The Autumn of Summer

Summer is a time for students to forget about everything they learned and to enjoy life for the next 2-3 months of summer break. That is what I have been doing for the past 21 years of my life until I started working.

Dried leaves always clutter up the streets of my University as a signal to the start of summer and this has always been a joyous occasion for me because it reminded me of good things about to happen. With the falling of old leaves, new leaves will always stock the tree with a magnificent display at the start of June’s rain.

Submitted:
Photo Friday: Natural (@ 4/30/2004, # 1)

My Spanish Guitar

This one, still from the UP Diliman Art Graveyard, is an abstract form of a man playing a guitar. I figured him to be a man because of the angular form of the sculpture, the stereotypical male guitarists and the physical features. Seemingly trying to practice before seranading his beloved, he lounges on the bench and spends the lazy afternoon to his devices.

Ray of light

I passed by the Art Graveyard as some people liked to call it, in UP Diliman. This is where some abandoned statues and art installations can be found. This particular one is a circle standing upright and raised rays propagate from the center. I’m not particularly sure why the artist made it, but for me it symbolizes a sort of balance, like a yin yang?

Electile Dysfunction

In obvious fear of tackling the real issues, presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. is skipping out of a debate. Citing that debates “don’t really do anything to help the masses” the presidential candidate seems to have failed to understand that the debates will show how you think and react to problems. It shows your stand on different issues that you are going to be handling and it shows intellectual capacity which is important for a man or woman about to run a country.

Rage against the dying of the light

“What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us.” – Thomas Carlyle

Education is the key to the future as one person said and through reading we will definitely learn something. Sadly, the budget for both education and hence the procurement of books is not a priority for most congressmen especially those with hidden interests and malice.

An example of this is the failure of Senate to approve Senate Bill 2587 which seeks to help the University of the Philippines in terms of salary increases for professors and greater institutional autonomy. The result of this bill would have meant better pay for professors who are now leaving the University for corporations that offer better pay.

Through Senator Pangilinan’s help, the bill slowly advanced in the senate. Unfortunately due to another Senator’s “petty politicking”, the bill was not passed.

With a new set of congressmen and senators to fill in after the 2004 elections in May, there is no assurance that the bill will be passed and indeed the journey will begin yet again, and painfully so, from the first step. As each day passes without the much needed development, the light flickers and dies for the future of not just the students but of the country.

Royal Rumble

It was a UP Fair to remember. Bands backing out, people getting stabbed, gates and walls getting crashed on all sides… Yup, luck wasn’t on the sponsor’s side that night with all of these problems abound for the “Fairday the 13th” celebration. Eventually the concert got cancelled around 12am due to the rowdy crowd outside the fair ground.

Justapoxed

The Carillon tower in UP Diliman looks slightly juxtaposed in this angle. Nevertheless, still a sight to see when you drop by UP. The tower sounds its bells every morning and afternoon back when I was in college, nowadays I’m not so sure.

With arms wide open

As the UP Oblation statue looks to the sky, I wonder about the fate of our nation. A country so unaware of its own problems that it’s willing to embrace another election with the same faceless crowd that will eventually bring down whomever they elected in another ‘peaceful’ revolution? Or will the gods look lightly on us this time? Prepare your American visas just in case.

Shaken Pillars

It took 8 flight of stairs and a winding mess of chairs, files and other old office equipment to get to the top of Quezon Hall in UP Diliman. A dust filled air chokes you with each step as you sweat in the blistering heat of the grime-filled and cobweb-laden stairwell. At the very least there was a rewarding view at the top of the stairs.