Why call them "wisdom teeth"???

Just ranting.

I spent 2 and a half hours in the dentist's chair today... having two teeth yanked out. I won't get into the gory details, but suffice to say that one of them was my "wisdom" tooth, and since it was a difficult extraction, the doctor had to work overtime. Needless to say I am in considerable pain, though nothing a good gunshot to the head won't cure. :)

As for that misnomer... I mean, hello??? This is a tooth (set of teeth, actually) that does absolutely nothing for us... So why is it a wisdom tooth?

I mean, I can understand "Achilles heel" or "funny bone," but what great and wise person named this tooth, I'll never know.

Of course, I will never know how in the heck George W. Bush got elected, much less re-elected, so I guess there are bigger mysteries in the Universe to fathom.

The price of memories

I was chatting with my friend a few minutes ago. We were discussing the merits of eating in a place like Sirocco (www.thedomebkk.com), possibly the highest, open-air restaurant in the world... bloody stunning place.

I know someone who spent about US$300 for a dinner for two there, recently. It's not a cheap place, by any means. :)

My friend told me it wasn't worth it, that it was way too expensive.

My reply:

"Some memories will last forever... so they are worth paying for. I wouldn't remember eating in Jollibee (cheap burger place in the Philippines) 100 times!"

Or, as I put it to another great friend recently, "What's money for but to be enjoyed? Money was meant to be used by people to make themselves happy. If we end up getting consumed by just keeping it, instead of using it, then not only do we not enjoy the money, we don't enjoy life."

Of course, having said that, I must stress that I save a lot of my own salary. With my upcoming job, I intend to save at least 50% each month. I will, however, not turn down making life-lasting memories... ;)

Am leaving Thailand in 3 days...

It's going to be a bit surreal, leaving this place. I've had so many great memories. :)

I'll be back someday. I have too many friends here, and too many fond memories. Besides, I've never been to Phuket. :)

I can't imagine I'm trading one of the great tropical paradises on earth for the bitter, bone-numbing winters of Korea. Oh, well... ;)

Op-ed 2: Is it possible to be rich without having some people be poor?

I've studied capitalism for a long while now, and I even have a Masters in Management to prove it, but I've often wondered about one simple thing.

Is it possible to be rich without having some people be poor?

I mean, think about it. The way we determine who is "better off" is if there are many others who are NOT as well-off as that person. What point would there be for Bill Gates to have $50 Billion if everyone else had the same amount of money? Just from the law of supply and demand, that would mean a great deal of competition for limited resources, and Bill Gates wouldn't have any advantage at all over anyone else.

Now think about THAT when you think about the problems of poor countries such as those in Africa.

The US, for instance, has recently stated that it would refuse to promote any kind of carbon emissions reduction program in line with the international community. It has already shot down the Kyoto Protocol. The reason? It would harm the US economy. So billions all over the world struggle with the effects of climate change (which the Republicans refuse to admit is happening), with crops failing, water drying up and millions starving, while the US happily goes on consuming at a degree that is ultimately destructive to the rest of the world. All in pursuit of the great capitalist ideal of "wealth."

Personally, I won't be a hypocrite and say that I would like to be poor. Of course I wouldn't want to be. I, too, want to be rich. I, too, want to live a comfortable life. But even as I attempt to live this kind of life, I can't help wondering about all those who MUST be poor for me to be rich. I'm not going to lie and say that I would rather trade places with them, but I will say that I would rather we had a system that didn't make some people TOO damn rich at the expense of a lot of others who are too damn poor.

For now, however, the status quo dictates that we continue to pursue wealth in this great rat race of life. As a wise man once said, however, "Even if we win this damn race... doesn't that still make us rats in the end?"

Op-Ed 1: Torture

US Vice-President Dick Cheney recently remarked that he didn't want the CIA to be the subject of a US law that specifically bans torture.

That's right. He basically said that he wanted torture to be an option in the war against terror.

Wait a second... I thought the US prided itself on being the "good guy" in all this? How in the heck can you win the hearts and minds of the world when your second highest official is declaring that torture can be a legitimate tool? I thought this was what they were fighting AGAINST? What kind of moral high-ground can the US claim if it condones this kind of activity?

