts reported of of a sudden drop in sales of milk.

Hopefully, this will not completely obliterate milk from the Filipino's diet. I am not so sure though what effect this incident will have on the price of milk. That is another story.