Friday, July 8, 2022

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Goho: Authentic maturity

Posted: 08 Jul 2022 05:13 AM PDT

MANY manipulators lurk among us as human beings have an amazing ability to assert in order to get what they demand. One can marvel at how many can very casually step on other more oblivious beings simply to get ahead or advance a self-directed agenda.In such a fast paced society, it has become a norm to act on one's feet and think on one's toes in leveling up various personal goals geared towards self-glory and boosting one's ego. Self-preservation is apparent in an expedient-oriented world consumed by a focus on external projections and winning a complex game. And many have subscribed to a pragmatic outlook of utilizing individuals as objectifiable and dispensable beings when there is a failure to recognize the universal and objective laws that govern our world and our nature.Authenticity has become vastly diluted in a universe driven primarily by materialism and personal gain. Cynicism ensues when there is rampant superficiality and corruption in our daily behavior. Most then go about playing a strategic role and being wary of how to draw one's cards, explore and exploit the vast complexities and industries around.With the rise of technology and the degradation of values and principles, the generational shift has gone on a downward spiral towards relativism and entitlement. A soft culture has emerged and has produced pricks and brats who orient themselves toward escaping difficulties rather than confronting them.A pampered generation is inevitably detrimental towards molding the future. Hardships must be endured, problems must be faced, harsh realities must be addressed, difficulties must be encountered with shoulders back to further nourish our humanity and bring us closer to our full and real potential. Beyond external ambitions, internal realizations and character growth are integral.Without a recognition of objective moral values and duties, anything can be permitted in how we embark the various challenges we encounter in our paradigm. It would then be imperative to see the higher moral framework as opposed to our various subjective perspectives and worldviews, which prove to be lackluster in digging deeper into the core matter.Firm stances must be made over flimsy compromises, confronting harsh truths over comforting lies. Living truthfully is the ideal way to live, inclining ourselves towards eradicating chaos and suffering, enabling us to continuously level up as fallible and ironic beings.Our humanity entails more substantive complexities that go well beyond mere instinct for survival and practicality, but a deeper understanding on abstract and spiritual matters of substance that dig deep into our soul. There is a yearning from every struggling man to find unconditional love unattainable amidst the mortal and fragile consciousness we experience. We all can have the potential to honestly become our best and truest selves.

Batapa-Sigue: Post-election citizen engagement

Posted: 07 Jul 2022 05:55 AM PDT

IN THE Philippines, the electoral season is always the peak of citizen's involvement and participation. The aftermath is another story. A post-election citizen engagement is as important if not more important than how leaders engage with their constituents during the election period. Citizen's participation is crucial to the success of every government in the modern world.Innovative leadership means being strategic in all aspects, especially in communicating with one's constituents and stakeholders, both internal and external. Leaders with the desire and commitment to constantly engage with the people they serve create more meaningful programs since they can work with their citizens from designing these programs up to its evaluation. Let us observe the different types of strategies our newly elected officials in the local governments of Negros Occidental and Bacolod display as we move forward. Let us closely monitor the different platforms and tools they will deploy to actively collect citizen's suggestions and feedback. Advocacy and activeness for public issues must never stop after elections. We need to work closely with our leaders to effect real change. Otherwise, change would end up merely as a campaign slogan.Engaging with citizens is one of the most critical steps to innovating government policies and services as emphasized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends publication (2017). To maximize the potential for innovation through citizen engagement, the research recommended four strategies for governments. I would like to share the full discussion below.First is to develop government-wide engagement strategies. Governments should develop a strategy with clear objectives to promote open government and citizen engagement, and to show that they are government priorities. The OECD (2009) Principles for Open and Inclusive Policy Making provide guidance for countries in designing and implementing an effective framework for citizen engagement, including coordinating engagement initiatives across governments to avoid consultation fatigue and creating a coherent approach. The principles also stress the role of accountability, including efforts to report back to citizens regarding the impact of their input.These strategies would help ensure that processes for citizen engagement are replicated throughout the public sector in a consistent way that will promote trust among citizens. Public officials from central and local institutions, as well as key actors from civil society and the private sector, should be involved throughout the entire process to ensure a comprehensive approach and buy-in. This strategy should include considerations for building up the capacity of public employees to interact with and hold citizen-centered conversations with the public, and for interpreting and acting on what they learn.The second strategy is to arm public employees and citizens with tools to connect and establish dialogue. Government leaders cannot simply tell civil servants and citizens to talk to one another. They must also provide tools to allow this two-way dialogue to take place. These tools can include technological solutions for asynchronous electronic discussions and include dialogue tools to assist with in-person discussions. Simply providing physical space to bring people together for conversations can also help.The third recommendation is to build evaluation into the innovation process. Governments should consider the need to evaluate innovation projects during their design. This includes identifying specific monitoring and evaluation activities and tools that translate into easily analyzed information that will support the expansion of innovation by showing benefits.The fourth suggestion is to take feedback into account and reconnect with citizens. Governments must endeavor to build formal mechanisms to ensure that feedback from citizens is considered and acted on, as appropriate, and that citizens are made aware of how the feedback was acted upon. Credibility and trust are diminished if governments are perceived to be listening only to appear inclusive of citizen views, but not to really take into serious consideration their suggestions.

