Comments on: Sexy Yellow Birds of Paradise…

By: Bagito

Bagito — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 03:26:45 +0000

Cwid, your first post sums up exactly how I feel, you nailed it. It does feel like a dysfunctional family–you love it but you need to leave it behind to keep your sanity. Sad but true.

MM, love the last photo! Very striking indeed. Love the composition.

By: Dreaming

Dreaming — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:10:24 +0000

Try looking up Heliconia chartacea. If you add “sexy yellow” to the search, you should find it.

By: natie

natie — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:21:24 +0000

Sur, in an interview yesterday,the Architect/Beauty Queen did mention ” to improve urban planning” as one of her projects..as to how she could achieve that, I would love to know..it would take a whole lot more than just beauty and intelligence …

I do intend to retire in the Phil in a couple of years. the only scary thought is driving in its wild streets.

By: Kasseopeia

Kasseopeia — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:20:11 +0000

I only have Seoul and Bangkok to compare Manila with but one thing I’ve noticed aside from local Pinoys’ lack of respect for the rules is an almost ingrained desire to one-up everyone else. Makalamang, even if it doesn’t get them very far. Katulad na lamang ng sasakyang sisingit sa kainitan ng traffic just to get one or two car-lengths ahead. It’s almost as if the fulfillment comes from the very fact na nakasingit sila, not so much the actual distance gained. It’s sad, really.

But, much as Manila (or CDO of my childhood) is not the cleanest nor most disciplined city, it is still home. =)

By: sur

sur — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:07:37 +0000

After penning my earlier, and a former spelling bee champ in IN Im embarrassed to correct my spelling, ‘hypothesis’…

An addendum:

It may not be too tenuous a proposition to also suggest that our city fathers consciously/ decidedly did not want to emulate (parts of) old spain (or any grand metropolis) explicitly because of aversion to ( and the memory of oppressive?) colonial power… a fatal shortsightedness if true …

And where are the bright architects (if they are not competing in ms univ pageants ;-) and urban planners who had surely been exposed to examples of good urban planning the world over?

By: proteinshake

proteinshake — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:55:58 +0000

Hi MM, so sorry to have missed you in Hongkouver ;-D

To Isa : It is funny how even strong people can change to fit their new environment and their new norms.

We have been in Canada for 20+ years and as a physician , I work mainly with children and their families. Often I am asked to deal with a behavioural problem in a child when on closer inspection, it is usually the result of the child’s reactive behaviour to his home life. Children have to live with what they are given.Some are resilient and have such better outcomes inspite of all the problems they go through. Most kids just cannot extricate themselves from the patterns of their dysfunctional families and end up with their own problems .

Forgive me if you have heard this analogy before: I can compare the typical (89%) filipino to an adolescent brought up by parents who were also dealing with their own issues (eg self esteem, psych issues, drugs, poverty, divorce) and parents who are so self involved they had no time nor resources to equip their kids in resiliency and survival. Young adults are so impressionable and learn to live what they see. If there are problems, they may be ill equipped to handle without strong guidance from parents (the leadership of the country) . Like their parents, they may just learn to sweep obvious problems under a rug as long as there is the occasional party ,new friends/romance/music/a bit of extra money — “bahala na” and “sa awa ng diyos” .

The 1% of the population are doing well and venerated and respected in this environment and they are relatively happy with the status quo.

The rest (say 10%) of the population can be compared to the older, mature, more resilient, more educated and sophisticated sib who has to grow up and seen how other families (other asian countries, the developed countries) handle their own households . When these “grown up” kids get fed up with their immature/passive/clueless/indifferent sibs and their immature parents (politicians and leaders), they leave the home and try to send money back to help out or try to convince their younger sibs to rise up or to move out. They are so fed up with their dysfunctional families but they have to leave the situation to save themselves. In other countries, the environment is more rigid and structured to favour success — much like a more well run household where mom and dad are nurturing but strict. It takes more than 10% of the population to run a good household (country).

For these older sibs in my metaphorical home, the 10%, there is always this guilt and sadness and longing for the old dysfunction. When they come back home, they are always surprised at how much worse things have gotten. But they revert to “home ” habits , like a young adult returning home from college for the summer. But they quickly tire of the old messy life and go back to their own sparkling apartments where it is clean ,organized, successful. But they ache for the family they left behind.I hope that more older brothers and sisters would eventually just come back and rebuild their home. I hope that more younger sibs would just grow up.

By: sur

sur — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:04:30 +0000

here’s a hypothythesis in the form of a rhetorical question [at the risk of a flogging from nationalists– or rizal turning in his grave ;-)]: had the colonists [both spain + us] stayed longer, could we have seen grander city planning efforts evinced in other places wherein they had time to ‘settle’ longer? i’m thinking of places that have decidedly european air: la plata/ buenos aires/ caracas/ santiago de chile/ valparaiso/ ciudad mexico/ havana [as it was meant…]/ santa fe/ montevideo, etc… in those and many cities in which european ideas had a chance to take hold, you see inkling of madrid and barcelona and paris and london albeit in lesser/less grander iterations….

to the extent that the making of cities is willful [vis-a-vis e. bacon: https://www.fontillas.com/dbacon.htm%5D does the mess /formlessness of manila indicate the lack thereof in our — or i should say my former– country?

…and why? [the obvious premise in the question of course is of a euro-centric slant]

By: juls

juls — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:37:19 +0000

im not sure these are birds of paradise, probably false birds of paradise otherwise known as heliconias?

By: Marichu

Marichu — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:17:49 +0000

@EJ: lucky you! My mother and I had different airlines once. I arrived earlier at Term 2 (I think?) and went over to the PAL int’l section. A taxi from the Term 2 to Pasay/Paranaque cost me P300. At PAL area, same trip cost my mother $20. And yes, they quoted and asked for dollars. Maybe I just have “gullible” written all over my forehead. I don’t wear jewelry, branded clothes, fake brand bags, etc to attract attention.

By: titabuds

titabuds — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 06:23:42 +0000

When I get asked about where I would bring a first time visitor to Manila, I am usually stumped and can only think of a restaurant or a mall. Which is kind of sad because I’ve been to other major cities where one can spend and enjoy an entire day just walking around. You’re so right about tourists coming to Manila but not to see the city itself. We’ve turned formerly grand buildings into decrepit dormitories and ground floor stores all covered with tarps hawking shampoo and magic granules, etc. Our parks are trying to be more like the malls and less about trees.
There used to be the Intramuros Clamshell Weekends in the 1990s which showcased a different region each time. It was a good place to bring visitors to or hang out with friends AND it was a hit with everyone. Politics, as usual, let it go to rot.