This has been something outlawed by the international community for many decades now, ever since the Geneva Convention, yet this doesn't seem to be fazing the US, the country that prides itself on being the bastion of democracy and freedom.

In the span of a few short months, a number of revelations have been published by major newspapers such as the Washington Post and the LA Times, such as:

1) That torture is an interrogation method that the White House refuses to rule out;
2) That secret "black sites" (secret prisons) existed in different countries, including Thailand, where interrogations of suspects were held without any due legal process; and
3) That secret CIA flights were conducted over German airspace, violating German sovereignty.

These are just a few of the things that have come to light. I'm pretty sure a lot more is going on behind the scenes.

So how can the US ever expect to convince the moderate Islamic World that it is a good country that cares about human rights? I mean, you can't just demand that certain countries adopt certain values and principles if you yourself don't follow those same values and principles. Just because you don't violate them in your own country (where they are clearly illegal), and instead do it on foreign soil, doesn't make it right.

I don't know about you, but Dick Cheney's name couldn't be more fitting. I don't believe the US has any hope in hell of convincing anyone not already on the bandwagon that it is acting appropriately, and within the bounds of human decency. Torture should NEVER be an option, not in any civilized society. I don't care what the end results are meant to be... the day we sacrifice our principles for an end result is the day we bring Machiavelli back to life, and we basically say that our values and principles mean nothing unless we get what we want in the end.

The West Wing

I love the West Wing. :) This is a show that appeals to the debater in me. I love watching how politics COULD work, and knowing that this show has hired former White House staffers as consultants, I know that many of the situations depicted therein, while a bit dramatic, are not too far from the truth.

The current season is great. I especially love the live debate in episode 7 between Democractic nominee Matt Santos (played by Jimmy Smits) and the Republican nominee Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda). Great fun. :) Made me want to debate there and then.

The West Wing didn't do so well after Aaron Sorkin (the original creator and writer) left, but it's picked up a great deal lately, and the coming "election" promises to be very exciting.

I can't wait.

In the beginning, there was a complaint...

I've decided to start writing op-ed pieces on my blog. I have so many rants about the world anyway, so what better place to put them than in my own blog?

I'm the "peaks and valleys" guy

I have certain philosophies about life. One of them is that it is way too short to be spent regretting things you haven't done. Of course, there are two ways to think of this:

1) Just stop regretting not doing something;

2) Just do something so you won't have to regret not doing it.

Whenever I'm faced with a choice, I always choose the latter.

You know the old saying, "It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all?" Well, I'm the "loved and lost" guy instead of the "never have loved" guy. I understand that loving and losing anything (person, place, thing, dream, whatever...) is difficult... but I would find my life much more difficult to live if I never even bothered to try.

I had a discussion with a dear friend very recently about life... Do we want to go through life in a steady, constant happy state, never being too happy but at the same time never being too sad, or do we want to go through life with giant peaks and deep valleys, with ecstatic, glorious highs and massively painful lows?

I'm the "peaks and valleys" guy. I'm the one who says that life is meant to be LIVED, not conservatively protected. I'm the one who would uproot himself from his homeland, giving up his business, to travel thousands of miles away to countries he has never lived in before, to try to carve new destinies for himself. That's just the way I am. And if I suffer some pain along the way, what a small price it is to pay to be able to see the top of the world from life's highest peaks. :)

I just had an emotional epiphany while seeing the lights of Bangkok last night, and discovered how great it was to be able to control my own destiny. I have no idea where my life will take me, but I do know that it will be to a place I have carved with my own hands.

I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Who is the person you admire most in life?

I had a whole slew of heroes growing up. Alexander the Great, Lord Admiral Nelson, Marco Polo, etc... All of whom found a way to leave a mark on their nations and/or the world. I used to think so "big" when I thought of the kinds of people who deserved to be heroes. It just wasn't cool to think of ordinary people at all. After all, if nobody celebrated them, why should they be admired? Isn't admiration a function of popularity and fame? I mean, if nobody admired you... were you even worth admiring?

One person I did NOT consider a hero, growing up, was my dad. It's not that I didn't love him or anything, because I certainly did. But I guess the idea of having "just" your dad as a hero didn't appeal to me. After all, I wanted my life to be about big things and about fulfilling big dreams, right? So why pattern my life after a man I saw everyday? If I wanted to leave my current life, why admire the guy who was living it with me?