Goho: Overcoming entropy

Posted: 07 Jul 2022 05:54 AM PDT

ANY deviation from an objective moral foundation has the capacity to cripple a society. Anytime wrong notions of freedom are misused and abused leads towards malevolence on a larger scale. Truth seems bleak in a chaotic world given the deep-seated selfishness ingrained in all of humanity when there are seekers of various and misguided kinds.While the selfishness of men have paved the way for an evolutionary development, there are tendencies of it leading towards cynicism, nihilism, and destruction. When responsibilities and moral obligations are undermined and the stubbornness of individuals overrule creating a rippling downward effect. There are lines that need to be drawn to enable uprightness to prevail. This is perhaps the warfare that needs to be conquered in establishing a deeper sense of meaning and substance amidst all the fickleness and mundane routinary aspects of life.There are endless problems that need resolving, tasks to further endure leading to advancements and breakthroughs that create overwhelming impacts geared towards progress. Human beings can be aloof given all the faulty principles amidst a loud world full of empty distractions to fill many voids. Time is very much limited and it is ultimately essential to seek higher matters to withstand entropy and destruction.Life is fleeting and yet most continue to be headstrong towards oblivious emptiness. It may be ideal to revert back and come closer towards objective moral laws instilled by our creator. An aim towards continuous repentance over a circumstantial one may be instrumental towards attaining peace and maturity to withstand uncertainty.

Hofileña: Three nations interconnecting national anniversaries

Posted: 06 Jul 2022 06:05 AM PDT

IT IS interesting to note the unique coincidences of interconnecting historic national anniversaries over the past five weeks. On June 12 - Philippine Independence Day; on July 1- Canada Day; and on July 4 - United States of America Independence Day. As this column was written over the past five weeks on the celebration of the Philippine Independence Day and observed by Filipino Canadians in Canada, we likewise highlighted the Fil-Canadian communities which joined in celebrating the July 1 Canada Day. We also joined the several million Filipino-Americans in the US in celebrating the July 4 US Independence Day.What are the more specific aspects of the interconnection among the three national celebrations? We can cite several notable cases. As a first item, Filipinos are also aware of the historic arrival of the American naval forces in 1898 following the defeat of the Spanish colonial army by the Filipino revolutionaries. The Spanish cleverly bargained with the US government for some possible gains under the 1898 Treaty of Paris but the Americans simply gave $20 million to Spain and took over the colonial control of the Philippines which ended in 1946. This of course explains that despite the several years' resistance of Filipinos to American colonial rule, the American culture became strongly embedded in the life of the Filipinos and the Americanization of Philippine culture continues until the present days.The Philippine-Canadian interconnection came much later in the 20th century. While the entry of Canadian culture and influence to the Philippines has not been substantially documented, it is historically notable to assume that Canadian - Filipino relationships may have started with initial migrations of Filipinos to Canada in the 1960s. In particular the few Filipino immigrants to Canada were landing in the western part in such communities as Vancouver and other cities in the Province of British Columbia.It is interesting for historians to study how the number of Filipino migrants to Canada increased rapidly during the decades of the 1970s until the present. A recent study in Canada has also shown that out of the present total Canadian population of more than 37 million, the estimated number of 800,000 or more, Filipino migrants is closely following the continuing increase of migrants from China, India, European countries, Hispanics from central and south America and other nations of the world. This phenomenon has notably earned Canadian society the reputation as one of the most multicultural societies and with the many different cultures generally mixing harmoniously with each other.As another important aspect, the Canada-US interconnection is obviously notable and historic. Following the end of the British and French colonial rule in North America, Canada became an independent nation and its celebration of Canada Day on July 1 dates back to its so-called Confederation Day when it became one independent nation in 1867.Naturally, Canada and the USA are also the closest of neighbors having a common international boundary from the western or Pacific side to the Atlantic or eastern part of North America. It is also quite interesting that both Canadian and American cultures and histories have been greatly influenced by millions of migrants from many countries of the world.Thus, this column joins the several millions of Filipino-Americans celebrating the US July 4 Independence Day. For our next column, we will look into the various aspects of the historic effects of immigration in both Canada and the USA.
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