Ah, the follies of youth.

I will say it now, publicly, for the very first time in my life. My father is my hero.

This is a man who, at the tender age of 8, lost his own father to a heart attack, and who had to rely on scholarships to get through school. This is a man who had to watch as his own piggy bank was broken open, because his family needed all the money it could get as it was struggling to eke out a living. How many kids get to go through that???

My father studied in a provincial school. He does not have a Masters degree. His first formal job after school was for the minimum wage. He would walk home from work, a very looong walk away, because he wanted to save the money he would otherwise have spent on public transportation. He even gave up smoking when I was very young, partly for health reasons (his and mine), and partly because it was just too expensive for a man trying to support a family. Oh, and did I mention he was just 21 when I was 3?

Now he is a man who commands respect from society. He is a bank president, and one of the top earners in the country. He has no Masters degree, but he has many MBA holders from top universities working for him. He has many rich and powerful friends, none of whom has ever been bothered by a request for a favor from him. He doesn't ask people for help, but he always gives people help. He pays for scholarships for at least 20 people that I am aware of (blind children who would otherwise be ignored by society), and has been personally responsible for educating most of my cousins, all the way up to college. He has the money and the prestige that goes with being a "big" man.

I respect him tremendously for being able to overcome his unfortunate circumstances, and for working so hard to succeed in life, for himself and for his family. I will always look up to him for that.

But the reason I consider him my hero, late as it may be, is not because of what he has done for others, or what he has accomplished in life, but rather for the kind of character he has as a person, and the kind of love he has shown me throughout my life: complete and unconditional. This is the man who first taught me how to shoot a basketball... who showed me how to defend myself in school... who encouraged me to keep trying harder each time I failed... who bought me books for my birthday, instead of toys, so that I would learn the value of reading...

This is the man who would buy dinner for the family, and wait as I ate first, before eating, together with my mom, whatever leftovers remained. This is the man who worked and slaved to put me through probably the finest school in the country, even if it meant scraping by as each new tuition installment came due... giving up expensive vacations, and any other luxury that would have taken away from what I needed. This is the man who had to watch his officemates drive past him each day, not offering him a ride home, as he walked each tired step home to save 25 centavos (then about 12 US cents), only to watch me grow up and spend many times that amount for stupid things I never needed.

This is the man who endured my anger and resentment as a rebellious teenager, and who would offer me love and support no matter what.

Heck, this is the man who drove me for 2 hours as I searched for the house of the girl who would become my first-ever girlfriend...

I owe him everything I have in life.

Alexander the Great (my first "big" hero) may have conquered the known world... but my father laid his pride and his heart on the line, to scrape by whatever job he could get, just so that I could eat. My father is the greater hero.

Lord Admiral Nelson conquered the Spanish armada against the greatest of odds, and died in glory for it. My father has lived his whole life to make a better life for myself and my brother and sister, sacrificing his own personal happiness along the way whenever it was necessary to do so. My father is the greater hero.

Marco Polo travelled to lands his own countrymen could only dream of, and helped to open communication lines with fabled empires far, far away. My father travelled all over the Philippines, moving homes 9 different times before I was 18, all because he was searching for the best opportunity for his family. He turned down a move to New York, because he was concerned about his children growing up with a different set of values, in a country that would treat them as second-class citizens. My father would have gone and worked anywhere and everywhere, if it meant making all of us happy... but his heart would always remain at home. My father is the greater hero.

It's taken me a long, long time to admit how stupid I was for thinking that heroes had to be famous to be admired. The greatest heroes are exalted not because they conquer things (otherwise Hitler would be revered today), but because they inspire people to dream of bigger things. They accomplish magnificent goals because they motivate others to work for those goals with them. My father's only goals in life were to make his family happy, and see that his children grow up healthy and educated and well-mannered. He has accomplished all of these. He has molded me into the person I am today, and each person I help now, each cause I fight for, each value I strive to uphold, owes everything to my father's original inspiration. Who's to say that this is any less of an accomplishment than conquering the world?

I love my dad. He is the greatest man I have ever met in my life. And there is probably no better thing I can say than this: "I am proud to be his son."